1979-80 Los Angeles Kings Charlie Simmer Jersey

On this date in 1974, playing in the first game of his career, rookie Charlie Simmer of the California Golden Seals scored his first goal against the Boston Bruins. He later added an assist to cap off a 5-2 Seals win.

In total, Simmer would play 35 games that season with the Golden Seals, scoring 8 goals and 21 points. The next year Simmer again split time between the Seals (21 games, scoring just once) and their top minor league affiliate, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles (42 games, 23 goals and 39 points).

Simmer while with the Golden Seals

For the 1976-77 season, Simmer again had a productive season for Salt Lake with 32 goals and 62 points in 51 games for the Eagles. He also saw action in 24 games with the parent club, only the Golden Seals had relocated to Ohio where they were now known as the Cleveland Barons.

His career took a new path of sorts when he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in time for the 1977-78 season, but his return to California was a brief one, as he only played a mere 3 games with the Kings and spent the season with the Springfield Indians of the AHL, where he finished in the top ten in scoring and second in goals with 42.

Simmer played 37 games with the Kings in 1978-79, hitting the 20 goal mark for the first time with 21 after playing the first half of the season with Springfield. He also appeared in a pair of playoff games with the Kings, adding another goal to his total.

For the 1979-80 season, Simmer was now finally established as an NHL regular and on November 24th, he scored his 18th goal of the season with an assist from linemate Dave Taylor. The power play goal at 9:15 of the first period would be the start of one of the longest goal scoring streaks in NHL history.

He then reeled off goals against the Winnipeg Jets on the 27th, opened the scoring on December 1st versus the Chicago Blackhawks with his 20th goal of the season, a power play goal at 10:46 of the first period from Triple Crown Line teammates Taylor and Marcel Dionne before adding a second goal at 1:21 of the second.

The Triple Crown Line of Taylor, Dionne and Simmer

The Atlanta Flames surrendered goal number 22 on December 4th before the streak reached five games on the 6th against the Philadelphia Flyers with another goal assisted by Taylor and Dionne.

The streak was barely prolonged when Simmer scored with less than a minute remaining in the game against the Quebec Nordiques on the 9th, his 25th goal of the season. Simmer had a four point night against the Hartford Whalers on December 12th, including a goal 8:22 into the second period.

The Vancouver Canucks were victimized by Simmer on December 15th before he stung the Toronto Maple Leafs for a pair on the 19th, both being power play goals with assists from Butch Goring and Doug Halward to push the streak into double digits at 10.

Goal #30 came on the 20th from the familiar Taylor and Dionne combo.

At home on December 22nd the Kings roared out to a 4-0 first period lead with Simmer assisting on goals by Taylor and later Dionne. The rout continued, along with Simmer's streak, when the deadly Triple Crown Line struck with goals by Simmer at 4:26 and again at 8:43 of the second period. The goal put Simmer into a tie with Cy Denneny of the Ottawa Senators, who had a 12 game goal scoring streak during the 1917-18 season.

Finally, on this date in 1979, Simmer's goal scoring streak reached 13 consecutive games with an even strength goal at 18:43 of the second period, which was followed by his 34th goal of the season, and 17th of his streak with an even strength goal at 12:19 of the third from…Dionne and Taylor of course. By reaching 13 games, Simmer was now tied with Newsy Lalonde of the Montreal Canadiens, who performed the feat in the 1920-21 season.

Simmer was then held scoreless by the Minnesota North Stars, and Simmer's former Seals and Barons teammate, goaltender Gilles Meloche on December 29th, leaving Simmer in third place all-time, just one game back of Joe Malone (14 games in 1917-18) and Punch Broadbent (16 games in 1921-22).

Since the time of Simmer's streak, two other players have taken strong runs at his mark of 13, the Edmonton Oilers Dave Lumley in 1981-82, and the Pittsburgh Penguins Mario Lemieux (1992-93) but both came up short at 12, leaving Simmer with the longest streak in the NHL since 1921, a span of over 90 years.

Simmer would remain prolific for the remainder of the season and finish with 56 goals, tied for the league lead with two others. The following season of 1980-81, Simmer would again tally 56 goals, which would remain his career high.

