Hi everyone! It’s March break here in Ontario, and thus we’ve all had a bit more time to indulge in some personal activities, go out on the town for a quick family adventure, and play some extra video games. In my case, I got to spend a bit more time reading, one of my favourite activities, and probably not much of a surprise to any regular visitor to this site.

As I had promised last week, I have added a review of former Seal George Pesut’s new autobiography, The Fourth Period – Between the Ice Sheets: Hockey on Two Continents. Hot off the presses, and available on Amazon, it is a fascinating recollection of the journeyman’s 21-year professional career, which saw him take his talents to such far-reaching North American locales as Oakland, Calgary, and Wichita, and then across the pond to Davos, Switzerland, and just about every major city in West Germany. If you are a bit prudish, be warned, as the tales get a bit X-rated from time to time, but what else would you expect from a career spent mostly in the minor leagues and in some of the most sexually liberated cities in Europe. If you are looking for some new insights into the 1974-76 Golden Seals, who were highlighted in last week’s rare video footage (to which you can find a link here) Pesut’s book will certainly appeal to you, but the main highlight is undoubtedly the stories he weaves about his time playing in Switzerland and Germany. If you aren’t familiar with how European league hockey works, Pesut’s book will certainly enlighten you. You can read my review of the book right here. Let me know what you thought of the book too!

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! You’ve certainly picked a good day to come visit this site! Thanks to subscriber Pete Manzolillo, who came through in the clutch once again with some exciting new material that needed to be shared with all of you. An organization called Northeast Historic Film has been restoring and making available all sorts of rare 8mm film, and many of these films include some great 1970s NHL action. You should pay them a visit at www.oldfilm.org to check out their wonderful archive of found footage, including several old hockey clips from Boston Garden.

This week, I urge you to check out a fantastic 20-minute highlight reel from the first two periods of the Seals-Bruins game from March 14, 1976. The footage is beautifully restored, and includes only crowd noise, making it feel like you truly are at the Boston Garden watching the game unfold. You can check out this found footage for yourself over in the Video and Audio section.

And I have even more good news! In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting some new video clips as well as a book review for George Pesut’s new tome (I still have about 100 pages left to read), so be sure to check back later this month.

For those of you in and around Ottawa, I will be at the Capital Trade Show selling copies of my books and a wide array of hockey cards as well. The event takes place on Sunday, March 9 from 10-3 at the Nepean Sportsplex on Woodroffe Avenue, so if you’ve got a hankering to shop for old (or new) hockey cards and memorabilia, why don’t you stop in!

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Boy, am I glad it is the weekend. What a week! I finally got over the cold that had bothered me early in the week, and now it is time to relax for a couple of days. As promised, this week we’re going right back to January 26, 1974, and the big grudge match between California and Philadelphia! The Flyers were ready to push their weight around, as usual. The Seals were preparing for whatever hell Bobby Clarke and company were ready to unleash. It was going to be an orgy of fists, flying sticks, thundering body checks, and broken bones. The fans in the stands had no idea what was going to happen, and I mean that literally. You see, all of the violence that night took place in the stands, while the players stood around staring at the mayhem going on all around them. The only beating the Seals took that night was on the scoreboard, much like the previous time the two teams had met. Some things don’t go as planned, but other things happen exactly as you would expect. If you want to read about the famous Seals-Flyers rematch, you can find this week’s article, from the San Francisco Examiner‘s Glenn Schwarz, right here.

In closing this week, I will be at the Sports Card and Comic Book Show at the Nepean Sportsplex. I will be selling copies of my books as well as a multitude of hockey cards next Sunday, March 9, from 10am-3pm, so if you’re in the area, stop in and do some shopping. It is the biggest sports card show in Ottawa, so if you’re into that sort of thing, you won’t be disappointed!

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I think this week’s title says it all. You know what I’m talking about, and I don’t need to go into details. No need to ignite any more fires than there already are out there, but I also can’t ignore the elephant in the room, the most tense sorta All-Star event in history. All I’ll say is that it certainly made for some riveting television, and will likely be the catalyst for a few much-needed changes in the NHL, if not in professional sports.

