Nitzy's Hockey Den

Recently, upon announcement that the 2019 Hall of Fame class would have to wait an extra year for their induction ceremony, Chairman of the Selection Committee Lanny McDonald was quoted; "Whether you wait three or four years or more, it really doesn't matter. If you're a Hall of Fame, you're going to go in at one point." He's referring to the class of 2019 being bumped a year, but one can also take his statement as referring to some long-retired players from hockey's past that may finally receive their due.  Herb Cain is one of these forgotten players and he should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Cain is a deserving player who has been passed over or simply missed by the Hall of Fame selection committees through the years. Herb Cain played 13 NHL in the 1930s and 1940s and totalled 206 goals and 400 points over 571 games. He helped his teams win two Stanley Cups and was named a 2nd team All-Star in 1943/44 when he topped the NHL with 82 points to set a sing...

Recently on Vancouver sports radio, I heard TSN analyst/scout Craig Button mention that TSN would soon be selecting their all-time World Junior Tournament Team. This would obviously be in conjunction with the upcoming World Juniors tournament, which at this point is the most highly anticipated event on the hockey calendar what with no NHL action at the moment. I figured I'd jump in and select my own all-time World Junior Tournament squad. I started at the official recognition by the IIHF in 1977 until present day. This will be an especially difficult task seeing as no player ever plays more than two, possibly three different years in the Under-20 tournament. I've tried to select the squad by looking at as much multi-year dominance as well as team success. Here's what I came up with. Many, many familiar and obvious names on the All-time team. A few lesser-lights and near unknowns sprinkled in. The fact is, these were the players who performed the best at the World Juniors ov...