He would play four more seasons with Los Angeles before being dealt to Boston for three seasons. His career would conclude with one season with the Penguins, a year in Germany playing for the Frankfurt Lions in 1988-89 and 43 games with the San Diego Gulls of the IHL in 1990-91 and a single game with the Gulls in 1991-92 closing the book on his playing days.

Simmer would finish with 712 NHL games, 342 goals and 711 points. Additionally, he would win the Masterton Trophy in 1986.

Today's featured jersey is a 1979-80 Los Angeles Kings Charlie Simmer jersey as worn during his impressive goal scoring streak that season.

This was the second season the Kings wore names on the backs of this style road jersey, which was introduced back in 1967 with one color gold numbers. One season later they introduced a bolder font for the numbers, now outlined in white which remained in use for the remainder of the life of this style jersey through 1978-79, the year the names were first added.

Today's video section begins with Simmer becoming a part of the Triple Crown Line and then scoring a goal during the Miracle on Manchester playoff game.

Next, Simmer recalls his career on the occasion of being honored on Legends Night at the Staples Center in early 2012.

Finally, just what were they thinking when they made this?

2004 Team USA Zach Parise Jersey

Today kicks off the IIHF 2014 World Junior Hockey Championships in Malmö, Sweden where the 2010 champions from the United States will be looking to defend their title.

The World Juniors have become a much anticipated annual event, particularly in Canada, and anybody who's anybody has played in the tournament on their road to the NHL, dating back to Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mario Lemeiux, Steve Yzerman, Alexander Mogilny, Sergei Fedorov, Jeremy Roenick, Mike Modano, Pavel Bure, Jaromir Jagr and Peter Forsberg through current NHL stars Jarome Iginla, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf, Alexander Oveckin, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Johnathan Toews and Patrick Kane, making it a must-see event each year.

Future NHL stars Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin

meeting in the 2005 World Juniors

The ten teams in this year's edition are divided into two groups of five and each team will play the other four teams in it's group once each in the Preliminary Round, with the top four advancing to the Playoff Round. With so few games determining each team's fate, no one can afford to take a night off as each and every game is critical to each team's chances.

For the unfortunate two clubs who finish in the bottom two of their groups, they will be paired in the best-of-three Relegation Round with the loser demoted to the Division I Group A level for 2015 and will need to earn their way back up to the Top Division, which can only be achieved by winning a championship in Division I Group A. This relegation format ensures that nearly every game matters in the World Juniors and the games that determine which clubs stay up can be very exciting affairs when two countries are battling with survival on the line. We strongly encourage those in attendance take in the Relegation Round, as spirited games in the much more homey secondary arena can provide some terrific competition in a small town or collegiate atmosphere that differs greatly from the environment more polished main rink and is a recommended part of the World Junior Tournament experience.

Once in the Playoff Round, the four advancing teams will be paired in the quarterfinal games which will take place on January 2nd, with the winners advancing to the semifinals on January 4th. The semifinal losers will meet for the bronze medal on January 5th with the winners meeting for the gold medal later that evening.

For 2014, Group A consists of the United States, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia.

Group B sees Russia, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and underdogs Norway.

In Group A, the Americans and Canadians are favored to advance along with the Czech Republic while Germany and Slovakia will be battling it out for the final playoff spot, with all teams looking to avoid giving away points, or worse, being upset by either Slovakia or Germany.

For the Slovaks and Germans to avoid the Relegation Round the key will clearly be to defeat the other during their key meeting on December 27th and then steal a point whenever they can by getting to overtime against the other three teams, if not pulling off an outright upset along the way.

Group B is more clear cut, as Russia, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland are expected to advance with as many points as possible for the most favorable semifinal matchup.

Poor Norway will be in for a rough go and will most certainly be hoping one of the four teams ranked above them will be having a down year and that they can manage to take enough points in the Preliminary Round to avoid the relegation fight entirely, or their tournament will come down to the best-of-three battle with the Group A relegation representative.

Canada put together a dominant run of five consecutive titles from 2005 to 2009, but their program is a victim of it's own success in breeding top quality players, as tournament eligible players often cannot take part due to having found gainful employment in the NHL.

