Monday, September 15, 2025

Hockey's goalie masks through the ages

I used to follow hockey. I started following it when I was but a young sprout in 1967 when hockey doubled its size via expansion. They did that expansion by creating what was a 6 team expansion division, which faced off against the older 6 team division when it came to Stanley Cup time. As a result, for years the older division routinely clobbered the expansion division in the Cup playoffs.

Since I didn't have a team, I decided to root for the St Louis Blues, the best of the new expansion teams. My sports heroes were Red Berenson as well as Bob and Barclay Plager, which caused many a confused look among my peers because none of them payed any attention to hockey back then. The early Blues dominated their division, but the Stanley Cup eluded them until 2019.

 

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