Nitzy's Hockey Den

Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Curtis McElhinney started his first career NHL playoff game at the age of 35 years, 343 days. He is now the oldest goalie to make his playoff debut in NHL history. The two previous oldest were Les Binkley of the 1969/70 Pittsburgh Penguins and Ross Brooks of the 1972/73 Boston Bruins; each were over 35 years old, but younger than McElhinney. With 219 career games before a playoff start, McElhinney had played more career regular season games than Binkley and Brooks combined. By the 1970 playoffs Binkley had played 131 regular season matches for the Pens after over 600 starts in the minors. Binkley would win five of seven playoff games in 1970 with a 2.10 GAA in his only NHL playoff appearances. He played a total of ten additional playoff games with the Ottawa Nationals/Toronto Toros franchise of the WHA before retiring from professional hockey in in 1976 at the age of 41. Ross Brooks had posted a record of 11-1-3 for the Bruins in his rookie sea...

Colorado Avalanche defenceman, Cale Makar made NHL history in the first round of the 2019 playoffs by scoring a goal in his NHL debut that was also a playoff game. He is only the seventh player to ever do this. It's a fairly eclectic list with really only one guy (Brind'Amour) who became star in the league. I was interested in finding out about the very first player to have his debut in a playoff game and score a goal, a guy I had never heard of, Eddie Emberg. A look at the statistical record of Eddie Emberg shows his only NHL games took place in the 1944/45 post-season. He played two games for the Canadiens scoring his one and only goal in his debut match, the question is which game was actually his first? A check of NHL.com's boxscore records determines Emberg's first game was March 29, 1945 in the first round against Toronto. This was the fifth game of the series that the Leafs were ahead three games to one, but game five belonged to the Habs. Montreal kept...

Above is a rare appearance on the cover of a hockey magazine (or magazine of any kind for that matter) of one Dave "Tiger" Williams. The publication is Action Sports Hockey from November 1978. Williams was beginning he fifth NHL season, having just compiled the top Penalty Minute season of his career with 351 total. Along with all the PIM's, Tiger posted 19 goals and 50 points as the heart and soul of the late 1970's Maple Leafs. Williams had topped the NHL in PIM in 76/77 and would again the season he made cover boy of this magazine, but even though he had his career best total the year prior, he was bested by Philly's Dave Schulz who collected 405 minutes to Williams 351. The November 1974 Hockey World magazine below features a nice early photo of future Leaf captain Darryl Sittler. Entering his fifth season in the NHL, Sittler had topped the Maple Leafs in points the previous two seasons with 77 and 84 points respectively. In 1973/74 Sittler managed to ...

                                        These two covers pretty much bookend the career of Maple Leafs goaltender Mike Palmateer. The first one is from Action Sports Hockey, April 1978 and The Popcorn Kid shares the cover with Mr. Hockey. The article on Palmateer declares him "The Best Young Goalie In The World" and shows him making one of his characteristic, unorthadox saves. The title of the article was a bit of a misleading though. Sure, Palmateer was 24 years old and finishing up his second NHL season, but there really just weren't that many young goalies in the NHL at that time. The only other one who could be argued for this title would have been 22 year old Don Edwards of the Sabres. Amongst the 24 goalies who played at least 30 games in 1977/78, the only ones under 25 years of age were Palmateer, Edwards, the Rangers John Davidson and Jim Bedard of the Capitals. Palmatee...

Here's two nice covers from the late 1970's featuring "The King" Borje Salming. The first one is an Action Sports Hockey magazine issued in February 1978 while Salming was in the midst of his fourth of six consecutive All-Star seasons. The previous year, 76/77 he was named to the First All-Star team after producing 66 assists and 78 games. Salming finished second to Larry Robinson for the Norris Trophy by a vote of 186 to 157. The King's season was so good that he even finished fourth in Hart Trophy voting (the highest defenceman) and also placed fifth in voting for the Lady Byng Trophy. The second magazine is another Action Sports Hockey dated March 1979 again with Salming on the cover. This season, Salming put up 73 points in 78 games and was again named a Second Team All-Star. He also finished seventh in Hart Trophy voting, the second and final time he received votes as Most Valuable Player in the league. Inside this issue there is also an article on ...

I've always quite liked the illustration of Eddie Shack attacking a Montreal Canadien on the front of this 1965 Hockey Illustrated magazine, probably because it's from the pen of Jack Davis. Davis was a re-knowned illustrator in the second half of the 20th century, perhaps best know for his work in Mad Magazine. The 1965/66 season proved to be one of the best in Shack's career as he posted 26 goals after scoring only 5 the previous season. Inside the magazine, there is an article titled "Big League Hitters Are Baun...Not Made" about the bodychecking prowess of Leaf defender Bobby Baun. He was in the midst of his tenth NHL season but would play only 44 games in 65/66 with no goals and a mere six helpers. In February 1966 Hockey Illustrated once again featured the Leafs, picturing Johnny Bower and Bobby Hull on the cover. Bower posted a career high Save Percentage in 65/66 with a .930 mark. This was the fifth time in seven years that Bower topped the NHL in...

Here are two beautiful magazines with Toronto Maple Leaf covers from 1964. The first is a December 1964 Hockey Illustrated featuring a terrific shot of Johnny Bower stretching to make a save against Red Wing Marcel Pronovost. The Leafs had won the previous three Stanley Cups, but would slip to fourth place in the 1964/65 season and lose to Montreal in the Semifinal. Toronto had claimed goalie Terry Sawchuk in the Intra-League Draft in June 1964 in order to help the now 40-year old Bower in the Leaf nets. Bower, who played 51 games in 63/64 in front of back-up Don Simmons, had his workload cut to 34 games in 64/65. The duo of Sawchuk and Bower proved successful enough to garner the Vezina Trophy as Toronto allowed the least number of goals against.  The article headline inside the magazine declares "The Leafs will be stronger than ever!", alas The Big M was a bit off in his assessment. Mahovlich himself was voted to the Second All-Star squad alongside teammate Carl Brew...