Whether he does it before the end of this season (which he could) or not until the start of next year, Alex Ovechkin will very soon pass Wayne Gretzky as the leading goal-scorer in NHL history. Like so many of the records Gretzky set, this one seemed like it would never be broken. We’ll try to avoid any politics here, so let’s not think about Gretzky being a friend of Donald Trump and Ovechkin of Vladimir Putin. We don’t get to pick our moments, and the breaking of the all-time NHL record for goals is too momentous for someone who calls himself a hockey historian to ignore. So please read on for an all-time account of the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scorers…

The first NHL games were played on December 19, 1917. The Montreal Wanderers hosted the Toronto Arenas and beat them 10–9. The Montreal Canadiens were in Ottawa and beat the Senators 7–4. The Canadiens game in Ottawa was scheduled to start at 8:30 that night but was delayed for about 15 minutes. The Wanderers and Arenas faced off in Montreal at 8:15, officially making it the NHL’s first game. Dave Ritchie of the Wanderers scored just one minute into the first period against Toronto, giving him the honor of scoring the first goal in NHL history. But Ritchie wouldn’t remain the career scoring leader for long.

Two players scored five goals apiece on the first night in NHL history: Harry Hyland of the Wanderers and Joe Malone of the Canadiens. Hyland quickly fell off Malone’s pace, but Cy Denneny of Ottawa, who scored three in a losing cause on opening night, kept up. In fact, by the fourth game for each player, played on December 29, 1917, Denneny moved atop the leader board with 12 goals to Malone’s 11. Denneny reached 13 through five games on January 2, 1918. Malone scored twice in his fifth game on January 5 to reach 13 as well, but Denneny scored twice that night in his sixth game to hit 15. Malone moved back on top on January 12 when he scored five again to reach 20 on the season in just his seventh game played.

Joe Malone ended the NHL’s first season of 1917–18 with a league-leading 44 goals in 20 games played which (of course!) gave him the all-time league lead at the time. Malone played just eight games in 1918–19 and scored seven goals. Cy Denneny, who was second in the NHL with 36 goals in the first season, equalled Malone as the all-time leader when both scored their 45th career goals on January 4, 1919 and Denneny surpassed Malone with three goals on January 9 to give him 48. Denneny finished the 1918–19 season as the NHL’s career leader with 54 goals to Malone’s 51

Joe Malone moved to the top of the leaderboard again during the 1919–20 season. Playing with the Quebec Bulldogs, Malone matched Denneny with 55 career goals on January 1, 1920 and moved ahead again when he scored four in his next game on January 7. Malone would lead the NHL that season with 39 goals, which gave him 90 in his career.

100 CAREER GOALS
Joe Malone, Hamilton Tigers. February 5, 1921 vs Clint Benedict, Ottawa Senators.
(Milestone goal was Malone’s second of two in a 7–3 loss.)

On the night Joe Malone scored his 100th goal, Newsy Lalonde of the Montreal Canadiens reached 99 for his NHL career. Lalonde scored two in his next game on February 9, 1921, to reach 101. Malone scored once that night, so they were tied as the NHL’s all-time leaders. On February 12, Malone re-took the lead 103–102. Then, on February 16, Malone scored three to reach 106 … but Lalonde scored five to reach 107. By February 19, they were tied again at 108. On February 23, 1921, Joe Malone scored four to reach 112. Lalonde scored only once that night and Joe Malone would remain the NHL scoring leader for the rest of his career.

Joe Malone’s final goal — his only goal of the 1922–23 season (he scored no goal in 10 games in 1923–24) — came on February 3, 1923, in the Montreal Canadiens’ 4–1 win over the Ottawa Senators. He finished his NHL career with 143 goals in 126 games. Cy Denneny of the Ottawa Senators moved ahead of Malone atop the NHL career list again just two weeks later, scoring his 144th on February 17, 1923, versus the Hamilton Tigers’ Jake Forbes.

After passing Newsy Lalonde to take back the NHL career lead in goals, Joe Malone remained the leader for just under two years / 724 days (February 23, 1921 – February 17, 1923) until Denneny passed him again as the overall leader.

200 CAREER GOALS
Cy Denneny, Ottawa Senators. March 4, 1925 vs Clint Benedict, Montreal Maroons.
(Milestone goal was Denneny’s only goal of the game in a 5–1 victory.)

Cy Denneny scored his 247th and final goal on December 4, 1928, as a member of the Boston Bruins against the New York Rangers’ John Ross Roach. In all, he scored 247 goals in 329 NHL games. Howie Morenz surpassed Denneny for the NHL career lead with his 248th goal on December 23, 1933, also against Roach, who was then with the Detroit Red Wings.

After Cy Denneny surpassed Joe Malone as the NHL’s leading goal scorer, he remained the NHL’s leader for 10+ years / 3,962 days (February 17, 1923 – December 23, 1933) until being surpassed by Howie Morenz.

Howie Morenz scored his 271st and final goal on January 24, 1937, versus the Chicago Black Hawks’ Mike Karakas. Morenz suffered a career-ending broken leg two games later on January 28, 1937 (he’d played 550 games) and would die of complications while still in hospital on March 8, 1937. By the time of his death, Morenz had already been surpassed as the NHL’s career goal-scoring leader by Nels Stewart of the New York Americans. Stewart scored his 272nd goal on February 16, 1937, against the Montreal Canadiens’ Wilf Cude.

After Morenz became the NHL’s leading goal scorer, he remained the NHL leader for three+ years / 1,151 days (December 23, 1933 – February 16, 1937) until being passed by Nels Stewart.

300 CAREER GOALS
Nels Stewart, New York Americans. March 6, 1938 vs Dave Kerr, New York Rangers.
(Milestone goal was Stewart’s only goal of the game in a 3–1 victory.)

Nels Stewart scored his 324th and final goal with the New York Americans on March 16, 1940, versus the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Turk Broda. He ended his NHL career with 650 games played. Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens surpassed Stewart with his 325th goal on November 8, 1952, versus the Chicago Black Hawks’ Al Rollins. Richard had scored his first career goal, in his second NHL game, exactly 10 years earlier. That goal had come unassisted against Steve Buzinski of the New York Rangers at 9:11 of the second period in a 10–4 Montreal victory.

After Nels Stewart became the NHL’s leading goal scorer, he remained the NHL leader for 15+ years / 5,744 days (February 16, 1937 – November 8, 1952) until his mark was beaten by Maurice Richard.

400 CAREER GOALS
Maurice Richard, Montreal Canadiens. December 18, 1954 vs Al Rollins, Chicago Black Hawks.
(Milestone goal was Richard’s only goal of the game in a 4–2 victory.)

500 CAREER GOALS
Maurice Richard, Montreal Canadiens. October 19, 1957 vs Glenn Hall, Chicago Black Hawks.
(Milestone goal was Richard’s only goal of the game in a 3–1 victory.)

Maurice Richard scored his 544th and final goal on March 20, 1960, also against Al Rollins, who was then with the New York Rangers. He played 978 games in his career. Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings moved past Richard with his 545th goal on November 10, 1963, versus the Montreal Canadiens’ Charlie Hodge.

After Maurice Richard became the NHL’s leading goal scorer, he remained the NHL leader for 11 years / 4,019 days (November 8, 1952 – November 10, 1963) until he was passed by Gordie Howe.

600 CAREER GOALS
Gordie Howe, Detroit Red Wings. November 27, 1965 vs Gump Worsley, Montreal Canadiens.
(Milestone goal was Howe’s only of the game in a 3–2 loss.)

700 CAREER GOALS
Gordie Howe, Detroit Red Wings. December 4, 1968 vs Les Binkley, Pittsburgh Penguins.
(Milestone goal was Howe’s only goal of the game in a 7–2 victory.)

Gordie Howe retired from the NHL after his 25th season in 1970–71 with 786 goals. At the time, Bobby Hull was a distant second on the career list with 554. Howe would return to action in the World Hockey Association in 1973–74. In his six seasons in the WHA, Howe had 174 goals and 334 assists for 508 points in 419 regular-season games. He returned to the NHL in 1979–80 at the age of 51, playing a full 80-game schedule with the Hartford Whalers.

800 CAREER GOALS
Gordie Howe, Hartford Whalers. February 29, 1980 vs Mike Luit, St. Louis Blues.
(Milestone goal was Howe’s only goal of the game in a 3–0 victory.)

