TTM Success! Murray Bannerman!

Some, if not most of you probably read that headline and said; "Who?" Murray Bannerman! Former goaltender for the Vancouver Canucks (very briefly), but better known as goalie for the Chicago Black Hawks in the mid '80's. Also, the proud owner of the mask. You know the one.
Oh yeah. Murray's backup goalie at the time was some dude named Tony Esposito. Maybe you've heard of him. Murray made two All Star games in his career... pretty good considering the pressure of replacing a living legend in Esposito.


Mr Bannerman signed my 8x10 and one card that I sent him.

Thanks Mr Bannerman!

Happy Halloween - NHL Style

I could go the route of posting some of the greatest, bloodiest fights. But that's been done. (not that I didn't enjoy the fours hours on YouTube watching them... again...)
But instead, I'll go the educational route.
Go back. Go waaay back... to Halloween 1972. The place, Philadelphia. The Flyers wanted to play a joke on their rather portly starting goalie, Doug Favell. They took his plain, white mask, that was like the mask worn by every other goalie in all of hockey, and painted it bright orange. Like, you guessed it, a pumpkin.
You can imagine the joking and the remarks by his teammates.
This was the very first time that a goalie had a painted mask other than plain white. Doug, the good natured fella that he is, decided to stick with it... with a minor modification. No more pumpkin.

After that, other goalies followed suit. Doug was later traded along with a 1st round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Bernie Parent and Larry Goodenough.

The mask needed modifying for his new team colours. And new country.

To end his career, Doug finished out with the Colorado Rockies, and a season with the brand new expansion Edmonton Oilers.

With all of the mask art we see today, a cultural icon of sports, all of it started with a Halloween prank in 1972.

Thanks for being a sport Doug!