coming of age “This is a boy band as much as a hockey team, with the giddy fans to match.” That was Eric Andrew-Gee, in yesterday’s Globe and Mail, reporting on (and reflecting) the excitement attending the Mont…

Go youthful Habs go. Montreal's entertaining Canadiens are young. But record-settingly young?
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Sens Arenas of Yesteryear [Updated]

My “Sens Arenas of Yesteryear” blog post (2023) has just been updated w/ all new colourizations. (Prev. colourizations upgraded, + some new ones added.) www.ashleynewall.ca/2023/11/sens...

paul bibeault: he’s a real jumping-jack, all right Paul Bibeault was a hit before he made his debut in goal for the Montreal Canadiens in March of 1941, and he was a hit afterwards, too. Canadiens were languishing in sixth place in the seven-team N…

In 1942, Paul Bibeault guarded the Montreal Canadiens goal in a game against the Boston Bruins ... while wearing a Detroit Red Wings sweater.
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paul bibeault: he’s a real jumping-jack, all right Paul Bibeault was a hit before he made his debut in goal for the Montreal Canadiens in March of 1941, and he was a hit afterwards, too. Canadiens were languishing in sixth place in the seven-team N…

In 1942, Paul Bibeault guarded the Montreal Canadiens goal in a game against the Boston Bruins ... while wearing a Detroit Red Wings sweater.
puckstruck.com/2026/04/12/p...

nelson stewart, kingpin scorer of them all Can we get a peal of churchbells out over Westmount, a skirl of bagpipes up on Mount Royal, a salvo of Mile End artillery? It was a century ago today that the Montreal’s other NHL powerhouse seized…

100 years ago today, on Wednesday, April 6, 1926, the Montreal Maroons won their first Stanley Cup championship, overwhelming the Victoria Cougars. Nels Stewart was the star of the show.
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happy easter, to all, from renfrew’s creamery kings The best hockey team that money could buy in 1910 played their home games in the little Ottawa Valley town of Renfrew, Ontario. The lumber baron and railway magnate M. J. O’Brien was the man with t…

Happy easter from the 1910 Renfrew Creamery Kings.
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Thanks for the notation, and happy Easter. Just to say, it's Puckstruck, all one word.

six degrees of 50 Montreal Canadiens winger Cole Caufield, who’s a goal away from 50, will take to the ice tonight with his team in Newark against the New Jersey Devils. No jinx intended, but if the 25-year-old from…

Six degrees of 50.
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Spring in Newfoundland (Bus Stop)
Helen Parsons Shepherd
1965

hay is for horses — and the occasional canadiens’ defenceman We’ve checked in before on the roisterous NHL career of Ken Reardon, the Hall-of-Famer who played defence (and did some jail-time) for the Montreal Canadiens, and it’s time again, since today’s his…

Happy Ken Reardon's birthday.
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spectres of the maple leaf bookshelf You may not like it — it is a little cruel — but you have to at least, I think, pay grudging respect to the commitment to the bit: mockery on this scale takes time and planning and diligence. A Twi…

Plus ça change ... (From 2021)
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hay is for horses — and the occasional canadiens’ defenceman We’ve checked in before on the roisterous NHL career of Ken Reardon, the Hall-of-Famer who played defence (and did some jail-time) for the Montreal Canadiens, and it’s time again, since today’s his…

Happy Ken Reardon's birthday.
wp.me/p1hzck-7su

Stephen Lewis, former Ontario NDP leader and global AIDS advocate, dies at 88 Lewis died in hospital Tuesday after battle with cancer

BREAKING NEWS: Stephen Lewis, former Ontario NDP leader and global AIDS advocate, dies at 88. He was one of Canada greatest orator's. Often referred to as the best Prime Minister the country never had. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic... via @theglobeandmail.com

howe do The great Gordie Howe was born 96 years ago today, on March 31, 1928, in Floral, Saskatchewan. In 1966, when he was 38, Saskatoon threw Howe a prairie-sized summer shindig. There was a parade and a…

A birthday today for Mr. Hockey, born on this date in 1928 in Floral, Saskatchewan.
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the gift of the magi Visit the post for more.

