Nitzy's Hockey Den

I picked up this rare program last week, it's from the 3rd annual World Hockey Association All-Star game. It took place on January 21, 1975 at the brand new Edmonton Coliseum.  The lineup page is below and shows many Hall of Famers.  The West team won by a score of 6-4, and were led by 46 year-old Gordie Howe who had a goal and an assist. The capacity crowd of 15,326 saw what was supposed to be the last All-Star game in the legendary career of Howe. Of course he would play another five full seasons after this one and played his actual last All-Star game in 1980 as a member of the NHL's Hartford Whalers.  Gordie's goal was the result of a half-speed backhand shot trickled over the goal line. "I was trying to pass into the goalmouth," he said. "I knew it was in when Andy Brown (East goalie) called me lucky." Howe even kept his stick from the game wrongfully stating it was his last All-Star match. "Sure it was fun. It's nice to win...

Pictured above is the first ever cover of The Hockey News for Wayne Gretzky. It's dated October 27, 1978 and shows a great shot of The Kid as a member of the soon-to-be defunct Indianapolis Racers. My favourite part of the photo is Gretzky's teammate staring at him from the bench, simply smiling. It's fairly easy to find out the happy player is Claude St.Sauveur. He was the only number 20 on the Racers that season. It's also easy to determine at which game this picture was taken. The Racers are wearing their road dark uniforms, and the only away game they played prior to October 27 was in Quebec against the Nordiques. Indy goalie Eddie Mio shutout the Nords by a score of 4-0. This was the Racers first win of the 78/79 season after losing 6-3 and 9-3 at home. That makes this photo as the day of Wayne Gretzky's first ever professional victory. This helps identify the backup goalie on the right side of the pic as Gary Inness, riding the pine that eveni...

I had this poster on my bedroom wall as a kid and had kind of forgotten about it. It probably is one of the first pieces of the collection that came to be my Hockey Den. Showdown was a contest staged by the NHLPA and shown during intermissions on Hockey Night in Canada. It was filmed in one day in the summer and shown over the course of the following season. I figured it was time to scan this thing. Just check out the lineup, ten of the 16 guys ended up in the Hall of Fame. As well as stars of the current day, old-time greats were brought out to conduct a shootout. Just amazing to see these guys in full uniform at their age. Gump Worsley was 49 years old and Johnny Bower 53. George Armstrong at 48 and Andy Bathgate at 46 looked like they could still play in the NHL.  Maurice Richard was 57 years old during Showdown '78 and still had the intensity in his eyes. 47 year old Dickie Moore is thwarted by a text-book Johnny Bower pokecheck.

Above is the cover for the N HL Goal Magazine from February 1983. Quebec Nordique, Peter Stastny is shown proudly displaying the captain "C" , but the problem is Stastny did not take over the Quebec captaincy until 20 games into the 1985/86 campaign when captain Mario Marois was traded to Winnipeg.                                     Here is a Hockey Digest from around the exact same time showing Statsny with a C. This one as well as the Goal Magazine photo show what appears to be a letter C applied to his jersey using only white hockey tape. The closeup of the first picture below clearly shows it as a rather poorly looking tape-job. Why would an NHL player have a taped-on C as is done in mens beer-leagues or kids minor hockey? There is an obvious explanation for the temporary feel to Stastny captaincy in February 1983. Just a month before during a game against the touring Soviet...

Another recent acquisition of the Den. I have never seen this item before and just had to have it. The Dave Keon Skate Sharpener is from the mid-1960's and still has the price-tag from Woodward's Department store in Vancouver. These were perhaps more famously available through the Bee Hive Syrup company. One wrapper from a corn syrup bottle and $1.25 (Regular Value $1.98!) and the item was on it's way via Canada Post. I am tempted to try it out on a pair of my old vintage skates, looks like it's in good enough shape to still put a nice edge on a skate blade.

I picked up this gem on the weekend, a 65 year old book just loaded with rare photos. The photos are from the legendary Turofsky Studios of Toronto. Pictured above are very early shots of Gordie Howe and Bill Barilko. Howe is 19 years-old here and Barilko is 20 in his first full season of the NHL. The Howe picture is the one that was colourised and used on his rookie hockey card 1951/52 Parkhurst. Here's a fantastic shot of the penalty box loaded with Leafs and Bruins. Baby-faced Bill Barilko is caught staring into the lens. Times have certainly changed. Leaf, Gus Mortson is being carted off on a stretcher after a big hit. Not carried by doctors or paramedics, but by ushers and policemen. No neck brace, using simply his glove as a head-rest. Another example of the long-gone tradition of teams sharing the penalty box. A rookie Red Kelly of the Red Wings and Leaf Vic Lynn surrounded by Wings. Goaltender, Harry Lumley following the deflected puck past the c...

I recently discovered the website extraskater.com, if you like in depth hockey statistics you'll love it. On the site, you can sort NHL players into many different categories of stats from Percentage of Powerplay or Shorthanded time on the ice a player spends, ratio of penalties drawn and taken, and probably my favourite one, Primary Points. This stat is the total of a player's goals and Primary Assists. It's scoring leaders without those sometimes undeserving, uncalled-for Secondary Assists. NHL Primary Points Leaders thru Oct 31 Phil Kessel               16 Steven Stamkos       15 Daniel Sedin             15 Sidney Crosby          14 Alex Steen                14 Frans Nielsen            14 Logan Couture          13 Patrick Marleau         13 Corey Perry...