Old Farts Thread

[BENNETTWOLF]

I did a thread on Maxwell. Statistically he was great but i dimly recall posts about his intangibles etc. Hell he scored (approx 19-52-71) and could really fight. I wondered why..................

I think he faded quickly too.....................

Really excellent stuff Bigjack especially regarding the dilution of talent. Guys with no hands or instincts forced into top six duty. Defensemen who can't consistently hit the net with shots from the point. etc.

I wish i was older (sort of), i'm 41 and really was able to get into hockey in a big way in 82-83 coinciding with Rod Langway's arrival in Washington. I wish that i had been able to truly grow up with hockey the way i did with baseball.

Obviously, so much had to do with the rapid expansion of the game and strategy employed so effectively on defense which stifled creativity but was so easy to copy to try to compete without maximum talent. I tuly miss the competitiveness down low even if it came with clutching and grabbing and i'm hoping that eventually it will return to a balance of allowing guys to compete for space without calling excessive penalties and disturbing the "flow".

I'm particularly hoping that crease defenders ability to crosscheck will be overlooked by officials..............we need the right balance between not stifling the game's offensive potential and returning some of hockeys best atribute, passion.

Speed, flow, passion!

[Orr4]

Funny you mention Rod Langway, We went to the same High School. He was a bit older than me but we all knew him. Sometimes he'd be skating on the same pond as us and you could HEAR the ice crushing under his blades. Just incredibly powerful strides. He used to wear Hyde Blue Liners so I always wanted a pair of those, had to settle for a used $10.00 pair of beat up Bauers.

[BENNETTWOLF]

Very cool Orr4

I was just thinking that we all miss those guys who played at a "simmer not quite a boil"..........Sutter, Nystrom, Holmgren, Plett, Smyl or Dale Hunter competing virtually every shift vs "honest" blueliners like Wells, Beukeboom or Tinordi.

Terry O anyone?

The passion they all played with. The respect they had for representing their city and "colors".

I watched my Caps go up on Ottowa yesterday and was struck by the change. The first period looked like Brashear might find a dance partner in either Chris Neil or a young defenseman but as the score got out of reach..........what is the point in today's game? Years ago, THE SCORE DIFFERENTIAL WAS THE POINT!

The game which actually had some hitting devolved into a sloppy 3rd period where guys obviously let up when they had opportunities to deliver a hit. It was almost comical to watch Ovechkin try to relax his natural instincts. Even the commentators had to mention that it had turned into a game of "shinny" or pond hockey.

It has been said by several ex football players that guys deliberately relax and let up, trying to avoid injury when a game is out of reach while not trying to catch the wrath of their coach by being blatant about it.

It just struck me by how obvious it was and the difference between then and now. I'm suprised Jason Smith didn't seek out Matt Bradley or a young defenseman Brooks Laich for example just to show the coach he cares.

Different times gentlemen.

[Maggie3and Me]

Originally Posted by 2,5,10GameMatch

At 39, I qualify as an "old fart", come onnnnnnnnn!

I'd still put most 20 something's in their place!

2,5,10,

Thanks for coming. I had to figure a way to get you here. With your hockey knowledge and canukfan, jkidd, BENNETWOLF, and many others, you all have a store house of information and stories that qualify you for admission. Fan, you do qualify as an OLD FART, but can take comfort from knowing I'm older.

fan, I remember seeing Plante's wood mask before they started making the others. Do you guys recall Gerry Cheevers. Each year for awhile he would use red paint to mark his mask where a puck hit him in the face. One year he estimated it saved him over 275 stitches.

Appreciate the participation

M3M

P.S. Since you all have given ages, I am 63 years old. I went to my first Hawks game at the old Chicago Stadium. We sat up in the nose bleed section on the other side of the ice from the organ. That was 1959. What players I have been privileged to see. Hull, Hall, Mikita and on and on. Plus all the players from the other five teams of the Original Six. I saw film of Hull in 57 and Mikita in 58 as rookies. My neighbor was a hockey nut and showed me the film and got me interested in the game. He.took me to agame in 59 and to two games in 60-61 Cup season. I have forever been grateful to him and his family. They created a passion that I have been able to pass on to kids and grandkids.

