Comedian John Hodgman received a very interesting piece of vintage hockey memorabilia for Christmas: A cookbook assembled by the wives of the 1990-91 Hartford Whalers.

Sorry loved ones. @markmcconville just trumped y’all in 2015 with this present I just opened. AND HE HELPED KIDS TO BOOT. Welcome home and happy new year to you all.

Between 1979 and 1997, the team now known to us as the Carolina Hurricanes Brass Bonanza’d it up in the Nutmeg State (and taught us all how bad a head coach Pierre McGuire could be). This cookbook is a cozy look at the team and their families, but it’s also a hockey nostalgia bomb, a warp tunnel to the NHL of old, full of mustaches and tips for juicing lemons.

Longtime RMNB readers may know I’m a descendant of a Whalers-rooting family. My introduction to the sport was my tiny four-year-old eardrums getting shaken by their goal horn, which made me hide under my seat crying for fear of the “fire alarm” going off again.

Needless to say, I got a huge kick out of this gift.

Hodgman did not share any of the recipes, except for one little tip:

Good advice.

Hodgman did, however, share a few pages of the best part of the book: The Whaler Family Profiles.

It wouldn’t be the Whalers without Ron Francis!

Nothing says cooking like Starburst and bubblegum!

Hodgman’s comment:

Either @markmcconville or Dave Babych are going to send me that recipe for Ukranian-Italian Baked Beef Ribs by 2016 or I swear the Whalers will never play in Hartford again. #brassbonanza

RIP in Peace, Whalers. Maybe someday NHL hockey will return to Connecticut. Thankfully, we have the NWHL Connecticut Whale, who are currently kicking serious butt in their league (9-1, including a 6-1 win over New York last night).