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Stephen S

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

150 followers 400 following 270 posts

The history of hockeyness, and vice-versa.
puckstruck.com
Occasional Newfoundland content + Charles Portis, Italo Calvino, Geoff Dyer, Mavis Gallant, John Jeremiah Sullivan, & Sergei Dovlatov alerts.

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Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

“Cantankerous, aggressive, arrogant,” eulogized the Toronto Star, "but behind the incessant fireworks of the Smythe personality was an essentially positive man, a builder and a giver.”

The man who made the Maple Leafs died on a Tuesday of this date in 1980: Conn Smythe was 85.
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hats of pearl grey (and spats)

Conn Smythe was 85 when he died on a Tuesday of this date in 1980. “The old tyrant,” Toronto Star columnist Milt Dunnell called the man who made the Toronto Maple Leafs in paying tribute to his inf…

November 18, 2025 at 10:28 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

New from me ... I wrote a special edition of Legion Magazine, War & Hockey, out now on your favourite (Canadian) newsstand. More here:
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November 11, 2025 at 4:14 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Wartime Throwdown: In January of 1940, in north London, a team from the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery faced-off against the reigning English League champions, the Harringay Greyhounds. Trumpet fanfares ensued.
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army manoeuvre: a new wrinkle in fancy flourishes

If anything, wartime in the English capital swelled the ranks of an already thriving hockey community as the Canadian Army units flooded London in 1940. In mid-January, at Harringay Arena in the n…

November 10, 2025 at 9:21 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

When the Bruins + Leafs met in Toronto this month in 1937, they set a new attendance record for Maple Leaf Gardens. (And tussled.)
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a wall of bruins mucked up syl apps — but the rumpus was quelled without trouble

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November 8, 2025 at 11:40 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

A legendary Leaf on the ice and behind the bench + mainstay on the telestrator at Hockey Night in Canada, Howie Meeker was born on a Sunday of this date in 1923.
puckstruck.com/2024/11/04/f...

fine print: howie meeker and the rock ’n’ roll leafs of 1957

So the Toronto Maple Leafs lost again on Sunday night, 2-1 in overtime to the Minnesota Wild. Saturday they also failed to win: that night it was 4-2 for the St. Louis Blues. A month into this new …

November 4, 2025 at 5:06 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Detroit Red Wings trainer + an emergency goaltender for three NHL teams in the 1950s, Lefty Wilson died at 83 on this date in 2002.
puckstruck.com/2018/09/24/m...

make you a mask, tend your goal, yell at the ref: hockey trainers used to do it all

During his 38-year career with the Detroit Red Wings, Lefty Wilson did all the regular jobs hockey trainers do: stitched the cuts, wrangled the sticks, sharpened the skates. That’s him honing here,…

November 4, 2025 at 4:16 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

On this night 86 years ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs opened the 1939-40 NHL season by beating the reigning Stanley Cup champions from Boston 5-0.
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Dit Clapper’s assessment, after it was all over? “Whew,” the captain of the Boston Bruins exhaled on this night, a Saturday, in 1939. “They’re flying.” “That, my little tom-tits, is the short and s…

November 4, 2025 at 3:37 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Saving face.
puckstruck.com/2019/11/01/f...

“We thought it was a joke,” Andy Bathgate said, later, recalling the mask that Jacques Plante donned for the first time in an NHL game 60 years ago today. It was Bathgate’s spiteful backhand, of co…

November 2, 2025 at 3:35 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

In like a lion.
puckstruck.com/2025/10/31/r...

resting lion face

October 31, 2025 at 11:52 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Swinging for the fences with Lester Pearson.
puckstruck.com/2025/04/28/d...

don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing

“Sometimes,” Lester Pearson once said, looking back over his illustrious career, “I would rather have played for the Toronto Maple Leafs than been prime minister of Canada.” Pearson had, of course,…

October 25, 2025 at 1:43 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Batter up.
puckstruck.com/2022/10/06/m...

