Hockey History

"Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the...

Thanks for your interest in my book "The NHL's Mistake By the Lake: A History of the Cleveland Barons." In 201 pages with pictures, I tell the story of the two-year existence of the Cleveland Barons, who came into being when the California Golden Seals were hastily transferred to northeastern...

Klondikers: Dawson City’s Stanley Cup Challenge and How a Nation Fell in Love with Hockey tells the story of how an unlikely team of dreamers traveled for three and a half weeks from the Yukon to Ottawa to play for the Stanley Cup in 1905. Most fans of hockey history know this challenge took...

Though I’ve mostly enjoyed it (and managed to do pretty well for myself), writing books can be a very strange way to try and make a living. Remember how I was supposed to have two new books coming out this fall? (I’ve mentioned it here a time or two, I believe!) Hockey Hall of Fame True Stories...

Trading players from one team to another in hockey, and getting players back in return, has a history almost as long the professional game itself. It’s still quite a tricky task to track down the first hockey trade in history, but what’s clear is that deals between teams exchanging players...

About the Author: Dave King is a Canadian hockey coach who has coached Canadian College, Major Junior, in the NHL, Canada's National/Olympic teams and coached in six countries. Early in his career he coached Canada's World Junior team to its first gold medal leading to the success Canada has...

The Russians were on the move all the time. We could hardly keep up with them. They interchanged positions to the extent of the outside-left skating over to the right-wing and vice versa. I have never seen hockey played like it. It was a Chinese puzzle to try to follow the players in their...

ON APRIL, 5, 1934, the Vancouver Province reported plans for an NHL exhibition tour through western Canada. Toronto’s Conn Smythe had confirmed the tour via long-distance phone call with the Vancouver Gyro Social Club. The games would take place in Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Trail, British...

Last week, the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association announced that they had reached an agreement with the International Olympic Committee to confirm the participation of NHL players at the Beijing Winter Olympics this coming February. COVID may have the final word on that, and you can certainly...

To all whom are interested and with a stick tap of appreciation to Marcel L. - My new book "The New York Rangers Rink of Honor and the Rafters of Madison Square Garden" is now available on Amazon. The direct link to the book is here: Amazon.com Here is the description of the book, from Amazon...

Often when reading about classic old time era hockey teams one comes across the intriguing story of the 1907 Kenora Thistles. The small town boys from the city originally known as Rat Portage, on Lake of the Woods in westernmost Ontario near the Manitoba border, eventually bringing home the...

There hasn’t been much said lately about the news coming out at the end of July that the NHL will investigate claims made in a series of tweets by the estranged wife of Evander Kane that Kane not only bet on NHL games but that he had thrown a number of games while playing for the San Jose...

I may have mentioned once or twice already that I have a new book about the Kenora Thistles coming out in November. It’s called Engraved in History and it’s being done by Brignall Media, a local Kenora publisher. (I also have Hockey Hall of Fame: True Stories coming out with Firefly Publishing...

During the 1910s it was not entirely uncommon for deaf, or “deaf-mute” as they were called at the time, hockey players to pop up on the competitive hockey scene, either in the amateur or in the professional circuit. Two of the more distinguished deaf hockey players around this time were Walter...

It’s July 28. There’s plenty of other sports going on. The Olympics. Baseball. Football training camps. And the NBA draft is approaching. But even in the middle of summer, hockey manages to make headlines. There was the expansion draft a week ago, the regular NHL draft a few days later, and all...

The era in ice hockey from around the turn of the twentieth century and up until the formation of the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1917 doesn’t have a formal name, but it is sometimes referred to as the “pre-NHL era.” Or, up until the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) disbanded in 1926, and...

I grew up a Leafs fan and still consider them to be my favourite team — although that means a lot less to me at age 57 than it did when I was 17 … or 7! It’s been a long time since I would say I’ve bled blue and white. It was probably in 1989 (I’d have been 25 at the time) when I made my peace...

Anatoli Tarasov was the most vocal figure in Soviet hockey – so vocal, in fact, that hockey historians tend to forget he wasn't actually the head coach of the Soviet national team during its dynasty years from 1963 to 1972. Tarasov was only the assistant or associate coach. The head coach was...

I can't help but notice how Brayden Point is becoming the new playoff-Mike Bossy! That guy is just money in big games the past two seasons. I thought Point was the real Conn Smythe winner last year (not that Hedman wasn't deserving). Point put up 14 goals, 33 points, and a +12 (and missed two...

Just because this is a Stanley Cup story about teams from New York and Montreal, don’t go reading into it that I’m predicting the Islanders and Canadiens to reach the Final. (Then again, if it happens to be the two of them facing off against each other two weeks or so from now, remember where...