Nitzy's Hockey Den

Do your self a favour, watch the 2010 Gold Medal game again. TSN2 replayed the game in it's entirety today and I managed to catch most while I was PVRing it. I had not seen the game since the day it was played and it really is amazing how many little turning points and points of interest that I had forgotten after the euphoria of the overtime winner (it may have also been the six-pack I drank during the game). Below are a few points from later in the game that stood out to while watching it once again. With a 2-1 lead going into the third, Canada hits two posts behind Ryan Miller in a span of 45 seconds in the first two minutes of the period. Shots by Shea Weber then Chris Pronger had the tender beat but couldn't find the twine. With just over three mintes left in the third Sidney Crosby had a breakaway and was hassled from behind by Patrick Kane just enough to not get a clean shot. When USA coach Ron Wilson pulls Miller at the 1:30 mark, the extra attacker he sends out is non...

After Wedsneday night's games Steven Stamkos is tied atop the NHL scoring race with Daniel Sedin at 78 points. Henrik Sedin is in third place with 73 points. If Daniel wins, it will of course be a first for brothers to win consecutive scoring titles. More impressively, they have a chance to also be the first brothers to finish first and second in one season. As they sit now, first and third, they match the best ever one season brother combo of Max and Doug Bentley in 1942/43. Doug tallied 73 points to Max's 70. Only Bill Cowley and his 72 points prevented a Bentley sweep. Following is a list of the top brother finishes throughout NHL history. 1917/18 Cy Denneny 46 points, 2nd place & Corb Denneny 29 points, 5th place 1932/33 Bill Cook 50 points, 2nd place & Bun Cook 37 points, 7th place 1942/43 Doug Bentley 73 points, 1st place & Max Bentley 70 points, 3rd place 1956/57 Maurice Richard 62 points, 6th place & Henri Richard 54 points, 9th place 1...

Nikolai Kulemin has played 210 career games for the Toronto Maple Leafs with Tomas Kaberle being traded, amazingly Kulemin is now the longest serving player with the franchise. The Leafs have never iced a team without having a player that had been with them for at least the four previous seasons. As they sit now, albeit with some better prospects and higher quality youth, the Leafs are akin to a third year expansion squad. It's as if they were granted an NHL franchise three years ago and started from scratch. By the power and vision of Brian Burke they have indeed cleaned the slate, the question is, will it work? The last time Toronto had a team without a player of at least five years tenure was the end of 1996/97. On February 25, 1997 Doug Gilmour with just over five years Toronto experience and Dave Ellett with just over six years, were traded to New Jersey. This left Mats Sundin as the longest serving Leaf skater, much like Kulemin, just completing his third full season in Tor...

I starting looking at old programs last week, and what happened in the actual games in which they were issued. Today I look at a program from a game on New Years Eve, Dec. 31, 1949 when the Detroit Red Wings visited Maple Leaf Gardens. Pictured on the cover is Leaf centreman Cal Gardner. He was in the line up this evening just returning from a broken jaw suffered on November 10. Gardner would play a mere 31 games in 1949-50 yet still produced 26 points. This Saturday night affair was the first of a home and home set between the Wings and Leafs. Detroit came into the game in first place with a record of 20-8-4. The Leafs meanwhile had one once and tied two in their last nine games. The Wings as somewhat expected beat Toronto 5-1 this evening then 5-0 the next night back home at The Olympia. They jumped out to a 2-0 before the game was seven minutes old before 12,985 at the Gardens. League point leader Ted Lindsay assisted on the first goal by Sid Abel and would add another helper on a...

Buffalo's Drew Stafford has two hat tricks in his last three games and four total in the last two months. His four tricks are in a period of 21 games played and over that span he has 18 goals. Four hat tricks over a two month period is ridiculously good but far from un-precedented. A look at some of the great goal scoring seasons of the last 30 years shows what kind of company Stafford is currently keeping. In 1992/93 Teemu Selanne registered four hat tricks from Dec. 11 to March 9, almost three months. Alex Mogilny did even better than the Finnish Flash that year with four hatties from Dec 9 to Jan. 2, a total of only ten games. Mogilny fired 19 goals over that ten game stretch on his way to tying Selanne with 76. During 1991/92, Brett Hull tore off four hat tricks between Dec. 12 and Jan 16, just over one month and 18 games. He would notch 23 goals during this stretch. Mario Lemieux had four hats from Feb. 14/89 through March 30/89, six weeks and 20 games in which he had 23 goal...

