1966-67 Chicago Black Hawks Glenn Hall Jersey

For seven seasons - day in, day out - Glenn Hall tended goal every single game, every single minute from the start of the 1955-56 season for the Detroit Red Wings and then for the Chicago Black Hawks starting with the 1957-58 season up through this date in 1962.

502 complete games in goal, 551 if you count the 49 playoff games, without ever once being pulled or given a rest - all without a wearing a mask!

In that first season of the streak, Hall was the Calder Trophy winner as Rookie of the Year while a member of the Detroit Red Wings. Surprisingly, Hall was sent, along with the union organizing Ted Lindsay, to the Chicago Black Hawks in a trade following the season.

In 1961, Hall led the Black Hawks to the Stanley Cup Championship, their first in 22 seasons. Hall was also a first or second team All-Star six times in the seven year run, no easy feat in a then six-team league against competition from Terry Sawchuk (who took over in goal in Detroit following Hall's departure), Johnny Bower, Jacques Plante, Roger Crozier and Gump Worsley.

Perhaps the closest he came to ending the streak was a puck to the face from the Toronto Maple Leaf's Jim Pappin that knocked out the only tooth he ever lost playing hockey and earned him 30 of the 250 stitches he would accumulate during his career.

Despite the end of his consecutive games streak due to a bad back, it would not deter Hall, who would go on to win the Vezina Trophy that season for the first of three times in his career and play in over 400 more games before retiring.

Hall is also known for throwing up before games, which he "credits" to being excited to play, not nerves for fear, and pioneering the butterfly style of goaltending, where a goaltender drops to his knees and spreads his legs out in a "V" shape, rather than doing the splits or laying sideways and stacking the pads on top of each other, the common styles used at the time. Keeping himself vertical also helped keep his face farther off the ice and away from the puck.

Playing with Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull was great for games, but very hard on Hall during practices. Mikita and Hull were the original developers of the curved stick and known for their blazing slap shots. Back in those days practices were not filled with the drills of today's modern practice, plus there were no rules at the time limiting the curvature on stick blades, and the players would blast shot after shot at the goaltenders, which would dip as much as two feet on their way to the net.

Hull in particular had no qualms about firing pucks at people, including trying to fire the puck at the glass in front of the goal judge at Chicago Stadium during pregame warmups to startle him into spilling his traditional coke. The problem for Hall was his location in the net in between Hull and the goal judge, requiring the puck to rip past Hall's head just over his shoulder on it's way to the glass!

Hall was set to retire at age 35, but was taken by the St. Louis Blues in the 1967 Expansion Draft, despite having just won the Vezina trophy! A 35% raise from $35,000 to $47,500 convinced Hall to extend his career. He led the Blues to the Stanley Cup Finals three years in a row and also finally began to wear a mask.

He would capture the Conn Smythe Trophy in the 1968 playoffs, despite being on the losing end of a 4 games to none sweep at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens. Each game was a one-goal victory for Montreal, with Games 1 and 3 going to overtime. Hall would also share the Vezina trophy with Jacques Plante in 1968-69.

He retired with 84 shutouts and a lifetime goals against average of 2.51. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975.

Today's featured jersey is a 1966-67 Chicago Black Hawks Glenn Hall jersey from his second Vezina Trophy winning season in Chicago. This style of Black Hawks jersey was worn during Hall's final two seasons in Chicago, as it features a v-neck collar which replaced the previous lace-up collar in 1965. No names were worn on the back of the jerseys in those days, just Hall's traditional goaltender's #1 in a simple single color.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1968-69 St. Louis Blues Glenn Hall jersey from his third Vezina Trophy winning season, this one coming in St. Louis following the great NHL expansion of 1967.

This was the original style of Blues road jersey, which remained in use through the 1971-72 season when the colors of the stripes were then reversed. It would take until 1977 for names to appear on the back of Blues road jerseys.

photos courtesy of Classic Auctions

First up in todays video section, this brief video focuses on Hall's consecutive games streak.

 Next is the excellent Legends of Hockey profile on Hall.

1991-92 Chicago Blackhawks TBTC Dominik Hasek Jersey

Dominik Hasek became the youngest player in in professional hockey history when, at age 16 he suited up for HC Pardubice in the Czechoslovak Extraliga in 1980. He would play for Pardubice for nine seasons, including winning the championship twice in both 1987 and 1989 and be named the top player of the Czechoslovak Extraliga in 1987, 1989 and 1990 as well as the Goaltender of the Year for five consecutive seasons from 1986 through 1990.

A very young Hasek with Tesla Pardubice

He would play one season for Dukla Jihlava in 1989-90 before moving to North America as the restrictions on players from communist countries were now lifted after what would have been a highly successful, complete ten year career for many, but due to his record setting early start as a teenager, Hasek was still only 26 years of age.

