What are you sentimental about that no one else would be?

[Big Phil]

Okay, I'll explain this one. It can be anything. A player you liked, an era that you liked that wasn't popular, a team no one liked, anything. Heck, maybe you are sentimental about those coveralls the Flyers wore in the early 1980s. Whatever it is, post it.

For me a sentimental time in hockey is not one that is shared by many. It was the first round of the 1998 playoffs. Look, this was not an exciting postseason in general. The first round wasn't either. It had one Game 7 and that game was a 4-0 blowout. So why am I a sucker for the 1st round in 1998? My Leafs weren't even in it. The day the playoffs started I got my 4 wisdom teeth pulled. All of them. They put me under for it and once I woke up and the novocaine wore off the throbbing pain set in. It didn't last, but I was out of commission for a while. Drowsy, flared up cheeks on the inside and out and just tired overall. I ate apple sauce, chocolate pudding and ice cream more or less for a few days.

But..............I was glued to the TV every night for the playoffs. I watched every game that was on, and this was 1998 when CBC and maybe just TSN had the games. It didn't matter. To this day I associate the first round of the 1998 playoffs with my wisdom teeth.

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[Boxscore]

Phil, this is so funny, because, without even seeing your thread, I posted about the Atlanta Flames being my favorite defunct team, just because.

Sentiment is a great way to describe it - and I know exactly what you mean - the things about hockey that you just randomly love, reminisce about, or associate with fun and happy times.

For me, I would say...

1. The Atlanta Flames. I just thought everything about them was neat. And, when I was a little kid, for Christmas one year my mom got me a handful of hockey jerseys. I remember it like it was yesterday. Since I was born, I was into hockey, thanks to my mom. That one Christmas, my mom had each of the jerseys wrapped perfectly in boxes under the tree. These weren't "official jerseys" (aka Maska, CCM, Eagle, etc.), they were knock-offs made by a local sporting good store in Philly. But to me they were the greatest. I opened them up, one by one...

Toronto Maple Leafs was the first one, then others followed... Bruins, North Stars, Atlanta Flames, and finally my beloved Flyers. Even though the Flyers were my favorite team, there was just something about the Atlanta Flames jersey that I loved - the colors, the logo, the look. I was the envy of my friends who also loved hockey, and when we played street hockey, my best buddies would ask if they could borrow my jerseys, which lasted about 2 years until we all outgrew them. But when I played, I always wore the Flames jersey. My friends knew that was "off limits".

2. The smell of the Philadelphia Spectrum. The building is long gone but I still can recall the smell inside of it. The way it smelled when I would get there early for warm ups and start heading down the steps towards the ice. I love that smell, and miss it.

3. The first year I ever played fantasy hockey... 1992-93. I ran my first ever league and did all of the stats in a notebook with pencil by adding up all of the box scores from the morning newspaper. I would have the wait for the "late additions" which included the West Coast scores from the night before. So many good times.

4. "The Forum Walk." So, even though I am a Philadelphian, I've always been fond of the Montreal Canadiens, their history, their success, their players, their story. I remember as a kid, my favorite book was this big, yellow book called, "Pro Hockey Heroes of Today." I used to read it cover to cover, over and over and over. I never grew tired of reading this book. Today, I own 4 copies for sentimental reasons. Anyway, my best buddy and I made it a tradition to go to Montreal every year for our annual hockey trip. I've been going religiously since 1995. And we started a tradition that we call THE FORUM WALK. The first day we get to Montreal for our trip, we go to our favorite bar for lunch, beers, then after everything closes up around 3am, we head down St. Catherine's Street to Atwater.... flask filled with Gentlemen's Jack in hand... and sit on the park benches across from the old Montreal Forum (now a movie theatre, market area) and toast to the building and what it meant for the game of hockey. The shell is still there, although the awesome "crossing hockey sticks" elevators don't shine through the windows. A lot has changed with the building but it brings back awesome memories. We always go up in January, when it is freezing cold, and we enjoy the long walk and everything. One of my greatest hockey-related memories, period.

5. Mats Sundin's "bubble" Jofa helmet. In 1992, Sundin became one of my favorite players but not due to his skill set. I just loved the way he looked in the Nords uniform with that bubble Jofa helmet on his head. He was a tall, lanky kid at the time and the Helmet looked funny on him, I loved it.

 

[c9777666]

Weekend regional nat. Televised games on FOX/ABC/first few NBC years.

There was something fun about flipping back and forth between a handful of nat televised NHL games with Center Ice.

