The Ditch part deux

15 of them ? Wow, that's the entire Earths population of good Leafs fans... hell, I didn't believe there were even that many!

 

The HHOF is a free for all, many players with mediocre careers have been inducted. I grew up watching Mcdonald play, his career lasted until that cup in '89, JJ should know of him.

 

Hey, sabre fans know us all too well.

 

They have these displays right outside the HOF right where they have a tim hortons. They have this large display of all these pucks through the years. Teams that folded, wha, ahl, whl, really cool.

 

Any road game the leafs play there's always a big mob of leafs fans in attendance. I'd say buffalo, montreal and detroit have the most. Even in california you have ex-pats that go to the games. In florida, you have the snowbirds.
Already, so many leaf fans are watching the new years eve game in vegas.

 

When I go to games, it's really hit and miss. You get the arrogant fans that think they know more about hockey than you. You get these looks like, "he must be new to the game." Funny, when they show video from the 70s and I'm ringing off players names, these idiots have blank looks on their faces. They only remeber as far back as ponikorovski.

 

I like the Leafs and always have because I grew up with them. When I was a young boy the CBC Windsor 9 broadcast some Leafs games and HNIC on Saturday nights. I could also get WKBD 50 out of Detroit on Saturday nights. It would be in my dad's home office on a black n white portable TV set with rabbit ears... very fuzzy and hard to see the puck, but I would sit there alone season after season with my hockey cards lined up on the desk in front of me. I would arrange my cards to the order of the starting lineups and pretend to do the play by play. I would emulate Bruce Martin from Detroit and the HNIC guys on Saturdays.

When I was little I went to Toronto on a day trip with my dad and went to a flea market located under the Needle. That's where I bought my first street hockey set with sticks, pucks and 2 nets... right there in Toronto... it was a cool city and I felt real close to the hockey gods, lol. I couldn't wait to get home and round up the neighborhood kids and organize a street hockey League. We would make teams and schedules and such and have a lot of fun. At first it wasn't easy to find kids into hockey... my neighborhood was heavily into baseball and football, but I slowely but surely spread the puck gospel and had the greatest time doing it. I was a huge Wings , Bruins and Leafs fan all at once, lol.

A lot of fun building a rink in my back yard that we would actually flood with water and let it freeze. Some of us had skates, but most just slipped and slid around in out sneakers.

Its grey, overcast and 45 here today... doesn't bug me at all. Was in the 20's this past weekend with flurries and all I can think about was the memories of the game I grew up with. Just thought i'd share a glimpse as to why I like pucks so much and am a huge fan of the way the Canadians still do hockey. In my opinion, the CBC is still head n shoulders above NBC, but I like it all and having a choice these days is cool.

I havnt even hit on the subject of the Toledo Goaldiggers... they were the local IHL affiliate and I would ride the bus up-town and watch games by myself as a kid. Love me some Saturdays and hockey. In my book it truly is the fastest and best game on Earth. Hell to this day, I stream a game every night on the PC... its all good.

I played baseball and football primarily, but hockey in the Winter was unforgettable. To this day I have all the Neices and Nephews over for pucks sharing the game and teaching them to play... still even going downtown occasionally to watch the Walleye (ECHL) play.

Thanks for reading... I almost well-up writing about it. It would be cool if some of you shared your love for the game of hockey too.

 

Very picturesque. Beautiful story, Will.

 

I've been to a lot of games all over the league. IMO, the Wings fans are the best reps for their team on the road. Hawks fans travel very well, but Detroit fans come out in droves everywhere!

I'm jacked in Indy. Going to see the Fuel vs. those Toledo Walleyes* tomorrow night. (* Walleyes may be my favorite team name in sports.)

