O'Ree, Orr friendships among hockey highlights for Fischler

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. This week Stan, known as "The Hockey Maven," celebrates what he labels a "Hockey Birthday." Here's the how and why of it.

If you don't mind my telling you, I turn 89 years old March 31. That makes me older even than Zdeno Chara.
I also don't mind telling you that I never would have reached this ripe, young age without hockey. Our favorite ice game is what keeps me going. The passion, excitement, the whole bucket of pucks helps me avoid rust.
With that in mind, I figure the best way to cash my birthday ticket is to couple eight and nine together. I learned at P.S. 54 in Brooklyn that totals 17.
So here are 17 highlights of my more than eight decades following the gliding puck:
1. FIRSTS: I saw my first game in 1939 at age seven at the old Madison Square Garden. The entire scene dazzled me and left a permanent impression. The following day, my third grade teacher, Mrs. Gould, called on me to do a show and tell. I chose a hockey goalie and showed what he did. Mrs. Gould gave me an A. Wow! An A for acting like a goalie. Not bad.
2. FOLLOW-UP: There was a lot to like about hockey, especially the sign in the old Madison Square Garden lobby that read "HOCKEY -- THE FASTEST GAME ON EARTH." I found the theme inspirational and wrote to the New York Times magazine about why hockey was the best game in the world. To my astonishment, my letter was printed; my first byline!
3. HOCKEY JOURNALISM: For my 10th birthday in 1942, my parents gifted me with a radio and a scrapbook. I turned on the radio and accidentally picked up Foster Hewitt's broadcast of the 1942 Stanley Cup Final between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings. The electrifying man, who originated "He Shoots! He Scores!!" turned me into a Maple Leafs fan. Meanwhile, I began clipping hockey stories for my scrapbook, and never stopped. In 1946 I subscribed to the Toronto Globe and Mail. By osmosis I was learning from legendary writers such as Jim Coleman, Rex MacLeod and Baz O'Meara. Starting in 1946-47, I made a new scrapbook for every season through 1951-52.
4. THE MAPLE LEAFS YEARS: During 1946-47, I became a Leafs fan. Turk Broda, Syl Apps, Jim Thomson, Gus Mortson and pals played Conn Smythe hockey, "If you can't beat 'em in the alley, you can't beat 'em on the ice." Coach Hap Day had the two best hitters in the League: Bill Barilko, who had the nicknames "Bashin' Bill" and "Snake Hips," and "Wild" Bill Ezinicki, the best bodychecking forward I ever saw. To my endless joy, Toronto upset the Montreal Canadiens to win the Cup in 1947 and dominated the NHL with a total of four championships in five years. (Talk about being spoiled!)

