So far it's been kind of a slow news day, so I'm giving more space to our old friend, Poor Len Canayen, who has another video which he says every hockey fan has to see. Ed.
Hello! Poor Len here again, with another video which every hockey fan has to see! In my earlier post (see below) I said that, thanks in part to people like (((Gary Bettman))), professional hockey today ain't what it used to be. A younger fan has asked me, "Gee Poor Len, what was it like, back then?" I have found another National Film Board of Canada video which answers the question.
"Blades and Brass" is a mashup of video clips shot at the old Montréal Forum in 1967 (notice the Expo 67 logo at centre ice), with musical accompaniment in the style of the Tijuana Brass. (What Mexican music has to do with hockey is beyond me, but it's a minor quibble.) Slowing the action down a bit to match the tempo of the music allows us to see the grace and beauty underlying what appears to be a fast and rough sport. Who calls soccer "the beautiful game"? It's got nothing on hockey!
1967 was the last year when the NHL comprised the so-called Original Six teams. That's something of a misnomer as only the Canadiens were there at the beginning, in 1917, and a number of teams (Montreal Maroons, New York Americans, and Philadelphia Quakers -- you can look it up) came and went in those first 50 years.
Here you get to see two of the players featured on the new Canadian stamps -- Gordie Howe and Jean Béliveau -- and two of my all-time favourite goalies: Montréal's Lorne "Gump" Worsley and Maple Leafs' Terry Sawchuk. Notice that most of the players, even the goalies, still didn't wear helmets or masks. Those "improvements" came later. To my mind -- and I remember it clearly -- this is hockey as it was meant to be played, by some of the greatest players of all time. It's not the same now... but what is....
No comments:
Post a Comment