Len Lunde

This is Len Lunde. He was a solid second or third line checker with some play making ability. His professional hockey career would last 18 seasons, taking him all over the world, but only 321 times did he participate in a NHL game. Given how hard it was to crack a NHL line up in the days of the Original Six, this was no small feat.

The Campbell River, BC born Lunde was a dominant scorer in junior, starring with the Edmonton Oil Kings in the mid 1950s.

A prospect of the Detroit Red Wings, Lunde would remain in Edmonton for the first two years of his professional career, playing with the WHL Edmonton Flyers. Though hockey would take Lunde far, far away beginning in 1958, Edmonton had become his home. One day, long after retiring as a hockey player, he would play a big role in the Edmonton Oilers success in the 1980s.

After an impressive 1957-58 season with the Flyers, where he scored 39 goals in 67 games, Lunde got his shot at the NHL. Lunde joined the Red Wings for four years starting in 1958-59. He proved to be a steady utility player who helped the Wings reach the Stanley Cup finals in 1961. He was far from spectacular though. His goal scoring totals in his four seasons in Detroit were 14, 6, 6 and 2.

In the summer of 1962 he was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks. He found a nice home on a checking line with Eric Nesterenko and Ron Murphy, scoring 28 points.

The following season Lunde began a long career in the minors. Aside from brief appearances with Chicago and Minnesota in the NHL, Lunde starred with teams like the Buffalo Bisons (AHL), Portland Buckaroos (WHL) and Vancouver Canucks (WHL).

When the Canucks joined the NHL in 1970, Lunde returned to the league. Unfortunately for him, he only was able to participate in 20 games.

The Canucks had brought in Finnish hockey legend Lasse Oksanen to training camp in September, 1970, introducing Lunde to a few Finnish contacts. Lunde spent the 1972 and 1973 seasons playing in Finland with Ilves Tampere, while also coaching the Finnish national team.

Lunde loved his time in Sweden, but he had to make a tough decision that was best for his family. At the time there was inadequate English schooling in Finland, so he returned to Canada after getting an offer to play hockey with the WHA Edmonton Oilers.

Although he scored 26 goals in 71 games with the WHA Oilers, he hung up the blades after that season. He honed his coaching skills by spending the next two years developing a hockey program for Native Canadians on a reserve near Edmonton.

Calls from Europe continued to entice Lunde. He returned to Europe, specifically Sweden this time, where he coached and also acted as a scout for the Edmonton Oilers, now of the National Hockey League. The Oilers were one of first teams to really exploit Europe in the early 1980s. Lunde played a big role in finding and monitoring many of them, including Esa Tikkanen, Risto Siltanen and Jari Kurri.

Tired of all the travel, Lunde settled down in 1983. He returned to Edmonton and got into the leasing business.

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Parker MacDonald

Parker MacDonald, a native son of Sydney Nova Scotia, was a journeyman left winger.

His career began with 6 inconspicuous years in the NHL before establishing himself as a full time NHLer. From 1953 through 1955, Parker spent 63 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs organization, scoring 8 goals and 3 assists plus 4 playoff appearances.

In 1956 he was claimed by the New York Rangers in an Intra-League draft and played in 119 games the next 4 years, scoring 15 goals and 18 assists.

Things took a turn for the better for Parker when the Detroit Red Wings acquired him in the Intra League draft of 1960. By 1962 he found himself in Ted Lindsay's old spot, playing left wing on the top line with the legendary Alex Delvecchio and Gordie Howe! MacDonald turned in his best year ever, scoring 33 goals and 61 points. He followed that up with two more solid seasons, scoring 46 points in each of those campaigns.

At the end of the 1965 season Parker was involved in a blockbuster deal that saw him go to Boston. Albert Langlois, Ron Harris and Bob Dillabough accompanied him while Ab McDonald, Bob McCord and Ken Stephenson headed to the Motor City. However Parker's stay in Beantown was short lived. He played in 29 games with the Bruins before he was traded back to Detroit in exchange for Pit Martin. The move came on December 30 1965 - a nice way to ring in the new year for MacDonald.