In his final NHL season in 1979–80, Gordie Howe had 15 goals and 26 assists to bump his career goals total to 801. Howe scored his 801st and final goal in his last regular-season game (1,767 games) on April 6, 1980, against the Detroit Red Wings’ Rogie Vachon. He would remain the all-time leader until Wayne Gretzky scored his 802nd goal on March 23, 1994, for the Los Angeles Kings versus the Vancouver Canucks’ Kirk McLean. The Kings lost 6–3.

After Gordie Howe became the NHL’s leading goal scorer, he remained the NHL leader for 30+ years / 11,091 days (November 10, 1963 – March 23, 1994) until his mark was surpassed by Wayne Gretzky.

Wayne Gretzky scored his 894th and final goal on March 29, 1999, against the New York Islanders’ Wade Flaherty. He played 1,487 games in his career. As of this post on April 2, 2025, Gretzky still holds the record with Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals closing in. Ovechkin has 891 goals in 1,484 career games with eight games to go in 2024–25. If he hadn’t missed 16 games earlier this season with a fracture fibula, Ovechkin might already have caught Gretzky. His final game of the regular season comes against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 17.

Since Wayne Gretzky became the NHL’s leading goal scorer, he has remained the NHL leader for 31 years / 11,333 days (March 23, 1994 – April 2, 2025).

Well, you couldn’t have asked for a much better Final from the 4 Nations Face-Off last week. Especially from a Canadian perspective! Fast, and aggressive, but without any goon stuff. And the best player in the world scored the winning goal. But now, we’ll return to 1949 when things didn’t end up quite so well for Canada. Last week’s post ended with Canada’s 47–0 win over Denmark at the 1949 World Championship, and today, we continue with the rest of that tournament and the conclusion of the Sudbury Wolves/Canadian team’s three-plus month tour of Europe…

A day after that February 12 win over Denmark, Canada beat Austria 7–0 to win Group A and advance to the six-team Medal Round. (The Austrians would beat Denmark 25–1 on February 14 and also advanced). The USA (3–0–0) and Switerzland (2–1–0) advanced from four-team Group B, while the host Swedes (2–0–0) and Czechoslovakia (1–1–0) moved on from the three teams in Group C. But while Canada had outscored its opponents 54–0 in two games and the Americans won their three games by a combined 36–6, most experts still favoured the U.S. to win the tournament. Writing in the Owen Sound Sun Times on February 15, 1949, sports editor Bill Dane cautioned that the experts “possibly … are overlooking the best bet of all, Czechoslovakia,” though he undoubtedly wasn’t alone in touting the 1947 World Champions who had given the RCAF Flyers a run for their money at the 1948 Winter Olympics.

Canada faced Czechoslovakia to open the medal round on February 15 … and the game would prove typical of Canadian contests in Europe for years to come. Though the team had been told the CAHA rule book would be used at the World Championship, they had also been cautioned about the referees and told to be careful. But the Czech game got out of hand.

After a scoreless first period, a Canadian player was penalized for apparently trying to start a fight. The Czechs scored on the power-play. Ray Bauer tied the game for Canada midway through the second, but then two quick penalties were called. The first was to Johnny Kovich, who was accused to trying to kick a Czech player. Shortly thereafter, Tom Russell was sent to the box. With a two-man advantage, Augustin Bubnick scored by batting in the puck with his stick held over his head. When Joe Tergesen complained to the referee, he was issued a 10-minute penalty “for bad sportsmanship.” (According to Canadian Press reports, Vladimir Zabrodsky, who set up the goal, admitted after the period that he considered the goal invalid. Still, the IIHF denied Canada’s protest after the game.)

Canada was again a man short when the third period began, but after killing the penalty, Jim Russell tied the game 2–2. Midway through the period, Vladimir Zabrodsky set up Stanislav Konopasek and the Czechs were up 3–2. Fists flared towards the end of the game, and when Tom Russell dropped his stick to face two Czech players, he was not just sent to the penalty box but told to leave the stadium. The game ended 3–2. Afterward, the IIHF ruled Russell would be able to keep playing, but warned that any player involved in “further instances of fisticuffs or similar offences” would be banned from the tournament.

An angry Max Silverman considered withdrawing his team, but said authorities back in Canada advised him to carry on. Home in Canada after the tour, Silverman further explained that he had pulled is goalie with a minute to go to try and get the tying goal, “But I had no sooner got him to the bench and the bell rang. Bunny Ahearne of the British Ice Hockey Federation [a future enemy of Canadian hockey in Europe] told me the refs have just gypped you out of 50 seconds. I protested, but it went for nothing.”

The next day, Canada faced Sweden … and there was a riot before the game even started.

Initial reports claimed Swedish fans were trying to block the Canadian players from entering the stadium — Swedish press reports had billed the Canadians as “dangerous men” — but later stories said it was merely the pushing and shoving of an estimated crowd of 25,000 fans hoping to get in. There were reports of 14 injuries, although none were serious. Even so, mounted police had to force a passage through the crowd to allow ambulances to get through. A police escort led the Canadian team bus to the stadium, and a chain of 12 officers protected the players on their way from the dressing room to the ice.

Once the game began, there was a parade of Canadian player to the penalty box. Some reports said there were seven Canadian penalties in the game to just one for the Swedes, but Max Silverman said it was 14 to one. Even so, Canada led 2–1 midway through the third period … until the Swedes tied the game with two Canadians in the penalty box. The final score would remain 2–2.

Silverman believed a Swedish fan had held the stick of defenseman Joe Tergesen on the tying goal. “It’s hard enough to play the teams without playing the spectators too,” he said. There would be no protest this time, but he had other criticisms to offer. “They try to apply Canadian rules,” he said, “but evidently [the IIHF] are still confused. Consequently, our men have no idea what they are allowed to do and why they are sent to the penalty box.” Rudolg Eklow, a Swedish IIHF member, responded, “We in Europe are trying to make hockey a little more human. [Humane, perhaps?] We do not like the North American tendency to brutalize the game.”

Next up for Canada on February 17 were the Americans, who had suffered a surprising 5–4 loss to Switzerland in their first game of the medal round. A Canadian win would keep their championship hopes alive while virtually eliminating the USA. Stockholm police delayed the start of the game by 45 minutes and used the time to clear away crowds outside the stadium. The 7,900 who got in saw Canada score a convincing 7–2 victory by blowing open a tight 3–2 game with four goals in the third period.

An 8–2 win for Canada over Austria followed. The U.S. bounced back for a 6–3 win over Sweden, a 2–0 win over the Czechs, and a 9–1 win over Austria, but it wasn’t enough for them. Canada’s 1–1 tie with Switzerland to end the tournament meant nothing for them either, as the Czechs had already claimed the World Championship with their 3–0 win over Sweden earlier that same day. Czechoslovakia finished the medal round with a record of 4–1–0. Canada was 2–1–2 and the Americans were 3–2–0. The Canadians got second place because of a +10 goal differential (20 goals for to 10 against) in the medal round. (The 47–0 and 7–0 wins in the preliminary round didn’t count.) The Americans were only +7 (23–16) and finished third.

Not surprisingly, hockey fans back home weren’t thrilled with Canada’s second-place finish. Nor were they pleased with the reports of the European reaction to their style of play. But over there in Europe, the Wolves/Canada still had two months of tour to go.

At 6am on the morning after the World Championship ended, the team headed for Czechoslovakia. There, they played eight games in nine days in front of 125,000 fans and went 5–2–1. Dinty Moore was pleasantly surprised with his view behind the Iron Curtain.

“The players were treated better than at Stockholm … where they were put up in third-rate hotels. We had a plane put out our disposal with a crew of three Czechs who had flown with the RAF during the war and spoke English. They took us wherever we wanted to got and we stayed at the best hotels. The food was excellent and plentiful. The crowds were eminently fair.”

The hockey tour continued until early April before the team finally returned to Canada, at Montreal, aboard the Canadian Pacific Liner Empress of France, on April 20. Safely on home soil, Max Silverman unloaded. “It was terrible,” he said. “They accused us of everything under the sun. They said we were too rough on their boys. That was pure nonsense. We took over a lot of fellows who could do everything but play a rugged game.”

Silverman was convinced that if Canada sent teams to Europe in the future, they should send over a whole team in tact. And top teams too. “The countries we played thought they were meeting the tops in Canada. I said nuts to that; we have 200 or 300 hockey teams back home that could show this crowd something.”

All in all, it seems the Sudbury Wolves/Canadian hockey team played 62 games in their approximately 100 days abroad. They posted a record of 29–19–14, but it had been gruelling. Herb Kewley was among a group of five players who arrived in Toronto by train on April 21, 1949. “That tour was a killer,” he said. “We played far too many games. Val Zabrodsky, Czech star center was the best man we played against. They’re all god skaters, but … they can’t stand being bumped.”

