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Howie Meeker, former NHL star and Hockey Night in Canada icon, dies at 97 – CBC.ca

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3 years ago

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Howie Meeker, a former NHL player, Hockey Night in Canada icon and legendary personality, died Sunday at age 97 at Nanaimo General Hospital in B.C.

Meeker, who won four Stanley Cups with Toronto and was the oldest living Maple Leaf, was an NHL star who won rookie of the year honours in 1947 after scoring 27 goals and 45 points in 55 games.

A spokesperson for the Maple Leafs, the team that signed Meeker to a free-agent contract on April 13, 1946, confirmed his death earlier Sunday. There was no immediate word on the cause.

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Meeker went on to become a broadcaster and was known for phrases such as “Jiminy Cricket,” “Golly gee willikers” and “Stop it right there!” His work with HNIC earned Meeker the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 1998 after a 30-year career on CBC and TSN.

Born on Nov. 4, 1923 in Kitchener, Ont., Meeker played eight years with the Maple Leafs — winning NHL championships in 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951 — and appeared in three all-star games.

He finished his NHL career at 30 in the 1953-54 season with 83 goals and 185 points in 388 regular-season games while adding 15 points in 42 playoff contests.

Most famously, he passed the puck to Bill Barilko for the 1951 Cup overtime winner against Montreal.

Skated into his 80s

Among Meeker’s other career highlights was scoring five goals in a 10-4 win over Chicago on Jan. 8, 1947, one of only 44 players to tally five or more times in a game.

He continued to play pro hockey on and off for another 15 years at a variety of levels, including the American Hockey League and Newfoundland Senior League, among others.

Meeker retired from playing after the 1968-69 season and kept skating into his 80s.

Dick Irvin, a fixture on HNIC for 33 years, told the Montreal Gazette in 2014 that Meeker was the first television analyst to break down the game and criticize players.

“‘You can’t do that!'” Irvin recalled Meeker saying. “‘See what he did? That was wrong! That guy J.C. Tremblay should never have done that. Tim Horton made a mistake! Look at what he’s doing there!’

Meeker spent two years as a Progressive Conservative member of Parliament while playing for the Leafs. He won the federal byelection in the Ontario riding of Waterloo South in 1951 but didn’t seek re-election two years later.

Ran hockey schools, wrote books

In 2010, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada and inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.

Meeker, who also called St. John’s home through the years, ran hockey schools for more than 30 years and literally wrote the book on hockey — 1973’s Howie Meeker’s Hockey Basics.

During the ’70s, he offered up drills and tips during his Howie Meeker Hockey School sessions on CBC.

He later wrote another book called Golly Gee — It’s Me: The Howie Meeker Story. And he never ran short of opinions on how to improve the game he loved.

Meeker had six children with his first wife Grace — they were married for 55 years before she died of cancer. He remarried, living with wife Leah in Parksville on Vancouver Island where they were active in fundraising for the B.C. Guide Dog Services.

Funeral arrangements were pending.

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Sale Of Arizona Coyotes Formally Approved By Board Of Governors – prohockeyrumors.com

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April 19, 2024

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The sale of the Arizona Coyotes to Utah has been formally approved by the NHL’s Board of Governors, per Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli (Twitter link). The vote received unanimous support from the board, shares The Athletic’s Chris Johnston (Twitter link). The NHL has promptly released their first statement on this transition (Web link).

This news brings a quiet end to the long-running saga surrounding the Coyotes search for a home in Arizona. The team has been pushing to build a new arena since their lease ended at Gila River Arena at the end of the 2021-22 season. They searched through many options, ultimately settling on building and sharing a small, 5,000-seat arena with Arizona State University’s hockey teams. The Coyotes played their first game at Mullett Arena in front of a sold-out crowd on October 28, 2022. They’ve since maxed out their attendance in nearly every game since, though the devotion from the fans wasn’t enough to will the team to a new rink. The ownership group, led by Alex Meruelo, ultimately couldn’t find a new parcel of land to build a full-size rink before their timer ran out. After a lot of back-and-forth between the Coyotes ownership and the NHL, it was ultimately decided that the Coyotes will relocate to Salt Lake City for the 2024-25 season.

The decision to relocate has come with a lot of contingencies for Meruelo and the Coyotes brand. Most notably, ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski shares that a return to Arizona wouldn’t require approval from the Board of Governors (Twitter link). Meruelo could instead get his team back quickly by building a full-size arena, with NHL Deputy Commissioner telling Wyshynski, “[Meruelo] has already been approved as an NHL owner.” The Coyotes will continue forward as an “inactive” franchise while Meruelo continues searching for a new home.

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The disbandment of the Coyotes has been devastating to fans that have supported the impossible – hockey in the desert – for the past 28 years. Arizona only once averaged below 12,000 attendees prior to their move to Mullett – and it wasn’t by much, averaging 11,989 attendees in the 2009-10 season. But they rebounded well, even averaging 14,606 fans throughout the 2019-20 season. The devotion of Coyotes fans was never once in doubt – a passion made clear by the community’s rallying to support the Coyotes’ last home game on Wednesday, April 17th. Watch parties across Arizona came together to witness one more Coyotes win – a 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, the same score as their first game as a franchise. The emotions of the evening were captured beautifully by a five-minute sign-off from broadcaster Todd Walsh, who’s covered the team since their 1996 move (Twitter link).

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2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs 1st-round schedule – NHL.com

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1 hour ago

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April 19, 2024

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New York Rangers (1M) vs. Washington Capitals (WC2)

Game 1: Capitals at Rangers — Sunday, 3 p.m. ET (ESPN, SN, TVAS, MSG, MNMT)
Game 2: Capitals at Rangers — April 23, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN, TVAS, SNE, SNO, SNW)
Game 3: Rangers at Capitals — April 26, 7 p.m. ET (TNT, truTV, MAX, SN360, TVAS)
Game 4: Rangers at Capitals — April 28, 8 p.m. ET (TBS, truTV, MAX, SN360, TVAS, SNE, SNO, SNP)
Game 5: Capitals at Rangers — May 1, TBD
Game 6: Rangers at Capitals — May 3, TBD
Game 7: Capitals at Rangers — May 5, TBD

Complete Rangers-Capitals series coverage

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The Bruins' strengths + vulnerabilities, and the path to a series victory for the Maple Leafs – MLHS Playoff Podcast – Maple Leafs Hot Stove

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April 18, 2024

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Founded in 2008, Maple Leafs Hotstove (MLHS) has grown to be the most visited independent team-focused hockey website online (Quantcast).
Independently owned and operated, MLHS provides thorough and wide-ranging content, varying from news, opinion and analysis, to pre-game and long-form game reviews, and a weekly feature piece entitled “Leafs Notebook.”
MLHS has been cited by: ESPN, Sports Illustrated, CBC News, USA Today, Fox Sports, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, TSN, Sportsnet, Grantland, CTV News, CBSSports, The Globe & Mail, The National Post, The Toronto Star, The Toronto Sun, Global News, Huffington Post, and many more.

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