Nitzy's Hockey Den

Maple Leafs first ever Goal Scorer, George Patterson

2012-02-17T12:05:00.000-08:00

The Toronto St.Patricks aquired 20 year old George Patterson on Feb. 1 1927 from the Hamilton Tigers of the Can-Pro circuit in exchange for $5000 and the loan of Al Pudas. Just over two weeks later, on Feb. 17 he would score the first ever goal for the newly re-named Toronto Maple Leafs.

Conn Smythe officially purchased the St.Pats on Feb.14, 1927 and christened them the Maple Leafs in honour of his military experience in the first World War. They would play their last game as St.Patricks two days later losing to the Detroit Cougars 5-1 at Windsor Arena in front of a reported 150 spectators.

On Feb. 17, the Maple Leafs took to the home ice at The Arena Gardens to play the New York Americans. They were adorned in "bright new uniforms with a large maple leaf on the front and trimmed with green". In the new book, "The Lives of Conn Smythe" by Kelly McParland it's noted that Smythe was somewhat fearful that "the players might be able to declare themselves free agents and demand more money on the basis that the old team had ceased to exist. To avoid this, Smythe added the old name St. Pats in small letters on the front of the new jerseys until the end of the season."

New York would tally first in that match on a goal by Billy Burch at 4:30 of the first period. George Patterson tied it at 9:40 of the second and Ace Bailey scored 35 seconds later to take the lead. Bailey and Bert Corbeau added markers in the third for a 4-1 Leaf win. Toronto would finish the season 7-4-1 under the new moniker yet still miss the playoffs thanks to an 8-19-4 start.

Patterson collected 4 goals and 2 assists in 17 total games in his rookie season but would be dealt to the Canadiens in February of the following season. He played a total of 284 career games also skating for the Americans, Boston, Detroit and St.Louis Eagles. His goal 85 years ago today was the very first of almost 19,000 regular season goals for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Maple Leafs vs. Canucks, the last 20 years.

2012-02-17T10:44:00.000-08:00

Sure it's been 3000 odd days since Toronto has beaten Vancouver, but the domination hasn't always been one sided in the Canucks favour. I looked at Leaf/Canuck match-ups over the last twenty years dating back to Oct. 21, 1991 and found some interesting numbers.

Torono and Vancouver have tangled exactly 50 times since that day over 20 years ago and the overall record is 23-20-7 in favour of Toronto. That means that prior to the current skid, the Leafs had a record of 23-13-6 over a 12 year period playing the Canucks.

In games at Vancouver over the last 20 years, Toronto still holds an 11-10-4 advantage despite losing the last four games here. In Toronto, the Leafs are 12-10-3 over the same time. The largest win for either team since 1991 was on Feb.22, 1993 when the Leafs came to Van City and thrashed the Canucks 8-1. Nikolai Borschevsky scored a pair and Gilmour, Krushelnyski and Anderson each had three points.

3010 days since last Leaf win in Vancouver

2012-02-16T13:14:00.001-08:00

I couldn't believe it myself. It has been over 3000 days since Toronto has won a hockey game in Vancouver. Sure, there were seasons in there when the Leafs didn't even visit the Canucks, and one whole season was cancelled, but still...wow.

I was at the game on November 22, 2003 a Saturday night which saw Toronto win 5-3. Amazingly, of the 20 players the Leafs dressed that evening a mere three are still in the NHL; Tomas Kaberle, Alexei Poinkarovsky and Matt Stajan. Karel Pilar is the only other one still active at all, playing with Vaxjo in the Swedish Elite League.

After a scrap between Tie Domi and Bryan Allen 23 seconds into the game, Toronto jumped out to a 2-0 lead before it was three minutes old on goals by Gary Roberts and Robert Reichel. Vancouver tied it on a Trevor Linden powerplay marker with 14 seconds to go in the opening period.

Leafs went up 4-2 after a scoreless second stanza with goals from Owen Nolan and Roberts by the nine minute mark of the third. Todd Bertuzzi made it close with 93 seconds remaining before Mats Sundin clinched it with an empty-netter a minute later. The goaltenders of record that evening were Ed Belfour and Dan Cloutier.

In contrast to the Leafs, out of Vancouver's 20 players dressed that game, 10 of them are still actively playing in the NHL; 14 if you include Marek Malik, Jason King and Brent Sopel playing currently in Europe and Mattias Ohlund who has been injured all season for Tampa Bay.

The two teams would hook up once again two days later in Toronto with the Leafs winning again this time 2-1. This game on November 24, 2003 stands as the last time Toronto has beaten Vancouver to this very day. I will be at the game on Saturday hoping to see that fact change.

Counting NHL Logos at Disneyworld

2012-02-13T19:49:00.000-08:00

I've been at Disneyworld in Florida for the last five days with my wife and daughter. We've done all four of the theme parks; Magic Kingdom (twice), Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. What does a hockey nerd like myself do during these long days of park exploring and family bonding? Why, count NHL caps I come across of course. I figured, what more neutral a place than Disney Florida to gauge the pulse of NHL fans and merchandise.

OK, of course most of my attention was on my family's activities and trying not to puke on the Spinning Teacups but I am a very observant person, especially when it comes to hockey logos. Whenever I spotted an NHL team hat or t-shirt I made a note and after five days, tallied up the results. Of course, the predominant sports logos worn were of the college variety. I can't count how many "U of This or That" and "Whatever State" I saw. Yankees and Red Sox paraphernalia would have to be tops among all pro sports logos I saw, (I only actually counted hockey ones) I must have seen at least a couple an hour of these two. Not surprisingly I saw only a grand total of 35 hockey logos over the five days.

Also not surprising, the two logos I saw the most were Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins with four each. A little bit of a surprise is that the next two teams I saw the most was Edmonton and Winnipeg with three each. The Oilers were the only team I saw adorning a full replica jersey. Some large fellow from Fort McMurray had a Nugent-Hopkins on. I wore my Maple Leafs cap each and every day (just in case some other idiot was counting NHL logos also) and thankfully I managed to see one other guy in a Leafs cap on the final day. I also wore my Seattle Metropolitans T-shirt one day. The other teams that I saw two each of were Montreal, Tampa Bay and New York Rangers. Strangely there was also two different guys wearing Minnesota North Stars gear.

In total there were 18 teams (one defunct) represented in my non-scientific survey. The teams I saw only once were Carolina, Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota Wild, Ottawa, Washington, San Jose, Philadelphia and Buffalo. I did see one hat go past me while in line at the Haunted Mansion that was full orange with a small NHL logo on the back of it. I couldn't see the front but have to assume it was a Flyers hat, so I'll bump them up to 1 and a half sightings.

Draw your own conclusions from my moronic study. I would however, be fairly comfortable in saying that Boston and Pittsburgh are indeed likely the two most popular team in these United States.

Conn Smythe gets one wrong, sort of.

2012-02-10T21:21:00.000-08:00

All good Toronto Maple Leaf fans should know the name of the last Leaf to lead the NHL in goals scored (albeit embarrassingly due to being so long ago). Gaye Stewart was tops with 37 goals in 50 games in 1945/46. He had just that season returned from two years of miltary service to lead the NHL as a 22 year old. Stewart slipped badly the following season to 19 goals in the newly expanded 60 game schedule and after a terrible start to 1947/48 (1 goal in 7 games) he was shipped to Chicago with four others for Max Bentley.

Conn Smythe acquired a player he had long coveted in Max Bentley for a very high price, but was his assessment of Gaye Stewart prior to the trade correct? In the new biography of Smythe by Kelly McParland, Smythe is quoted "Stewart scored too many goals against teams that weren’t a threat or in games that weren’t in doubt”. A fairly harsh statement indeed. Apparently Smythe was able to accurately come to this conclusion with the help of compiling ahead-of-it’s-time statistical and film evidence. Without access to game films from 1945 (I wish) I will try to prove Smythe's thinking true or false by looking at the only thing available, game by game records.

For this one I had to do my own "googling" of old Montreal Gazette sports pages as my usual go-to site the hockey summary project has no individual game records for this time period. It didn’t really take long to find the box scores that were needed.

First thing I did was narrow down games that did not match Conn Smythe’s original statement. He firstly said that Gaye Stewart scored too many goals against teams that weren’t a threat. We’ll, only one team in Stewart's big year of 1945/46 finished behind Smythe's Leafs, the other four finished with at least a .500 record. The New York Rangers can really be the only squad considered “not a threat” to Toronto or any other team for that matter as they finished with a 13-28-9 record. I found box scores for every game that the Leafs played the Rangers that year and Gaye Stewart counted only 7 goals in the 10 games. This means that he had 30 goals in 40 games against the other four “threatening” teams.

Stewart's goal rate was actually slightly less against the putrid Rangers than against the rest of the league. Smythe’s other point was that Stewart scored too many of his goals in games that weren’t in doubt. For this one I looked for games that were decided by two or more goals. The Leafs played in 15 games that season decided by two or more goals for either team and Stewart scored 11 goals in those games. This goal scoring rate was practically identical if not minimally less than in closer games.

Combined then, in games that were either against New York or of a margin wider than two goals, the Leafs had a total of 23 such games. (only two of the games met both of these criteria with Toronto and New York winning one of these blowouts each). In these 23 games that Smythe insisted Gaye Stewart did too much of his scoring, he scored 17 times. Therefore in his other 27 “close games against better teams” he scored 20 goals. These translate into goals per game of 0.739 in the “Rangers/ Blow-out” games and 0.741 in the tighter games. Stewart actually scored at a very slightly higher rate in tighter games against tougher teams.
Even if we consider these to be even, Smythe’s statement is about as false as can be.

Stewart actually re-found his scoring touch after the trade with 26 goals in the 54 games with Chicago. He followed that up with back-to-back 20 goal seasons before being traded to Detroit and the next year, the Rangers. He would play two full years in the AHL with Buffalo before retiring at age 31. Max Bentley of course helped the Leafs win the Stanley Cup the year he was aquired and two additional Cups in the next three seasons. Because of this fact, the trade would have to be considered a success for Smythe even if his thinking on Gaye Stewart's production was entirely false.

Keith Aucoin, AHL Assist Machine

2012-02-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

33 year old Keith Aucoin was recalled by the Washington Capitals on Feb 2, and has played two games for the big club this past weekend. It's unclear whether or not he'll remain with the Caps much longer, but personally I'm hoping he gets sent back to Hershey of the AHL, and soon.

Before his recall, Aucoin had compiled 11 goals and 59 assists for 70 points in only 43 games played. He is well within reach of breaking the AHL record for assists in a season and of becoming only the fourth man in either the NHL or AHL to top 100 helpers in a single year.
The current AHL record was set by George "Red" Sullivan in 1953/54 when he notched 89 assists for the same Hershey Bears.

So far Aucoin has now missed a total of four of Hershey's games this year and they have 33 games remaining. If he were returned now, his pace put's him at an amazing 104 assists in 76 games. Aucoin has already topped the 70 assist mark three times in the AHL and has 420 helpers in 413 career AHL games. Since Nov. 23 with Hershey he has 42 assists in 27 games, or
a ridiculous 1.56 per game.

Obviously the Capitals are hoping Aucoin can provide some of these playmaking skills in the NHL, but the fact that he has played just over 21 minutes combined in two games shows he may be heading back to the "A" soon and a shot at history.

Sam Gagner goes off.

2012-02-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

Oiler defenceman Ryan Whitney tweeted after teammate Sam Gagner's 8 point game,

"What a sick night. When he got his 8th point Darryl Sittler's heart rate must have just skyrocketed. 8 points now is like getting 14 in 80s"

An eight point game is indeed "sick". It's only the 14th time in NHL history that a player has scored at least eight points in a regular season game. Indeed scoring is currently far lower now than in the 1980's, but is eight points now really the equivalent of 14 in the 1980's or was Whitney exaggerating a bit? Well in 1981/82 there was an average of 8.02 combined goals scored per game, this year it is 5.50. This means that 8 points today is the same as 11.63 points back then. Wow, sure Whitney was a bit over-zealous with his math, but maybe he is on to something.

Let's put all the 8 point games on an even playing field using Darryl Sittler's 1975/76 campaign as a nice middle ground, a season in which the average goals per game was 6.82. Here they are in chronological order, adjusted to the 75/76 level.

Adjusted Eight Point Games

Maurice Richard, 1944/45 8.62

Bert Olmstead, 1953/54 11.34

Darryl Sittler, 1975/76 10.00

Tom Bladon, 1977/78 8.28

Bryan Trottier, 1978/79 7.79

Peter Stastny, 1980/81 7.10

Anton Stastny, 1980/81 7.10

Wayne Gretzky, 1983/84 6.91

Wayne Gretzky, 1983/84 6.91

Paul Coffey, 1985/86 6.87

Patrik Sundstrom, 1987/88 7.29 Playoffs

Mario Lemieux, 1988/89 7.29

Bernie Nicholls, 1988/89 7.29

Mario Lemieux, 1988/89 7.29

Mario Lemieux, 1988/89 8.37 Playoffs

Sam Gagner, 2011/12 9.92

Well, there you go. Sam Gagner's 8 point night is the equivalent of just about a 10 point game in 1975/76. Bert Olmstead's 8 point game looks to be the most impressive due to the fact in that season there were an average of only 4.81 goals per game scored.

Incidentally, Gagner's feat is said to have equalled the Edmonton Oiler record held by Gretzky and Coffey, true if we're talking only the NHL years. However in 1973/74, Jim Harrison poured in 10 points in one WHA game. Equalized to NHL 1975/76 levels it translates to a still impressive 9.37 point game.

As for Sam Gagner, his 8 point game equalled the amount of points that he had in his previous 15 matches.

35 years ago today; Ian Turnbull scores Five

2012-02-02T10:00:00.001-08:00

"It was a long drought, although I had just as many chances in the last 30 games and nothing happened".
Yes, when Ian Turbull scored five goals in a game 35 years ago today, he snapped a 30 game scoreless drought. Turnbull explained that the Leafs had to change their style of play with scoring leader Darryl Sitttler out with an injured rib. "Our wingers are coming back, allowing the defence more mobility, more chance to move the puck."

The Leafs beat Detroit 9-1 this night in a game that was actually scoreless after one period. Turnbull potted two in the second against Eddie Giacomin, then had three in third against Jim Rutherford. Borje Salming had helpers on three of Turnbull's markers, the other two were actually unassisted.

Somewhat strangely, Toronto would have two more 10 goal games over the next three weeks (10-0 over Washington and 10-8 over Chicago) and Turnbull would score only one goal in those two matches. He did however add eight assists in the two games.

The record for goals by a defenceman was set in 1929, by two different defenders in the SAME game. On Nov. 19, 1929 Johnny McKinnon of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Hap Day of the Leafs each scored four times in a 10-5 Pittsburgh victory. McKinnon scored a grand total of 28 goals in 208 career NHL games.

Turnbull would amazingly go on to also have a four goal game on Dec. 12, 1981 while playing for the Los Angeles Kings. He had been traded from Toronto just one month earlier when L.A. beat Vancouver 7-5 that night. Turnbull scored all four on Canuck goalie Glen Hanlon, and would score only five more goals before retiring a year later.

Vintage Team Canada Cards

2012-02-01T13:03:00.000-08:00

Over the last few months I have been picking up alot of old Olympic hockey cards, mostly from ebay. These are mainly German in origin issued either as postcards or as premiums with food or tobacco products. They really are cool looking cards and do spice up the den nicely.

The card above is a tobacco card commemorating the 1928 Olympics and pictures Canada in action. The University of Toronto Grads represented Canada in these games in St. Moritz, Switzerland and they outscored opponents 38-0 in winning the gold. The coach of the squad was none other than Conn Smythe. The back of the card loosely translates; "Ice hockey is the fastest fighting game in the world. Canada is the homeland of this game. It's crew accomplished feats, not only Olympic champion, but could not be defeated by any enemy in Europe."

This next card is the only English one I have and comes from a set entitled "Sporting Events and Stars". Issued in 1935, the rear of the card says in part; "The world's fastest game- too fast even for the camera to focus clearly. An exciting tussle showing the Winnipeg Monarchs, the Champions of the World, pressing home an attack on the Wembley Lions, the premier British team." Incidentally, within a season of touring Europe at least three of the Monarchs had returned to England to play for the same Wembley Lions team.

The next three cards were issued after the 1936 Olympics held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Canada was represented by the Port Arthur Bearcats. The first one is Canada vs. Austria which was won by Canada 5-2.
Next one pictures Canada against Latvia, won 11-0 by Canada.

The last card shows Canada vs USA battling for the Silver medal as Great Britain would win the Gold. Canada won this match 1-0.

This next card depicts a little known star of early international hockey, Dr. Blake Watson. He would play for and coach the University of Manitoba Grads to the World title in 1931. He lived and played throughout Europe from 1925 to 1933. At various times he played for teams in Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia. This card was issued in Bulgaria in 1932 and the back loosely translates; "The Canadians are the best hockey players in the world. They have proven this in numerous combat and between their Olympic victories. Tremendous speed and power are enormous in their play. As gleaming ice hockey player in the world is the canoe, Dr. Watson, the hockey-king."

I'm not sure what the "canoe" reference is, possibly a poor translation by Google Translate.

This last card is my favourite. It's from the same 1936 set as the others above. It shows simply the entire Team Canada bench during a break in play. As near as I can figure, the first three players from the left are defenceman Walter 'Pud' Kitchen, goalie Francis 'Dinty' Moore and centre Hugh Farquharson who led the tournament in scoring with 21 points.

Doug Wilson Waives Niittymaki; Laments the Decline of the 3rd String Goalie

2012-01-30T08:59:00.000-08:00

Just before the All-Star break San Jose Shark GM and former Norris Trophy winner Doug Wilson waived goaltender Antero Niittymaki for the purposes of demotion. In doing so, he addressed a sparsely attended press conference bemoaning the loss of such a critical roll as the third-string goaltender. "I do wonder where our game is going," he decried before strangely adding, "I know the Greenpeace folks will be happy with this."

Wilson went on, "The fear is we don't have a readily available goaltender if and when both other goalies get injured in warm-up. That's my fear. My admiration for this kid just knows no limits." adding that he had a tough time sleeping knowing he had to potentially end the career of a character player like Niittymaki.

"I mean, in my day I'm not sure what we would have done without an Alain Chevrier, Greg Millen or Jarmo Myllys on the squad. Jeez my first year in San Jose we had five goalies for crying out loud, those were the days. " Wilson continued. "Look at 1981, Montreal had three goalies share the Vezina! Where would they have been without those 6 wins in 25 games from Dennis Herron? Nowhere I tell ya." When reminded that was also the season the Canadiens were swept in the first round of the playoffs by Edmonton Wilson bellowed, "It sure as heck wasn't Dennis Herron's fault!"

As the press conference continued, Wilson ranted about the many other things he fears have been lost from the NHL forever including moulded Lange skates, bench-clearing brawls and white guys with Afro-Mullets.

Max Bentley wins two Race Horses

2012-01-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

Today I was reading through an old Hockey Digest from April 1979 (as I often do) and read about a story I’d heard before about Hall of Famer, Max Bentley. It was written in the magazine as follows;

“…one of the most famous stories in Maple Leaf Gardens history. During a 1952 game a well-to-do fan who had seats at the end of the Leaf bench promised Max a race horse if he scored on the next shift. The Leafs were losing 2-1 against Detroit, and there had been a delay because of an injury to Detroit goalie, Terry Sawchuk. “Max”, said the fan, who owned a hotel around the corner from the Gardens, “if you tie up the game on your next shift I’ll give you a race horse.” Max scored seconds later. “You got the horse,” hollered the fan, and shook Max’s hand. Later, a Gardens’ director heard the story and said, “If a fan can give you a horse, I can give you one too.” Max ran his two horses on different tracks in Winnipeg and Calgary before other owners bought them in claiming races. “I got enough money from them to make it all right,” he recalls.

A nice little yarn but did it really happen and if so, during which game did it take place? There is no way of verifying that the fan made this offer, but let’s assume that Bentley indeed did win a couple of horses. The question is when could this have happened? The things that can be checked are the facts. Let’s see what we have to go on.

1. The game was in 1952. Not sure if it was the end of 1951/52 or the beginning of 1952/53.
2. The game was against the Red Wings at Maple Leaf Gardens.
3. Max Bentley scored a goal to tie up a 2-1 game.
4. There was a delay for an injury to Terry Sawchuk.

Thanks to the magic of hockey-reference.com we can check game results from any season. For games with Detroit visiting Toronto that took place in 1952 there are six possible matches.

Jan. 12, 1952 Toronto 5, Detroit 3
Feb. 13, 1952 Toronto 1, Detroit 3
Feb. 23, 1952 Toronto 1, Detroit 3
Mar. 8, 1952 Toronto 6, Detroit 3
Oct. 22, 1952 Toronto 5, Detroit 4
Nov. 8, 1952 Toronto 3, Detroit 3

The story states that Bentley’s goal tied up a 2-1 game so at first glance the two Feb. 1952 matches can be ruled out as the Leafs scored only once. However often times when tales are passed along the first thing that is forgotten is the actual score, so we’ll have a look at those just in case. The Hockey Summary Project is another terrific site that has most game summaries of goals and assists through NHL history. There are holes in the research though, and the 1951/52 season is one of them. That’s when we go to Google News archives to find actual game reports and summaries. Here’s what I found for each possible game.

Jan. 12, 1952 Toronto 5, Detroit 3
Leafs got down 3-0 by the ten minute mark of the first period in this one before they began to chip away. The tying goal was notched by Sid Smith at 10:12 of the 2nd. Bentley did score in this one, but it was the 5-3 goal halfway through the 3rd. It’s likely not this game in the race horse tale.

Feb. 13, 1952 Toronto 1, Detroit 3
Bentley did not score in this one.

Feb. 23, 1952 Toronto 1, Detroit 3
Once again, Bentley did not score.

Mar. 8, 1952 Toronto 6, Detroit 3
The only occasion in this game that Toronto scored a goal to tie Detroit was at 3:43 of the 2nd when Ted Kennedy tallied to make it 2-2. Bentley assisted on the 4-2 goal by Ray Timgren in the 3rd and scored 55 seconds later to make it 5-2. Although this game does have Leafs tying it at 2, it wasn’t Bentley so cannot be the race horse game.

Oct. 22, 1952 Toronto 5, Detroit 4
Detroit had a 4-2 lead going into the 3rd in this game before Gord Hannigan scored in the first minute of the 3rd from Howie Meeker and Bentley. Then at 9:59 of the final frame, Toronto ties it 4-4…on a goal from Max Bentley. He would also add a helper on Meeker’s winner four minutes later. Sure, the tying goal Bentley scored was 4-4 not 2-2, but so far this game is promising. And yes, Sawchuk was in net for Detroit however I can find no mention of an injury delay.

Nov. 8, 1952 Toronto 3, Detroit 3
Toronto twice tied this game, Bentley to make it 1-1 at 13:11 of the 1st period and George Armstrong to make it 2-2 in the 2nd. In my opinion, a fan making a brash offer of a race horse as reward for a tying goal would more likely do it in the midst of a two goal comeback in the 3rd period, not down 1-0 in the 1st stanza. To me, this means that the race horse tale took place in the prior meeting of the two clubs.

So, if we have to put a date on this classic tale I’d say it was Oct.22, 1952. Even though Bentley ties it to make the score 4-4 instead of 2-2, it’s the only game that otherwise matches the circumstances in the old story.

This Season's Pleasant Surprises

2012-01-24T10:06:00.000-08:00

Every hockey season is full of surprises. Things that were unexpected at the start of the season, whether they be good or bad things. A few of the surprises on the not so good side are players performing way under their expected range such as Henrik Zetterberg, Ryan Getzlaf, Drew Doughty, Brad Richards, Derek Roy, Ryan Miller and Alex Ovechkin. There has also been a number of surprises this year of guys that have gone above and beyond expectations. The following is my list of the pleasant surprises of 2011/12 heading into the All-Star break.

Scott Hartnell
With 25 goals and 44 points in 47 games, he may just about to be off to his first All-Star game as a replacement for Ovechkin. Although still 16 points behnd his career best, he is only 5 away from matching his top goal total.

Joffrey Lupul
Was pretty much a throw-in/salary dump in the Beauchemin for Jake Gardiner deal last year but now has 70 points in 76 games since moving to Toronto from the Ducks. Even the most ardent Leaf fans (me) did not see him scoring at over a point per game pace this year. Is now one away from his career high in points and an Alternate captian for the All-Star game.

Jason Garrison
This guy was playing beer league hockey in the summer with a buddy of mine (seriously) and now leads NHL defencemen in goals. He hadn't scored more than 8 goals in a season since 2005 with the Nanaimo Clippers of the BCJHL.

Jaromir Jagr
Multiple groin injuries aside, did anyone really expect Jagr to put up near a point per game after three years in Siberia?

Chris Kelly
Always a solid 10-15 goal solid checking guy, currently has 14 goals through 46 games on pace for 25. Oh yeah, and is also a plus 23.

Michael Del Zotto
Sure he's still only 21 years old and had 37 points as a rookie, but he had such a regression last season that this one has to be considered a pleasant surprise. Was minus 20 as a rookie, currently is plus 20 and playing himself into consideration for the Canadian Olympic squad.

Jannik Hansen
The 'Honey Badger's development may be more expected this year after a nice playoff last season, but 13 goals and 25 points is still a pleasant surprise for Canuck watchers. Already bested his career high in goals by 4.

Mike Smith
After never playing more than 42 games in any of his first five seasons, 'Bubbles' is carrying the mail for the Coyotes this year with 37 games played. His .921 save pct. is the highest by far in his career.

Brian Elliot
Although having been usurped again by Jaro Halak, is there any better surprise than Elliot leading the NHL in Goals Against Average? His save pct is almost 30 points higher than in any other season and five shutouts in 22 games ties his career high set in 55 games.

JS Giguere
Not thought of as an elite (or even average) NHL goaltender in about 4 years, but Giggy has had a bit of a renaissance in the thin air of Denver. His .922 save pct and 2.11 GAA are both career bests in his 12th full season.

The Unwanted Twig, please take it off my hands.

2012-01-20T14:23:00.000-08:00

I’ve got a bit of a problem. This week I came into possession of a hockey stick autographed by this year’s entire Vancouver Canucks team. The problem? Well, I am a die-hard Toronto Maple Leafs fan. Not only that, but I am a long-time, self-professed Canucks hater. Hate is a strong word, but in this situation it is more than apt. I’m not one of those band wagon Canuck haters just because it’s in vogue now. I have been one since I moved to the West Coast in 1994. The hatred blossomed from a basic indifference I had about the Canucks while growing up in Ontario and was spawned by being immersed in this region.

How in the heck did I acquire this unwanted twig? I have my father to thank for that. You see, my dad ‘pretends’ to like the Canucks although he still lives in Ontario. He does it mainly to get a rise out of my mom and I, but honestly, I think he really does like them. He tries to pick Canucks in his hockey pools and entered a pool on the Canuck website earlier this season. This is where he won the team signed stick. They wouldn’t ship it to Ontario for him, and he really doesn’t have any need for it anyway so he arranged so I could pick it up. All this week he’s told me to put it up on a wall in my den. Anyone who knows me even a little bit or has read any of my blog knows this is not going to happen. My den (yes there really is a Nitzy’s Hockey Den) is full of everything Maple Leafs with a smattering of Gretzky. See photos below.

It really would be sacrilegious to display such an item in my shrine. I mean really, how can you compare the Nucks stick to my 1963 Leafs team signed stick (which I also got from my dad, he’s batting .500 I suppose) which includes the likes of Tim Horton, Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich and Johnny Bower.

