It’s hard to put into words the impact Larry Brooks had—not just on hockey journalism but on me personally. For decades, Larry was the benchmark for Rangers coverage: incisive, fair, sometimes witty, always must-read no slight to any of the other New York beat writers, but I’m pretty sure they were reading Larry’s New York Post-column first, every single time. Before I ever stepped foot in a press box covering the Rangers, I would email him my half-baked thoughts on his colum

Sixteen days. That’s all it took for hockey to lose the holy trinity of 1970s goaltenders. First Ken Dryden, then Eddie Giacomin, and now...