Drop the Pucks

By Dave Burke

Drop the Pucks is a memoir about the author's ice hockey experiences in the last half century.  The author introduces you to his life in (and out of) the rink, starting at the Billy Harris-Dave Keon Summer Hockey School starting in the late '60s.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dave Burke
• Release date: May 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393627791

Book preview

Drop the Pucks

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A Hockey Memoir

The Billy Harris-Dave Keon Hockey School

A dozen days before the Woodstock weekend haze of peace, love and music; the big, powerful, V-8 Vista Cruiser station wagon was packed. Off to Canada was a squirt, a pee-wee, two bantams and two hockey dads. Toronto, Ontario, home to the National Hockey League’s Maple Leaf professional hockey franchise, was the mid-summer destination.    From the Hudson Valley on the eastern side of New York State to the north side of Toronto, Ontario was a good eight-hour-drive at seventy miles an hour, plus a meal stop in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The corn stood tall all along the westward way to the American- Canadian border and, of course, these were the good old days when one could cross the international boundary without any identification whatsoever. Our pops may have been packing birth certificates but that was unknown to us youth in the Vista Cruiser back seats and upon reflection, it seems unlikely we youngsters had any identification at all, other than our hand-printed last names on our Canadian-made, northern ash hockey sticks.

The following words were probably declared to the Canadian border agent: We’re headed to the Billy Harris-Dave Keon Hockey School, drop these boys off, turn around and go back home. That was enough as the Toronto Maple Leafs club was a significant Canadian institution and since all Canadians follow hockey, this senior, probably unarmed, border agent knew exactly where we were headed, why, for how long, and what we were in for. You boys best be ready to do some skating said he with serious demeanor. Uh oh. However, there were buckets filled with pucks too, the fun part, and he failed to mention this. The pucks would be dropped at eight-thirty in the morning, then all day long, and it was a dandy routine. Coaches would drop as many pucks as you’ve ever seen on the ice at once, times three. It was a beautiful sight that caused butterflies within.

Through hockey history, the Toronto Maple Leafs have become the richest, the most followed, the most loved and perhaps the most hated team at the same time. That’s just the way it was and is. The Maple Leafs have appeared in sixty-eight play-off finals in one hundred and one seasons. In nineteen-eighteen, Toronto won the Stanley Cup championship as the Arenas. Then the Toronto club, in nineteen-twenty-two, won another Stanley Cup as the Saint Patricks. With their current nickname, The Maple Leafs, the team won Stanley Cups in nineteen-thirty-two, forty-two, forty-five, forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty-one, sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four and won their last Stanley Cup championship in nineteen sixty-seven. The Leafs have not appeared in a Stanley Cup final series since nineteen-sixty-seven.

There are, at present, more than thirty National Hockey League franchises and only one Stanley Cup. Actually there are two cups, the original one stays full-time at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and the other Stanley Cup, the one seen on television, travels internationally with cup escort Phil Prichard more than the garden Gnome in the award-winning French film Amelie. And perhaps the obvious is worth a mention here as a team getting to the National Hockey League Stanley Cup finals before nineteen-sixty-seven, with just six franchises, was a hill to climb, but not the Mount Everest game of attrition in modern times.

The late-lunch restaurant in Niagara Falls spun atop the Skylon Tower, a seven-hundred-seventy-five feet tall, needle-like observation structure that overlooks the American Falls, the Bridal Veil Falls and the larger Horseshoe Falls, from the Ontario, Canada side of the Niagara River. The rotating dining room provided us rink rats with the three-hundred-sixty degree view of the magnificent falls in one hour. This was English-speaking Ontario, yet some printed French was visible in various places. At twelve years young, this was my first, but not last bi-lingual experience. This Anglo- Franco menu and signage brings to mind the nineteen-sixty-eight creation of le Parti Quebecois by Renee Lavesque whose pro-Quebec rhetoric appeared throughout media in Quebec and Canadian politics. Vive le Quebec!

Rene Levesque was a prominent member of Jean Lesage’s

liberal cabinet during Quebec’s ‘Quiet Revolution’, i.e., Quebec’s

overall, bold modernization campaign beginning in the early

nineteen-sixties. Levesque led ‘le Parti quebecois (PQ)’ as it rose to

power in nineteen-seventy-six. Quebec’s independence from Canada

was the Parti’s main objective and for fifteen years, Levesque was the

leader of that ideal.

Perhaps easy to forget but so much was lost on that September day in the year seventeen-hundred-fifty-nine upon the Plains of Abraham, now a part of Quebec City. It was this hour-long battle that ended up being the deciding moment between the French and English conflict over the fate of New France. Opposing generals were both killed in this battle: James Wolfe leading the English attack and Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm commanding the French defense. To not forget: ‘je me souviens’ is printed on the Quebec license plates.

