For everyone still contemplating whether to join SIHR or not, the new SIHR Research Journal offers quite an incentive to join.
A great range of topics is covered in 15 articles by the following authors:
Steve Currier:
Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Shot: A NHL Pre-Season Experiment
Steve Currier recalls the radical and controversial 1974 rule proposal: the “free shot”. A free shot would be awarded if play was stopped because a) a goalie froze the puck for more than three seconds, b) a goalie delayed the game by placing the puck onto the goal netting, or c) a player, including the goalie, despite not being checked by an opponent, chose to freeze he puck or play the puck along the boards in a way that led to a whistle.
Brian Marshall:
Brimsek, Broda and Mowers: The Battle for Goaltending Supremacy in 1940/41
The 1940/41 National Hockey League season featured an epic battle for supremacy between three goaltenders, vying for the coveted Vezina Trophy. The battle involved a rookie, Johnny Mowers of the Detroit Red Wings and two seasoned professionals, Frank Brimsek of the Boston Bruins, and Walter ‘Turk’ Broda of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Bill Sproule:
Charles Uksila: From the Copper Country to the Ice Capades
Charles "Charlie" Uksila was one of the first US-born players to participate in a Stanley Cup series as a member of the 1915/16 Portland Rosebuds, and after he retired from hockey, he went on to a fascinating career in figure skating.
Reg Lansberry:
Claude Provost: When Nine is Not Enough
Claude Provost was a valuable right wing who went about his business quietly, was almost always unnoticed, frequently drew the assignment of checking the opposition’s top left wing such as Bobby Hull of Chicago or Ted Lindsay of Detroit, and never drew much attention for the skilled job he did – especially in the playoffs.
Todd Denault:
J.C. Tremblay: The Forgotten Man on the the Forgotten Dynasty
During his career with the Montreal Canadiens, both the fans and the media focused on what J.C. Tremblay wasn’t. He wasn’t tough. He wasn’t consistent. He wasn’t a Norris Trophy–winning defenceman. And above all, he wasn’t Doug Harvey. But "J.C. Superstar" was one thing: one of the most underappreciated play.
Andrew Holmand & Stephen Hardy:
Knowledge and Power: Inventing the Hockey Coach, 1900-1920
The authors recount how in a very short span of time, Alf Smith, and then dozens of others, invented the hockey coach, a modern, Progressive expert, whose "scientific" knowledge of hockey translated into power within it. The new position was a product of hockey’s second generation, an era marked by diffusion, bureaucratic rationalization, and professionalization. And it has been with us, assumed and unquestioned, ever since.
Kevin E. Fisher:
Nineteenth-Century Hockey: Southern Ontario and Western New York
This brief essay looks at hockey's spread into Hamilton, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, and how it finally arrived in Buffalo, New York.
Ty Dilello:
Pinkie Davie: A Life in Hockey
A biography of Manitoba born Bob "Pinkie" Davie, who skated with the Boston Bruins.
Stephen Smith:
Remembering J.W. (Bill) Fitsell: 1923 - 2021
A tribute to the organization's founding president which acknowledges his passion, vision, commitment and enthusiasm.
Kevin Shea:
The 1919 Stanley Cup Championship: Series Not Completed
Kevin Shea revisists the incomplete 1919 Stanley Cup championship between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans, disrupted by the Spanish Influenza pandemic.
Kaitlyn N. Carter:
The Best in the Empire's Cause: Representations in Canadian Newspapers of Hockey Players during WWI
Kaitlyn N. Carter, a recent graduate of Western University's M.A. program in history, explores Canada's need for a national identity in the decades following Confederation and a rallying point crafted by the Canadian military and newspapers around the game of ice hockey during the first World War.
Eric Zweig:
The Cleghorns Take Manhattan: Sprague and Odie's Winter in New York
If they hadn't been real, someone would have had to invent them—RKO Pictures, perhaps, or Warner Brothers. Disney, maybe. Have you ever seen the 1945 Goofy short Hockey Homicide? The names Sprague and Odie Cleghorn do sound like cartoon characters, but the violence, especially on Sprague’s part, was all too real.
Roger A. Godin:
The Mysterious Gerry Geran: The NHL’s First American
Gerry Geran, a native of Holyoke, Massachusetts, was the first US-born player in the NHL’s history. Roger tells the story of the man who made his inauspicious professional debut in the Montreal Wanderers' first game on December 19, 1917, on the first night of play of the newly minted league.
Hannu Kauhala:
Tommi Salmelainen: The NHL's First European Draftee
In 1969, at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Tommi Salmelainen became the first European to be selected in the NHL draft. While this achievement might be seen as groundbreaking, modern-day fans may find it hard to believe that Salmelainen was completely unaware - even though he was practising just 340 miles (550 km) southwest, in Toronto!
Dean Robinson:
Two Trophies, Two Cities: One Jack Dent
Dean Robinson details the origin of the Jack Dent Memorial Trophy to the best defenceman of the Stratford (Ontario) Hockey Club Junior B team and the Jack Dent Trophy awarded to the Windsor Spitfires MVP.
