Hockey History Around The Internet

I took a little journey through some internet back pages today, just looking for a bunch of cool hockey history stuff. I just clicked on those search words in Google and procceded to get lost for a good four hours. I found way more than I could even read, listen to and look at in that given time. So I went nuts saving links, pictures, making some memo's, all in the hopes of making it into one huge post on just how fun this kind of trip can be.

I came up with some real beauties! Site and pages that will interest both the male and female hockey fan. Some of the stories contained within are very interesting the spectre of hockey history.

I stared out at a site called ANSports, that bought and sold hockey memorabila. I saved a few pics there than you see right below.


The commemorative book from the 1972 Summit Series is valued at $124.00, and I own one!























1961-62 Montreal Canadiens team picture. No Stanley this time, just a useless Prince of Wales!


















The site is run by the son of a former New York Americans fan and features much of the memorabilia that was collected during his day. The jersey that is shown belonged to an unidentified former player, and is the only NYA jersey known to exist. The HHOF passed on it in 1977, incredibly.

Check out ANSports site map to see more rare treasures like this 1967-68 Topps Bobby Orr card. Worth a small mint!



















Frank Finnigan's Leafs jersey from the mid 1930's. The pic gives an idea of how hockey has played at the time. Finnigan played from 1923 to 1937 for Ottawa, Toronto, and the St. Louis Eagles, scoring 115 goals in 553 games. The Senators retired his # 8, when the franchise was renewed in 1992. Finnigan was the last living Senator from that era.























After looking around some, I followed their links section to pages of old Bee Hive hockey shots.

The picture of Maurice Richard ia available for sale at the site.























I ended up on Canada's West coast for a bit, checking out some sites of the PCHL and WHL from the early 1900's Vancouver Millionaires era. While I didn't find any new info on Jim Seaborn - I helped out a relative a while back locate some of his ancestry - I did get into some league histories with more great captures from the era.


















The 1917 Seattle Metroplolitans - first U.S. team to win Stanley. The did it with a team stacked with players from the 1914 Toronto Blueshirts Cup win.



















Lester Patrick with the Renfrew Millionaires, circa 1911. Renfrew were the smallest city to ever win the Cup. Patrick and his family soon moved the team they owned to Vancouver and thrived, winning another Cup soon thereafter. Not only did the Patrick's build a team, the also built the arena and ran the PCHL. Patrick made over 30 rules changes to the game as league president, over 20 of which are still part of the game. A true hockey genuis and a man of vision. And yes, they were millionaires from the family lumber business.












The jersey of the Nelson B.C. team in the WHL, nickname unknown.










Another link took me to Hockey's Greatest Legends, one of my favorite sites. It is run by Joe Pelletier of Terrace, B.C., an incredibly knowledgable fellow when it comes to the games history. Since I just made a bet with Zandstorm at Waiting For Stanley on Tuesday's Canucks - Habs matchup, I thought I'd grab some Canuck info while I was there. Surprising I happened upon a page with bios on 18 differents

















Harold Ballard, the Leafs cantankerous owner, from the late 1960's. Here he is with a Team Canada 1972 jacket.









I hooked up a wicked piece on the former owner. As another site said, "It would take a dictionary of adjectives to describe Ballard, a flamboyant and controvercial figure who unquestionably carved himself a place in hockey history. One of the game's most philanthropic individuals to be sure. He was also one hell of a chauvenist pig and had a hate on for female hockey broadcasters.

If you follow the links, you can listen to his infamous rant with Barbara Frum and see why the man was so despised.

Also on the Ballard page were links to Tim Horton, both the player and then the proprietor. Another side to the Leafs curmudgeon was a piece on hockey's worst miscreants. Two pages contain the lowdown on hockey's evil villans.

Former Bruin defenseman Eddie Shore was a legendary crank - nuttier than squirrel shit! As the owner, manager, and coach of the Springfield Indians, Shore treated players in such a slave-like manner, the team became known as hockey's Siberia.












