Hockey history came alive in Cookstown this weekend when Tanger Outlets hosted a free Hockey Hall of Fame exhibit. It was an opportunity to experience a small but engaging sampling of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s vast holdings.
The Hockey Hall of Fame, founded in 1943 and located in Toronto since 1958, is home to the finest hockey artifacts in the world. Taking its collection on the road, Hockey Hall of Fame staff transformed an empty mall storefront into a pop-up museum.
Numerous relics dating back to the game’s origins were displayed. In one exhibit case there was an aged and heavily worn 1915 jersey of the Seattle Metropolitans, the precursor of the modern-day Seattle Kraken NHL team. Playing from the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the Metropolitans won the 1917 Stanley Cup, the first US-based team to do so, beating the Montreal Canadiens in three games by a combined score of 23-11.
Other exhibits carried the game into the Original Six era (Phil Esposito boat wax, in an early example of endorsement, and silver ice bucket gifted to Canadiens defenceman Tom Johnson after the 1961-62 season), through the expansion era and to the end of the century, all the way up to the present day. Catching my attention was the LA Kings jersey worn by Wayne Gretzky to pass Gordie Howe as the all-time NHL scoring leader.
The contributions of minority players who broke barriers and opened new pathways were also recognized. There was, for example, a stick used by First Nations player Jonathan Cheechoo, a one-time 50 goal scorer with the San Jose Sharks.
Hockey is more than a sport. It represents a shared experience. The exhibits served as a conduit to remembering, and waxing nostalgic, about games we’ve watched, often times many decades in the past. The jersey worn by the late Borje Salming during his final season with the Toronto Maple Leafs (1988-89) had my father and I recollecting about the blend of skill and courage that made him so great.
A jersey worn by a Maple Leafs great of another era, Dave Keon, in his final NHL season as a member of the Hartford Whalers (1981-82), brought a wide grin to my 78-year-old father’s face.
“He was a fantastic player in his prime,” my dad said of Keon. “You should have seen him in the Leafs’ Stanley Cup years of the ‘60s.”
Looking toward the present rather than the past, the pop-up museum had a number of interactive games intended to engage children. Youngsters could strap on goalie equipment and attempt to stop soft pucks fired by a machine, have the speed of their slapshot measured, or practice the accuracy of their shot. For some little ones, this may have represented the first time they had ever held a hockey stick.
Young and old also had the opportunity to have a picture taken while posing in front of four of the NHL's most prestigious awards, the Art Ross, Vezina, Conn Smythe and Ted Lindsay trophies.
More information on the Hockey Hall of Fame can be found here.
For more information on upcoming events at Tanger Outlets Cookstown visit the mall's website.
