Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[lineygoblue]

As I understand it, Gordie was not expected to live. Its fantastic to see that he's recovered. Quite amazing.

[Jeff Buchanan]

As I understand it, Gordie was not expected to live. Its fantastic to see that he's recovered. Quite amazing.

As a kid growing up in the suburbs of Detroit and spending my winters on a frozen lake with snow removed to make a hockey rink, I loved the Red Wings and Black Hawks. Howe, Delvechio, Hull ..... these guys were my heroes. Howe just never quit and his later life is an example of that characteristic. He's still fighting.

The kids in my neighborhood and around the lake we skated on, probably around 25-30 kids ranging in age from 10-15 organized a hockey schedule the last couple of years we played together. Got some help from parents or older brothers and had a really neat thing going on that I waited anxiously for every weekend. By that time, the plan was to shovel two side by side rinks and somebody always had as snow plow tractor or snow blower. We had the fire department come down and flood the rinks to improve the surface. It would start in January and last till March.

We'd assemble to see who showed up, picked teams and played 40 minute games on side by side rinks with two 20 minute periods. We'd play maybe 4
or 5 games spending the whole day from about 11am on till it got dark playing. Then, someone brought work lights that allowed us to play after dark ..... still it was dark!

It was a blast. In the 60s, as far as I knew then and know now, this might have been the genesis of youth league hockey in SE Michigan. We had some really good skaters among us and we'd go home after playing and watch guys like Hull and Howe play and try to mimic their moves. Hockey was WAY different then than it is now in terms of the speed of the game and player styles.

When I went to M in the fall of 66, I wanted to play Hockey, walked on to see if this was for me and immediately walked out. The ice rink as I recall was, at the time adjacent to the still present IM building. Yost didn't become the home of M Hockey until '73. Most of the players in that era were from Canada that had a much better developed Youth Hockey program. There was Intramural Hockey then, I played a few times and found out I didn't like getting slammed into the boards by guys twice my size who were as good as anybody playing big time college hockey. That's become club Hockey now and these guys are really good and play at the Division II level. Anyway fun walk down hockey memory lane for me.

[hodgkal]

Jeff, that story brings back many memories. I started flooding our back yard in winter time in Detroit around 1948 and we had neighborhood games. No equipment so no lifting. I had an interesting experience in Ann Arbor in Fall 1949. (I've told this before). I and a friend from our backyard hockey days were in Yost Field House watching a track meet when we ran into Vic Heyliger (UM hockey coach) and we excitedly told him we wanted to try out for the hockey team. He paused, looked at us, and asked "where are you guys from?" We said, "Detroit". He said, "Oh", and turned around and walked away.

So we played IM hockey in college. We shoved magazines into our pants for shin pads. I quickly found out I was nothing much as a player but had lots of fun.

My friends and I started going to Red Wing games in the mid-40s down at the old Olympia. This was before Gordie Howe arrived on the scene. Only 6 teams in the league then. The Wings were always in heavy competition with the Canadiens. When Howe arrived and then formed the production line of Lindsay, Howe, and Abel Detroit really had a hockey juggernaut.

My family carried the hockey tradition later to Kalamazoo and for many years I flooded our backyard and had a great rink. Winters were colder then and I could start flooding by Dec. 10th, and we were skating by Christmas. Our kids all became good skaters, the boys with hockey and my daughter as a figure skater.

Lots of changes. In those old days if you weren't from Canada you would never be much of a hockey player. Hockey was a regional rather than a national sport.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Doc ...... did you ever skate at M? I cannot for the life of me remember a clear picture of the what I think was an add on Ice Rink to the IM building (later torn down when M Hockey moved to Yost Field House). That's where I skated and skated a bunch of times before beer drinking, smoking cigarettes and bridge playing became much more appealing.

I searched all kinds of archives to try to locate where the M hockey team played before Yost Field House in 73. I was stunned to not find it.

[hodgkal]

You're right, it was not in Yost. The arena as I recall was a walk down State Street and then west a few blocks (to S. Main?) to a building in SW Ann Arbor but I cannot remember exactly where. It held quite a few fans.