Power trio.
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rug habit If you haven’t been out seeking insights into the inner lives of your hockey heroes at your local auction house, maybe now’s the time. Classic Auctions, which is based in the Montreal suburb of Del…

Called to the carpet ... who knew that Habs legend Guy Lafleur was such a dab hand with a crochet needle? A self-portrait he rendered in rug form is up for auction.
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rug habit If you haven’t been out seeking insights into the inner lives of your hockey heroes at your local auction house, maybe now’s the time. Classic Auctions, which is based in the Montreal suburb of Del…

Called to the carpet ... who knew that Habs legend Guy Lafleur was such a dab hand with a crochet needle? A self-portrait he rendered in rug form is up for auction.
wp.me/p1hzck-7rX

mountain do Visit the post for more.

Mountain do.
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Before there was “Heated Rivalry,” there was this New Yorker cartoon by Harry Bliss, published in 2001.

vézina n’est plus Georges Vézina’s health had been failing for months, and it was on a Saturday morning of this date in March of 1926 that he died, aged 39, in the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in his hometown, Chicoutimi. “V…

It was a 100 years ago today that Montreal goaltending great Georges Vézina died, at the age of 39.
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the devil you know It was on a Thursday of this very date — March 26, 1992 — that Martin Brodeur made his NHL debut, starting for the New Jersey Devils at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as th…

It was on a Thursday of this very date in 1992 that a 19-year-old Martin Brodeur made his NHL debut, versus Boston.
puckstruck.com/2026/03/26/t...

delillo on ice Amazons is the novel that, for years, the great Don DeLillo wouldn’t acknowledge he wrote, from the time it was published in 1980 right up until 2020, when he fessed up. If you haven’t heard, it’s …

Don DeLillo hits the ice:
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Is it spring yet? Maybe not, but while the cold weather lingers, you can read about when Toronto was first obsessed with skating rinks!

scenesto.com/2026/03/23/torontos-skat...

owning up: don delillo comes clean It’s a stretch of years now since Keith Gessen, a writer I’ll gladly follow into any paragraph he chooses to lead me, wrote his New York Times Book Review essay on hockey’s literature and its lacks…

Scribner announces it's re-issuing Don DeLillo's hockey novel ...
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boys brigade Visit the post for more.

Boys brigade.
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beeline Visit the post for more.

Habs v Red Wings, 1954.
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good-natured hoaxing + giddy clowning: a fête fit for a maple leaf king, st. patrick’s day, 1934 St. Patrick’s Day at Maple Leaf Gardens was a big do in 1934: Conn Smythe spared no extravagance in celebrating the day in raucous style, and Leafs’ star defenceman, King Clancy, along with it. The…

"Good-natured hoaxing," the Toronto Star called a St. Patrick's Day fête for a Maple Leaf star (with minstrel band and blackface) in 1934.
puckstruck.com/2023/12/16/g...

when the leafs were green It’s that time year again when the Toronto Maple Leafs insist on going green. If the fuss the team fetches up annually for St. Patrick’s Day seems a little excessive, well, the Leafs do authentical…

On St. Patrick's Day, looking back to the Leafs' green roots.
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ever green Mark Truelove took to tinting historical photos as a hobby — more about that, and him, here. His archival subjects aren’t all hockey players, just sometimes. Above, he’s infused three of the last o…

When the Toronto Maple Leafs were as green as St. Patrick's Day itself. (Well, they were the St. Patricks, then.) puckstruck.com/2015/01/02/e...

good-natured hoaxing + giddy clowning: a fête fit for a maple leaf king, st. patrick’s day, 1934 St. Patrick’s Day at Maple Leaf Gardens was a big do in 1934: Conn Smythe spared no extravagance in celebrating the day in raucous style, and Leafs’ star defenceman, King Clancy, along with it. The…

"Good-natured hoaxing," the Toronto Star called a St. Patrick's Day fête for a Maple Leaf star (with minstrel band and blackface) in 1934.
puckstruck.com/2023/12/16/g...