Said Ray Bauer: “We travelled too far and played too many games in too short a period. One day we had breakfast in Sweden, lunch in Denmark and supper in Czechoslovakia, and after supper we had to fly another 400 miles to the scene of the game which started at 10:10 pm…. Sometimes we’d play twice in 20 hours. Seldom were we away from the ice for more than 36 hours.”

Back home in Waterloo a few days later, Bauer said he thought the criticism the team had received in Canada was “unjust and unwarranted,” adding: “If think Canadians would have praised us instead of insulting us if they knew the heavy schedule of games we had to play and the conditions under which we played them.” But all in all, “it was a trip that I thoroughly enjoyed and I’m extremely grateful to the CAHA for making it possible.”

Haven’t posted anything since before Christmas. I don’t usually like to let so much time go by, but I’ve been pretty busy with other things. I hadn’t really been enamoured with the thought of it before it started (though I was pretty sure I’d watch!), but once the 4 Nations Face-Off actually faced-off, I figured I’d find some sort of historic angle to this prefab — though pretty fabulous — tournament. There’s no real connection between that and this story, but here we go…

If it’s remember for anything today, the 1949 Ice Hockey World Championship is remembered for the fact that Canada beat Denmark 47–0 in what will likely always be the highest scoring game at this level of international hockey. Yet Canada didn’t win that year. Canadian teams had finished second before — to the United States at the 1933 World Championship and to a Great Britain team loaded with expat Canadians at the 1936 Winter Olympics — but the 1949 tournament marked the first time Canada finished second to a true European team as Czechoslovakia came out on top.

Canada hadn’t sent a team to first post-War World Championship in 1947 because of a growing rift between the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). We might not have sent a team to the 1948 Winter Olympics if it hadn’t been for the hastily assembled RCAF Flyers. Once again, the CAHA seemed less than committed to sending a team to the 1949 World Championship, but did vote in favour of doing so on Saturday, April 24, 1948, at their annual meeting in Toronto. The team would tour Europe from December 30, 1948, until early April of 1949 and represent Canada at the World Championship in Stockholm, Sweden, in February.

Max Silverman had long been involved in the management of hockey teams in Sudbury, Ontario, and was currently the president of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. He and Frank “Dinty” Moore of Port Colborne, a past president of the OHA (and a member of the 1936 Canadian Olympic hockey team), were tasked with selecting Canada’s team this time. The CAHA made the job more difficult with an announcement on May 10, 1948, after stories that Max Silverman had approached the 1948 Memorial Cup champion Port Arthur Bruins, when president Al Pickard announced it would not be feasible to send a complete team because of the interruption to league schedules. In June, former NHL player (and future childhood coach of Bobby Orr) Bucko McDonald offered up the Sundridge Beavers, who had won the OHA Intermediate B championship, but in July, Silverman ruled out the possibility of taking one team in tact … possibly because of the earlier CAHA ruling.

Silverman spent much of the summer of 1948 trying to assemble a team. Near the end of October, he announced the squad would come together in Sudbury at the end of November to begin training. But in early December, he was still putting the finishing touches on his roster. Britt Jessup of the North Bay Daily Nugget, who had written back in July about the problems Silverman would face, reminded his reader of them in his Sport Static column on December 2:

“If the truth be known, Max Silverman is not having any picnic gathering players for his tour-Europe hockey team. The inducement to go on this hockey junket — $25 a week and all expenses paid — is not exactly alluring. Free-spending hockey players would go through that 25 fish in a couple of days. As for the education which travel provides, many pucksters saw enough of Europe for a while during the years 1939–1945. Married players simply can’t pick up and leave their families to go on this European jaunt. On return, they’d likely find their wives had gone on a little jaunt themselves … to Reno.”

Silverman, wrote Jessup, was spending a lot of his personal time and money trying to find players and was becoming “a bit cheesed” with the lack of co-operation he was getting from the CAHA. That’s why (even though it really wasn’t) he decided to call his team the Sudbury Wolves. “Hell,” said Silverman (Jessup quoted him as saying H––l), “I’m doing most of the work and Sudbury men are proving most of the sponsorship! We may as well get some publicity out of it.”

Jessup wondered if it might not have been a good idea to take Bucko McDonald’s Sundridge team to Europe after all. “They [the CAHA] wouldn’t let me sign players to contracts [in] September,” Silverman complained. “Now I’m faced with the job of doing around trying to get players, when most of them have already signed with teams for the 1948–49 season. I don’t like breaking up other teams to get players for my team, but what can I do? We can’t go over there with a team not fit to represent Canada, the home of hockey.”

The players Silverman had gathered met in Sudbury for a week of practice starting about December 5. Those paying attention weren’t very impressed, as this assessment in The Sault Star of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, from December 4 will attest: “I fail to see where the club will be much stronger than an average intermediate team at the most. Not a single, solitary big name either from Northern or Southern Ontario senior ranks is included. In fact, a number of boys trying out for the squad are just junior B calibre, if that.”

The team was certainly young, with most under 21 and some still teenagers. Among the few veterans was Ray Bauer of Waterloo, Ontario, who was no superstar but at least had a family pedigree in being the brother of NHL star Bobby Bauer and future Canadian National Team leader Father David Bauer.

These new Sudbury Wolves played their first game on December 12 against the Sudbury Miners of the Nickel Belt Hockey League and held them to a 2–2 tie. “Sporting a few weak links, but sound basically,” read a Canadian Press report, “the Wolves can expect to show improvement after two or three more games.” Four nights later, the Wolves pulled their goalie to earn a late goal and another 2–2 tie against the North Bay Black Hawks.

Next, the players made quick trips home to say goodbye to their families. Then the team travelled to Boston, where they were beaten handily on December 20 in a 6–3 loss to the American team they would face at the World Championship. Three days later, they sailed for Southampton from New York aboard the Queen Elizabeth (named for the wife of King George VI). Keeping themselves in shape in the ship’s gymnasium and swimming pool, the team arrived in England on December 29 only to have customs officials seize much of their equipment, including 500 hockey sticks.

The Brits were worried that sports equipment brought over by teams in previous years had been sold before the teams left England, thus evading imports duties. “We have allowed too much rope in the past,” said one customs official. “Now we are going to clamp down.” The team was forced to spend most of the day in Southampton and a deposit had to be paid on their gear before they were allowed to leave for London late that night. “We were very annoyed,” Max Silverman said, “especially as we have brought with us a lot of sweets and foodstuffs for the British public.”

The Sudbury Wolves/Canada played the first game of their tour the following night and lost 7–3 to England. (I assume that’s the English national team, though they wouldn’t be at the 1949 World Championship.) By January 28, 1949, they had played 14 games in England, Scotland and France and were just 3–6–5. Before the end of the month, they put up two lopsided wins (12–0 and 14–3) against teams in the Netherlands, but as early as January 17, the CAHA had voted to send reinforcements. On February 1, Don Stanley of Edmonton (son of Hockey Hall of Famer Barney Stanley and a cousin of Allan Stanley) and Tommy Russell (who was playing in Cape Breton) flew out to meet the Canadian team in Sweden.

After a few wins and loses to Swedish teams, the Sudbury Wolves/Canada opened the 1949 World Championship in Stockholm on February 12 with their famous 47–0 win over Denmark. (Denmark had joined the IIHF in 1946, and this was their first international appearance, though they game wouldn’t really begin to grow there until the next season. Denmark beat Canada for the first time in international hockey with a 3–2 win at the World Championship on May 23, 2022.) Jim Russell (the team’s oldest player at 30 and a member of the Sudbury Wolves who had won the 1938 World Championship) led the assault with eight goals. Tommy Russell had six, while Don Stanley, Joe DiBastiani and Don Munro each had five. Ray Bauer, Guy Hashey, Joe Tergesen, Emile Gagne, Barney Hilson and Bill Dimock all scored three.

Canadian Press reports note “The spectators often laughed heartily at the desperate Danish efforts,” and“The chief thrill of the crowd was betting on whether Canada would top 50 goals or not.” A United Press report in American papers (which claimed there were only 100 fans at the game) said the only disappointed Canadian player was goalie Al Picard. “He felt he ought to get in on the scoring fiesta, and at the height of the game he wandered out of his cage in hopes up picking up a goal, but was waved back to his position by Team Manager Max Silverman.”

So, there was at least some sportsmanship!

Part II (and the reason for the title!) next week.