Therefore, I will attempt to sell the stick and split the money with my father. I’m going to put it on ebay with the hope of selling it to someone locally in the Vancouver area, I’m not even sure what it would cost to mail it across the continent if needed, probably at least 40 bucks. It has 25 signatures on it, and I have deciphered most of them. Henrik has a simply awful autograph. Anyway, if anyone has any interest in taking this wonderful item off my hands, check out the link in the title at top or here:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180801006513

And by the way Dad, I did find a temporary place for the stick after all. See the white part barely sticking out from behind the Leaf stick below...

NHL Parity or Widespread Mediocrity?

2012-01-17T10:08:00.000-08:00

A look at the NHL Standings can be fairly deceptive. The Florida Panthers sit in first place in the Southeast Division yet have been outscored by 11 goals over the season. Washington, one point behind is only marginally better having scored one measly goal more than they've allowed. Ottawa sits tied for third place in the entire Eastern Conference despite having given up 2 more goals than they've surrendered.

In the West, the standings seem a bit more truthful although Los Angeles and Minnesota currently hold down playoff spots while giving up more goals than scoring. In the East, three of the current playoff qualifiers have allowed more than they've scored. So, how many actual 'good' teams are there in the NHL?

Forget about team point totals when trying to determine this, a better way is goals scored and allowed. In the current season, only 9 of 30 teams have scored more than five goals more than allowed. Ten more goals scored than allowed over a full season does not necessarily imply a team is 'great' but it should at least be the bottom end of the spectrum for being a 'good' team in any given year.

So, with the current season on pace to produce only 9 'good' squads, how does that stack up when compared to past years? As I suspected, this season has the lowest ratio of truly good teams since the mid-1980's. The teams on pace to meet the threshold of a good team (10 more goals scored than allowed) are Boston, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh (who are on the playoff bubble as of now but their goal differential of 134-116 certainly makes them a good team), Vancouver, Chicago, St.Louis, Detroit and San Jose.

The remaining 21 teams, many of which are in a playoff spot are simply not that good. 9 of 30 teams means only 30% of NHL teams are good, the rest are mediocre at best. This season really is a historically low level for the number of quality teams and inversely, a high level for mediocrity as seen below. A lower percent of quality teams in a given season means there is a high level of mediocrity among the other teams. While a high number of quality teams (over half) would appear to be a good thing, it also shows a great disparity among the teams.

Post Lock-out 2010/11 - 2005/06

The number of good teams each season is consistent between 37 and 47 percent with a six year average of 42 percent.

Expansion Era 2003/04 - 1991/92

Again, the number of good teams each year is fairly consistent with a low of 37% in 2002/03 and a high of 50% in four different years. Overall, the twelve years show an average of 44% of NHL teams being considered good in any given year.

Firewagon Era 1990/91 - 1979/80

The average per year is remarkably consistent again at 43% of the NHL being quality teams. There are wide fluctuations however with a low of 29% good teams in 1986/87 and a high of 62% in 1984/85. That season saw an amazing 13 of 21 teams have at least 10 goals more goals scored than allowed. Conversely, it had an inordinate number of truly awful teams with 7 of the teams surrendering at least 50 more goals than they scored themselves. At the other end of the scale is the 1986/87 season with only 6 quality teams and only one team allowing even 33 goals more than they scored. Only two teams had 100 points that year, with Edmonton at 106 and the worst teams Buffalo and New Jersey each had a poor but not awful 64 points. True mediocrity that puts that season on a same scale with the current campaign.

Post Original Six 1978/79 - 1967/68

Once again, the number of good teams was at 45% per season with a high of 61% in 1974/75 and a low of 33% in 67/68, the first year after expansion. In 1974/75 as in 86/87, although there were many good teams, the disparity between good and awful was extreme. Four teams scored at least 100 more goals more than their opponents while the four worst teams allowed at least 100 more than they scored themselves. The 1967/68 season with only 33% of the teams being good is similar to the current one in it's overall mediocrity. 8 of the 12 teams finished within 14 points of each other and there was really only one awful team in the Oakland Seals.

Overall from 1967/68 through 2010/11, the NHL had an average of 44% 'good' teams in any given year. Amazingly each era was consistently within 2% of the average. This shows that the current campaign, with only 30% 'good' teams is one of the most mediocre seasons in a long time.

36 Years Ago Today, "They're Going Home!"

2012-01-11T12:42:00.000-08:00

January 11, 1976 was the conclusion of the Super Series tour by Red Army and Soviet Wings. The vaunted Soviet Red Army had beaten New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and tied Montreal Canadiens. It was up to the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions Philadelphia Flyers to restore the good name of the NHL and Canadian hockey in gerneral.

Of course, what unfolded has been well documented many times with the Flyers soundly beating Soviets by a score of 4-1. At the eleven minute mark of the first period with the score 0-0, Red Army coach Konstantin Loktev yanked his team off the ice in dispute of some rather violent play by the Flyers. The actions of the Soviets prompted play-by-play man Bob Cole to repeat, "They're going home!" The final straw was a hit by Ed Van Impe on Valeri Kharlamov that was not called a penalty and in today's game would have warranted a five game suspension. Check out the clip below. It's hard to tell, but it sure looks like a straight-arm right to the head of the Russian star.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGOxVBG4bfk&feature=player_detailpage#t=50s

After a 16 minute delay and much pleading from Clarence Campbell and Alan Eagleson, the Soviets returned to the ice. 17 seconds after the resumption of play, Reggie Leach scored on a powerplay, the Soviets having been penalized for delay of game for their little stunt. Rick MacLeish scored late in the period as Philly outshot the Red Army 17-2. If not for the play of Vladislav Tretiak in net the Flyers would have scored double digits as the final shot count was 49-13.

Flyer coach Fred Shero explained how the Flyers won, "They do a lot of unnecessary skating. They do a lot of retreating, hoping to get one man to leave his position. But we wouldn't be enticed out of positon. It takes patience to beat them." He also instructed his forwards to hold the puck as much as possible in the Russian end, which they did , even if it meant not shooting. "I told them to hold the puck for a faceoff if they didn't have a good shot. They're not very good at faceoffs anyway".

The New York Times was colourful in their description of the proceedings, "The triumph of terror over style could not have been more one-sided if Al Capone's mob had ambushed the Bolshoi Ballet dancers. Naturally, it warmed the hearts of the Flyers' followers, who would cheer for Frankenstein if he could skate." The Soviet papers did not hold back with their feelings as evidenced by the cartoon (seen below) published in Pravda the following day.

Milt Dunnell of the Toronto Star wrote, "Loktev knew the conditions before he came. Nobody loves playing in Philadelphia. Once he accepted a game with the Flyers, under NHL rules, with an NHL referee, he was in the same boat as the Toronto Maple Leafs or Vancouver Canucks when they come to town." The Montreal Gazette summed it up in a headline alone,"Flyers Salvage Canada's Pride."

Bruins on some kind of roll.

2012-01-06T13:06:00.000-08:00

Boston currently sits near the halfway mark of the 2011/12 season with 138 goals for and 69 against. That 2 to 1 ratio is extremely rare for a team throughout NHL history. The only occaisons it has been done over an entire season was 1976/77 Montreal Canadiens when they scored 387 and gave up 171 goals and in 1943/44 the Habs had a goal ratio of 234 to 109. Teams rarely even score even 100 goals more than they surrender over a season. The last time even that happened was 2005/06 when Ottawa scored 314 while giving up 211.

Since Boston started this season by going 3-7-0 in October, the Bruins have played near perfect hockey. They've gone 23-3-1 since November 1st, a Points Pct. of .852. A few other amazing numbers about Boston's amazing run:

In the 27 games they have scored 117 and given up only 44, averages per game of 4.33 and 1.63

They have a ridiculous five different players at a point per game pace over the last 27; Seguin, Bergeron, Marchand, Krejci and Peverley.

Tyler Seguin is +29 over the last 27 games.

Six different Bruins are over +20 in that stretch; Seguin, Marchand, Bergeron, Chara, Seidenberg and Corvo.

Tim Thomas is 14-2-0 with 4 shutouts, 1.80 GAA and .945 SavePct

Tuukka Rask is 9-1-1 with 3 shutouts, 1.14 GAA and .961 SavePct.

once again, Tuukka Rask has a 1.14 GAA over that stretch

They have scored at least 6 goals in a game 10 times in the last 27.

They gave up 4 goals in a game once in 27

They have 7 shutouts in the last 27 games, New York Islanders have 7 shutout in their last 221 games.

All-Star voting joke.

2012-01-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

Have a look at the scoring lines for the sets of three players at the current halfway point of the 2011/12 NHL season (G-A-Pts-Plus/Minus).

Group A

10-27-37 +7
11-15-26 +9
13-10-23 +3

Group B

14-26-40 -3

12-16-28 -1

19-7-26 -6

Do any of these look like the numbers of All-Star game starters? Hardly. However,if push came to shove which three would you have start the All-Star game? Doesn't matter really, they're just a collection of mediocre half-season numbers. There has to be dozens of players more deserving to start. Personally between these two groups I'd go with Group A even though they trail the bottom three by 9 points in total, their plus/minus is +19 compared to -10.

The first set of numbers (Group A) belong to the bottom three vote getters in NHL Forwards All-Star voting; Jamie Benn, David Backes and Mike Richards. Group B are the numbers of the voted starters; Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson and Milan Michalek. The Ottawa Senators fans have succeeded in making a mockery of the voting process and it could have been worse. Sergei Gonchar and his 2 goals and -1 rating missed out on second place by only 11,000 votes (or about 50 Ottawa fans worth of ballot-box stuffing).

I'm amazed that Sens goalie Craig Anderson finished a distant 15th in voting. At least they got something right.

Kladno beats Leafs Subs, 34 years ago today.

2012-01-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

January 2, 1978, Super Series 1978 rolled into Maple Leaf Gardens in the form of Czechoslovakian team Kladno. The problem was, Leaf owner Harold Ballard and coach Roger Neilson wanted very little to do with the exhibition game. Ballard declared,"We're not going to bust our butts trying to kick theirs. These games are utterly stupid, a very foolish way to do business." Toronto was in the thick of the Adams Division race with a 21-10-4 record battling Boston and Buffalo for top spot.

Coach Neilson didn't dress stars Borje Salming, Lanny McDonald and Mike Palmateer. He claimed Salming and McDonald were hurting and he wanted them ready for NHL play on Wedsneday saying that, "The game isn't as important as the one against Colorado." He started Gord McRae in net saying,"I wanted to use McRae because he hasn't seen much action this year." The only two regular Leaf defenders to play were second year man Randy Carlyle and rookie Trevor Johansen. Part-timer Mike Pelyk and minor-leaguer Greg Hotham replaced Salming and the actually injured Ian Turnbull.

McRae was beaten on several long shots, no thanks to his green defence corp as Kladno built a 3-0 lead within seven minutes of play in the first period on goals from Jaroslav Pouzar, Peter Stastny and Miroslav Krivacek. All three ended up with two goals each and Kladno held a 6-4 advantage after two periods. Darryl Sittler countered with two goals and Errol Thompson, Scott Garland and George Ferguson had one each for Toronto.

The sell-out crowd at Maple Leaf Gardens certainly didn't appreciate Neilson's decision to bench his stars as they booed McRae and Pelyk throughout the match. Also voicing their displeasure in Neilson was Kladno coach Bohuslav Prosek who said afterwards,"We always play to win. So far I'm disappointed with the Canadians because they have little team work. The players don't seem to co-operate with each other."

Perhaps in the end, Neilson made the right call as the Leafs would go on to beat Colorado 5-0 two days later on the strength of a Mike Palmateer shutout, two goals from McDonald and two assists from Salming. The much-maligned Mike Pelyk also had two helpers in the defeat of the Rockies.

Quebec Nordiques Thrash Red Army, 26 years ago today.

2011-12-29T10:44:00.000-08:00

December 28, 1985. The Nordiques of Quebec convincingly beat the touring Soviet Red Army squad by a score of 5-1. This was the third game of the 1986 Super Series tour for the Russians and they had previously beaten Los Angeles Kings 5-2 and the Edmonton Oilers 6-3.

Critics were saying that the Super Series had lost some of it's lustre and this was shown in the fact that Le Colisee in Quebec was a few hundred short of a sell out. In fact the Nordiques had to offer a two-for-one promotion, selling 3,000 tickets on the last weekend before the game. Nevertheless, Quebec provided a satisfying outcome for the home crowd on the strength of a hat-trick from Michel Goulet and the adequate, if largely un-tested goaltending of Clint Malarchuk.

The match didn't open up until halfway through the first period when Goulet deflected a Randy Moller shot past goalie Sergei Mylnikov. Three minutes later, while shorthanded, John Anderson outraced Slava Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov to score on a breakaway. The teams traded goals by Goulet and Sergei Makarov in the middle frame as Quebec opted for defence over offense managing a mere three shots on goal. Goulet completed the hat-trick on a pass from Anton Stastny with a low wrister five minutes into the third. Brent Ashton finished the scoring late to make it 5-1, one of the worst defeats administered to the Red Army in ten years of Super Series play. Buffalo Sabres had beaten them 6-1 in January of 1980.

Red Army assistant coach, Boris Mikhalov said after the game,"Quebec has a better defence than the Edmonton Oilers. Quebec stopped our power play, did a lot of other things that prevented us from playing our game. They played a near perfect hockey game." Malarchuk stopped 22 shots while Mylnikov stopped only 12 of 17 shot at him. The Quebec goaltender explained his sucess, "You have to wait when they have the puck because they shoot at the last moment. You have to stay on your feet and be patient." Red Army would take out their frustrations on the Montreal Canadiens two days later, beating them 6-1.

Mylnikov, who was on loan for the tour from Traktor Chelyabinsk would of course lead the Soviets in the 1987 Canada Cup and played every game in winning the Olympic Gold medal at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. The Nordiques drafted him in the seventh round in 1989 and he would play 10 NHL games for them the following year. He posted a 1-7-2 record with a 4.96 GAA and returned to Russia the following year. He played until his mid-30s, finishing in the Swedish third Division with a team named Saters IF in 1994/95.

Soviets Trounce New York Rangers, 36 years ago today

2011-12-27T20:58:00.000-08:00

December 28, 1975, a new era in international hockey competition is begun but the result is eerily familiar. This date was the first in a round of games which NHL president Clarence Campbell said presented, "a new potential for hockey internationally" and hoped "this new development is the forerunner to international competition on a continuing basis".

Having played 'All-Star' teams from Canada in in 1972 and 1974, the Soviets would now send two club teams to play four games each against various NHL teams in the middle of the season. The NHL covered all expenses of the two Soviet squads as well as paying $25,000 to each team for each game played. The New York Rangers would be guinea pigs of sorts in this new format and their star centre Phil Esposito realized that fact,"If we lose it, it's not going to be the end of the world for me...It's an exhibition series that's darned good for hockey. But let's not carried away." Esposito and Rod Gilbert were veterans of that 1972 Summit Series but the Red Army had many more veterans of that classic clash. Four of the very best were present in New York. Valeri Kharlamov, Boris Mikhailov, Vladimir Petrov and Vladislav Tretiak would lead the Army against the NHL teams.

Heading into the game the Rangers sat in last place of the Patrick Divison with a 15-17-4 record and were 10th overall among the 18 NHL teams at that point. The Red Army team of Moscow was defending and perrenial champion of the Soviet league. This apparent discrepency in talent was fulfilled during the game.

Just as in 1972 when Esposito himself scored the first goal of the game a mere 30 seconds in, on this occasion Ranger Steve Vickers scored 21 seconds inton the game beating Tretiak with a six foot backhander. The Soviets bounced back quickly with two tallies in the next four minutes before going up 3-1 after a period. The lead was stretched to 7-1 early in the third period before it ended 7-3 in the Soviet's favour, the exact same score as the first game in 1972.

Esposito poured 10 shots on Tretiak this night and collected a goal and two assists. He was quoted after, "I had 10 good shots and got only one goal. Tretiak was terrific. But we have to learn to exploit our scoring chances the way the Russians do." He would add,"I don't think they dominated us. They were shooting out blind from their zone and we were getting caught."
Petrov notched 2 goals and 2 assists and Kharlamov scored a goal and three helpers. The Rangers attempted to rough it up as the game wound down. Greg Polis was given an unsportmanlike penalty in the last half minute and actually took a run at the Russian referee Karandin. Carol Vadnais was given a five minute call for butt-ending, all the while the Soviets smiled it off.

Soviet coach Konstantin Loktev bluntly said afterwards, "They have a weight problem. They have a carriage problem in skating. They're not as fast as we. They must improve their conditioning."

Esposito summarized, "We killed them in faceoffs (winning 56 of 73) and we outshot them (41-29), but they out did us on the scoreboard and that, unfortunately, is all that matters. Steve Vickers said afterwards, rather candidly,"I reserve my comment until they play some of the better teams. I don't think even if we played our best game we would have beaten them." Perhaps he had a point. When the Soviet Army later played possibly the three best NHL squads they ended up with a .500 record. They tied Montreal 3-3, beat Boston 5-2 and lost to Philadelphia 4-1.

These Super Series would continue off and on around Christmas-time through until the last visit from Moscow Dynamo and Red Army in January of 1991.

Denman Arena, 100th Anniversary

2011-12-22T15:49:00.000-08:00

This past Tuesday (Dec. 20) marked the exact 100th anniversary of the opening in Vancouver of the second largest indoor arena in North America. Sadly, only the most minimal of mention was made of it in the local news. The Vancouver Sun had a small blurb about it in it's "This Day in History" column.

I have been high-lighting this old barn over the last couple of years (see links below), so I may as well finish up with a nod to the century anniversary. Perhaps the lack of reknown for the Denman Arena stems from the fact that it stood for only 25 years, as it burned down in 1936. Even still, the city of Vancouver really should have acknowledged it's opening this week.

Pictured at the top is the survey map showing the exact location of the building that is found in
the great book "Coast to Coast" by John Chi-Wit Wong. In it, he quotes the Vancouver Sun describing the opening day so many years ago.

"The Vancouver arena was a marvel of it's time and would probably be approved by those who compared the city to other major metropolises. It was the second largest indoor arena in North America, only New York's Madison Square Garden being bigger. Initially estimated at $175,000, it's final cost grew to $226, 382. It had an ice surface measuring 210 feet by 85 feet, which makes it five feet longer than the Montreal Arena. The building will seat over 10,000 spectators, every one of whom, owing to the admirable arrangement of the seats will have a perfect view of the play." Wong adds, "Not without a sense of civic pride, the Vancouver Province noted also that the new Toronto Mutual Street arena 'seats only 6,000'. Fifteen hundred people flocked to the grand opening of the new arena on 20 December for public skating. Even though the temperature was mild and it was raining outside, the arena's ice surface did not turn into puddles of water, usually a feature of natural ice arenas throughout the country under similar conditions."

It would appear that Vancouverites and the press of the day were extremely proud of their new arena, with good reason. The one thing that I wonder about is where 1,500 people found skates for public skating 100 years ago. Vancouver was and is a city with a fairly temperate climate and folks would really have little need for ice skates before the advent of an artificial ice sheet. I imagine that was part of Frank and Lester Patrick's grand plan, skate rentals.

http://nitzyshockeyden.blogspot.com/2009/03/denman-arena-vancouver-pile.html

http://nitzyshockeyden.blogspot.com/2010/09/denman-arena-pics.html

Herb Cain; The Only NHL Scoring Leader Not in The Hall of Fame

2011-12-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

Okay, I should re-phrase the title of this one. Herb Cain is the only player over the first 77 years of NHL play to lead in scoring and not be later elected to the Hall. Of the players since 1994 not yet elected to the Hall, all are still active except for Eric Lindros and Peter Forsberg and I believe each will get in sooner than later.

Cain remains the one exception having topped the NHL in scoring in 1943/44 with a new NHL single-season record of 82 points. His career numbers of 570 games, 206 goals, 400 points and two Stanley Cups are fairly impressive. He was also only the 13th man ever to score 200 career goals and twice finished second, once fourth and once sixth in goals scored. Obviously all this was not enough for selection to hockey's shrine. I may be slightly biased in his favour however as Cain was born and raised in the town I grew up in, Newmarket, Ontario. And, although steady and consistent, I don't think fellow Newmarket native defenceman Jamie Macoun will be getting the call from the Hall soon.

There are a few reasons why Cain may have been overlooked. Firstly, there is the fact that in his league leading year the talent level was quite diluted due to wartime enlistments. Indeed there were quite a few regular goaltenders that season that would go on to do little or nothing in subsequent seasons. Other than the fact 1943/44 was the rookie season of all-time great Bill Durnan of Montreal, it really was an awful year for goalkeepers. The Canadian Press expressed in newspapers across the land their thoughts on Cain's record year;

"That 82 point all-time National Hockey League scoring record set up by the Bruins' Herb Cain is going to be marred by an asterisk when it is recorded in the official records. With the forward passing rule and the number of mediocre goalies in action during the past season, the league govenors have agreed that goals and assists came much too easy to warrant the customary consideration.

As far as this department is concerned, little Cooney Weiland still is the NHL's top scorer. When he collected 73 points back in 1929/30, he did it the hard way...Weiland set his record during a 44-game schedule, when the league comprised 10 teams, every one of them strong except the Pittsburgh club."

Even reports of him breaking the record were muted at best the day after he did it. On March 14, 1944 the AP covered it with one line of type, "Boston's Herb Cain collected two assists to boost his season's total to 75 points, a league scoring record." The article went on to talk of Boston keeping their playoff hopes alive without mentioning Cain again. Right from the very beginning, reports were downplaying Cain's accomplishment.

Aside from Durnan the other goalies to play at least 15 games that year were; Ken McAuley, Bert Gardiner, Paul Bibeault, Mike Karakas, Connie Dion, Hec Highton, Benny Grant and Jmmy Franks. Household names to few. These guys cobbled together a collective goals against average of 4.46. Four of these eight would not play another game in the NHL after 43/44, the other four
were done within three seasons over which they had a collective record of 81-130-35 with a 3.98 GAA. Sure, 3.98 is better than their 43/44 mark but the average NHL team over the next two seasons lowered their goals against to 3.68 then 3.35 no thanks to these guys.

Indeed, the goaltending wasn't up to par during Cain's big year but he still managed to come out on top of an impressive field of skaters. He bested such notables (and Hall of Famers) as Doug Bentley, Elmer Lach, Bill Cowley, Bill Mosienko, Syd Howe, Toe Blake and a 22 year-old Maurice Richard.

Another reason is he may very well have been black-listed by Boston owner Art Ross due to a holdout over money after the 1945/45 campaign. Although he was only 33 years-old and had scored 17 goals that year, Ross demoted Cain to Hershey of the AHL where he proved he was anything but washed up. He tallied 36 goals in 59 games and helped lead the Bears to a championship. Nevertheless, Herb Cain would not grace an NHL ice sheet again and played three more years in Hershey before retiring.

Herb Cain passed away in 1982, surviving Hodgkin's disease through experimental treatment in 1955. Although his time to be enshrined has long passed, hockey fans really should be aware of Herb Cain and his solid career.

Maple Leafs, Playing like it's 1989. That's not a good thing.

2011-12-20T08:44:00.000-08:00

In Monday's Toronto Star, writer Damien Cox made an interesting comment that the current edition on the Maple Leafs is reminiscent of the Doug Carpenter coached Leafs of 'twenty years ago'. It really is an interesting comparison of the style and results of the two teams.

Carpenter coached really only one season, 1989/90 (he was let go after a 1-9-1 start to the next season). In 89/90 the Leafs were exactly a .500 team with a 38-38-4 record, finishing third in the Norris Division. This year, when the silly OT/Shootout Loss points that didn't exist twenty years ago are removed the Leafs are realistically a .500 team at 16 and 17. With 338 goals for and 358 goals surrendered, the 89/90 squad finished third in each of those categories league-wide. They certainly were an entertaining squad to watch much like this year's team. So far in 2011/12, Toronto ranks 7th in goals/game and 6th in goals against/game with of course 30 teams in the league as opposed to 21 in 1989/90.

The similarities don't end there. The old Leafs were led offensively by Gary Leeman, a 25 year-old Right Winger having a breakout season after scoring 32 goals the year prior. This season they're led by a 24 year-old Right Winger Phil Kessel having a breakout campaign after scoring 32 goals last year. Both squads had a nice collection of under 30 year-old forwards providing scoring Vincent Damphousse, Ed Oczyk, Daniel Marois and Mark Osborne for the old Leafs and Lupul, Bozak, Grabovski and MacArthur currently.

The defense of the 89/90 Leafs had three guys providing points with Al Iafrate, Tom Kurvers and Rob Ramage all having at least 49. This year of course it's Phaneuf and Liles who should be around that point total. The part of Luke Richardson can be ably filled by Luke Schenn in more than their given name. Both are/were in their early 20's and hard-hitting, fairly reliable, still developing defensemen. The Leafs of 89/90 had one thing the current edition does not in Wendel Clark. He played in half the games that year, but when he did play he was a rare kind of player. The current Leafs do have also often injured Tim Connolly, a totally different and older player than Clark was but he does provide an intangible they need when healthy.

Each of the teams had goalies aged 23, 25 and 27 years old. 1989/90 was Jeff Reese, Allan Bester and Mark LaForest. Currently it's James Reimer, Ben Scrivens, and Jonas Gustavsson.
I almost hate to say it, but I think I'll take this years crop over the oldtimers.

The Leafs of 22 years ago made the playoffs and lost out in the first round in five games to St.Louis. Frankly, I'd almost settle for that result this year.

The day Tim Horton was almost killed...in 1951

2011-12-17T10:20:00.000-08:00

Defenceman Tim Horton was certainly one of the greatest defenders in the history of the game and he tragically lost his life in a car accident in 1974. He was 44 years old at the time and had played in 1446 NHL games. Little known to most, Tim Horton had a close brush with death at the age of 21 after playing one NHL game the year previous.

The 1950/51 season saw Horton play his second full season with Toronto's top farm team the AHL's Pittsburgh Hornets. He had tallied 34 points in 68 games an gotten into one game with the Leafs that year. In his own autobiography, Leaf teammate Danny Lewicki tells of how close Horton came to losing his life even more pre-maturely than he did 23 years later.

Lewicki says,"Tim was lucky to be at the camp as he came very close to being killed that summer in his hometown (Cochrane, Ont.). Apparently in June, a native of Sudbury by the name of Clarence Brousseau went berserk with a rifle killing three people. Tim lived a few blocks away from this deadly character. Brushing elbows with an ambulance driver who was trying to assist the three lying on the ground, Tim tried to lend a hand. He heard a couple of rifle shots and a ping right next to where he was assisting the ambulance driver. The fleet footed Horton took off. He later said he could not remember in what direction he ran as all he saw was railroad tracks beneath when he looked down. He was to take a lot of kidding later as the boys told him he would have no trouble dodging pucks after the way he dodged bullets. Tim took it all in good stride saying, 'All I know is that after the episode the colour of my shorts were the same as your brown eyes.' "

Now, I did some research on this event and found a shooting involving a Clarence Brousseau in Sudbury Ont. on June 18, 1949. A full two years before Lewicki's rendition of events and more than 200 km south of Horton's home town of Cochrane. It is possible that Tim Horton could have been involved in the 1949 incident. He had played the 1948/49 season with Toronto St.Mikes and he certainly could have been in Sudbury that fateful day. Perhaps Lewicki's memory of the events was embellished, perhaps Horton was indeed there and turned his shorts brown. Either way, it makes for a good tale.

