Once again, we at Hockeenight have the distinct pleasure and honor of featuring the one and only Slats Radke as a contributor. As you may recall, Slats covered professional hockey for the Chicago American throughout the 1960s and early 70s. He has agreed to offer his unique insight upon occasion. So, with no further ado, Slats Radke:

This week the All-Stars were announced for the game in Montreal. The Blackhawks have three of their boys going to this game, which ought to be a real pier six donnybrook, let me tell you.

All three of the Hawks going are going as starters. The lanky kid with the red hair who they paid millions for to get him to come here this summer and play defense and run the power play and wears the same number as old Dick Butkus. The little fellow who was the best rookie in the league last year and has the curly hair that reminds me a little of Harpo Marx, and should stop letting that mouthpiece of his hang out and just ask the equipment boy to get him some chewing gum will be there also. He's another one with the high number, which is more of a wide receiver number than anything a winger would wear.

Now when they get to the All-Star game, at least these two will be able to wear their own numbers, since numbers that crazy don't get worn by a great many players, and the ones who do wear them usually aren't All-Stars. The other lanky kid who was the league's second-best rookie last year and is a fine player who is captain of the team besides, he wears the number nineteen, which is worn by pretty much a fellow on every team, and a lot of them are fine players too.

Now back in my day, then the Golden Jet would go to the game, he couldn't wear his number nine, which was fine since Howe was wearing it and he had seniority in the league and if they ever decided to duke it out over who got it, old Slats never knew about it, and I would have, since both of those fellows know how to use their fists. So the Jet would wear seven, which was fine since he wore that for a little while as a Hawk between wearing sixteen, which his son wore later with a few teams, and nine, which he couldn't wear at the All-Star game because that was Howe's number, and Howe had seniority in the league and if they ever decided to duke it out over who got it, old Slats never knew about it, and I would have, since both of those fellows know how to use their fists.

The Captain is a fine hockey player and looks like he's a real no-nonsense type on the ice, but there's the other forward, handsome fellow like one of the fellows who model turtlenecks in the Montgomery Wards catalogues. He's got twenty goals this year, which should make him an All-Star, and would have back when there were six teams. Problem is there are so many teams with players, and good ones too. They need to let other fellows play so it won't be just the Backhawks against the Canadiens like it was in the Finals in 1971 and 1973, which was some of the finest hockey I ever saw, even if the Hawks came out on the short end. Handsome fellow, this goal scorer.

Then there's the defenseman, Keith Duncan, who I really like because he's quick up and down the ice, and plays about half the game, which means he's tough, like old Red Kelly or Pierre who played right here. I don't know why ol' Paddy Foley, who never liked Rock & Rye, but still likes to have a tiddly or two after the game, keeps getting his name backward. But Keith Duncan is fast and gets a point here and there and has long hair and wear number two, which was old Bill White's number, and Bill didn't have any hair at all, so go figure. Anyway, this Duncan kid was the only Hawks who played in the game last year, and this year he's playing even better so he's naturally staying home while the lanky kid with the red hair who wears the same number as old Dick Butkus is going instead.

It's still nice to see Blackhawks going to the All-Star game. They're sending three of their boys this year, and the game is in Montral, but not at the Forum, which they turned into a movie theater, which I can't understand because why would anybody want to see a movie in a hockey rink when you could put a game on, and the movie will end the same way every time, and the hockey game could always end differently. They built a new place for the Canadiens to play, which isn't where the Richard boys or Beliveau or any of those greats from the fifties or sixties played, even before they got that tall goalie who looked like an English professor and stopped the Blackhawks cold in the finals in '71 and '73, which was was some of the finest hockey I ever saw, even if the Hawks came out on the short end.

-40-