this week: the good old hockey game
“We never go away, we never give up, we keep coming at them,” said Chicago’s captain, Jonathan Toews, of his team’s phenomenal start to the season. From Boston, defenceman Andrew Ference twiddled about...
View Articlecabbages, card decks, heated pennies
Bulletin out of Chicago in early 1946, as reported by the Associated Press: President Bill Tobin of the Chicago Hockey Club today offered a $250 reward for identity of a galleryite who tossed an empty...
View Articlethis week: is god a jets fan?
“Hej, Heja, Heja, Cracovia Mistrzem Hokeja,” chanted the fans in Poland this week, after Cracovia Krakow beat GKS Jastrzebie in game seven of the finals of the Polish national championships. “I’ve...
View Articlethis week: once wayne gretzky told me stats are for losers
Crosby Not Eating Well was a headline this week at philly.com. From up on the International Space Station, the commander of Expedition 35 tweeted that he was enjoying Leafs games on TSN. “I watch them...
View Articlethis week: Ungie showed me how to do it
The Rangers’ coach, Alain Vigneault, sent a message this week to his scoreless forwards, according to Larry Brooks of The New York Post, and it was this: score. “This is a big deal,” said Prime...
View Articlethis week: no one will ever see me in downtown Vancouver ever again
Phoenix captain Shane Doan was ill this week, had been, and continued to feel it. He had headaches and a temperature. Nobody knew why. “Out With Mystery Ailment,” USA Today headlined. Said a teammate,...
View Articlewe want quinn: a short history of the irish-orr wars of 1969
Pat Quinn was a coach and a manager and a hockey co-owner and the tributes continue to mount following news of his death a week ago in Vancouver at the age of 71. If you’ve seen them, you’ll know that...
View Articlethis week, several others: why do people find these Leafs so hard to like?
Minnesota’s Ryan Suter paid US$81,058.72 to elbow Pittsburgh’s Steve Downie in the head. That was a while ago. More recent was Zac Rinaldo, of Philadelphia, for whom the price of charging Kris Letang...
View Articleone week and another: haven’t really looked at it as a concussion
Carey Price is 6 foot 3, reported The Globe and Mail’s Sean Gordon, and his thighs are as stout as 50-year-old timber. From Stan Butler, who coaches the OHL’s Brampton Battalion, came a tweet last...
View Articlethis week: pax + the stupidest rule in sports + as far as sid goes, let me...
Max Pacioretty, Montreal’s leading scorer, was in the news this week, having left a game last week and unsettling Canadiens fans everywhere. Sniper was a word used to describe him; we learned that his...
View Articlethis week: out there at twilight with a big machete, chopping up a beaver dam
As the Toronto Maple Leafs approach their centennial, the team is thinking of maybe updating, altering, or otherwise rejigging their logo — possibly. That was the news today, from the website...
View Articlefeeling fine, he said; forgot to duck
Gaye Stewart was the last Toronto Maple Leaf to lead the NHL in goalscoring: in 1945-46 he finished the season with 37 goals. Maybe that’s how you know the name. He was also the first NHLer to win a...
View Articleborn with a black eye: one more requiem for reggie fleming
A version of this post appeared on page 132 of The Story of Canada in 150 Objects, published jointly by Canadian Geographic and The Walrus in January of 2017. Reggie Fleming’s brain made its NHL debut...
View Articlehockey players in hospital beds: no more will I put my face in front of the puck
“Did you ever see how they kill cattle?” Jacques Plante said. “They use a sledgehammer and the cattle just drop dead. That’s how the shot felt when it hit me. Without the mask I wouldn’t be here...
View Articleconcussion number one
No-one was spotting for concussions when the NHL first skated into being a hundred years ago: that’s not how hockey worked in 1917. But just because nobody was keeping track back then doesn’t mean that...
View Articlewaiting on gary bettman
“It is so extremely doable.” That was Ken Dryden talking in December when I met him near his home in Toronto to discuss his book Game Change: The Life and Death of Steve Montador, and the Future of...
View Articlethis week in 1957, when hockey debuted on american television: show ’em...
Clarence Campbell was in the house: he declared the game a “pretty good show.” If that sounds a little lukewarm, well, maybe we’ll presume that the NHL president was doing his best to spare the...
View Articlefellows wrestle to the ice, time after time, in hockey, with no one hurt...
Milt Schmidt had his version of what happened, and the gist of it was this: not his fault. New Year’s Day, 1953, Toronto was in Boston. The Leafs ended up yielding to the Bruins by a score of 5-1. “A...
View Articlerewriting the game: ken dryden on no hits to the head, no excuses
A version of this post appeared on page B11 of The New York Times on January 4, 2018 under the headline “Hall of Famer Says N.H.L. Must Put End To Head Hits.” Awareness is important — people need to...
View Articlenormie himes: kingpin of the new york forwards, with all the aplomb of a...
If we’re going to talk about Normie Himes, then it’s worth mentioning that he was born in April of 1900, in Galt, Ontario, which is now part of Cambridge. It’s important to say, too, I suppose, that...
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