Nitzy's Hockey Den

The Seattle Totems in October 1968 were a real good hockey club. They had won back-to-back Western League championships the previous two years. The Totems would prove they were a good team this evening by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs who were only a year removed from a Stanley Cup victory. I recently picked up this program from the game to add to my den collection. The pre-season game was played in front of 5,262 fans at the Seattle Centre Coliseum. This was Toronto's third visit to Seattle having won 7-4 in 1962 and 7-1 in 1964. Jim Armstrong started in goal for the Totems, Bruce Gamble for Toronto. Leaf rookie Rick Ley opened the scoring at 15:55 of the first period before Totem Don Chiz tied it on a power play early in the second. Halfway through the game, Don Head and Al Smith replaced the goalies for Seattle and Toronto respectively.  Around two minutes after the goalie change, Bob Courcy put the Totems ahead after a pass from Guyle Fielder. Early in the third, W...

Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un...

Here's the latest addition to my Hockey Den and to my quest to collect a program for every year of Maple Leaf Garden's existence. This one is from opening night of the 1942/43 season between the New York Rangers and the defending Stanley Cup champs Maple Leafs. The cover features a great photo of Pete Langelle scoring the winning goal in Game 7 of the 1942 Cup Finals.  The Maple Leafs would win this home-opener by a score of 7-2. I found a Canadian Press write up on the game;  "In surprisingly simple fashion, Toronto Maple Leafs conquered New York Rangers, 7-2, Saturday in their opening National Hockey League game before 11,777 fans to pick up the thread where they left off in the Stanley Cup finals last season.  President Frank Calder of the National Hockey League presented Leafs the Stanley Cup pennat they won last season in a brief pre-game ceremony. The first puck was faced by Pte. Alex Chisholm of the Toronto Scottish Regiment, who won the Military Med...

Matti Hagman, Dale Hoganson, Wayne Wood Here's some more fantastic old photos from the files of photo-journalist Doug Petepiece. These show World Hockey Association pre-season action between the Toronto Toros and the Quebec Nordiques  from an exhibition game prior to the 1977/78 season. I was able to identify most of the players. The first and second photos were taken in quick sequence and show Finnish import Matti Hagman battling Dale Hoganson in front of the net. Hagman had topped the Finnish league in goals as a 19-year old and repeated the feat in 1974/75. He was then drafted by the Boston Bruins whom he joined in 76/77 to score 11 goals and 28 points over a full season. After beginning the following campaign even slower, the Bruins sold Hagman to the Nordiques on December 1, 1977. Hagman produced an impressive 56 points in 53 games but would return home to play for Helsinki after the season he'd play the next two there including 79/80 when he scored a fantastic 87 po...