Clorox Hockey League MVP ~ Freddy Muller

Freddy Muller was the MVP of the one quart Clorox Hockey League. His goaltending was terrific. Nothing got by him. A shifty center or wing, Freddy faked left, faked right, went left and put the boot to the puck and drove the plastic quart bottle past the hapless goalie. Freddy was a fearless player.

Eddie Ekis & Freddy Muller @1974

He was our game king. We had no where to play in the winter, and you had to keep moving or freeze. Freddy found the perfect hockey ring. Right off First Avenue on 83rd Street, was a shoe store with a similar frontage to the Frame Shop in the photo below. The guy closed early and had no gate. It was a double wide store with a deep entrance that had dimensions very close to the width and depth of a hockey net. Once we decided to play we'd scatter like rats and scavenge the garbage cans looking for a thrown out one quart Clorox bottle. We chose this bottle because of it's durability and it was easy to pass from foot to foot.

Ted Green on the Boston Bruins was the devil for spearing Phil Goyette on the Rangers. No one wanted to be Ted Green. But everyone wanted to be Ed Giacomin or Jean Beliveau, and if you were a jerk we called you Dickie Duff. 
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Other favorite non-Ranger hockey names, JacquesLaperriere, Gilles Tremblay, and Yvan Cournoyer because they were so much fun to say and that was the best part of the game everyone would be yelling commentary throughout the match. Sometimes even the fifth or sixth place Rangers scored.

southwest corner of 82nd & Lexington
perfect Clorox hockey goal net opening.

"Howell brings it up the ice, passes to Ratelle who moves it over to Gilbert, Gilbert slips the defenseman, shovels the puck to Hatfield, slap shot, he scores! A rocket right pass Gump Worsley."

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