[Gunslinger]

Hopefully this is the sort of story asked for in this thread. My earliest hockey memory is not an NHL story but one about the first hockey games I ever attended. Around 1970 in the small B.C. town I grew up in(Kelowna)they had a BCJHL team by the name of the Buckaroos. Two things I remember were two brothers who played for them(one was named Dale, the other I forget),the Turners. What was interesting was that in these days before visors, both wore thick,black framed glasses(like Al Arbour).They were also black, which was very rare at that time.
My second memory at that time was the arena itself. It held about 1500 people and in those days it did'nt have plexiglass, they used chicken wire! instead. My father always said that I had to be carefull not to put my fingers through the wire so my fingers would'nt get hit. It was the epitome of "hockey barn". I better go before I start to ramble. Those were the days.

[fansince65]

Originally Posted by Maggie3and Me

2,5,10,

Thanks for coming. I had to figure a way to get you here. With your hockey knowledge and canukfan, jkidd, BENNETWOLF, and many others, you all have a store house of information and stories that qualify you for admission. Fan, you do qualify as an OLD FART, but can take comfort from knowing I'm older.

fan, I remember seeing Plante's wood mask before they started making the others. Do you guys recall Gerry Cheevers. Each year for awhile he would use red paint to mark his mask where a puck hit him in the face. One year he estimated it saved him over 275 stitches.

Appreciate the participation

M3M

P.S. Since you all have given ages, I am 63 years old. I went to my first Hawks game at the old Chicago Stadium. We sat up in the nose bleed section on the other side of the ice from the organ. That was 1959. What players I have been privileged to see. Hull, Hall, Mikita and on and on. Plus all the players from the other five teams of the Original Six. I saw film of Hull in 57 and Mikita in 58 as rookies. My neighbor was a hockey nut and showed me the film and got me interested in the game. He.took me to agame in 59 and to two games in 60-61 Cup season. I have forever been grateful to him and his family. They created a passion that I have been able to pass on to kids and grandkids.

Nice try on the age thing , lets just say their are PPL here that think I helped build the "ARC" , and I will keep it that way..

My father was a pro boxer so I got to go to some great places as a kid , I was able to see all six of the original NHL teams play in their own barns , most nights I didn't know any names because they only had numbers , every kid in Canada knew who wore number 9 for Detroit/Montreal/Chicago but to put names to the rest of the team was impossible when you are that young , all we had was Foster Hewitt on the radio from the gondola , boy when hockey night in Canada came on it was special , we got to stay up and listen to the game , names like Turk Broda/Johny Bower/Bill Barilko became house hold discussions , only to be that young again and smell gramps pipe ...

[Orr4]

I loved those chain-link fences around the boards!

We used to play roller-hockey in a run down rink in Quincy, MA. 4 Wheel skates, not in line. And that rink had chain link around it. Probably the most painful way to spend a Saturday night. If you fell there was no sliding...you just hit that wood floor hard. Checking was supposed to be illegal except none of us could stop. Or we tried to snow plow like on ice, you only did that once! The skates heavy and there was no air in that place, really made you appreciate ice.

[Orr4]

Originally Posted by bigjack

...these modern athletes who is big, strong, in great shape, can skate like the wind, but he is clueless with the puck and has no hockey sense as an offensive player! He is the epitome of most of today's players!

That's about the best description I've read.

Totally agree about Bossey, of course he had great hands but you have to be able to find an opening too.
To me, LaFleur was a real hockey player. He used to just KILL the Bruins. He came down the wing at full speed and could pick any part of the net to score on. Even when he came back with the Rags I remember looking at my buddy and saying...'he's been out for a while and he's STILL the best guy on the team!"
How many guys today can skate at full speed and shoot at the same time?
Agree about the defensemen too, How many of them hit the net consistantly?