Saturday Night at The Gardens, 25 years ago.

2011-12-13T11:23:00.000-08:00

“We were bullied. They outplayed us in every department. We were only in the game for the first three of four minutes.” Detroit Red Wings coach Jacques Demers cut right to the point after a 6-0 shellacking at the hands of Toronto. The game was played Saturday night, November 15, 1986 at Maple Leaf Gardens and I was there as a guest of my buddy Ross.

Saturday night at The Gardens, even as a 15 year old kid I knew it was a special place. You entered the building usually at one of the smaller entrances at the western corner of the building on Carlton Street or the eastern side on Church Street. The doors themselves were very un-ceremonial. Merely a pair of plain double doors that were propped open by turnstiles but they opened up to another world, especially on a Saturday night.

The throngs of patrons nearly pushed you back out the second you gained entry. A little dodging and weaving sprung you out of the crowd near the entrance into the main concourse of the Gardens. Once here, I always made my way first to the souvenir booth on the south side of the building to pick up a Leaf calendar, program, postcard or whatever my allowance could afford. There always was a din of noise in the concourse which was cut regularly by the shouting of the sellers.

One program vendor I recall vividly as he also worked during summers at Blue Jays games at Exhibition Stadium. He was distinct mainly for his look. The guy was about 6’2”, had a close brush-cut and thick black horn-rimmed glasses. I remember seeing him at Jays games with my Dad since the early ‘80s and always noticed him as he reminded me of an abstract version of photos that I’d seen of my father from the 1960’s. This guy would eventually move with the Jays to SkyDome in 1989 and amazingly, my last time at a Jays game in 2009 I saw him once again. Some things never change, and that’s good.

After picking up my program, my over-steamed, wet hot dog, and warm soda with cellophane for a lid it was time to make our way to the seats. If you were sitting in the Greys at the upper part of the rink, the trip to your seat involved a ride on an extremely narrow escalator. This was a bit of a respite from the hustle bustle of the main floor before you were dumped into a similar scene upstairs. Perhaps before hitting your seat you needed to make a pit stop. The washrooms at the Gardens were famous for one thing, The Trough. There were no urinals in the Gardens washrooms, simply a long wall against which you did your urinating standing shoulder to shoulder with about ten other men. Literally, it was a trough on a wall. Needless to say, for a young man like myself, this was quite a disconcerting activity. You would get your business done as quickly as possible, usually whilst holding your wet hot dog in the other hand, then up the stairs to your seat you headed.

On this night, Ross and I had seats in the upper Greys while his dad and little brother got the pair of Gold seats at ice-level. These weren’t your average Gold seats, these were Rail Seats first row right against the glass in the corner. Luckily, and surprising to Ross and I, his dad traded seats with us allowing us to sit in the Rails for the third period.

The game itself was about as eventful as you could get. Toronto came into the game in first place in the Norris Division with a record of 8-5-3 while Detroit was 7-9-1, 4 points back of first. Two weeks before, the Leafs and goalie Allan Bester had shutout the Wings 2-0. In that game centre Dan Daoust fought Gerard Gallant, and broke his leg when he fell backwards. Perhaps as some sort of retribution, when the teams met again on this Saturday night Toronto’s Brad Smith fought Gallant three seconds after the opening faceoff. “Motor City” Smitty would later fight Shawn Burr as well as Basil McRae before finally being tossed by referee Dave Newell.

Toronto took a 2-0 lead after one period on goals by Tom Fergus and Vincent Damphousse. They both scored again by 6:09 of the second to stretch the lead to 4-0. By the end of the second, Smith had been in his second scrap and there had been five fights total. Then we got to move down to the rail seats for the final period.

Making our way through the crowded concourse and back down the narrow escalator to the main level was not an easy walk. The building was designed and built in 1931 with a seating capacity of about 13,500 seats. By the mid-1980’s, due to renovations there were almost 3,000 additional people jammed into the rink. The halls of the arena were not made to accommodate that many folks comfortably.

Having usually sat higher up at the Gardens, the view from the front row Golds was almost overwhelming. The only other time I had sat in the Golds was five years earlier when I was a few rows directly behind the opposition net, tonight’s Gold seats were first row right in the corner. From our vantage point the interior of the Gardens loomed up, encompassing your entire field of vision. Although the building itself was relatively small compared to today’s hockey arenas it felt simply cavernous from that Rail seat. It was quite awe-inspiring. Sitting right on the goal line 40 feet to the left of Allan Bester we really did feel like we were on the ice, which on this night was not a safe place to be.

Wendel Clark and Russ Courtnall scored in the third to make it 6-0 Toronto and things certainly got out of hand. Brad Smith had his third fight of the evening against Basil McRae and Detroit’s Tim Higgins felt inclined to join the tussle as third-man in the fight. Needless to say all of these combatants were thrown to the showers. All this happened within ten feet of Ross and I in our prime seats.

Exactly 14 seconds after this fracas, Red Wing Harold Snepsts was called for spearing Steve Thomas. Both of them as well as Leaf Todd Gill were tossed for the meeting that ensued. At this point things settled down, for five minutes. Lee Norwood and Wendel Clark fought, right in front of us impressionable youngsters in the front row. It was a truly frightening yet inspiring sight being that close to a Wendel Clark punch-up. Still, the fighting continued. Gerard Gallant paid his final Dan Daoust debt of the evening by fighting Bob McGill with five minutes left in the game. All told, four different fights occurred in the third period, most within shouting distance of our seats.

Bester stopped all five measly shots Detroit put his way in the third to wrap up his second shutout of the Wings in two weeks. During one of the third period melees Leaf coach John Brophy started yelling at Demers and later denied using any profanity. “I was just asking him where he was going to have a beer after the game,” Brophy said later.

Thusly we wrapped up another eventful trip to the Gardens.

NHL Notes

2011-12-11T12:33:00.000-08:00

The NHL's top 5 goal scorers are all newcomers to the top of the goal table. Amongst Milan Michalek, Phil Kessel, James Neal, Jonathan Toews and Claude Giroux the top single season is Kessel with 36 goals and Toews with 34. The average top season of the five is 29.6 goals. Can you say career years?

Coming into this season, Alex Ovechkin averaged 5.31 shots in each of his 475 career games. This season he has averaged 3.71 shots/game.

Brian Elliott is playing like it's 1929. His 1.46 GAA through 15 games would be the lowest since the 1928/29 season when the ENTIRE league's goals against average was 1.46. His .947 Save Pct. would shatter the record of Tim Thomas at .938 set last year. This year, Thomas's Pct is... .938.

If nothing else, Toronto's goaltending core has been consistent. James Reimer, Jonas Gustavsson and Ben Scrivens all have a SavePct of between .896 and .904 and GAA's of between 2.96 3.13. Incidentally since his return from injury, Reimer is 0-2-1 with a 3.63GAA and .864 SvPct. In Gustavsson's last six starts he is 5-1 with 2.31GAA and .929 SvPct.

Henderson Scores for Canada, in 1962

2011-12-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

Paul Henderson's exploits against the Soviet Union in September 1972 was not the first time he tangled with the Russians. Far from it, Henderson first played against and scored against the Russians almost 10 years prior to the Summit Series.

During his final year of junior hockey with the Ontario League's Hamilton Red Wings, 18 year old Henderson notched a goal in a 9-5 loss on Nov. 19, 1962. A touring squad of Soviets, most of them 23 or 24 years of age had their way with the beefed up Hamilton side in front of a capacity crowd of 3,827. In 1962/63, Henderson would tally 50 goals and 76 points in 49 games.

The junior Red Wings were led that season by Pit Martin and his 87 points and were reinforced by graduates of the program from the previous two years. One of the goals against the Soviets was scored by Lowell MacDonald, on loan from Pittsburgh of the AHL. Also on the squad were future NHLers Gary Doak, Bart Crashley, Jimmy Peters, Nick Libbett and Bryan Campbell.

Henderson's goal was far less dramatic than the three he'd score in Moscow ten years later. His marker made the score 7-3 in the Soviets favour. Coincidentally, two of the Russian players, Alexander Ragulin and Vyacheslav Starshinov would also play in the fabled Summit Series a decade later. Starshinov got into one game in 1972 while Ragulin was a prominent veteran at the time and played in six matches.

Wayne Gretzky, Baseball Star

2011-12-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

Now batting for your Toronto Blue Jays, number 99, Wayne Gretzky. This phrase was never actually uttered, but it could have been if things played out differently in the summer of 1980.

In the July 1980 issue of The Hockey News there is a quick blurb that mentions Gretzky was playing in the Inter-County Baseball League and batting .500 over the first few games. The Inter-County circuit plays senior baseball in larger cities of Southern Ontario and in 1980 a 19 year old Wayne would have been one of the younger players.

On June 12 of that year the AP reported that the Toronto Blue Jays had offered Gretzky a tryout, and if he showed major league potential, a contract offer could follow. Bob Prentice, the Blue Jays director of Canadian scouting believed the hockey star also could be a baseball star. "It's a serious offer on our part. I've seen him play in the last couple of years and he has some talent. But it was only recently he indicated that he loves the game. We had thought it had just been a recreation for him."

The plan was, if Gretzky was serious, for the Jays to give him a serious workout and "then see what he wants to do". Gretzky is quoted,"I like baseball so much, but I can't throw hockey away. Can you play both? If I could, I'd do it." Prentice added, "There is nothing to prevent us from talking to him, he is of the age we recruit players for the team." Gretzky's boss may have had other thoughts though. Oilers GM, Glen Sather said Gretzky has never asked for permission to play ball. Asked if it would be granted he said,"I don't know. You're asking me a hypothetical question."

In a story from the Canadian Press on July 8, 1980, a Brantford baseball official named Bill Moffat tells of one of the first times that Gretzky filled in at shortstop for the Senior level Brantford Red Sox. "We go to Waterloo for a tournament and it comes to the final game. We need a pitcher to face Leaside Leafs and Wayne volunteers. Well, you should have seen him. He's throwing his slow curve and keeping it low, and they're just going crazy trying to hit it. The more they go after it, the bigger the grin on his face gets. We wind up beating them, 15-5." Not only was Gretzky a fine hitter, but he had a heck of an off-speed pitch too. Whether or not any of these skills were of major league calibre, we'll never know.

Apparently by early July of 1980 Gretzky had declined the invitation to work out with the Jays. He stated,"Is it true they only make $600 a month in Medecine Hat," he asked, referring to the Jay's rookie league team in Alberta. "That's right," he was told, "And they pay their own rent. They also get about $7.50 a day to eat." Gretzky asked,"How do they survive?" and is told "on chewing tobacco." The Kid says, "Yuck. I tried it once when I was with the senior team. They had a guy from Pepperdine College on the team and he gave me some. I think it was really snuff. I stuck it in there and spit it right out. Yuck."

The innocent, neophyte ball player certainly made the correct career choice, but he may very well have had a serviceable career in baseball if he had decided to give it a shot.

Below is the photo of Gretzky that was printed with the AP article of June 12, 1980.

Maple Leaf Gardens Re-Opens

2011-12-05T21:19:00.000-08:00

Living on the Canadian West Coast and being a diehard Leaf fan presents a few problems. The main one of course is the distance from where I live in North Vancouver to Toronto itself. This past week, the newly renovated Maple Leaf Gardens was re-opened as a Loblaw's Supermarket. I of course would have loved to go check it out but, lucky for me my parents still live in Ontario and are also big hockey fans. I have my dad to thank for these great photos he took of their trip recently to the new Gardens.

Near the entry of the new supermarket is this very cool Maple Leaf sculpture made entirely of old Gardens Blue seats. Some of the original walls are still exposed.

The exact spot of the old centre ice dot remains.

The aisle signage is reminiscant of an old scoreboard.

A beautiful mural commemorating great events in Leaf history.

As far as I can tell, even though it is filled with foodstuffs and other merchandise, the building somehow seems to retain the feel of an old arena. Apparently, the public feels the same. My dad said the place was just packed and actually doing any shopping would have been tough wth the crowds.

Around the Hockey World

2011-12-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

Soon to be 40 year old (Dec 9) Petr Nedved is one point off the lead in Czech league scoring with 31 points in 25 games.

Ex-NHL First Rounder Rob Schremp is playing for Modo of the Swedish League and sits third in team scoring with 19 points in 27 games.

Leading the Swedish circuit in scoring is Mike Iggulden with 28 points in 27 games. The 28 year old last played in the NHL three seasons ago when he notched 5 points in 11 games with the Islanders.

Undrafted 19-year old Tanner Pearson of the OHL's Barrie Colts is scoring at well over a 2 points/game pace and has a 12 point lead in the scoring race.

The WHL has turned into the Quebec League of the early 1980's as no less than five players are on nearly a goal/game pace. Emerson Etem and Ty Rattie lead the way with 28 markers in 30 and 29 games respectively.

20 year-old Craig Cowie of the Nepean Raiders in the Central Canadian Hockey League is having quite a season. He has a 18 point lead in the scoring race with 75 points in 32 games.

19 year-old Darcy Murphy has potted an amazing 33 goals in 26 games for the Tier-II Wellington Dukes of the Ontario Junior Hockey League. He has a 9 goal lead on his nearest competitor.

Team Unit Update

2011-12-03T09:30:00.001-08:00

It's official. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Blue Jays are in business together. Well, at least many of the two team's young players are. As I mentioned a few months ago, Leaf players Tyler Bozak, Colby Armstrong, Joffrey Lupul and Phil Kessel among others have become fast friends with several young Blue Jays including Brett Lawrie, JP Arencebia and Ricky Romero. Just yesterday their combined website http://teamunitstore.com/ went online selling their own T-Shirts (presumably with all proceeds to charity).

I have to admit, they look fairly sharp and being a diehard fan of both squads I will have to buy one. I just hope I don't look as excited as Bozak did last week after he scored a pair of goals in Anaheim and met up with fellow TeamUnit member and Los Angeles native Ricky Romero.

http://teamunitstore.com/

NHL Notes

2011-11-29T15:35:00.000-08:00

A few of the stats that jump out as we reach the quarter pole of the NHL season.

With 20 assists in 23 games, Ottawa defenceman Erik Karlsson is currently on pace for 71 assists. Only nine other defenders have collected that many helpers in an NHL season. Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey 6 times each. Ray Bourque, Brian Leetch 3 times each. Denis Potvin, Al MacInnis, Gary Suter, Sergei Zubov and Phil Housley once each. Leetch was the last to do it in 1995/96.

New Washington Capital coach Dale Hunter is also the franchise's all-time leader with 72 Playoff points. Perhas surprisingly Mike Ridley sits second with 60 ahead of Peter Bondra's 56 points. Alex Ovechkin sits 7th with 50 points in 37 career playoff games. Not surprising is the fact that Hunter also leads the Caps in career playoff PIM's with 372 in 100 games.

After four games this season, Sidney Crosby was only only 3 points behind Eric Staal and Jarome Iginla who have each played over 20 games.

Crosby and Alex Ovechkin have the same amount of points in November.

St.Louis goalie Brian Elliott has a 10-1 record, 1.31 GAA and .951 Save Pct....nothing more to say about that one.

Ryan Hugent-Hopkins, The Real Deal

2011-11-28T15:39:00.000-08:00

As of November 27, 2001, rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is tied for 10th in NHL scoring as an 18 year-old. Is this a rarity? Umm...yes, the only other teenage rookies to finish in the NHL top ten scoring was Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby (yes, I consider Gretzky's 79/80 NHL season as a rookie year). Two guys did it. Not Mario Lemieux, not Dale Hawerchuk, not Bryan Trottier. Gretzky of course tied Marcel Dionne for first in scoring as an 18 year old and Crosby was 6th in his 18 year old rookie year.

In his rookie year of 84/85, Lemieux (at 19 years old) amassed 100 points good for 16th place in the high-flying 1980's. Similarly, in Hawerchuk's rookie year of 81/82 his 103 points was good for "only" 12th spot in scoring. Not bad for an 18 year old. In 1975/76, 19 year old Bryan Trottier scored 95 points and finished 12th as well.

Other teenage rookies who've placed fairly well in the scoring race were:

Gaye Stewart, 1942/43, 19 years old, 47 pts finished in 16th place.
Ted Kennedy, 1943/44, 18 years old, 49 pts finished 21st place.
Henri Richard, 1955/56, 19 years old, 40 pts finished 21st place.
Bobby Hull, 1957/58, 19 years old, 47 pts finished 19th place.
Bobby Orr, 1966/67, 18 years old, 41 pts finished 28th place but 3rd among D-men.
Jimmy Carson, 198/87, 18 years old, 79 pts finished 26th place.

And just last season, 18 year old Jeff Skinner notched 63 points to finish 38th overall. If Nugent-Hopkins continues as he's going he is bound to better Skinner's season and will likely nab the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year.

Maple Leafs Dress 11 Skaters, Tie the Habs

2011-11-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

"Toronto Maple Leafs will be shorthanded for their game here at the Forum tonight against the Canadiens, bringing only 11 players instead of the customary 14. 'If Tommy Gorman has any players available around Montreal for use tomorrow night on a lend-lease basis we'll take 'em', Frank Selke was quoted."

Dec 14, 1944 was the night and the Leafs would play with less skaters than my beer-league team usually does. Sure times were different back in the wartime era NHL as teams usually only dressed 14 skaters, far less than today...but 11 skaters, that's a tough one.

Leaf coach Hap Day would have two forward lines to work with, one of Ted Kennedy, Bob Davidson and Tom O'Neill and the other of Mel Hill, Nick Metz and Lorne Carr. Absent for the Montreal game were 19 year-old scoring star Gus Bodnar who was ill, Sweeney Schriner who was out with long-term injury, and Wally Stanowski who was in the process of returning from military duty. Youngsters, Ross Johnstone and Bill McCreedy were unavailable as they only played home games due to schooling commitments. I wonder if 43 year-old Hap Day had thoughts of suiting up, having last played a game over 6 years previous.

The following day the Canadian Press headline proclaimed, "Leafs surprise! Canadiens held to 2-2 draw". The Leafs were described as "playing for the breaks throughout, apparently well content with the tie they gained. They checked persistently at every turn, and rarely did the Canucks get a chance to really hit their top pace." I find it interesting that the CP writer refers to the Canadiens as 'the Canucks'. Obviously merely an anglacized version of 'les Canadiens' but something I don't believe I have seen before.

Toronto scored first on a goal from Mel Hill, before Maurice Richard tied it four minutes later. Elmer Lach and Bob Davidson traded goals in the second and their was no scoring in the third, "thanks largely to some great goal-tending in the clutches by Frankie McCool."

The tie left Toronto in second place, three points behind Montreal and one up on Detroit. Leafs would finish 1944/45 with a 24-22-4 record in third place, 15 points back of Detroit and 28 behind Montreal. However, they upset the Habs 4 games to 2 in the Semis before besting Detroit in 7 for the Cup.

A Tale of Two Goalies

2011-11-24T15:46:00.000-08:00

Vancouver Canuck goalie Cory Schneider has had some tough luck so far this season. Despite a 2.24 GAA and a Save Pct of .920 he only has a won/loss record of 4-4. The main reason for this is the almost criminal lack of support by his offense. In games started by Schneider the Canucks have scored an average of only 1.63 goals per game. Two of his losses have been by shutout.

On the other end of the spectrum is Maple Leafs tender, Jonas Gustavsson. In games which he was the goalie of record he has a GAA of 3.14 and Save Pct. of .896. His record by the way is 6 wins, 4 losses. The Leafs have scored an average of 4.11 goals per game in his starts. This is almost two and a half times the support that the Canucks have given Schneider.

The contrast in the support of each goalie's teammate is also amazing. Roberto Luongo has a GAA almost a full goal higher than Schneider yet his record is 7-5-1 because Vancouver scores 3.96 goals per game for him. On the other hand, Toronto's Ben Scrivens receives a full 2 goals per game less in support than Gustavsson and his record of 2-4-1 reflects that.

It really is impressive that Schneider has even a .500 record. He certainly has earned a larger share of the work load than many thought he'd receive. If his teammates would only help, his win total would be significantly better.

Phil Kessel, meet Frank Mahovlich

2011-11-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

Feb. 16, 1961-The Canadian Press
"The league's two top scorers - Frank Mahovlich of the Leafs and Bernie (Boom Boom) Geoffirion of the Canadiens - failed to get any points. Mahovlich, leading the race with 69 points, was well shadowed by Dickie Moore and had only a couple of good scoring chances. Geoffrion, who has 68 points, was in close several times but couldn't get a clear shot on goal."

This day would be the last time for over 50 years that a Toronto Maple Leaf led the NHL in scoring more than 20 games into a season, until today.

After 20 games of the current campaign, Leaf Phil Kessel has 27 points, one more than Flyer Claude Giroux. Granted, it's only a quarter of the way through the season, but that is as late as a Leaf has led the league in half a century.

On that same day in 1961, Feb 16, Bernie Geoffrion would explode for 5 points in a 9-1 win over Boston. The Big 'M' responded with 4 points in two games that weekend but 'Boom-Boom' kept him at bay with 3 more of his own.

Mahovlich would finish with 84 points, 11 behind leader Geoffrion and in third place behind Jean Beliveau's 90.

Below are the NHL scoring leaders on the morning of Feb. 16, 1961.
50 years later there is a Maple Leaf back on top, but for how long?

The Typical Hall of Famer

2011-11-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

With Hall of Fame week just finishing, talk turns to the next batch of Hockey Hall of Famers and to what makes a Hall of Famer? I had an idea to simply figure out what constituted a member of the Hall, statistically speaking.

For now I only looked at players who were Forwards, and only at guys who played at least 400 career games. I figured if only looking at stats, it's not fair to include the early NHLer's who's careers often amounted to only 200 or so games. There are still 94 NHL Hall members that were mainly forwards who played at least 400 games. It's a nice wide array of eras from Joliat, Morenz, Nels Stewart and Syl Apps to all the stars of recent decades.

These 94 players average careers work out to 946 Games and 883 points.

Remember there's many different eras of hockey included in there, as well as a number of more defensively oriented forwards but I think it gives us a fair starting point for the average Hall of Famer. I then looked at all NHL players through history to find four players that generally match these average Hall of Famer's numbers. The results are interesting:

Peter Bondra 1081 GP-892 Pts
Bill Barber 903 GP-883 Pts
Dennis Maruk 888 GP-878 Pts
Yvan Cournoyer 968 GP-863 Pts

These four average out to 960 GP and 879 Points each, and obviously only Barber and Cournoyer are actually in the Hall. What seperates them from Bondra and Maruk?
In simple terms, it's hardware that each player won during his career that pushes one over the Hall of Fame threshold. Barber won 2 Stanley Cups, was a First Team All-Star once and Second Teamer twice. Cournoyer won eight Cups, a Conn Smythe Trophy and was Second Team All-Star four times. On the other hand, neither Bondra or Maruk won a Cup, a Trophy or was a year end All-Star selection.

So, by looking at it in this very simple manner the average Hall of Fame forward looks something this. 946GP, 883 Pts, 2 Cups and 3 or 4 All-Star selections. Of course this is very simplistic, and more than a few modern era players easily match the scoring numbers but I feel it gives a nice starting point for future debates. It really does come down to the accolades a player has won, this is why Joe Sakic and Brendan Shanahan are pretty much locks for entry next year while guys like Lindros, Bure, Sundin and Oates are on the bubble.

Aaron Rome, Watch Out Paul Coffey

2011-11-16T09:31:00.000-08:00

OK, it's only been 4 games so far this season but Aaron Rome has 3 goals and 5 points. He had played 131 career games before this year and collected a grand total of 2 goals and 12 points. He set a career high last season with 5 points. Now, we obviously won't assume he continues at his new-found level of scoring, but even if he scores 25 or 30 points this year it will be a monumental turnaround in his point production. Just how rare would it be? Extremely.

I tried to find other examples throughout NHL history that matched these parameters:
First 130 games of their career with a point scoring rate of 0.10/Game or less, then they went on to have a season of at least 0.50 Pts/Game at some point in their career.
I could pinpoint only two other guys that fit this description.

Lyle Odelein began his lengthy career with Montreal in 1989/90 and in his first 2+ seasons he had 131 games with 1 goal and 12 points, very similar to Rome's numbers. In 1992/93 he 'exploded' for 2 goals and 16 points but the following year Odelein put up 11 goals and 40 points in 79 games. His point producing may not have been unexpected due to the fact that as a junior with Moose Jaw he had seasons of 46, 59 and 58 points. Even so, it didn't last. Odelein's next three highest point NHL years would be 31, 24 and 23.

Brett Clark was another Montreal Canadien defender who in his first 144 games over 4 seasons tallied 3 goals and 9 points. He spent the entire 2002/03 season in the AHL with Hershey and as a 26 year old put up a respectable 35 points. When he finally played a full season with the Avalanche he produced back-to-back seasons of 36 and 39 points. As with Odelein, Clark had showed a potential for points production before turning professional. In his only year at the University of Maine he had 38 points in 39 games.

Can we draw similarities between the beginning of Odelein and Clark's careers and that of Rome's? As with the other two, Rome was no stranger to putting up points as a junior. In his last two years in the WHL he had 56 and 52 points. Maybe this will be the new normal for Rome...not a point per game necessarily, but a 30-something points aint half bad.

Another guy having a Rome-like breakout this season is Florida's Jason Garrison. He has 7 goals and 9 points in 17 games this year after having 7 and 26 in his first 113 career games. The weird thing about Garrison is that even in US college with Minnesota-Duluth he topped out at only 5 goals one year and in the AHL at 8 goals over a full season. His season is perhaps even more un-expected than Rome's.

World Hockey Association, The First Season

2011-11-12T11:49:00.000-08:00

I was recently reading an old hockey magazine from the early 1970's and there was a nice article about Johnny 'Pieface' McKenzie. He had jumped to the new WHA as a 35 year old and in his opinion the league was not getting it's due respect.

In the article he states of the upstart league, "Certainly we're not equal to the NHL, but don't forget they've been around a hundred years. If we keep robbing their players and signing juniors we'll be equal in four or five years". He continued saying "The New England Whalers would have held their own in the NHL over the whole year. I know they're better than four or five teams right now. In fact, our top four teams could have beaten the Flames or the Islanders." The question is, was he correct?

The 1972/73 New England Whalers finished with 94 points in 78 games and beat third overall Cleveland 4 games to 1 in the semi-finals before beating second overall Winnipeg in the Final, also 4 games to 1. The Whale was definitely the cream of the WHA crop that first year. They were led by Tom Webster who was only one year removed from a 30 goal, 67 point NHL rookie season. Webster tallied 103 points for the Whalers and would definitely have been a solid NHLer that year. Centre, Terry Caffery was a 3rd overall selection of Chicago Black Hawks in 1966, but had yet to make an impact in the NHL. He parlayed an 88 point year in the AHL into a 100 point season with New England.

Larry Pleau had played 55 games for the Montreal Canadiens in 1971/72 and contributed 87 points to the Whalers championship campaign. Brit Selby a veteran of 350 NHL games and former Calder Trophy winner, chipped in 42 points that year and Tom Williams had over 500 NHL games on his resume and the previous season scored 17 goals with the North Stars and Golden Seals. Other than Williams, all these guys were 27 years old or younger.

The real strength of the Whalers that year was their defense. Jim Dorey, Ted Green, Brad Selwood and Rick Ley. All had played regularly in the NHL the previous season, and very well could have again if not jumping to the WHA. In net the Whalers had Al Smith
who had played over 40 NHL games the last three years with Goals Against Averages of under 3.25 each season.