I’m not sure what inspired me to go looking for this the other day. Old issues of The Brantford Expositor have been available online for quite some time now. But whatever the reason, I came across this famous photo of Wayne Gretzky and his childhood hero Gordie Howe in what must be the first time it ever appeared. It’s on the front page of The Expositor from May 4, 1972.

The occasion was the Kiwanis Great Men of Sports Dinner in Gretzky’s hometown of Brantford, Ontario, which had been held the night before. The principal speaker had been Rudy Pilous, former coach of the Chicago Blackhawks (Black Hawks, in those days) who was currently being wooed by the Chicago Cougars of the WHA and would later become coach and GM of that league’s Winnipeg Jets.

In addition to Pilous and Gordie Howe, other guests that night included Toronto Argonauts quarterback Joe Theismann and Hamilton Tiger-Cats defensive lineman Angelo Mosca. There was also Tom Matte of the Baltimore Colts, former Major League pitcher Sal Maglie, Toronto Metros coach Graham Leggat, harness horseman John Hayes, and coach Morley Kells of the Brantford Warriors lacrosse team.

The Expositor notes that 506 people attended the $25-a-plate dinner, which was the largest attendance in the nine-year history of the event, with all proceeds going to the Kiwanis Club of Brantford’s girls’ camp. “One of the biggest ovations,” the paper says, “was reserved for Wayne Gretzky, Brantford’s 11-year-old hockey star.” Gretzky was coming of a 1971-72 season that had seen him score 378 goals and 139 assists in an 85-game Atom season. (The paper notes that the “four foot, nine inch, 80 pound” Gretzky had scored a mere 372 goals.)

Interestingly, young Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe shared the same page in the Brantford newspaper again barely a month later, on June 8, 1972, the day after Howe, Jean Béliveau, and Bernie Geoffrion were elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Gretzky had hit a home run and a double to help his Brantford tyke baseball team win its fifth straight game the night before.

Wayne Gretzky’s boyhood accomplishments were well noted in his local newspaper while growing up in Brantford. There are many, many, stories about his hockey, lacrosse, and baseball exploits in the late 1960s and through the 1970s. (And, to be honest, many more times when his name and Howe’s appeared in the paper on the same day.) Gretzky’s first mention in The Expositor would seem to be this one from December 28, 1967:

This was the first winter that Gretzky played hockey after being turned away as a five-year-old the year before. Now a six-year-old playing on a team of 10-year-olds, Gretzky is known to have scored only once that season, so this must be it! (The picture is from the Gretzky family collection and was used by us at Dan Diamond and Associates in our 1999 publication with Gretzky, 99: My Life in Pictures.)

Interestingly, it would seem that Wayne Gretzky’s father, Walter, also made his first appearance in The Brantford Expositor for his own sporting achievements when he was just six years old. Under a headline reading CHILDREN ENJOYED CLOWNS AND RACES AT PENMANS PICNIC Walter Gretzky’s name appears as the winner of a boys 25-yard race:

Though the race is said to be for “boys under six” Walter’s birth date of October 8, 1938, means that he was already six years old by then!

Hmmm……

We might see history made tonight. Then again, in a way, we’ve already seen it. (That being said, you can count me as one who isn’t sure “the first time since…” really constitutes making history — even though it’s often expressed that way these days.)

When the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers on Friday night, it marked the first time since 1945 that a team who had lost the first three games in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final came back to force a seventh game. The Toronto Maple Leafs had taken a 3–0 lead only to see Detroit win the next three before Toronto salvaged the series in Game Seven.

And, of course, if the Oilers win tonight and complete the comeback, they’ll be the first team since 1942 to successfully rally all the way back from a 3–0 deficit in games. It was also Toronto and Detroit in the Stanley Cup Final that year, as the Red Wings opened up with three straight wins before the Maple Leafs rattled off four in a row.

I’ve written about the 1942 series before, in 2017 and in 2022. You can check those out if you’d like, as I’ll try to keep this recap brief. The Leafs famously shook up their lineup after three straight losses, benching veterans Gord Drillon and Bucko McDonald. Younger and faster Don Metz and Hank Goldup were inserted into the lineup, and Gaye Stewart was summoned from the farm team in Pittsburgh. That, apparently, gave the Leafs the spark they needed … although there’s also the fact that Toronto had been a much better team than Detroit throughout the regular season, and probably should have beaten the Red Wings anyway!

There’s long been another story told about what sparked the Leafs famous 1942 comeback. It’s the type of “hockey legend” I rarely believe without proof. And, at first, the proof seems a little shaky.

As best I could find, Hap Day first tells the story in a feature by Toronto Star sportswriter Red Burnett for The Star Weekly on March 12, 1955. (Though perhaps it appears earlier in some other source, such as a Maple Leafs program?) “Hockey has been wonderful to me down through the years,” Day told Burnett. “I have two Stanley Cups that stand out in the six triumphs I shared in, one as a player and five as a coach.”

The standout memory from his playing days came in 1932, when Day captained the team to its first Stanley Cup championship under the Leafs name. “But the incident which lives the most vividly in my memory is a letter from a 14-year-old girl.”

Day explains that he received the letter just before Game Four of the Final in 1942. “I was at my wit’s end trying to figure out what angle I would take with the team that night when along came this letter. The little girl wrote that she still had faith in us and was praying for our success.

“It was a wonderful letter and I read it to the boys before that all-important game. I didn’t have to say another word. Dave Schriner, one of our veterans, got to this feet and said: ‘Coach, you don’t have to worry about this one. We’ll win it for that little girl.’ After the first shift on the ice I knew I had a hockey team. Before the game was over I sensed that Cup history would be made, that we were going to win four straight for the biggest comeback in the game’s history.”

Day told the story again to Allan Abel of The Globe and Mail on May 16, 1983. Twenty-eight years later, the girl was now 15 years old but the rest of the story is essentially the same.

Over the years, it seems, the girl — Doris Klein — has been reported as 11, 14 and 15 years old. It’s been said she was a Toronto girl living in Detroit and taking an awful ribbing from her new friends. Or, she was a girl from Toronto who was either embarrassed by, or feeling sorry for, the team.

With all the different variations, it’s easy enough to wonder if the story was true at all. However, an account from Leafs goalie Turk Broda to sportswriter Jim Hunt for The Star Weekly on March 31, 1962, would seem to confirm that it was.

“I can … still remember Hap reading us a letter from a 15-year-old girl before the fourth game,” said Broda while reminiscing about the 1942 comeback. “The girl was pleading with us to win and it was pretty dramatic. But I think Hap added a little and then as the final dramatic touch showed us the letter which he claimed was stained by her tears.”

The tear-stains have become part of the legend too. But, as Roy MacGregor wrote in The National Post on April 26, 1999, “[s]ome others – and count me among these skeptics – believe the letter was written by a middle-aged NHL coach…. [Hap Day] scribbled it on hotel stationery, folded it, stuck it in an envelope, and wrinkled it a bit for authenticity – then he headed off to Game Four.”

So, is the story true at all? Or did Day write the letter himself?

I asked friend and colleague Jonathon Jackson — who has written a dissertation about Hap Day he’s hoping to publish as a biography — what he knew about the story. Not surprisingly, Jonathon had read all the variations which had caused him to question it too. But he had come across one account from the time that seems to indicate the basic story is true. In The Toronto Star on April 15, 1942, among the recap of the Leafs’ 9–3 trouncing of Detroit in Game Five the night before, there is a series of photographs and this caption:

That pretty girl on the right is Doris Klein, Toronto maiden whose ‘pep’ note to the Leafs in Detroit drew her their admiration and honor seats at the game with her father as the team’s very special guest.

So, it seems, there was a girl, and she did write a letter.

Or else Hap Day went to a lot of trouble to convince his team she had!

Most of the posts I write for this web site — and much of the work I’m known for — is about finding the true story behind old sports tales. This story isn’t as old as many of those. Still, it dates back 53 years now, to the very beginning of my personal hockey memory. But this one is very different from what I usually write. Instead of searching for the facts, this story is sort of speculative hockey fiction.

I attended my very first NHL game (my very first hockey game of any kind) on December 30, 1970. California Golden Seals versus Toronto Maple Leafs. I have no hockey memories from before that date. That spring, the 1971 Stanley Cup Final between the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Black Hawks was the first one I ever watched. So, I was at least slightly aware of some of what was going on as the NHL Draft approached on June 10, 1971. For example, I knew who Jean Béliveau was. And many of his Montreal teammates. Béliveau retired after a brilliant 20-year career the day before the 1971 Draft. I may have known that, but I didn’t know anything about the drama behind who the Canadiens would find to replace him.

