Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great week, and are enjoying the weekend. It has been a very busy couple of weeks, which would explain my erratic updates, but now that our summer holidays are over, the kids are back in school, our wedding anniversary has been celebrated, my new manuscript has been submitted, and the Eastern Ontario Writers’ Festival has passed, I should have more time to dedicate to this site.

I’m enjoying the time off after a busy lead up to last weekend’s EOWF. It was a nice opportunity to rub shoulders with other writers, make a few new connections, and spread the word about my books. I really need to find a way to do more of these types of events, since it’s always enjoyable to meet with readers and talk hockey for a few minutes, but for some reason it’s hard finding them in my area.

You would think that having an entire table to myself would be more than enough, but I actually didn’t have enough room to display all of my props, and I had to pick and choose what visuals would be the most attractive.

Now that I’m back to business, I’m taking us back to the very early days of the Seals’ NHL life. As many of you know, during those early days the Seals pinned their hopes on goaltender Charlie Hodge, arguably the best player the Seals picked up in the June expansion draft. He was a former Vezina Trophy winner, and a multiple Stanley Cup winner as well, so he had the credentials, but never received the proper due since he was always sharing the crease with Hall of Famers like Gump Worsley, Rogie Vachon, and Jacques Plante. God knows, Hodge didn’t have it easy in Oakland. The team didn’t have much of an offense, averaging about two goals a game, so if the Seals stood any chance of winning, Hodge had to stand on his head. His .905 save percentage, 2.87 goals against average, and three shutouts are a testament to his brilliance that year. This week’s new article is about the Seals’ first number-one goaltender and the Seals’ early days, and you can read it here. Thanks to Bob Marceau for sending me this week’s article, and so many others which I’ll be posting from time to time.

Until next time, stay gold!