Fischler interviewing Maple Leafs defenseman Jim Thomson at the old Madison Square Garden in 1950
5. FROM MAPLE LEAFS TO RANGERS: At the start of the 1950-51 season I joined the Rangers Fan Club and launched The Rangers Review. The team allowed me to interview players such as Ed Kullman, Bones Raleigh and Charlie Rayner. That started my hockey-writing career. Next, Tom Lockhart, who ran the Eastern League, let me produce a weekly EAHL newsletter. In between, I managed to visit Maple Leaf Gardens, The Forum and Boston Garden, each a hockey cathedral.
6.. A HOCKEY PRO, AT LAST: In September 1954, Rangers publicist Herb Goren hired me as his assistant. I now was being paid to be part of the hockey world, mixing with pro writers like Jim Burchard of the World-Telegram, Stan Saplin of the Journal-American and Ken McKenzie of The Hockey News. Future Hall of Famers Andy Bathgate, Gump Worsley, Harry Howell and Bill Gadsby were my pals. My boss, general manager Frank Boucher, raised my salary from $50 to $55 and my biggest thrill was when we traded Allan Stanley and Nick Mickoski to the Chicago Black Hawks for Gadsby and Pete Conacher on Nov. 24, 1954.
7. THE JOURNAL-AMERICAN AND HOCKEY NEWS: In 1955, McKenzie made me the Rangers beat reporter for his weekly Hockey News and I got hired as a sports columnist for Hearst's flagship, the New York Journal-American. My J-A sports editor, Max Kase, taught me how to write a notes column like his "Briefkase." I later introduced an NHL version to The Hockey News called "Bluelines." It was a first.
8. MY FIRST STANLEY CUP: In the Spring of 1958, I was at Boston Garden covering the Stanley Cup Final between the Canadiens and Boston Bruins. Montreal won its third straight title -- en route to five in a row -- in six games. Toe Blake's Canadiens had more Hall of Famers than any I'd seen. Maurice "The Rocket" Richard, Henri "Pocket Rocket" Richard, Dickie Moore, Doug Harvey, Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, Jacques Plante, Tom Johnson. The winner's dressing room at Boston Garden was smaller than a closet. I didn't see any champagne, though, which was a big downer.
9. THE FIRST MASK: I was sitting in the old Madison Square Garden press box on Nov. 1, 1959 when Bathgate's shot nearly decapitated Plante. When the Montreal goalie returned wearing a Martian-looking mask, we were stunned! Plante went on to win the game and change the face of goaltending forever. Blake maintained his disdain for the mask until Plante helped Montreal win a fifth-straight Cup in 1960.
10. MY FIRST MEDIA MESS: Hockey Pictorial magazine published my article about the Rangers' irascible coach Phil Watson. It was called "Is He Hockey's Eddie Stanky?" Watson didn't like baseball's Stanky, the story nor me. Phil was so upset he barred the magazine from sale at Madison Square Garden. I bought 100 copies and sold them outside arena. Watson later ordered me off the Rangers sleeping car after a loss in Boston but the Pullman already had left the station and Phil couldn't afford a homicide rap.
11. LOVING A HALF-BLIND REF: The first referee I befriended -- and wrote about -- was New York native Bill Chadwick. When he told me he was blind in one eye due to a hockey accident, I was astonished. He was amused and said, "When fans scream at me, 'Chadwick, you're blind!', I'd say to myself, 'Well, they're half-right.'" P.S. The Big Whistle made it to the Hall of Fame!
12. HOW I BLINDED BIG M: Frank "Big M" Mahovlich was one of my favorite players. I interviewed him in 1961 for Sport magazine when the Maple Leafs were staying at the Commodore Hotel, next to Grand Central Station in Manhattan. During our breakfast chat, I dug into a grapefruit the wrong way. The fruit missile shot directly from my spoon into Mahovlich's right eye. I figured he'd be furious but Frank cleared the momentary blindness and fired back with a grin, "Don't shoot my other eye, I got a game tonight!"
13. ANOTHER EYE SURPRISE: Willie O'Ree and I had become pals back in his Bruins days. One day he lunched with me at my Manhattan apartment and mentioned something never before written, that he played his entire pro career with sight in only one eye. And he did it at a high level for two decades. To me that was one heck of a revelation and I wrote it in a story.
14. MY PIONEERING WIFE: In 1971, my spouse, Shirley, broke the gender barrier in the Madison Square Garden press box. She became the first woman allowed in the media pew, but only after originally being barred. After a Human Rights Commission hearing, entry was granted. She eventually authored or co-authored a dozen hockey books, including the famed Macmillan Hockey Encyclopedia. Instinctively, she knew more hockey than I did.

Fischler and his wife Shirley in the press box at Madison Square Garden.
15. BOBBY ORR, MY HOST: To accommodate me for a Sport magazine story, Bobby Orr met me at Maple Leaf Gardens in his open convertible for a drive to his Parry Sound, Ontario home. He hosted me for two days which included an evening motorboat ride to a tiny island in Georgian Bay. We went skinny dipping around midnight. I got enough material for the article and a book, "Bobby Orr and the Big, Bad Bruins." It was my personal best, best-seller.
16. MET AREA CUPS: Bob Nystrom's 1980 Cup-winner for the New York Islanders was my first New York-based Stanley Cup with three more to come on Long Island. Next was the Rangers' first championship in 54 years in 1994, when I covered the Canyon of Heroes parade for ABC-TV. The unreal sweep of the Red Wings by the New Jersey Devils in 1995 followed. Those four straight wins against Scotty Bowman's juggernaut still boggles my mind. I was at Dallas when the Devils defeated the Stars on Jason Arnott's OT gem in 2000 and back in New Jersey for their seven-game thriller against the Anaheim Ducks in 2003.

Fischler in 1995 with Rangers general manager Neil Smith, Devils GM Lou Lamoriello and Islanders GM Mike Milbury.
17. FAREWELL, SORT OF; In April 2018 I said sayonara to my longtime MSG Networks gig and to all the grand guys and gals I worked with at Rangers, Islanders and Devils games. I moved to Israel thinking I'd retire from shinny. Instead, all three of my Israeli grandchildren were playing ice hockey while my son, Simon, was coaching. Meanwhile, I couldn't stop writing and talking pucks. Earlier this month, Devils radio play-by-play broadcaster Matt Loughlin asked how I manage to stay enthused about our sport. "I may be 88-years-old," I told him, "but hockey makes me feel like I'm still eight!"
Photos courtesy of Stan Fischler