Montreal had the first pick in the 1971 NHL Draft. This is usually attributed to the brilliance of Canadiens GM Sam Pollock. Pollock was most certainly a hockey genius, but in this case there was plenty of good luck along with his good management. Yes, Pollock may have fleeced the Golden Seals at the end of the 1969–70 season, when he sent them Montreal’s first-round pick in 1970 (California used that 10th choice to select Chris Oddleifson) along with farmhand Ernie Hicke. In return, Montreal received former Canadiens prospect François Lacombe (who they had dealt to the Seals in 1968, and who they then exposed in the 1970 Expansion Draft to be chosen by Buffalo). They also got cash and California’s first pick in 1971.

Pollock would have been well aware that two French Canadian junior superstars — Marcel Dionne and Guy Lafleur — were going to be available in the 1971 NHL Draft … but he couldn’t have known the Seals pick he acquired would wind up being number one. California was a playoff team in 1968–69 and 1969–70 and wasn’t expected to be last overall in 1970–71. But they were, which gave Montreal the first pick.

As another example of Pollock’s genius, it’s been said that when it looked like the Los Angeles Kings might actually fall behind the Golden Seals in the 1970–71 standings, the Canadiens GM sent Ralph Backstrom to Los Angeles to bolster the Kings’ roster. In point of fact, Pollock had only dealt Backstrom because the veteran player had requested a trade to a warmer climate … and the Kings were the only team to make him an offer.

So, shrewd moves for sure, but a bit of luck too.

Having acquired the top pick, newspapers in the days leading up to the draft were fairly certain the Canadiens would select Guy Lafleur. In truth, the Canadiens were undecided between Lafleur — who’d scored 103 and then 130 goals in his last two seasons with the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Junior Hockey League — and Marcel Dionne, who had won two straight scoring titles in the tougher Ontario Hockey Association. Dionne had plenty of supporters in the Canadiens’ front office, but ex-coach-turned-scout Claude Ruel championed Lafleur as the heir apparent to Béliveau. In the end, Ruel’s enthusiasm carried the day and Pollock selected the Quebec league star with the Seals’ pick.

But what might have happened if the Canadiens chose Marcel Dionne? Does Dionne go on to become the beloved star of a Canadiens dynasty? Is Lafleur destined to become a high-scoring phenom playing mainly in obscurity and the greatest player never to win the Stanley Cup?

Both Dionne and Lafleur became superstars who went on to Hall of Fame careers, so this isn’t like the Canadiens choosing Doug Wickenheiser with the first pick in 1980 when they could have had future Hall of Famer Denis Savard. Still, how might hockey history have changed if the Canadiens picked Marcel Dionne and left Guy Lafleur for the then-dreadful Detroit Red Wings, who later traded him to the Los Angeles Kings?

It’s impossible to know for sure, but I hoped this would be an interesting thought exercise for those who had some experience with the two men. So, I reached out to several hockey people I know, and got some further help when some of those people (most notably Bob Borgen, former L.A. Kings TV producer) reached out to others on my behalf.

First on my list was Scotty Bowman, who, of course, coached Guy Lafleur on the great Montreal teams of the 1970s. He wasn’t really willing to play along, but he did share an important fact with me. Scotty was officially hired as the new Montreal coach on the morning of the 1971 NHL Draft, but he’d known Sam Pollock (and worked for him in the Canadiens system) since the 1950s. Scotty confirmed that the Montreal brass really was undecided as to who to pick between Lafleur and Dionne, but told me the Canadiens actually hoped to draft them both! “Pollock tried to acquire the #2 choice from Detroit,” Scotty said in a email, “and came so close to pulling off a huge trade the night prior to the 1971 Draft.”

I had only just heard the possibility of this when I first started reaching out to people. Turns out, the Montreal Gazette, on the day of the draft, reported the Canadiens had offered either goalie Rogatien Vachon or Phil Myre plus a defenceman to Detroit, so it wasn’t a secret. And I obviously wasn’t the first person Scotty had shared this with. Former L.A. Kings TV analyst and longtime Nashville Predators play-by-play man Pete Weber told me that Scotty had told him the story at the start of this season. “Think about how that might have gone,” said Pete, “and what that would’ve been like in Canadiens land!”

As to Montreal’s ultimate decision to go with Lafleur over Dionne, “All in all it was a good choice,” says Scotty, “but not an easy one.” When it came to my question about how their careers might have flip-flopped if Montreal chose Dionne instead, Scotty would only say: “A lot of hypothetical views for sure…. There was never a question as to the strength of the Canadiens roster compared to Detroit or Los Angeles, so my answer will always be IF IF IF.”

Another name high on my list was Dick Irvin, who covered those great 1970s Montreal teams on television. Dick also thought the strength of the rosters was the key. “My not-so-deep-thinking opinion,” he told me, “is that the Canadiens would still have won Stanley Cups and the Red Wings not. Dionne would have had better help such as good wingers (like Steve Shutt) and power-play help (like Jacques Lemaire) plus better offensive help from the Big Three on defence [Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, and Guy Lapointe]. Lafleur would not have had the same calibre of support in Detroit. He would have been their best player, but the team didn’t have nearly as many ‘best players’ as the Canadiens did.”

Most people I spoke to also assumed Dionne would have thrived in Montreal. Ron McLean said, “I think Marcel was a playmaker a la Wayne [Gretzky] and would have fed [Steve] Shutt the way he fed [Mickey] Redmond in Detroit and [Charlie] Simmer/[Dave] Taylor in L.A.”

Dionne was a star from the start of his career, but had a breakout year with the Red Wings in his fourth season of 1974–75. He had 121 points (47 goals, 74 assists) to finish third in the NHL in scoring race before moving on to Los Angeles. Conversely, Lafleur struggled in his first three seasons in Montreal to the point where people thought he was a bust. His breakout came that same 1974–75 season when he had 53 goals and 66 assists for 119 points. (Bobby Orr led the NHL that season with 135 points, ahead of teammate Phil Esposito who had 127).

“Guy emerged, it is, said when he ditched the helmet,” wrote Ron of the Lafleur legend that says the added element of danger in playing bareheaded brought out the best in him. If their careers had been flipped, “Hollywood would have nudged that,” thought Ron, “but in Detroit who knows?”

Stan Fischler was a big part of the hockey scene during the careers of Dionne and Lafleur. Though he never covered them directly, he believes Dionne would have thrived in Montreal and been welcomed by the fans there both for his francophone heritage and for his talent. He also feels Lafleur would have succeeded in L.A. because the Hollywood crowd would have welcomed him as as they later did Gretzky. “Genius will out,” says Stan.

But I wasn’t sure. “I definitely think Dionne is a star in Montreal. Less sure how Lafleur makes out. Yours is a good theory, but Gretzky brought his star to L.A. Would ‘The Flower’ have blossomed in Detroit first?”

“Good question,” said Stan. “So much also depends on linemates; media treatment. As my Dad would say, ‘You can guess til the cows come home.’”

And really, guessing is all anyone can do. Still, a few people were unsure how Lafleur might have fared if he’d started in Detroit.

Roy MacGregor has covered plenty of hockey in his long career as a journalist and author. (The Washington Post once declared him to be “the closest thing there is to a poet laureate of Canadian hockey.”) He’s written features on both Lafleur and Dionne, and mentioned on the phone how insecure Lafleur was as a young player. He needed the intensive coaching he got in Montreal — and the star talent around him — to bring out his best. Feeling there was no way he would have gotten that if he’d begun his career in Detroit, Roy wondered if Lafleur may have withered as a Red Wing.

Ted Mahovlich doesn’t think so. The son of Frank Mahovlich (and author of a book about him), knew Lafleur mostly as a young fan when his father played in Montreal and later got to know Dionne (and write a book about him) while travelling with the NHL Oldtimers. Like the others, he feels the big difference between the two players was the talent they played with.

“In Guy’s first eight seasons with the Habs, how many Hall of Famers did he play with? In Marcel’s first eight years in L.A., how many Hall of Famers did he play with?”

Even so, Ted believes Lafleur’s talent would have made him a star in Los Angeles. He also believes that, even if they might not have worshipped Dionne and his more workmanlike superstardom in the same way they lavished their acclaim on Lafleur’s showmanship, Montreal fans would have loved Dionne differently. “Think about the people you’ve loved in your life. Did you love them all the same way?”