In summary, John McKenzie definitely had a point. New England would have certainly held their own in the NHL of 1972/73. That season, Montreal, Boston and New York Rangers were a cut above the rest of the NHL. I would guess New England would have had at least a .500 record and been in a fight with Detroit and Buffalo for a playoff spot.

As for McKenzie's estimation that in 4 or 5 years the WHA would be equal to the NHL, that one was a bit off.

Was Gretzky really a bad coach?

2011-11-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

It came out recently that Georges Laraque says in his new book that Wayne Gretzky was the "worst coach he ever played for". The question is should we care what Laraque thinks and if so, is his criticism valid?

Gretzky's four year coaching record was 143-161-24 for a Winning Pct. of .473 and of course he never managed to get the Coyotes into the post season. In addition to Gretz, Laraque played for Ron Low, Kevin Lowe, Craig MacTavish, Michael Therrien, Guy Carbonneau, Bob Gainey and Jacques Martin. Of these guys, only Ron Low had a lower Winning Pct. than Wayner, but he made the playoffs three of the seven years and won two different playoff rounds.

Gretzky ranks 91st in coaching victories and there have been exactly 100 coaches with at least 135 career wins. Out of these 100, Gretzky ranks 84th in Career Winning Pct. AND he is the only one of the 100 to have never made the playoffs. Even Doug Carpenter made the playoffs once (losing with Toronto 4 games to 1 in 1989/90).

So, if Gretzky isn't the worst coach ever, he is definitely a candidate. Others would be Carpenter with a .403 Winning Pct and his one playoff win, Tom Watt and his .422 Pct and one playoff win in ten games. Milt Schmidt would be another candidate with a .406 Pct but he did have two playoff round wins and a second overall league finish.

Maybe Laraque had a point.

Leafs 7-3-1. Been there four times before.

2011-11-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

A 7-3-1 record to begin a season is definitely nice for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it certainly is far too early to say that record guarantees an overall good season. Indeed, with 36 goals for and 35 allowed, the Leafs may very well come back to earth soon. Over their history, Toronto has in fact started with the exact same 7-3-1 record on four other occaisons. A look at how those seasons turned out:

1999/00
Led by Curtis Joseph in net, this year's 7-3-1 start featured 32 goals for and only 22 allowed. They sat first in the NHL. They would continue the hot start ending the calendar year at 23-9-4 and finished the season with 100 points, first place in the Northeast Division. Toronto would lose 4 games to 2 in the New Jersey Devils in the second round of the playoffs.

1988/89
This season's 7-3-1 start included 45 goals for and 32 against and placed them first overall in the NHL. They would win the 12th game before hitting the skids big time. From then until Boxing Day they sputtered along at 4-20-1 costing coach John Brophy his job. Toronto finished with 62 points, third last overall in the NHL.

1961/62
This year's fast start of 33 goals and 24 against was parlayed into an overall fine season. 7-3-1 put them in second place on Nov.7, one point behind Montreal. They finished the season 37-22-11, solidly in second place and 13 behind the Habs. Leafs would beat the New York Rangers in the semis 4 games to 2 and Chicago in 6 games to win the Cup.

1952/53
This season's 7-3-1 start was perhaps the most similar to the current season's. 59 years ago they had scored 37 goals and surrendered 35, very close to today's numbers. They were in a tie for first in the league. Within three weeks they had fallen to under .500 and finished 27-30-13, 2 points out of a playoff spot.

So, two of the four times that Toronto started a season with this record, they failed to make the playoffs.

Another interesting way to look at this year's start is looking at all the season's in which Toronto had at least 15 points over the first 11 games. 15 different times Toronto has done this, from the 7-3-1 starts up to the 10-1-0 start of 1993/94. The average final winning percentage of those 15 seasons was .573. If they do that this year, that's 94 points...maybe just enough to make the playoffs. Maybe.

30 years ago today.

2011-10-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

Oct. 31, 1981...hockey was just a little bit different than it is today. Below are the standings from exactly 30 years ago today.

To illustrate the amazing difference in goal scoring, the 1981 Colorado Rockies with 30 goals in 11 games would rank 10th in scoring today. Today's leaders, Philadelphia and their 41 goals would have ranked 15th out of 21 teams in 1981. On the other end of the spectrum, Montreal's league best 28 goals allowed in 11 games would be merely tied for 13th today.

On the individual front Phil Kessel, today's NHL leader with 18 points would have been 15th overall on the same date in 1981, one point behind Oilers defenceman Risto Siltanen and one ahead of St.Louis Blue Mike Zuke. Kessel's league best 10 goals would be only 9th in 1981.

In all honestly, comparing today's scoring to that from 30 years ago is more of a fun thing. There really is no comparison as I've shown. In 1981/82 there was just over an average of 8.00 goals scored per game, as of today it is 5.38 per game...just about exactly two-thirds.

Firewagon Hockey, It's been a while.

2011-10-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

The 17 total goals scored in the Winnipeg/Philadelphia game is the highest scoring NHL game in over 15 years. The 17 goals are the most by two teams since Jan. 13, 1996 when the San Jose Sharks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 10-8. Interestingly, Jaromir Jagr played in both of these games and had only one point in each.

No player scored more than four points in either of these high-scoring affairs. Mario Lemieux and Ray Sheppard had 4 each in '96 , Danny Briere and Kimmo Timonen also had 4 points each.

Also,
From New York Islanders home game statistician Eric Hornick, the five games in which a goaltender played in ONLY a shoot-out of a game.

10/27/2011 in Pittsburgh, Rick DiPietro became the 5th goalie to appear only in a shootout when he replaced Evgeni Nabakov.

The others:
10/22/2008 Toronto v Anaheim. Curtis Joseph replaced Vesa Toskala for shootout for Toronto.
10/26/2006 Atlanta v Philadelphia. Kari Lehtonen replaced Johan Hedberg for Atlanta.
3/7/2006 Edmonton v Dallas. Mark Morrison replaced Ty Conklin for Edmonton.
11/22/2005 Buffalo v NY Rangers. Martin Biron replaced Mika Noronen for Buffalo.

Incidentally, all shoot-out replacement goalies lost their respective games.

The Trouble with Luongo

2011-10-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

I don't want to pile on Roberto Luongo. People who are calling for his head are being reactionary and counter-productive. This season is still in the very early stages and most people are aware that Luongo is a notorious slow starter.

However, given the fact that I live in Vancouver, I hear alot of this nonsense and honestly it's interesting to follow. The one thing I have noticed is the manner in which Luongo has been failing, dating back to last year's playoffs. It seems to me that when he loses, he breaks down in spectacular Hindenburg-ian fashion. I figured I'd have a look at the numbers.

Now, it may be a relatively small sample size, but I wanted to compare Luongo's numbers in games which he won to games which he lost and how those compare to the league averages.

2011/12 NHL Average
In Losses, teams had an GAA of 3.68 and Save Pct of .877
In Wins, teams had an GAA of 1.77 and Save Pct of .942

These numbers are obvious and predictable. So, how did Roberto Luongo fare in these categories last year, quite exceptionally actually.

In 22 Losses he was well better than the League with a 2.88 GAA and .903 Save Pct
In 38 Victories, he was closer to the League numbers with 1.67 GAA and .942 Save Pct

Last season Luongo managed to (on average) keep games fairly close even in a loss. He was far better than the normal in this regard and coupled with his slightly above numbers in his team's victories, he put together a Vezina nominated season.

These stats have all gone out the window since the start of last year's post-season. As stated, it is a fairly small sample size, but he has played 32 games since then, pretty much half of a full season. If these numbers are a "blip", it's a pretty big one. Since the playoffs started, his numbers;

17 Wins are 1.69 GAA and .950 SavePct.

...again, noticeably superior to the League averages.
On the other hand, since the playoffs began he has;

14 Losses and a 4.68 GAA and .838 SavePct.

His Goals Against Average in losses is a full goal higher than the NHL average. If I was a Canuck fan, I would be alarmed at that. As a comparison, let's look at the only other goalie to play as often since the playoffs started, Tim Thomas.

In Thomas' 19 Wins since the playoffs began;
1.56 GAA and .954 Save Pct.

In 12 Losses,
2.79 GAA and .906 Save Pct.

Thomas is well ahead of the average in games he won and ridiculously ahead in games he lost. Suppose that adds up to a Stanley Cup win. Perhaps Roberto Luongo had a bad few games in the playoffs, perhaps it's a trend that will continue. Either way it looks like he is prone to catostrophic collapses in games, at least over the last half-season worth of games.

Sweeney Schriner and the Dangers of Backchecking.

2011-10-24T12:43:00.000-07:00

Last week, when looking at historical comparisons for Phil Kessel's hot start, I learned of the 1944/45 season of Maple Leaf, Dave 'Sweeney' Schriner. Kessel's 8 goals through 7 games was bested only by Schriner's 9 goals in the first 7 games of 1944. That season of course was the year of the NHL's first 50 goal season by Maurice Richard. Perhaps, if not for an injury that cost him almost half the season, Sweeney Schriner may have joined Richard as the first 50 goal scorer.

The 33 year-old Schriner would be shutout in his 8th game but notched 2 goals on Nov 8, 1944 in his 9th match of the season, the game in which he would be injured. Schriner was quoted afterwards;"That's one time the coach can't say I wasn't backchecking." The Toronto Star described the injury; "Schriner says he was cruising in home waters looking for a stray puck when he saw Mush March pounce and start for (goaltender) McCool with dirt in his eye. He swung along with Mush and next thing he knew he was mushed into the steel upright. 'You should see this leg', said he,'It's turned hard like cement.' Sweeney thinks the fibre leg pad he wore saved the limb from a fracture."

His 11 goals was four more than any other player to this point in the season. Four more than Marice Richard, the man who would indeed score 50. By mid-December, Schriner and his 17 points still sat 13th in the NHL points race. The Rocket had tallied 12 goals in 8 games since Schriner went down to sit with 19 through 17 games, well on his way to history.

Schriner would spend the Christmas holidays at home in Calgary, resting his injured knee. He planned on returning to Toronto in the New Year but at that point coach Hap Day did not know when Schriner would be ready to put the skates on again. It took until Jan. 6 for Schriner to begin a conditioning program, but he returned quickly to game shape and played on Jan. 9. He notched one assist in that game versus the Rangers, then scored 2 goals in his second game back against Montreal.

As of early March, Schriner had played 12 games since returning to action, scoring 7 goals and 5 assists in the process. Certainly his pace had slowed down, but on the strength of his hot start he managed to reappear in the NHL's scoring leaders on March 6. His 18 goals, 11 assist and 29 points sat 29th in league scoring. He finished strong with 4 goals and 8 points in his last 5 matches and ended up 22nd in points despite missing 24 of the 50 games.

In fact, Schriner's 22 goals finished 13th in the NHL. Certainly it would have been next to impossible for him the continue his early season scoring rate through an entire season, but if not for his injury he almost certainly would have bested second place goal man Herb Cain's 32 and maybe given the Rocket a run at 50.

Leaf Notes and Numbers

2011-10-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

Toronto's Special Teams

2011/12: Power Play 16.00%, PK 77.27%

2010/11: Power Play 15.95%, PK 77.45%

Toronto's Strength (or weakness) of Schedule

so far this season is rated as the easiest by far at Minus 0.82, Zero is average and Los Angeles has had the most difficult schedule at +0.90

Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul have scored 11 of Toronto's 16 goals.
The Kessel, Lupul and Bozak line have counted 23 of the team's 45 scoring points.

Kessel is the first Leaf to tally 7 goals over the first 5 games of a season since Sweeney Schriner in 1944 (see below).

1944/45 Season

Although not the last time Toronto had an undefeated five game start, it's interesting to look
back into the past at another dominating start and how it panned out over the season. After five wins, the Leafs had scored 30 goals and surrendered 12 and sat two points up on Montreal. Toronto also had the top three point scorers in the entire line of Sweeney Schriner (13 points), Gus Bodnar (13 points) and Lorne Carr (12 points).

Leafs would come back to earth and finish with 52 points in the 50 game season in third place, 28 points behind first place Montreal. Carr finished with 46 points, Bodnar 44 and Schriner 37 in only 26 games.

Toronto knocked off Montreal in 6 semi-final games then beat Detroit in 7 to win the Cup.

Phil Kessel's Hot Start

2011-10-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Leaf play-by-play man Joe Bowen, last night I learned that Phil Kessel is only the third Maple Leaf in history to score 5 goals in the first 3 games of the season. In game 4 he added a 6th goal to tie a Leaf record to start a season. The two players that previously scored 5 in the first 3 were Darryl Sittler and Wendel Clark (twice).

Darryl Sittler 1978
Game 1: 2G
Game 2: 3G-4A
Game 3: 0
Game 4: 1G-1A

On the strength of a 7 point game, Sittler had 6 goals and 5 assists through the first 4 games in 1978/79. He would slow down to 1 goal and 2 assists over the next 6 games finishing October 1978 with a scoring line of: 10-7-7-14.

Wendel Clark 1986
Game 1: 1G
Game 2: 4G
Game 3: 0
Game 4: 0

After 5 tallies in his first two matches. Clark notched 2 goals, 2 assists in his next 6. His October scoring ended up: 9-7-2-9

Wendel Clark 1991
Game 1: 2G-1A
Game 2: 3G-2A
Game 3: 1A

Clark had a Gretzky-esque start to 1991/92 with 6 goals and 9 points in the first three games. Unfortunately for he and the Leafs, in the third game he tore his left MCL in collision with Rich Sutter of St.Louis. He would be out for the next 10 games, came back for three then re-injured the knee putting him on the shelf until January.

Atlanta lives on in the hockey record books.

2011-10-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

I read yesterday how the new Winnipeg Jets announcers and media will have to be careful when referring to franchise 'firsts'. The next Jets hat-trick will be neither the first in Jets history or in franchise history. The confusion will stem from the fact that there already has been a Winnipeg Jets, although an entirely different franchise and the defunct Atlanta Thrashers records will carry on to the current Winnipeg Jets.

Unless Mark Scheifele ends up being the second coming of Dale Hawerchuk, the new Jets record book will remain dominated by ex-Thrashers. Ilya Kovalchuk's 328 franchise goals and 615 points should be number one for years to come. The likes of Marian Hossa, Slava Kozlov and Kari Lehtonen will be part of the Jets records for a while still.

In fact the previous Atlanta franchise, the Flames, have a record book peppered lightly with Atlanta players from before the franchise shift. In addition to the new Jets, Atlanta hockey is still represented in the Calgary records.

Eric Vail played only 70 of 539 Flames games in Calgary and still sits 8th in franchise goals with 206.

Guy Chouinard played more than half of his Flames career in Atlanta and remains 7th in points with 529. His 107 points in 78/79 remain 4th best in Flames history.

Bob MacMillan has the 3rd highest scoring season in Flames history, 108 with Atlanta in 78/79. That same season he tallied the 3rd most assists by a Flame with 71.

Dan Bouchard played only 14 of 398 Flames games in Calgary. He sits 3rd in goalie games and his 5 shutouts in 73/74 are 4th most in any Flames year. His Flames career GAA of 3.03 is 6th best in franchise history.

Phil Myre, who never played in Calgary also notched 5 shut outs in 74/75 and sits 7th in career GAA at 3.21.

1930, Maple Leafs start the year with 5 shutouts.

2011-10-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

Researching Toronto's history of opening night shutouts, I found that the Leafs actually started the 1930/31 season with FIVE consecutive shutouts. This was the last year in the Mutual Street Arena for Toronto before moving the next season to Maple Leaf Gardens. Somewhat strange about the five shutouts is the fact that Toronto alternated goaltenders Lorne Chabot (pictured below) and Benny Grant (above), each taking turns starting games. This was fairly rare in an era when the majority of teams used one goalie for the entire year.

Following are the summaries from the Canadian Press of each of the five games:

Nov.13, 1930
0-0 vs. New York Americans
Lorne Chabot vs. Roy Worters

"The game, played before about 8,000 spectators, was a typical early season exhibition of the popular winter pastime. Neither team showed real form, and as a result the game was somewhat dull. In addition to this the unseasonably warm weather and ultra strict officiating detracted from the game's attractiveness. King Clancy, recently purchased from Ottawa, was the backbone of the Leafs, both offensively and defensively."

Nov.15, 1930
4-0 vs. Philadelphia Quakers
Benny Grant vs. Joe Milller
"Making every post a winning one, Toronot Maple Leafs last night humbled Philadelphia Quakers, in a NHL fixture here. The final score was 4-0, and the Leafs were full value for the victory. The Leafs scored two goals in the first period and two in the second period, but were held scoreless in the final. The first tally of the game came when Red Horner, husky defenceman, took Jackson's pass and drove it into the twine. One and a half minutes later, Primeau scored, and again Jackson figured in the play. Conacher and Jackson combined for the third goal, and then Ace Bailey made it four on Clancy's pass."

Nov.18, 1930
3-0 vs. Montreal Maroons
Lorne Chabot vs. Flat Walsh
"Working like Trojans in front of superb goal-tending by Lorne Chabot, the still undefeated Toronto Maple Leafs took their second victory of the young season by defeating Montreal Maroons three goals to nil. In three games Maroons have not scored a single goal." Leaf goals were tallied by Clancy, Bailey and Horner.

Nov.20, 1930
0-0 vs. New York Americans
Benny Grant vs. Roy Worters
"Eddie Gerard's 'Amazing Amerks' again presented an airtight defensive system to hold the Toronto marksmen scoreless. The game was far from being of a spectacular nature, as the Leafs didn't take many chances either with the Americans adopting Kitty-bar-the-door tactics. It was the second time these teams have played scoreless games and it marked Toronto's fourth game in which the opposition has not tallied a goal against them." Grant made 40 saves while Worters had 36.

Nov.22, 1930
2-0 vs. Ottawa
Chabot vs. Connell
"Playing super-hockey, the Toronto Maple Leafs downed Ottawa Senators 2-0, in a brilliant National Hockey League fixture here Saturday night, registering their fifth straight shutout. The Leafs have won three gamee, tied two and have not had a single goal tallied against them this season. From bell to bell, the two teams struggled at top pace, with both goalies showing brilliantly. Of the two, Connell, of Ottawa, had the much harder evening, and the two goals which did beat him were practically impossible to save." Goals were scored by Cotton and Conacher.

Toronto failed to parlay this terrific start to the year into much success. Although they would finish second to Canadiens in the Canadian Division, they would slip to sixth overall in goals allowed among the ten NHL squads. Leafs would lose to Chicago in the Quarter-Finals that year.

The team that finally did score a goal on Toronto and defeat them for the first time that season....the Quakers of Philadelphia beat them 2-1 on Nov. 25. The Quakers of course were in the midst of the worst season in NHL history and would finish 1930/31 with a 4-36-4 record.

Maple Leafs Opening Night Shutouts

2011-10-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

Leaf goalie James Reimer shutout Montreal in the opener of the 2010/11 season and perhaps surprisingly it's only the fourth time in over 70 years that it's happened. In the almost 100 year history of the Toronto franchise, they've recorded a season opening shutout on only 7 occaisons.
The other six times were as follows:

Oct. 10, 2002 Ed Belfour
Toronto 6 at Pittsburgh 0
Belfour stopped 33 Penguin shots in his Toronto debut. Leafs were led by the line of Sundin (2G, 2A), Mogilny (2G, 1A) and Tucker (3A).

Oct.7, 2000 Curtis Joseph
Montreal 0 @ Toronto 2
On goals by Jonas Hoglund and Sergei Berezin, Toronto beats the Habs despite being outshot 26-18.

Oct.11, 1984 Allan Bester
Toronto 1 @ Minnesota 0
Bester stopped 23 shots, out-duelled Don Beaupre in a 1-0 overtime victory. Miroslav Frycer tallied the winner two minutes into extra time.

Nov.4, 1939 Turk Broda
Boston 0 @ Toronto 5
Two goals from Syl Apps and solos from Gord Drillon, Pete Langelle and Bob Davidson.

Nov.13, 1930 Lorne Chabot
NY Amerks 0 @ Toronto 0
Chabot and Roy Worters battled for 70 minutes in a sluggish game that featured 20 penalties called and unseasonably warm temperatures.

Nov.15, 1928 Lorne Chabot
Chicago 0 @ Toronto 2
Andy Blair and George Horne counted the markers as Chabot shut down Chicago.

2011/12 Hockey Draft Sleepers

2011-10-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

Most hockey fans and poolies are rightly concerned with Sidney Crosby and how close he is to a return. Overlooked perhaps is the return of Evgeni Malkin. He is healthy and coming back with a vengence. To say Malkin is a sleeper may be a stretch, TSN's Bob McKenzie is even predicting him to win the ArtRoss. If you can get him at 10th overall in your draft (like I did) you should be estatic.
Prediction for Malkin 95 points.

Tomas Fleischmann is another player coming off an injury and he's also on a new team. He steps into a prominent role as second line centre behind Stephen Weiss in Florida and should produce accordingly. Fleischmann is 27 years old and primed for a breakout. Two seasons ago he registered 51 points with the Capitals and after being traded to Colorado he put up 21 points in 22 games.
Prediction for Fleischmann 67 points

Another light sleeper is Brent Burns who had a career high 46 points last year. Being traded to San Jose and stepping into a powerplay with Thornton, Marleau, Pavelski and Boyle should allow him to set another career high.
Prediction for Burns 60 points

James Neal is only 24 years old and has scored at least 20 goals in each of his three NHL seasons. He'll easily top his career highs of 27 goals and 55 points this season playing alongside of Malkin or Crosby.
Prediction for Neal 67 points

Kyle Okposo is another strong candidate for a comeback from an injury ravaged season. Having returned for the second half of last year, Okposo never got on track and had a mere 20 points in 38 games. Playing with a still improving and breakout candidate John Tavares, Okposo should be good for at least 60 points this year. Prediction for Okposo 65 points

Elwin "Moe" Morris. War-Time Fill In and Cup Winner

2011-09-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

During the second World War, as in most sports, rosters of NHL teams were depleted by players signing up for military duty. When the Toronto Maple Leafs reported for training camp in the middle of October 1943 there were only three veterans present. Bob Davidson, Lorne Carr and Bucko McDonald who were soon joined by fellow vets Babe Pratt, Mel Hill and Reg Hamilton.

One of the many rookies that would round out the line-up was 22 year old defenceman Elwin "Moe" Morris. He had previously been a "well-regarded" backfielder with football's Toronto Argos in 1940 and had graduated from the Toronto Marlboros junior and senior programs.
Morris' hockey career really took off in 1942/43 aftre joining the Toronto Navy squad. He joined the Navy in December, 1942 and would be discharged in June of '43 for physical reasons. Upon arriving at Leaf camp in 1943 Morris said, "I don't know what happened last year but I suddenly gained confidence." He had produced 6 goals and 16 points in the 11 games he played for Toronto Navy.

Leaf coach Hap Day planned on pairing the rookie with Babe Pratt on the Toronto defence saying,"Morris can carry the puck, but he's the kind of a player who will stay back and take care of the defence while Pratt makes use of his puck carrying ability. They make a good team." Day's assessment proved correct as Morris finished his rookie season with 12 goals and 33 points while playing all 50 games. He finished fifth amongst defnders in points behind Pratt, Pat Egan, Ott Heller and Flash Hollett.

The return from military service of Leaf veteran Wally Stanowski bumped Morris down the depth chart the following season. Morris played only 29 games in 1944/45 and his production plumetted to zero goals and a mere 2 assists. t would seem though, he saved his best for the playoffs that year as he notched three goals in helping Toronto win the Cup.

Morris broke his season long slump in a Semi-Final game five loss to Montreal and added the important first goal in game six, when Toronto clinched the series 3-2. The newspapers described; "He paired up with dependable Frank McCool to provide one of the best defensive shows in hockey play this year. Morris also scored the first Toronto goal in the first period, on a brilliant solo effort. It came on a breakaway play on which he shifted clear of a five-man Montreal attack and then outdistanced Defenceman Frankie Eddolls of Canadiens in a furious rink-long dash. It was the second goal Morris has scored this season, his first coming Thursday night in the fifth game of the series."

He then added another tally in the Game Two Finals 2-0 win over Detroit; "Hard-working Elwyn Morris of the Leaf defence notched the clincher on a breakaway in the last period." Apparently, for a defenceman, Morris managed to get his fair share of breakaway's.

After Toronto went up three games to none in the Final on the third straight shutout from "Ulcers" McCool, Coach Hap Day was quoted; "The four youngsters with the team-Gus Bodnar, Ted Kennedy, Elwyn Morris and of course Frank McCool - have risen to great heights." Toronto would go on to win the Cup in seven, almost blowing a three game lead.

The following season, Morris got into 38 games with Leafs, scoring a goal and 5 helpers. He would then settle into eight solid years in the AHL and was traded to New York Rangers and played 18 games with them in 1948/49. In December of that year he was traded to Providence of the AHL in a deal that brought future Leaf defenceman Allan Stanley to the NHL.

Bill Cowley and the lost 100 point season.

2011-09-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

The 1943/44 NHL season had the highest goals per game average in modern history. The 8.167 goals per match was higher even than the 8.025 of 1981/82. During this season Boston's Herb Cain set the record for points in a season with 82 besting the 73 shared by Cooney Weiland and Doug Bentley. Cain's teammate Bill Cowley would have most likely shattered even this number if not for a mid-season injury. In fact, Cowley was on pace to be the first to score 100 points almost a quarter century before Phil Esposito did it for the first time.

Cowley had in fact just the previous season got within one point of the single season points record when he scored 72 over a full season. He began the 1943/44 season in fine if unspectacular fashion with 14 points in his first 8 games.

Dec. 3, 1943
13gp-4g-18a-22pts

At this point, the media started to realize there may be some scoring records set this season. The Montreal Gazette on Dec. 4, 1943 stated; “Unless Bill Cowley and Modere (Mud) Bruneteau start slowing down at all intersections, two scoring standards will be shattered when the NHL completes it's 4 ½ month schedule next March.” Cowley's 18 assists in 13 games was well ahead of his own record pace of 45 from 1940/41. " As well, Mud Bruneteau had scored 15 goals in 11 games to that point, threatening the all-time mark of 44 by Joe Malone.

Dec.18, 1943
18gp-11g-25a-36pts

The Edmonton Journal was one of the first media outlets to talk of a possible 100 point season; "Ott Heller's prediction that Bill Cowley would score more than 100 points in 1943/44 NHL competition seems to have been something more than a shot in the dark. With little more than seven weeks of the 4 ½ month schedule completed, Cowley has collected 36 points."

Dec 23, 1943
20gp-14g-26a-40pts

100 points of course would require a two points per game pace over the entire 50 game campaign and Cowley was still scoring at that rate as Christmas approached. Uncharacteristically Cowley had really upped his goal scoring rate during this time with 10 goals and "only" 8 assists in his last 7 games.

Dec 28, 1943
22gp-16g-29a-45pts

As the new year loomed Cowley finally broke through the 2 Pts/Game pace. He seemed assured of breaking the single season points record. It all came crashing down four games later in Toronto as stated in Montreal Gazette headline from Jan.11; "SHOULDER INJURY TO SHATTER HOPES, Unable to Top Weiland Mark Now. Bill Cowley, Boston Bruins’ centre star who, up until Saturday night had a great chance to surpass the present all-time scoring record, saw his hopes fade away at Toronto Saturday night, when a separated shoulder injury put him on the shelf for at least four or five weeks."