From that bit of old codginess, I got tipped onto some cool writeups on womens hockey and it's history. Interesting stuff for all the chicks with sticks, as my daughters call themselves.













They've come a long way from the KTHL - Kitchen Table Hockey League!














Finally, I caught up with something I'd been curious to find for years - information on the birthplace of hockey. While loads of cities and towns have laid claim to being the sight of origin, the city of Dartmouth N.S. has many things the others don't, including a tie in with the game's name.






















The painting above was found years ago in a church in Dartmouth. It was said that it was painted to represent games children played outdoors in the middle 1800's. Looks like a little shinny ready to break out.








Happy reading all!

More Legends Of Hockey

I just can't get enough of Joe Pelletier's Legends Of Hockey - what a treasure trove for hockey die hards and historians. I strongly recommend adding it to your favorites and perusing it daily. It is downright adictive!


Once I'm over the current fixation of the seemingly unlimited Habs legends, I'll come around to the likes of Orr, Howe, and others.


This time I randomly selected three players from the Canadiens history and later realized there was a small connection in regards to my hometown of Cornwall, Ontario. However minute it is, it's oddly funny in a way.
























Edouard "Newsy" Lalonde, a pre NHL Canadiens great was born and raised in Cornwall. He got the nickname from a newpaper route or a job at a paper plant depending on which legend you choose to believe.


Interestingly, the Lalonde name eats up a sizeable chunk in the Cornwall phonebook. There must be thousands of Lalonde's living here. Finding ancestry would almost be impossible - but I keep asking. I must know of at least 50 Lalonde's myself - my brother was actually married to one once.


The NHL has dominated history so much since it formed in 1917 so that many fans today are often surprised to learn that the Montreal Canadiens actually pre-date the NHL itself. Many of Lalonde's greatest years came prior to the NHL's christening.With much of his pre-NHL statistics and career ignored, the Canadian sporting landscape has long forgotten one of Canada's greatest athletes.

Lalonde, who earned his nickname because he worked in a newsprint plant in his youth, was a true superstar in both hockey and lacrosse. In fact, he was probably better at lacrosse. He was so good that in 1950 he was named Canada's outstanding lacrosse player of the half century. His hockey contributions were highly recognized as well. In that same year he was elected to Hockey's Hall of Fame.

Lalonde was born on October 31, 1887. His professional career, or should we say journey, began with the Cornwall Rovers in 1905 at the age of only 16. In 1906 he became a member of the senior Woodstock club and in 1908 moved to the Toronto Arenas of the Ontario Professional Hockey League. That year he won the scoring championship with an amazing 29 goals in just 9 games and played against the Montreal Wanderers for the Stanley Cup. Toronto narrowly lost 6-4 in the championship game. Read more.

My coffee hangout of choice for over 25 years is a place called The Fifth Wheel Truckstop. I've met some pretty famous folk in there over the years as it is the kind of in-between-two-destinations type of spot where people pull off the highway to grab a bite, fuel up, or just take a pee.


I've bumped into hockey players such as Mike Bossy (Frito Lay Golf Tournament at Summer Heights), former referee Red Storey and his wife (on the way to the HHOF), and musicians Bruce Cockburn (3 times), Gowan, the Headpins, and David Sizuki.


The oddest encounter happened as I was about to leave for Ottawa one day, on my way to the KISS reunion show, in 1996. I had just got into my car, when another car pulled up next to mine, pointed in the opposite direction. Remembering that I'd forgot something inside The Wheel, I hurriedly opened my car door to go and get it.
























As I opened the door, the door of the car next to me also swung open. I quickly pulled it back and was ready to throw the driver a dirty look when I noticed it was none other than Henri Richard. I almost fell over laughing! I couldn't believe it!


I quickly apologized while introducing myself as a Habs fan. I just as quickly blurted out something along the lines of game 7 of the 1971 Stanley Cup Final being one of my favorite games ever. It did the trick - I had engaged the Pocket Rocket into what became a ten minute conversation.


The game in question, won the Habs the Cup, with Henri netting the second and third goals in 3-2 come from behind win.


