Fifteen years ago, THN canvassed NHL players, media and fans regarding what made the NHL so special. And the results provide a big-picture vision of everything that they loved.
The Hockey News has long looked to polling-stories to give a macro look at important issues. And in this THN Archive cover story from the magazine's Feb. 1, 2005 issue -- Vol. 58, Issue 22 -- THN asked NHL players, media and fans what makes hockey's top league so special to them. The results provide an all-encompassing view of everything that makes the NHL so great.
MY NHL INCLUDES…
By The Hockey News
In this time of uncertainty, The Hockey News presents visions of a better game: The old Garden, the Rocket flying, dandy dynasties, Gretzky and Lemieux, together forever, meeting Big M, loving No. 4…and a whole lot more:
THE CELEBRITIES (AND PLAYERS)
My NHL includes memories of emotion and celebration. Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard and the mighty Montreal Canadiens are what I grew up watching as a youngster. The smiles on their faces as they paraded around with the Stanley Cup raised high above their heads motivated me to want to do the same. There is nothing better than seeing the explosion of happiness in a winning moment and I got to witness a bunch of them firsthand with the New York Islanders. Bobby Nystrom’s overtime goal in 1980 for our first Stanley Cup was my first. I also witnessed winning celebrations by other teams. Lanny McDonald’s overtime goal to eliminate the Isles in the 1978 playoffs and the Edmonton Oilers’ first Stanley Cup in 1984 gave those teams many reasons to celebrate. We love to win and we hate to lose. My NHL includes great memories of both. –MIKE BOSSY
My NHL includes Doug Harvey. The summer when I was 17 I received a call to help out at a Springfield, Mass., hockey school. Although he was retired, Doug Harvey was what I considered to be the ultimate defenseman - a great passer and a leader who could control the game. To my surprise Mr. Harvey was at the hockey school. I was in heaven. But it wasn’t till the kids were done that the real excitement started. The instructors and the rest of us would play shinny. Mr. Harvey came on the ice without lacing his skates, demonstrating ultimate balance and control. Never had I seen a person so in tune with the game of hockey. The game could not proceed unless he wanted it to. During an off-day, Mr. Harvey asked if I would join him and his son fishing. His heart seemed as big as the river we fished. I have since heard of the problems he had, but I will never let myself read any of those accounts because that week Mr. Harvey taught me to love and live the game of hockey to the fullest. He played with the passion worthy of the gift God gave him. –DENIS POTVIN
My NHL includes the great memory of playing against some of the players I used to watch on Hockey Night in Canada while growing up in Fort St. James, B.C. I got to play against Phil Esposito, in one of my first games in Madison Square Garden and he was poking away at Donnie Edwards, trying to free up the puck. I grabbed him and said “Mr. Esposito, you know you can’t do that”. He stopped poking, smiled and we got ready for the next faceoff. Later that month I got to play against Bobby Hull when he was with the Hartford Whalers. I met him out at a bar after the game and he signed a napkin for me; I still have it. I remember having a chance to check Gordie Howe into the boards, but feeling obligated to just try to stickcheck, the puck off of him. He was 52 at the time. Later, I got to play a game against my brother when he played for Edmonton. My Dad came to the game and we all went out together after - how cool is that? –LARRY PLAYFAIR
My NHL includes a 24 percent rollback in players’ salaries and a luxury tax as well as owners who accept responsibility for their actions and the way they spend their money. –MARTIN ST-LOUIS
My NHL includes a team for every province and territory in Canada, including Labrador, and any American city where the fan base can tell the difference between Ed Giacomin and Gilles Villeneuve; name at least one player who wore a headband; answer the question “Who was better: Per Djoos or Bob Beers?”; sing the third verse of The Hockey Song; identify which team came first: Kelowna Thistles, Los Angeles Sharks or Dundas Motts-Clamato; and, describe, in less than 48 words, why their city deserves a team more than Kicking Horse Pass, Voskersensk, Foam Lake or Pardubice. Otherwise, blow the damned thing up. –DAVE BIDINI. AUTHOR OF TROPIC OF HOCKEY
