The Growth of Hockey in Massachusetts

[Staniowski]

Regarding rinks, early 60's when I was in 2-6th grade, there weren't lots of rinks outside of the larger cities when Orr came in 1966-67.

The impact within 5 years can be illustrated by the Regional HS League my HS played in, one of the 3 best in Mass.

When Orr arrived, only town had an indoor rink was Melrose and Belmont had an outdoor rink at Belmont Hill. When I graduated HS in '73, Belmont, Watertown. Woburn, Burlington, Stoneham built indoor rinks or had plans to build and did. So The Middlesex League went from 1 indoor rink to 6. That was the Orr impact
illustrated in one Regional League.

Other than Watertown, all the other towns listed produced multiple NHL players
or draft picks. Melrose (Paul Hurley. Andy Brickley, Conor Sheary), Belmont (Bob McManama, Paul Mara, Patrick Rismiller), Burlington (Mark Fusco, Bobby Jay, Tom Barrasso, Jay Pandolfo) Stoneham (Frank Simonetti, Sam Colangelo), Woburn (John Carter)

The Orr boom created an era where Massachusetts was the top hockey state in the US, better than Minnesota and Michigan.

Thanks @KillerMillerTime....it's a very interesting topic. I'll follow-up when i get a chance....

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[sr edler]

I would say Massachusetts was the leading US state in hockey in the 1910s, in terms of producing their own talent. Pennsylvania (mostly Pittsburgh) had a lot of good teams around this time, but most (or pretty much all) good players were some sort of Canadian imports. Harvard had a really solid program under Ralph Winsor.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

I would say Massachusetts was the leading US state in hockey in the 1910s, in terms of producing their own talent. Pennsylvania (mostly Pittsburgh) had a lot of good teams around this time, but most (or pretty much all) good players were some sort of Canadian imports. Harvard had a really solid program under Ralph Winsor.

When I refer to Massachusetts being the top state, I am referring to local talent produced. It was easily better than Minnesota for players born 1963-1970 and as
good players produced 1955-58. Edge to Minnesota for players born 1959-1962.
The 1955-1970 group was the Orr boom. Massachusetts held a pretty significant edge over Minnesota 1955-1959 and it wasn't until the Lafontaine, Iafrate and Carson group Michigan were about as good.