show and tell with nels stewart

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Have Stick, Will Travel: Hall-of-Fame centreman Nels Stewart was born in Montreal on this date, another Friday, in 1899. He was a Montreal Maroon in the 1920s, and a dominant one, leading the NHL in scoring in 1926, as his team surged to  a Stanley Cup championship. He won the Hart Trophy that year, too, as league MVP, adding a second Hart to his quiver in 1930. After seven years in Montreal, his contract was sold in 1932 to the Boston Bruins, for whom he played in parts of four seasons, serving as team captain in 1934-35. He’s pictured here in ’34 among fans and friends at a Boston community hockey clinic. Nels Stewart finished out his NHL career with the New York Americans before calling it a career in 1940. (Image: Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection)

ray bourque, and people like that, who are the best who ever played

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Best In Show: “He’s had one of the finest careers of any player who ever played, ever, in the NHL at any position,” is what Boston Bruins president Harry Sinden said in 2001 when Ray Bourque announced his retirement. Bourque had played 22 years in the league by then, more than 20 of those with the Bruins. “Trying to be as objective as I can be rather than being naturally subjective about Ray,” Sinden continued, “I say he’s right there with [Bobby] Orr and [Doug] Harvey, Brad Park, [Larry] Robinson, [Denis] Potvin, and people like that who are the best who ever played.” Born in Montreal on a Wednesday of today’s date in 1960, Ray Bourque is 63 today, so here’s saluting him. (Image: Denis Courville, Fonds La Presse, BAnQ Vieux-Montréal)

outstanding in his field

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Jolting Joe: “They say, as a puck-carrying defenceman, there never was another hockey player who came close to Joe Simpson in his prime.” That was Jim Coleman writing in 1973, on the occasion of Simpson’s death on Christmas day that year at the age of 80. Here he is in 1921 when he was starring for the WCHL Edmonton Eskimos. He was 28 by then, a decorated veteran of the First World War. Coleman suggested that his best years came before he went to war, and that may have been so, but the fact is, too, that in 1923 Newsy Lalonde told NHL President Frank Calder that Simpson was the greatest hockey player on the planet, bar none. Simpson eventually made it to the NHL, playing with and coaching the New York Americans in the later ’20s. (Image: McDermid Studio, courtesy of Glenbow Library and Archives Collection, Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary)

saskatoon buries

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Sharpshot: The Saskatoon Quakers of the North Saskatchewan Senior Hockey League represented Canada at the 1934 World Championships in Italy and, yes, they did us proud, collecting gold. All in all, the Quakers played 37 games across nine European countries that winter, compiling a record of 34-2-1. They finished up in France, winning the Paris Cup on March 12 with a 3-0 victory over the Boston Rangers. Artist Paul Ordner was on hand to animate the action, including this shot from Saskatoon’s number 10, Cliff Lake, which beat Ranger goaltender Clem Harnedy. (Image: Bibliothèque Nationale de France)

slip of the tongue

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For The Defence: Born in Montreal on a Tuesday of today’s date in 1953, Ian Turnbull is 70 today. He was a high-scoring defenceman for the Montreal Junior Canadiens (as pictured here), winning a Memorial Cup with them in 1970. In a draft class that saw Denis Potvin, Lanny McDonald, Bob Gainey, and Rick Middleton selected ahead of him, the Toronto Maple Leafs picked Turnbull 15th overall in 1973. He went on to star on the Leafly blueline for nine seasons before finishing his NHL career with stints with the Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins. (Image: Fonds La Presse, BAnQ Vieux-Montréal)

little river band

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Puck Battle: Photographer Frederick Bertram Cooper caught these skaters in his lens circa 1912—14, out for a skate and a shinny on the Elbow River at Calgary, Alberta. Those are the domes of St. Mary’s Catholic Church off in the distance. (Image: CU173688, Courtesy of Glenbow Library and Archives Collection, Libraries and Digital Collections, University of Calgary)

ready, set, goal

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Gardienne Variety: Goaltender Christiane Daumont poses at the Palais Des Sports in Paris in December of 1931. Her team, Droit-au-But (a.k.a. DAB), dominated France’s women’s league through the 1930s. They (and she) were particularly brilliant in the winter of 1931-32, when DAB went undefeated through ten games on the way to winning another national women’s championship. (Image: Bibliothèque Nationale de France)

street-skating man

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Out And About: A young would-be Jean Béliveau was tromping the streets of Quebec City in the 1950s, presumably, when photographer Rosemary Eaton paused him for a portrait. The Christmas-coloured Quebec Aces of the QSHL were, of course, Béliveau’s team in the early ’50, before he joined the Montreal Canadiens for the 1953-54 NHL season.  (Image: Rosemary Gilliat Eaton, Library and Archives Canada)

starred & striped

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Sen, Amerk, Eagle, Bruin: Of the four NHL teams for which the Jeff Kalbfleisch worked the defence in the 1930s, only Boston’s Bruins remain. Born in New Hamburg, Ontario, on a Monday of this date in 1911, Kalbfleisch’s NHL exploits are hardly ever sung, but he did do brief duty as well for the (original) Ottawa Senators as well as the New York Americans and St. Louis Eagles. He played in 41 NHL games in all, regular-season and playoff, without breaking through for a goal, though he did earn four assists. Kalbfleisch died in 1960 at the age of 48.