Our NHL includes the Barenaked Ladies singing the national anthems (both of ‘em) at every game. Our NHL rocks. Our NHL would never ask whether Y’all Ready For This; isn’t Down with OPP; never stayed at the YMCA; refuses to get Pink’s party started; and, doesn’t give a sniff of Who Let The Dogs Out. Our NHL gives the home team a bench minor for playing Cotton Eye Joe. Our NHL would let you take your kid to a game without visiting LendingTree.com. Our NHL awards the winner of a fight one point - like an assist. Our NHL puts the fans by the glass while the suits are shown to their seats by a Sherpa. –DAVE SCHNEIDER & MAT OREFICE OF THE ZAMBONIS
My NHL includes creativity. There was one game when I was playing for Pittsburgh and Mario Lemieux had five assists and we’re in the third period and Mario leans over and said, ‘Tip, my legs are killing me, I’ve got nothing’. I said to him, ‘But Mario, you have five assists.’ And he said, ‘Tip, that’s the hands, not the legs.’ To me, that’s what hockey is - that’s the beauty and the mystery and the art of the game. I want a game where a player is allowed to use whatever skill he has to beat the opposition. I want a game where creativity makes a difference. –DAVE TIPPETT, DALLAS STARS COACH
My NHL includes a spouse’s perspective. It’s game day and my stomach is a little off. Dad is at the rink determining lines, systems and strategy. Lunch is on the table, “quick, kids, eat, clean up and do something quiet and industrious!” Pre-game sleep is on the agenda and after a quick shut-eye Dad is off to the rink again. Coffee is on and it’s out the door with a Starbucks “ta go” cup…Closing in on dinner time - dress, primp and out the door with kids in tow, buckled into the truck and off on the I95, time to go - the warm-up skate is under way. At the arena, “hello” to the usual people minding elevators, doors and concessions - always a friendly, familiar smile…I miss them! What I truly miss, though, is the smell of competition and the incredible highs and lows of moving towards something as fantastical as the pursuit of the Stanley Cup…I can envision the picture of my husband and each and every member of his team holding the Holy Grail of hockey high over his head. I hear each and every evening the final wish of our young son as he holds his small plastic hockey player in his hands, “I wish for the Stanley Cup.” –KERI HANLON, WIFE OF WASHINGTON COACH GLEN HANLON
THE MEDIA
My NHL includes a frozen moment from the 1997 playoffs. Gretzky, 1-on-1 against Ed Jovanovski, is fully cocked. You can still feel the Garden’s roar from the period’s first two Gretzky goals…The Rangers, Boston and Philadelphia are months from stupid CBA-busting contract offers. Soon, Igor Larionov and Slava Fetisov will carry the Stanley Cup around Joe Louis Arena…Gretzky fires. I throw my head back to wallow in the reaction to this last burst of greatness. There were better, more obvious moments. But this one always makes me smile. –DAVID J. NEAL, MIAMI HERALD
My NHL includes the anticipation of Mario Lemieux picking off a pass between the points and going in on a breakaway; Wayne Gretzky turning up inside the line and feathering a pass to the late man; Bobby Orr going end-to-end; Guy Lafleur taking a headman pass at the blueline and cutting in off the wing. My NHL was stars being worth the price of admission, not having to wind their way through a trap, or obstruction, or having to limit their shifts to 30 seconds so a fourth line can come on. –JAY GREENBERG, NEW YORK POST
My NHL includes Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky on the same line in every game, as was the case in the 1987 Canada Cup. U.S. networks would fall all over themselves to air the games because people would not be able to turn away. –DAVID BOCLAIR, THE DAILY NEWS JOURNAL (NASHVILLE)
My NHL includes Lanny McDonald, saying to an awed eight-year-old at Maple Leaf Gardens, back in the day when autograph-seeking fans could wave paper and pens at players as they skated around during warm-up: “Put it up against the glass, kid.” –MARK BRENDER, THE HOCKEY NEWS
My NHL includes a Saturday night game in Toronto; Pavel Datsyuk dancing with the puck; Al Maclnnis chopping one in from the point; Dominik Hasek doing his Gumby impersonation; Slap Shot in the VCR; Leafs vs. Habs; Avs vs. Wings; Darryl Sutter’s sneer; Joe Sakic’s wrist shot; Jarome Iginla’s passion; and, Steve Moore healthy - with the rest of the league skating alongside him. –BOB DUFF, WINDSOR STAR
My NHL includes game night - the sights, sounds and passion of hockey. It’s familiar faces working the game, some supplementing pension incomes, some putting away for future education or retirement needs, others hoping to deliver on Christmas wishes, pay the mortgage or put food on the table. It’s the organist, public address announcer, scoreboard skits and mascot antics. And it’s the game. Later, you’ll hear about it on radio, you’ll watch the highlights and always you’ll look forward to reading all about it. But game night, wow, do I miss it. –JOHN IAB0NI, LEAFS GAME DAY
My NHL includes the recipe for NHL Gravy. Take one fresh commissioner. Add 24 ripe franchises, one cup financial transparency, 10 lbs. cracked union, 10 lbs. shredded ownership, two equal portions business sense. Add 1/2 cup humility, soak in reality overnight. Stir in 70 games, add one seasoned rulebook (backbone attached), extract one red line. Garnish with 1/2 cup meaty discipline, spice with youth, drizzle with innovation, temper with nostalgia. Simmer. Let sit until congealed. –CHARLIE TELJEUR, HOCKEYSOCKPUPPETTHEATRE
My NHL includes a Stanley Cup playoff game in sudden-death overtime. The best show in sports: intense, end-to-end action with no artificial delays mandated by television. Even if the game lasts five extra periods, like the Flyers-Penguins game in 2000 won by Keith Primeau, it’s worth the time and emotional investment because you never, ever forget it. –CECIL HARRIS, AUTHOR, BREAKING THE ICE: THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN PROFESSIONAL HOCKEY
My NHL includes my first pro jersey - the black, red and white barber pole Chicago Black Hawks model that I found under the Christmas tree in 1949. A few weeks earlier, at age six, I had viewed my first NHL game and the Hawks haberdashery caught my eye. My father’s salary of $3,500 was half the stipend of most NHL players then. Never did I dream my peak income of $50,000 wouldn’t approach one-tenth of the modern-day average NHL figure. –DENIS GIBBONS, SOCIETY FOR INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY RESEARCH
My NHL includes a 14-year-old minor hockey player lining up to take the opening faceoff against Hall of Famer Andy Bathgate, then with the NHL Oldtimers, and being told by Bathgate to “get a haircut, kid.” –MIKE BROPHY, THE HOCKEY NEWS
My NHL includes Ron Caron, the Hockey Prof, delightfully rational and emotional as he conducts class in two languages; Wayne Gretzky, with a dozen “how’d he do that?” moves on every visit; Mario Lemieux lighting up an All-Star Game; six Sutters hacking and whacking their way through even a nothing game; ticket stubs from Brett Hull’s heyday that could have read, ‘Admit One To See No. 16 Score a Goal. Guaranteed’; Jacques Demers on the bench, throwing pennies on the ice to give his tired team a break; and, the squirt teams, skating their little legs off between periods, thrilled for one shift on that precious NHL ice. –TOM WHEATLEY, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
My NHL includes the smell of Zamboni fumes and stale beer in the quiet hum of an arena before a morning skate; Islanders vs. Rangers, when the rivalry used to electrify the city; my two-year-old son calling himself ‘Hurricane Zach’ in his Carolina jersey, knowing the first game he ever attended was in my wife’s womb at the epic Game 3 of the 2002 Cup final; fighting off tears during Lauren Hart’s powerful renditions of the anthem; and, Gordie Howe offering to sign the game notes of the first NHL game I ever covered. –ALAN HAHN, NEWSDAY