Parker spent the rest of that season and the next toiling in obscurity with the Wings. In 1967 the NHL doubled in size thanks to expansion, and Parker was picked up by the new Minnesota North Stars. Expansion lengthened MacDonald's career by two years

By the conclusion of MacDonald's second year in Minny (1969), he had decided it was time to hang up the skates. The 39 year old accepted a minor league coaching position with Minnesota's CHL farm team in Iowa. It was the start of a second career in hockey for Parker, as he would go on to coach both Minnesota and Los Angeles, although without much success.

After being fired by the Kings, MacDonald stayed in Los Angeles to manage a soccer team. Wanting to get back into hockey, he moved back to the east coast, specifically New Haven. He set up some hockey schools as well as helped a friend in the construction business, but spent most of his time fishing.

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Glen Skov

Glen Skov played 10 seasons in the NHL with Detroit, Chicago and briefly with Montreal. Along with Marty Pavelich and Tony Leswick, he led a terrific trio that specialized in checking opposing scorers and contributed greatly to the rise of the Detroit Red Wings dynasty in the early 1950s. While his line was in charge of smothering the likes of Rocket Richard and Jean Beliveau, they did chip in with some timely goals. Their yeoman work allowed Skov to share in three Stanley Cups.

Skov was later traded to Chicago as part of the NHL effort to save the crumbling Black Hawks organization. The NHL at that time should have stood for Norris Hockey League, as the Norris family had their hands deeply in the pockets of 3 of the 6 teams. Skov was sent to bolster a sad sack team.

"I think what we did eventually was instill a good attitude. Let's not be a last place team. Let's make ourselves contenders and work up the ladder."

Eventually the Hawks did become respectable again.

Skov's last professional season was spent as a playing coach with the Hull-Ottawa farm team of the Montreal Canadiens.

"I did not want to be a playing coach. We were very successful. We won the championship. I just felt it would be better to be behind the bench. They did want me there but we could never come to an agreement on a contract."

That was too bad for Skov, as the Canadiens thought very highly of his coaching prospects.

"I always heard that I was prominently being considered as a possible successor to Toe Blake."

Despite the great interest in his coaching services, Skov opted for the security of his "day job." He works for PMS, a plastics manufacturing firm. He headed a division out of Chicago and worked closely with another former Blackhawk in Stan Mikita.

Skov and Mikita also share a special interest in running a hockey school for deaf children.

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Gary Aldcorn

Born in Shaunovan, Saskatchewan, Gary Aldcorn was like most of the other prairie boys. Skating for hours at a time while chasing hockey pucks on the frozen ponds of endless prairie was the norm, as was dreaming of playing for the big leagues.

But the brainy left winger was not like most of the other prairie boys - he was better. He was one of the few lucky ones who was able to achieve the Great Canadian Dream.

Aldcorn had to leave home for Winnipeg where he played with the junior league Monarchs from 1951 to 1954. He was a pretty good player in that league, although not a star. Perhaps his biggest break came in 1954-55 when he switched junior teams and leagues and played for the OHA's Toronto Marlboros. Aldcorn was a standout on that 1955 Marlies team which captured junior hockey supremacy by winning the Memorial Cup

Aldcorn's success of course caught the eye of the NHL, particularly the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs acquired his rights in 1956, and, after a year back in Winnipeg, Aldcorn returned to Toronto for parts of three seasons with the Leafs. While he spent as much time in the minor leagues as he did in the NHL from 1956 through 1959, he did manage to score 15 goals, 18 assists and 33 points in 86 games in the blue and white jerseys.

Aldcorn's best year in the NHL came the year after he left Toronto for Detroit. Aldcorn found himself often playing on the left wing with Gordie Howe. Aldcorn blossomed into a 22 goal scorer with 51 points in a full 70 games played.

