Your Best Hockey Story

My best hockey story has a history of 87 years. I was GM and President of the Arthur Tigers Sr. Hockey Club. (I played a few games too, but was pleased to cut myself!) Our mens hockey team finally won their final game of the season! We became WOAA Sr. Grand Champions in 1991. Sr. B would be comprised of essentially Jr. B grad level players. About 20 teams in the league at the time.

1939 saw the men advance to the OHA 'B' semi finals to be elminated by Owen Sound (a city) in overtime of the deciding game. They secured a Jr. A star for game two in the two game series, total goals. Arthur won game one by six goals. Game two in Owen Sound saw the Tigers losing 6-0 after regulation time, forcing overtime.

In 1954, the Tigers won the Pritchard Trophy, a division of the OHA. Centre Ken Riley, a 135 pound dynamo and captain of the club, paced a powerhouse offence.

1972 produced a powerhouse that advanced to the WOAA Grand Championship final, only to be swept by Milverton. The series finished in mid-May!

After perhaps the worst season in the history of the Arthur Tigers, 1989, the club rebounded in 1990 with a tremendous infusion of youth. A WOAA 'B' championship was the result and elminination in the league semi-finals. 1991 opened poorly. The club essentially rejected their new coach. By November he had been replace. A tremendous run after Christmas sent the club into the playoffs on a roll. We swept Monkton & Wiarton, before meeting strong rival Drayton in semi's. We disposed of them in four games to advance to the final with a 9-1 playoff record. There we met perennial champion Durham, who also had a 9-1 record. They were highly favoured to win the best of 5 game final. Game one in Durham saw the Thundercats crush the Tiger 8-2. The return match in Arthur saw the Tigers win 8-1! Returning to Durham for game three on a Friday night, the home squad prevailed 5-4. The Tigers trailed in the series 2-1. Sunday in Arthur, the Tigers were a mess. Celebrating their success on the Friday & Saturday nights, the club was ill. Star netminder Marty Groulx was still drunk. The series appeared over and moral was low, an hour before the puck was to drop. The hockey Gods then smiled on the Tigers. They knocked out the ice plant. The ice soften. Pre-game warmup was all it took and the game was cancelled! The game was rescheduled for Tuesday night! Fresh off a day of work, the Tigers took to the ice winning 9-2 to force the fifth and deciding game. With some 1,000 people in attendance on Friday, April 3, 1991 the Tigers and T-Cats struggled to a 3-3 draw through 40 minutes. The two rugged squads took many trips to the penalty box. Tiger fans worried in the third period when three of the powerhouse four D-men on the squad spent a visit in the sinbin at the same time, along with their most explosive forward. Again the stars aligned. 4-3, 5-3, 6-3 for Arthur! With 58 minutes played, Durham star Scott Betts turned in not one but two solo efforts resulting in goals. 6-5 and seconds to play. Durham pushed, Arthur held! 87 years into the program the TIGERS were Grand Champions!

That's quite the story, Scoop. I don't think I have anything nearly so good to match. I played hockey as a kid (atom and peewee), but the highlight of a rather non-illustrious carrer was a single goal scored against the BBI Girls.

Rightly, I've stuck to hockey pooling ever since....

Well, I retired in Pee Wee myself. Only a half dozen goals in my career. One in Rep hockey. Dad took me to that game, after the game he asked me if I was #11.... well.... yah Dad, I'm #11. Came out of retirement to play Sr. We were really awful. I got a couple goals there. I was able to cut myself shortly after the second season! I'm a bad hockey player. If we were to assess me: - bad feet (nimbleness), too small (thin), not aggressive, bad hands, no vision. Works hard. Overall rating out of 100.... 1. I was at my best warming the bench and then jumping over the boards to serve penalties!

Red, on the other hand, threatens for 20 goals most years! He'll have his hands full to accomplish that this year. Maybe we best root for 10! Pee Wee Rep now! (only two teams in Arthur, so making the Rep team usually means you signed up for it!). Maybe I already told you guys, he's got soft red hair. Four Josh's on his team of 12 kids. They've become Red, Beav, Bub & Savu. Josh Beaver has the hots for Alexis Bushey. If they get married she's going to hyphenate her name to Bushey..... Oh, that's terrible!!!!! Red will tell Grandma for sure!

friend and I negotiating with scalpers to see the kings vs leafs circa gretzky era (maple leaf gardens around 1990 ish).we went early in the morning figuring we drove all the way from timmins we may as well be sure we get some tix

after freezing our nuts off trying to get reds for 100 bucks a piece instead of 200 we went inside the box office to warm up

a limo pulls up and some rather aristocratic looking fella gets out and drops off his gold seat tickets at the box office saying he didnt need them for tonights game .

we promptly asked the lady working at the box office if those tickets were now for sale and she said yes indeed.

so we kinda lucked out in being able to see the great one up close (believe we were 3 rows from the glass )for face value ticket price instead of being nailed by the scalpers

That's pretty awesome you got to see ol' greaser from third row. I saw him play at the saddledome in Calgary in the mid 1990s, but we were up in the nosebleeds. Still, I had to see the guy before he retired.