The 4 Nations Face Off was a surprisingly bitter tournament. It’s also not the first time (and it certainly won’t be the last) where some sort of bitter conflict took place on (or off) the ice leading to the inevitable grudge match to determine which team would reign supreme for a little while. Anyone who has visited this site over the years, or who has read my book, or who has read any hockey history book about the 1970s, knows that the Seals and Philadelphia Flyers did not get along. It seems weird that the mighty Flyers could have had a serious beef with the lowly Seals, but yes they did, and for good reason. The spark that ignited the blood feud occurred December 2, 1973 at the Philadelphia Spectrum when rookie defenseman Barry Cummins hit Flyers’ captain Bobby Clarke in the head, leading to a wild period dominated by fisticuffs. It wouldn’t be the last bitter conflict between the clubs.

This week, we’re going back to January 26, 1974, the first game between the clubs since the Cummins-Clarke incident. The papers were expecting a violent affair, and it truly was (just not in the way everyone thought… I will get into that next week when I post an article on that game, so stay tuned). This week’s article is more about the lead-up to that return match-up, and how Barry Cummins was handling the pressure of being public enemy number one. Head on over to the articles section to read this interesting piece.

Now that the surprisingly tense 4 Nations Face Off is over, its back to the grind we call the stretch drive to the playoffs, and my favorite time of the year, trade deadline day! Now that my Habs have crashed back down to Earth, I can now relax knowing that their fate has finally been decided, and that all there is left to determine is who stays and who goes. Don’t worry, I’m getting used to this sort of thing; I’m starting to feel what it was like to be a Seals fan back in the 70s. Hopefully, either Ottawa or Edmonton will go on a run and give me a reason to get excited about the playoffs, and that they will be inspired by Canada’s recent efforts to bring the Stanley Cup back home.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I’m not sure about you, but I sure am glad it is the weekend! What a week! Have you ever had one of those weeks where it seems as though every loony-toon, crackpot, and whack-job came crawling out of the woodwork just to make your life a living hell? Well, that’s the week I had. Stressed out clients, crying clients, clients who didn’t know what they wanted or why they were there… Am I sure glad that’s all over, and since it’s a holiday on Monday, that means a three-day weekend! One of the things I enjoy doing when I’m feeling a little stressed is grabbing my cell phone and doing the rounds of the New York Times puzzle games. Have you ever done these? They’re great. I love doing Wordle, Strands, and the Mini Crossword, but my favourite might be Connections, and more recently, the recently added sports-themed Connections.

If you’ve never done Connections before, the premise is pretty simple: of the 16 words and expressions on the screen, you must group them into four equal groups, and each group’s words must be connected by a common theme. So the connection could be four expressions with “up”, four palindromes, four modal verbs, or four objects cherished by characters on The Simpsons (yes, that one actually stumped me). When I sat down after supper one day this week to do the latest sports Connections, I was surprised to see this:

Notice the expression on the bottom left? Yup… never thought the Seals would get their due in Connections, but here were are. See if you can figure out the four connections. I’m happy to say I got it without making any mistakes, but I’m not that lucky every time. Will you be? Remember, all four connections are sports-related…

So, that was fun, and to continue with that theme, I’ve added a new Lee Susman cartoon, which you can check out right here.

Hope you all get the chance to take in the 4 Nations Face-Off the next two weeks. It’s off to a great start, and, as you would expect, I’m rooting for Canada to take the title. Now that my Habs have crashed back down to reality and burrowed their way to the Earth’s core, it might be the closest I get to a meaningful series of games this season. Go Canada! Stay gold!

Hi everyone! Wow! Big news from the Seals universe! That’s right, former Seals defenseman George Pesut has written a book, The Fourth Period: Between the Ice Sheets. The book was released this past December, but I was not made aware of it until I received a link to this:

That’s right folks, as an added bonus, we have George talking about his book in the latest edition of Hockey Time Machine, which you can watch by clicking on the YouTube logo above. The episode was dropped yesterday and I haven’t even had a chance to listen to it yet, so I can’t give you any details. I also can’t give you many details about the book, since my copy just arrived yesterday morning, and I’m only about 20 pages in. So far, I’m very impressed with his narrative style, and I look forward to page 91, when he starts talking about his time in the Bay Area. Rest assured, however, that once I finish the book I will be posting a review on the site, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, go pick up your own copy over at Amazon. Here’s a link to the American site and another to the Canadian site to make it even easier for you.