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There were a few summer hockey schools in eastern Canada in the late sixties but the Billy Harris-Dave Keon Hockey School had the boot camp or no frills reputation. Neither lakes nor campfires, The Harris-Keon Hockey School was an all-business hockey development camp and the childhood summer vacation was put on hold. The only road trip from the Double Rink Arena campus in the two-week session was the annual trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame at the Exhibition Park in downtown Toronto. The Harris-Keon Hockey School also had the reputation of being expensive costing about one hundred US dollars per week; the week included three on-ice sessions per day with intermittent chalk talks, video review and late-morning reel to reel screenings of several NHL Stanley Cup play-offs.

As noted, the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in nineteen-sixty-seven and it was rather impressive to see our hockey school mentors and coaches compete, win and then carry the Stanley Cup. This Toronto-based hockey school oozed with credibility. In the preface to the ‘Hockey Guide for Young Players’, the instructors and staff of The Billy Harris-Dave Keon Hockey School wrote: We are not trying to produce professional hockey players. It is our hope to improve our students’ skill, knowledge, concept and appreciation of this great game of hockey.

Billy Harris

In nineteen-sixty-nine, with the best days of his twelve year National Hockey League playing career behind him, Billy Harris ran a summer hockey school certainly to earn money. During his ten years as a Maple Leaf, Billy Harris helped the Leafs to win three Stanley Cup Championships in the early sixties. Even without knowing NHL salaries of that era, it’s reasonable to state most, if not all, contracts were in the five-figure range, and certainly there were no millionaire players as is the norm among veteran players fifty years hence. Earning supplemental income of running a top-notch summer hockey school was the reason future National Hockey League Hall of Fame players spent their hot, humid summer afternoons training us on both sheets at the Double Rink Arena, located on Toronto’s north side. A third rink was added by nineteen- seventy and the one Zamboni ice resurfacing machine was going all day long, a wonderful thing. And the occasional summer snowball fights behind the rinks were fun too.

At five-feet-eleven-inches and weighing one-hundred-eighty-

five pounds, Billy Harris was a center who played a stand-up, finesse style, scoring twenty-two goals during the nineteen- fifty-seven, fifty-eight season. In nineteen-sixty-five, Harris was traded to the Detroit Red Wings in a multiplayer swap that sent

Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Marcel Pronovost to Toronto. Pronovost was the defensive coach at the Harris-Keon Hockey School during those years. Of course, the NHL doubled in size during the nineteen-sixty-seven, sixty-eight season and this flagship expansion helped to extend the careers of NHL veterans who headed west to help fill the rosters of the new franchises. Harris ended up in Oakland, California playing for the California Golden Seals. Before ending his NHL career as a Pittsburgh Penguin, Billy Harris played in seven-hundred-sixty-nine games scoring one-hundred-twenty-six goals and two-hundred-nineteen assists for a career total of three-hundred-forty-five points.

Locker Rooms

The eight locker rooms at the Double Rink Arena were plenty, making it a tournament-friendly facility. Though not overly large, the locker rooms were youth-hockey-size appropriate. Damp and cool, refreshing in the summer, the rooms were located between the rinks lengthwise, back to back with a locker room from each rink sharing a toilet and shower in the middle. Ice times were scheduled so that two teams never needed the toilet/shower room simultaneously, with one group going on the ice and another group coming off. Each of the five groups had their own locker room that was secured with a lock and key for peace of mind. So, our equipment was safe and kept in the group designated locker room the entire session. Coaches had a room and the referee room wasn’t needed at the summer hockey school. With concrete all around, black rubber matting led from the locker rooms to the ice rink and this facility was designed for its singular use: housing dozens of hockey games. For sure, there was a figure skating club calling these rinks home too. This Double Rink ice facility was not at all like the ice rink on the third floor of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Boys Club. There, the locker rooms were in the basement and players carried skates up the stairs to a small changing room at one end of the rink. Nevertheless, the Pittsfield Boys Club rink was (and hopefully still is) a good old hockey barn where many good hockey players developed their skills.

Simple, damp, concrete cubes with no amenities at all, the Double Rink Arena locker rooms at five-thirty in the morning were as comfortable as five-star hotel suites because the only thing we wanted to do there and then was sleep. For maybe ten long minutes, the fixed to the floor, narrow, wooden benches along the walls were as comfortable as any high-end Serta mattresses. Then, we’d wake up and lace them up, usually in that order.

