Stephen S
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puckstruck.bsky.social
Stephen S
@puckstruck.bsky.social
The history of hockeyness, and vice-versa.
puckstruck.com
Occasional Newfoundland content + Charles Portis, Italo Calvino, Geoff Dyer, Mavis Gallant, John Jeremiah Sullivan, & Sergei Dovlatov alerts.
Reposted by Stephen S
Yellow-Red-Blue, by Wassily Kandinsky, 1925 (detail, rotated), 📸 by @riogiancarlo.bsky.social
December 16, 2025 at 2:30 AM
The late Bobby Rousseau on Stanley Cup parade in 1966.

puckstruck.com/2020/05/09/t...
pride parade
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December 15, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Stephen S
Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.
December 15, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Sorry to hear that former Canadiens right winger Bobby Rousseau has died at the age of 85. He won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie in 1962 and was in on four Stanley Cup championships won by the Habs in the '60s.
puckstruck.com/2025/12/13/b...
bobby rousseau, 1940—2025
Terry Sawchuk thought he’d seen it all, but no. This was in 1962 or so, in the wake of a game in which the veteran Detroit Red Wings’ goaltender had faced the starry Montreal Canadiens again, leavi…
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December 13, 2025 at 5:20 PM
A birthday today for the great Charlie Conacher, the Maple Leafs' own Big Bomber, born in Toronto on December 9, 1909 ... unless (as Conacher himself seemed to think) he actually debuted on December 10.
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kid on the pond
The great Charlie Conacher was born on McMurrich Street in Toronto on a Thursday of this very date in 1909 — unless, as he himself seemed to believe, his arrival came a day later, on Friday, Decemb…
wp.me
December 9, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Stephen S
Born on this date in 1883, Cecil Hart coached the Montreal Canadiens to a pair of Stanley Cup championships in the 1930s. Before that, he steered Montreal's Maroons, which is when, in 1924, he wagered Boston's Art Ross a tooth that his team would overcome the Bruins.
puckstruck.com/2022/12/01/t...
the tooth and nothing but
Charlie Dinsmore played his football with the Toronto Argonauts in the early 1920s (Lionel Conacher and Dunc Munro were teammates); in the NHL, he turned out at centre for Montreal’s new club in 19…
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November 28, 2025 at 3:50 PM
A birthday today for Montreal's inimitable Yvan Cournoyer, who's 82.
puckstruck.com/2022/11/22/l...
le poteau = cournoyer
A birthday for former Montreal Canadiens captain and speediest of right wingers Yvan Cournoyer, born in Drummondville, Quebec, on a Monday of this very date in 1943. That makes him 79: happy birthd…
puckstruck.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:16 AM
“Cantankerous, aggressive, arrogant,” eulogized the Toronto Star, "but behind the incessant fireworks of the Smythe personality was an essentially positive man, a builder and a giver.”

The man who made the Maple Leafs died on a Tuesday of this date in 1980: Conn Smythe was 85.
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hats of pearl grey (and spats)
Conn Smythe was 85 when he died on a Tuesday of this date in 1980. “The old tyrant,” Toronto Star columnist Milt Dunnell called the man who made the Toronto Maple Leafs in paying tribute to his inf…
wp.me
November 18, 2025 at 10:28 PM
New from me ... I wrote a special edition of Legion Magazine, War & Hockey, out now on your favourite (Canadian) newsstand. More here:
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November 11, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Wartime Throwdown: In January of 1940, in north London, a team from the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery faced-off against the reigning English League champions, the Harringay Greyhounds. Trumpet fanfares ensued.
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army manoeuvre: a new wrinkle in fancy flourishes
If anything, wartime in the English capital swelled the ranks of an already thriving  hockey community as the Canadian Army units flooded London in 1940. In mid-January, at Harringay Arena in the n…
wp.me
November 10, 2025 at 9:21 PM
When the Bruins + Leafs met in Toronto this month in 1937, they set a new attendance record for Maple Leaf Gardens. (And tussled.)
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a wall of bruins mucked up syl apps — but the rumpus was quelled without trouble
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November 8, 2025 at 11:40 PM
A legendary Leaf on the ice and behind the bench + mainstay on the telestrator at Hockey Night in Canada, Howie Meeker was born on a Sunday of this date in 1923.
puckstruck.com/2024/11/04/f...
fine print: howie meeker and the rock ’n’ roll leafs of 1957
So the Toronto Maple Leafs lost again on Sunday night, 2-1 in overtime to the Minnesota Wild. Saturday they also failed to win: that night it was 4-2 for the St. Louis Blues. A month into this new …
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November 4, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Detroit Red Wings trainer + an emergency goaltender for three NHL teams in the 1950s, Lefty Wilson died at 83 on this date in 2002.
puckstruck.com/2018/09/24/m...
make you a mask, tend your goal, yell at the ref: hockey trainers used to do it all
During his 38-year career with the Detroit Red Wings, Lefty Wilson did all the regular jobs hockey trainers do: stitched the cuts, wrangled the sticks, sharpened the skates. That’s him honing here,…
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November 4, 2025 at 4:16 PM
On this night 86 years ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs opened the 1939-40 NHL season by beating the reigning Stanley Cup champions from Boston 5-0.
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shamboozled
Dit Clapper’s assessment, after it was all over? “Whew,” the captain of the Boston Bruins exhaled on this night, a Saturday, in 1939. “They’re flying.” “That, my little tom-tits, is the short and s…
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November 4, 2025 at 3:37 PM
resting lion face
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October 31, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Reposted by Stephen S
French women's champions Droit Au But in Paris in 1933.
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straight to the point
The Paris team Droit Au But dominated French women’s hockey in the 1930s, winning all four editions of the Coupe de France from 1930 to 1933. The Coupe competition was succeeded in 1934 by the 1re …
wp.me
October 22, 2025 at 12:56 PM
A birthday today for Sugar Jim Henry, born on this date in Winnipeg in 1920.
puckstruck.com/2017/10/23/j...
jim henry: sweet as sugar, gritty as a spinach salad
Born on this day in 1920, Sugar Jim Henry got his start as an NHL goaltender as a 22-year-old when he leapt straight from amateur hockey to took charge of the New York Rangers’ net in the fall of 1…
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October 23, 2025 at 12:21 PM
French women's champions Droit Au But in Paris in 1933.
wp.me/p1hzck-770
straight to the point
The Paris team Droit Au But dominated French women’s hockey in the 1930s, winning all four editions of the Coupe de France from 1930 to 1933. The Coupe competition was succeeded in 1934 by the 1re …
wp.me
October 22, 2025 at 12:56 PM
A birthday today for Roy Worters, tiny Hall-of-Fame goaltender, who was born on this date in Toronto in 1900.
puckstruck.com/2022/11/07/r...
roy story
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October 19, 2025 at 1:26 PM