from Stan Fischler at NHL.com,

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.

This week -- in advance of Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday -- Fischler lists 10 Canadian-specific "hockey gifts" for which he is thankful.

MISTER HOCKEY: Like Rocket Richard, Gordie Howe was inimitable. For my money, the Floral, Saskatchewan, native was the best, most complete player I had ever seen. Gordie could do everything and that included never losing a fight. One of my biggest thrills as a writer was authoring Howe's biography. It was my first hockey book and I'm thankful to him for that. Plus, I'm even more thankful for having met the great man and interviewed him many times. How can someone be more thankful than to tell his kids, "Gordie Howe was my buddy."

THOSE WONDERFUL NICKNAMES: I've always had a fascination with nicknames. And when it came to neat handles, no team had a better collection than the 1942 Maple Leafs. Just hearing them broadcast or reading them in the papers, I got a big kick out of Dave "Sweeney" Schriner, Walter "Turk" Broda, Wilfred "Bucko" McDonald, Rudolph "Bingo" Kampman and Wally "The Whirling Dervish" Stanowski. Their coach was Clarence "Happy" Day. You'd be happy too if you won the Stanley Cup five times!

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