Drafted 199th overall in the 10th round back in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, when players from communist countries had little chance of ever playing in the NHL, Hasek would not even find out he had been drafted until several months later! He would begin his time in North American hockey in the same place Wayne Gretzky started his professional career, Indianapolis, Indiana, playing for the Indianapolis Ice of the IHL in 1990-91.

Hasek now in North America with the Indianapolis Ice

He would make his NHL debut on this date in 1990 in a 1-1 tie vs. the Hartford Whalers. He would see action in five games for the Blackhawks - eight years after being originally drafted! His first win would come on March 8, 1991, a 5-3 win over his future club - the Buffalo Sabres.

Hasek during his rookie season with Chicago, as evidenced by the 1991 NHL All-Star patch, wearing the unfamiliar #34

The following season, backing up Chicago's then number one goaltender Ed Belfour, Hasek would split his time between Chicago and Indianapolis, playing in 20 games for each club. He would post a 10-4-1 record with a 2.60 goals against average that season for Chicago and would earn his first of 81 career shutouts with a 2-0 blanking of the Toronto Maple Leafs on January 9th, 1992. The Blackhawks would make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals that year before losing to the Mario Lemieux led Pittsburgh Penguins. Unable to win the starting job from Belfour, Hasek would be traded during the offseason to the Buffalo Sabres where he would begin the next phase of his career.

Today's featured jersey is a 1991-92 Chicago Blackhawks Turn Back the Clock Dominik Hasek jersey worn by Chicago during the NHL's 75th anniversary season when Hasek wore #31 after initially wearing #34 during his first season with the Blackhawks.

As part of the celebrations of the NHL's 75th anniversary in the 1991-92 season, the Original Six teams all wore a Turn Back the Clock jersey from their past at various times throughout the season. The Blackhawks "barberpole" jersey was originally worn in the 1937 season and did not feature any sleeve numbers.

This jersey also features the NHL 75th anniversary patch, as worn by all players during the 1991-92 season.

Here is a collection of many great saves made by Hasek in the 1992 Cup Finals versus Pittsburgh while playing for the Blackhawks.

1955-56 Montreal Canadiens Jean Beliveau Jersey

On this date in 1955, the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins squared off at The Forum in Montreal.

The Bruins jumped out to an early lead with an even strength goal by Leo Boivin at 1:35 of the first period. Before the period would end, Doug Mohns would add to the Bruins advantage with a power play goal at the 18:12 mark. Before the period would end, Cal Gardner of Boston would be whistled for a penalty with just ten seconds remaining that would put Montreal on the power play to start the second period.

With Montreal already with a man advantage, Hal Laycoe would be called for a penalty at the 16 second mark that would change the way the game would be played forever more. The Canadiens relished any opportunity to play with a man advantage, for the previous season they led the league in goals with 228 in 70 games, the only team to average more than 3 per game and 24 more than their closest pursuer thanks to their notoriously potent power play.

Montreal controlled the puck following the face-off and Doug Harvey fed Bert Olmstead who got the puck to center Jean Beliveau who redirected it past Bruins goaltender Terry Sawchuk at the 42 second mark to cut the Bruins lead to 2-1.

After the ensuing face-off, with Montreal still on the power play, Maurice Richard worked to get the puck to Olmstead, who again fed Beliveau who once more beat Sawchuk on a similar play just 26 seconds later to even the score at 2-2.

Now, in this day and age, the first Montreal goal would have freed Gardner from the penalty box while the second tally would have set Laycoe free, ending the Montreal man advantage, but this was not the case back in 1955, as any penalized player was required to serve the full length of his penalty, regardless of how many goals were scored while his full time was being served.

So, with both Gardner and Laycoe still serving their full sentence with no parole in the offing, Montreal remained on a two-man advantage with 42 second remaining. After controlling the puck once again, Harvey again found Olmstead who knew exactly what to do with it - get the puck to Beliveau. "Le Gros Bill" found the twine to complete his hat trick at 1:26, his third goal with the two man advantage in the span of just 44 seconds!

Gardner was finally able to escape the penalty box 24 seconds later after having to helplessly watch the carnage created by his departure, and Laycoe's freedom finally arrived 26 seconds later, but not until he was forced to watch a 2-0 Boston lead turned into a 3-2 lead for the Canadiens while he was away.

While there were no further power play goals during the contest, Beliveau would score his fourth goal of the night at 15:53 of the third period at even strength, assisted by Olmstead once again and Bernie Geoffrion for a final score in favor of Montreal 4-2 thanks to the talents of Beliveau and the remarkable Canadiens power play.