Perusing the vintage hockey program listings on ebay (as I do on a fairly regular basis) I came across this 75 year old beauty. The description said it was from a game on December 15, 1935 and not much else. I wanted to dig deeper and find out what happened at Madison Square Garden that night. It turns out that this game was the exact 10th anniversary of the Americans first home game at the Garden. They celebrated by shutting out the Chicago Black Hawks 3-0 in front of future Hall of Fame goaltender Roy "Shrimp" Worters. The Associated Press described the affair, "The Americans opened with a startling display of speed and agressiveness that threw the Hawks back on their heels." Indeed they came out fast and took the lead on an un-assisted mark by Sweeney Schriner. They led 2-0 at the end of one on a goal from Joe Jerwa with helpers from Nels Stewart and Harry Oliver. "The second period was slow and scoreless, but the teams came back raging in the third, which...

35 years ago today, six goals and four assists. Nobody else has even scored nine in a game. Although on Jan. 30, 1973, Jim Harrison scored three goals, seven assists for the Alberta Oilers in the WHA. In the NHL, Gretzky had eight points twice, Lemieux had eight three times (once in the playoffs), Tom Bladon and Paul Coffey had eight points as defencemen. The Stastnys Peter and Anton had eight each, Patrik Sundstrom did it in the playoffs and Bernie Nicholls had eight in '88. When Gretzky scored eight on Jan. 4, 1984 it was his second time in six weeks doing it. He actually had scored his eight points with two and a half minutes remaining in the second period, and still couldn't catch Sittler. It's been over 20 years since anyone has come close. Going into the game against Boston on Feb. 7, 1976 Sittler was having a nice if unspectacular season with 21 goals, 32 assists and 53 points in 51 games. In his last three seasons he had notched 77, 84 and 80 points and was on the ...

Time to weigh in on the James Reimer phenomenon. The Leafs have rarely had a rookie goalie come out of nowhere to take the league by storm in the way a Sergei Bobrov, Semyon Varlamov, Jim Carey or Blaine Lacher did (remember Lacher?). In Reimer, perhaps they have a tender that will continue to make headlines and develop into real star unlike Carey and Lacher. Toronto has developed very few goalies through their system over the years. The last real star goaltender the Leafs have developed internally was Felix Potvin back in the early 1990's. I wanted to look back at all the goalies who started their careers with Toronto and how their stats compared to Reimer over their first 8 decisions. All the guys listed below were younger than 25 and began their career with Toronto, some of these numbers are staggered over two different seasons. From most recent first (W-L-T, GAA, SAVE PCT.) James Reimer 10/11 5-3-0, 1.96, .940 Jonas Gustavsson 09/10 3-2-3, 2.61, .916 Justin Pogge ...

Jaromir Jagr is now the third highest scorer in worldwide top-level major league hockey. Currently in his third year with Avangard Omsk of the KHL, the soon to be 39 year old is having a fine season. He has 49 points in 47 games and sits eighth in league scoring. Combining his career NHL points of 1599 with his production in the Czech and Russian leagues he now has exactly 1900 points in his career. Here are the top five in career points combining NHL, WHA and European professional circuits. Wayne Gretzky 2967 Gordie Howe 2358 Jaromir Jagr 1900 Mark Messier 1898 Bobby Hull 1808

With the Vancouver Canucks calling up prized prospect Cody Hodgson this week, I am reminded of a time long ago and another top prospect by the name of Hodgson. Dan Hodgson was only a 5th round draftee in 1983 by Toronto but it was after his draft that he developed into a real blue-chip prospect. While he had scored 130 points in his draft year with the Prince Albert Raiders, he exploded for back-to-back seasons of 181 and 182 points. He would play twice for Canada in the World Junior tourney and collected 14 points in 5 games at the 1985 Memorial Cup. During his rookie pro season of 1985/86 Hodgson split time between the AHL's St. Catherines Saints and the big club. His season was late to start after a broken nose and cheekbone suffered in training camp. He had 29 points in 22 minor league games and a respectable 13 goals, 25 points in 40 games for the Leafs. Things were looking up for the youngster. The next season, John Brophy took over the Leaf coaching reigns from Dan ...