Still, 19 of the 22 Canadian players are already have been draft picks in the NHL. with Scott Laughton, Matt Pelech and Matt Dumba already having NHL experience. Despite the distance to Sweden, the Canadians will feel right at home playing in front of many red-clad supporters who annually make the trip to the World Juniors and waving the Maple Leaf each time they take to the ice.

The host United States has three players returning from the team that won gold last year. Captain Riley Barber, goaltender Jon Gilles and winger Ryan Hartman all are back in an attempt to capture a second consecutive gold, while 21 of the 23 members of the roster are NHL draft picks.

The tournament begins with four games today, with Germany taking on Canada and Norway facing Russia in the early games followed by the United States beginning their schedule against the Czech Republic while Switzerland faces off against the host Swedes in the evening games.

Fans in attendance in Malmö will have the luxury of being able to attend any game they choose since the two arenas are located a mere 2 miles apart, unlike some other years when the two host arenas have been several hours drive between them. The Malmö Arena is the main venue, with a capacity of 15,500 with the Malmö Isstadion as the secondary rink, with a capacity of 5,140.

Malmö Arena

With the large number of games compressed into such a small schedule, the second arena can often find itself hosting some terrific matchups. This year, with Group B being held entirely in the larger Malmö Arena due to the presence of host Sweden, the Isstadion will host such matchups as the United States vs. the Czech Republic today, Canada vs. the Czechs on the 28th, and the highlight game of the group, the United States facing rival Canada in the group's final game on New Year's Eve. We highly recommend taking in one game at the secondary arena during the Preliminary Round each year when possible.

In the United States, the NHL Network will be airing all of the Preliminary Round games for Group A, which therefore includes all games for both the United States and Canada, as well as the three remaining Group A games which do not involve the North American rivals.

Once the Playoff Round begins, all eight playoff games on January 2nd, 4th and 5th will be aired through the gold medal final.

For viewers in Canada, TSN will be airing all of the Group A games as well as eight out of the ten Group B games prior to their coverage of the eight Playoff Round contests through the gold medal game on January 5th.

In a nice bit of traditional scheduling, the tournament always takes off New Year's Day between the Preliminary Round and the commencement of the playoffs, avoiding any conflict with the now annual NHL Winter Classic.

Today's featured jersey is a 2004 United States National Team Zach Parise jersey from the first American team to ever capture a gold medal at the World Junior Tournament, which took place in Helsinki, Finland. The United States won their group by defeating Austria, Slovakia, Sweden and Russia before defeating Finland and then Canada in the final to claim the championship.

Parise led the US with five goals and 11 points on his way to being named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

This style of jersey was first used by the United States at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and remained in use through the 2005 World Junior Tournament.

Here are extended highlights from the 2004 World Juniors when the United States captured the gold medal thanks to an errant clearing attempt by Canadian goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

This next highlights are the gold medal final from 2013 when the United States defeated Sweden 3-1.

Merry Hockey Christmas! Joyeux Hockey Noël!

Merry Hockey Christmas! Joyeux Hockey Noël!

We hope Santa was good to you this year and brought you the jersey you've been wanting.

We also hope you enjoy our special video collection today.

Don't forget - as our countdown clock in the right hand column shows - tomorrow the World Junior tournament begins, the annual festival hockey featuring "Tomorrow's Stars Today"!

And now...

On to the videos!

Again, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and for those of you who do not celebrate Christmas, Happy Festivus!

1927-28 Ottawa Senators Harry "Punch" Broadbent Jersey

Born on July 13, 1892, Harry "Punch" Broadbent, after playing four seasons for various teams in the Ottawa city league, began his professional career with his hometown Ottawa Senators for the 1912-13 season when the Senators were members of the National Hockey Association, the forerunner to the NHL. Broadbent averaged more than a goal per game with 20 as well as being credited with a pair of assists for a total of 22 points from 18 games, good for seventh in the league as a rookie.