Jan 9, 1944
26gp-19g-33a-52pts

Perhaps frustrated with the loss of his superstar, Boston coach Art Ross fired acqusations of intent to injure at Leaf centre Jack McLean. He was quoted in the Toronto Star on Jan 11; "Ross said McLean 'was the central figure in a mass attack carefully designed to put Cowley out of business.' Ross also warned the Leafs to 'bring plenty of reserves into Boston.' When the Leafs travel to Boston January 18. It was believed that McLean would be unable to make the trip to Boston with the team, because of his student duties here. "

Toronto GM Frank Selke replied to the charges and is quoted in the Calgary Herald the next day; " 'I'm afraid Arthur is building this up for Boston consumption,' was the only comment of Frank Selke, Toronto Maple Leafs in his reply to screams from Art Ross of Bruins, that his Bill Cowley had been deliberately put out of commission. Telling how he was injured Cowley merely said; 'I was going around the south goal and McLean was checking me. He eased me into the boards. I felt my shoulder pain and skated directly off.' Cowley had nothing to say when told that Ross had termed it a savage and deliberate attack. "

Fortunately when Toronto paid a return visit to Boston on Jan. 18, the threats of retaliation from Art Ross and the Bruins failed to materialize. Leafs won 7-2 and Toronto veteran Lorne Carr tallied a hat trick and an assist to climb past Cowley for the scoring lead.

Cowley would return from the shoulder injury on Feb.13 against Detroit in a game which he failed to register a point. The Associated Press tells; "The loss of Bill Cowley, veteran centre, for another week to 10 days was announced tonight by the Boston Bruins management. He now is suffering from water on the knee, which resulted from a bumping with Flash Hollett, his former teammate, in Sunday’s game here with the Detroit Red Wings. That was Cowley’s first start in five weeks, since he suffered a shoulder separation in Toronto."

He did indeed return ten days after the knee injury to play in an exhibition game on Feb. 23. Boston played Cowley's hometown Ottawa Amateur Commandos in nation's capital. Cowley proved he was healthy in collecting five points. Coach Ross commented on his squad's chances of catching Toronto, Detroit or Chicago for a playoff spot; “A great deal depends on Cowley, “ he admitted. “ If Bill is right for the rest of the schedule, if he can shake off that knee injury, I imagine we’ll be all right.”

Mar.1, 1944
28gp-20g-35a-55pts

Cowley returned against the Leafs on Feb. 29 scoring a goal and two helpers. By March 7 he had returned to the 2 points per game rate with 4 goals and 7 points in the next 3 matches.

Mar.7, 1944
31gp-24g-38a-62pts

He continued his torrid goal pace with 6 goals and 9 points in the final 5 games of the season. Overall, Cowley notched 10 goals in his last 8 matches and finished with a Point/Game average of 1.97. This would stand as the modern record until Wayne Gretzky topped 2.00/game in 1980/81.

Final Stats
36gp-30g-41a-71pts

Perhaps a chance at the first ever 100 point season in history was lost with Cowley's injury in January. He seemed well able to maintain his scoring pace throughout his injury plagued year, never really having a slump.

Darryl Sittler; The Mother of all Breakout Games

2011-09-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I discussed Darryl Sittler's amazing 10 point night on February 7, 1976. I noted that the game represented a breakout of sorts in Sittler's overall career arc. Upon further inspection, Feb. 7, 1976 indeed appears as a dramatic stepping stone to a new level of performance for Sittler.

1975/76 was his sixth season in the NHL and after two developing years to start his career he became a nice point per game centreman. Over Sittler's third through fifth seasons, he produced 1.06 points per game. In 1975/76 up until Feb 7, he had continued along at 1.04 points per game. However, since the new year of 1976, Sittler had actually slowed down his production to pedestrian standards. Over the 17 games leading up to his explosive night, he had a mere 13 points.

The Toronto media was calling for the Maple Leafs to aquire a "top scoring" centre if they had any hope of contending. The truth is, the media may very well have had a point. Over the three previous seasons there were ten NHL centres that scored points at a higher rate than Sittler.

Sittler actually made reference to the criticism after his magical evening of Feb. 7 stating to the media, "I wonder if they're still looking for a centre?" Although it would take Sittler the next seven games to collect his next ten points, Feb.7, 1976 did end up being a drastic step to the upper echelon for Darryl Sittler. In his final 28 games of 75/76 including Feb.7 he notched 47 points. He would continue scoring points at a new level over the next five years as he was bested by only Marcel Dionne and Bryan Trottier in points per game.

It's either quite a coincidence or a statement of fact that Feb. 7, 1976 proved to be dramatic turning point in the career of Darryl Sittler. In my opinion, the numbers are overwhelming that this historic game gave Sittler the confidence and knowledge that he was indeed in the upper echelon of NHL centremen.

Oddball Hockey Memorabillia

2011-09-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

When I first started the Hockey Den, I intended it as a showcase for my hockey collection and it has since evolved into more of an analysis of hockey history and statistics. In fact I am indeed always adding memorabillia to the Den, and yesterday I picked up some nice oddball stuff.

Above and below are cards from Lipton Soup issued in 1974. Bobby Hull in the original Jets jersey is a fairly rare card, and I love the photo of the rookie year Borje Salming sprawling to block a shot.

The next one is a 1983 issue from the Hockey Hall of Fame picturing Cyclone Taylor. This was back at the time that the Hockey Hall shared a building with the Canadian Sports Hall on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition. Pretty much every time I visited the CNE for the fair or for a Blue Jays game, I would go to both Halls. If I recall, they were free admission, times sure have changed.

These next two are part of a sticker set put out in 1974 by Loblaw's a grocery store chain in Canada. The Orr goes for about $20 on ebay.

This next one I find very interesting. It's from a series called Bulgaria Sports Photos. This cigarette card was issued in 1932 and pictures I believe two German teams. As far as I can decipher (with google translator) the teams are Zeheldorfer Wespen (Wasps) and Charlottenburger. The Wasps were victorious 2 to 0. This card appears to fetch at least $100, which is cool as I paid 10 for it.

Charlie Simmer, Two of the Greatest Goal seasons...almost

2011-09-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

Charlie Simmer had two of the greatest back-to-back goal scoring seasons in NHL history...just about. In 1979/80 he scored 56 times in 64 games to tie for the league lead and the next year he matched it and played only one more game. Both years were marred by long-term injuries.

In 79/80 he threatened to equal Rocket Richard's mark of 50 goals in 50 games a year before Mike Bossy would do it. That year, Simmer had 36 goals through the first 40 games but injured his right knee ligaments on Jan. 9 and missed the next 15 games. Upon his return he ripped off 11 goals in his next 10 games to get to 47 goals in his first 50 games. In fact his scoring average before the injury was 0.900/game and afterwards was 0.833 (20 goals in 24 games). His season-long Goals/Game of 0.88 was only the 7th time since 1930 a player scored at that rate and works out to a 70 goal pace over 80 games.

The next season, Simmer was just as good...and just as injury bitten. He had 56 goals in 65 games until March 3, 1981 when he broke his leg. In an attempt to check Toronto's Borje Salming, Simmer lost his balance and fell to the ice with his leg doubled-up under his body. The fractured tibia kept him out for the remainder of the year. His 0.86 Goals/Game pace translates to a 69 goal full season.

Somewhat surprisingly, Simmer's two seasons were only the second time since 1930 that a player scored at least 0.85 Goals/Game in consecutive years. Phil Esposito had rates of 0.97 and 0.87 in 70/71 and 71/72. Since Simmer did it, only four other players have ever done it. Wayne Gretzky scored at least 0.85 Goals/Game in four straight years, Jari Kurri did it in 84/85 and 85/86, Mario Lemieux three in a row from 86/87 thru 88/89 and Brett Hull three in a row from 89/90 thru 91/92.

Simmer would never be quite the same after the broken leg, coming back in 81/82 with 15 goals in 50 games, then 29 in a full following season. In 83/84 he did score 44 goals but never reached the heights of 1980 and 1981 again. These two seasons do however stand with some of the best goal scoring years of all-time.

David Krejci, Improbable Playoff Goal Leader

2011-09-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

The NHL playoff Goal Leader for 2011 was Boston's David Krejci who tallied 12 times. During the regular campaign he scored only 13 times over 75 games. This is one of the lowest regular season goal totals for a player that would go on to lead the playoffs in goal scoring of all-time.

Prior to Krejci, the most recent unlikely playoff goal leader would have to be Edmonton's Fernando Pisani with 14 in 2006 after a regular season of 18 goals. Krejci just about accomplished a rare feat of scoring as many or more goals in the playoffs than he did in the regular season. This in fact did happen three times over four years in the mid-1990's, mainly due to the fact that the players had played far less than the full amount of regular season games.

Sergei Fedorov led the playoffs in goals with 10 in 1998 after scoring only 6 in 21 regular season games. In both 1997 and 1995 Claude Lemiuex led each playoff with 13 goals, during seasons which he scored only 11 and 6 goals. However he only played 45 games each season due to injuries. As well, in 1993 Wayne Gretzky led the playoffs with 15 goals in a season which he only scored 16 times; he like Lemieux however had played in only 45 games during the season.

In reality it has been over 50 years since a playoff goal leader had even close to his regular season goal total in a year which he didn't miss a significant amount of games.
In 1959, Montreal's Marcel Bonin led in playoff goals with 10 after scoring only 13 in the season. Even Bonin though missed 13 regular season matches, playing in 57.

In 1953, Boston's Ed Sanford scored 8 playoff goals to lead the NHL after potting only 14 during the season, he as well though missed 9 of the 70 scheduled games. Hank Goldup of Toronto equalled Fedorov and Lemieux's low of 6 regular season goals for a playoff leader. Rookie Goldup led with 5 playoff goals but had played less than half the season with the Leafs in scoring his 6 goals.

It seems it's safe to say that David Krejci would have to be the most improbable playoff goal leader in modern times (post 1940) barely narrowing out Pisani for the "title".

Big Minus Cup Finalists

2011-09-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

The 2011 Stanley Cup Finals between Vancouver and Boston was certainly one of the strangest in history. It produced the worst Plus/Minus number by a player who sucessfully got to the Cup Finals. In truth, Canuck Christian Ehrhoff merely tied the record of -13 set by Luc Robitaille in 1993. Ehrhoff played 23 of Vancouver's 25 games on his way to equaling the unwanted record.

Canuck captain Henrik Sedin checked in with a -11 mark which is the second worse rating for a Cup Finals participant since +/- became an official statistic. The only two other players to make it to a Final while sporting a -10 rating was Florida's Scott Mellanby in 1996 and Boston's Don Sweeney in 1990.

How rare is it for a player to get to the Finals and have even a -7 rating over the playoffs? Since 1984 it's been done by only 13 players.

If the threshold is raised to a -5 rating, even that is a rare number for a player who made it to the Cup Final. As some solice for the five Canucks who were at least -5 last year (Oreskovich, Glass and Daniel Sedin the others) there have been some big name Finalists in the past that were saddled with a poor minus. In 1984 Denis Potvin and Bobby Nystrom of the Islanders both sported -5 ratings enroute to a Cup loss to Edmonton. The following year Flyer Peter Zezel also went -5, then Calgary's Joel Otto did it in '86. Of course all of these lost the Cup. In 1991 Brian Bellows had a -6 and Bobby Smith a -5 during the unsuccessful Minnesota Cup run.

In 1992 Pittsburgh's Jiri Hrdina somehow clocked a -6 rating in "helping" the Pens to a Cup win. Rob Niedermayer is the only player to have done ths more than once. In 1996 for the Panthers he was -8 and in 2003 for the Ducks he was -5, his team lost the Cup in each of those years.

Leafs , Blue Jays and Team Unit

2011-08-29T22:50:00.000-07:00

The above photo was uploaded to Twitter by Phoenix Coyote, Paul Bissonnette after an outing at Toronto's Roger Centre. He and about a dozen other NHLers took part in batting practice with a few of the Toronto Blue Jays. Pictured left to right are Phil Kessel, J.P.Arencebia, Brett Lawrie, Bissonette, Tyler Bozak and Cody Franson.

Apparently the boys from the Leafs and the Jays have become fairly chumy. Tyler Bozak posted a photo of the shwag he picked up at the dome. A signed jersey and bats from Arencebia and Lawrie, all with a notation "Team Unit". This seems to be a nickname for the group of young athletes representing Toronto's two main major sports squads. They all tag their twitter comments with it as they support each other's team.

Arencebia goes as far with this support as wearing a Leaf hat during Monday's post game interview. It seems that the cross-team boosterism on Twitter has begun annoying at least one of their teammates. After a Jays victory on Monday, Bozak Tweeted to Arencebia (who went 3 for 4 at the plate), "Sick game. I guess I have to come to the barn every game day now." It was of course tagged with a "teamunit". Bozak's teammate Joffrey Lupul soon after Tweeted, "Hey Bozie, Arencebia get each others phone numbers. You're filling up my timeline..." Arencebia quickly replied, "Don't worry ur part of the unit." Sounds like some secret society these guys are part of....frankly, I'm glad NHL training camps start in just over two weeks.

Great Seasons, Cut Short. Crosby sure was having a nice year.

2011-08-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

We all know that Sidney Crosby was having a fantastic season last year before he got his bell wrung at the Winter Classic. He missed the entire second half of 2010/11 and his prospects for returning anytime soon are still up in the air. Despite playing in exactly half of his team's games Crosby amazingly finished tied for 14th place in NHL goal scoring.

The question is, was that unprecedented? Has anyone ever finished that high in overall goal scoring while missing at least half of their games? Below is a list of players who missed a major part of a season yet still finished in at least the top 15 in goal scoring.

Having a fine season cut short by injury was a regular occurence for Mario Lemieux. In 2000/01 he managed to finish tied for 19th in goals despite playing only 43 of 82 games. Three times in four years he still finished in the top ten while playing between 59 and 64 games each year.

Probably the greatest recent season that was shortened by injury was by Cam Neely in 1993/94. That was the year he scored 50 goals in 49 games and finished tied for 8th in league scoring.

In 1966/67 Paul Henderson managed to finish in a tie for 14th in NHL goal scoring yet played in only 46 of 70 games. Still, well over half of the scheduled games. Bernie Geoffrion played 42 of 70 games in 1957/58 yet still finished 9th in goal scoring.

The most similar case to Crosby last season was Sweeney Schriner in 1944/45. He played 26 of 50 games and still placed 13th in scoring. Mind you the league was much smaller and there was only 117 players in the NHL that year, but 13th place in goals is still impressive while playing just over half the games.

We have to look all the way back to the dawn of the NHL to find a case like Crosby last season. In 1919/20 Thomas McCarthy of the Quebec Bulldogs played in exactly half of the 24 games and was still 14th in NHL goal scoring....exactly the same as Sid. In 1919/20 of course, there was only 40 players in the entire league. The same thing actually happened in each of the previous two seasons. Joe Malone actually played LESS than half of Quebec's games in 1918/19 yet still finished tied for 13 in goals.

Needless to say, Crosby's season was indeed one for the ages, even while missing half of it.

Playoffs...finally?

2011-08-19T16:17:00.000-07:00

The Toronto Maple Leafs are improving. That is a fact. A team that hasn't made the post-season since the lockout really has no choice but improve. Over the last few seasons they have annually made a surge near the end of the season once they had been written off from the playoff race. Last year the run started earlier and lasted longer. From Jan. 1, 2011 to the end of the season, Toronto went 24-15-7 for 55 points in 46 games. Over a full season, this 98 point pace would just about guarantee a playoff spot. Individual scoring was as follows:

The bottom three on the list are the main off-season aquisitions and their stats from Jan 1 onward. The above numbers projected over a full 82 game season are below:

Of course, the problem with doing this is most players will not play every game of the season. Sure it would be nice if Toronto produced seven different players tallying 50 points each, but the reality is only one team last year did that last season, San Jose.

The truth is all the scoring in the world doesn't really matter, the main factor in determining Toronto's playoff chances is the goaltending of James Reimer.

Grant Fuhr and the 14 Assist Season

2011-08-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

1983/84 was right in the middle of the era of "fire-wagon" era of hockey history. 12 different players had at least 100 points, 8 scored 50 goals and Gretzky had 87 goals in 74 games. Also, Oiler goaltender Grant Fuhr recorded 14 assists.

Fuhr's own partner Andy Moog collected a mere 1 assist in 38 games played and Oiler Centre Pat Conacher (who also played 45 games) finished 4 points back. The next most ever by a goalie in one season is 9 by Curtis Joseph in 1991/92.

Below is the log of each of Fuhr's assists during that season.
Only two of the assists came while Edmonton was on the powerplay and 10 of them came in the first or second periods. Most of Fuhr's points were during important stages of the game and not during blow-outs (of which the Oilers had many). 9 of his 14 helpers were when the game had no more than a two goal advantage for either team.

Over the course of the 83/84 season, Fuhr out-pointed each of the following players:
(GP-G-A-Pts)

Steve Konroyd, Calg. 80-1-13-14

Joel Queneville, Hart. 80-5-8-13

Jean Hamel, Mont. 79-1-12-13

Marty Howe, Hart. 69-0-11-11

Pat Conacher, Edm. 45-2-8-10

Marty McSorley, Pit. 72-2-7-9

Ed Hospodar, Hart. 59-0-9-9

Paul Woods, Det. 57-2-5-7

Dave Lewis, NJ. 66-2-5-7

Colin Campbell, Det. 68-3-4-7

Mike Kitchen, NJ. 43-1-3-4

Jim Kyte, Win. 58-1-2-3

Dave Hutchison, Tor. 47-0-3-3

Jim Schoenfeld, Bos. 39-0-2-2

Grant Fuhr single-handedly ourscored half of the Hartford Whalers defense core in his truely amazing season.

Three Teammates tie for League Scoring Title

2011-08-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

The Okanagan Senior Hockey League of 1951/52 consisted of four teams; Penticton Vees, Vernon Canadians, Kelowna Packers and Kamloops Elks. The circuit was one of the top senior leagues in Canada and would eventally produce Allan Cup champions Penticton in 1954 and Vernon in 1956. The league was peppered with players who had played or would soon play in the NHL including Kelowna's Phil Hergesheimer who'd played five seasons mainly with Chicago, 1942 Calder Trophy winner Grant Warwick with Penticton, Kelowna's Val Fonteyne and Penticton's Connie Madigan.

The 51/52 regular season belonged to the Kamloops Elks who had 36 wins against 14 losses and finished 18 points up on second place Vernon. The most amazing feat of the season however was the fact that the Elks top line finished in a three-way tie for the OSHL scoring title. Pictured above (left to right) Left Wing John Miliard, Centre Bernie Bathgate and Right Wing Andy Clovechok all finished the 50 game season with 79 points. Clovechok scored 45 goals, Miliard 32 and Bathgate 27.

Andy Clovechok and Bernie Bathgate had played together since the mid-1940s with the PCHL Vancouver Canucks and the WCSHL Edmonton Flyers. 1952 was the third occaison that Clovechok had led a league in goals and points having scored 56 goals with Vancouver in '46 and 41 goals with Edmonton in '49. According to the Society for International Hockey Research all three of them are alive to this day. John Miliard is 84, Bernie Bathgate is 88 and Andy Clovechok is 87.

Indeed, this may very well have been the one and only time in hockey history that three teammates sharing a league scoring lead. If anyone knows of another occaison, please share.

1984 Vezina, Closest Vote Ever?

2011-08-07T22:42:00.000-07:00

The early 1980's were hardly the glory days of NHL goaltending. Aside from the fact that goals were being scored at a ridiculous rate, the league was in somewhat of a dry spell when it came to great goaltenders. The 1970's had all-time greats Tony Esposito, Bernie Parent and Ken Dryden, and the early 80's were led by the likes of Grant Fuhr, Billy Smith and Pete Peeters. From there however the drop off was drastic. The names Liut, Millen, Bouchard, Bannerman, Meloche, Stefan, Soetaert and Hanlon were fine enough goaltenders, but were hardly all-time greats.

In 1983/84 there emerged another name, Tom Barrasso. Jumping right in as an 18 year old high school grad he won the Calder and Vezina trophies that year. The voting for the Vezina was as follows: Total Voting Pts, (1st, 2nd, 3rd)

Tom Barrasso, Buffalo 42 (4-6-4)
Rejean Lemelin, Calgary 39 (5-4-2)
Pat Riggin, Washington 37 (5-3-3)
Al Jensen, Washington 37 (4-5-2)

Four guys within 5 voting points of each other with Lemelin and Riggin each actually receiving more first place votes than Barrasso. In the voting for the end of year All Stars Barrasso beat Riggin 141 to 131 with Lemelin collecting 104 voting points and Jensen 100.

The four guys numbers were obviously fairly close to each other: GP-W-L-T-SvPct-GAA

Barrasso 42-26-12-3 .893 2.84
Lemelin 51-21-12-9 .893 3.50
Riggin 41-21-14-2 .890 2.66
Jensen 43-25-13-3 .882 2.91

Absent from the top four in voting were the Oilers Grant Fuhr who went 30-10-4 .883 3.91, Bob Froese of the Flyers with 28-13-7 .887 3.14 and Quebec's Dan Bouchard who went 29-18-8 .887 3.20. The top four had between 21 and 26 wins, and a Save Pct between .882 and .893. The main explanation for Lemelin's higher GAA is the fact that Calgary played against the record seting Edmonton Oilers five more times than either Washington or Buffalo did. The fact that the Flames went 0-7-1 and were outscored 53 to 29 in those games didn't help Lemelin's numbers.

It's safe to say Barrasso's story of making the jump from High School to the NHL probably played a factor in the voting but he probably was the correct choice.

Hockey Mystery Photo #3

2011-07-28T14:26:00.001-07:00

Time for a quick one. This should be fairly easy as the Kansas City Scouts existed for only two seasons 1974/75 and 75/76. The game is obviously taking place in Montreal as the Canadiens are wearing their whites. Guy Lafleur and Pete Mahovlich are easily identified and don't help narrow it down as they played just about every game over those two years.

The Kansas City player at the top of the image has a "2" on his back and a "1" on the left elbow. Number 21 on the Scouts was Norm Dube and Phil Roberto. The 21 in the photo shoots Left, Roberto shot Right, Dube Left. Dube did play one game in the second year of the Scouts, but it looks like this is from the 1974/75. Number 5 on Kansas City was Brent Hughes the first season and Gery Bergman in the second season. Now, unless Bergman had a Bobby Hull-like hair transformation, that's not him in this picture. Bergman was cue-ball bald for years by the mid-1970's and in fact in his year with the Scouts he wore a Denis Potvin style helmet. The card of Brent Hughes below does resemble the number 5 in our photo. This pic has to be from 1974/75.

Now we get to a slight dead-end. Kansas City visited Montreal on two occaisons this season. They lost 7-2 on Dec.28, 1974 and again 4-1 on March 29, 1975. Nothing else in the photo allows us to differentiate between the games. During the March 29th game, Lafleur notched his 50th goal of the campaign at he 14:04 mark of the first. One of the assists went to Pete Mahovlich. This could very well be the instant were The Flower records his first of six consecutive 50 goal seasons.
For our purposes and for the sake of drama, let's say that's whats going on in this mystery image.

17 year old Gretzky almost played in Sweden?

2011-07-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

"At the moment, I would consider it very unlikely that I play four more years of junior hockey before turning pro. The NHL rules now say I can't be drafted before then, but if and when I'm ready for the pros I want to be sure I can go." This was a 16 year old Wayne Gretzky, quoted in the Jan. 3, 1978 Montreal Gazette.

Gretzky stated himself that he figured he'd need only one more year of junior hockey. "to grow physically and learn a little more about hockey. He added "But after that I don't know what will be left to learn. By then I would have a reputation and I think I would be a sitting duck for other players out to make a reputation for themselves at my expense. I do't want that to happen. There's just too much chance an injury could finish me off before I ever get a chance at the pros."

In 1978 the NHL draft eligible age was 20 years, so there really were few options for an 18 year old player. He could follow other underagers Mark Napier, Wayne Dillon, John Tonelli and Ken Linseman to the WHA, but there was apparently another option... Sweden.

Gretzky figured Sweden, if all else fails, could provide the next-best solution of what to do at the age of 18 or 19. "I could just go over there and play with one of their major-league teams for a couple of years. The risk of injury wouldn't be so great and it would be a good learning experience for my hockey skills. I could play over there for two years and then come back to the NHL when I was eligible."

Just imagine if Gretzky had went to play the 78/79 and 79/80 seasons for Farjestads with and against the likes of Hakan Loob, Thomas Steen and Mats Naslund. Of course, he did opt for the WHA route one year sooner than even he expected, and the NHL eentually instituted the under-age draft allowing 18 year olds to play.

Mystery Hockey Photo #2

2011-07-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

Time for another mystery hockey photo. This one shows the New York Islanders visiting Detroit. Clearly pictured is Bryan Trottier and Billy Smith of the Isles and Paul Woods and Claude Loiselle of the Wings. In front of Woods is an Islander who's name ends in "EN" and has either number 2 or 7 on his helmet.

The Wings are sporting jerseys with fancy-style numbers, and thanks to http://www.nhluniforms.com/RedWings/RedWings14.html we find that they wore these only for the 1982/83 season. A look at the records shows the Isles visiting Detroit twice during the season on Nov. 3 and Dec. 8. The rosters for each game are unavailable but Billy Smith played in both matches, so that doesn't narrow it down.

Claude Loiselle played in only 18 games this season, and a quick search allows us to pinpoint the game in this photo.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=G2Q_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=nVMMAAAAIBAJ&dq=claude%20loiselle%20wings&pg=2018%2C1993793

Loiselle was apparently sent back to his junior team in Windsor on Nov. 23, 1982. His total games played to that point, 18. Therefore, he could not have played in the game against the Isles in December. The game in the photo then is from Nov. 3, 1982 a game that saw Detroit tie New York 3-3.

The Islander player in front of Woods is Mike McEwen who wore number 2 and 16 that year. Stefan Persson wore number 7, but the name in the photo definitely ends in "EN".

Another hockey photo mystery solved.

Mystery Hockey Photos

2011-07-18T20:29:00.000-07:00

My pal (and fellow hockey nerd) Jeremy was asked by another friend on facebook about the above photo. He was asked to figure out where it was from. He grabbed me via chat and asked for some assistance and we went back and forth for the next half hour. The strange thing about the photo was it's poor quality and the fact that the photo itself was apparently found in Russia.

The only clearly identified player is Ken Dryden and not his brother Dave. The number 29 is a dead giveaway, a quick check shows Dave only ever wore numbers 1, 28 and 30 in his career. The first instinct says the photo is from the 1979 Challenge Cup series which pitted the NHL stars against the Soviet National squad. The front of the jersey's of Dryden's team are fairly blurry but they very well could be the NHL crest from the '79 series. And that dark sweatered #24 on the left sure looks like Sergei Makarov. However, if this was the Challenge Cup, why the extremely poor quality of the pic? Also there appears to be a low-hanging light above the ice which suggests it wouldn't be Madison Square Garden.

Jeremy suggested if indeed it was taken in Russia, it could have been the 1969 Izvestia Tournament. A pre-NHL Dryden and Canada tied The Soviets 2-2 on Dec.4, 1969 in Moscow. Alas, a quick search produced a photo verified to be from that game. There doesn't appear to be any "Canada" lettering in our mystery photo, and the stripes on the white jersey elbows and legs don't match.

The dark team in the mystery photo really does look like the Soviets with the just barely recognizeable "diamond" pattern around the bottom of the jersey. Below is a late 70's/1980 era Makarov shot. That certainly could be him in the mystery pic.

So how exactly did the striping appear on the 1979 NHL Challenge Cup jerseys? See below, it's a match. Also, in the mystery shot Dryden seems to have a small patch on his left shoulder which indeed the 1979 NHL stars has as well (in other photos, not visible below).