Stu Hackel offered a more critical voice than anyone I spoke to. Stu is a former NHL executive — Director of Broadcasting, Publishing and Video — a lifelong hockey fan and a longtime hockey (and music) writer who I got to know during my years working for the NHL in my publishing role with Dan Diamond and Associates. “I think both careers would have been different,” wrote Stu, “and history might have been somewhat different too.”

Like Roy MacGregor, Stu wondered what would have become of Lafleur if he’d been drafted anywhere but Montreal. “As you know, he wasn’t GUY LAFLEUR during his first three seasons in Montreal and there [were] even rumours they’d trade him. There’s been lots suggested about how and why he came into his own, from taking off his helmet to personal maturity, his marriage to Lise and birth of his first son Martin, on and on. But I think the reason has more to do with the Canadiens commitment to developing him, making him better, working him tirelessly during and after practice, and his own desire to improve.”

Especially important were the long hours put in by Claude Ruel in helping Lafleur reach his full potential and greatness. “The question,” said Stu, “is would the Red Wings or Kings have done that, or even been able to do that, considering the relatively ramshackle nature of those franchises compared to the Canadiens? There’s only one answer. No.”

Stu believes Ruel is “the secret ingredient” and a necessary one in Lafleur’s rise to greatness. “Plus,” he adds, “Lafleur had the greatest head coach of all time behind the bench and Scotty knew exactly how to handle Lafleur. (He didn’t pressure him.) I can’t imagine that happening in Detroit, where they seemed to change coaches every few months…. I don’t think whatever other club he theoretically might have played for as a young man other than Canadiens would have had the benefit of his superstardom.”

As for Dionne in Montreal, “[He] would have made them a different team,” Stu believes. “Think about their top centers in Lafleur’s first few seasons and his prime: Jacques Lemaire and Pete Mahovlich. One of those top centers would have to go in favour of Dionne. I don’t know how they’d decide which one. Lemaire was such a smart and complete player and Pete had size that Dionne did not. Going head-to-head with the other top teams of the time, the Flyers, the Sabres, the Bruins, I don’t think the matchups are as favourable to Canadiens without one of Lemaire and Mahovlich, despite Dionne’s motor and excessive skill. Those are all big and physical clubs. I don’t think Dionne fares as well as either Lemaire or Mahovlich against them. He’s no slouch, of course, so maybe the Habs still win a few Cups. But five? And four in a row? Seems to me unlikely.”

My old boss, Dan Diamond, who’d spent some time in Montreal during the Canadiens ’70s dynasty, disagreed with Stu. “Lafleur would have found a way to be a top star,” Dan believes, “and Dionne would have played a different but powerful role with a differently configured Habs team on which the top forwards would assume slightly different roles. [Ken] Dryden, Scotty and the superior defence unchanged.”

Most of the opinions so far have been somewhat Montreal-centric.

So, what about the view from Los Angeles?

Bob Miller spent 44 years as a play-by-play announcer on radio and TV with the Kings from 1973 until his retirement in 2017. Like the others, he believes the key difference was the supporting cast Lafleur had in Montreal that Dionne lacked in Los Angeles. “Lafleur was surrounded by numerous Hall of Fame candidates as his teammates,” says Bob. “When Dionne joined the Kings, he and Rogie Vachon were the only true superstars.” But Dionne “had unlimited passion, drive, and desire,” and Bob believes that would have served him well if he’d landed in Montreal.

“In my opinion,” writes Bob, “Marcel would have been equally as revered as Lafleur because Dionne was also a native of Quebec and was a TRUE goal scorer and superstar. He may not have had the speed of Lafleur, nor the ‘flowing locks,’ but with the popularity and publicity the Canadians received in Montreal and Quebec he would have benefited from that publicity blitz and from the success the team enjoyed.”

As for how Lafleur would have fared in Los Angeles, “I believe Kings fans would have been thrilled with his talent and especially his goal scoring ability,” says Bob, “but, off the ice, since I didn’t really know him that well, I wonder how he would adapt to the overall reception in L.A.?  With 12 pro teams and two major college teams, the widespread notoriety he received in Montreal might not be the same as in that hockey-crazed market.”

Bob further wondered about Lafleur’s relationship with the fans in Montreal and how that might have translated to Los Angeles. “Was he involved, approachable, friendly and down to earth? Or was he aloof? At that time, it was very important that he join the efforts to try and promote the game in the L.A. market.”

I didn’t know the answer to that, but I knew who would.

“Guy Lafleur, early on in his career, had a very shy personality,” said Scotty Bowman, “but he was always the most pleasant guy you could ever imagine.”

Dick Irvin elaborated. “Lafleur was terrific with the fans. In my experience, I never heard of him refusing to sign an autograph or not showing up at a charity event. I was involved in organizing a few of those over the years and whenever Guy was asked he showed up right on time. And not only in Montreal. I recall the first time the Canadiens played in Calgary when, after the game, security finally had to get him out of the mob of autograph-seekers so the team bus could leave for the airport to get on their charter. He was signing everything for everybody.

“I am sure he would have worked very hard to help sell the game in L.A.,” said Dick.

There’s no real way to know how their careers — and hockey history — might have been different, but Bob Miller sums it up nicely when he says: “Montreal could not go wrong whether they picked Lafleur or Dionne. Both are all-time great players.”

I received another email from Don Weekes recently. He’s the guy who got me going on the Fred Waghorne story two months ago. This time, Don was asking about the derivation of the hockey term ‘deke’ … which isn’t used as much as it used to be since the cool kids decided they prefer the term ‘dangle’ (which I don’t like!).

For those who don’t know, the word deke (or dangle) refers to when the puck-carrier makes moves to fake out the goalie or another opposing player. The easy answer to where the word comes from is that it’s a short form of the word decoy.

The longer answer is a little more interesting.

According to the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary:

Deke originated as a shortened form of decoy. American writer Ernest Hemingway used deke as a noun referring to hunting decoys in a number of his works, including his 1950 novel Across the River and into the Trees (“I offered to put the dekes out with him”). In the 1940s, deke began appearing in ice-hockey contexts in Canadian print sources in reference to the act of faking an opponent out of position—much like how decoy is used for luring one into a trap.

The Oxford English Dictionary has things happening later, noting a Time magazine story about Dickie Moore in 1960 as the source:

On the ice, Moore is one of the league’s best players in the split-second art of faking a goalie out of position. ‘I’ve developed a little play of my own,’ he says. ‘It’s a kind of fake shot—we call them “deeks” for decoys’.

Apparently, The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles Online says it took a few more years for the word to be spelled as deke.

But that certainly isn’t the case.

The story about Dickie Moore and deek/deke made the rounds again after his death on December 19, 2015. His obituary in Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper resulted in four straight days of letters to the editor that attracted the attention of writer Gregory Bryce, who commented on it in his WordWatching column for the Whitehorse Star on January 8, 2016.

Bryce reports that the first letter quoted the Oxford English Dictionary and the 1960 Time story. The second letter writer argues that “Dickie Moore may have invented the term ‘deek,’ but he most certainly did not invent” the move. The third letter was from a woman who said that, as a young girl in a small Ohio town in the 1950s, she played tackle football with the boys and “was always picked for a team because of my speed and ‘deaking’ ability.”

The fourth letter states: “While several dictionaries do indeed date the term’s first appearance in print to the Nov. 21, 1960 edition of Time, it was feinting its way through hockey’s lexicon long before that. Writing in the Toronto Daily Star on March 3, 1937, for instance, Andy Lytle described Toronto Maple Leafs owner and manager Conn Smythe watching his team practise, ‘squirming in sympathy as Apps or Conacher would burst through and “deke” [Leafs goalie Turk] Broda.”

Turns out that letter, which appeared in The Globe on January 1, 2016, was written by my friend and colleague Stephen Smith, and when I went looking for the term in newspapers after receiving Don’s email some eight years later, I also came across that 1937 story. So, it certainly seems that “deke” is older than the 1960s, the 1950s, and even the 1940s.

But how old?

Using the terms “deke” and “hockey” together, I found hits in Canadian newspapers going back to the 1890s, American papers to the 1880s, and British newspapers to the 1830s. And yet, in most of those early hits, the article was as likely as not to be about someone whose last name was Hockey … or Rockey … and instead of “deke” it was often Duke.

Even into the 1900s, when the search term “hockey” almost always hit on the ice sport, you’d get Duke, or desk, or disk, or duck for “deke”. And when you did actually get the word deke, it was almost always someone whose name, or nickname was Deke, or a reference to the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, whose sports teams — and even whose general members — were often referred to as the Dekes.

But when all was said and done, the earliest usage of deke as a hockey term really does seem to come in 1937 … although a month before that March 3 Toronto Star article.