Young rookie Harry Broadbent in the short-lived Senators vertically striped sweater

The following season he was limited by injuries to 17 games of Ottawa's 20 games, scoring 6 goals and 13 points, but rebounded in 1914-15 with 24 goals and 27 points while playing in all of the Senators' 20 games, which placed him fourth overall in NHA scoring. The Senators would go on to win the league playoffs and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Pacific Coast Hockey Association's Vancouver Millionaires, where Broadbent would score 3 of the Senators 8 goals in their 3 game series.

Broadbent in the Senators 1914-15 flag crested jerseys

It would prove to be his last hockey for some time, as he would miss three seasons while serving in the Canadian military during World War I, for which he was awarded the Military Medal. By the time he returned to the Senators, they were now members of the fledgling National Hockey League for it's second ever season, which at the time consisted of a mere three clubs, Ottawa, the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Arenas!

Broadbent eased back into hockey with only 4 goals in just 8 games and added 2 more in 5 playoff games. He returned to form in 1919-20 with 19 goals and 23 points in 20 games to finish in the top ten in NHL scoring. The Senators advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals by winning both halves of the split NHL season and captured the first Stanley Cup championship of Broadbent's career.

The 1920-21 season was all but lost, as Broadbent's rights were dealt to the Hamilton Tigers, but he refused to report. After six days his rights were then sold to the Canadiens, but again he would not budge. Finally, seven weeks later, Broadbent's rights were transferred back to the Senators by the NHL. Eventually, he would play in just 9 regular season games and 6 playoff games as the Senators would defeat the Millionaires for their second consecutive Stanley Cup.

On this date in 1921, just three games into the 1921-22 season, Broadbent scored his second goal of the season in a 10-0 win over the Canadiens, as well as racking up three assists, all of which came in a span of 3:15 of the third period.

He scored the game winning goal on Dec. 28th in overtime to defeat the Canadiens again, only this time in Montreal. His fourth goal of the season helped Ottawa defeat Hamilton on New Year's Eve. He tallied another goal to open the scoring in a 3-2 loss to the Toronto St. Patricks on January 4th. Three days later he found the back of the net twice to defeat the Canadiens yet again, nudging his goal total to 7 and kicking his scoring pace into a higher gear.

Two goals and two assists followed on January 11th in a 7-2 defeat over Toronto before Broadbent added another pair of goals to close out the scoring in a 5-2 win in the return match against the St. Patricks in Toronto three days later. Montreal was on the receiving end of another beating, this one 10-6, as Broadbent registered a hat trick by the time the game was 23 minutes old. The spotlight was not all his though, as teammate Cy Denneny also had a hat trick while Sprague Cleghorn and Odie Cleghorn combined for 6 goals, with Odie netting 4 to take top honors in a losing effort.

A second hat trick followed on January 21, which included extended his scoring streak just 2:45 into the game, which was won by Hamilton 7-6 in overtime, who were led by Joe Malone's hat trick.

Broadbent's goal scoring streak reached ten games in Ottawa on January 25th when he scored twice in the first 2:30 of the third period in a 4-2 win over the Tigers. Goal #20 arrived on January 28th at the 12:00 mark of the second period, followed exactly two minutes later by goal #21 as the Senators held on to defeat Toronto 2-1, meaning Broadbent was a perfect eight for eight in scoring in Senators games in January.

The streak continued into February with another pair of goals against Montreal, a 4-2 win for Ottawa. While the Senators pounded Hamilton 10-6 on February 4th, Broadbent continued his goal scoring streak, extending his streak to 13 games and Ottawa's lead to 6-0 at the time, but his run of multiple goal games ended at eight and included 18 goals during that span dating back to January 7th.

While the Tigers exacted their revenge on the Senators with a 9-1 thrashing of the Senators, Broadbent's streak continued as he registered his 25th goal of the season just after the game's midway point.

The streak then reached 15 games at the 11:45 mark of the second period in a 4-4 tie at home against the St. Patricks. Broadbent's streak was pushed to 16 games with a pair of goals in another tie, this one 6-6 versus the Canadiens in Montreal.

Finally on February 18th, 1922, goaltender Howard Lockhart and the Tigers ended the longest goal scoring streak in league history, a record which still stands today, over 90 years later. During the 16 game goal scoring streak, Broadbent tallied 27 goals, an average of nearly 1.7 per game, a streak which included two hat tricks and nine multiple goal games.

