I’m posting photos from my collection of family photographs on Saturdays with a brief explanation of what I know about each picture.

With the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs kicking off as a conclusion to the 2014-2015 season, here is a photo from my youth. Yours truly was a goalie and like many young Canadian boys, there were dreams of playing at the professional level. The photo was taken around 1969 at a practice facility my Toronto Hockey League team used, located north of Toronto.

If you look closely, you can see my goalie mask tucked neatly over my left knee. Masks were mandatory but did not include helmets for goalies, which may explain the number of concussions I received. The concussions may explain a lot of other things!