[flyersvikes]

First pro game I ever went to was the Baltimore Clippers at The Hershey Bears, 1968, the neighbors across the street took me. I got a players broken stick, don't know who's it was but when I got back home my neighbors dad grabbed some electrical tape fixed it up and gave me my first stick.

[Maggie3and Me]

Quote:From Fox Sports

A Trip Down Broadway...
by: broadwayblues

NHL Rule changes bad for the game...
Mar 24, 2008 | 6:58AM | report this

First let me make it clear I am not talking about all rule changes. I think head-hunting, late hits, hits to the head, and hits from behind should carry massive penalties. I don't enjoy seeing players carted off the ice on a stretcher with a neck brace.

I'm talking about the goalie rules. Gary Bettman is bad for hockey, not the current rules. Talk of larger nets, not allowing goalies to play the puck behind the goal line, and not letting them freeze the puck is silly.

People complain there isn't enough scoring in the NHL. I beg to differ. In just the past week and a half, how many goals have the Pittsburgh Penguins scored? Well I know they racked up 14 goals in 2 games. The Islanders got lit up for 8 goals a few nights back. There have been plenty of lopsided blowouts this year. I think scoring is fine.

That, and scoring shouldn't be easy. It's a skill sport. Goalies are much better than in years past. They are more agile, faster, better puck handlers and so forth. Forwards are bigger, faster, and have harder shots. The league got tougher on obstruction hooking and holding. Good for them. The flow of the game is faster, and more natural. But changing goalie rules will cheapen the game.

As a lifelong fan of hockey, I don't watch to see 10-7 finishes. I watch for the talent. I watch for the tradition. I watch for the history. I enjoy good defense, and stellar goaltending. When you're a fan, you live and die with every shot, every offensive rush, and every odd man advantage not going your way. You tense up when your team is penalty killing, and are on the edge of your seat when your team is on the powerplay, and getting ready to unleash that one-timer.

If the NHL wants to become more of a spectator sport, they will lose the history and respect for the game. Wayne Gretzky has a multitude of scoring records, and he played in a league where defenseman could just about bear hug you to keep you from getting by. In todays system, a scorer like that would torch teams. Enter, Alex Ovechkin. League officials complain that goalie equipment is too large. Ovechkin has 60 goals this year, first player to hit 60 in 14 or so years. The size of the pads doesn't seem to stop this guy. Sidney Crosby had over 120 points last year... didn't hear him complaining either.

Henrik Lundqvist has 9 shutouts this year, tied for the league lead with Pascal Leclaire of Colombus, and he's a small guy by most standards. Nowhere near the size of Roberto Luongo for instance, but that doesn't slow him down at all.

The talent pool has gotten much deeper from years past. Guys will score goals when they can, goalies will do what they have to, to protect themselves from faster and harder shots.

The game is fine, it's the league that is flawed. Lockouts are bad for hockey, not goalies freezing the puck. Leave it alone.

Ran across this article and though that this is the type of thing all of us are talking about, especially bigjack. You've got to love the statement regarding Buttman being bad for hockey. Hope you guys enjoy

[fansince65]

A crowd sits in a tavern , half a dozen television sets hang from the walls. across the screens float the images of hockey players. The jerseys bear the names of distant U.S. cities. The men play with work-manlike intensity and the tavern dwellers respond only to fights and goals. For each the reaction is the same , a fist punching the air .
What,s missing , real "enthusiasm" , on the ice and in the tavern ..

A few years ago , a hockey player got into trouble for a strange transgression :washing his sports car at midnight without any pants on . As a sportswriter mused "oh, my goodness,what passes for colour these days !

Their are very few people that water their lawns in January any more , summoning from the night an irregular,bumpy and altogether perfect backyard rink , Why ? they are afraid to ruin the grass that will come in the spring !!

I am not mourning the passing of the good old days , I am lamenting the lack of good days , Period !!!

