Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: Old-School

Remembering The Big Fight

by Paul on 04/03/09 at 03:28 PM ET
Comments (0)

from Joe O’Conner of the National Post,

It was not his fault. Not entirely. He did not start it. He was just trying to defend himself from an angry mob of Boston Bruins. They were coming at him in waves: Terrible Teddy Green, Johnny (Pie) McKenzie, Johnny Bucyk and Gerry Cheevers. Everybody. The Boston bench was empty. Even the Bruins fans were coming at him, throwing punches and beers and God knows what else over the glass at the old Boston Garden.

It was hockey mayhem on April 2, 1969. It was the last NHL game Forbes Kennedy would ever play.

continued

added 3:36pm, Thanks to a pointer left in the comments, I have added a video of the start of the incident below…

Continue Reading »

Filed in: NHL Teams, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, NHL Talk, Old School, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

‘The China Clipper’

by Paul on 04/02/09 at 11:19 PM ET
Comments (0)

from Roger Knox of the Vernon Morning Star,

Playing hockey was his job, and he took his skills east to play with the New York Rangers’ farm team, the New York Rovers, of the Eastern Hockey League in 1946-47. He played in 47 games, scoring 19 goals and 37 points.

The following year, (Larry) Kwong would make hockey history, becoming the first Asian-Canadian to play in the NHL, when the Rangers suited him up for a game in Montreal against Rocket Richard and the Canadiens at the old Forum.

Kwong, a left winger, waited for two periods before Rangers coach Frank Boucher finally tapped him on the shoulder in the third period.

On March 13, 1948, Kwong hopped over the Forum boards, along with the Rangers’ top two scorers, Buddy O’Connor and Edgar Laprade, and into the record books.

His shift lasted one minute. He didn’t score and it was back to the bench, never again to play in the NHL.

more & his page at Legends of Hockey...

Filed in: NHL Teams, New York Rangers, NHL Talk, Old School, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: larry+kwong

A Look At Terry Sawchuk

by Paul on 03/15/09 at 10:31 AM ET
Comments (0)

from Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun,

Martin Brodeur and Terry Sawchuk might be the Kings of the Shutout, but the NHL has rarely seen two more different personalities.

Fire and ice, as they say….

As a young kid, Sawchuk was forced to strap on the pads and go in net for a team in Winnipeg to replace their previous goalie, who had passed away. The boy who died just happened to be Sawchuk’s brother.

When he was 12, Sawchuk remained tight-lipped about hurting his right arm in a game of rugby. Two years later doctors found it had been broken and, subsequently, had healed poorly, leaving it two inches shorter than his left arm.

read on

Filed in: NHL Teams, Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, NHL Talk, Old School, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: terry+sawchuk

Fighting Has To Remain In Hockey

by Paul on 03/15/09 at 12:36 AM ET
Comments (0)

Jerry Green, a retired sports columnist from the Detroit News, will on occasion submit a column.  Today he writes about the fighting debate and goes old school…

My introduction to hockey in Detroit occurred some 55 years ago, a night when Lindsay took on most of the Maple Leafs. He beat the considerably larger Jim Thomson into a bloody mess—to the agitation of Toronto coach King Clancy, himself a noted pugilist as a player. Lindsay and Clancy almost tangled by the bench, over the boards.

Also near the end of the game, a spectator near me berated the Wings’ Glen Skov. This didn’t sit well with Terry Sawchuk, the Wings’ Hall of Fame goaltender. So Sawchuk attempted to reach the critic by scaling the wire mesh protective barrier—in full goalie regalia.

Sawchuk’s corrugated leg pads became impaled on the wire. So Lindsay took up the battle for his trapped teammate.

“Go ahead and shoot off your (naughty-word) mouth,” Lindsay shouted at the fan. He trod along the wooden rinkside seats in his skates, then beat some guy into a bloody pulp. As I recall, it was the wrong guy, but I had been indoctrinated into the intensity of Detroit hockey.

read on

Filed in: NHL Teams, NHL Talk, Old School, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

‘The Embalmer’ Passes Away

by Paul on 03/13/09 at 11:14 AM ET
Comments (0)

from Greatest Hockey Legends,

Sad news to pass along your way tonight: New York Ranger Alf Pike has died at the age of 1991.

Alf Pike has one of the game’s all time great nicknames: The Embalmer.

Pike did not earn his nickname by being one of the game’s great villains like you might expect. No, he came about his handle much more innocently and literally - he was a licensed mortician.

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, New York Rangers, NHL Talk, Old School, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: alf+pike

Ted Lindsay- Pioneer

by Paul on 02/26/09 at 02:15 PM ET
Comments (0)

NHL Network profiles players who helped revolutionize the sport of hockey.  Catch tonight’s episode at 8:30 ET.

Filed in: NHL Teams, Detroit Red Wings, NHL Talk, Old School, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: ted+lindsay

The Masks From The Past

by Paul on 11/24/08 at 12:35 PM ET
Comments (0)

from Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette,

“Bank robbery,” Marc Poulin says, hopefully in jest, “is still in planning.” On Poulin’s kitchen table in Lachine are probably 15 masks he could use for a heist. Sadly, he’d probably not get far - it wouldn’t be hard to find a fleeing Ken Dryden, Terry Sawchuk, Eddie Giacomin or Gerry Cheevers with a sack of loot in his fist.

For the past three years, Poulin has used his hands and imagination to produce dozens of styles of vintage fibreglass goalie masks, painstakingly detailed masterpieces of a bygone NHL.

Upon close inspection of his work, you marvel at the courage of the men who wore the genuine article. And the guts of those before them who had lumbered barefaced and scarred into action.

continued

Filed in: NHL Talk, Old School, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Hot Hockey Hatred

by Paul on 11/08/08 at 10:07 AM ET
Comments (0)

The Maven explains why… 

Filed in: NHL Teams, NHL Talk, Old School, | KK Hockey | Permalink
 

Cheevers Started It All

by Paul on 10/30/08 at 09:37 PM ET
Comments (0)

from the Windsor Star,

So simple, so symbolic.

With all due respect to the loud gargoyles, skeletons, rock stars, cartoon characters and city skylines which now protect the faces of today’s National Hockey League’s netminders, it’s Gerry Cheevers’ “stitch” mask which takes the cake as the coolest ever.

Picture the scene when Cheevers made his um, mark, on history, with the Boston Bruins.

The NHL was still coming out of the Original Six era, with old-school general managers and coaches gradually conceding that protecting their netminders’ faces from Bobby Hull-type slapshots was a good idea.

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Boston Bruins, NHL Talk, Old School, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: gerry+cheevers

Canadiens Honor Coaching Greats

by Paul on 10/29/08 at 12:26 AM ET
Comments (0)

from Red Fisher of the Montreal Gazette,

Among the 30-plus head coaches who have worked behind the Canadiens’ bench during the past century, none approaches those who joined the franchise’s Builders Row last night at the Bell Centre. Not even close.

It starts with the numbers for Dick Irvin Sr., Toe Blake and Scotty Bowman, who won a combined 16 Stanley Cups during the 36 seasons they wore the CH on their hearts. I’m talking about coaches who posted a 1,350-678-416 record in 2,444 regular-season games. It’s about their dedication to winning. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, it’s in the admiration they earned for winning as often as they did.

continued

Filed in: NHL Teams, Montreal Canadiens, NHL Talk, Old School, | KK Hockey | Permalink
  Tags: dick+irvin+sr., scotty+bowman, toe+blake

« Previous        < 1 2 3 4 5 >  Last ›      Next »