Richard remembered that he was furious at the time at head coach Al McNeil for sitting him in game six. He had something to prove, he said.


McNeil is probably the only coach ever to get turfed after winning a Stanley Cup, and the Richard confrontation had much to do with it. The Habs sure didn't goof on the move - he was replaced by Scotty Bowman.


I asked Richard what he was doing in Cornwall, and he didn't even realize he was there. "Just got off the road for a pee", he said in French.


We talked a bit about the Forum, which the Canadiens would soon move out of, and he said he'd likely miss the place very badly.


I remember thinking that I hoped no one else would recognize us standing outside our car doors - I wanted as much time alone with him as I could get.


After we'd exhausted the subject of the Forum, he apologized and said he had to go.


I thought he meant to the rest room, but then he got into his car to drive off. As I went to get my stuff, he made a U-ee in the parking lot, and drove to a different spot.


When I emerged from the restaurant, there he was talking to an aquaintance of mine! I wanted to go back to him, but I was now running late. Richard gave me a wave as I passed by. Next time I saw that friend, he asked me why Henri Richard would wave to me, of all people, and why I hadn't the courtesy to stop. I b.s.'ed him for a second, saying Pocket was my uncle, before I told him of my earlier chat with him. We had a good laugh!


In hockey history, I consider Henri Richard one of the games most unique individuals.


Getting your name engraved on the Stanley Cup is every Canadian boy's dream. Very few achieve this dream. In fact, many of hockey's greatest stars never tasted champagne from Lord Stanley's mug such as Gilbert Perreault, Brad Park, or Marcel Dionne, to name just a few. Henri Richard has his named engraved on the Stanley Cup. In fact, he has his named engraved a record 11 times! Only Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics can match that claim to most professional team sport championships. Read more.

Outside of perhaps only Guy Lafleur, Yvan Cournoyer is surely the most exciting player I've seen don a Habs jersey. The Roadrunner scored the most spectacular goals at breakneck speed and celebrated them with uncomparable joy.

I met him at the same truckstop years earlier and quickly found he was as quick witted as he was fast on skates.

My routine at the coffee shop for years has been to grab a copy of Le Journal de Montreal and go over all the articles (usually 6 or 7) on the previous nights game. One morning, as I looked up from my paper, there was Cournoyer scanning the dinning room for a familiar face. That person wasn't me, but seeing on my face that I'd recognized him (what a grin I musta had!), he nodded to me in acknowledgement.

The first thing I thought of saying was "How's retirement?"

Yvan replied, "I'm only retired from hockey, real work is a lot harder!"

Before I could clue into what he meant by that, he noticed the paper I was reading and quipped, "I see your a Leafs fan!"

"Not in this lifetime", I added, before he glanced at the paper suggesting, "They should have won that game."

This little meeting of a minute or so, occurred in the mid to late 1980's, I can't exactly pinpoint the exact time in my mind. I do remember that Cournoyer said of the Habs, that they had many good younsters ready to make the jump to the team soon.

He cracked me up when he said, "All of them are not as good as me!"

I was midway to getting the words "What brings you to..." , when he said, "There's the guy I'm here to see."

He was referring to the Wheels restaurant manager. With that, he gave me a pat on the shoulder, saying "Nice talking to you", and off he went.

Later on, I'd found out that he was meeting the manager to discuss a lease option for a restaurant of his own, that he would soon open in town, called "Burger 12".

It was to be the second such franchise in what Cournoyer surely hoped would become a restaurant chain. The Cornwall location was on 9th street, and by the time I'd gotten around to checking it out, it had unfortunately shut down. At the other end of the strip mall, was a Tim Horton's, oddly enough.

The "Burger 12" chain never caught on.

For those who got to witness Yvan Cournoyer apply his trade live and in person knew they were seeing something special. One of the best skaters and stickhandlers ever to grace a sheet of ice, Cournoyer played with an affection for the game of hockey that was as obvious as it was rarely matched. Read more.