 

[The Panther]

This is really going back into my early memory-banks, but I remember the 1982-83 NHL hockey-sticker book. It was all the rage at Elementary school when I was about 7, but I remember it. Anyone recall these? You could buy the stickers, just like hockey cards with bubble-gum, in a plastic wrap case (I think) and then you'd open it and see which players you'd get. The disappointment was in getting the same stickers twice. And there were always those 1 or 2 players on page 12 or whatever that nobody seemed to ever have (obviously the book's way of fleecing kids to buy more). I even remember the picture of Gretzky celebrating a goal on the back cover, and the format of the 'rectangles' inside onto which you'd paste the stickers....

 

[Rygu]

This is really going back into my early memory-banks, but I remember the 1982-83 NHL hockey-sticker book. It was all the rage at Elementary school when I was about 7, but I remember it. Anyone recall these? You could buy the stickers, just like hockey cards with bubble-gum, in a plastic wrap case (I think) and then you'd open it and see which players you'd get. The disappointment was in getting the same stickers twice. And there were always those 1 or 2 players on page 12 or whatever that nobody seemed to ever have (obviously the book's way of fleecing kids to buy more). I even remember the picture of Gretzky celebrating a goal on the back cover, and the format of the 'rectangles' inside onto which you'd paste the stickers....

I definitely remember those. Specifically the 88-89 one when Lemieux had the 199pt season and my Flames won their only cup. Panini was a big part of my childhood lol.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

the 98-00 Bruins. Was 14 at the time, and they were the thing back then. Loaded team, and more importantly Byron Dafoe was unfair in NHL 2001.

Thornton, Murray, Samsonov, Bourque, Rolston, Knuble, Allison, Guerin, Dafoe, Axelsson, Belanger, McLaren

 

[Killion]

I definitely remember those. Specifically the 88-89 one when Lemieux had the 199pt season and my Flames won their only cup. Panini was a big part of my childhood lol.

.... ya, premiums with food products, collectibles.... in my day.... Beehive Honey & York Peanut Butter having collectible cards in the lid & or collectible glass containers that you'd then use as a glass. Team & individual player. My favorite being Salada Tea & Shirriff/Jello Hockey Coins. Individual player coins or discs, plastic, about the size of a silver dollar or toonie.....

Not quite on topic though as yes, I'm sentimental about them but far from "unique" as they are highly collectible, interest, sentimentality shared by many.... One of the spots I enjoy surfing on-line every now & again is on ebays "Vintage Hockey Equipment" pages which they breakdown by category, gloves, sticks, skates, goalie pads & so on. Seeing much of that stirs up a lot of great memories, feelings of sentimentality as I loved checking out hockey equipment as a kid & still do.... see stuff you remember, maybe owned & used at one time, opening the floodgates to long forgotten memories.... thats fun & free... unless your a collector, buyer, though Ive never indulged in much of that.

 

[tony d]

A few things:

- The player, Tony Mckegney; Must be the name...LOL
- The 75th patches on the jerseys in 1991-1992
- The Panini Sticker Books

 

[ICM1970]

Playing Friday afternoons at the old Kingston Memorial Centre. The Queen's portrait at one end of the rink, the old CKWS TV 11 ad on the scoreboard, the showers that shot out that extra bit hot water when the Zamboni was filling up, the smell of hockey throughout the place, being the helmetless mucker of the group and one of the arena workers there telling me that he liked it more when NHL players did not wear helmets , I could go on, lol.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

The old Cooper helmets that most goons wore. Or goalies (think Chris Osgood's helmet).

 

[ICM1970]

The old Cooper helmets that most goons wore. Or goalies (think Chris Osgood's helmet).

And the Jofa 235 helmets Gretzky, McSorley, and numerous others wore. Got an undeserved reputation following the Michel Goulet incident as even after the NHL began to phase them out, the concussions continued unabated and ended or threatened the careers of numerous well knowns in the league.

 

[Thenameless]

My grade 3 teacher didn't like seeing hockey cards in the classroom. About mid-year, she took away all of our hockey cards, and put them in her desk. I had forgotten about them. At the end of the school year, she pulled out stacks of hockey cards from the bottom of one of her big drawers, and asked which pile was mine. I still have those cards.

 

[Boxscore]

This is really going back into my early memory-banks, but I remember the 1982-83 NHL hockey-sticker book. It was all the rage at Elementary school when I was about 7, but I remember it. Anyone recall these? You could buy the stickers, just like hockey cards with bubble-gum, in a plastic wrap case (I think) and then you'd open it and see which players you'd get. The disappointment was in getting the same stickers twice. And there were always those 1 or 2 players on page 12 or whatever that nobody seemed to ever have (obviously the book's way of fleecing kids to buy more). I even remember the picture of Gretzky celebrating a goal on the back cover, and the format of the 'rectangles' inside onto which you'd paste the stickers....

