Hockey Legend, Coach of New Haven Blades, Passes Away

NEW HAVEN, CT - If you are of a certain age and grew up a hockey fan in or around New Haven then you know the name Don Perry.

Word is out on social media today that Perry, the face of the New Haven Blades who played in the New Haven Arena on Grove Street, has passed away at age 89.

Perry, who went to be an NHL coach, was both a player and coach for the Blades who were part of the legendary Eastern Hockey League - a league that was as well if not better known for its fights as the games the teams played.

On social media Monday, Perry's son Cameron was spreading the word that his dad had passed on Monday at a nursing home in Green Valley, Arizona.

He was 89 years old.

Perry played more than 1,000 games in the EHL from 1950 to 1969 mostly with the New Haven Blades and Long Island Ducks. He also had a two decades long coaching career winning three playoff championships with the EHL Blades (one) and IHL Saginaw Gears (two) before finishing his career coaching the NHL Los Angeles Kings (1981-84).

A tough as nails defenseman from Edmonton, Alberta, Perry and the late John Brophy ruled the EHL physically for the 1950s and 1960s often tangling in fights.

Legend has it that the movie "Slap Shot" starring Paul Newman, made in the 1970s, was created out of the legendary tales of the fighting Eastern Hockey League.