Search for your favorite player or team
© The Hockey News. All rights reserved. Any and all material on this website cannot be used, reproduced, or distributed without prior written permission from Roustan Media Ltd. For more information, please see our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
September 23, 1988
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
Remembering Hayes, O’Connor
Somewhere, George Hayes was probably saying, “About time!” on Sept. 7, the day he was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame. Hayes, a former linesman and one of the most colorful personalities in NHL history, died at the age of 67 on Nov. 19, 1987 at his home in Beachville, Ont. Herbert (Buddy) O’Connor, a center with Montreal and the New York Rangers between 1941 and 1951, was also inducted posthumously. Hayes, the 11th on-ice official inducted, died a bitter man due to the circumstances under which he left the league. Hayes worked 1,544 regular-season, 149 playoff and II all-star games between 1946 and 1965. But he was suspended by NHL president Clarence Campbell for refusing to take an eye examination. Hayes said he didn’t need one—he claimed he took one…
Hockey Hall Of Fame’s Checks And Balances
WHEN I FIRST heard the Hockey Hall of Fame was being relocated in a bank building, it seemed like an appropriate choice. Who was the greatest you ever saw? Howe? Hull? Orr? Richard? Gretzky? Naw, Peter Pocklington, of course. Hockey is a business, and he pulled off the greatest deal ever. So it is perfect you should enter the new Hockey Hall of Fame through alarmed doors. Admission to the Hall would not be by the committee’s vote, but by deposit slip. Players would no longer have to wait three years from their retirement to be elected, only five days until their check clears. There should be a drive in window and a Christmas club and no plaques for the enshrined. Safety-deposit boxes will do. See, since Gretzky got traded, I haven’t been…
NHL Gets Tough On Stick Incidents
The NHL is cracking down on players guilty of flagrant stick fouls. A player receiving a major penalty for injuring an opponent by high-sticking, slashing, butt-ending, crosschecking or spearing will receive an automatic game misconduct this season. A second offense will result in an additional one-game suspension. Suspensions are increased by one game for each successive infraction. The board of governors unanimously approved the new rule at its Sept. 7 meeting in Toronto. NHL president John Ziegler said the action wasn’t a reaction to the Aug. 24 jail sentence and conviction of Minnesota North Star right winger Dino Ciccarelli for assault. “The process started before (Ciccarelli’s conviction),” Ziegler said. “There has been no groundswell within the league, or even in our own analysis, that our discipline is other than the proper approach.” In other business,…
Champs Stay On Top By Not Standing Pat
The Oilers' upheaval after winning their second straight Stanley Cup—and fourth in five years—doesn’t surprise Harry Neale. The NHL-coach-turned-broadcaster says, “1 remember something told to me about Conn Smythe, when he was manager of the Maple Leafs and they won all those Stanley Cups (four in five seasons) in the 1940s,” says Neale. “The Leafs had just won the final game of one of their many Stanley Cups and the team was going back to Toronto by train. The guys were drinking, celebrating, but when the train stopped for half an hour Smythe took a walk with his coach (Hap Day). It was a warm spring evening. Smythe said, ‘Well, who are the guys we want to get rid of?’ The coach said, ‘Wait a minute, we've just won the…
Made possible with the support of