Above the locker rooms at Double Rink Arena was an enclosed spectator viewing area serving both rinks and there was a snack bar yet there’s no recollection of it being open for the summer hockey school. The Harris-Keon snack bar was inside the curling arena/dormitory (now a banquet house) and it was open each evening after twilight hustle football and soccer games. Hustle football put about twenty players against twenty with one eighteen or nineteen year old counselor playing quarterback. There were only passing plays allowed; and without tackling, the play ended by grabbing the flag from the receiver’s hip. Three pass completions in four downs earned a first down. Everyone was an eligible receiver and there were no huddles, no rushing the quarterback, quick hikes, hence hustle football. There were many touchdowns, it was fun and it didn’t really matter which team won because we were hockey players.

We wouldn’t go to the rink in the evening, as we had enough ice time each day. However, there was a Wednesday evening, no-contact hockey scrimmage that mixed coaches (the NHL guys), counselors and some of the older students. A dozen or so lucky players aged sixteen or seventeen got to skate with the pros.

The game lasted about an hour, it was fun to watch and the scrimmage was like a hockey benefit game sans paying spectators. There were no fifty-fifty raffles, no drone-dispersed souvenir tee-shirt prizes, no tenor-voiced public address announcements, and no twenty ounce beers in the audience that I recall. The younger summer hockey school players and a few older guys unable to play due to nursing injuries were the only screaming fans in attendance. It seemed like Johnny Wild’s power skating drills were causing guys to pull groin muscles and such. It was mid-summer and technically off-season, and some guys were not in shape. But the training was intense like it was early December.   We’d be back in the dormitory about ten and purchase ice cream sandwiches or Popsicles at the shack bar, or a ten ounce can of soda pop for a Canadian quarter. I once exchanged an American ten dollar bill in the business office and received twelve Canadian. Good deal!

The locker room is an important place for all teams in sports. The hockey locker room, in particular, is more than a place to change clothes. In professional and amateur ice hockey, the locker room ‘chemistry’ is credited when winning and criticized when losing. Locker room chemistry refers to interpersonal relationships and how these may help or hinder a team’s collective on-ice play. Player to player, coach to player and vice versa, there are many personalities in this setting and bonds are often positive but not always. Older, experienced players should pragmatically lead the locker room ‘esprit du corps’ based on experience and understanding.

Hockey teams have at least twenty players and they spend significant time in the room, especially if that dynamic is extended to team buses, flights, team meals, hotel lobbies, and so on. Additionally, gearing up or putting on hockey equipment can take some time, maybe even thirty minutes for some players, especially goaltenders. Ice time was and is always precious so it is best to prepare well to get the most benefit of these practice minutes.   Locker room hockey chat might include the upcoming opposition, who’s been fighting of late on that team and maybe who’s been scoring. In the pros, fighting results used to trump scoring stats as giving up a goal is easier than losing a fight, less damaging and probably less painful. Aside from hockey chat with and without coaches present, down-time invites dialogue, jokes, and maybe group conversations. The quick witted players may take charge at this time as the more pensive, intellectual players may very well silently mock the immature, media-thick banter among the players that he or she will soon fight to protect on the ice. People are different and so hockey players are different and maybe from different cultures and decades.

The hockey locker room gets messy. As a coach, all teams with my association make effort to exit hockey facilities in a better condition than that when entered. It’s nice to respect the sport of ice hockey at every turn, a little consideration to demonstrate class and good sportsmanship, win or lose. The new facilities around the world, one hopes, continue to improve with lessons learned from the rinks and hockey barns of the by-gone era. Enough space or square footage is the first consideration. Adult teams with eighteen skaters and two goalies need adequate space as to accommodate all the players with personal room and also the open floor space for coaching, general movement, extra sticks, a trainer’s table and hockey-related items. Drinking water is a big deal in the locker room as players can consume copious amounts of water during and after playing hockey. It would be best if all rink locker rooms met a team’s large game-time demand for cold, purified drinking water, and maybe not water from the Zamboni fill hose or from the public bathroom sink faucets.

A skate-sharpening machine with a skate sharpening technician and an ice-making machine would both be included in my ideal locker room. However, since skate blades are now detachable, there’s less need for an on-site skate-sharpener, just a need for a couple sharp, extra blades on the shelf in the stall. The ice machine output would not be used to chill the drinking water but rather to ice down the bumps and contusions that occur in games involving adolescent and adult hockey players. Of course, many rinks have training rooms that provide medicinal ice but during a game, it’s best to conduct all affairs in the team locker room if possible. Nobody leaving the locker room is best during a hockey game.

Fresh, juicy, cold and bright orange sections, a bottomless bag of them, if possible, are without a doubt, another requirement of a good locker room. For the younger players, oranges are a tasty treat and for the older players, fruit provides a bit of in-game nutrition and water ingestion via fruit. Hydration before, during and after a game is only sensible, though it’s best to avoid drinking pond water. Nutrition may be different for different people but high end athletes, both amateur or professional, need to maintain balanced nutrition.

