Nitzy's Hockey Den

As the Toronto Maple Leafs begin training camp in this their Centennial season, its interesting to look at what was happening at camp 100 years ago.  Now, in reality, 100 years ago precedes the actual history of the Maple Leafs and the National Hockey League itself. In the autumn of 1916, teams of the National Hockey Association were preparing for the upcoming season. However, they did not begin gathering for camp until December as opposed to the current day, mid-September. The NHA would of course fold and re-form as the NHL the following year in a successful effort to oust Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone. The plan succeeded and the new Toronto NHL squad (alternately referred to in the press as the "Arenas" or "Torontos") was made up of Livingstone's former Blue Shirts players. The Leafs Centennial season is a celebration from this point (1917) onward, but the history of the Maple Leafs franchise realistically goes back further than...

The initial concept of a Team North America for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey was looked at as too gimmicky by many hockey observers and fans. As the tournament approaches however, and exhibition games are played, the idea of a team of under-23 year-olds seems fairly intriguing. In fact, I'm personally predicting that Team North America makes the tournament final against Team Canada. Imagine if this concept was around for the very first Canada Cup, the pre-cursor of the World Cup. Below are the under-23 year-old players who would have likely been invited to camp for Team North America '76 with their 75/76 stats. In truth, the squad was barely North America and more simply Canada U-23, if not for Mark Howe, Gordie Roberts and Gary Sargent.  CENTRE Bryan Trottier, Calder Trophy, 95 pts Pierre Larouche, 53g, 111pts Tom Lysiak, 82 pts Tim Young, 51pts   Bernie Federko, WCJHL, 187 pts  Doug Jarvis, 35 pts Mel Bridgman, 50 pts Dennis Maruk, 62 pts RIGHT W...

As the World Cup of Hockey approaches, let's have a look at the souvenir program from it's pre-cursor, the very first Canada Cup in 1976. After the tremendous interest of the 1972 Summit Series and the subsequent 1974 re-match with WHA stars, the Canada Cup tournament was born in 1976. Even though it was won by Canada over Czechoslovakia, the event lacked much of the high drama of the Summit Series. Bellows a look at most of the interior of the program for the tournament. The lineup and schedule pages are shown below.  The great thing about this program is that it includes rare images of Team Canada '72 in games against Sweden and Czechoslovakia. Below is a shot of Ken Dryden being challenged by a Czech player in a 3-3 tie in Prague. The game took place a mere two days after Canada's triumph in Moscow and once again Canada pulled out late heroics with Serge Savard tying the game with only four seconds left. The broadcast of this game can ...

Dec 2, 1916 I recently found these terrific old cartoons on google news archives. They're from the Toronto World Newspaper, by a cartoonist named Lou Skuce. Born in Ottawa in 1886, Skuce began cartooning professionally in the early 1910s eventually becoming the Art Editor and Editorial Cartoonist for the World. The first three cartoons illustrate the start of the National Hockey Association season in both 1915 and 1916. The "Livvy" in the third one refers to Eddie Livingstone the owner/manager of the local Toronto Blueshirts. Dec 11, 1916 Dec 19, 1915  The next is a great depiction of one of the toughest players of the day, George McNamara who would suit up in 1916/17 with the 228th Battalion squad of Toronto. At 6'1" and 220 lbs, he was one of the biggest players of the era and would be elected to the Hall of Fame in 1958. In 1915/16 with the Blueshirts McNamara racked up 74 Pims in 23 games while playing a bruising defence. Dec 6, 1916 Lou S...

Here's a Western Hockey League, Vancouver Canucks game program from the 1964/64 season. Longtime Canuck, Phil Maloney is the photo on the cover in addition to some nice old autographs from players in the game against the Los Angeles Blades. Maloney was in the midst of an 81 point campaign for Vancouver after leading the team with 90 the year previous. He had tallied 15 goals and 46 points as a 22 year old NHL rookie with Boston Bruins in 1949/50. Maloney would play a total of 158 NHL games, producing 71 points. He had previously led the Western League in points with 95 in 1955/56. This program is from March 14, 1965 a game Vancouver won 4-2. Lloyd Haddon, Los Angeles Blades Defensemen, Lloyd Haddon was winding down his professional career in 1964/65 and put up 35 points from the blue line after seasons with L.A. of 51 and 49 points. He had an eight game stint with Detroit Red Wings in 1959/60. Harley Hodgson, Los Angeles Blades Hodgson was a stay-at-home defencema...

1981 Last week I posted a fantastic early 1980s Wayne Gretzky poster. Here a few more that I had as a kid, and have re-purchased as an adult. The top one is a 7-Up ad from 1981. The soda company surrounded The Kid with fellow NHL "stars" Morris Lukowich and Richard Sevigny...good choices. In fairness, Lukowich was the pre-Hawerchuk star of the original Jets, leading the team in goals in their first two NHL campaigns with 33 and 35. The season this poster was released, Lukowich posted his career best numbers of 43 goals, 92 points. Hawerchuk certainly helped with those. In 1981, Richard Sevigny was coming off a season in which he shared the Vezina Trophy with teammates Dennis Herron and Bunny Larocque (this was the last year the Vezina was simply awarded to the team with the lowest goals allowed). He would never match his 2.40 GAA from that season and was lit up by Gretzky's Oilers in those '81 playoffs as Edmonton swept Montreal in three games. 7-Up included oth...

April 20, 1934 A few years back I wrote about a 1934 tour through Western Canada by the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings. In fact it was my first of many articles published in the Society for International Hockey Research Journal.  http://nitzyshockeyden.blogspot.ca/2008/09/1934-leafs-wings-western-tour.html   I was able to research the tour with an entire month's worth of original Vancouver Province newspapers that I found at a garage sale, posted here are a few additional scans of some great images from the April 1934 Province. The image at the top is an ad for an autograph signing by King Clancy and Hap Day at the Vancouver Hudson's Bay department store, for "Friends and Admirers".  The next image is a cartoon commenting on the apparently poor ice-conditions at the Denman Street Arena. April 23, 1934 Next, a photo of Dick Irvin, Conn Smyth and Jack Adams being shown the town at a rooftop luncheon put on by the organizers of the tour. Apr...