That was taken from a book that I have called "ORIGINAL SIX"

[bigjack]

Hey Boys,

Great stuff here and I will try to reply on Friday. I'm very busy (swamped might be a better word) right now with work and finishing an MS in accounting. I take two night classes and my weekends are spent in the library. I just wanted to quickly log on so noone would be like,"where the hell did Jack go?"
It sounds like we all yearn for the days of open ice hits, no helmets, a policeman on the beat, and goalies with normal sized equipment. I also miss the bench clearing brawl and fights come playoff time.
The players are bigger, stronger, faster but are they better?
I am always told here by the younger posters that a Gordie Howe is overrated because he played in the 1940's so how good could he be compared to today's modern athlete. I wonder how many of today's super human athletes could play until age 52 or score almost 100 points at age 50 or play 3 games against Moscow Dynamo at age 50 and be the right wing for Wayne Gretzky and not miss a beat or be a TOP 5 scorer in the NHL from 1949-69 and a TOP 10 scorer from 1949-70 and play against many NHL players that played until only a few years ago? If a guy like Bourque or Gartner played into the 21st century and competed fine against these so called super human athletes, how is it that they also competed against a 52 year old Howe and yet he was from the stone age and not really that good?
Imagine Howe at 25 in 1980 playing against the likes of Gretzky, Gartner, Bourque etc. and all the guys that lasted into the late 1990's and into the 21st century? How could Gordie Howe do that if his era of hockey was so sh*tty and inferior compared with today and the world of the super human athlete and the guy was over 50?
It's like Bobby Hull who as an old man played on a line with Hedberg and Nilsson and they were spectacular and then they come to NY without Hull and are ok players but nothing great! It's obvious that the special and great Bobby Hull made those guys great and they always said in NY that they didn't have a winger to play with like Hull and he was an old man!
This bullsh*t that the modern athlete is great and the older player sucked is so ridiculous. I guarantee anyone that Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Willis Reed, Nate Thurmond, Bob Lanier would be dominate centers against these guys in the NBA today or how is it that slow small John Stockton dominated at the point guard position for almost 20 years in the NBA against all these bigger, faster point guards or a Steve Nash now? It's all bullsh*t that great players from another era wouldn't be great today or couldn't compete with the super human modern athlete!

[HotSauce]

Originally Posted by 2,5,10GameMatch

Brad Maxwell was a very solid defenceman, with a great slapshot and plenty of aggression, good sized guy for his time, rangy, versatile and a left handed fighter....

One of those guys who would fight anyone and usually win, he had a lttle known classic with Bob McGill in around 82, footage is quite rare but they bombed away at each other, heads snapping back with good landing punches, Maxwell with the left, McGill with the right. awesome fight....

I'm not so sure Minnesota gave up on himm "too soon". he had at least 5 good years there, every team need's a Brad Maxwell.......

I've told this story before but when he played with Toronto, I was at a game with a friend, we were sitting way up in the greens but the building (MLG) was quiet this moment, as it was most nights because the Leafs were just plain terrible at this time frame....anyway the face off is in the opposing end and Maxwell takes his spot awaiting the puck drop at the point as to then my friend yells very loudly "Hey Maxwell, why dont you put the fukkin' puck in the net"!, now I'm sure that 95% of the building heard it and some chuckled, then Maxwell stood straight up from his crouch and looked right at us, with this look of "Ok loudrock, watch this fukker"!, so on the ensuing puck drop the bisquit comes right to Brad and he RIFLED IT! for a goal, skating by giving us that look like "there now shut it azzhole you got your goal"!, was classic, the whole building was buzzing from that, another guy stood up and yelled "Ok do it again"! and the buzz and laughter got louder.

"Bad Brad...mean,tough no-nonsense type of guy"

as that`s what the back of his `77-`78 blue topps hockey card read.

he was a left handed gunslinger that went 6`0 185lbs & a bit rangy.

I miss tough defencemen like Maxwell....where the hell have guys like this gone?

i remember him dropping Claude Loisells in NJ when he was with Vancouver......& of course the war with Stan the man.

