What Time Period Interests You Most?
- Thread starter SCampo98
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buffalowing88
Registered User
I would love to learn more about that era. Seems like a very forgotten period of hockey history.
As for me, I want to know about the last years of the O6 more than anything. From say 1950-1960 in particular. Hockey was HUGE in all of those markets at the time and I just like learning more about the guys besides just Howe and Hull who were stars in the biggest markets in the country.
I actually like the era from 1926 -42. The pre O6 era. The league had 10 teams and parity as noone won more than 3 in a row in those years.
TheDevilMadeMe
Registered User
I also like reading about the late 1920s/early 1930s:
- The first truly great generation of professional talent, at a time when the best athletes in Canada could, for the first time, make a better living in hockey than any other sport.
- The demise of the western leagues that used to compete with the NHL, resulting in the best talent all playing in the same league for the first time.
- The rapid series of rule changes that moved hockey from a relatively primitive game to something much more closely resembling what we now know. I find the changes in the game from the pre-forward to post-forward pass era especially interesting.
quoipourquoi
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1990s in-line culture and marketing in closer association with extreme sports than conventional leagues.
crobro
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VanIslander
A 19-year ATDer on HfBoards
I herald the sentiment of several already: the early NHL and 1930's NHL. I still wish the two-time champion Blackhawks from that decade had their story better told.
I also have been enamoured with the earliest quarter century of Stanley Cup hockey: 1893-1918 (amateur top level and then NHA/PCHA).
But these days I find myself interested in the O6 era, especially the non-dynasty teams (Chicago, New York, Boston), blind spots in my historical picture I'm eager to fill in (and Detroit post-dynasty in the 1960's).
Internationally, i was into pre- then later post-1972 Soviet teams. But in the last few years I'm starved for 1970's Czechoslovakian history.
The 1970's is the most fragmented decade in terms of great play since 1900-1909.
I also have been enamoured with the earliest quarter century of Stanley Cup hockey: 1893-1918 (amateur top level and then NHA/PCHA).
But these days I find myself interested in the O6 era, especially the non-dynasty teams (Chicago, New York, Boston), blind spots in my historical picture I'm eager to fill in (and Detroit post-dynasty in the 1960's).
Internationally, i was into pre- then later post-1972 Soviet teams. But in the last few years I'm starved for 1970's Czechoslovakian history.
The 1970's is the most fragmented decade in terms of great play since 1900-1909.
The Panther
Registered User
I guess there are two periods I find most interesting:
1) The 1940s
This is interesting because it's the last decade before TV, and so there's basically no full games (or very few) filmed or available. Like the 1970s much later, it's also a decade that saw a lot of change. It started with 7 teams and the NY Rangers winning the Cup for the last time in 54 years. The Montreal Canadiens were the worst team in hockey. In 1942 the Brooklyn (formerly New York) Americans play their last-ever game, and the League settles on six teams for the next quarter-century. However, partly due to the War interfering with teams' line-ups, the power-balance is all over the map in the first half-dozen years of the decade. The first 5 years of the decade have 5 different Cup winners! By the end of the decade, Montreal and Detroit are in the ascendant, and a Leafs' dynasty has just ended. Boston, Montreal, and Detroit are all over the place in the standings during the decade, which makes it interesting.
2) c. 1980 to 1994
I guess this is the post-WHA, high-scoring, pre-Lock Out era. The NHL was in a kind of weird state around the end-of-70s / early-80s, but I think things got pretty good around 1983 or 1984 onward, and I personally think the period roughly 1986 to 1994 is the peak of the NHL in terms of entertainment value. (It's also the last time the salaries weren't completely out of control, and the last time we saw Canadian franchises win the Cup.) Bunch of the old buildings -- Gardens, Forum, Gah-den, Stadium -- were still in full use, too.
1) The 1940s
This is interesting because it's the last decade before TV, and so there's basically no full games (or very few) filmed or available. Like the 1970s much later, it's also a decade that saw a lot of change. It started with 7 teams and the NY Rangers winning the Cup for the last time in 54 years. The Montreal Canadiens were the worst team in hockey. In 1942 the Brooklyn (formerly New York) Americans play their last-ever game, and the League settles on six teams for the next quarter-century. However, partly due to the War interfering with teams' line-ups, the power-balance is all over the map in the first half-dozen years of the decade. The first 5 years of the decade have 5 different Cup winners! By the end of the decade, Montreal and Detroit are in the ascendant, and a Leafs' dynasty has just ended. Boston, Montreal, and Detroit are all over the place in the standings during the decade, which makes it interesting.
2) c. 1980 to 1994
I guess this is the post-WHA, high-scoring, pre-Lock Out era. The NHL was in a kind of weird state around the end-of-70s / early-80s, but I think things got pretty good around 1983 or 1984 onward, and I personally think the period roughly 1986 to 1994 is the peak of the NHL in terms of entertainment value. (It's also the last time the salaries weren't completely out of control, and the last time we saw Canadian franchises win the Cup.) Bunch of the old buildings -- Gardens, Forum, Gah-den, Stadium -- were still in full use, too.
