Nitzy's Hockey Den

Auston Matthews has 40 goals at the 20024 All-Star break. Exactly 40 years ago, another Maple Leaf sniper, Rick Vaive, also had 40 goals at the 1984 All-Star break (in 50 games played). There was talk of Vaive shattering his own Leaf record of 54 goals in a season as he sat second to only Wayne Gretzky in NHL goals. At the All-Star game that season in New Jersey on January 31, 1984, Vaive was given the plum role of playing on Gretzky's Right Wing in lieu of Jari Kurri being injured and unable to play. Vaive responded with three assists, including one on Gretzky's only goal of the match. The following night, Vaive was back with the struggling Leafs for a 7-2 loss in Chicago. (there was no extended All-Star break back then, and the thought of a bye-week would have been laughable). Vaive was held scoreless as the Leafs lost their sixth game in a row. The Leafs were in such a rut (like usual during my childhood of the early 80's) that their captain Vaive had seemed to have had ...

I recently was gifted two fantastic old hockey scrapbooks from a friend of my wife. The friends' father had passed away and nobody in the family had any interest in a couple old scrapbooks that he had assembled as a child. She knew I was a fan of hockey history and offered to give them to me, of course I enthusiastically agreed.  Her father was living in Hamilton, Ontario at the time and as most youngsters in Southern Ontario, was a huge Toronto Maple Leafs fan. The large scrapbooks were compiled during the 1945/46 and 46/47 NHL seasons and once I started flipping through them, I found some really cool stuff. On the cover of the scrapbook labelled 1946/47 was pasted the image at the top. I'm not sure if it's from a magazine, newspaper or storybook, but it's a fantastic image.  Inside the books were the expected cut-out newspaper stories and pictures which were carefully glued onto the pages. There are at least sixty pages in the two books and in amongst all of the newsp...

  "It was a very unique game, that's for sure" The words of Calgary Flames coach, Bob Johnson after his team beat the Maple Leafs 6-5 in overtime on January 26, 1987. This was the last time any NHL team came back to tie a 5-0 deficit in the 3rd period before Toronto did it themselves on December 14, 2023.  The present day Buds erased a 5-0 deficit in the 3rd period against the Columbus Blue Jackets, only to lose in overtime. The last time a team came back from a 5-0 hole in the final period was almost 37 years ago, also in Toronto. The Calgary Flames went down 5-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens entering the third, only to rally for five goals and win in overtime. On that Monday night in early 1987, Toronto erupted for a five-goal 1st period, chasing starting goaltender Mike Vernon after the fourth. Miroslav Ihnacak, rookie Vinny Damphousse, Al Iafrate, and two goals from Wendel Clark staked the Leafs to a 5-0 lead after one period of play, outshooting the Flames 16 to 7. The score...

Through a dozen games of the 2023/24 season, Auston Matthews leads the NHL with 13 goals. He is the first Maple Leaf with at least that many goals in the first 12 games since Rick Vaive had 14 almost exactly 40 years ago.  Matthews has 4 multiple-goal games in his first dozen (including 3 hat-tricks) but has been kept scoreless in half of the games. Forty years ago, Vaive scored in 8 of 12 games with only one hat-trick and five multi-goal games.  NHL scoring leaders on November 1, 1983. On Nov. 1, 1983, Vaive was one goal ahead of both Wayne Gretzky and Vancouver's Tony Tanti. As the season progressed, Vaive slowed down a bit and potted 40 more goals in his final 64 games to finish fifth overall with 52 goals. Tanti, himself slowed even more, with 33 goals over his last 67 games to total 45 total, good for 12th in the league. Gretzky, of course, found another gear soon after, scoring a ridiculous 75 more goals in his final 62 games (he missed 6 due to injury). In fact, The Gre...

Here's a few homemade Gretzky cards using two of my favourite card designs, 1984/85 O-Pee-Chee and 1977/78 O-Pee-Chee WHA. The first image is from photojournalist Doug Petepiece who I've showcased in the past. He has shared with me many terrific, unpublished photos that he took from in the late 70's and early 80's. The shot of Gretzky is from the 1978 World Juniors, I believe it was taken during an exhibition game played in Cornwall, Ontario. I think I like the 77/78 WHA template version for this photo. It allows me to use the logo on the card, which is the wonderful blue version of the Team Canada logo that was used for the only time in this tournament. The second photo I found online from Gretzky's only time representing Canada at the World Championships in 1982. It's a great shot of Wayne posing with Dale Hawerchuk. Maybe I'll have to do a version of this card just of "Ducky". I really like the 84/85 template for this one. The red border works ...

Disappointing  "failing to meet expectations" -Merriam Webster Dictionary   The latest epoch of Toronto Maple Leafs playoff performances has been fraught with disappointment. Since the debuts of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner in 2016/17, Toronto has been an outstanding regular season team. Over those seven seasons, the Leafs have 684 points in 536 games for a points percentage of .638. However, this regular season success has failed to translate to post-season results, seeing as it took the Leafs until their SEVENTH try to even win one round in the playoffs. During those seven playoffs, they have played to a won/loss record of  19-27 for a Winning Pct of .413. That, one would say, is disappointing. The Leafs have played .638 hockey (a 105 point pace) over seven seasons, and have one playoff round to show for it. Could the current iteration of the Toronto Maple Leafs be the most disappointing team in history? Being a supposedly quality team with inept playoff results ove...

Vegas Golden Knights goalie, Adin Hill replaced the injured Lauent Brossoit against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 of the 2023 Pacific Division Final. Hill became only the seventh goalie in NHL history to record their first post-season victory in relief, AFTER the first round of the playoffs. The first one to accomplish this was famously, Lester Patrick who came from behind the bench to lead the New York Rangers to a win in Game two of the 1928 Stanley Cup Final. The second ever goaltender was the relative unknown, Gord Henry. The 1953 Stanley Cup Final pitted the 3rd place Boston Bruins against the 2nd place Montreal Canadiens. Game 1 saw Montreal rookie Jacques Plante defeat "Sugar" Jim Henry by a score of 4-2. In Game 2, the Bruins goalie was injured with just over two minutes left in the first period and replaced by his namesake (unrelated) Gord Henry. Milt Dunnell of The Toronto Star described it eloquently: "Sugar Jim Henry, better known to Detroit as sugar-coated s...