For those of you in other countries, today, Sunday, is a big day in Canada. Grey Cup Day. The 100th Grey Cup. When Canadians from coast to coast gather to eat meatballs, dips and chili. They also drink a lot of beer on this day, which is never a good idea because most have to [...]

The original Stanley Cup, from 1892. Even Gary Bettman could have lifted it. Maybe. If only it hadn’t gotten bigger over the years. The darn thing’s 36 inches high now, whereas the original was just over 7 inches. It’s too much for little Gary. And of course he wouldn’t lift the modern one above his head even if he could - [...]

I worked way too hard one Orillia summer, a 15 year old with my buddy Ron Clarke, hauling creosote-soaked railway ties a hundred feet to the shoreline so these evil things could be pounded into place to make some sort of breakwater. The job paid $1.75 an hour, and by the end of August I’d saved enough money to buy a pair of C.C.M. [...]

A deckhand came off the boat today and handed me this little Habs Stanley Cup in a case which I thought was a real nice gesture and I was very touched. Then he said “Here you go, this’ll be the only Cup you’ll see this year.”  He’s a Canucks fan.

Before I get into this, I just want to mention that it was Tom Cruise you may have seen on the sports news watching the game from a private box at the Vancouver game and not me. Montreal 3, Canucks 2. Yes, it’s true. The first Habs win in Vancouver since 2000. Not that Vancouver has been better [...]

That’s me in my own Heritage Classic, a long time ago. It’s what these outdoor games are supposed to represent – the millions of us who skated outdoors, froze our feet, scored winning goals in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup, and came in when mom called because supper was getting cold or it [...]

St. Petersburg SKA, sitting high in the standings, boasts several players who had careers in the NHL. Alexei Yashin, Maxim Afinogenov, Sergei Zubov, Evgeny Artyukhin, Sergei Brylin, and Evgeny Nabokov, all seasoned ex-NHLers, play here, although no Canadians are on the squad. I think for most North Americans, living and playing in Russia can be a [...]

The things you find in a January 6, 1940 Toronto Daily Star. There’s an ad for a game at 8.30 between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens, with good tickets available at 75 cents, $1.50, $2.00, and $2.50. There’s a nice photo of star left winger for the Canadiens, Toe Blake, and [...]

A friend in Edmonton told me there’s a guy there who’s dating her sister and he’s been in Canada for 10 years. (although I don’t know which country he came from.) He’s been in the country for ten years and he’s never heard of the Stanley Cup and Grey Cup.

If a team has to ship out a big chunk of its roster after winning the Stanley Cup just one time, it kind of makes you wonder if there will ever be another dynasty in the NHL. The Chicago Blackhawks, only weeks after capturing their first Cup in 49 years, have dealt Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Sopel, [...]