My NHL includes the Winnipeg Jets. Any league which outgrows a market such as Winnipeg is sadly, and perhaps irreparably, flawed. –ROB VANSTONE, REGINA LEADER-POST
My NHL includes the hard-core hockey fan. For too long the league has tried too hard to appeal to everyone else. It has strayed from its roots. The game needs to be itself, cater to the people who care about it most and not worry so much about being the next NFL or NBA. Being the only NHL should be good enough. –NICHOLAS J. COTSONIKA, DETROIT FREE PRESS
My NHL includes Montreal fans singing “Hey, baby! Ooh! Aah!” and Toronto fans claiming the Cup in August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April and May, then ripping the entire team in June; Scott Stevens but not Bryan Marchment; Patrick Roy saying he can’t hear anything because his Cup rings are in his ears; and, Jean Beliveau, still. –LUKE DECOCK, RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER
My NHL includes two points for a win, one point for a tie and no points for a loss, with 5-on-5 OT, no such thing as an ‘overtime loss’ and, for darn sure, no such thing as a shootout. –DAN WOOD, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
My NHL includes breakaways. Unlike the penalty shot or a shootout, the breakaway leaves little time for the shooter to think about what he wants to do or for the goalie to psyche himself up. I hope it hasn’t died a premature death. –ALAN ADAMS, THE HOCKEY NEWS
My NHL includes a chance for young fans to spend Saturday nights the way I did as kid: planted in front of the TV watching my favorite team on Hockey Night in Canada until my mother told me it was time to go to bed. If you can’t get excited about hockey on Saturday, you shouldn’t be watching the sport. –BRUCE GARRIOCH, OTTAWA SUN
My NHL includes wooden sticks - the Sherwood 5030 PMP or Wayne Gretzky’s Titan - and goalie equipment that allows you to see net, instead of just two leg pads, a blocker, trapper and mask. –RANDY SPORTAK, CALGARY SUN
My NHL includes defenseman Steve Poapst, in full uniform, on the payphone in Madison Square Garden on May 10,1996, with coach Jim Schoenfeld screaming at him: “Steve, for the last time, we’re leaving without you.” Poapst, in his first NHL game, scored the game-winning and playoff-clinching goal for the Caps on his first NHL shot and he was making sure everybody back in Cornwall, Ont., knew about it. –DAVE FAY, WASHINGTON TIMES
My NHL includes a journal entry from May 31, 2000: “I see the helicopters first. They follow the funeral north on Montagne Street then east onto St Catherine’s where I am standing. The applause grows slowly and sweeps down the ranks of people lining the street. It is polite applause. Restrained. No voices. There is a way to comport one’s self this morning and the people of Montreal - French and English - know it. There is no ‘two solitudes’ today. A woman steps onto the street and places a red rose on the black hood of the hearse carrying the body of Joseph Henri Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard. I saw him play when I was a child. Do those we remember so well ever truly die?” –JACK FALLA, AUTHOR, ‘HOME ICE’
My NHL includes the style of hockey played-in the 1994 Stanley Cup final between the Canucks and Rangers. It was all-out attacking hockey that led to numerous scoring chances, outmanned rushes and spectacular goaltending. In those days, teams won by outscoring their opponents, not by playing a stifling, mind-numbing, clog-the-neutral-zone trap that has killed the entertainment value in what can be an extremely exciting sports spectacle. –ELLIOTT PAP, VANCOUVER SUN
My NHL includes watching Ray Bourque for nearly 21 years in Boston. His consistency, his strength, his intensity and dedication were fixtures on the blueline. It was easy to take him for granted because of his great consistency, but Boston fans never seemed to. Their appreciation for him continues today. –NANCY MARRAPESE-BURRELL, BOSTON GLOBE
My NHL includes the late, great Chicago Stadium and how much I miss it. That building so alive, so full of life. It smelled like stale popcorn. Your feet stuck to the floor. I remember the awesome sightlines, the noise, the electricity generated when the Blackhawks would come bounding up the stairs at the start of a game. –TIM SASSONE, ARLINGTON HEIGHTS DAILY HERALD