YouTube - Brad Maxwell vs Stan Jonathan

[GOON 21]

I guess being a hockey fan for 25+ years (since about 10 yrs old) makes me feel like a old fart so ill jump in this thread

I just remember watching ANY game i could on TV, it didnt matter to me who what where Norris, Patrick, Smythe, Adams divisions because i loved the speed and passion of the game. Speed, skating, passing, hitting and YES fighting! It wasnt just the fighting aspect (which i enjoyed) its the fact that these guys would run through a wall for their team, colors and teamates..

The Dman could actually hit the guy standing in front of the net, while today these azzzholes in the front office would put them in Siberia jails - Guys like Beukaboom, S Steven, R Pilon were some of the most beloved by the fans yet they continue to think the fans dont like or appreciate these guys. Does anyone remember Tim Kerr? Me and my buddies used to joke about how many "cheap goals" he would score back in the mid 80's can u see him with todays rules where u cant touch a guy

Whats so funny is that me and all my buddies were "exposed" to all types of hockey in the 80's-90's and brawls/fights etc and you know what?....................


................... We all turned out fine! Were ok, we didnt need to have our 'eyes covered' and didnt suffer some BS that some pshychologist or idiot newspaper/TV/Media clown yaps about. We all grew up and watched, played participated and YES even fought and brawled (be it on a small level) and we all turned out fine! Were all good honest productive, honest tax paying members of society. ---- When you read all this utter BULLSH!T about violence and kids i want to vomit, its just a bunch of nonsense and hyperbowl from people with a agenda (much like the media and politics 2day) They make it like if you watch rough hockey you will be a violent felon, knuckle-dragging idiot of society who will do crimes and be on death row, its a joke! Quite the opposite


Ok back to the topic, it was just a wonderfull game with emotion, speed, intensity (Even games with "0" fights were fun/entertaining) before the $$$, laywers and media got involved and changed things for the worse


Sadly i dont think it will ever go back

[BENNETTWOLF]

Originally Posted by flyersvikes

First pro game I ever went to was the Baltimore Clippers at The Hershey Bears, 1968, the neighbors across the street took me. I got a players broken stick, don't know who's it was but when I got back home my neighbors dad grabbed some electrical tape fixed it up and gave me my first stick.

Mine was the EHL Clippers vs the Johnstown Cheifs. One of the guys i was with mentioned on the ride down that he thought the fights were staged and fixed akin to pro wrestling.

Six seconds into the game, there was a fight............and a bloody, probably broken nose. He didn't have any repartee as the guys snowplowed the blood off.

Six fights later, this eleven year old fan of Philo Beddoe was hooked for life.

BTW. I agree entirely with the gist of all of the posts above. I played defense in every sport and my natural inclinations even at 12 were that it was my job to stop the "glory hounds" (offensive players, supposedly with better skills) by sheer tenacity and physicality. In essence, i tried to take hockey onto Basketball courts and lacrosse/ football fields. It nauseated me to watch the circuit after the lockout. Defenders not allowed to even impede offensive guys, literally being forced to concede the space made me sick.

There has to be a balance and i'm hoping eventually it will work itself out. Do they really beleive we enjoy 8-6 power play fests with no pace or flow? Make the offensive guys earn their "glory".....hopefully in trade for a pound of flesh.

Tim Kerr, Charlie Simmer, Cam Neely even Mario and Jagr would have scored ridiculous amounts of goals. At least my team has John Erskine who does defend his net and plays with a "snarl" Do most teams even carry a guy like that?.............dumb question? It used to be mandatory to dress a 6th blueliner to supply "honest muscle", do dirtywork (which included the odd fight).........even if they had two top four backliners with those skillsets anyway.

God it makes me miss Duane Sutter vs Randy Moller or Keith Crowder vs Craig Ludwig. It was nice to see Craig Rivet getting into TWO fights (imagine that!) simply by doing his job last night.

Speed, Flow, Passion, Balance

Hope?