We throw back to 1947 when the NHL played their first All-Star Game. Back then it was the defending league champion Maple Leafs against a squad of All-Stars where dust-ups, hard hits and physical play was the norm.
Among the clichés of heroes overcoming impossible odds or hockey really just being about the fights are three excellent cartoons that are required viewing for hockey fans, young and old.
Before the Internet, celebrities used vanity cartoons to brand themselves to children. Which is probably how Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, and Wayne Gretzky ended up fighting really weird crimes in an animated show called "ProStars."
The Tradition ContinuesIt was September of 1952 and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was about to launch the first television stations in Canada. In anticipation of this, Imperial Oil, sponsor of Hockey Night in Canada on radio, had been engaged in talks with the CBC to begin televising hockey for the 1952-53 NHL season.