Remember Hockey Digest?

[Al Bundy*]

Anyone remember the bimonthly 'Hockey Digest' magazine that ran from 1972 all the way up to 2004?

Before the lockout, this was one of the biggest sources for hockey for me.

Any of you remember this magazine: fan letters, an interview, and their "Game I'll Never Forget" segment?

Also, why did it go out of business?

That magazine could have made a killing with Crosby and Ovechkin had they not gone away!

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

I remember that mag. It was never that good. It had some interesting features, but overall it was geared more towards americans and seemed somewhat simplistic in many ways.

Also, THN sucks now. I had every single issue from 1996 until 2002 and bought them sparsely from then until about 04. These days I barely even bother. Anyone else feel like the quality of it dropped exponentially right around the time that they went for the magazine look/feel instead of their old newspaper look/feel? Even hockey pool forecasters have been getting lamer lately. Why is all hockey literature getting worse? I ask you, why?
/rant.

 

[NLfan]

Yes I remember. Sometimes I bought a copy in the American Bookshop in Amsterdam. Not that bad, nice intervieuws. And of course "The game I'll never forget".

 

[tony d]

I always liked reading "The Hockey Digest", it was always insightful.

 

[rmchahn]

I remember that mag. It was never that good. It had some interesting features, but overall it was geared more towards americans and seemed somewhat simplistic in many ways.

Also, THN sucks now. I had every single issue from 1996 until 2002 and bought them sparsely from then until about 04. These days I barely even bother. Anyone else feel like the quality of it dropped exponentially right around the time that they went for the magazine look/feel instead of their old newspaper look/feel? Even hockey pool forecasters have been getting lamer lately. Why is all hockey literature getting worse? I ask you, why?
/rant.

I'm not sure whether they're getting worse as opposed to the fact that with internet, we have much more selection. I mean, even Yahoo has hockey writers (not that they're in the top 10 or the like). In the old days, if I wanted to read a column from another city, I had to go to the public library and of course, these were few days old. Now everything's available at the click of a mouse instantaneously. It's hard for hard copy magazines to compete with the internet, especially when some of the news articles are old news by the time they get published.

 

[bluenote]

I used to love this magazine! As a kid, I always bought Hockey Digest and Hockey Illustrated, remember that one? I'd always cut out the photos and put them on my wall.

 

[Sens Rule]

I'm not sure whether they're getting worse as opposed to the fact that with internet, we have much more selection. I mean, even Yahoo has hockey writers (not that they're in the top 10 or the like). In the old days, if I wanted to read a column from another city, I had to go to the public library and of course, these were few days old. Now everything's available at the click of a mouse instantaneously. It's hard for hard copy magazines to compete with the internet, especially when some of the news articles are old news by the time they get published.

Plus the mag was stat friendly... tons of cool unique stats (for the time anyway).. with the internet those are available up to date immediately... the mag just did it's time.

 

[Frank Drebin]

I used to love when they compared players...

I think they did Roy vs. Vernon

I can't remember what other ones they did.

 

[Sens Rule]

I used to love when they compared players...

I think they did Roy vs. Vernon

I can't remember what other ones they did.

I remember one Hawerchuk vs Kurri... and they took into consideration defence... likely around 1987-89... It was the cover story.

 

[seventieslord]

I still have a few old issues of Hockey Digest. Not a great magazine, really, when you're raised on THN. It did have some good features, by far the best of which was the player comparison. I remember Al MacInnis vs. Phil Housley, and Martin Brodeur vs. Felix Potvin.

Yes, the right player won each matchup.

 

[Hasbro]

Hockey Stars is the one I mourn. all the great theme issues.

 

[blamebettman*]

There was a book published not too long ago, a compilation of all the "The game I'll never forget" that appeared in hockey digest.

 

[Wings4Life]

I thought they were a great magazine, never afraid to express their views.

I remember this particular year-end issue had their Swedish fans up in arms.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCM/is_8_31/ai_102103251

 

[Al Bundy*]

I remember this particular year-end issue had their Swedish fans up in arms.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCM/is_8_31/ai_102103251

I would have picked Marty Turco.

 

[Heat McManus]

I'm not sure whether they're getting worse as opposed to the fact that with internet, we have much more selection. I mean, even Yahoo has hockey writers (not that they're in the top 10 or the like). In the old days, if I wanted to read a column from another city, I had to go to the public library and of course, these were few days old. Now everything's available at the click of a mouse instantaneously. It's hard for hard copy magazines to compete with the internet, especially when some of the news articles are old news by the time they get published.

I think it's a combination of an greater access to information making it harder to deliver "news" as well as The Hockey News legitimately going downhill.

The Hockey News seems to be a vehicle for the egos of Ken Campbell and Mike Brophy. While I find some of their articles interesting and well written, I highly doubt many readers are as caught up in the Campbell/Brophy wars as they'd like us to believe.

I subscribed to Hockey Digest for a few years and my library had it till it went tats up. It was a decent mag. Really it was the only alternative to THN. Now THN is the only mag in print and the changes they've brought have been largely cosmetic or statistical. I'm not impressed by a list of players with the best shooting percentage in the last 10 seconds of a penalty kill.

 

[Guest]

I remember seeing Hockey Digest laying around a lot, whether it was the library, by the mailbox, or what have you. I'd pick it up as I was just becoming a hockey fan, but I felt like the content at that time was so weak that it didn't offer anything of value. Mind you I didn't read every publication for a year or anything to formulate any sort of informed opinion.