I was in school from '49 to '56 but remember the hockey era when I was following the team was the early 50s. I remember a couple of those players, Johnnie Matchefts (sp?), a high scoring forward from somewhere in northern Minnesota and Reggie Shave, a Canadian defenseman who waited tables part time in the kitchen at our fraternity house.

[Mike]

Jeff and Doc,

You guys might enjoy John Bacon's book Blue Ice, which chronicles the history of Michigan hockey in great detail. I read it about 12 years ago and don't recall the name of the original venue but it used natural ice so many games were canceled if the temperature was too warm. It is really a great read.

[Hannibal]

Congrats to the Ilitches, 1,500 wins for the Red Wings since they bought the franchise. That's the most in the NHL in that period.

[Ghengis Jon]

Gordie had to go to Mexico to get the stem cell treatment that has rejuvenated him. Its too bad we (USA) let something as stupid as politics get in the way of medical treatment.

[Optimus Prime]

Injection in his spine, had to lie motionless for several hours, eventually got up to take a wiz!

[Jeff Buchanan]

Gordie had to go to Mexico to get the stem cell treatment that has rejuvenated him. Its too bad we (USA) let something as stupid as politics get in the way of medical treatment.

Medical Tourism, as it is called, is a BIG deal. Why is that?

Because in the developed world the US has the most convoluted and expensive health care delivery system of any country in that group.

Sure, there are isolated stories of Canadians who are pissed off at not being able to get a knee replaced in their home country and traveling to Seattle to do it...... to the tune of about $25-50K.

You can have that same procedure done in India, in a high tech medical facility by well trained doctors who are as good as anything you'll find in the US for around $1500-2000. Same thing in Saudi or any of the Emirates for maybe $5K including a stay in a 4 star hotel designed for post op recovery. They'll package air transportation too.

It's a shame with respect to the costs in the US. Quality is high but that can be matched in several countries. The ridiculous health care costs in our country are not anywhere close to being made more reasonable and the system to deliver car is just awful. They'll just continue to escalate. The system will suck. Get used to it. Travel for major medical needs.

[Mike]

Congrats to the Ilitches, 1,500 wins for the Red Wings since they bought the franchise. That's the most in the NHL in that period.

And they sucked for several years after they bought them before they became respectable in the late '80s. I bet over the last 25 years nobody would even be close to their win totals for regular season and playoffs.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Thanks, Doc. My picture of the rink and where it was is also fuzzy.

Mike, I'll try to find that book. There's probably a good history of the old rink and the natural ice which I do remember because that's what I skated on coming up. Different stuff and plenty of rough ice.

Another side light. Before moving from Chicago to Detroit in '63, my Mom, an artist and into theater and such, had me taking figure skating lessons and doing other girly things that my brother, 4 years older than me and terrific athlete, would tease me unmercifully about.

I did start skating at about the age of 7 or 8 and kept it up every year through probably my 19th birthday. The figure skating got me started though and I started playing hockey in those skates until I got run off the ice in them and switched to Hockey skates like these:



I think these are Bauers. I had CCMs and they were black and had a brown tongue and trim by the laces.

Gloves like these and and some shin guards, that's all the protective equipment we wore in our "league."



Finally, hockey sticks like these (North American?) covered with black sticky tape on the blade and a wad of it at the top to keep it from slipping out of your hand.

[hodgkal]

Jeff is spot on about health cares costs here as compared to other countries. You could say health care in this country is the best, BUT only for those who can afford it. And most people can't. There are so many factors driving costs in our system it takes a long essay to explain it all. But I have lived it and know it first hand. It starts with our hallowed fee for service system and the perverse incentives this creates. For anyone interested I would be glad to send a 5 page essay I wrote up about this last year.

A little off topic but I couldn't resist. My apologies.

[drok]

Doc, i'd totally be interested

[Jeff Buchanan]

Send it to me too.

My email: jbuch002@gmail.com