"It was a big experience - a big thrill! I found that I could think with Gordie. I wasn't the greatest skater in the world, but on a hockey comprehension level, I was almost with him."

Despite their one season success together, Aldcorn and Howe were broken up in 1960-61, and Aldcorn's numbers plummeted. By mid season he was traded in a large trade with Boston. Aldcorn quietly rounded out the schedule with Boston before he decide to return home to Winnipeg.

Aldcorn was more than just brainy on the ice, he was super intelligent off the ice too. He was one of the rare players of his era to take part time university courses during his hockey career. By the time his education was done, he had a Master's degree in virology which led him to starting up his own biological company. Starting the company allowed Gary to realize he was an entrepreneur at heart, so he returned to school to get a Masters of Business Administration.

While his education pursuits were of great interest to him, hockey always remained close to his heart. He played in Winnipeg while studying, and briefly played with and later coached the Canadian national team. He helped to create a national coaches certificate program that gave youth and amateur coaches better opportunities and guidance.

Aldcorn's entrepreneurial spirit and love of hockey collided by the late 1970s when he founded the national sports magazine Hockey Player. He later targeted hockey equipment. He helped to revolutionize hockey equipment by creating Flak Equipment, which was later bought out by hockey giant Bauer.

Nowadays Aldcorn is mostly retired, and has found a love for sculpting,

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Warren Godfrey

Life after hockey can be tough for hockey players of every generation, but especially those average players back in the days of the Original Six. They weren't paid very well, and suddenly in their 30s they found themselves looking for work most often with no education or no trade.

Take Warren Godfrey, for example. He was hard hitting defenseman most notably with the Wings and Bruins in the 1950s and 1960s. He hit so hard they called him "The Rock" or "Rocky" for short. He played in 786 NHL contests, scoring 32 goals and 125 points.

He retired in 1969 after a season in the minor leagues, but he needed to find a job because he needed the money.

One of the jobs he took was as a cement truck driver, even though he had no experience. Author Frank Pagnucco tells us of his steep learning curve.

"Because Rocky Godfrey is the likeable sort that he is, the other drivers took him under their collective wing and taught the ex Red Wing the basics to prepare him for his first solo run. The day arrived and he successfully maneuvered the big truck out of the parking lot, past the cheering fellow drivers urging him on. He wheeled out onto the highway on what seemed to be a flawless maiden voyage. The wail of a police siren brought the run to an unexpected conclusion. Godfrey, it seems, had forgotten to press a certain control, and had motored down the road leaving a liberal wake of wet cement."

Godfrey was not fired over the incident, but he also opted to move on. More often than not he found himself in the restaurant business, operating eateries in Florida, then North Carolina and then Georgia.

Godfrey may have struggled outside of hockey, but the restaurant business was likely a lot less painful than hockey. In his career Godfrey listed his injuries to include "200 stitches in the face, a broken jaw, a broken nose, dislocated shoulders, damaged elbows, cracked ribs, broken fingers, five knee operations, broken toes and 12 missing teeth.

Godfrey, who came to Detroit from Boston as part of the big trade for Terry Sawchuk, was a main stay in the NHL from 1952 through 1963. He continued on until 1969 ("when my knees wouldn't let me play anymore") often shuttling between Detroit and the minor leagues.

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Bill McNeil

This handsome man is Billy McNeill. The image is courtesy of the 1959-60 Topps hockey card set.

Edmonton, Alberta's Bill McNeil played in 257 NHL games back in the days of the Original Six, all with the Detroit Red Wings. There is no doubting his proudest moment in the NHL - the night he set up Gordie Howe for his record breaking 545th career NHL goal.

"It was at Olympia Stadium on Nov. 30, 1963. Gordie and I were killing a penalty when I fed Gordie a pass inside the Canadiens' blueline. He fired a 30-footer that beat Charlie Hodge to overtake Rocket Richard's all-time career goal-scoring record. The Detroit fans went wild. I still get chills thinking about the ovation."