Broadbent would follow being held off the scoresheet with three goals in his next two games to pass the 30 goal mark and finish the season with a staggering 32 goals and 46 points in 24 games to win the NHL scoring title by 7 points over teammate Denneny.

Broadbent would spend two more seasons in Ottawa, including winning another Stanley Cup in 1923, his third in four seasons, before being sold to the Montreal Maroons, along with goaltender Clint Benedict, just prior to the 1924-25 season. He would play for the Maroons for three seasons, which included winning his fourth Stanley Cup in 1926.

Broadbent during his first season with the Maroons

For the 1927-28 season, Broadbent was dealt back to the Senators, but his return lasted only a single season that resulted in just 3 goals and 5 points in 43 games. Ottawa then sold Broadbent, now 36 years old, to the New York Americans for his final NHL season of 1928-29.

Broadbent during his return season with the Senators

He would finish his career with 122 goals and 167 points in 302 games, four Stanley Cups. one NHL scoring title and one goal scoring record which has now stood for over 90 years and counting.

Broadbent was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962.

Today's featured jersey is a 1927-28 Ottawa Senators Harry "Punch" Broadbent jersey from his final season in Ottawa. This sweater has the Stanley Cup Champions patch worn on the upper left chest to commemorate the Senators final Stanley Cup title in franchise history, a frequent practice of the Senators in the 1920's, as they also wore championship patches in 1921-22 and 1923-24. This patch was the inspiration for the sleeve patches on the current Senators alternate jerseys.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1928-29 New York Americans Punch Broadbent jersey. This sweater is from Broadbent's final season in the NHL. The Americans wore their star spangled sweaters from their inaugural season of 1925-26 (pre-dating the New York Rangers by one season) through the 1937-38 season. The franchise would last through the 1941-42 season before folding, leaving the NHL with just six teams for the next 25 years.

1979-80 Boston Bruins Terry O'Reilly Jersey

On this date in 1979, the Boston Bruins had just completed a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in New York and were in the process of heading off to the locker room to celebrate and begin a brief Christmas break in the schedule on a winning note. Some of the players had actually made their way off the ice while a scrum formed in the left corner of the rink between some of the Bruins and Rangers players after the Ranges goaltender John Davidson skated the length of the ice to confront the Bruins' Al Secord and John Wensink. Davidson was in a foul mood, having given up three third period goals and was unhappy with Secord for the sucker punch he hit Swede Ulf Nilsson with after the game ended among other things.

The rest of the Rangers players entered the area seeing Davidson confronting Secord and the Rangers Frank "Never" Beaton eventually began to confront Secord which moved the scrum over towards the stands. Once by the glass, the Bruins Stan Jonathan got hit in the face - not by a Ranger player, but by a Ranger fan who had reached over the then much lower glass used back then and clouted Jonathan with a rolled up program, drawing blood from under Jonathan's eye.

Jonathan was later quoted as saying he raised his stick to protect himself, only to have the fan rip the stick put of Jonathan's hands!

"He just reached over the glass and whacked me with it," Jonathan said. "I put my stick up to protect myself, and he just took it, and I can't be hitting no fan with a stick, really, eh, so I just let him take it."

Perhaps the "gentlemanly" Jonathan wasn't actually trying to whack the belligerent fan with his stick as some reported, but either way, it was now in possession of the fan which caused the Bruins Terry O'Reilly to become possessed.

With the fuse now lit, O'Reilly set off the explosion when he immediately scaled the boards and launched himself into the stands and began to wrestle with the attacking fan.

O'Reilly hurtles over the glass, setting off chaos in the stands

"I went into the stands because somebody, who had no right to, punched Stanley," said O'Reilly. "It's none of the fans' business. We don't interfere with them if they leave us alone. When I got in there it was pretty bad. I regret it, but I don't think I had a choice. There was no way he was going to strike one of my teammates and steal his stick, wield it like a weapon and then disappear into the crowd and go to a local bar with a souvenir and a great story. A soon as I got him into a bearhug, I felt like I was being pummeled by multiple people. All I could do was cover up."