In an earlier column for The Star on February 9, 1937, Andy Lytle quotes a conversation he’d had with Turk Broda in which the Leafs rookie goalie rated Neil Colville and Cecil Dillon of the New York Rangers near the top of his list of troublesome opponents.

“That Colville,” says Broda, “he dekes me.”

“He what?” responds Lytle.

“Dekes me,” Broda explains. “D-e-k-e-s. You know. Makes me take the first move then makes a sucker of me.”

Now, Lytle had been a newspaper man in Vancouver since about 1914. He wrote for the Vancouver Sun starting around 1921 and was their sports editor for years before moving to Toronto in 1934. So, he knew hockey … but he doesn’t appear to be familiar with the term “deke.”

Lytle was obviously enamoured of the new word, and used it in his lede the next day after the Rangers’ 5–1 victory over Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens. “Five times last night,” writes Lytle, “Lester Patrick’s Rangers ‘deked’ our Mr. Broda and all we got back in return was a third period goal by Gordon Drillon.”

So, clearly, NHL players were using the word deke as early as 1937. It’s hard to believe Broda was the only one … unless he’s the one who actually coined the phrase. (No proof of that yet.) Still, it doesn’t really seem to become prevalent in hockey writing until the 1940s.

The earliest reference to deke in a Montreal paper appears to come in a Dink Carroll column in The Gazette on December 31, 1941. In that column, Paul Thompson (who was then coaching the Black Hawks) speaks of his improvement as an NHL player in Chicago from 1931 to 1939 after struggling in New York from 1926 through 1931:

“You get smarter as you go along,” said Thompson. “Instead of freezing when you get inside a defence and find you’ve got only the goalie to beat, you start using your noodle…. You take a good look first and see if there’s an opening. If there isn’t, you try to make one by faking the goalie out of position. ‘Making a deke,’ we call it. If you can get him to make the first move, you’ve got him beat…”

Interestingly, the first use of the word deke I found as an actual short form for decoy in a story about ducks comes in The Modesto Bee (of Modesto, California) in 1940. So, perhaps the hockey players actually beat the hunters — and Hemingway! — to this one.

But probably not… Deke as a short form of decoy just seems to make too much sense.

The city of Owen Sound officially celebrated the 1924 Memorial Cup victory of the Owen Sound Greys 100 years ago today, on April 2, 1924. The Greys had won Canada’s national junior hockey championship on Friday, March 28, 1924. Following a 5–3 victory over the Calgary Canadians in the opener of the two-game, total-goals series in Winnipeg two nights before, the Greys claimed the title with a 2–2 tie that gave them the series by a score of 7–5.

As the Owen Sound Sun-Times reported on the morning of Saturday, March 29, the Greys “will lose no time leaving Winnipeg on their way to the old home town.” They were booked to leave the Manitoba capital via a Canadian National Railway train on Sunday morning, March 30. According to the Sun-Times, if the Greys’ train was on time, it would arrive in Toronto by 7:20 a.m. on April 1, giving the team “an hour to catch a train for Owen Sound arriving here on Tuesday at noon.”

Perhaps the train out of Winnipeg was delayed because, while the Greys did arrive in Toronto on the morning of April 1, they spent the rest of the day there and stayed overnight at the Windermere Hotel. Located at 232 Jarvis Street, just around the corner from the Mutual Street Arena, the Windermere had been the Greys’ home-away-from home in Toronto throughout the 1923–24 season. (The hotel had also been home to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds while they were in Toronto en route to winning the Allan Cup — Canada’s national senior championship — and was “patting itself on the back” for having hosted both teams, reported the Sault Star.)

According to the Toronto Star, “[tomorrow the Greys] will land in Owen Sound at noon, and they will get a welcome that will make the natives think Victoria Day, Dominion Day, and Christmas Day all fall on April 2 this year.”

The party started even before the Greys’ train from Toronto arrived in Owen Sound at 1 pm (not noon). As the Sun-Times reported, during stops in Hanover, Dobbinton, Tara, and Shallow Lake, there were brief receptions for the team at each station. In Owen Sound, businesses had been encouraged to shutdown from noon to 3:30, and shop fronts and store windows were decorated to mark the occasion. Every car owner in the city was encouraged to be at the train station about 20 minutes head of the scheduled arrival to form a parade to city hall.

In a city of just 12,000 people, 8,000 citizens lined the parade route. As the train pulled into the station, “all the whistles in the city let loose, and the train came to a stop in the middle of a wildly cheering mob of fans.” Each player was cheered individually as they got off the train and made their way to bench seats mounted on a huge truck. “[Team manager] Jimmy Jamieson was in charge of the OHA trophy, while [coach] Earl Hicks held the Memorial Cup where all might see it.”

As the truck left for City Hall, it was accompanied by others from the city fire department “with sirens shrieking and bells ringing.” These trucks were followed by The City Band, a parade of Alderman, the Grey Regiment Highland Pipe Band, and members of the city trades and labour councils. Students from the Owen Sound Collegiate Institute surrounded the team truck and marched in the parade. The Orangeman’s Fife and Drum band headed a procession of cars bearing the parents and relatives of the players, while another Highland Pipe Band led the rest of the cars.

The bulk of the large crowd was already waiting in the Market Square behind City Hall. “All pent up enthusiasm which has been welling in the hearts of people was let loose when the truck came to a stop and led by Mayor Christie cheer after cheer rent the air, and when they were through cheering someone started it again, and another series was given and by the time the crowd became quiet the truck was completely surrounded, and jammed in so thick that it was impossible to make a move.”

Mayor W.J. (William James) Christie made a short speech, which was followed by another from the president of the Board of Trade, former mayor William T. Harris. “Everybody is happy, and why not?” Harris shouted. “Everybody is glad they are Owen Sounders, and why not? We are proud of the Greys, and why not?”

Then, manager Jimmy Jamieson was called on to speak on behalf of the team. Before he could, the fans shouted for Hedley Smith, the 16-year-old goalie who was recognized as the star of the final game. Smith was “forced to stand up on top of the hood of the truck, where everyone could get a good view of him, and he was cheered to the echo by the enthusiastic crowd.” When Jamieson’s speech ended, and the event broke up, “Smith was carried to a waiting auto on the shoulders of a number of his admirers, and was soon on his way home, as were the other members of the team.” The reception was then brought to a close by the singing of the National Anthem.

That evening, city council hosted the team and local family members for a dinner at the Paterson House hotel beginning at 6 o’clock. At 8 p.m., a series of events were staged at three local theaters — the Opera House (now the Roxy Theatre), the Classic Theatre, and the Savoy Theatre — with songs and speeches. The players put in an appearance at each show, and apparently were presented with commemorative pocket watches from the city at each of the first two stops. It was all a fitting conclusion to a season that had seen Owen Sound give its team tremendous support all the way to the Memorial Cup.

It’s not clear what the capacity was at the Riverside Arena, where the Greys played their home games. Built between September and January of 1912–13 (and destroyed by a fire in 1944), the Riverside Arena — located near the current site of the downtown Shoppers Drug Mart at 10th Street and 1st Avenue West — was the city’s main hockey rink until the Owen Sound Arena was built in 1938. Even so, pictures and information are hard to come by. A story from 1921 notes a capacity crowd of “about 2,000 people” at a game that season, so we can assume the Riverside Arena held about that many fans. Perhaps a few more than that had been sneaking in to some of the Greys’ 11 home games in 1923–24.

“Owners of ladders in the vicinity of Riverside Arena have been wondering lately where their property has been vanishing to,” reported the Sun-Times on February 5, 1924. “They found out today when a collection was rounded up around the rink. The youngsters have been borrowing the ladders for the purpose of watching the hockey matches free of charge. They set the ladders to the windows just back of the balcony and manage somehow to clamber in. The rink management figure if they can keep tab of the ladders they can solve the problem of non-paying spectators.”

With the majority of their games on the road during the 1923–24 seasons, Greys fans were known to ride the rails to Toronto in large numbers to take in the games there. In fact, after winning the OHA championship against Kitchener in Toronto, Mayor Christie declared a half-holiday in Owen Sound three days later (March 17, 1924), so those who wished to could leave work early to catch a train to Toronto for the Greys one-game playoff that night with the champions of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association, the North Bay Trappers. The Sun-Times on game day noted that 200 fans had left for Toronto on the early train, and with the half-day holiday, it’s not unlikely that more made their way there on a later train. “Tonight will look like Grey Country night in Toronto,” the paper said, “and if the Greys win it will sound like it too.”