I loved those sticker books!!

 

[Sanf]

I guess I have to pick NHL thing it would definitely be early Sharks. Only NHL team that I have ever rooted for in NHL They were so bad and I loved it. I also loved the idea that the team was build from bunch of rejects. It has faded over the years because I´m kind of person that I need some kind of personal connection to root for a team (home town etc.)

And lot of the players are sort of cult players for me. Dean Evason one of my favourites. Was happy when he won the WHC as Canada´s captain in 1997. Only player outside of NHL in that team IIRC. Sad may be exaggeration, but still it felt weird when the last players of that early roster like Wade Flaherty and Ray Whitney retired. That short NHL team fandom is linked to many childhood/early teenage memories.

 

[Flamer12]

Early 80's when nothing in life was more important than hockey playoffs. Sitting in parents basement with some buddies and my parents with two TV's going at the same time. Trying to follow both games while waiting for an update of other games to see if any of your players got points for the playoff pool.

 

[VanIslander]

• Throwing cards against the wall in elementary school trying to win a Larry Robinson and wanting to get rid of my two Bobby Clarke cards.
  
• Standing in line to buy a ticket.
• LIVE games as an EVENT pre-Internet where if you didn't watch it you had to wait until the late news to find out what happened or else you had to call someone (or turn on sports talk radio if it was on in your area), in whichever case, the gravity of tuning in live was huge.
  
• Claude Lemieux.
  
• The pre-lockout loooong time that was allowed before face-offs, especially in the 3rd period, when players would take what seemed like forever to get to the face-off circle, the play-by-play and color commentators building tension as we awaited the drop of the puck... nowadays you blink and the puck has hit the ice, little time to build anticipation in big games, all rush, rush these days.

 

[jj cale]

Phil, this is so funny, because, without even seeing your thread, I posted about the Atlanta Flames being my favorite defunct team, just because.

Sentiment is a great way to describe it - and I know exactly what you mean - the things about hockey that you just randomly love, reminisce about, or associate with fun and happy times.

For me, I would say...

1. The Atlanta Flames. I just thought everything about them was neat. And, when I was a little kid, for Christmas one year my mom got me a handful of hockey jerseys. I remember it like it was yesterday. Since I was born, I was into hockey, thanks to my mom. That one Christmas, my mom had each of the jerseys wrapped perfectly in boxes under the tree. These weren't "official jerseys" (aka Maska, CCM, Eagle, etc.), they were knock-offs made by a local sporting good store in Philly. But to me they were the greatest. I opened them up, one by one...

Toronto Maple Leafs was the first one, then others followed... Bruins, North Stars, Atlanta Flames, and finally my beloved Flyers. Even though the Flyers were my favorite team, there was just something about the Atlanta Flames jersey that I loved - the colors, the logo, the look. I was the envy of my friends who also loved hockey, and when we played street hockey, my best buddies would ask if they could borrow my jerseys, which lasted about 2 years until we all outgrew them. But when I played, I always wore the Flames jersey. My friends knew that was "off limits".

2. The smell of the Philadelphia Spectrum. The building is long gone but I still can recall the smell inside of it. The way it smelled when I would get there early for warm ups and start heading down the steps towards the ice. I love that smell, and miss it.

3. The first year I ever played fantasy hockey... 1992-93. I ran my first ever league and did all of the stats in a notebook with pencil by adding up all of the box scores from the morning newspaper. I would have the wait for the "late additions" which included the West Coast scores from the night before. So many good times.

4. "The Forum Walk." So, even though I am a Philadelphian, I've always been fond of the Montreal Canadiens, their history, their success, their players, their story. I remember as a kid, my favorite book was this big, yellow book called, "Pro Hockey Heroes of Today." I used to read it cover to cover, over and over and over. I never grew tired of reading this book. Today, I own 4 copies for sentimental reasons. Anyway, my best buddy and I made it a tradition to go to Montreal every year for our annual hockey trip. I've been going religiously since 1995. And we started a tradition that we call THE FORUM WALK. The first day we get to Montreal for our trip, we go to our favorite bar for lunch, beers, then after everything closes up around 3am, we head down St. Catherine's Street to Atwater.... flask filled with Gentlemen's Jack in hand... and sit on the park benches across from the old Montreal Forum (now a movie theatre, market area) and toast to the building and what it meant for the game of hockey. The shell is still there, although the awesome "crossing hockey sticks" elevators don't shine through the windows. A lot has changed with the building but it brings back awesome memories. We always go up in January, when it is freezing cold, and we enjoy the long walk and everything. One of my greatest hockey-related memories, period.