The crazy thing is that the last photo of Dryden could very well be the exact 180 degree opposite view of the mystery one, check out his arm positioning. After watching a few youtube clips of the Challenge Cup, we determined that the advertising on the boards left of Dryden (Planters peanuts sign) does in fact match up with Madison Square. The final piece of the puzzle would be filling in the players whose number can be made out. Team NHL #4 was Barry Beck and #18 was Serge Savard, and both do in fact shoot Left as in the photo. The video evidence shows that yes, they even played as partners in the series. The guy above Savard's left shoulder is either #22, 23 or 27. Shutt, Gainey or Sittler. The first and last guys wore helmets in the series, so that has to be a #23 and Bob Gainey.

The only thing we failed to determine was whether this was from Game One or Two of the series. All the identified players played in each of the first two games (Gerry Cheevers played game Three for the NHL). We came to the conclusion that the photo was indeed taken at Madison Square Garden, perhaps by a Russian tourist which explains it's ending up in the Motherland. We imagine the poor quality can be explained by the simple fact that it was an old Russian camera and probably not up to par with the standards of 1979 North American ones. That light in the photo hanging low above the ice, we figure is merely a reflection from behind the viewer.

On to the next mystery! I have now gone in search online of unidentified hockey action photos to try to figure out what their origin is. Below is a New York Islanders vs Detroit Red Wings game from the early 1980's which I will delve into in the near future.

Game Report; Boston at Montreal Maroons, Mar. 4, 1926

2011-07-12T22:22:00.000-07:00

I often purchase old programs either in person from dealers or on ebay, and during the process of searching for them I come across many old gems. I like to find out what exactly happened during the actual game that these programs were issued for, and what other circumstances surrounded the match. Pictured above is the cover for when Boston visited the Montreal Maroons in early March of 1926 (No, I don't actually have this one).

Coming into the match, Maroons sat in second place and Boston was 7 points in arrears. The Bruins did however hold down the third and final playoff spot by one point over Pittsburgh Pirates with two weeks remaining in the season. The Maroons were led by the legendary Nels Stewart who would end up leading the NHL with 36 goals and winning the Hart Trophy. They also had Hall of Famers Reg Noble, Babe Seibert, Punch Broadbent, and Clint Benedict in goal. Boston boasted two players who would finish second and third in goals behind Stewart in Carson Cooper and Jimmy Herberts. They also had Lionel Hitchman and 35 year old future Hall of Famer Sprague Cleghorn patrolling the blueline. In goal, Boston had relative unkown Charles "Doc" Stewart. This was Stewart's only fulltime year in the NHL and he had played nine of the previous years in the OHA Senior circuit.

The Maroons started the game about as well as they could have hoped with 2 goals before two minutes had elapsed, both short-handed. The Montreal Gazette describes the plays,"Boston's aspirations were shocked early in the game. The Maroons were off with a dash....Babe Seibert hurled by Sprague Cleghorn and flipped the puck behind the Boston goalie...it took the 9,000 spectators a moment to realize the Maroons were away to a lead. Their cheers were reaching a peak when Nelson Stewart took the puck from the faceoff and, eluding Boston's defence, duplicated Seibert's play."

Boston would pull within one with a little more than three minutes left in the first as Carson Cooper banged in a rebound. "Cleghorn and Hitchman took a grip on the defensive end, and 'Sailor' Jim Herberts and Carson Cooper started to take the ofensive play away from the Maroons," described the Gazette. "Halfway through the middle session Herberts climaxed an untiring performance by driving a sizzling shot from outside the defence which Benedict failed to see". The winner was scored by Herberts "tearing between the Maroon defence, which had been split wide, had Benedict at his mercy to count the winning goal."

The Gazette wraps up it's description of the affair with talk of the penalties called in the game. "Sailor Herberts was marked not only for his clever play, but for his rugged tactics...he took matters into his own hands and gave Dinsmore the boards and took a penalty...Reg Noble came in for a flock of minors (he got three, I suppose that's a flock), one for clipping Cooper over the head, a blow which stunned the Boston wing for a moment." Sounds like quite the spirited game.

Unfortunately for the Bruins, their one point lead on Pittsburgh would not hold up by season's end and the Pirates snagged the last playoff spot. Pittsburgh won three of the last four games including a back-breaking 2-1 overtime win over the Bruins in the second to last game of the year.

As feisty as the games were 80-plus years ago, the players were indeed much smaller than today as seen in the program listings below.

The Curious Case of Dave T(h)omlinson

2011-07-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

Dave Tomlinson played in the NHL in the early 1990's with the Toronto, Winnipeg and Florida.
Dave Thomlinson played in the NHL in the early 1990's with St.Louis, Boston and Los Angeles.

No big deal really, two guys with almost identical names playing in the NHL. In the 1970's there was Jim Jones and Jimmy Jones, but Jim played a mere 2 games with the Golden Seals and Jimmy played 148 for Toronto. There was of course the Greg Adams'. Greg D. Adams played 545 NHL games scoring 227 points while Greg C. Adams played 500 more games than his namesake and scored more than 500 more points.

The thing with the Dave's Tomlinson and Thomlinson is the eerie similarity of their career numbers.

Dave Tomlinson played 42 NHL games.
Dave Thomlinson played 42 NHL games.

Dave Tomlinson scored 1 NHL goal.
Dave Thomlinson scored 1 NHL goal.

Dave Tomlinson tallied 3 NHL assists.
Dave Thomlinson tallied 3 NHL assists.

Dave Tomlinson had a +/- of -15.
Dave Thomlinson had a +/- of -16.

Dave Tomlinson had 36 shots on goal.
Dave Thomlinson had 35 shots on goal.

AHA! They aren't clones.
I'm not sure about you, but I find this coincidence amazing.

Dave Tomlinson was born in 1969 in North Vancouver, BC and played four years at Boston University. His last season with the Terriers he scored 30 goals and 30 assists in 41 games. After his stint in the NHL and the high minor leagues he played for 10 years in the German League before retiring at age 36. Tomlinson is currently the colour commentator on the Vancouver Canucks radio broadcasts.

Dave Thomlinson was born in 1966 in Edmonton, Alberta and played junior hockey with Brandon and (if I can read the card correctly) Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He played almost 300 more high-minor league games than Tomlinson and would retire five years earlier at age 31. Dave Thomlinson is currently a lawyer.

Incidentally over their respective AHL careers, Dave Thomlinson averaged 1.013 points per game and Dave Tomlinson 1.016 points per game. Crazy.

Mark Howe, The Last WHA Hall of Famer?

2011-06-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

I brought this question up in the hockey change room last night after another summer league win. Is Mark Howe the last Hall of Famer that will have played in the WHA? We tend to swing from very informed hockey discussions in the change room from Hall of Fame qualifications, possible signings and trades, various trivia I pull off the top of my head, Seinfeld, Happy Days, Good Fellas quotes and 20 year old drinking and dating stories. On this night though, the topic of the recent Hall inductees was the main one and my query about Howe being the last WHA veteran inducted was debated.

The first and only real obvious name that came up as possible future WHA Hall of Famers was Paul Henderson. Now, in reality Paul Henderson is probably not a Hall of Famer but his unbelievable week in Moscow in September of 1972 puts him at least in the discussion. Henderson is the only WHA veteran to have even a remote chance at the Hall. The truth is though there are a few WHA vets that are borderline Hall of Famers. In my opinion if Clark Gillies is in the Hall why not team mate John Tonelli?

Tonelli played 1252 comined games in the WHA and NHL and scored 389 goals and 986 points. He won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders and was MVP of the 1984 Canada Cup. I'd put him in over Gillies, easily. Another ex-WHA-er who wouldn't be out of place in the Hall is Ralph Backstrom. He was an integral piece of six Stanley Cup wins, played 1336 big league games and scored 378 goals and 892 points. Backstrom is a more qualified Hall of Famer than Bob Pulford or Dick Duff.

The best of the rest of ex-WHA players who will likely not be Hall of Fame worthy, but should at least be in the discussion: (combined NHL/WHA GP-G-A-Pts)

Bob Nevin 1141-310-421-731, 2 Cups
John McKenzie 1168-369-51-887, 2 Cups
Kent Nilsson 711-345-555-800, 1 Cup, 5 Intl. Tournaments 47-22-32-54
Vaclav Nedomansky 673-257-274-631, 11 Intl. Tournamnets 93-80-39-119
Marc Tardif 963-510-557-1067, 2 Cups
J.C. Tremblay 1248-123-664-787, 5 Cups
Ken Linseman 931-294-589-883, 1 Cup
Andre Lacroix 876-330-666-996
Anders Hedberg 751-408-447-855, 6 Intl. Tournaments 49-24-20-44
Real Cloutier 686-429-481-910
Mike Liut 325-310-78, 28 shutouts, 2.83 Adjusted GAA better than 6 goalies in the Hall.

So, it would appear that unless Paul Henderson ever gets in it is indeed very likely that Mark Howe will be the last WHA veteran to gain entry in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Gretzky and the quest for a 100 goal season.

2011-06-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

In the winter of 1981/82, the Wayne Grezky Legend exploded in earnest. This was the first time in NHL history in which there was serious talk of a player scoring 100 goals in a regular season. And I was a 10 year old Gretzky-idolizing, hockey stat loving kid. I was in my glory. Gretzky was coming off his first two NHL seasons with goal totals of 51 and 55, so nobody expected him to make a run at 100 in season three. Sure, he'd scored 28 goals in the last 29 games of 1980/81, but 100...come on.

Gretzky is quoted before the season by Terry Jones of the Edmonton Journal saying he was going to go for goals instead of assists. He said,"Lafleur advised me at the Canada Cup, to shoot more." Gretzky actually started off the season on a pedestrian 50 goal pace with 7 goals in his first 11 games. He notched 24 in his next 15 games to get to 31 in 26 overall games by Nov. 29 but then went goal-less in the next four to sit at 31 goals in 30 games. There was no talk of 100 goals but the 50 in 50 watch was in full stride. He notched one goal in each of the next four games to sit at 35 goals in 34 games heading to Minnesota on Dec. 19. Then he got really silly. A hat-trick against the North Stars was followed by 2 against Calgary and 1 against Vancouver to bring him to 41 goals in 37 games by Christmas. Breaking the record of 50 goals in 50 games set by Rocket Richard and tied by Mike Bossy the previous year seemed a certainty.

On Dec. 27 against Mario Lessard and the Los Angeles Kings he potted four to stand at 45 goals through 38 games. Three nights later of course, The Great One obliterated Richard and Bossy's record by scoring five against Philadelphia, the last one his 50th in 39 games. Even as a ten year old, that math was easy. The Oilers were one game shy of the halfway mark in the season, Gretzky was on pace for 100 goals (actually 103). And I wasn't the only one getting excited about it.

The Dec. 31 Edmonton Journal's headline proclaimed "I CAN DOUBLE EVERYTHING; GRETZKY FEELS HE CAN GET 100 GOALS THIS SEASON." Gretzky is quoted,"As long as the rest of the guys on the team keep playing the way they are playing, I think I'm capable of doubling what I've done so far." His room-mate Kevin Lowe noted, "Now he'll probably want to get 65 (goals) in 50 (games)". The Montreal Gazette on Jan. 2 headlined,"GRETZKY AIMS AT 100 GOALS AS ROCKET CHEERS HIM ON" Richard is quoted,"He's a natural scorer just like I was. There's no doubt he would have scored-not as many goals-in my day, but he would have been the best scorer in the league." And Mike Bossy himself chimed in with,"He seems on a course for a 100-goal season. And I think he can do it."

Although was held pointless in his 40th game against Vancouver his scoring line read a neat and tidy 50 goals through 40 games. He slumped for the next two weeks with only 7 goals in 8 games, (how ridiculous is that sentance in today's era of hockey?), and he fell to a 95 goal pace before scoring 3 against Gary Edwards and the St.Louis Blues. 4 goals in the next 5 games was followed by another hat-trick (against Rick St.Croix and the Flyers) to close out January. He now had 67 goals in 55 games, on pace for 98. Then came another slump of 3 in 5 games to drop the pace to 93 for the season.

Of course it was almost a given at this point that Gretzky would break Phil Esposito's NHL record of 76 goals in a season but talk of 100 had died down. Gretzky himself wasn't quite ready to concede though as he ripped off 12 goals in six games to close out February including hat-tricks against Hartford's Greg Millen and Buffalo's Don Edwards on the night he broke Espo's record. By the time March rolled around he had 82 in 66 games, full season pace...99 goals. He was asked about the possibility of scoring 100 goals and on March 1 is quoted,"I am getting a little bit excited now that it's getting close. Basically, because no one else has ever done it."
Then came a REAL slump...

From March 2 through March 13 Gretzky scored zero goals in 6 games while collecting 9 assists. He was stymied by the following goalies; Rick Walmsley of Montreal, Daniel Bouchard of Quebec, Chico Resch of Colorado, Mario Lessard of Los Angeles, Don Edwards of Buffalo and Rick Heinz of Vancouver. By March 14 Gretzky had 82 goals in 72 games. The pace was down to 91. When he finally did score a goal against L.A on March 15 he said afterwards," I'm paid to score goals. When you're not scoring goals you get concerned you're letting the team down. I've been getting lots of chances but the puck wasn't going in."

With his tenth hat-trick of the year on March 17 against Pittsburgh he broke another of Bossy's records. Penguins coach Eddie Johnston summed up the game saying, "If Gretzky's Irish, he had a hell of a night," in reference to St.Patricks Day, "Is it O'Gretzky?" Gretz himself addressed his probable falling short of 100 goals, "Maybe this year wasn't supposed to be my year to get 100 goals; maybe that will be something for me to aim for next year." He did however score 8 over this 4 game stretch through March 25 to get it to 90 in 76. Could he possibly score 10 in his final 4, 10 year old me pondered. He had in fact done exactly that from Dec.19 to Dec 27. And even had 10 goals in 3 games from Dec 23 to Dec 30. Alas, it was not to be.

He scored once on Colorado's Chico Resch on March 26 to reach 91 goals with three games left. On March 28, L.A.'s Doug Keans surrendered 4 goals on 7 shots to the Oilers in the first 11 minutes...none to Gretzky. He did however put one past Mike Blake later in the game. On March 31, Mario Lessard was beaten seven more times by Edmonton with Gretzky collecting three helpers and no goals. On the final night of the season, Winnipeg's Doug Soetaert shut down the Great One to keep him stuck on 92 goals.

The following season there was no talk of 100 goals as Gretzky took 25 games to score his first 20 and sat at 30 through 40 games. He'd pot 41 over the final 40 to finish at 71. In 83/84 he scored 30 in his first 30 then ripped off 22 in his next 13 to reach 52 in 43 games. His was now on pace for 97 goals. Of course he never really would have a chance at 100 as he injured his shoulder on a hit by the Kings Dave Taylor on Jan. 21. After aggravating the shoulder during the All-Star Game, Gretzky missed six straight games. Upon returning he potted 12 goals in his first 5 games to get to 73 goals in 57 games, an 80 game pace of 102. Problem was, Edmonton only had 17 games remaining. He would slow down to score 14 over that stretch and finished with 87 in 74 games, a full season pace of 94 goals.

Gretzky would never again threaten the 100 goal plateau. In 84/85 he scored 42 in the first half but finished with 73. The race for the single-season goal record and 100 goals in 1981/82 proved to be a rivetting and memorable event for a ten-year old hockey nut as well as the rest of the hockey world.

Old Man Lidstrom

2011-06-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

Of course Niklas Lidstrom is coming back for another year, why wouldn't he? He just completed a season in which he became the highest scoring 40 year old defenseman in NHL history. With 16 goals, 46 assists and 62 points he is the only d-man that old to score at least 60 points. Ten years previous, Ray Bourque tallied 59 points in his last season playing with Colorado.

The only two other 40+ year old defenders to reach even the 30 point plateau were Chris Chelios with 39 in 2001/02 and Rob Blake with 30 in 09/10. Prior to Bourque in 2001, the top scoring 40 or older blueliner season was way back in 1969/70. Tim Horton scored 28 points in 74 games while splitting the year between Toronto and the Rangers.

The only other two defensemen to score even 20 points in a 40 year old season were Doug Harvey and Doug Mohns. Harvey notched 22 points as a 44 year old in 68/69 with St.Louis in his final season and Mohns had 21 with Washington in 74/75 as a 41 year old.

Also, Lidstrom's 16 goals at age 40 are more than double the next best season. Only Blake and Bourque with 7 and Chelios with 6 bulged the twine more than 5 times as 40 year olds. In fact if you knock the age back to 35, 40 year old Lidstrom's 16 goals are surpassed only five times. Bourque had seasons of 18, 19 and 20 after age 35. Al MacInnis scored 20 at age 35 and Mathieu Schneider has the most goals after turning 35 with 21 in 2005/06.

Stanley Cup Post Mortem

2011-06-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well, as you can imagine it's been a crazy few days around Vancouver since my last post. What with Game Seven, the rioting idiots, designing a new Luongo T-shirt and the odd facebook debate with good friends about all of that...I finally have some time.

I won't hide the fact that I was happy to see the Canucks lose, especially in the manner they did. As a Leaf die-hard (I hate that term "die-hard", it's too easily thrown around when discussing ones fandom. My unwavering, undying support of the Leafs is unmatched by anyone I know with their favourite team. It really is all-consuming.) there was no way I wanted the Canucks to win a Cup in my lifetime before my Buds. It would have been thrown in my face, and held over me for years, until the Leafs win one....maybe for decades. Now, I have a collosal Canucks collapse to throw in the face of my rivals when need be. Some may say it's a case of "Schaedenfraude", pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. If that's the label, so be it, because it's true.

I try to be as impartial as can be in my research and analysis, and on many occaisons I have written of the exploits of various Canucks past and present. But, when it came down to Game Seven, I had to watch the game with the only other two like-minded pals I have. I have to admit, I was probably as nervous before that game than I would be if it was the Leafs trying for a Cup victory...(yeah, yeah I may never find out.) Needless to say, I was pleased with the outcome. Anyway, here's a few facts and thoughts;

Throughout the post-season, Tim Thomas Home/Road splits were Home; 1.78 GAA & .945 Sv% and Road 2.22 GAA & .934 Sv%., very comporable and balanced. Roberto Luongo's splits were; Home, 1.80 GAA & .939 Sv% and Road, 3.76 GAA & .878 Sv%. They were pretty much identical when on their home ice but Luongo saw his GAA more than double over 11 games on the road.

Henrik and Daniel Sedin were both slightly better performers on the road during the regular season yet during the post-season the difference was far more drastic and disturbing. On the road in 11 playoff games Henrik scored 2-11-13 and Daniel scored 4-8-12. At home however, they each dropped off drastically over 14 games, Hank to 1-8-9 and Daniel to 5-3-8. Is it a case of not coping with the pressure of the home crowd.

The Sedins were a combined -20 for the playoffs and -12 for the Finals.

In contrast, Brad Marchand improved dramatically from the regualr season to the playoffs. After a regular season in which he scored exactly twice as many goals on the road as at home (14-7), he was pretty much identical in the playoffs with 13-6-4-10 at home and 12-5-4-9 on the road.

After taking a three games to none lead on Chicago in the opening round, Vancouver won only 12 of their last 22 games. In those final 22 games, they scored 49 goals while surrendering 64. Even though they finished up 12 and 10 they averaged 2.23 goals for and 2.91 against.

More importantly, the Canucks became only the fifth team in history to lose a seven game final series after leading two games to none. The others are:

2009 Detroit held a 2-0 lead over Pittsburgh and lost 4 of 5, getting outscored 12-11.

1971 Chicago held a 2-0 lead over Montreal and lost 4 of , getting outscored 16-11.

1966 Detroit held a 2-0 lead over Montreal and lost 4 straight, getting outscored 14-6.

1942 Detroit held a 3-0 lead over Toronto and lost 4 straight, getting outscored 19-7.

2011 Vancouver held a 2-0 lead over Boston and lost 4 of 5, getting outscored 21-4.

Other than the 1942 collapse of Detroit, this year's Canuck melt-down has to go down as the worst in Cup Final history.

Weirdest Cup Final Ever?

2011-06-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

How weird has this year's Cup Final been? Both Boston and Vancouver have won three games although the Bruins have outscored the Canucks 19-8 in the series. If in fact Vancouver wins game seven by one goal, they will have won the Cup with a Goals For/ Goals Against +/- of -11. They very well could win the Cup while scoring 11 less goals than their opposition.

Over the entire playoffs, Vancouver has a -7 goal differential through 24 games. The last time any Cup finalist was a minus for the overall playoff season was in 1975 when Buffalo was -5. They would lose the Cup in six games to Philadelphia. Through 17 playoff games they scored 53 while surrendering 58 goals. Prior to that it was 1968 when St.Louis was a -8 through 18 playoff games which included a four game sweep at the hands of Montreal.

There has been only one time in NHL history that a Stanley Cup winner had a minus goal differential that playoff season. In 1945 the Toronto Maple Leafs beat Detroit in seven games but throughout their 13 playoff games that year they had a goal diffferential of -6. This stems solely from a 10-3 loss to Montreal in the first round.

A few more weird facts from the 2011 Cup Final:

43 year-old Mark Recchi is tied for the Boston points lead in the six Final games with 6 points.

After Vancouver's defensemen contributed 8 goals and 18 points in the 5 game Semi-finals against San Jose they have scored zero goals and a mere 5 assists in the Final.

The only Vancouver forward with a plus rating in the Final is Jannik Hansen at +1, Aaron Rome is also +1 in just over two games played.

Boston has ZERO players on the minus side of the ledger for the Final.

Stanley Cup Finals Tidbits

2011-06-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Through four games and two victories each, Vancouver has held the lead for a total 16:57 and Boston for 87:50.

In Game Four the Boston forward with the most ice-time was Gregory Campbell at 18:05.

Through the four games of the Finals, Ryan Kesler, Daniel and Henrik Sedin have combined for a total of 1 goal on 28 shots, 2 assists, a -6 rating, and 47 PIM.

Cup Finals Goalie stats: Thomas 1.25 GAA, Save Pct .966; Luongo 3.77 GAA, Save Pct .887

Tim Thomas recorded Boston's first shutout in the Finals since Gerry Cheevers blanked Montreal in Game Three of the 1978 Cup Final.

Brad Marchand now has 8 playoff goals as a rookie, tying the Boston rookie record of Mike Krushelnyski in 1983 and Bob Joyce in 1988.

Over their last 7 games, the Canucks have scored in the First Period only twice, both by Alex Burrows (Game 4 vs. San Jose, and Game 2 vs. Boston).

8 Goals against in the Stanley Cup Finals

2011-06-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

Roberto Luongo has had an up and down playoff season in 2011, more up then down. The game three 8-1 loss in the Stanley Cup Finals is about as down as he can get. A team notching eight goals in the Finals is, as expected a rare event. It's even more rare when a goalie is not pulled in such a game and allows all eight. The last time a team scored 8 was in 1996, and the last time one goalie gave up all eight was in 1985 when Philadelphia's Bob Froese was ventilated.

The following are the eight goal games in the Stanley Cup Finals:

1996, Game 2. Colorado 8, Florida 1. John Vanbiesbrouck and Mark Fitzpatrick 4 goals against each.

1991, Game 6. Pittsburgh 8, Minnesota 0. Jon Casey and Brian Hayward 4 goals against each.

1985, Game 5. Edmonton 8, Philadelphia 3. Bob Froese 8 goals against.

1973, Game 1. Montreal 8, Chicago 3. Tony Esposito 8 goals against .

1973, Game 5. Chicago 8, Montreal 7. Ken Dryden 8 goals against.

1962, Game 5. Toronto 8, Chicago 4. Glenn Hall 8 goals against.

1942, Game 5. Toronto 9, Detroit 3. Johnny Mowers 9 goals aganst.

1936, Game 2. Detroit 9, Toronto 4. George Hainsworth 9 goals against.

1918, Game 4. Vancouver 8, Toronto 1. Hap Holmes 8 goals against.

1917, Game 1. Montreal 8, Seattle 4. Hap Holmes 8 goals against.

1917, Game 4. Seattle 9, Montreal 1. Georges Vezina 9 goals against.

1915, Game 2. Vancouver 8, Ottawa 3. Clint Benedict 8 goals against.

1915, Game 3. Vancouver 12, Ottawa 3. Clint Benedict 12 goals against.

My only Stanley Cup Final; Gretzky, Desjardins and The Forum

2011-06-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

I saw mentioned yesterday that it was 18 years exactly since Eric Desjardins completed a hat-trick in overtime in the McSorley "illegal stick game". A pretty special game to have witnessed in person, and I did from the Standing Room section of the Montreal Forum.

This was game two of the 1993 Stanley Cup Final between Montreal and Los Angeles. My buddy and I were living in Monreal at the time had camped out in front of The Forum a week earlier for these tickets. We spent a luckily pleasant night about twentieth in a line of Habs fans that eventually numbered well into the hundreds. Most of the kids in front of us were there on behalf of scalpers and being paid maybe fifty bucks to buy the maximum amount of tickets allowed. My pal and I were on much more of a budget and opted for only the standing room tickets for games Two and Seven. I think we paid 30 apiece for them.

As it turns out we also ended up going to Game One as well by pure fluke. Our apartment was about a block from The Forum and we had to walk past it to get to the Atwater Metro subway station. We were doing just that after watching the first period of Game One at our place on the way to The Peel Pub. Apparently a few of the scalper brigade still had inventory left after the first period and offered us a pair for fifty bucks each. We laughed at him and said we'd give him twenty each and walked away toward the subway. After about five seconds he yelled back at us in his French accent, "Here, take dem!"...so we did. We really hadn't missed much, after a period the score was 1-1, and the shots were tied at 11.

We actually had "seats" to "sit in", in the upper corner of the fabled rink, and I was one of the very few cheering for Gretzky. He had assisted on the first goal and would add two more helpers and a goal the rest of the way as the Kings took Game One 4-1. When the Great One scored an empty netter I was the only one standing up applauding, to a dirty look from a large "biker" guy about 10 rows in front. I quickly sat down.

So, there I was then at Game Two, two days later. We stood at about blue line depth halfway up the arena, and even better we had the front of the standing section which meant a railing to lean on. I have to admit, it was a tight fit as they must have sold every single standing ticket and we were about four deep all around the rink. We had to go individually on beer runs or washroom breaks so as to not lose our railing spot. It was on one of these forays into the concourse that I met Janet Gretzky who was there with Craig "The Walrus" Stadler who was obviously pals with Wayner.

Then, late in the third with the Habs in danger of going down 2 games to none, Jacques Demers called for a stick measurement on Marty McSorley. The coach was quoted after the game, "We were dead. We didn't want to go down 2-0. I never like to embarrass a man who has so much pride like Marty. I just do my job. We didn't have a choice." Kings coach Barry Melrose felt the move lacked class saying, "We got a lesson tonight. We're going to have to watch stuff like that throughout the series. I don't believe in wining that way." Apparently Montreal captain, Guy Carbonneau had noticed that both McSorley and Luc Robitaille used illegal sticks in Game One and said later, "With six or seven minutes left, I reminded Demers that Robitaille and McSorley had bad sticks and that we could call it. It was McSorley's fault. It was too big".

Anyway, while all this was happening on the ice we up in standing room and the rest of the crowd were trying to figure out what was going on. Once we saw referee Kerry Fraser take the stick to the penalty box, we knew. The rest was history. With Patrick Roy pulled, Desjardins scored 32 seconds later and won it 51 seconds into OT. It was one of the more incredible turn of events I'd ever seen at a sporting event and I have to admit I was high-fiving some of our French standing room neighbours when the Habs won. We really had no choice in the matter, the mass of standees jumped as one and pandemonium ensued.