The Toronto Star noted that attendance for the Greys–Trappers game was the largest of the season in Toronto, “amateur or professional,” although no numbers were reported. (The Mutual Street Arena held about 7,500 for hockey.) North Bay led 1–0 early and 2–1 until midway through the second, but third-period goals from Owen Sound stars Cooney Weiland and Butch Keeling (his second of the game) proved the difference. As the Greys held on for a 4–2 victory in their toughest game of the season to that point, The Globe reported that “Owen Sound supporters kept up a continuous din and noise during the last seven minutes. They knew that their favorites were ‘in’ and that North Bay was fighting a losing cause.”

Those who stayed behind in Owen Sound followed the game through a bulletin service provided by the Sun-Times and celebrated the victory with bonfires and fireworks. When the team returned home the next day, the town was decked out in flags and bunting and 5,000 fans were on hand to greet them. A day later (March 19), it was back to Toronto to face the Quebec champions from Westmount High School. Junior hockey in Quebec was believed to be weak, and no one expected much of a contest, so the crowd in Toronto was small that night. Still, the 18–3 romp for the Greys — behind eight goals from Keeling — must have been a surprise.

After the game, the Greys went directly from the arena to Union Station, where a train due to leave at 10:45 was delayed about 15 minutes to wait for them. The team was heading directly to Winnipeg, where they would arrive nine hours behind schedule around 11 p.m. on Friday night, March 21. Before playing for the Memorial Cup, the Greys had to catch another train at 9 a.m. the next morning to make a short trip back to Ontario to face the Kenora Thistles, who were champions of the Thunder Bay District. Game one in that series was on Saturday night, March 22, at 8:30 Central Time.

Despite reminders in the Sun-Times, not everyone at home in Owen Sound was aware of the time difference. Thousands of people began showing up outside the Sun-Times office at 8 p.m. Eastern. They had to wait more than two hours before reports began to show up around 10:30 local time. Soon, updates were arriving fast and furious. And as they had been thought the season, local telephone operators were kept busy with calls requesting updates.

The final score in an 11–7 Greys victory didn’t come in until well after midnight, but there were still some 3,000 fans waiting in the street to cheer the news. Two nights later, the Greys would suffer just their second loss of the season (and first since December) in a 5–4 Kenora victory. Both captain Larry Cain and manager Jimmy Jamieson claimed Owen Sound was cheated out of the tying goal by the goal judge, but the Greys still took the two-game series by a total score of 15–12.

For the Memorial Cup games, crowds of 4,500 and 5,000 stood in the streets of Owen Sound awaiting what would be quite detailed reports from Winnipeg which the Sun-Times displayed with bulletins and lantern slides. Goals from Keeling in the first and second periods, two from Weiland in the third, plus 34 saves on the night from Hedley Smith (who was knocked cold in the third period, but stayed in the game), led the Greys to a 5–3 victory.

Winnipeg papers claimed Calgary outplayed Owen Sound in the second game, but everyone hailed Hedley Smith as the hero after he stopped nine shots in the first period, 16 in the second, and 24 in the third to preserve a 2–2 tie. Still, Jimmy Jamieson claimed the Greys played exactly as ordered, and that after Cooney Weiland scored early in the first period (he would score again late in the third) the team went into a defensive shell. Yes, Smith was called on to make 49 saves, but most of the shots, Jamieson said, came from long range and few were really dangerous.

Still, in Calgary, a headline in the Herald said “Superior Goal Tending of Smith Deciding Factor” and the game story claimed the 16-year-old Owen Sound goalie (he would turn 17 on April 23) “showed form that rivalled the best in paid company.” Sports editor W.J. Finlay of the Manitoba Free Press thought Smith “stood out last night like a brilliant gem amid clear darkness,” using his “magic stick [and] lithe and flashing body [to] turn aside bullet drives and barrage-like attacks.” A story from Winnipeg to The Globe in Toronto said, “Owen Sound citizens, who are proud of their valiant young athletes, should erect a monument in memory of the performance of Hedley Smith.”

Smith himself credited the entire team. In reflecting on the 1924 victory in a 1962 story in the Sun-Times, Smith said: “Although we had nine players on the roster, most of the time six played the whole game. Teams change players at a fast rate today and this makes for a faster brand of hockey, but don’t ever think that Weiland, Keeling, Cain, [Teddy] Graham, and [Fred] Elliott couldn’t go if they had to. We had a terrific defense that year, and the opposition had few chances to work in for close shots. They were mostly long ones as Graham and Cain kept the players away from the net.”

In putting up their 22-2-2 record en route to the Memorial Cup a century ago, the Greys outscored their opponents 204-69

.

            *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Part III – By George, It’s Fred!

One hundred years later, there’s reason to doubt Owen Sound’s success during the 1923–24 season. Not that they weren’t a dominant team. Judging by their record — and newspaper reports from all across the country — they certainly were. But, they may have cheated! Perhaps they didn’t know it … but somebody must have!

After defeating Kitchener to win the OHA championship on March 14, 1924, the Greenshirts announced they would protest the Greys’ victory. Kitchener team secretary Eddie Hearn notified the Ontario Hockey Association they believed Owen Sound’s George Elliott was really Fred Elliott playing under the birth certificate of his younger brother. A formal protest was made the following day.

Elliott had come to Owen Sound in the fall of 1923 from his hometown of Clinton, Ontario. He even seems to have attended high school in Owen Sound, as an 18-year-old should have. But, strangely, throughout the 1923–24 season, newspapers seemed to flip-flop in referring to him as both George and Fred — although mostly Fred. It appears he was registered with the OHA that season as George Fred Elliott, and the Greys’ official championship photo after that season identifies him as G.F. Elliott … but it ain’t necessarily so.

Kitchener’s protest was formally made on Saturday, March 15 and presented to Greys manager Jimmy Jamieson in Toronto that evening. “Word through Manager Jamieson to local executive men and from officials discount the protest,” reported the Owen Sound Sun-Times on Monday, March 17. “It is pointed out that Elliott was given a certificate by the OHA and that he played against Milverton, near which town he lives without any remarks from the Milverton management. As Elliott played for Clinton it is certain that Milverton knew that his playing was in order.”

Indeed, both Fred Elliott (a defenseman and forward) and his brother George (a goalie) had played for Clinton against Milverton during the 1922–23 season. George Elliott was still playing goal for the Clinton junior team when Milverton defeated them for the OHA Group 14 title in 1923–24. So, certainly, Milverton knew who the two brothers were. Still, they didn’t necessarily know their birth dates, and that would seem to be the issue more so than their names.

As Jamieson had confidently predicted, the OHA dismissed the Greenshirts’ protest at a noon meeting on March 19. (If it had been upheld, the Greys would have been disqualified, their wins against Kitchener and North Bay wiped out, and those two teams would have played off to continue their Memorial Cup hunt.) As it was, a lawyer representing the Kitchener team “had practically no evidence of any nature,” the Sun-Times said. “On the other hand, the Owen Sound club had Elliott’s birth certificate, his hockey registration certificate, an affidavit from himself, and affidavits from his parents to the effect that he was George Fred Elliott, mentioned in his certificate, which gives his date of birth as 1905.”

But he wasn’t George Fred Elliott! And he wasn’t born in 1905.

Genealogical records confirm that George Franklin Elliott of Clinton, Ontario, really was born in 1905, but our friend “Frecky” as Fred was known, was actually Frederick H. (Henry) Elliott … and he was born in 1903. Given OHA rules required that a player had not yet reached his 20th birthday on the first day of January in the season in which he intended competing — and that Elliott would have been almost 21 by January 1, 1924 — he was most certainly overage. Someone in the family must have forged the records somehow.

The Greys might not have known this, but certainly Fred and his parents did!

The 1911 Canadian Census has the spelling of the family name as Elliot, but it clearly shows eldest child Frederick as the 8-year-old son of William and his wife Ada with his birth noted as February 1903. George is 6 with his birth listed as February 1905. The 1921 Census has no dates, but Frederick is now 18 and George 16. (There are also younger siblings Reta and John who have similarly aged 10 years.) Furthermore, the Clinton News-Record of February 19, 1903, has a birth notice for twin boys born to Mr. and Mrs W.J. Elliott the previous day; February 18. Interestingly, Ontario birth records available through Ancestry (thank you Jonathon Jackson!) list William John Elliott (who, according to the Clinton newspaper, died just two weeks later on March 3) and Frederick H. Elliott being born on February 17, 1903…

But this is most certainly the same person.

And he was NOT born in 1905.

So, somebody got away with something!