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Who invented tabletop hockey?

In 1932 Torontonian Don Munro built a model for a tabletop hockey game in his basement using scrap metal and carving hockey figures out of wood. Shortly after, he sold the concept to Eaton’s Department Store in Toronto, and the new game was a huge hit. Munro’s largely wooden game was replaced in the mid-1950s by the Eagle Toy Company’s version, which boasted painted tin figures and metal rods that allowed players to whip their hockey pieces around 360 degrees.

Top Five Hockey Songs

• “Fifty Mission Cap” by The Tragically Hip

• “Hockey” by Jane Siberry

• “The Hockey Song” by Stompin’ Tom Connors

• “Hit Somebody” by Warren Zevon

• “Gordie and My Old Man” by Grievous Angels

What NHL team staged a contest between live bears and its players?

It’s hard to believe, but in December 1998 the once-mighty Edmonton Oilers in a bid to boost fading fan interest actually had three of their Russian players — Mikhail Shta-lenkov, Andrei Kovalenko, and Boris Mironov — hit the ice against a trio of bears borrowed from a Russian circus. The much-diminished Oilers, as represented by the aforementioned Russians, were at least able to drub the bears, which were pretty hapless on skates and in helmets.