Nitzy's Hockey Den

Future Edmonton Oiler Connor McDavid is making quite a mockery of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs. His team Erie holds a two games to one lead over Sault Ste. Marie in the OHL Semifinals. McDavid has played 12 games and ripped 18 goals and 14 helpers for 32 total points. Crazy. He's eight points up on second place Nick Ritchie. Just how does this performance compare to previous top rated prospects since 1990? Let's have a look at what these 18 year old phenoms did in their final junior playoff year, including the Memorial Cup if applicable. Player, Team, Year GP-G-A-Pts Pts/Game Connor McDavid, Erie, 2015         12-18-14-32  2.67 Taylor Hall, Windsor, 2010            23-22-22-44  1.91 John Tavares, Oshawa, 2009          14-10-11-21  1.50 Patrick Kane, London, 2007           16-10-21-31  1.94 Rob Schremp, London 2006         ...

A few months back I posted my Johnny Bower version of this cool promo from Coca-Cola, I recently picked up the Dave Keon issue. Who better to teach kids "How To Play Forward (Defensive)".  A young Keon with Father Bauer of St. Mikes Keon taking the puck from, it looks like  Frank Mahovlich Pure hatred for the Habs Keon with his little pal, Red Kelly Keon and the Prime Minister

One of the newset additions to the Den is this wonderful item. A 1961/62 Maple Leafs coin set with the display shield. These were issued by Salada Foods in Shirriff potato chips and Salada tea, jelly, pie-filling, and pudding. 1961/62 is the only year the shields were available by order.  These shields are made of a flimsy plastic and are usually chipped along the edges like mine, if they survived at all. Check out the entire 20 coin set featuring everyone from Mahovlich and Keon to Larry Keenan and Johnny MacMillan. Below is an ad for the original coins and shields.

Cyclone Taylor, out for a skate at the PNE Forum in 1948 "There aren't enough individual stars in hockey today simply because the young lads aren't being given a chance to develop their own style."  This was hockey legend, Fred "Cyclone" Taylor in an interview with the Ottawa Citizen from December 1956. He continued, "There used to be Howie Morenz, Syl Apps, along with many others, to catch the eye of the public. Now Jean Beliveau is a standout despite today's method of training an athlete. But there isn't much chance of finding another Apps or Morenz because the hockey people are too busy with their system of mass-hockey. They don't appear to want individuality." Cyclone may have had a good point, that season (1956/57) was somewhat lacking in real star power after a select few. This was the last good season for Maurice Richard before retiring in three years, and other than Beliveau, Howe, Lindsay and Bathgate the league was f...

Harris, Olmstead, Chadwick, Duff Here's another of the photos of Maple Leafs behind the scenes found in the City of Toronto Archives. This one is actually dated January 21, 1958 which really helps in naming the unidentified players, although this one was fairly easy to figure out. On the left is a 23 year-old Billy Harris who was in the midst of his best NHL season. He would finish second on the team in scoring with 22 goals and 52 points. The next one over is the easily recognizable Bert Olmstead. He was claimed from Montreal prior to the 58/59 campaign in the Intra-League draft and had a nice year with 41 points, fourth on the Leafs. Second from right, wearing the goalie pads is Ed Chadwick who had played every game the previous two seasons but was in the midst of being challenged by Johnny Bower at this point. Chadwick played 31 games in 58/59 posting a 2.97 GAA, but would play only 8 additional NHL games in his career. On the right is Leaf point leader in 58/59, Dick Du...