Good reading over the holidays: former NHL goalie Phil Myre's hockey blog

In the past, I’ve mentioned a few hockey blog sites that I enjoy.  Many are listed under our “web links” section and most are Leaf-related.  Everyone provides a little different perspective.  Maple stir-up  and  Pucking’Eh, along with General Borchevsky are just a few of many interesting Maple Leaf/hockey blog sites.  Some are funny (Down Goes Brown, now over at the National Post, is very popular), some have great videos (Bloge Salming) or photos (Vintage Leafs, for example); all are certainly worthwhile-reading.

In addition to the excellent variety of views and posts offered up at Pension Plan Puppets, I’ve also enjoyed non-Leaf sites like Preds on the Glass.  It’s always first-rate, in-depth Nashville Predators talk, but also provides links to a wide range of informed hockey-related opinions.

One site I’ve come across recently is authored by former long-time NHL goalie Phil Myre.  Phil  and I have been corresponding a bit and I wanted to provide a link to his site at  http://www.philmyretalkshockey.com

For those who don’t remember, Phil was a fine goalie who came up with the Montreal Canadiens (see photo at right).  Interestingly, he was the fifth overall choice in the 1966 NHL draft.  (It was called the “amateur” draft in those days, and it was the really early days of the so-called “draft”.  Expansion was upon the league and NHL clubs were winding down the old sponsorship era.  That old era was when Montreal, for example, owned pretty much all the youth and junior teams in Quebec.  For its part, Toronto “owned” virtually all the players with the junior Marlies, the Rangers had exclusive access to the Guelph juniors, etc.

But Myre, a young French-Canadian goalie from a small town in Quebec (not the first, nor the last good one from Quebec) was indeed selected by his "hometown" team, the Flying Frenchman, the Canadiens.  As impressive as he was when he first made the Habs as a 21 year-old and played a few games in 1969-’70, it was a tough time for an emerging goalie with Montreal.  Though Gump Worsley had gone to Minnesota to play for the expansion North Stars, they already had Rogie Vachon, who helped them win Cups in 1968 and ’69.  Then, late in the 1970-’71 season, Ken Dryden came out of nowhere (well, technically Cornell University and the AHL) and started every playoff game as the Canadiens made a run through the playoffs to yet another NHL championship.

With Dryden firmly ensconced as the number-one guy, Myre did not get to play a lot in 1971-’72.  So when the Atlanta Flames joined the NHL, he was the perfect guy (through the expansion draft process) to become the top goalie with a team that would need good goaltending in front of a relatively weak line-up.

For the next several years, Myre (left with the Flames) played a lot, and shared time with another talented young goalie, Daniel Bouchard, who Leaf fans from that era will recall from a late 1970s playoff series.

Interestingly, Myre played for many years behind former Maple Leaf defenseman (and future Leaf coach) Pat Quinn in Atlanta.  He later played for “Coach” Quinn with Philadelphia during the 1979-’80 NHL season.  In fact, that was the year the Flyers came painfully close to winning the Cup.  Pete Peeters was the “number-one”, but I recall that Myre played very well, including the half dozen or so games he played in the playoffs that spring.

He also played a bit under the irascible Don Cherry in Colorado the next season, (note:  Phil just contacted me to indicate he actually played under Bert Marshall, not Don!  I seem to remember Marshall as a Red Wing and Oakland Seals defenseman) and finished his near 15-year career with the Buffalo Sabres in 1982-’83.

You may well enjoy Phil’s old-time stories and his current views and commentary on hockey.  Again, his site is located at http://www.philmyretalkshockey.com