I have been around long enough to remember the 1967 SC won by the Leafs, their 13th and last one. Indeed, that SC was the last before expansion of the NHL. That Leafs team was loaded, with the likes of Frank Mahovlich, Dave Keon (won Conn Smythe that year), Red Kelly (8 SC’s), Pete Stemkowski, Bob Pulford, Eddie Shack, Marcel Pronovost, and Jim Pappin (4 G, 4 A in that SC), with Terry Sawchuck and Johnny Bower (42 yo for his fourth SC) in net, and Punch Imlach as coach (love those nicknames). The Leafs won it in six that year against the Canadians, a team that featured Yvon Cournoyer, Ralph Backstrom, John Ferguson, Henri Richard (the Pocket Rocket), and Jean Beliveau, with Roger Vachon in net.
Our parents gave my brother and me one of those table top hockey games in the early 60’s, which we played endlessly. There were six metal players per team, which could be switched out on their spring-loaded swivel posts attached to long horizontal metal arms underneath five slots that overlapped the length of the "ice," with rubber-coated twisty knobs at the ends of the board.
There were on-ice sidewall indentations on both sides at the blue lines, probably to provide structural support to the board, and we immediately discovered that we could trap the little plastic puck against these indentations with the metal D-men and really get the puck to fly with the spring-loaded pivots, much like real slap shots!
We had dozens of metal springs on hand for replacements. The metal goalies could not only move back and forth in front of the net, but also outward to the top of the crease to “fight” the center man’s possession of the puck.
There was a metal plate embedded at the back of each net attached to a wire to activate a red light on the end board to simulate a goal scored.
Our father attached two large heavy ballasts from lighting fixtures on the external sides of the boards to mitigate lifting of the entire board into the air with our exuberance.
The insides of the boards were painted with dozens of fans waving their arms.
We knew the names of all 20 players on each of the six teams, and took turns narrating the play by play (one of us for the Bruins, the other brother for one of the other five teams), just like our favorite Bruins radio guy who lived in central New Hampshire at the time (I need to look up his name). I do not recall that many college hockey players made it to the NHL back then, and for years the only American-born NHL player was Tom Williams from Minnesota, who played on the Bruins first line (the BOW Line), with Murray Oliver and John Bucyk (aka The Chief). Fun times.
part of the state. Effingwoods is a state of mind.
