Goon Squad's NHL Hockey fan blog

I grew up in a predominately black neighborhood, and back then there were very few hockey players around, especially black ones.

That same area is now over 90% black, and is still not producing many black players.

The community doesn't offer any form of assistance to those individuals that are interested in joining this great sport.

Hockey is not offered in the local public schools, at any level.

Leaving the district is the only option, but then there are other issues to contend with.

Getting approval from the uppity snobs at these schools is hard enough as it is.

It can be even harder if you're a black kid from the 'hood'.

Black kids playing hockey in the southern Chicago suburbs is almost unheard of, and it's damn near impossible for them to gain acceptance into any of the organized leagues.

Continue reading "Hockey In The Hood"

Early hockey in particular was noted for its extreme violence, to the point where two players were killed in three years during brawls.
In both cases, the accused assailants were acquitted, but these and other bloody incidents led to calls for the sport to clean up its act or be banned with the likes of cock fighting.

The worst of the violence waned, particularly with regulations for quasi-legal fisticuffs, though incidents continue to occur from time to time.

Billy Coutu was the first player banned from the NHL for life when, in 1927, he attacked referee Jerry Laflamme in a Stanley Cup game between the Bruins and Senators - in which several players complained about the officiating, supposedly at the request of Bruins coach Art Ross before starting an all-in brawl.

Continue reading "Legend Of The Goon Squad pt.2"

There used to be a bumper sticker that said, "Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent."

The Hall of Famer goalie, who had two Stanley Cup winning seasons with the Flyers, was in Buffalo signing autographs at Benchwarmers Sports Bar.
Parent is best recognized here as a goalide during the infamous 'Fog' game at the Aud in May of 1975.



Somehow a bat had gotten into the old Memorial Auditorium and was flying around the ice for quite a while during the game.
Jim Lorentz decided to take matters into his own hands. He was about to take the faceoff when he saw the bat coming. He raised his stick and swatted the bat in mid-air, ending its tour of the Stanley Cup finals.

Continue reading "Buffalo visited by ghost of hockey past"

Alot of people think fighting in hockey is just about two meat heads who feel like kicking the crap out of each other but it has much more to do with intimidation, defending your team mates and getting into the other teams head.

In the '70s and ’80s, when bench-clearing brawls were a regular occurrence in the NHL, you didn’t dare turn down an invitation to drop the gloves.
But slowly the game is changing.

It wasn’t too long ago when the role of the "Hockey Goon" was a celebrated and integral role on most NHL teams.
Players could adjust attitudes and turn the momentum of a game with the drop of their gloves.

Goons were also called upon to protect the star player or to fire up the team when it fell behind.
The stereotypical goon of the old time hockey was a guy who wasn’t a particularly good hockey player, but he was big and tough and earned a ton of penalty minutes.

Continue reading "Legend Of The Goon Squad pt.1"