The rosters for Saturday’s Habs-Leafs tilt have been announced, and as you can see, Leafs coach Randy Carlyle is suiting up. It can’t hurt. What a team the Habs had, eh? This is from the 1977-78 season, a season that saw the Canadiens finish with 129 points, take home the Prince of Wales for finishing [...]

I remember Jim Ralph when he was a goalie for the Ottawa 67′s in the 1970′s. He was never a great backstopper, and his career didn’t amount to much, just bouncing around the minors for a decade after junior, and he never made it to the bigs. But there’s one thing about Jim Ralph – [...]

It’s the magical combination of Danny Gallivan and Dick Irvin as the Habs and Flyers battle on May 16, 1976. Montreal would win 5-3 on this night, sweeping the Flyers to win their 19th Stanley Cup. Period one (30 min.) and period three (42 min) are included here, and we see the Cup awarded. Just [...]

Goalies apparently are a different breed. We’ve heard that forever. So why would Ken Dryden be any different? In Gerry Patterson’s 1978 book “Behind The Superstars,” (which I talked about a few posts back – Anne and Gordie ), Patterson writes about Dryden’s legendary unwillingness to open his wallet. (And to sign autographs). After five [...]

Below, examples of the wonderful work of Canadian artist Brandy Saturley. Canuck Days Desaturated Cherry Goalie’s Mask: Red, White, and Dryden. This piece is displayed, along side one of Ken Dryden’s masks, in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, with prints available at Goalie’s Mask. Proceeds go to The Hall. Death of a Rookie (Rise of [...]

It was this running schtick I had going with my sister for awhile. One of us would say something like, “I’ve known a lot of people in my life…… and you’re one of them.” Or if we were in the car one would say, “You know, I’ve seen a lot of drivers in my life…… [...]

Kouli in Vancouver always has such great photos for sale on his site at Kouli the Greek and I very much appreciate him letting me show some of his stuff, which I do from time to time. Below, Mr. Beliveau; the 1912 edition of the Habs; Charlie Hodge; Pete and Frank Mahovlich with Pocket Rocket; [...]

Should Paul Henderson be in the Hall of Fame? Damn right he should, although Henderson didn’t exactly have what one would call a Hall of Fame career, racking up 236 goals and 241 assists for 477 points in 707 regular season games divided between the Leafs and Detroit Red Wings. These are decent numbers, not [...]

Game eight. A game that almost didn’t happen because both sides couldn’t agree on which two referees would suit up. The Russians, of course, lobbied for both Josef Kompalla and Franz Baader, the two West Germans who heavily sucked up to the Russians, probably in search of future Olympic and World Championship gigs in which Russia [...]

The cameras panned the Palace of Sports at Luzhniki in Moscow, where fans, the majority men and soldiers, stared hard at the ice and at the long-haired Canadian players swooping around. What were these fans thinking about these foreigners? They saw the long hair, they saw Esposito and others they recognized. They would scan the stadium, watching [...]