Franck
eltiT resU motsuC
1995 to 2004, somewhat unfairly known as the dead puck era, mostly out of childhood nostalgia.
I find most of the post-expansion era from 1967 and onward interesting though, barely know a thing about the era before WWII.
I find most of the post-expansion era from 1967 and onward interesting though, barely know a thing about the era before WWII.
The calibre of hockey wasn’t the greatest, obviously. But there has always been something about the 70’s that has drawn my interest and made it my favorite historical era. The WHA, expansion, Summit Series, the jerseys, the hair, Slap Shot, just the overall craziness of it all. And those Habs teams. Hockey really got a mainstream popularity boost in that decade. It did a lot for the game.
Love me some 80’s as well, and of course 90’s and early 00’s for nostalgia reasons. But I really love studying and researching every era in hockey history.
Love me some 80’s as well, and of course 90’s and early 00’s for nostalgia reasons. But I really love studying and researching every era in hockey history.
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Theokritos
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BenchBrawl
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The Panther
Registered User
Hockey was weird like that... Up to about 1970, everybody looks the same as in 1945 -- short, buzz-cut or slicked back hair, ultra-conservative dress (and personalities, for the most part).
Then, seemingly overnight, by 1975 or so hockey was the ultimate unshaven, porn-stache, mutton-chops, protruding chest-hair, need-a-shower, sweaty, grimy sport.
Dennis Bonvie
Registered User
Hockey was weird like that... Up to about 1970, everybody looks the same as in 1945 -- short, buzz-cut or slicked back hair, ultra-conservative dress (and personalities, for the most part).
Then, seemingly overnight, by 1975 or so hockey was the ultimate unshaven, porn-stache, mutton-chops, protruding chest-hair, need-a-shower, sweaty, grimy sport.
Outlaw Hockey?
Professor What
Registered User
I don't have a permanent "favorite era," because I'm pretty enamored with the history of the sport as a whole. At the moment though, the 60s-80s Eastern Bloc is what I'm putting the most focus into, as I'm trying to fill a gap in my knowledge, both for the purposes of the project we're working on and for my own satisfaction. I'm very much enjoying learning about those guys too.
End on a Hinote
Registered Abuser
Early 90's for me (1990-1994).
I only vaguely remember the tail end of it and that may be one of the reasons why. It was what many consider the last truly great era of the league, also the last time Canada truly dominated the sport and NHL rosters, as well as the last time Canadian teams were able to compete for the Cup as equally as the US teams could. Looking back it may have been a time many fans, especially here in Canada, really took for granted.
I only vaguely remember the tail end of it and that may be one of the reasons why. It was what many consider the last truly great era of the league, also the last time Canada truly dominated the sport and NHL rosters, as well as the last time Canadian teams were able to compete for the Cup as equally as the US teams could. Looking back it may have been a time many fans, especially here in Canada, really took for granted.
SCampo98
Registered User
vikash1987
Registered User
I don't think there's a single decade or era in hockey that I'm not interested in. That said, if I had to choose, I'd probably be MOST interested to read about, research on, and/or watch videos of hockey in the 1960s and 1970s. It was such a colorful and exciting period for the sport, with expansion, WHA, international competition, and legends such as Bobby Orr, Bobby Clarke, and Guy Lafleur. I'm also a huge fan of television, music, fashions, and culture from the '60s and '70s (why I still haven't fully figured out---I wasn't alive then, but just seem to gravitate to that time), and so that probably has something to do with it.
ted2019
History of Hockey
Lot of goals scored in early 90’s. For a short window, 89-94 might be the best. Very entertaining.
The Panther
Registered User
That's what I think, too. Around the late-80s up to New York's Cup win in '94 was like a golden-age of League-size (just right), star player appeal (stars of 80s still going strong + new stars of 90s), not so much ugly bench-clearing brawls but still lots of hits and aggression, star goalies who were still exciting to watch, teams with different playing styles (some all offense, some all defense, some in between), and so forth.
For some reason, thinking of the decades from the 1940s to the 1990s, it's the 1960s that interests me the least. I just don't find much of appeal to that decade of hockey.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Hank Williams Jr. looked like clean cut guys you’d see at church every weekend. Then out of nowhere they look like a gang of hooligans you’d kick out of a bar for violating a dress code lol.
For me, the most interesting period is ~1980-2004. Obviously the game changed dramatically between the beginning and end of that stretch but I find both ends of the spectrum (open run and gun hockey vs. low scoring clutch and grab) to be equally entertaining. Plus, the game had great rivalries, hatred, and lots of rough play but was still flooded with tremendous talent.
The NHL has become practically unwatchable for me over the last 10 years or so, in general. Just too systematic, north and south, stay in your lane style of hockey. Seems like too many teams play the exact same boring system.
Iapyi
Registered User
