Nitzy's Hockey Den

  I am currently reading the book, "Voices in Blue and White" by the fantastic author Kevin Shea. He chronicles the 'pride and passion for the Maple Leafs' in interviews with literally hundreds of players. Most are quick little stories, like this one about Bill Johansen ('Red' Johnson) talking about his one and only Maple Leaf appearance; " I was playing centre for the Marlie Seniors. One Saturday night, they called me up to the Leafs because Ted Kennedy had gotten hurt. (On November 26, 1949), I played between Bill Ezinicki and Harry Watson. I thought we did pretty well, but we got beat by Boston, 3-0. The team was getting dressed to make a train to Chicago when Mr. Smythe walked into the room, pointed at me and said to the others, "How can you let a young kid like this skate rings around you?"I figured this meant I would be going with them, that I had made the team, so I was really excited. Then coach Hap Day came over and told me I wouldn...

I picked this up recently, a program that I've been after for quite a while. It was issued at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1956 to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the grand building. The magazine is chock full of stories about the history of the Gardens and the Maple Leafs. Fantastic drawing of Maple Leaf kingpin Conn Smythe. The story of the longest overtime game in Maple Leafs history, a mark that still stands. Nice photo of Foster Hewitt's original broadcast gondola. The Queen!  

The Maple Leafs are simply eating up the North Division of this strange season of NHL hockey. They shut out the Edmonton Oilers in back to back games, this is the first time they have shut out the same opponent in consecutive regular season games since doing it to the Detroit Red Wings in November, 1954. On November 11, 1954 at the Olympia in Detroit the Leafs beat the Red Wings 1-0. Harry Lumley (on his 28th birthday) turned aside 45 Detroit shots and Sid Smith scored in the last minute of the second period. This was the first Toronto win in Detroit in 13 games, dating back to November 1952. Al Nickleson of the Globe and Mail described the frantic finish; "Leafs had plenty of trouble getting the puck out of their own end. They practically were skating on their knees, they were so tired from two games in as many nights. But they were dead game." November 13 saw the same 1-0 victory for Toronto again on a goal from Sid Smith, this time in the first minute of the final frame. T...

Recently, Mitchell Marner recorded his 300th career point. He is the third fastest Maple Leaf (among those whose career began in Toronto) to the plateau. His 307 career games is bested by only Charlie Conacher's 294 games and Syl Apps' 284 games. His linemate Auston Matthews should soon get to 300 in less games than Marner as he sits at 293 points in 289 career games. He should even be able to do it faster than  Conacher by collecting at least 7 points in his next 10 games.  Seeing as Matthews is approaching his 300th career game, I decided to see where he ranks in Leaf history for goals scored over the first 300 games of a career. The leaders are as follows;   Papi is in some fantastic company among Maple Leaf franchise legends. Personally, I don't believe he has even peaked yet. If Matthews produces at even close to this level for the next decade, he's likely to shatter most franchise scoring marks. This list above includes ONLY players who began their careers with To...

I recently found an interesting article in an April 1958 issue of Hockey Blueline magazine. It is an interview with New York Rangers General Manager, Muzz Patrick in which he predicts what the future of hockey will look like in the distant future of 1978. Firstly, Patrick discusses the potential of expansion by the NHL; "I'd say that Los Angeles and San Francisco are the most likely cities to join the NHL in an eight-team league. They're building an 18,000 seat arena in Los Angeles now. That is the primary consideration. You must have an arena with a minimum of 12,000 seats. But more than that may be necessary to pay travelling expenses to the Coast." The Los Angeles Kings and Oakland Seals would of course join the NHL as part of a six team expansion in 1967, perhaps a little later than Patrick predicted. The Seals would remain only until 1976 and the Bay Area would be without an NHL team until the San Jose Sharks joined the league in 1991. Next, the Rangers GM talks ...

I finally opened my pack of 1984/85 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards. I picked it up over a year ago for about 30 or 40 bucks, I can't remember. Of course the big cards in this set are the rookie issues of Steve Yzerman, Doug Gilmour, Chris Chelios, Pat LaFontaine and Cam Neely. Also there are no less than TEN Wayne Gretzky cards in this set from League Leaders, All-Star and Record Breaker cards. Let's see what we get. First card, Brian Mullen second year card. After a 24 goal rookie season, Mullen produced his career-best season in 1984/85. Scoring 32 goals and 71 points in 69 games, it was his only season producing at least one point per game. Gilles Meloche, one of the great under-rated goalies of the 1970's and 80's. In 1984/85 he was in his last season with Minnesota. He helped lead the North Stars to the 1981 Stanley Cup Finals, eventually losing to the Islanders. Meloche would be traded after the 84/85 season to Edmonton for Paul Houck (?). Before suiting up for the Oiler...

Here are the latest additions to the Maple Leafs Magazine Project. I'm trying to collect as many as magazines with Maple Leafs covers as possible. These three are from the mid-1950's, starting with an April 1958 issue of Hockey Blueline featuring a rookie Frank Mahovlich on the cover. There's a cool article inside with an interview of Rangers GM, Muzz Patrick. In it, Patrick makes predictions of what the NHL will look like twenty years in the future, the far-away date of 1978. There were some neat ideas, one being a curved blue line which would allow wingers to get closer to the net without going offside.  Another fine rookie is featured later, #16 of Chicago, Bobby Hull. This is followed by an article about what makes the Montreal Canadiens so good. Next up is the February, 1955 issue of Hockey Blueline with a cover shot of Leaf defender Jim Thomson. 1955 was the first year of the Blueline magazine, this is the 5th edition that season. This issue features a photo spread of...