My NHL includes watching Pavel Bure blaze around the ice, scoring at will, without a mediocre, uncoordinated defenseman that wouldn’t be in the NHL anyway if not for expansion, hanging onto the Russian Rocket’s back. My NHL includes being a 10-year-old in the lower bowl of Nassau Coliseum watching the greatest show on Long Island - Bossy, Trottier, Potvin, Nys-trom, Gillies, Smith. –MICHAEL RUSSO, FORT LAUDERDALE SUN SENTINEL
My NHL includes seeing the Big M, Frank Mahovlich, at the airport, two months shy of my 11th birthday. Pushing a pen and paper at him, I nervously asked for an autograph, proudly telling him he was my favorite player. I don’t remember Mahovlich saying much of anything, but at least I met my idol and would have his autograph to savor among my cherished memories. –HERB ZURKOWSKY, MONTREAL GAZETTE
My NHL includes a league hierarchy that understands its niche in the sports world and allows its stars to flourish on the ice. It is a league that embraces afternoon games on weekends, like the Saturday afternoon game at Madison Square Garden I attended in 1968. On that day I took a bus into NYC with my 14-year-old buddy, Bill Blaney. We picked up The Hockey News at the newsstand in front of the Garden, soaked up the atmosphere and then watched Bobby Orr in his prime. It does not get much better than that. –RICH CHERE, NEWARK STAR-LEDGER
My NHL includes standing in complete dismay as two NHLers got on their hands and knees to locate a reporter’s contact lens that had fallen on the dressing room floor after a practice. I can’t help but wonder how this would play out in a major league baseball clubhouse, with players climbing over themselves to stomp on the missing lens with their spikes as opposed to offering help. My NHL includes the site of a sellout crowd giving their team in San Jose a standing ovation after a 6-0 loss after the final game of 1995-96, a season the Sharks went 20-55-7 to finish last in the West and 31 points out of a playoff spot. Amazingly, the Sharks played in front of 41 straight home sellouts. And look how that loyalty is being repaid. –ROSS MCKEON, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
My NHL includes the Edmonton Oilers against the Calgary Flames in the 1980s. On a regional level, it was our answer to the Summit Series. To this day, that bitter rivalry between a dynasty and its closest challenger remains the fastest, toughest, most intense and entertaining hockey ever played. Any one of their playoff battles makes the Canadiens-Red Army New Year’s Eve classic look like a pre-season game. –ROB TYCHKOWSKI, EDMONTON SUN
My NHL includes organ music, shootouts, new ownership for the Bruins and Blackhawks, Maple Leaf Gardens, Dave Hodge’s airborne pencil, the return of the Jets, Whalers and Nordiques, the Sabre Dance song, player nicknames - and none of that stinkin’ root beer. –ADAM PROTEAU, THE HOCKEY NEWS
My NHL includes Yvon Lambert’s hair (triple overtime and still not even one out of place); David Conte and Jim Nill as GMs; the CCM ‘Paul Henderson’ helmet (still the bestlooking bucket of all time); and, a three-star selection that Hockey Night in Canada actually takes the time to show…and all three stars take the time to come out and be acknowledged. –KEN CAMPBELL, TORONTO STAR
My NHL includes my mother letting me stay up and watch the first period - but only the first period - of the Bruins game. Seeing the shine of the ice, the great player who wore No. 4 and the way the players hit each other was a wonder to my eyes. The Bruins usually had the game won after the first, so trotting off to bed rarely was the tragedy I thought it would be. –ADRIAN DATER, DENVER POST
My NHL includes waiting in line overnight outside the old Madison Square Garden to be in prime position to buy tickets for the 1967 playoffs; watching Emile Francis in a fight with goal judge Arthur Reichart that prompted the Rangers to climb over the glass into the crowd in support of their GM; watching Chicago’s Bobby Hull spend entire pre-game warm-ups signing autographs for fans leaning over the glass at the old Garden. –LARRY BROOKS, NEW YORK POST