Of course, we would not need our Game Seven tickets as Montreal took the Cup in five. That game, we DID manage to make it to the Peel Pub to watch, and when it was over we spilled out of the bar onto Rue Ste. Catherine and into the Stanley Cup riot. I've probably never been more scared for my well-being before or since. That's what happens when beer bottles are flying off tenth floor balconies and people are runing metal barriers into police car windshields. But, that's another tale.

As well, it's needless to say the Game Two high-fiving was the first and last time I've ever celebrated a Montreal victory.

1-0 Stanley Cup Final games

2011-06-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

As you may expect, the 1-0 game in game one of this year's Cup final is a fairly rare event. In fact it's only the 25th time in the last 87 years that it has occurred.

2007, May 30 Anaheim 1 Ottawa 0, Game 2
2004, May 31 Tampa Bay 1 Calgary 0, Game 4
2003, June 2 Anaheim 1 New Jersey 0, OT , Game 4
2000, June 8 Dallas 1 New Jersey 0, 3OT, Game 5
1996, June 10 Colorado 1 Florida 0, 3OT, Game 4
1992, May 30 Pittsburgh 1 Chicago 0, Game 3
1986, May 22 Montreal 1 Calgary 0, Game 4
1984, May 10 Edmonton 1 New York Islanders 0, Game 1
1975, May 19 Philadelphia 1 Boston 0, Game 6
1968, May 7 Montreal 1 St.Louis 0, Game 2
1957, Apr 9 Montreal 1 Boston 0, Game 2
1954, Apr 11 Montreal 1 Detroit 0 OT, Game 5
1953, Apr 16 Montreal 1 Boston 0 OT, Game 5
1945, Apr 6 Toronto 1 Detroit 0, Game 1
1945, Apr 12 Toronto 1 Detroit 0, Game 3
1945, Apr 21 Detroit1 Toronto 0, Game 6
1937, Apr 11 New York Rangers 1 Detroit 0, Game 3
1937, Apr 13 Detroit 1 New York Rangers 0, Game 4
1934, Apr 10 Chicago 1 Detroit 0 OT, Game 4
1933, Apr 13 New York Rangers 1 Toronto 0 OT, Game 4
1928, Apr 12 New York 1 Mon. Maroons 0, Game 4
1927, Apr 7 Ottawa 0 Boston 0 OT, Game 1
1926, Mar 27 Mon. Maroons 1 Ottawa 0, Game 2
1924, Mar 8 Montreal 1 Ottawa 0, Game 1

Bruins and Canucks, These guys played for both.

2011-05-31T12:33:00.000-07:00

Cam Neely for Barry Pederson. June 6, 1986. Easily the most well-known and important transaction ever made between this year's Stanley Cup finalists. Somewhat surprisingly, a fairly good team can be made from players that have played for both Boston and Vancouver.

Centre
Barry Pederson. After more than four years in Boston with 92, 107 and 116 point seasons he had seasons of 76 and 71 points with the Canucks before injuries took hold.

Tomas Gradin. Signed as a free-agent with Boston after eight solid seasons on the West coast, he notched 43 points in 64 games his only year as a Bruin.

Peter McNab. Starred for over seven years with Boston, scoring from 74 to 86 points for seven years straight, spent just over a season in Van City, scoring 23 goals in 84/85.

Chris Oddleifson. Traded in March of 1974 from the Bruins for Bobby Schmautz, he went on to have six solid years with the Canucks.

Right Wing
Cam Neely. Three years with Vancouver, topping out at 21 goals went on to a Hall of Fame career in Boston.

Bobby Schmautz. Almost three full years with the Nucks including 38 goals in 72/73, Schmautzie then played over five years with the B's.

Left Wing
Geoff Courtnall. Started his career with four seasons in Boston and had 32 goals when traded to Edmonton in March of '88. Picked up for the stretch drive in 1991 by Vancouver, had four good years with Vancouver topping out at 31 goals in 92/93.

Defense
Doug Halward. Began his career with parts of three years in Boston. Five seasons with the Canucks including a 52 point year in 82/83.

Greg Hawgood. Another Bruin draftee had two full years in Boston as well as a 22 point season in Vancouver.

Jiri Slegr. Vancouver draft pick had 26 and 38 points to start his career. Finished up with Boston ten years later for a pair of seasons.

Andrew Alberts. Current Canuck and Bruin draft pick in 2001.

Goalie
Andrew Raycroft. Calder Trophy winner with Boston, was back-up last year for the Canucks.

Alex Auld. 67 game, 33 win year for Vancouver in 05/06 and finished 07/08 with 23 games in Boston.

Peter Skudra. 25 games with Boston in 2000/01, then signed as a free agent with Vancouver playing 23 games each of the next two seasons.

On a similar theme, with Winnipeg in the news today I wondered how many players had played for all three of Vancouver, Boston and the Jets. The ones I could find are:

Bill Derlago. Drafted 4th overall by Vancouver and played 63 total games before going to Toronto. Would play 39 games with Boston in 1986 and 30 games with Winnipeg in 1987.

Petri Skriko. Another Canuck draft pick, starred over six years in Vancouver before being traded for Boston's 2nd round pick in 1992 which became Mike Peca. Was a Bruin for only 37 games before being traded to Winnipeg for Brent Ashton. Lasted only 15 games with the Jets.

Jim Nill. Two and a half years with the Canucks went to Boston for McNab. One year and a day later was traded to Winnipeg for Morris Lukowich where he played three seasons.

Let's leave Kerry Fraser alone, blame Bob McKenzie.

2011-05-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

May 27, 1993. This is NOT the date the Toronto Maple Leafs were denied a Stanley Cup appearance. I'm an acknowledged Leaf fan, not your average "asshole" Leaf fan, I'm a diehard, all-encompassing, 365 days a year Leaf fan (I know...it's a disease for which there is no cure).
Even I can now say, it's time to stop blaming Kerry Fraser.

As all good hockey fans know, the play in question happened in overtime of game six of the '93 Western Confernce Finals with Toronto ahead 3 games to 2. In the first minute of OT, Wayne Gretzky's follow-through on a shot clipped Doug Gilmour. Even though Gilmour was bleeding and would require eight stitches, there was no penalty on the play. Fraser claimed he was blocked out of view of what happened and so were his linesmen. He recalls asking Gilmour at the moment what had happened, Gilmour said he was hit with Gretzky's follow-through. This fact of course makes the criticism of Fraser missing the call a moot point. A high-stick on a follow-through of a shot is not a punishable offense. As much as us Leaf fans would like to say Gretzky should have received a five minute penalty and be tossed from the game...even if Fraser fully saw the play, there was no penalty to be called.

The fact that Gretzky scored the OT winner a minute later only adds salt to the wound. On top of this, Toronto still had a Game Seven at home a game in which the were almost single-handedly beaten by Gretzky who scored a hat-trick and an assist. Wayne himself calls game seven the best game he ever played in his NHL career. If Leaf fans really want to find a villain it's Bob McKenzie.

A day before the infamous game six, McKenzie, who wrote for the Toronto Star penned an article with the headline; "Gretzky playing as if he's got a piano on his back."
The article stated, "The plain truth is Gretzky hasn't been much, if any better through this series. Luc Robitaille, for that matter showed the most signs last night of maybe being ready to break out, picking up one assist and generating four shots on goal. Now just one loss away from elimination, the Kings could desperately use some old-fashioned Gretzky pyrotechnics to light up the Leafs in Game 6 at the Great Western Forum and send it back here for Game 7 at the Gardens on Saturday night."

And those "Gretzky pyrotechnics" did return with his game six overtime winner. The Great One was far from done yet as illustrated in an article by Steve Springer of the Los Angeles Times.
"Saturday afternoon before Game 7 of the finals, [Wayne Gretzky] was finishing a cup of tea before heading to Maple Leaf Gardens. He looked across the table at his agent, Mike Barnett, and said: "The piano man still has a tune to play."

After his game seven performance which led the Kings to the Cup final, Rick Sandowski of the LA Times wrote," The Kings ought to send a thank you card to columnist Bob McKenzie, who after Game 5 of the Campbell Conference final wrote that Wayne Gretzky was playing" like he has piano on his back" Gretzky responded by scoring in overtime to give the Kings a 5-4 win in game 6 and leading them to Saturday's win with three goals and an assist. "It really motivated me, " Gretzky said Sunday. "I was disappointed that he had only seen me play one game out of 17. (The article) fueled the fire. It made me mad."

Clearly, Gretzky was fired up by the comments of McKenzie. Motivated enough to play the best game of his NHL career.

Most Far-flung Stanley Cup Finals

2011-05-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

I had a question posed to me by Bidzy, my beer-league left winger (yes, it's Nitzy and Bidzy). He wondered what was the most distance between two cities ever in a Stanley Cup final. This of course stems from the current season, and the certainty that no matter which teams win the semi-finals, there will be alot of travelling mileage.
The following are the Stanley Cup final series that matched teams the farthest apart, as the crow flies. I am including all Stanley Cup Finals and Challenges.

Dawson City Nuggets vs. Ottawa HC, 1905: 4351km
Los Angeles Kings vs. Montreal Canadiens, 1993: 3973 km
Vancouver Canucks vs. New York Islanders, 1982: 3937 km
Vancouver Canucks vs. New York Rangers, 1994: 3907 km
Anaheim Ducks vs. New Jersey Devils,2003: 3906 km
Portland Rosebuds vs. Montreal Canadiens, 1916: 3771 km
Anaheim Ducks vs. Ottawa Senators, 2007: 3771 km
Victoria Cougars vs. Montreal Maroons, 1926: 3732 km
Victoria Cougars vs. Montreal Canadiens, 1925: 3732 km
Calgary Flames vs.Tampa Bay Lightning, 2004: 3687 km
Seattle Metropolitans vs. Montreal Canadiens, 1917: 3680 km
Vancouver Millionaires vs. Ottawa Senators, 1915: 3554 km

The possible Cup Finals for 2011:
San Jose vs. Boston, 4316 km
Vancouver vs. Tampa Bay, 4187 km
Vancouver vs. Boston, 4027 km
San Jose vs. Tampa Bay, 3812 km

On the other end of the scale are the Cup Finals between cities that are the closest to each other.

Ottawa HC vs. Smiths Falls HC, 1906: 62 km
New York Islanders vs. Philadelphia Flyers, 1980: 162 km
Montreal Wanderers vs Ottawa HC, 1904: 168 km
Montreal Wanderers vs. Ottawa HC, 1906: 168 km
Montreal Wanderers vs. Ottawa Victorias, 1908: 168 km
Boston vs. New York Rangers, 1972: 303 km
Detroit Red Wings vs. Toronto Maple Leafs, multiple times: 333 km

17 Years ago today in Canucks (and Leafs) history.

2011-05-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

May 22. Game Four of the Western Conference Final. Canucks leading two games to one. No, not today, we're talking 1994. The Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs were battling for the right to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.

After over 57 minutes of scoreless play in game four, Cliff Ronning finally beat Felix Potvin. In the Toronto Star the next day, Damien Cox described the winning goal,"Ronning skipped past Dmitri Mironov just inside the Toronto blueline, dumped the puck off to Sergio Momesso, then simply skated past an inattentive Rob Pearson towards the net." Ronning took the return pass from Momesso and beat Potvin for the winner.

"Serg and I like the give-and-go game," Ronning explained. "We're definitely not superstars on our line. We work hard whenever we get out there." Leaf coach Pat Burns added, "Cliff Ronning found a little opening and that ended it. There wasn't much room out there and whoever found the opening won it. they got one good one and put it away".

Pavel Bure added an empty-netter to seal the 2-0 win. Both goalies were solid, but McLean had to be sharper over the course of the game. He was tested in the second minute when Chris Govedaris broke in from the right boards, but easily handled the shot (probably because it was from Chris Govedaris). In the second period Mike Krushelnyski and Bill Berg both shot wide on scoring chances while killing penalties.

Vancouver would of course wrap up the series the following game with double overtime, 4-3 winner off the stick of Greg Adams...a game which I had the nonpleasure of attending.

Winnipeg Jets, 1979 Champs

2011-05-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

From the files of the Canadian Press, May 21, 1979

Winnipeg Jets were in their glory Sunday night after knocking off Edmonton Oilers 7-3 in the sixth game of the World Hockey Association Championship to win the Avco Cup. The Jets accomplished the feat before a home crowd of 10,195 screaming, clapping, horn-blowing fans who had given the team the same emotional boost when they swept a four game semi-final series with Quebec Nordiques.

As the final whistle sounded Sunday, giving the Jets the best-of-seven final series four games to two and marking the end of the WHA, the fans poured adulation on their heroes and some of the men who founded the league and struggled with it for seven years. Ben Hatskin, who was instrumental in luring former National Hockey League star Bobby Hull to Winnipeg in 1972, got a rousing cheer when he was called to centre ice to stand next to the Cup.

"I know the Jets will keep this (the trophy) in a safe spot to remember the WHA, which did a great thing for a lot of people in hockey," said a jubilant Hatskin. The Cup will be the permanent property of the Jets who are joining the NHL this summer along with Edmonton, Quebec and New England Whalers. At the same time, the WHA will fold.

Rich Preston, who was named most valuable player of the playoffs, grabbed the microphone at centre ice and gave all the fans a message from the players. "When I came here and saw all you fans, I felt like crying," he shouted to them. "You are so great. We love you." The Jets won a WHA title for each of the three coaches they had over seven years-Bobby Kromm in 1975, Larry Hillman in 1978 and Tom McVie this year. McVie came to the team during it's late February slump. His arrival, along with that of goaltender Gary Smith and the return of captain Lars-Erik Sjoberg, resulted in one of the most exciting turnarounds in WHA history.

The big gun was Terry Ruskowski, who missed game five with a severe shoulder injury. He picked up four assists, including one on each of the Jets first two goals. Willy Lindstrom and Barry Long scored two goals each for the Jets. Lyle Moffat, Kent Nilsson and Paul MacKinnon had singles while Morris Lukowich had three assists.

Ron Chipperfield, Bill Flett and Dave Semenko scored for Edmonton. Smith played strongly as Winnipeg outshot Edmonton 33-30. Dave Dryden started in the nets for the Oilers but was replaced by Ed Mio after Winnipegs' fifth goal, late in the second period. While Ruskowski was getting much of the praise in the Jets' dressing room, the losers' dressing room was a scene of beer and tears. A downcast Peter Pocklington, the team owner, met briefly with his players before crossing the ice, beer in hand to watch the wild champagne party in Jets' quarters.

"It's too bad, I hate losing," said Pocklington. He said even the fact the Oilers are bound for a better life in the NHL next season didn't take the sting out of the loss. Oilers' sensational rookie Wayne Gretzky had a frustrating night trying to put the puck in the net. Oilers were also hurt by the absence of forward Dennis Sobchuk, who spent most of the day in hospital for suspected food poisoning.

Tyler Seguin and Teenage Playoff Scoring

2011-05-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

Tyler Seguin with 6 points in his first two career playoff games as a teenager is now in very select company with one Dale Hawerchuk. In Winnipeg's first two playoff games on April 7 and 8, 1982 against St.Louis, Hawerchuk also scored 6 points.

At 19 years, 4 days old Hawerchuk scored his first playoff goal 15:20 into the first period, beating Mike Liut on assists by Paul MacLean and Moe Mantha. In the third period he assisted on a goal by Willy Lindstrom as the Blues beat the Jets 4-3. The following day Hawerchuk notched four assists on goals by Dave Babych, Norm Dupont and two by Paul MacLean. Hawerchuk finished the series with 8 points in the 4 game loss to St.Louis.

Ray Bourque also tallied 6 points (1 goal and 5 assists) over two games April 13 & 14, 1980 vs. Pittsburgh. These were his fourth and fifth career playoff games. He was aged 19 years, 3 months at the time.

Two other teenagers have scored 5 points over 2 playoff matches:

Rod Brind'Amour, St.Louis April 18 & 20, 1990 vs. Chicago
Scored two goals and three assists in the first two games of the second round at the age of 19 years, 9 months.

Brent Sutter, New York Islanders April 7 & 8, 1982 vs. Pittsburgh
Two goals, three assists in his first two ever playoff games at age 19 years, 10 months.

A few other teenage scoring feats in playoff history.

The last three teenagers to score four points in a playoff game are:

Trevor Linden, Vancouver (1G-3A, April 9, 1989 at age 18 years, 363 days)

Pierre Turgeon, Buffalo (2G-2A, April 10, 1988 at age 18 years, 226 days)

Peter Zezel, Philadelphia (1G-3A, April 13, 1985 at age 19 years, 356 days)

Toronto's Wendel Clark scored a goal in each of his first four career playoff games. From April 9 through April 18, 1986 he scored each game against St.Louis. Clark was 19 years, 6 months old at the time.

Greatest Playoff Performer in NHL History

2011-05-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

When the question of which player is the greatest playoff performer in NHL history is raised, there really are only a few names that can be seriously mentioned. The obvious names would come up like Gretzky, Messier, Lemieux, Orr, Howe, Beliveau or Richard. Some would say it has be a goaltender, Roy, Brodeur, Plante or Dryden. The real question is by what method are we able to rank these players and their playoff performance throughout their careers.

One large factor I like to look at is if the player produces at a higher rate during the post-season than they do during the regular season, and if so by how much. The number of Stanley Cups a player has won should also go a long way in determining a great playoff performer. As well, leading the playoffs in a major statistical category will aid in determining playoff greatness. These three elements encompass team success as well as individual success in the post-season. I believe I've devised a simple system that is able to quantify these factors.

Firstly, comparing playoff production to regular season is a good way to eliminate discrepancies in scoring rates throughout the eras. A player's playoff scoring is easily compared to his regular season scoring. I decided to use a player’s goal scoring rates to figure out a Playoff Performance Number. I use goals instead of points because in my opinion, the importance of scoring goals is magnified in the playoffs and is a fine measuring stick of playoff greatness.
Using Jean Beliveau as an example:

Career Playoff Goals/Game 0.488
Career Regular Season Goals/Game 0.451

Divide the regular into the playoffs and we get 1.08. Beliveau was 8% better in the playoffs, which may not seem too high, but as we'll see, that's a fairly impressive number over an entire career. I translate the 1.08 to a scale out of 100. A rating of 100 even would represent a player scoring playoff goals at the exact same rate as in regular season. For example, Beliveau’s 1.08 gives him a 108. Wayne Gretzky scored 0.607 Goals/Game in his regular season career and 0.587 over his playoff career, therefore he scored goals at a rate of 0.98 compared to regular season, a slight drop-off. Gretzky starts with a 98 as a Playoff Performance Number before we look at the other factors. I believe looking at Goal Rates still works for defensemen because even if not league leading, if their goal scoring rate is far superior in the playoffs they’ll be rewarded accordingly.

The next step is accounting for how many Cups a player won and how many times he led the playoffs in goals and/or points (for defensemen I used assists here as well as goals and points.) I assign 4 points to each of these that occur after 1967 expansion, 3 points for each Cup and league lead of goals and points pre-expansion. I do this simply because winning a Cup or leading the league with 12, 21 or 30 teams in the NHL should be worth more than when there was only 6 teams. I won’t use Conn Smythe Trophy wins in the equation, as it wasn’t given out until 1965. Going back to Beliveau, he won 7 Cups pre-expansion, and 3 after for a total of 33 points, he also led in goals and points once each pre-1967 for 6 more points. His overall PPN (Playoff Performance Number) is (108+33+6) for 147.

For Gretzky we add his 44 points (4 Cups x 4 and 7 Goals/Points Leads x 4) to his 98 for a PPN of 142. I think it’s safe to say that so far, having Beliveau ranked just slightly ahead of Gretzky as a playoff performer seems about right. Let’s see how they rank against the other greats. I don’t have time to check every player to ever skate in the playoffs so I limited it to players that at first glance one may think of as among the great playoff performers of all-time.

I set a minimum of 100 career playoff games (50 for pre-expansion) as well as having won at the very least one Stanley Cup. In my opinion there’s no way you could be considered the greatest playoff performer ever if you haven't won a Cup. The rankings are as follows, listed by Playoff Performance Number.

Maurice Richard 159
Jean Beliveau 147
Jari Kurri 146
Mark Messier 145
Wayne Gretzky 142
Niklas Lidstrom 140
Ted Kennedy 136
Gordie Howe 136
Peter Forsberg 136
Yvan Cournoyer 136
Henrik Zetterberg 133
Joe Sakic 132
Bernie Geoffiron 132
Guy Lafleur 131
Claude Lemieux 130
Henri Richard 129
Denis Potvin 126
Dave Keon 124
Larry Robinson 123
Paul Coffey 123
Dickie Moore 122
Ted Lindsay 120
Mike Bossy 118
Phil Esposito 116
Mario Lemieux 114
Bryan Trottier 114
Bobby Hull 109
Bobby Orr 105
Steve Yzerman 94

Well, there you have it. Maurice Richard is far and away the Greatest Playoff Performer in NHL history on the strength of raising his goal production by 11%, 9 Cup wins and 7 times leading the playoffs in goals or points. Jari Kurri at third spot over Messier, and Gretzky may come as a bit of a surprise, but he did win 5 Cups and led the league in goals 4 times. Messier fulfills his reputation as a playoff stud despite having led the league only once in points in ’90, he also won 6 Cups and raised his goal rate by an amazing 17% in his playoff career. Claude Lemieux may also surprise here, but he raised his goal rate by 10% in the post-season, won 3 Cups and led in goals twice.

I have absolutely no problem with Nik Lidstrom rated as the top playoff performer among defenseman. Not only has he won 4 Cups, his goal rate goes up 24% in the post-season. Peter Forsberg and Henrik Zetterberg both rate highly due to each bettering their goal production by 20 and 21% respectively in the playoffs. Guys near the bottom of the list are hurt by their drop in scoring rates from regular season to playoffs and in Orr, Esposito and Lemieux’s cases also by the fact they won the Cup only twice. Yzerman and Trottier’s goal rate in playoffs was each only 78% of what it was during their regular season careers.

Now, for the goalies.

Using the same system, I compare each career playoff GAA to career regular season. Cups are counted the same, and for individual stats I count only leading the playoffs in GAA as leading in Wins tends to go hand-in hand with a goalie who wins the Cup. Therefore to avoid redundancy I wont use Wins as a measure. Following are the players that I would consider for best playoff goalie all-time, in order of Playoff Performance Number.

Turk Broda 155
Jacques Plante 147
Billy Smith 140
Grant Fuhr 140
Patrick Roy 138
Martin Brodeur 135
Ken Dryden 129
Bill Durnan 129
Bernie Parent 125
Johnny Bower 123
Terry Sawchuk 120

Turk Broda, Greatest Playoff Goalie Ever…that even caught me (the Leaf fan) off guard. The numbers tend to back it up though. He won 5 Cups and led in GAA on 4 occasions. His career playoff average of 1.98 is a whopping 28% better than his regular season GAA of 2.51. Grant Fuhr and Billy Smith’s is each 16% better and Plante’s 11% better than his regular average. As good as Roy was, his performance raised only 10% in the playoffs, less than Smith’s and far below Broda’s. Sawchuk's GAA in the playoffs is slightly higher than his regular season and Ken Dryden in fact had a GAA 7% worse in the playoffs, but did win the Cup 6 times and led in GAA 3 times.

Admittedly, I could use many more factors in this system, but I feel it gives a nice numerical rating of playoff greatness and is good starting point for the discussion of playoff greats. That being said, I’m very comfortable with calling Maurice Richard the greatest Playoff performer in NHL history.

Playoff Winning Streaks

2011-05-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

The Tampa Bay Lightning have now won eight consecutive playoff games in 2011 and are three away from the all-time record of eleven straight playoff wins. Over the stretch, Tampa have out-scored their opposition by a 33-17 margin. A look at the teams that have won 10 and 11 straight matches:

Montreal, 1993. 11 consecutive wins. After dropping the first two playoff games of 1993 to Quebec, The Habs reeled off 11 in a row. They pushed aside the Nords, swept Buffalo and went up three games to none on the Islanders before losing. Over their streak they scored 42 goals and surrendered 26 as well, seven of the eleven victories were in overtime. The Habs of course won the Cup over Los Angeles that year and after losing their first two games went 16-2 the rest of the way.

Pittsburgh, 1992. 11 consecutive wins. The Penguins run came later in the playoffs and carried them all the way to the Cup win, they also snuffed out Chicago's own 11 game streak in the first game of the finals. Down three games to one to the Rangers in the Patrick Division finals, Pittsburgh won the last three to take the series. They then swept Boston in the Semi-Finals before sweeping Chicago to take the Cup. The Pens just about doubled their opponents in goals scoring 47 and giving up 24.

Chicago, 1992. 11 consecutive wins. The Hawks were down two games to one to St.Louis in the opening round of the playoffs before winning three in a row, then sweeping Detroit and Edmonton to reach the finals. Game one of the final pitted a team on an 11 game streak in Chicago against a team on a 7 game streak in Pittsburgh. The Pens quickly burst Chicago's bubble. The Hawks destroyed their opponents by a cumulative score of 45-22 over their 11 game streak.

Boston, 1970. 10 consecutive wins. In the first round, Boston was tied two games apiece with the Rangers before winning the next ten games to take the Cup. The B's swept Chicago to reach the final and swept St.Louis to cap their run in which they outscored opponents by a ridiculous 47-20.

Three of the four teams to win at least 10 straight playoff games in a year also won the Cup. If Tampa manages to get to 10 this year they should very well at least have a chance to play for the Cup.

Merlyn Phillips, NHL Playoff Goal Leader of 1926

2011-05-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

Name some of the players over history to have led the NHL in playoff goals over the years, most likely it was a star like Gretzky, Lemieux, Kurri, Bossy, Lafleur to Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe and The Rocket. One gentleman who led the league in playoff goals was far less well known. In 1926, Merlyn "Bill" Phillips of the Stanley Cup champion Montreal Maroons led the NHL with 3 goals in 4 games.

Merlyn Phillips was a 26 year old rookie in 1926 and was only called up to the Maroons with 12 games remaining in the season, but he made quite an early impact with the media and fans. He had spent the previous seven seasons playing Senior hockey with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds where he played in three Allan Cups. Prior to making the big club in 1926, Phillips had 9 goals in 20 games that season with the Soo. His introduction to professional hockey was chronicled by the Montreal Gazette starting on Feb. 18, 1926.

"Montreal will have Bill Phillips, former Soo Greyhound centre as a substitute tonight.
Phillips signed with the Maroons Tuesday afternoon...Phillips is a speedy skater, and is finished in style. He possesses a fair right-handed shot, and can be used at either centre or right wing."

Phillips failed to produce a point in that first game, but the next day's Gazette saw potential in his play. "Phillips' showing was closely watched in his first appearance in pro company. He made a favorable first impression...He plays an easy, finished style of hockey similar to Nelson Stewart, whom he under-studies....But the general first impression of the fans was that he would do. He works well in combination plays, passing unselfishly."

So, he's compared to the Maroons best player, Nels Stewart and the fans say "he would do". I love reading accounts of old time hockey when "combination play" is referred to. In current terminology, they're talking about simple passing plays, perhaps the odd give and go. Solo dashes were far more prevelant back in those days and successful passing plays were celebrated by the hockey watchers.