 

real nice read WIll, thanks for sharing.

for me i was lucky. i was the youngest of 4 in a hockey family. my mom was one of 10 and they were all hockey players growing up. french Canadian priests taught them how to play the game in the 50s/60s. by the time i came to be hockey had blown up in Mass thanks to the Bobby Orr Bruins.

wasnt always easy though, as a kid i wasnt very good but i absolutely loved the game. in my hometown i remember my 1st year of Peewee there were something like 75 kids trying out. best 18 or so made the A team, then the next 18 or so the B team, then the C team and the rest just played house-league which was essentially just practice once a week for the kids that couldnt skate. Some of my friends were good enough to play on the A team, most on the B team and some on the C team. I didnt make any team and I was so embarrassed to be in the house league. I distinctly remember specific kids saying things to me and about me and I was ashamed. My parents always had a rule that you needed to be doing something each season- a sport or club or something. Since I had committed to play hockey I had to finish the season but I could quit if I wanted after the season and try something else........and that was my plan. I would still come home from school everyday and shoot pucks outside or just play street hockey just because I loved it. Mom would have to call me in for dinner every night. This period in time I also grew a good 6" and put on a healthy 30-40lbs. everything just sort of clicked and I could stick handle at a different level, skate so much better, and was one of the bigger kids in my age group. my 2nd year of Peewees I made the A team and then never really looked back from there. Was fortunate enough to play at a decent level afterwards, still hold my HS record for career points and was able to go on to play Jr hockey and then NCAA hockey.
After college I got in to coaching and plan on getting back in to coaching when my kids grow up a bit. I love this game and truly believe that hockey is more fair than life and you get what you give in this sport.
fortunate to have met some others here that have similar opinions of this game as well.

 

Here's the scoop, big presentation tonight at 7pm. It's $375 to get in, that is unless you're VIP.

 

Btw, I'm not VIP, not getting in, kariya was here earlier today.

 

Matty, don't want to go overboard here and embarrass you, but you are a great ambassador for hockey. I am very proud to know you since you're every bit the man as you are a hockey player/fan.

 

appreciate that Dan

 

Although I first found NHL hockey on tv (Nov '78 - Red Wings v Atlanta Flames) when I was 10, I didn't start playing street hockey until I was 21 (in Honolulu '89-93). I also learned to ice skate at a rink near Aloha Stadium. Growing up in western WV, I was never around people who were into hockey. Football, basketball and baseball... soccer was probably the fourth most popular sport. A relative might drive me to Cincinnati/Pittsburgh for a baseball/football game, but not hockey. I would get Steelers stuff for Xmas, but no Pens bling though. When I was a kid, I was mostly a Pens fan via newsprint. This was pre-internet, so I'd have to look for hockey on cable (NYC/Chi channels). When I lived in IN (88-89), I saw my first live NHL game, Pens-Wings in Detroit (6-6OT) and then a Pens-Hawks (6-5W) game in Chicago. After leaving Hawaii and moving to Seattle (mid-90s), I had steady access to live local games (Thunderbirds), so that was cool. I saw my first Pens playoff game at MSG in Spring 2008 (Game 3, a 5-3 win, and 3-0 lead). I'm glad I never lost interest in hockey just because I couldn't discuss it with friends in my early years. I feel like I had to "fight" a little for hockey and keep it in my life. Hockey is my PRECIOUS.

 

When I was a kid, hockey is all we had. There was no baseball team yet, no basketball, the argos was the only other sport going.
Contrary to what some might believe, not everyone was a leaf fan, and not everyone was a hockey fan. I can say this with certainty, per capita, there were more hockey fans in toronto back then than today.
My dad was really the one that got me into watching hockey. On saturday night, we all watched, no choice. My dad loved the fights, he couldn't believe people made a living by punching people out lol.

 

Children of italian immigrants back then loved hockey, in the 70's half the city was italian. I don't see anywhere near the same enthusiasm for the game from these millenials.
There was even a league where every team was named after a province in italy, and the games were on tv. I remember being in a beer league, whenever we played a canadian english team, everything would go smooth, we'd see them at the strip joint having beers after the game. Whenever we'd play another italian team, or even there was one native indian team, it would be war.

 

halo-until Mario came along, there was no such thing as Pens bling! The decade of the 1970's belonged to the 4x Super Bowl Champs! Hell it took Mark Malone and Bubby Brister to erase and put a nasty taste in the mouths of Steelers fans and for Super Mario to pull the entire city out of the lull of bad sports in the 1980's as the Steelers and Pirates weren't doing much. That's how great Mario is and was. Now he wasn't Gretzky even thought many Pens fans think he was and even better, but he brought the city to life and to the forefront of hockey greatness and did much of it through putting the team on his back literally and figuratively for years! It's pretty damn hard to captured the attention of an entire city and half the state of Pennsylvania. Mario did it for years!

 

LOL, look what I dug up, the polaks vs the irish.