puckstruck

the history of hockeyness, and vice-versa

Skip to content
  • Home
  • about + contact
  • bookstruck
  • events
  • notes + sources
    • puckstruck sources
    • [p. 141] a slight sneer mantled joliat’s lean bronze face
    • [p. 278] snubbing morenz
    • [p. 87] how to hook-check
    • [p. 327] like an orc chieftain
    • [p. 254] michael cusack
    • [p. 322] dave dryden
  • articles
    • all (hockey) roads lead to peterborough
    • books for troubled times
    • gretzky’s tears
    • gump worsley’s pineapple squares
    • his name is orr
    • under review: no pink tea
    • oh, dear
    • setting the table
    • the secret to hockey gold
    • unshaven
    • wet rice and hockey
    • wheel, knife, sher-wood, in that order
  • gallery
    • blow hard
    • goalie masquerade
    • habs 24/7
    • hockey smokers: dit clapper
    • hockey smokers: cal gardner
    • hockey coaches in hospital beds: tommy ivan
    • hockey fashions: rod gilbert + bob nevin
    • hp@h: assist to béliveau
    • hockey players in hospital beds: moose vasko
    • hockey players in hospital beds: terry sawchuk
    • out of sight
    • panoramic protection
    • smoothy smith
    • the great, once
    • the thin man
  • poems
    • a bunch of pukes
    • a red-hot bout with the grim reaper
    • are you afraid of anything?
    • ask the ref
    • billy burch took his skates to bed
    • detests helmets
    • hockey gods
    • it can do much harm
    • one slug
    • our best sticks were made of rock elm
    • the five truths of shovelling
    • the hot refresher
    • twenty-four ways of looking at guy lafleur
  • captaining the bruins, 1924—48: the adjusted list
Search

when the bay freezes

December 29, 2021December 29, 2021 / puckstruck

Breaking Away: From 1902, a painted pond-hockey scene based on a photograph from the studio of Montreal’s Notman & Sons.

Share this:

  • Share
  • Email
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

hockey art
hockey art, outdoors, shinny, William Notman

Post navigation

← terry sawchuk: he groped for his stick and gloves and, defiant, went to work
spit take: nels stewart, newsy lalonde, and a jolt of tobacco juice in jakie forbes’ eye →

From Greystone Books. Available in bookstores in Canada and the United States. 2014 Hockey Book of the Year, as per www.hockeybookreviews.com. "Funny, smart, unlike any hockey book I've read," Dave Bidini has said; "Joycean," Charles Foran called it. "It’s rare to find a book that makes me proud to be Canadian," is what Michael Winter wrote: "A funny, myth-busting, life-loving read."

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

index

1972 Ace Bailey advertising Art Ross Aurele Joliat Bill Cook Black Hawks Bobby Hull Bobby Orr books Boston Bruins Canadiens captains Charlie Conacher Chicago Ching Johnson Clarence Campbell Clint Benedict coaches concussions Conn Smythe debris defencemen Detroit Dick Irvin Sr. Dit Clapper Don Cherry Eddie Shore Elmer Lach fans fighting Frank Boucher Frank Calder Frank Nighbor Frank Patrick George Hainsworth Georges Vézina goaltenders Gordie Howe Gump Worsley Guy Lafleur Hap Day hats head trauma hockey art hospital Howie Morenz Jack Adams Jacques Plante Jean Béliveau John Ross Roach Ken Dryden King Clancy Lester Patrick Lorne Chabot Lynn Patrick Madison Square Garden Maple Leaf Gardens Maple Leafs Maroons masks Maurice Richard Max Bentley Milt Schmidt Montreal Montreal Forum Nels Stewart Newsy Lalonde New York Americans New York Rangers obituaries Olympics Ottawa Ottawa's original Senators ouch outdoors Paul Henderson Phil Esposito Quebec Red Dutton referees Rocket Richard Saskatchewan Sidney Crosby Sprague Cleghorn Stan Fischler Stanley Cup Syl Apps Ted Lindsay Terry Sawchuk Tiny Thompson Toe Blake Tommy Gorman Toronto trainers Turk Broda wartime Wayne Gretzky WHA

archives

poem

Thankful that I never
played against
Wayne Gretzky
in an NHL playoff series;
I probably would have had to break his hand.

I would not have wanted to injure Gretzky, mind you;
I loved the guy.
I never touched him on the ice
in a regular season game.
I had too much respect
for how he played
and how he carried himself.

But I can say without question
I would have tried to hurt him
if we had been matched up
in the playoffs.
In my mind,
there are no friends
in a playoff series

I’m not talking about
elbowing someone in the head
or going after someone’s knees.
I’m talking about a strategic slash.
To me, slashing someone’s hand or breaking someone’s fingers was nothing.
It was part of the game.

Broken hands heal.
Fingers heal.
The pain that comes from losing does not.

• from Overtime (2014) by Chris Chelios with Kevin Allen; excerpted, edited, and poemized.

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

bandy

“The first thing the student of Darwin learns is that what evolves does not necessarily improve — a truth that might just as well be sensed by considering the modern history of jazz or ice hockey.”

• Adam Gopnik

Recent Posts

  • no-way thruway April 1, 2023
  • x was an elephant who couldn’t keep his laces tied March 29, 2023
  • vézina n’est plus March 27, 2023
  • championsix March 27, 2023
  • eyes on the tigers March 25, 2023
Blog at WordPress.com.
  • Follow Following
    • puckstruck
      • Join 342 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • puckstruck
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: