the concusser
A quick review of Gordie Howe’s career on the ice suggests that he suffered at least six concussions in his time (Head Count, February 10). Another question might be: how many did he cause? They don’t...
View Articlehockey players in hospital beds: doug bentley
Doug Bentley had a bad groin. That’s not to judge, it’s just what we know. What it meant in January of 1950 was that when the last-place Chicago Black Hawks went on a road trip, Bentley stayed home. He...
View Articlethis week: there aren’t enough adjectives in the vocabulary
“Happy holidays everybody!!!,” tweeted @AnzeKopitar this week, “#besttimeoftheyear” In Ottawa, Governor-General David Johnston told CTV’s Powerplay what he thought of his next-door neighbour’s...
View Articlea thousand and thirty-three
Tony Harris tells the story of illicitly drawing constant Tony Espositos when he should have been taking notes as a school kid in Lakefield, Ontario: that’s where his career as an artist started....
View Articleedgar laprade, 1919–2014
If it were anyone else, we might be able to swing players around to fill the gap. But the loss of Laprade is serious trouble. • Frank Boucher in January of 1951 Edgar Laprade was 94 when he died last …...
View Articlehp[post]hb: jerry toppazzini
Almost There: You can’t see the damage here — post-plastic surgery, Jerry Toppazzini of the Boston Bruins looked pretty good in early March of 1957. A month after suffering what doctors called a...
View Articlefathers and sons
Leo Reise, Jr., seen here getting in some hurdling practice, had some very good sporting days in his time. He played his first NHL game in 1946 for the Chicago Black Hawks; in 1950, he helped the...
View Articleback home, back in hockey
Terry Sawchuk wasn’t happy to leave Detroit in the summer of 1955, having just helped the team win the Stanley Cup, but GM Jack Adams decided it was time: he had a young goaltender by the name of Glenn...
View Articledickie moore, 1931–2015
Dickie Moore was 84 when he died on Saturday in Montreal. A Hall-of-Fame left winger, he twice won the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer. While he also turned out, later in his career, for...
View Articlethe wild man of guelph
A birthday today for Lou Fontinato, who was born in 1932, in Guelph, Ontario, whereabout he still lives. A defenceman, he was mostly, in the NHL, a New York Ranger, though he ended his career with...
View Articlefloral glory
Hockey’s Mister: Born on a March-ending Saturday in 1928, Gordie Howe turns 88 today. About his beginnings, Don O’Reilly wrote this in his 1975 biography, Mr. Hockey: The World of Gordie Howe: “Floral,...
View Articlehomespin
The bad news: the Detroit Red Wings lost to Montreal’s powerful Canadiens in the sixth game of the 1954 Stanley Cup Finals. A better bulletin: they were headed home for the seventh and deciding game...
View Articlethat week: if he were a forest, he’d be a national park
“There will never be another Gordie Howe,” is what Bobby Orr was saying last week, in the days following Howe’s death on June 10 at the age of 88. “You couldn’t invent Gordie today,” Orr told Dave...
View Articlewing-ding
Pushback: He was still often Gordon Howe in the press in 1947, starting into his second NHL season working the right wing for the Detroit Red Wings, though Gordie was starting to take hold more and...
View Articleriot’s eve, 1955: when I’m hit, I get mad, and I don’t know what I do
northbound Sunday night, March 13 of 1955, after Boston beat Montreal 4-2, Canadiens caught a night train north. “The big rhubarb in Boston Garden,” The Gazette’s Dink Carroll called what had gone on,...
View Articlewhango! another strike, and the mosienko grin: working the hockey off-season
Gordon Sparling directed Hockey Stars’ Summer, a 1951 ASN “Canadian Cameo,” with Andy O’Brien contributing the script.Filed under: jobs Tagged: Andy O'Brien, baseball, Bill Gadsby, Bill Juzda, Bill...
View Articleted talk
Filed under: Detroit Tagged: Bert Lindsay, Charlie Conacher, Detroit, Montreal Wanderers, Renfrew, St. Michael's Majors, Ted Lindsay, Toronto Arenas
View Articleafore orr
Staredown: Those of us who studied under Bob Armstrong recognize this glare as the same one he used in his post-hockey career to quell classroom uprisings during his time as a popular teacher of...
View Articleheld ’em, hall
Montreal was sitting high atop the NHL standings in February of 1959, looking back down at Chicago in second. The Bruins were a point behind the Black Hawks the night Boston stopped in at the Stadium...
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