Beliveau displays the four pucks from his stellar evening and
is joined by Olmstead, who assisted on all four of his goals

Beliveau would go on to go on to win the Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion and the Hart Trophy as league MVP at the conclusion of the season, thanks in part to the opportunity to score multiple goals on a single power play.

Such was the dominance of the Montreal power play, having scored more than once with the man advantage eight times that season, that a new rule was put into effect in time for the start of the 1956-57 season to minimize the distinct offensive advantage enjoyed by the Canadiens, as any penalized player serving a two-minute minor would be freed immediately following any goal scored against his team in an effort to keep games more competitive. Predictably, the vote was 5-1 in favor of the new rule change.

While Montreal was able to capture the Stanley Cup in 1956 with the ability to score seemingly at will with the man advantage, how did the new rule affect the competitive balance for the time period immediately after the new rule was put into effect? Very little, in fact, as the Canadiens would reel off four more consecutive titles from 1957 to 1960 for a dynasty like no other, as no team before or since would ever win five consecutive Stanley Cups.

Today's featured jersey is a 1955-56 Montreal Canadiens Jean Beliveau jersey. Believau was a staggering ten time Stanley Cup champion with Montreal in his 20 years with the club. Beliveau also won the Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion in 1956, the Hart Trophy as MVP in 1956 and 1964 and the inaugural Conn Smythe Trophy in 1965. Had the Conn Smythe Trophy been in existence prior to the 1965 finals, odds are that Beliveau would have won at least one other one, particularly in 1956 when he led the Canadiens in playoff scoring with 12 goals and 19 points in just ten games.

This exact variation of the Canadiens jersey arrived in 1947 when the red shoulders no longer encroached into the blue arm stripes and would be worn until 1956 when further detail changes were introduced.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions
 

Today's video selection is the wonderful Legends of Hockey profile of Jean Beliveau.

Reader Submission - 1999-00 Hamilton Steelheads Boris Kerensky Jersey

Our 24th reader submission comes from Will Scheibler, and it is a very well written and documented story of his most interesting jersey.

Here is Will's story about his distinctly unique jersey and what makes it one of the most interesting reader submissions we've ever had.

Fairly recently acquired a Hamilton Steelheads jersey.  Who were the Hamilton Steelheads you may ask?  They were the home team of an old hockey television drama called 'Power Play' (1998-2000).  Originally aired on CTV in Canada;  in the U.S. it was picked up in 1999 for a trial run on UPN and got the lowest ratings in Nielsen rating history.  Click here for the Wikipedia entry for "Power Play"

Of the main characters probably the best known actors would be Gordon Pinsent (Due South and many other shows) and Al Waxman (King of Kensington, Cagney & Lacey, etc.)

Famous hockey players that made guest appearances include Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, and Jean Beliveau.  Politician Shelia Copps and singer Ashley MacIsaac also made appearances.  Don Cherry (of CBC's Hockey Night in Canada's Coach Corner) makes his acting debut as the head coach of the Philadelphia team.

Some of my favourite scenes are of the main character (Brett Parker - played my Michael Riley) in some episodes when he sees ghosts of hockey players that give him advice:  A pair of Hamilton Tigers, Bill Barilko, Howie Morenz, Jacques Plante and others. 

If you are looking for this series on DVD or even VHS you are out of luck.  Was repeated long ago on the Canadian tv station Showcase but that was long ago and hasn't been on the air anywhere in a long time, but someone kindly uploaded the full series to You Tube.

Click here for the best fan page I have found on the internet.

Click here for a Canadian tv and movie guide brief description and review.

Click here for a 1998 article from the film magazine "Take One" that the author has either quoted or has personally interviewed the producers of the show. 

Now onto the actual jersey.  My jersey is of a player named Kerensky (played by Ryan Scott) who shows late in the 2nd season of the show to help with the Steelheads playoff run (pics - screen shots of face in dressing room and back of him on ice).

 

Here's pics of the front, back, shoulder patch, and arm numbers.  You can see especially with the arm numbers with the remaining glue residue that this jersey had been repurposed from a previous Steelheads jersey.

 

Not too many jerseys scream 1990's more than this one - from it's colour scheme that includes purple, teal, gold and silver to it's cartoonish armoured goalie as it's main crest to it's fierce fish with teeth shoulder patch.

Thanks to Will for taking the time to photograph his jersey and share the story of of his great jersey and it's unique origin as well as providing all the links. We really appreciate the efforts involved when our readers take the time and effort to share their jerseys.

If you have a jersey in your collection that you'd like to share with us and your fellow readers, please submit your pictures and a story to go with it, no matter how brief or detailed, to spyboy1@gmail.com and we look forward to seeing your favorites!

Now, we're off to watch Season One of Power Play!