My NHL includes the moment after Detroit won its second straight championship in June of 1998, when, instead of taking the Stanley Cup for its traditional turn around the ice, Steve Yzerman set it on the edge of the wheelchair used by Vladimir Konstantinov. Konstantinov was on the ice a year earlier when the Wings ended 52 years of Cup misery by sweeping the Flyers. A limousine accident less than a week later ended his career and left him permanently disabled. In winning the Cup in 1997, Konstantinov said he hoped it would mean he was considered a Red Wing and not a Russian. Yzerman’s gesture confirmed it was so. –SCOTT BURNSIDE, ESPN.COM
My NHL includes a renewed attitude and passion for the greatest game on earth. Those who follow hockey know it always has been the people who have helped the game overcome adversity. Our challenge is to ensure the return of grit, speed and passion to the ice. –JOHN SHANNON, MAPLELEAFSPORTS.COM
THE FANS
My NHL includes Wes McKnight’s Bee Hive Sportviews on radio, and later sitting spellbound, hanging on every word of Foster Hewitt’s play-by-play of Toronto’s Saturday night games. It includes traveling by bus at age 14 to Maple Leaf Gardens to watch my first live NHL game; being so mesmerized by just being there that instead of observing the incomparable skills of Turk Broda, Teeder Kennedy, Gordie Howe, and Ted Lindsay, I noticed the brightness of Red Kelly’s hair and the style of Harry Lumley’s blocker. –GLEN R. GOODHAND, BEAVERTON, ONT.
My NHL includes the Great Wall of Chara. –CRAIG SKINNER, FITZROY HARBOUR, ONT.
My NHL includes Guy Lafleur’s hair. Since the league hid away its players in helmets and body armor, the game has lost its visual character and replaced it with the wrong kind of ugly. An NHL without helmets and protective insulation would bring back personality for the fans - and restore respect among players. –JAMES DELOREY, ICE DOGS HOCKEY CLUB, NEW YORK
My NHL includes players and owners who have the sense and sensitivity to think beyond their own bank accounts and remember that without hockey fans, there would be no reason to grapple over salaries or salary caps. At a time when the rest of the world is pulling together to respond to an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, it’s insulting to witness two groups so consumed with greed and self-interest. –BRIAN MACINNIS, CALGARY
My NHL includes dynasties. While something is to be said for the parity created by today’s free agent player mercenary environment, I’ll take an old school 80’s dynasty any day. –JASON PATCHETT, MISSISSAUGA, ONT.
My NHL includes the memory of games at Boston Garden, sitting behind a pole for $15. –PAUL CAHALANE, NAPLES, ME.
My NHL includes a trio of superstars - Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber and Bernie Parent - who led the Flyers to consecutive Cups with combined yearly salaries of under $150,000. They didn’t live in secluded mansions inside gated communities. You could actually buy them a beer in the literal, not theoretical, sense. My NHL includes making Gretzky commissioner for life and sending Bettman and Goodenow off into the sunset…this being 2005, of course, with golden parachutes in tow. –JEFF DEWEES, HERSHEY, PA.
My NHL includes the bus ride down the 417; the blue seats in the Forum; Ken Dryden leaning on his stick; Guy Lafleur scoring a goal; Bob Gainey on his teammates’ shoulders; an overtime goal in 1993; the Rocket passing the torch; 1971, ’73, ’76, ’77, ’78, ’79, ’86, ’93; my Habs. –TOM PUTNAERGLIS, KELMSCOTT, AUSTRALIA
My NHL includes my watching the 1972 Cup final with my beloved Bruins taking on the Rangers. The matchup of these two teams was intensified by the fact my older brother was a diehard Ranger fan. The difference in the series was, of course, No. 4, Bobby Orr. I can still see him doing that spin-o-rama on Bruce MacGregor before putting it past Giacomin (or was it Villemure?). My NHL is my brother and I playing the Bruins/Rangers match-es ourserves in our road hockey games, with Emerson, Lake, & Palmer blaring in the background. –MIKE GANGEMI, SYRACUSE, N.Y.
My NHL includes a shovel for both the owners and the players, so they can see who can hit rock-bottom the fastest. –JASON A. PESZKO, SASKATOON