Seeing O'Reilly enter the stands, where he was going to obviously be heavily outnumbered, several other Bruins didn't hesitate when the brother of the fan O'Reilly had gone after started hitting O'Reilly and the Bruins poured over the glass into the seats.

Brad McCrimmon, Bob Miller, Wensink and Secord all scaled the glass while Peter McNab, who was not known as a thug in any way, having totaled just four penalty minutes the previous season, went after the brother of the fan who had clearly been hitting O'Reilly and threw him down onto the seats.

"Peter was usually the guy who'd pick up our gloves for us after a fight," Jonathan said.

While Craig McTavish held back another fan from joining in McNab's confrontation, most of the Bruins actually showed a level of restraint by not throwing punches. The ugliest part of the incident, separate from O'Reilly entering the stands in the first place, was when Mike Milbury ripped a shoe off of the fan McNab had pinned, who Milbury claimed had kicked him while flailing under McNab, and hit him with it before it was pulled out of his hand before he could get in a second shot.

Milbury in the eye of the storm

Milbury was already off the ice when the fight in the stands broke out. "I went from happy and content, and ready to go home for Christmas, to full combat mode in about 20 seconds," he recalled.

The entire confrontation lasted roughly 40 seconds from the time O'Reilly started to scale the glass and Milbury was calmed down. He later added to the fan's indignity by throwing his shoe onto the ice.

"Things could have been a lot worse. I give the security people a lot of credit," said Milbury. "Everyone was very fortunate that there weren't any serious injuries."

During the entire affair the Rangers' players stood on the ice and watched the episode unfolding in the seats. Four fans were charged with disorderly conduct with the charges eventually being dropped. O'Reilly was suspended for eight games, while McNab and Milbury each had to sit out six games. All 18 of the Bruins who entered the stands were fined the princely sum of $500 each.

Here is an interview with Milbury 29 years after he entered the stands in Madison Square Garden to join the melee from WEEI radio.

Today's featured jersey is a 1979-80 Boston Bruins Terry O'Reilly jersey as worn during the infamous brawl when O'Reilly entered the stands at Madison Square Garden in New York to confront a fan who hit Bruins teammate Stan Jonathan.

O'Reilly would spend his entire 14 year NHL career with the Boston and was the Bruins captain for the final two seasons of his career. Although widely regarded as a tough guy who had over 200 penalty minutes in five consecutive seasons, unlike today's fighting specialists, O'Reilly was a more complete player who scored over 20 goals four times with a high of 29 in 1977-78 when he totaled 90 points to go with his 211 penalty minutes that season. His number 24 was retired by the Bruins in 2002.

Bonus Jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1979-80 Boston Bruins Mike Milbury jersey, as worn while he was caught on video beating a Rangers fan with his own shoe during his part in the Bruins invasion of the stands in New York.

Milbury was a 12 year member of the Bruins defensive corps and racked up 149 minutes or more in penalty minutes seven times, including over 200 twice. He followed his playing career by becoming head coach for the Bruins for two years and later the New York Islanders as well as their general manager. He is now known of his outspoken and opinionated television and radio commentary work.

Here is the live broadcast of the end of the game, followed by Davidson confronting the Bruins and the subsequent escalation as O'Reilly enters the stands.

This interview is with the Rangers' Phil Esposito in the aftermath, discussing his desire for higher glass to prevent any repeats of the incident.

In this interview, Milbury recounts his involvement in the fracas. It's very similar to the one linked to above, but we felt worth posting.

Greatest Use of the Goal Cam Ever

Followers of our Twitter feed or our Facebook page will recall that we recently discovered that Third String Goalie was the 4,511,544th most visited website in the world and we speculated that perhaps more nudity was the answer to increasing our page views.

Looking at info regarding our website and saw that we are the 4,511,544th most visited website in the World. Guess we need more nudity then.
— Third String Goalie (@3rdStringGoalie) December 15, 2013

We here at Third String Goalie strive to maintain a certain level of professionalism by avoiding profanity as well as poor grammar and spelling errors (as much as possible).

Additionally, we also have no plans to stoop to the level of outright nudity in search of hits, but in a blatant effort to increase our web traffic and draw some attention to our corner of the web, we simply must share The Greatest Use of the Goal Cam Ever.