The long drought begins after today's exhilarating game. Toronto Maple Leaf "Bashing Bill Barilko" is lifted onto his teammates shoulders after he scores the winning goal for the Stanley Cup. The 24-year-old defenceman has become the Leafs' golden boy – winning four Stanley Cups in the four and a half years he's played in the NHL. But this is Barilko's last game before he mysteriously disappears on a fishing trip, initiating what some believed was a curse on the team.

Don Cherry's career has always been full of bumps: A few years before NHL coaching, he found it difficult landing even a construction job, and had to work as a painter for $2 an hour. Cherry does much better on TV than he ever did as an NHL coach. After failed attempts at head coaching, he heads up Coach's Corner on Hockey Night in Canada, as well as hosting his own TV show Grapevine. The outspoken Cherry attributes the bumps — and the successes — to his frankness.

It's opening night in the National Hockey League… more than three months late. An extended lockout — the longest disruption in league history — had raised the spectre of losing the 1994-95 hockey season. With a new collective agreement in hand, NHL players are back on the ice tonight, and fans are back in the seats (and at the concession stands). The return of hockey, albeit for an abbreviated season, has executives and players excited. As we see in this clip, some fans aren't so sure.

The Eagle is soaring a little lower today. Suspicions about Alan Eagleson continue to swell, now fuelled by news of an investigation by the FBI. Seeing the writing on the wall, Eagleson hands over control of the NHL Players' Association to Bob Goodenow (though Eagleson will continue to earn $100,000 yearly as a consultant). As we see in this clip, Eagleson is all smiles — until he's approached by CBC reporter Bruce Dowbiggin.

1995 is a very bad year for small-market hockey in Canada. In Quebec City, last-ditch efforts by the province to bail out the Nordiques end in failure, and fans are resigned to seeing the team sold to Denver. In Winnipeg, the situation is the same, but the response couldn't be more different. There are massive demonstrations and songs about the Jets; media moguls pledge millions and strippers donate their tips. A tale of two cities and their desperate hockey hopes.

When Toronto Maple Leafs captain Darryl Sittler went to work on Feb. 7, 1976, he didn't plan on making history. But with an amazing seven points as the second period ended, Sittler was one point shy of tying the NHL record. He magically slid the puck into the net three more times, scoring Sittler a record that even Gretzky couldn't break. As Maple Leaf Gardens shuts down in 1999, Sittler looks back at his incredible 10-point game.

He's being called "The Next Great One"; heir apparent to the hockey legacies of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. But Eric Lindros won't be the next player for the Quebec Nordiques. The 18-year-old superstar has been selected first overall by the team in the 1991 NHL entry draft. Smelling better opportunities outside Quebec, Lindros refuses to join the Nordiques, opting to stay with his junior hockey team, the Oshawa Generals. As we see in this clip, Quebecers are furious at the snub.

"Hello hockey fans!" begin Foster Hewitt's famous hockey broadcasts. His enthusiastic and dramatic play-by-play calls carry listeners through the early 1920's, the Depression, the Second World War, and into the television era. A broadcasting trailblazer, Hewitt coins the enduring phrase "he shoots, he scores!" which becomes a Canadian rally cry of sorts. In this CBC Radio Morningside interview, Hewitt discusses his broadcasting style, his love of the game, and his dynamic career.

He's been called a bully, a tyrant, a mogul, and now... a criminal. Harold Ballard, the irascible president of Maple Leaf Gardens, has just been found guilty of 48 out of 50 charges of theft and fraud. A judge says Ballard showed "a clear pattern of fraud" involving the misuse of $205,000 – including $82,000 of Gardens money used to remodel his home. The 69-year-old now faces up to 20 years in prison.

People took the day off work on Sept. 28, 1972, to watch Canada play the Soviet Union. The hockey game takes place in Moscow so most Canadians catch it on television. Some watch at local pubs. Children listen with squeals in school gymnasiums. Foster Hewitt's play-by-play echoes from a ballet studio's TV set as girls practice at the bar. The Summit Series is in the eighth game and we're down to the wire.