Nitzy's Hockey Den

I have had some personal requests to post some of my extensive collection from the greatest sports movie of all-time Slap Shot. Well, here we go. What we have here is a program full of movie stills, mostly in colour and some that I have seen nowhere else. The big question is...why in the hell was it put out in Japan? It was put out at the same time as the film, and from what I know (which is most everything on this topic), hockey was not big in Japan at that time or ever. Whatever possessed the studio to release this item over there, we may never know. Curiously, a quick check of the internet shows that Japan achieved their highest world hockey ranking of 10th in 1976 right before the movie came out...currently ranked 21st. I'm amazed that there is that many countries in the world actually fielding competitive hockey teams. I mean, sure there are lots more, but I don't count countries who's national squad I would actually be able to make.

This is Gretzky's and the Oilers first NHL Media Guide. Pictured on the cover are Wayne and goalie Dave Dryden in their WHA Oiler uniforms. They were the two big stars in the Oilers last season before the big time, with Dryden posting 41 wins and a 2.89 avg. Definitely worthy of sharing the cover of next years media guide. He would however only last 14 games in that inaugural NHL season as he was by then 38 years old, and NOT his brother Ken. He was usurped in net by the immortal cast of Ed Mio, Ron Low, Jim Corsi, Don Cutts(??), and Bob Dupuis. Thank God Fuhr and Moog were soon to arrive, yikes.

I love the old game programs, just full of info and great photos. Even the ads are interesting. This one's from a Saturday night game at the Gardens vs. Detroit. Feb,25, 1961. The lineup is filled with hall of famers like Bower, Kelly, Horton, Mahovlich, Armstrong, Howe, Sawchuk and Delvecchio. (all these Leafs are present on my prized possession, 1962-63 autographed stick...more on that in a later post) The original owner of the program filled in most of the scorecard page. It looks like the Leafs won 3-1 while being outshot 38-16. The first star of the game was Leaf rookie goalie Cesare Maniago who doesn't even appear on the line-up page. It may well have been his first ever NHL game, as he only played in 7 games that season. He would go on to star with mainly the North Stars before finishing up with the Canucks. On the cover is Carl Brewer, who was a bit of an eccentric to say the least. He retired in 1965 at 27 years old after one too man disagreements with Punch Imlach. H...

A great old sports magazine from 1948 featuring Broda and the Leafs. My den is filled mostly with old Maple Leafs stuff, (before they sucked), collectables and rare stuff from the 1972 Summit Series, old Blue Jays, the movie Slapshot and of course Wayner. This photo is one of those great colour painted on a black and white images. I picked this up on ebay for somewhat more than the original cover price.

I have pretty much every Gretzky figure ever released. Here are some of them. I tend to steer clear of Great One collectables or cards from AFTER the trade. It just seems that I'd be condoning the travesty that it was.