The Montreal Canadiens were never going to trade their superstar Howie Morenz … until, this week in 1934, they did just that, sending their 32-year-old centreman, along with goaltender Lorne …

October 24, 2025 at 11:55 AM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Nords of old (and new).
puckstruck.com/2025/10/23/b...

banni de ses foyers

Seems a little cruel to fans in the cities that the NHL forsook, Hartford and Quebec, but then again, just imagine about the merch sales. With no apologies for hurt feelings, the Carolina Hurricane…

October 24, 2025 at 2:40 AM

Reposted by Stephen S

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

French women's champions Droit Au But in Paris in 1933.
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straight to the point

The Paris team Droit Au But dominated French women’s hockey in the 1930s, winning all four editions of the Coupe de France from 1930 to 1933. The Coupe competition was succeeded in 1934 by the 1re …

October 22, 2025 at 12:56 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

A birthday today for Sugar Jim Henry, born on this date in Winnipeg in 1920.
puckstruck.com/2017/10/23/j...

jim henry: sweet as sugar, gritty as a spinach salad

Born on this day in 1920, Sugar Jim Henry got his start as an NHL goaltender as a 22-year-old when he leapt straight from amateur hockey to took charge of the New York Rangers’ net in the fall of 1…

October 23, 2025 at 12:21 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

French women's champions Droit Au But in Paris in 1933.
wp.me/p1hzck-770

straight to the point

The Paris team Droit Au But dominated French women’s hockey in the 1930s, winning all four editions of the Coupe de France from 1930 to 1933. The Coupe competition was succeeded in 1934 by the 1re …

October 22, 2025 at 12:56 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

A birthday today for Roy Worters, tiny Hall-of-Fame goaltender, who was born on this date in Toronto in 1900.
puckstruck.com/2022/11/07/r...

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October 19, 2025 at 1:26 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

The NHL is in a birthday mood as it kicks into a new season, with three of its most venerable teams celebrating their respective centennials.

Yes, it’s true, Detroit, New York, and Chicago are all turning 100 … next year.

More on the NHL's premature pageantry:
puckstruck.com/2025/10/18/y...

you say it’s your birthday

The NHL is a birthday mood as it kicks into the 2025-26 season, with three of its eldest and most venerable teams starting in on celebrating their respective centennials. The pompery and pageanting…

October 18, 2025 at 9:36 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Fred Fearnot (and Hockey Hal) puckstruck.com/2022/10/17/f...

fred fearnot (and hockey hal)

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October 17, 2025 at 7:13 PM

Reposted by Stephen S

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Pat Egan, on Ranger patrol.
puckstruck.com/2025/10/16/t...

to the boxcar born

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October 16, 2025 at 11:47 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Pat Egan, on Ranger patrol.
puckstruck.com/2025/10/16/t...

to the boxcar born

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October 16, 2025 at 11:47 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

A birthday today for goalie Len Broderick.
He played just one NHL game, as an emergency replacement for Montreal's Jacques Plante vs. Toronto in 1957. Canadiens won the game. A Parkhurst photographer was at the game that night, so Broderick featured on a pair of hockey cards, too.
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won and done: len broderick’s night in the montreal net

A crowd of 14,092 would eventually make its way to Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto that Wednesday night, October 30, in 1957. Len Broderick was there, on hand (so he thought) to watch the hometown Ma…

October 11, 2025 at 2:32 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

On this weekend in 1930, a blockbuster trade brought one of the NHL's best d-men, Ottawa Senators' captain King Clancy, to Toronto. "An avalanche of fan mail ... urging the Leafs' directorate to go ahead with the purchase ... helped materially in their decision."

puckstruck.com/2016/09/30/t...

tell all the people of ottawa that I’ll never forget them

Trade your skipper across the province to your bitterest cross-province rival? It happens, every once in a while, as Dion Phaneuf recalls. In October of 1930, Frank Clancy was captain of the Ottawa…

October 11, 2025 at 1:25 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Crunch time.
puckstruck.com/2025/10/08/c...

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October 9, 2025 at 12:25 AM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Now is the season.
puckstruck.com/2025/10/07/n...

now is the season

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October 7, 2025 at 9:45 PM

Stephen S

@puckstruck.bsky.social

Bound for glory (powered by corn syrup).
puckstruck.com/2025/10/07/h...

hockey is no joke (don’t forget your daily dose of corn syrup)

Tommy Gorman was hockey’s most successful executive in 1935, having steered the Chicago Black Hawks as coach and manager to a Stanley Cup championship in 1934, following up that up the very next se…

October 7, 2025 at 7:38 PM