McNeill must have been playing center that night, which was a rarity for him in the NHL. Although he was a natural centerman with an impressive junior and minor league resume, the Wings used McNeill mostly on right wing, much to McNeill's dismay.

"The right wing wasn't where I was supposed to play," he told author Frank Pagnucco. "It's where (coach) Jack Adams wanted me to play. It was one of my misfortunes there that I didn't play center ice in the National Hockey League. One of my big arguments, of course, with Adams was that he had four right wingers. With Gordie Howe being there playing 45 minutes a game (not unusal back then), it didn't leave much ice time for the rest of us."

As a result, McNeill, who used an incredibly short hockey stick, was constantly shuttled between Detroit and the minor leagues.

"You'd get hotter than a firecracker and come back up again. Maybe in my particular case I was with the wrong team at the wrong time. Center ice was the logical spot for a river skater from Alberta. But we had no choice."

On February 5, 1960, McNeill was to be traded to the New York Rangers with Red Kelly for Bill Gadsby and Eddie Shack, but Kelly and McNeill refused to report and the transaction was cancelled. As a result Kelly temporarily retired and McNeill was suspended for the rest of the season. New York then picked him up in an intra-league draft in June of that year, only to trade him back to Detroit in January 1961, who in turn assigned him back to the Flyers in Edmonton.

In 1964 McNeill was once again demoted by the Wings, but this time he was never to return. He continued playing until 1971, most notably with the WHL Vancouver Canucks. Twice he would be named as the WHL's MVP while with the Canucks in the 1960s.

It was in Vancouver that McNeill took up permanent residence. After retiring from hockey he pursued a business interest in a Vancouver hotel. He later became a sales rep for Carling-O'Keefe Breweries for many years.

Billy McNeill succumbed to a 4 year battle with cancer on August 31st, 2007.

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Dutch Reibel

#14 in white in the photo above is Detroit Red Wings center Earl "Dutch" Reibel. The image is of 1954-55 Parkhurst Hockey card #97. Beckett hockey card price guides list this card, if in near mint condition, at around $100.

Dutch Reibel was born on July 21st, 1930 in Kitchener, Ontario. He was a scoring star all through youth hockey. The Red Wings were quick to add him to their protected lists. In the season of 1949-50 Reibel was added to the Wings OHA junior team the Windsor Spitfires where he put together one of junior hockey's most amazing seasons. In just 48 games he scored 53 goals, 76 assists and 129 points!

He would spend the next three seasons apprenticing in the minor leagues, playing in Omaha, Indianapolis and Edmonton. He would finally join the Wings for the 1953-54 season.

What a debut impression Reibel made. He assisted on all four Red Wings goals as Detroit knocked off the New York Rangers by a score of 4-1. That mark still stands as a NHL record for most assists by a player in his first NHL game (equalled by Roland Erksson of Minnesota in 1976).

The playmaking centerman found a home on a line with none other than Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay.

"They were two of the greatest players. You couldn't beat them, not only as players but as gentlemen, too."

The now long forgotten Reibel was pretty good in his own right. He helped the Wings win Stanley Cups in 1954 and 1955. He was the winner of the 1956 Lady Byng trophy. He finished in the NHL's top ten in scoring in his first three seasons. And in 1954-55 he was the only player between 1950 and 1964 to lead the Red Wings in scoring not named Gordie Howe.

In 1957 Reibel was part of an eight player mega-trade that sent him to Chicago. The move devastated Reibel, who had bled Wings' red for all his hockey career. He had a tough time moving on, feeling betrayed by the team he was so loyal to.

He finished the season in Chicago and played the next in Boston, but his game was lost.

"Once I left Detroit, things just went downhill," he told author Frank Pagnucco. "It just wasn't the same. I enjoyed Detroit . . . you play with an organization for so long."

Reibel finished his career with two seasons with the AHL Providence Reds, hanging up the blades for good in the summer. He returned to Kitchener and worked for Brewer's Retail.

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