Nitzy's Hockey Den

Time for some more Toronto Maple Leafs magazine covers! Here's a beautiful Dick Duff cover of Hockey Blueline magazine from January 1959. I have this entire season bound together in a nice ring binding. I think it was done for issue to the media, not sure how many survive bound together as the whole season.  The cover of the bound 1958/59 Blueline magazines Here's a great December 1967 cover of Hockey World picturing mostly New York Rangers, but amidst all the white shirts is Maple Leaf Pete Stemkowski. He was in the midst of a season in which he he was traded to Detroit among others in the Paul Henderson trade. The previous spring, Stemmer helped lead the Leafs to the Stanley Cup by tallying 12 points in 12 games while playing on a line with Jim Pappin and Bob Pulford.  Perhaps the greatest part of this magazine is a full page, full colour photo of Bobby Orr, your Rookie of the Year from 1966/67.

Hockey Pictorial was a monthly publication that was issued from 1955 through 1980. The editors obviously knew what hockey fans wanted, as it seemed every second issue featured a Maple Leaf player on the cover. OK, maybe the Leafs weren't featured that frequently, but why put Bruin Doug Mohns on the cover when you can put Frank Mahovlich? It's a no-brainer. Anyway, here are four Hockey Pictorial issues from my collection ranging from October 1958 to October 1961. As the Leafs prepared for the 1958/59 campaign, they were coming off a last place finish in which the bright spot was Mahovlich winning the Calder Trophy. The Big M bested Bobby Hull as top rookie even though Hull out pointed him 47 to 36 on the strength of his potting 20 goals to Hull's 13. The Leafs would sneak past the Rangers to make the playoffs on the final day of the 58/59 season to begin their rise to their dynasty of the 1960's. The October 1961 cover featured another Leaf coming off a Calder ...

Here's two early 1960's Maple Leafs magazine covers, the first a Quebecois issue from June 1960. It's called "Sport Revue, Le Magazine Sportif des Canadiens-Francais". The magazine is entirely in French, so I don't understand  much of it. The headline of the Bower article, "Johnny Bower devrait etre avec Toronto depuis onze ans" translates to "Johnny Bower should be with Toronto for eleven years". This is a very bold statement as he had just completed only his 2nd season in the Leaf net. It's also an amazingly accurate statement as Bower was indeed Toronto's goaltender for eleven seasons.  The next magazine is the "Official National Hockey Annual of 1961" with a great cover painting of a Maple Leaf getting dumped by Chicago's Pierre Pilote as the puck finds it's way behind Glenn Hall. Inside is a terrific article on Maple Leaf captain George Armstrong in addition to numerous articles on the stars of the N...

John Tavares has potted 29 goals in 43  games for the Maple Leafs this year, on his way to a career best total. This pace ranks Tavares as the second fastest to 29 goals in the last thirty years. The thing is, the Leafs top goal scoring seasons were put up, among others, by Rick Vaive in the early 1980's when Game Logs are tougher to find. This is when we head to the google newspaper archives and delve into the files of the Montreal Gazette. I checked all the other top goal scoring seasons in Leaf history and where each player stood after 43 team games. When I could, I included the players' actual number of games to that point if it differed from the team total. 1931/32 43 Team Games, Charlie Conacher 29 Goals 1933/34 43 Team Game, Charlie Conacher 31 Goals 1934/35 43 Team Games, Charlie Conacher 27 Goals 1960/61 43 Team Games, Frank Mahovlich 43gp 37Goals 1976/77 43 Team Games, Lanny McDonald 43gp  28Goals 1977/78 43 Team Games, Lanny McDonald 27Goals...

Over the last few years I have been posting all the Maple Leaf game programs I own, dating back to 1930. I keep them over at what I call the  Maple Leafs Programme Project . The long term goal is to try to collect at least one Leafs program from every year played in Maple Leaf Gardens. I believe I have 35 of the 50 seasons covered from 1930 (Mutual Street Arena) to 1979. We're getting there.  Now, I've decided to do the same for all the magazines in my collection that feature Maple Leafs covers (most are either Leafs or early Gretzky). The first one above, is a terrific looking cover of Liberty magazine from December 16, 1933. Liberty was a general interest magazine along the lines of The Saturday Evening Post  and was published until 1950. Even though this issue depicts Leafs and New York Rangers on the front, there is no corresponding article inside. So, all we get to enjoy is the terrific cover. This beauty here is from March 1948, Sportfolio magazine pictu...

Here's another great old hockey photo, this one found in the online Victoria, BC Archives. It's simply titled "Victoria Cougars players with boy in trench coat, 1952". Looking at the Society for International Hockey Research player photo database, it's fairly easy to determine the three players in the photo. From Left to Right; Bernie Strongman, Eddie Mazur, James Fodey. Winnipeg native, Bernie Strongman played for Victoria from 1949 through 1953 when he retired. He had helped the Cougars win the Lester Patrick Cup as champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey League. According to the Society for International Hockey Research database, Strongman is alive to this day, having turned 99 years old in June. Eddie Mazur played two full seasons with Victoria before being called up by the Montreal Canadiens for the 1951 Stanley Cup playoffs. After potting 43 goals for the Cougars, Mazur got into two matches for the Habs that spring, the year they lost to Bill Barilk...

With today being the day Willie O'Ree is inducted into the Builders wing of the Hockey Hall of Fame, it's a good time to share a couple rare photos of the trailblazing player. These are from the collection of our friends at Vintage Sports Images  . The first photo shows O'Ree with the Boston Bruins in what has to be the 1960/61 campaign as bespectacled Al Arbour is with Chicago. O'Ree had played two games with Boston in 57/58, but this was his only full season (mostly) in the NHL, playing 43 games and tallying 14 points. Behind O'Ree is big Bill Hay and of course in net is Mr. Goalie, Glenn Hall. This next photo shows O'Ree later in his playing career with the San Diego Gulls of the Western Hockey League. Willie starred for for the Gulls from 1967/68 to 1973/74. To narrow down the timeframe on this photo we look at the other players in the picture. Using the  SIHR  photo database it is determined that the Gull on the left side is Bruce Carmichael who wa...