It took Merlyn Phillips a few weeks to become fully comfortable with the pro game and he finally hit his stride on March 11 against the New York Americans. The Gazette sports section featured a headline, "Phillips Starred as Montreal Beat New York Team 5-1". The accompanying article proclaimed, "Phillips flashed about the ice with easy strides, but with dazzling stickhandling efforts, and finally was rewarded by a goal scored on a lone effort, in which he went from end to end, lost the puck once, regained it from Randall and circled the American net to put the Maroons in the lead. Within three minutes he had put the Maroons two up by a swift move on a back pass from Broadbent. Thereafter he alternated in offensive and defensive play with much of the smoothness and cunning generally shown by Nelson Stewart, the Maroon's regular mid-ice player. Phillips poke-check was effective at all times, and he was on every loose puck. His work earned him loud acclaim, and at the end he was roundly cheered as he left the ice."

Once again his play is compared to Nels Stewart, and specific reference is made to his abilty to poke-check, a skill I thought more of as a goaltending skill. It's nice to see that 85 years ago writers and fans were sophisticated enough to recognize and applaud fine defensive play as well as offensive.

Two days later, Phillips was at it once again. "Following his excellent performance against New York, Phillips was equally effective against Canadiens. There were those who felt that the former Soo Greyhound had not met much opposition against the Americans and they wanted to see him pitted against rugged opposition. Opposed to Canadiens they saw him play even smarter hockey than against New York. He had speed, back-checked, poke-checked, scored once, made the opening for a second tally and incessantly started passing bouts with his teammates. He was pitted against Pete Lepine the latter another sub-player who is finished in his style. The result was a pleasing duel between these two clean-playing young stars, which provided one of the treats of the otherwise none too pleasant fray."

Once again, Phillips' defensive play is commended as well as his ability at the passing game. On the strength of those last two games Phillips finished the regular campaign with 3 goals and an assist over 12 games.

In the playoffs, Montreal met the Pittsburgh Pirates in a two game total goal series. The first game was won 3-1 by the Maroons with Phillips notching a goal. "Phillip's registered Maroon's third goal on a dazzling individual rush. He checked Conacher in the free zone and went worming through zigzag fashion to slam in a back-hander." Game two finished tied 3-3, giving Montreal the series win. Merlyn Phillips excelled once again for the Maroons. "Little more than five minutes after the start of the game Phillips cleared the puck from near the Montreal net. He swept down the left boards and circled Roger Smith at the Pirate defense. Close in on Worters, Phillips drove a back-handed shot at which he is an adept. Worters deflected the disc, but could not clear it fast enough. Phillips was down like a hawk and jammed the the rubber into the mesh."

Phillips "went worming through zigzag fashion". They just don't write like that anymore. Without the benefit of tevelvision broadcasts and video highlights, writers had to be far more descriptive and paint a visual image for the reader. Apparently Phillips had a nice little back-hand as well.

Phillips play at centre was solid enough to allow Maroon coach Eddie Gerard to play Nels Stewart on defense. Ths continued into the final round against the favoured Ottawa Senators. In game one, King Clancy tied the game up on a shorthanded goal with ten seconds remaining. The Gazette reported, "Stewart was on the defense and Phillips was at centre. The arrangement worked well and the Montrealers showed no signs of cracking under the strain of the heavy programme they have faced the past three weeks. Phillips was perhaps a little slow to find his feet. It was his first real test in a hard, gruelling match. But the former Soo amateur soon struck his stride and engaged in a pleasing duel with Frank Nighbor around centre ice. Phillips back-handed shot was always a threat to Ottawa."

Another reference to his proficiency with the back-hander. Another thing we don't see much any more is a "pleasing duel" between two players throughout a game. The Maroons managed to beat the Senators 1-0 in game two to take the series. Babe Seibert scored the only marker in the second and once again, Merlyn Phillips was one of the better players on the ice.

"Bill Phillips, who has been the sensation in the Maroon camp since he joined pro company one month ago after a Meteoric career with the Soo Greyhounds, was the bright performer for the Maroons. Phillips paved the way for Seibert's goal. He poked Frank Nighbor out of action and offensively was the pivot of many Maroon attacks. But it was Phillips' courage under a heavy gruelling which brought him the greatest commendation. He was a target throughout the game. He stood his bumps gamely and came back for more. In the second period he was knocked dizzy by a clout from Finnegan. He was relieved, but back in action within five minutes."

This pretty much sums up Merlyn Phllips and his rise from Senior hockey to a contributing regular in the pros. A hard working, playmaking, defense first centreman. His three goals in the NHL playoffs were one more than teammate Punch Broadbent. Nels Stewart was held to two assists, but he would erupt for six goals in four games in the Stanley Cup challenge against the
Victoria Cougars of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Phillips notched a goal and an assist against Victoria, but the NHL record book counts only games versus NHL teams and has him as the goal leader in the 1926 NHL playoffs.

Phillips would go on to play six full seasons with the Maroons and finished two goals behind Nels Stewart for the team lead in 1926/27. He finished up with the New York Americans in 1932/33 and retired after 302 NHL games and 52 goals.

Most Points, One Playoff Series

2011-05-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

In honour of Vancouver's Ryan Kesler tallying 11 points during their six game victory over Nashville, we look at the players with highest scoring single playoff series in NHL history.

1. Rick Middleton, Boston 19 Points. 1983 division finals vs. Buffalo

Game 1 2a
Game 2 1g, 2a
Game 3 2a
Game 4 2g, 4a
Game 5 2g, 2a
Game 6 0
Game 7 2a

Total goals by Boston in series, 33. Middleton was in on 57.6% of team scoring.

2. Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton, 18 Points. 1985 conference final vs. Chicago

Game 1 1g, 3a
Game 2 3a
Game 3 0
Game 4 1g, 2a
Game 5 2g, 2a
Game 6 4a

Total goals by Edmonton in series, 44. Gretzky was in on 40.9% of team scoring.

3. Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh 17 Points. 1992 division semi-finals vs. Washington

Game 1 DNP
Game 2 2a
Game 3 3g, 3a
Game 4 1g
Game 5 1a
Game 6 2g, 3a
Game 7 1g, 1a

Total goals by Pittsburgh in series, 25 (24 in the 6 games Lemieux played). Lemieux was in on 70.8% of team scoring.

4. Doug Gilmour, Toronto, 16 Points. 1994 conference semi-final vs. San Jose

Game 1 1A
Game 2 1g, 2a
Game 3 2a
Game 4 1g, 4a
Game 5 2a
Game 6 2a
Game 7 1g

Total goals by Toronto in series, 26. Gilmour was in on 61.5% of team scoring.

4. Barry Pederson, Boston, 16 Points. 1983 division finals vs. Buffalo

Game 1 1g
Game 2 3a
Game 3 1g
Game 4 2g, 3a
Game 5 2g, 2a
Game 6 0
Game 7 1g, 1a

Total goals by Boston in series, 33. Pederson was in on 48.5% of team scoring.

Although Kesler's 11 points last series falls far short of the above performances, his squad managed to score a mere 14 total goals in the series. Kesler had a hand in an amazing 78.6% of Canuck scoring last round. This has to be one of the more impressive single round efforts of all time.

Sean Bergenheim; John Druce of 2011

2011-05-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

Over the course of NHL playoff history, various players have stepped up their production to an unprecedented level over previous norms. Perhaps the greatest example would be Washington Capital, John Druce in 1990. After scoring 8 goals in 45 games and 8 goals in 48 games the year before, Druce exploded for 14 goals in 15 playoff games. He would parlay his playoff run to a 22 goal season in 1991, but never scored 20 again. John Druce would score a mere 3 additional goals in 37 more career playoff matches.

This season, Sean Begenheim scored 14 goals in 80 games for Tampa Bay but has now tallied 7 in 11 playoff games. In his other three career seasons, Bergenheim has colected 10, 15 and 10 goals. Some of the other great "John Druce Playoffs" are as follows:

2006, Fernando Pisani, Edmonton. After scoring 18 goals in 80 games, Pisani conted 14 goals in 24 games to lead the playoffs. In 194 games since, he has scored 44 goals.

2004, Ruslan Fedotenko, Tampa Bay. His 12 goals in 22 playoff games finished one behind league leader Jarome Iginla. Fedotenko had previously had seasons of 16, 17 and 19 goals.

1996, Dave Lowry, Florida. Lowry matched his 10 regular season goals scored over 63 games in only 22 playof games.

1989, Chris Kontos, Los Angeles. He played only 7 regular season games with the Kings scoring twice, and only scored 10 in 42 AHL games with New Haven. Kontos erupted for 9 markers in 11 playoff games.

1984, Pat Flatley, New York Islanders. He scored an impressive 34 in 64 games this season with the Canadian National team, yet had only 2 in 16 late season games with the Isles. The 20 year old rookie potted 9 in 21 playoff matches.

1968, Milan Marcetta, Minnesota North Stars. After getting into three playoff games for the Maple Leafs the previous year, the 31 year-old expansion draftee/rookie would score only 4 goals in 36 games. Marcetta however, had 7 in 14 playoff games only one behind co-leaders and teammates Bill Goldsworthy and Wayne Connelly.

1963, Alex Faulkner, Detroit Red Wings. He potted 5 goals in only 8 post-season games after having 10 in 70 during the regular campaign.

1959, Marcel Bonin, Montreal Canadiens. Bonin led the playoffs by a wide margin with 10 goals in 11 games. He had collected 13 in 57 games that season and never had more than 17 in any year. Over his other 39 career playoff matched Bonin would tally one goal.

1955, Floyd Curry, Montreal Canadiens. He finished one behind leader Gordie Howe with 8 goals in 12 playoff games after having only 11 in 68 regular season games.

1953, Ed Sandford, Boston Bruins. He led the playoffs with 8 goals in 11 matches after scoring 14 in 61 games during the season. He had one more than Maurice Richard and two more than Bernie Geoffrion.

1940, Hank Goldup, Toronto Maple Leafs. After scoring a fairly respectable 6 goals in 21 games during his rookie season, Goldup led the post-season with 5 goals in 10 games. He never scored another playoff goal in 16 career games.

1939, Mel Hill, Boston Bruins. Had 10 in 46 games then 6 in 12 playoff games while earning the nickname "Sudden Death".

1936, Buzz Boll, Toronto Maple Leafs. He had a comendable 15 goals in 44 games before more than doubling the second place playoff goal scorer with 7 tallies in 9 games.

1926 Bill "Merlyn" Phillips, Montreal Maroons. One of the least known players to have led the NHL in playoff goals. Phillips scored 3 goals in the Maroons 4 game march to the Cup win. Teammate Punch Broadbent with 2 goals was the only other player to score more than one. Phillips was a late season call-up and had 3 goals in 12 games as a 26 year old rookie. In 20 additional career playof games, Phillips scored 2 goals.

Tampa Bay Lightning, On a bit of a roll.

2011-05-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

With their four game sweep of Washington, the Tampa Bay Lightning have now won seven consecutive games. T-Bay has beaten up pretty much the entire production of HBO's 24/7 series, having beaten Pittsburgh three straight after going down three games to one. What may surprise is the fact that Tampa Bay is getting terrific all round scoring during the streak in wich they have outscored their opponents 29 to 14. Seven different players have scored at least a point per game over the last seven. The player with the most points over that span, Steve Downie with 11. Most goals, Sean Bergenheim with 6.

Tampa Bay Scoring during 7 Game Win Streak

(Goals Assists Points)

Downie 2-9-11
Lecavalier 4-5-9
Purcell 1-8-9
Moore 2-6-8
Bergenheim 6-1-7
St. Louis 2-5 -7
Gagne 2-5-7
Stamkos 4-1-5
Malone 3-2-5

Roloson 7-0 1.97 GAA .939 SavePct.

44 Years Later, The "Buttock Shot"

2011-05-02T12:33:00.000-07:00

Forty-four years. It's now been 44 gosh-darn years since the Toronto Maple Leafs last raised the Stanley Cup. I merely hope it's not going to be that long until the next one. Countless stories have been written about the Leafs last win, I'd guess more has been written about that Cup win than most any other. One thing I had never heard was how the game six winning goal by Jim Pappin was referred to as the "Buttock Shot".

Legendary newspaper man Jim Coleman referred to Pappin's goal as flukey and he probably wasn't to far off. In fact it went in off Montreal defenseman Terry Harper's "derriere". Pete Stemkowski was being wrapped up in front of Gump Worsley by Harper "in an octopus grip" when Pappin sent a back-hand at net from his off wing. According to Coleman, "Harper's hip was jutting directly in the line of Worsley's vision and poor old Gumper didn't see the puck until it was passing him, on it's way into the net."

The Gumper is quoted, "It was a lousy goal, the puck hit somebody and just dropped. It was in before I could move. It was a hell of a (blank) goal to get beaten by. The trouble is that they all count". The goal was originally credited to Stemkowski, and some accounts had it going in off Jacques Laperiere's skate. Pappin himself was as confused as anyone about how it went in. After the game he described it. "I lobbed the puck across the net and it hit Laperriere." Post game, both Harper and Worsley admitted it had bounced off Harper. Harper himself said, "It hit me in front, I can't figure out how it dropped in back of me."

Pappin's mark at 19:24 of the second frame put Toronto up 2-0. Dick Duff would make it 2-1 in the third but the Habs were finished. In an interesting note, the papers of the day after the game mention that the Conn Smythe Trophy would be announced next week and that the past two years it was awarded immediately following the final game. Most believed that Terry Sawchuk was a shoo-in, or perhaps Pappin with his 15 points in 12 games including 4 goals in the final. Of course Dave Keon won the award for his all round play and leadership.

Toronto's Cup win was worth $3,000 per player while Montreal each got $1,500. Each team had received $2,250 per player for their semi-final victories.

Team Canada's Mario Scalzo

2011-05-01T20:00:00.001-07:00

Team Canada's roster for the 2011 World Hockey Championships is peppered with some established stars such as Rick Nash, Jason Spezza and Dion Phaneuf as well as great youngsters like Jeff Skinner, John Tavares, Matt Duchene, Jordan Eberle and Alex Pietrangelo. And then there's Mario Scalzo.

26 year old defenseman Scalzo is the only player on Team Canada without NHL experience and has played the last three seasons in Europe. In fact he led his German League, Mannheim Eagles squad in scoring this past season with 32 points in 51 games. This is a Mannheim team that also had ex-NHLers Craig MacDonald, Niko Dimitrakos and Steven Reinprecht on the squad.

Scalzo was undrafted but played three years in the AHL with the Iowa Stars and Norfolk Admirals, scoring 33, 25 and 29 points before heading overseas. The native of St.Hubert scored 68 points in the QMJHL with Victoriaville in 03/04 before being traded halfway through the next season to Rimouski for their Memorial Cup run. His teammate there of course was Sidney Crosby. After producing 30 points in 39 games before the trade he exploded for 44 points in 23 games with the Oceanic.

Scalzo has averaged almost 13 minutes of icetime over the first two matches for Canada, least among defensemen and is plus three with two helpers. However, the arrival of Carlo Colaiacovo perhaps puts any additional playing time for Scalzo in doubt. The fact remains however, Mario Scalzo has indeed played for Team Canada.

More Playoff Tidbits

2011-04-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

Dwayne Roloson at age 41 is only the second goaltender that old to play in the post-season in last 34 years. Dominik Hasek was 43 when he last appeared with Detroit three years ago. Before that it was Eddie Johnston of St.Louis who played 3 games in 1977 at age 41. The rest of the 41 or older 'tenders make quite a distinguished list (all in the Hall of Fame as well); Jacques Plante, Gump Worsley, Johnny Bower, Lester Patrick and Hugh Lehman.

On the topic of the elderly, 42 year old Mark Recchi with his next goal will become the oldest ever to score at least two goals in a playoff season. He scored 6 last year. In 1980, the 52 year old Gordie Howe played 3 games for Hartford and scored a goal and an assist.

On the other end of the scale is Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson of Los Angeles. With 12 points in 12 career playoff games, Johnson is one of only five defensemen ever to average at least a point per game over their career (min. 10 games). Bobby Orr is tops at 1.24, Brian Leetch and Paul Coffey are at 1.02 and 1.01 respectively. A surprising number two on the list is Joe Micheletti of St.Louis in 1981, he had 12 points over his only 11 career playoff games. For his part, Doughty is second all-time among defensemen in career Goals/Game (min. 10 games). His 0.42 is behind only Hall of Famer, Harry Cameron at 0.45.

Speaking of young defensemen, Cam Fowler is only the 12th teenage defender to score at least 4 points in a playoff season. The most points ever for a teen d-man was Glen Wesley's 14 points in 1988 with Boston and Ray Bourque with 11 for Boston in 1980. The rest of the very eclectic list is Phil Housley, Gord Kluzak, Ed Jovanovski, Scott Stevens, Paul Coffey, Erik Karlsson, Bruce Bell, Bob Goldham and Wade Redden.

One interesting stat from the epic Montreal/Boston seven game series, although the teams tied with 17 goals in the series, Montreal's players had an overall Plus/Minus rating of -31 while Boston's was +29. The main reason for this would be Montreal's six to nothing advantage in powerplay goals.

Rare Original Six Playoff Photos

2011-04-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

I recently found on eBay some listings of old press photos. Lots of great images from the Detroit Press as well as United Press International, most of which I've never seen before. ( http://cgi.ebay.com/1945-TORONTO-LEAFS-VS-DETROIT-WINGS-PLAYOFF-PRESS-PHOTO-/170630159148?pt=Vintage_Sports_Memorabilia&hash=item27ba599b2c )

Below are a few of the better images from various NHL playoffs between 1940 and 1955.

April 7, 1955. Game Three Stanley Cup Finals, Montreal 4 - Detroit 2
Jacques Plante battling to find the puck through Ted Lindsay and Butch Bouchard. Plante stopped 35 of 37 shots, Bernie Geoffrion scores three as Montreal wins 4-2. Detroit was still up 2 games to 1 and would go on to win in seven.

April 22, 1945. Game 7 Stanley Cup Finals, Toronto 2 - Detroit 1

Mel Hill scores on Harry Lumley, first goal of the game in the first period. Jud McAtee and Earl Seibert look on. This would prove to be the last ever NHL game for Jud McAtee. He had played one game each in 42/43 and 43/44 before scoring 15 goals in 4 games this season as a 24 year old. He added 2 goals and an assist while playing all 14 playoff matches. He would play the remainder of his career in the AHL and USHL before retiring in 1950.

March 19, 1940. Game One Semi-Finals, New York Rangers 4 - Boston 0.

Pictured Left to Right; Art Jackson, Ott Heller, Frank Brimsek, Bryan Hextall, Jack Crawford
Dave Kerr earned the shutout as the Rangers started their road to winning the Stanley Cup.

April 18, 1950 Fourth Game of Finals, New York Rangers 4 - Detroit 3 OT

Red Wing George Gee battling Ranger Pat Egan as goalie Chuck Rayner looks on. New York took the next game as well to go up 3 games to 2, but the Wings won games 6 and 7 to take the Cup.

April 25 in Playoff History

2011-04-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

April 25, 1985 Chicago 7, Minnesota 6 2OT

This is the second time in a week that I harken back to this very series as a point of comparison for this years playoffs. In a situation eerily similar to what happened 26 years later, the Minnesota North Stars faced a goaltender dilemma. Watching last night's Game Six of Vancouver vs Chicago and seeing the youngster Corey Schneider start over veteran Roberto Luongo, could very well have brought flash backs for long time Chicago fans. The veteran goalie being forced to return in the third period, and then losing the game in overtime, this is exactly what happened 26 years ago today against Minnesota.

In 1984/85 the Minnesota North Stars faced the Blackhawks in the Norris Division Final after knocking off St.Louis by scores of 3-2, 4-3 and 2-0 on the strength of Gilles Meloche's fine goaltending. Chicago had swept Detroit behind Murray Bannerman and a powerful offense that produced scores of 9-5, 6-1 and 8-2 over the Wings. The North Stars won their fourth in a row in beating the Hawks 8-5 in the opener before falling 6-2 and 5-3 back to back.

In the third game 5-3 loss, 23 year old Don Beaupre replaced 34 year old Gilles Meloche late in the second after the vet allowed 4 goals on 24 shots. North Star coach Glen Sonmor elected to start the youngster in the pivotal fourth game. He regrettably pulled the youngster at the 12:32 mark of the third after Denis Savard tied the game 6-6. Meloche stopped 3 more shots in the third and 8 in the first OT before getting beaten by Darryl Sutter early in the second extra frame.

Sonmor's problems continued in game five as this time starter Meloche was yanked halfway through the game after surrendering 4 goals on 17 shots (see last weeks post http://nitzyshockeyden.blogspot.com/2011/04/biggest-comebacks-in-playoff-history.html ). In this case the youngster bailed out the vet and stopped all 18 shots in Minnesota's historical comeback. It was all for not however as Chicago beat Beaupre and Minny 6-5 in game 6 to take the series 4-2.

April 25, 1985 Edmonton 8, Winnipeg 3

On the same day that Beaupre first started over Meloche, the Oilers easily dispatched of Winnipeg 8-3 to sweep their Smythe Division Final. After Randy Carlyle gave the hometown crowd hope by scoring 53 seconds into the game, Wayne Gretzky took matters into his own hands. He scored two in the first to make it 2-1 Oilers after one and assisted on the next three before the second period was halfway through.

The Jets made it interesting on goals by Robert Picard and Ron Wilson late in the second to close it to 5-3. Wilson, somewhat surprisingly was tops on the Jets that spring with 4 goals in 8 playoff matches as he filled the void of an injured Dale Hawerchuk. Oilers made it 8-3 in the third, the last one on Gretzky's rare Shorthanded/Empty-Net goal at 10:31 of the period as Winnipeg fruitlessly attempted a comeback. The Great One's 7 points are his most in a playoff game and second most all-time. He scored a record 47 points over the 17 playoff games in 1985 and won his first Conn Smythe Trophy.

April 25, 1976 Philadelphia 7, Toronto 3

Exactly 35 years ago today, the two-time defending Cup champ Flyers beat up the Leafs in their quarterfinal seventh game. The Leafs actually held 2-1 lead after one on the highly favoured Flyers. Philly finished second in the NHL with 118 points and the Leafs were barely over .500 with 83 points. Flyers dashed any hope Toronto had as they pumped five goals behind Wayne Thomas in a just over three minute span in the middle of the second. Darryl Sittler, who the game before had 5 goals and an assist was held in check in game seven.

Bill Barilko, 60 Years Ago

2011-04-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

Toronto Wins Cup Fourth Time In Five Years- Primeau Completes Grand Slam, Richard Individual Playoff Star

Bashing Bill Barilko's swashbuckling hockey play produces far more penalties than goals. It ran true to form Saturday night when the blond defenceman got the referee's thumb twice and scored once.

But that one goal was the big one of the 1951 Stanley Cup final. Tallied after two minutes and 53 seconds of sudden-death overtime, it sank Montreal Canadiens 3-2 and won for Toronto Maple Leafs their fourth cup title in five seasons and their sixth in 10.

IT FINISHED off a spine-tingling hockey gameand a record-breaking series for extra play-each of the five games being settled in overtime. Leafs captured four, Canadiens one.

In the decisive game, a spectacular goaltending performance by little Gerry McNeil forced the Leafs to come from behind twice to tie the score. Both times Toronto's ace trigger-man, Tod Sloan, a 31-goal man during the regular season, pulled the string. His second came just in the nick of time-32 seconds before the end of regulation time.

THE 14,577 fans-some 2,000 of them standees-roared "we want the cup" after the overtime goal. In a minute or two it was at centre ice and President Clarence Campbell of the National Hockey League presented the shining 58-year old trophy to Ted Kennedy, Leaf captain.

Kennedy spoke a few words then introduced coach Joe Primeau, first mentor to lead teams to junior Memorial, senior Allan and professional Stanley Cup championships.

THE CROWD shouted for veteran Turl Broda, the greatest playoff goalie of them all, who played two games against Canadiens and all but one period of the six-game semi-final against Boston Bruins because of an injury to Al Rollins. But Broda was too shy and fought off teammates who tried to drag him to the microphone.

While the Leafs were jubilant, the Canadiens, who put up a valiant battle, were downcast. They congratulated the winners on the ice and then moved quickly to their dressing-room. There the 146-pound McNeil, smallest goalie in the NHL, burst into tears.

THE COOL ROOKIE gave an unbelievable display of puck stopping. Once the fans roared their applause when he snatched a rifle-like slap shot from Barilko's stick through a crowd of players. He had 41 shots to handle, 14 of them in the first period and 19 in the dazzling third session. His mates, a poor second when it came to territorial play, drove 19 at Rollins.

AND ALMOST until the third period ended Saturday night, it seemed almost certain that the final with the Leafs would go at least six games.

Rocket Richard had scored a brilliant goal on a typical Richard picture play in the second. Sloan replied with another sparkling tally scored with defenceman Bud MacPherson draped around him.

THE LEAFS hit a hot attacking pace in the overtime and they didn't get untracked until after the two-minute mark when wingers Howie Meeker and Harry Watson roared right in, only to have McNeil foil them. The puck bounded to Barilko and this time his 15-foot slap shot-his specialty whizzed into the net so quickly that McNeil hadn't a chance.

Biggest Comebacks in Playoff History

2011-04-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

San Jose did the improbable last night and came back from a 4-0 defecit to win in overtime by a score of 6-5. Thanks to the great James Mirtle at The Globe and Mail, we find out this marks only the fourth time in NHL playoff history that a team has overcome at least a four goal defecit to win a game. It also hasn't been done in 26 years. The others were:

April 28, 1985 Minnesota North Stars 5, Chicago Blackhawks 4 The Hawks got out to a 4-0 lead on goals by Denis Savard and Darryl Sutter in the first period and Al Secord and Steve Larmer halfway through the second. North Stars goalie Gilles Meloche was then replaced by Don Beaupre and the comeback was on. Tony McKegney and Brian Bellows scored on Murray Bannerman before the period was over to make it 4-2. Dino Ciccarelli and McKegney again scored by the17:00 mark of the third to send it to overtime. 1:14 into the extra frame, Dennis Maruk won it for Minnesota. The North Stars went on to lose in overtime the next game and lost the series 4-2.

April 10, 1982 Los Angeles Kings 6, Edmonton Oilers 5 The 'Miracle on Manchester' saw the Oilers blow a 5-0 lead in the largest comeback in NHL playoff history. On two goals and two assists from Gretzky and goals from Mark Messier, Lee Fogolin and Risto Siltanen Edmonton led 5-0 at the 14:02 mark of the second. At 2:36 of the third Jay Wells finally beat Grant Fuhr and Doug Smith made it 5-2 at 5:58. Mario Lessard held the fort for the Kings until Charlie Simmer made it 5-3 at 14:38 and Mark Hardy brought them within one just over a minute later. With five seconds remaining, Steve Bozek tied it up. Rookie Daryl Evans won the game 2:35 into overtime to give the Kings a 2 games to 1 series lead. They went on to complete the upset winning 3 games to 2.

April 8, 1971 Montreal Canadiens 7, Boston Bruins 5 After Montreal's Cournoyer opened the scoring, Bobby Orr and Ted Green made it 2-1 within two minutes. Boston stretched the lead to 5-1 in the second on goals from John McKenzie, Wayne Cashman and Derek Sanderson before Henri Richard started the comeback with less than 5 minutes left in the middle frame. The Habs poured it on with five straight goals in the third on two from Jean Beliveau and one each from Jacques Lemaire, John Ferguson and Frank Mahovlich. Ken Dryden outlasted Eddie Johnston as the Habs tied the series at a game a piece. Montreal would go on to win in seven games and took the Cup one month later.