5. Mats Sundin's "bubble" Jofa helmet. In 1992, Sundin became one of my favorite players but not due to his skill set. I just loved the way he looked in the Nords uniform with that bubble Jofa helmet on his head. He was a tall, lanky kid at the time and the Helmet looked funny on him, I loved it.

From one old timer Canadian to a Philadalphian, you sir are a real hockey fan!!

it's quite funny, my brother is a dyed in the wool flyers fan, he was a crazy Bernie Parent fan and still loves the flyers to this very day. he must be the only person I have ever run across on Cape Breton Island that I have ever known who is a Flyers fan. People used to look at him like he was crazy growing up when they found out he was a rabid Philly supporter

My brother is a very strange man.

 

[jj cale]

For me one thing is opening up the packages of hockey cards and immediately getting that overpowering smell from the bubble gum they used to include in them. Nothing else smelled like it to this day, it was awful tasting stuff but you still used to get all worked up for it as you went through your pack to see what players cards you got.

That smell and taste and the memories that go along with it...............it's implanted on my brain forever.

 

[Boxscore]

From one old timer Canadian to a Philadalphian, you sir are a real hockey fan!!

it's quite funny, my brother is a dyed in the wool flyers fan, he was a crazy Bernie Parent fan and still loves the flyers to this very day. he must be the only person I have ever run across on Cape Breton Island that I have ever known who is a Flyers fan. People used to look at him like he was crazy growing up when they found out he was a rabid Philly supporter

My brother is a very strange man.

Thank you, sir!! Your brother is a GREAT man!

 

[Boxscore]

For me one thing is opening up the packages of hockey cards and immediately getting that overpowering smell from the bubble gum they used to include in them. Nothing else smelled like it to this day, it was awful tasting stuff but you still used to get all worked up for it as you went through your pack to see what players cards you got.

That smell and taste and the memories that go along with it...............it's implanted on my brain forever.

I can picture this too... and smell the gum. Especially the 1980-1984 years for some reason lol

 

[jj cale]

Thank you, sir!! Your brother is a GREAT man!

lol, he is a great guy, but his choice of hockey teams leaves much to be desired in my mind.

When Montreal and Philly ever played there was absolute tension in our house, mom and dad usually had to act as a buffer.

 

[jj cale]

I can picture this too... and smell the gum. Especially the 1980-1984 years for some reason lol

Oh, it was just godawful dreadful stuff but it just didn't seem to matter, I wish I could find a stick of it today.

 

[Howie Hodge]

The 1974-75 NHLPA Stamp Book was something I really enjoyed, along with my classmates. We were determined to complete the books we each owned. Loblaws of Buffalo distributed them locally.

As has been described above, some of the players were hard to come by. I would buy gum there to get my packet of stamps. A Cashier helped me out by giving me handfuls when I'd stop in. I finished my book, and was able to help several others complete theirs also. A random act of kindness on her part I shall always remember....

 

[jj cale]

The 1974-75 NHLPA Stamp Book was something I really enjoyed, along with my classmates. We were determined to complete the books we each owned. Loblaws of Buffalo distributed them locally.

As has been described above, some of the players were hard to come by. I would buy gum there to get my packet of stamps. A Cashier helped me out by giving me handfuls when I'd stop in. I finished my book, and was able to help several others complete theirs also. A random act of kindness on her part I shall always remember....

View attachment 110915 View attachment 110917

Do I see Jerry Korab in there?

 

[Killion]

Oh, it was just godawful dreadful stuff but it just didn't seem to matter, I wish I could find a stick of it today.

.... a "stick" of it you say? I recall it (60's) being the same size & app thickness of the cards in the pack, dusted with sugar powder, usually beyond stale to the point that it cracked & disintegrated upon touch.... tasteless.... like cardboard.... so bad that for kids, Boys, we absolutely loved it. The more hideous, the more bizarre.... the worse, the cheaper the gum or candy... the better. Like Thrills chewing gum. Cheaper than like Wrigleys or Chiclets... pure genius, tasted exactly like Sunlight Soap... eat the whole pack in one sitting... eye watering stuff Man & ya still made, available.... hockey card gum on the other hand tasteless but the texture, the wafer thinness... all cracked & splintered, stale... the cards all covered with that sugar powder.... and sometimes the gum itself turning to powder, pour it out, all crystal, dust.... that was cool. Like King Tuts remains or something...