Nathan McKinnen of The Colorado Avalanche said in the summer of twenty-nineteen that after study and work with professional nutritionists, his pregame meal is sweet potatoes, cooked, of course, but perhaps undressed. Eating sweet potatoes on game day suits McKinnon better than eating pasta as pasta carbohydrates may cause a quick drop in one’s blood/sugar decreasing energy. So sweet potatoes might be the best-lasting, high energy, natural food for some athletes. A nutrition-rich tuber root vegetable, the sweet potato or yam begs butter from my childhood experience, even though the butter was inexpensive, salted, corn oil margarine.

So, in closing the kitchen and locker room doors, cooking fresh, organic foods at home, if affordable, is best. To eat lower on the food chain with reasonable amounts  of lean proteins and almost unlimited vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruits is probably the way to go.

Until the first Monday morning skate, the Harris-Keon Hockey School seemed a bit intimidating, especially to a ninety-eight pound twelve year old American yours truly. There were preschool anxiety ingredients for sure: the Toronto setting, far away from home, full contact, big Canadian defensemen, no childhood teammates to help out, oh no!. Alas, the Harris-Keon Hockey School was a pay and play summer hockey school, not an organized team or league that recruited the best players from across North America.

Some hockey players in camp, particularly in the younger groups, were novice. After the first Monday morning skate, all anxiety was gone as there were players in our ‘group C’ with poor hockey skills and little game experience. At that point, I had played organized hockey for six years, with the last two years as a member of the Troy, New York pee-wee travel team, playing both defense and forward positions.

Hockey is Canadian

The contemporary game of ice hockey was born in Canada and it is officially Canada’s national winter sport. The word hockey first appeared in an eighteenth century English book about children’s sports and pastimes. There were stick-and-ball games played in Europe before the Christian era and these included the Irish game of hurling, the similar Scottish game of shinty, English bandy ball and then field hockey which was developed in England during the late seventeenth century. There is evidence that some games of field hockey occurred on ice.

British soldiers and immigrants to Canada and to the United States in the colonial days brought their stick-and-ball games with them and played on the ice and snow of winter. The British, the Irish, the Scots and the Dutch played their various games and each group learned the games from the others. These games led some Europeans to try the North American indigenous game of lacrosse. The most daring ventured to play on skates and so what we know as ice hockey was invented by all of these people, all these cultures, all these individuals. Hockey is a conclusion of all these beginnings.

Back in the eighteenth century, the Mi’kmaq Indians played

‘ricket’ with sticks and cherrywood pucks upon the frozen lakes in Nova Scotia. Mi’kmaq Indians are a First Nations people of the Canadian Maritimes which means they are the predominant native peoples in Canada south of the Arctic. The British soldiers used Mi’kmaq sticks to play bandy ball, a game surprisingly similar to hockey. Early nineteenth century paintings depict ‘shinney’ or ‘shinny’, an early form of hockey with no standard rules which was played in Nova Scotia. Shinny was also later played on the Saint Lawrence River at Montreal, Quebec City, Kingston and Ottawa.

Then, in the late nineteenth century, Scottish and Irish Canadian maritime students at Montreal’s McGill University began to skate and play hockey on outdoor, natural ice. At Montreal’s Victoria Skating Rink, instead of using a ball or bung, flat wooden pucks were used to stay in the rink protecting spectators. Ultimately wood was replaced by rubber and the Victoria Hockey Club of Montreal was the first organization to use a round puck or disc. In time, the first indoor hockey game was scheduled for March third, eighteen-seventy-five. Publicity was made, tickets were sold and the modern notion of ice hockey was born. The first hockey spectators were the forefathers of les fanatiques who packed the railed, standing-room, mezzanine section at the Montreal Forum for most of the twentieth century.

French Canadians embraced le hockey sur glace and hockey became bilingual. And thanks to the completion of the trans-Canadian railway, Bauer skates, CCM or Northland Pro hockey sticks and pucks were shipped across Canada where natural ice was easy to be had during the long, cold, television-free Canadian winters.

The first hockey club was the McGill University Hockey Club founded in eighteen-seventy-seven, followed by the Quebec Hockey Club the next year and the Montreal Victorias in eighteen-eighty-one.

Hockey sweaters are worn in Canada and hockey jerseys are worn in the United States. When playing outdoor hockey in the cold air, the woolen hockey shirts acted more like a sweater, in that era anyway. A sweater verses jersey, a skate-grind verses a skate-sharpening, hockey gear verses hockey equipment, or buckets filled with pucks verses buckets with pucks are a few variances in hockey jargon and practices between the two countries. In the United States of America and in many countries the world over, hockey is a sport, an avocation, a game. In Canada, hockey is a religion. It’s been said that if you don’t play hockey in Canada, there’s nothing else to do.

Engaging in a winter sport in general, or in hockey in particular,