The Hockey News October 12, 2015

IF YOU READ OUR 2015-16 YEARBOOK (and if you didn’t, what are you waiting for?), you would have noticed we anointed Carey Price the No. 1 player in the NHL. In a sense, it was by default. It’s not that Price didn’t earn the honor. He was heroic. But it also speaks to the state of the game that the only player to truly separate himself from the herd was a goalie. The parity among hockey’s very best players is razor thin. And that well-balanced cohort includes Sidney Crosby. The now 28-year-old ‘Kid’ was merely one of the best in 2014-15. Sure, if he’d played all 82 games instead of 77, he probably would have edged Jamie Benn for the scoring title. But Crosby’s 1.09 points per game was the lowest…

WELL-LOVED COACH Arbour was studious and intense, but was widely admired for his dignity and grace. AL ‘RADAR’ ARBOUR PASSED away Aug. 28 at age 82 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease and dementia. On that sad day I was reminded of my first chat with him. It took place in Detroit’s old Leland Hotel in 1961, several hours after the defenseman’s Chicago Black Hawks won their first Stanley Cup since 1938, beating the Red Wings. Al, Toronto’s Hall of Fame goaltender Turk Broda and I were the last to occupy what passed for the press room. Al wore his spectacles, which were rare for players at the time and earned him the name ‘Radar.’ I’d seen Al play plenty and always was impressed with his steady, savvy performances, especially since he…

TRADING CARD COMPANIES HAVE made plenty of errors on hockey cards: misspelled names, incorrect stats and wrong photos. But this gaffe 40 years ago trumps them all. In the hockey card sets issued by Topps and O-Pee-Chee during the 1974-75 season, Montreal Canadiens center Jacques Lemaire is erroneously pictured as a member of the Buffalo Sabres – a team he never played for. A close-up photo had been doctored, with Sabres colors painted over Lemaire’s Canadiens jersey. It was speculated Lemaire would be dealt to the Sabres, so card companies responded in kind, albeit a bit prematurely. PUCKJUNK.COM…

AT FIRST GLANCE, THERE seems to be no rhyme or reason to the subjects picked by Brian McFarlane for his new book, Golden Oldies: Stories of Hockey’s Heroes. McFarlane, hockey’s most revered historian and a former Hockey Night in Canada host, has selected 22 personalities that run the gamut – from superstars of hockey’s early days such as Sprague Cleghorn, to minorleague legend Len Thornson, to 1948 Olympic hero Patsy Guzzo, to complete characters like Eddie Shack. The common thread connecting them all is that they have fascinating stories to tell. And tell them they do. Much of Golden Oldies is in the players’ own unedited words. We learn of playerturned-broadcaster Mike Robitaille’s legal battle with the Vancouver Canucks. WHA star Andre Lacroix recounts his uncanny ability to negotiate his own…

FAT CATS FATTEN COFFERS Cards were a big deal in the early ’90s, and the NHL wanted to get a bigger slice of the NHLPA’s pie. IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE A TIME when people would line up outside a store to buy new hockey cards, especially to those who have never been collectors. It’s also hard to fathom something seemingly as trivial as trading cards would become one of the main factors in a players’ strike. Hockey cards hit the big-time by 1990, evolving from fun collectible keepsake to valuable investment commodity. In 1982, Dale Weselowski, owner of Ab D. Cards in Calgary, sold Wayne Gretzky’s 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee rookie cards for $1.50 each. By 1990, he was getting $500. “Everybody and his dog started collecting hockey cards,” Weselowski said. “When Upper Deck…

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE... Or maybe two, as the fictional Highlanders of Halifax return for the Goon sequel, in 2016. “WE WENT PRETTY HARD IN THE FIRST ONE. BUT THERE WILL BE NOTHING LIKE THIS ONE – JAY BARUCHEL ONE OF THE HOTTEST ISSUES IN hockey the past few years is how the physical elements of the game, particularly fighting, have steadily diminished. It’s in this spirit that the long-awaited sequel to the 2011 breakout hit Goon has begun filming in Toronto, Barrie and Hamilton, Ont., this summer. Goon: Last of the Enforcers, starring Seann William Scott, Liev Schreiber and Jay Baruchel, is scheduled to be released in theatres in 2016. “This is about an age that’s drawing to a close,” Baruchel said. “It’s a role, the goon, that’s going out of fashion.…