As I mentioned last week, I received two very nice gifts in the mail from Kristie Kitchens. A few years ago, she had found an old Seals beer stein that had once belonged to her father, and she sent it to me, which has been sitting on my desk ever since. It’s one of my favourite pieces of memorabilia, and something I had never seen before. This time, Kristie sent me a vintage Sparky the Seal t-shirt, which I’m proud to say, is probably the only one in all of Ottawa.

Please ignore my crappy photography skills (note the scotch tape holding up the shirt on what is an overturned IKEA kitchen table); it’s the best I could do. Of course, I have no intention of leaving it like that; it deserves better. I hope to have it framed one day along with my autographed Seals hockey cards.

The next photo, of a vintage Annalee hockey mouse (Tony Esposito stick in hand) is something I had never seen before, but apparently they were pretty popular back in the 70s.

Thanks so much, Kristie!

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! What a rollercoaster week in the NHL! Blockbuster trades galore! It feels like we’re back in the old 21-team NHL. Boy, those were the days, weren’t they? Sometimes, I feel the art of the trade is a thing of the past. I remember back when I was a kid how it was commonplace for a star player to be dealt straight up for another superstar, and it never had anything to do with contracts, salary caps, or player-approved trade lists. I have a hard time remembering the last time a mid-season trade like this week’s Rantanen-Hall-Necas transaction happened. And then it was followed up with the Flyer-Flames and Rangers-Canucks deals that transpired just a few hours before I posted this. I love how GM’s are pulling the trigger on big deals long before the trade deadline, and I am curious to see if this strategy is more effective. I want to say that giving the new players time to get acclimated to their new surroundings is a sound move, but only time will tell.

I don’t have much of a segue to this week’s new Seals material except that the article I’ve posted this week also took place in January, at a time when the Seals were also thinking playoffs, something that had not even seemed plausible a year or two earlier. This year, however, the Seals had gone for broke with the youngsters, and after a couple of difficult months, they began to put it all together and posted more wins than losses. This week’s article, from the January 7 Palo Alto Peninsula Tribune Times was published a day after the Seals had soundly defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1. Now that I think of it, this is something else I really miss in hockey: the massive underdog victory. Nowadays, no matter how bad a team is, does it really shock anyone when that team beats a Stanley Cup contender? I’m not surprised at all if San Jose beats up on Washington or Edmonton. No team is truly that bad in today’s NHL, but back in 1975, when the Seals beat a contender, it was big news. I remember when I was interviewing players for my last book on the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup, some of the guys I talked to still remembered beating Boston or Montreal because it was more unlikely than seeing Halley’s Comet twice in the same day. Back in January 1975, the Seals were sitting pretty inching their way closer to a playoff spot, and even though they failed in their quest, the future looked brighter than it had in a long time. You can read all about the Seals’ big win and their sudden turnaround right here.

And that’s it for this week. Thanks for stopping by once again. Thanks also to Kristie Kitchens who generously sent me a beautiful authentic Seals t-shirt and hockey-themed stuffy. I will post pictures of them soon, and I think you will agree, they are wonderful memorabilia to own. Never having been to California, let alone having lived there, I imagine I’m the only person in Ottawa with a vintage Seals t-shirt.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great week. I’m happy to announce a brand new addition to the site, but first a little context. I was contacted this week by site follower and Seals fan Bob Marceau, who wanted to share some fantastic cartoons created by the Oakland Tribune‘s Lee Susman. The cartoons were always a nice snapshot of what was going on in the Bay Area at the time. They usually feature a plucky Seal wearing a hockey uniform (a few years before the famous “Sparky” ever did) and who bravely stands up to the villainous other teams of the NHL who were either gearing up to take on Oakland’s hockey heroes or who were standing in the Seals way in the playoff race. In many other cases, our cartoon hero is literally (and painfully!) experiencing what the real-life Seals were figuratively experiencing at that time. Even if you have never seen Lee Susman’s work before, you can probably still guess what torture our cartoon buddy endured, because the human Seals went through an awful lot in those nine, mostly painful, NHL seasons: humiliating defeats, relocation rumours, trades that didn’t work out, draft picks who became busts, you name it, it happened. I will post a few of these comic beauties from time to time, so I hope they will make you smile as much as they did me, and for some of you who were in the Bay Area at the time, you may even remember a few of them from your childhood. Thanks again Bob! You can find what will be a growing collection of Lee Susman comics right here. Enjoy!

