12 Days of Christmas - Hockey History Style

December 13th! There's 12 days until Christmas! And I'm in a caroling mood! Sing with me....

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me....

Twelve Hockey Books
Eleven Don Cherry's Piping
Ten Mike Foligno's Leaping
Nine J.R.'s Dancing
Eight Hib's A-Milking
Seven Gretzky Assists
Six Sutter Brothers (also click here, here and here)
FIVE OLYMPIC RINGS
Four Bobby Orrs
Three French Men
Two Missing Teeth
and Johnny Bower's Honky The Christmas Goose CD

Okay, so I've taken the original meanings behind the 12 days of Christmas a bit out of context (by the way, did you know it would cost you over $96,000 if you went out and actually bought all the original items?).

I've changed the classic Christmas carol and reworked it to better fit a hockey history fan's tastes. By the way, this rewritten version would cost a heck of a lot more that $96G!

Here's more of an explanation.

Twelve Hockey Books - Hey you've only got a few shopping days left. You better hit up Hockey Book Reviews.com and order up some titles while Amazon is still guaranteeing delivery by the the 24th.

Eleven Don Cherry's Piping - I bet you didn't know the star of Coach's Corner knows how to play the bag pipes. By the way, Glenn Healy also blows. Pun fully intended. He actually suffered a deep hand laceration while playing the pipes. I thought goalies only got injured while between the pipes?

Ten Mike Foligno's Leaping - Ah, the victorious jump into the air after each of Mike Foligno's 355 NHL goals.

Nine J.R.'s Dancing - How can we forget Jeremy Roenick providing a little on-ice entertainment?

Eight Hib's A-Milking - My colleague James Milks is the descendant of Hib Milks, a NHL star in the 1920s. James has long worked on his website, LostHockey.com, where he dedicates much of his time to hockey from those early days.

Seven Gretzky Assists - On three separate occasions Wayne Gretzky scored 7 assists in a single game. Santa Claus could use that kind of helping hand!

Six Sutter Brothers - Six brothers all making it to the National Hockey League. That is still somehow unbelievable! Brian. Daryl. Duane. Brent. Rich. Ron. Sons Brandon and Brett are now also part of NHL lore.

FIVE OLYMPIC RINGS - Some of hockey's greatest moments came at the Olympics. There was the good ol' days when the Soviets dominated with the likes of Vladislav Tretiak, Alexander Ragulin, Boris Mikhailov, Igor Larionov and Viacheslav Fetisov. Of course, there are the more modern times where the NHL closes down and takes over the Olympics. In 1998 it was Robert Reichel captaining the Czech Republic to the gold. In 2002 Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and co brought the gold back to Canada. And of course in 2006 it was Sweden's turn.

Four Bobby Orrs - Number Four, Bobby Orr needs no introduction. Four Orrs, my grandpa at center and my grandma in nets and I'll beat any 6 players you can ice, any where, any time.

Three French Men - Buffalo's French Connection Line. Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin and Rene Robert.

Two Missing Teeth - Bobby Clarke's toothless grin will stand the test of time

and Johnny Bower's Honky The Christmas Goose CD

Not everyone knows it, but Johnny Bower fancied himself as quite the singer. In his most famous recording, Johnny teamed up with his own son John and some other children, known as the Rinky Dinks, to release Honky The Christmas Goose (click on link to listen to the entire song). They also sang "Banjo the mule," but to no great success. Honky actually made it to #29 on the Canadian music charts in 1965.