Paper-based publications went down hill with the advent of the internet if you ask me. I use to be in a fantasy hockey league with one of the head ad sales guys for THN, and he said their readership had tanked (late 90's) and they were struggling to stay with the times. I really liked the coverage they had in the 90's, but by the time the net got in full swing, I knew about all of the details long before THN would come around to report on it. I haven't touched that paper in nearly 8 years now.

 

[golfortennis]

I think it's a combination of an greater access to information making it harder to deliver "news" as well as The Hockey News legitimately going downhill.

The Hockey News seems to be a vehicle for the egos of Ken Campbell and Mike Brophy. While I find some of their articles interesting and well written, I highly doubt many readers are as caught up in the Campbell/Brophy wars as they'd like us to believe.

I subscribed to Hockey Digest for a few years and my library had it till it went tats up. It was a decent mag. Really it was the only alternative to THN. Now THN is the only mag in print and the changes they've brought have been largely cosmetic or statistical. I'm not impressed by a list of players with the best shooting percentage in the last 10 seconds of a penalty kill.

I used to read Hockey Digest from time to time, as much because I enjoyed Baseball Digest so much and figured Hockey Digest was good. Enjoyed a couple of issues.

THN has lost it for me. Bought one a little while ago, and they let Mark Moore write a guest column that basically said "everything would be fixed if they only did what my book said." That lost it for me right there.

 

[HumanMachinery]

I agree that the player comparisons and "Game I'll Never Forget" features were typically worth reading. I remember they had Doug Wickenheiser write about his overtime winner against Calgary, not long before he died.

They did have some other occasional articles which stuck out at me. Some were "The best defensive forwards in the NHL today and of all time," "The best and worst entry drafts ever," and "Is it time for the return of the adjusted plus/minus?" The hockey news also wrote about the controversy of icing touch-up versus no-touch icing, and the need to reinstate the offsides tag-up rule. At their best, the magazine could be an excellent examination of the game's history and helped explain some of the ways that its rules and politics shaped what we saw.

At its worst, the Hockey News was a sterile obsession with number crunching, full of drooling Glenn Sather fanboys who yearned for a return to the go-go offenses of the mid 1980s, and called defensemen like Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger "disappointments."

 

[JaymzB]

I used to love when they compared players...

I think they did Roy vs. Vernon

I can't remember what other ones they did.

I remember they did Roy vs. Hextall once. I think they decided that since Hextall was more of an angle goalie than Roy (who was more reflexes), Hextall would have the longer and better career...

 

[bruins309]

I used to love when they compared players...

I think they did Roy vs. Vernon

I can't remember what other ones they did.

I was cleaning out the garage a few months back and found a lot of my old HDs from the late 80s, early 90s. I know one that I saw was one with Bill Ranford vs Andy Moog....two of my all-time favorites and guys who were traded for each other.

I also loved the season preview with the picks for the divisions and the Cups from writers all over North America. Fran Rosa of the Boston Globe would ALWAYS pick the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup...ha

 

[Stephen]

I used to love when they compared players...

I think they did Roy vs. Vernon

I can't remember what other ones they did.

I loved that feature!

I think they did Felix Potvin vs Martin Brodeur, Doug Gilmour vs Joe Sakic, Selanne vs Bure, Richter and Vanbiesbrouck and some other great mid 90s matchups.

If anyone lives in Toronto, Legends of the Game has a bunch of old Hockey Digests for sale for a couple of bucks.

 

[Stephen]

I remember that mag. It was never that good. It had some interesting features, but overall it was geared more towards americans and seemed somewhat simplistic in many ways.

Also, THN sucks now. I had every single issue from 1996 until 2002 and bought them sparsely from then until about 04. These days I barely even bother. Anyone else feel like the quality of it dropped exponentially right around the time that they went for the magazine look/feel instead of their old newspaper look/feel? Even hockey pool forecasters have been getting lamer lately. Why is all hockey literature getting worse? I ask you, why?
/rant.

I totally agree.

Hockey Digest was cool to read in the library in elementary school, but it had that Stan Fischler Patrick Division bias it seems, always covering the NYC area and Pittsburgh and Philly teams.

All hockey magazines suck now. Back in the old days, the fantasy magazines would have in depth biographies for every player, even prospects. I still have a bunch around from the mid 90s. Now you're lucky to get three sentences on a player and there are no more good featured articles.

 

[MS]

It was a cool magazine and I loved it when I was a kid.

The internet basically killed publications like this, and largely rendered THN obselete even though it keeps kicking. Before 1995 or so, there was just no way to get any sort of statistics or relatively-current in-depth hockey writing without subscribing. When you can all of a sudden get up-to-date stats for every league in the world and all kinds of free articles on the day they were written instead of a couple weeks later, these things just become totally obselete.

 

[vivianmb]

I used to love this magazine! As a kid, I always bought Hockey Digest and Hockey Illustrated, remember that one? I'd always cut out the photos and put them on my wall.

hockey illustrated. ... i STILL have a foldout poster from hockey ill. (from circa 1984 )of denis savard in my basement bar. on the reverse is dale hawerchuk.i flip it over every once in a while.

 

[JFA87-66-99]

I always liked how they had the "VS" part. And would breakdown the 2 players to see who was better. I was a subscriber up until they canceled it. I still read some of the old mags to this day. I also liked the feature they had during the lockout I think it was on the greatest teams of all-time