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all been having a wonderful weekend. I won’t keep you too long today since I’ve only made a small, but important update to the site. I realized this week that there were parts of this site that have been on my mind for a while, but for one reason or another I was putting aside and ignoring. For instance, the Contact Steve form had been down for quite some time (sorry, I’m not technologically savvy, and to fix an issue could take anywhere from an hour to an eternity). Well, I finally had some time and motivation to look into the problem, and I’m happy to say that the problem has been resolved, so try it out if you like. Also, the In Memoriam section was in dire need of an update. I think the last update was back in 2022, so yeah… That’s been taken care of as well, but if you know of any former Seals or Barons who have passed away, please let me know so I can add them to the list. I know there are plenty of non-NHL Seals who have died, and whose names may not have appeared in the media, so there is a good chance they were sadly left off the list. Finally, I made a few light updates to the Definitive Seals Record Book. Nothing major, just a few obscure records that came to light thanks to the great work done by the statisticians at Hockey-reference.com.

That’s about it for this week. If you’re anywhere near the Ottawa area, please bundle up because it’s going to be frigid next week, and if you’re lucky enough to be anywhere warm, please know that we will all be hating you for the next little while. Nothing personal… We do like winter, after all, but by mid-January we’re usually about ready to see it go away for another year. I’ll be keeping busy working on query letters and book proposals, and watching the Habs continue to kill it.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! After a short Christmas/New Year’s hiatus, we’re back! I hope everyone had themselves a wonderful holiday season whether or not you had the luxury of having a full two weeks off or not. I do realize I am lucky to work in a job where I have the opportunity to spend the holidays with the family, and really get to enjoy myself. I’ve had the opportunity to fully immerse myself in finishing up my next book, which I hope will hit the shelves (or at least some online version of a shelf) in the next year or two, but first that means preparing a book proposal and then sending off everywhere across the continent hoping some publisher will bite. Of course, I will post any interesting developments on the site, so stay tuned!

I’ve also had the time to get back into watching games now that the kids are getting older and showing some interest in my passion. The NHL season has been an interesting one to say the least. It’s been a bit crazy how, this season, so many contenders have been flopping and how many rebuilding teams have been surging. Who would have thought that right now the Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Pittsburgh Penguins would have a better shot at the Stanley Cup than the New York Rangers or Nashville Predators? I was not among that very small minority a month ago, but I am now. The Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks both seem completely lost, and no one seems to be getting along in their dressing rooms. I love these kinds of story lines, the changing of the guard, so to speak. I feel a sort-of mini-revolution developing in the NHL right now, and the perennial contenders are not going to be looking up from their penthouse much longer.

As I got back to planning a new update for this site, I was utterly shocked to discover that one of the most infamous games in Seals/Barons history was somehow NOT found in the articles section. I’m talking about the horrendous 13-3 loss to Buffalo on February 25, 1978. It was one of the Barons’ last games in the NHL, and undoubtedly one of the most forgettable. I couldn’t believe there was barely a mention of the game anywhere on the site, so even though it is a painful read, it is a game that stands out, and so today I’ve posted an article about that awful defeat. You can read about it right here.

That’s about it for this week, folks. Hope you’re all having a nice, smooth return to work and that you are enjoying the developing story lines around the NHL. I will see you all again in a week. Until that time, stay gold!