What impressed me most about seeing Gretzky play live is you could watch where he would position himself without the puck, which you really don't get to see on television. Like he once said, he goes to where the puck is going to be, not to where it is....

Oh, I just thought of another kind of fun NHL story. One of my friends used to work at the Saddledome in Calgary, so she got us into the back waiting area after one of the Calgary-Vancouver playoff games ... game six in 1994, I think.

Anyway, we were on the Canucks side (even though I was more a Flames fan), and there were about one hundred or so hopeful fans patiently waiting for Pavel Bure to come out of the dressing room and hoping he would stop to sign an autograph. I didn't really care, but I thought "What the hey!" I may as well line up, too.

Well ... about half an hour later Bure comes walzing out with a couple of his teammates and the look of horror on his face when he saw all these hopeful fans was quite amusing. I don't think he spoke very good English, and the pressure of the playoffs and all the limelight made him look like a rabbit in the headlights of an approaching vehicle. All the fans were reaching out with their books and pens and hockey jerseys, and somehow Bure and I made eye contact. I smiled at him non-chalantly cause I didn't really care one way or another if I got his autograph.

Then he stopped mid stride, looked me straight in the eye, walked over to me as if I was the only person there, signed a quick autograph and then bolted for the door. Everyone else looked so deflated.

I ended up giving the autograph - on the back of a paper napkin, I think - to a young boy in a wheeelchair, hoping to earn some good karma.

So look out boys, this year's hockey pool is the time I plan to cash that Karma in.

Cheers,
Matt

I took Josh to see Ovy in Toronto earlier this year. Here's a picture of Ovy getting Red's autograph. I couldn't get to the front of the line to give him my autograph.

How do you get a picture to upload? I thought I had it?

use an image host then copy the url of the direct link they provide to the picture


http://www.imageshack.us/

Some pretty cool stories. I have a bunch of good ones, and some "bad" ones. lol. I refereed hockey for 8 years so thats where most of my stories come from, but I also have a few cool "were there" moments from the Bell Center and old Forum in Montreal. But I guess my favorite is not the most exciting hockey story I have, lol. It was my first game at the Forum, and it was the Canada Cup of 91. Canada won 6-2 over Czechoslovakia. The thing I remember the most was how scared my brother was to stand up and cheer when Canada scored a goal, that he fell asleep with his head tucked away in his legs, lol. But I still remember the game very well and how fun it was to go with my brother and father.
Since about 1996 I started to go on a regular basis, with the last couple of years I've been going a few times each year to games at the Bell Center, but it really doesn't compare to the Forum in any way possible. I've never stepped into any other arena that can compare to the Forum. All Madison Square Gardens was great the few times I've been.

Hey Jay,

You've been to a lot of hockey games, bud. That's for sure. How many NHL stadiums have you visited for NHL games? I think I've been to three: Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.

By the way, I sooooo loved your story about winning the bet with your friend last year when the Habs came back from a 5-0 deficit. That has to rank up there with the best hockey stories of all time

Cheers,
Matt

You know, I could have went to that game?! My friend had tickets and I couldn't go because of work, maaaaaaaaan I would give anything to have been there. Although I was at a colorado-montreal game 2 years back, when Jose Theodore played his first game back since being traded. The habs came back from 5-2 to win it, that was pretty amazing too.

As for arenas, there are only a few I haven't been to. During the winter I go to Flordia alot when I have a day off, and sometimes I catch a Panthers game. But I guess the ones I've visited the most (asides the bell center, lol) are Toronto, LA, and the NY area teams. I've been multiple times to those venues. During last years playoffs though I went to a game in Philly, although I didn't enjoy it that much (I don't like the flyers one bit, and I don't really like their fans either, sorry if there are any on here, I'm just being honest, lol)

Wow ... sounds like you've had some neat experiences. Do you travel a lot with your job, or is this all vacation time?

fitzsystars schrieb:

Wow ... sounds like you've had some neat experiences. Do you travel a lot with your job, or is this all vacation time?

I've been pretty fortunate to travel as much as I have at my age. And its all been on "vacation time." I quote it because I often go to these places for one day and come back.
lol, funny story. One time I forgot to book a hotel (I had gone through the motions of booking the hotel, but I never hit confirm, and when I got home, and turned the screen to my computer on it was asking me to hit confirm to charge my card and reserve a room) and everything in Atlanta was full, so I ended up renting an SUV for 25 bucks a day, and never left the lot, I just slept in it that night until I had to grab my flight at 7am.

That is pretty funny....

Nothing like luxury accommodation!

I bet you have been a little more careful since that day to finish your bookings before going on to the next item of business, eh?

lol, depends on how last minute it is. Sometimes I decide to go somewhere 2 hours before the plane actually leaves. And its usually when I'm at work, so I have to rush home, get some clothes, toothbrush, etc... and drive all the way back to the airport

Now that's the kind of spontenaity that all travellers should experience from time to time.