right wingers

out and about with babe dye

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Dye Job: Born in 1898 on a Friday of today’s date in Hamilton, Ontario, right winger Babe Dye was one of the sharpest-shooting NHLers in the 1920s. He twice led the league in scoring playing, with the Toronto St. Patricks in those years, and won a Stanley Cup championship with the team in 1922. In 1926, Charlie Querrie sold him to the Chicago Black Hawks. He was 28 that season, and scored 25 goals in 41 gams for the Hawks, before injuries slowed him and brought his illustrious career to an end in 1931. He played football for the Toronto Argonauts, too, and baseball for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Bisons, and Baltimore Orioles of the International League. Babe Dye died in 1962 at the age of 63. He was posthumously elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, in 1970.

ron ellis, 1945—2024

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Godspeed to Ron Ellis: so sorry t see the news today that the former Leaf right winger has died at the age of 79. Born in Lindsay, Ontario, he was only ever a Toronto Maple Leaf in the NHL: after winning a Memorial Cup with the OHA Toronto Marlboros in 1964, he caught on with the Leafs in 1964-65. A doughty, dutiful winger with a scoring touch — he scored 20 goals or more in 11 of his 16 seasons in the blue and the white — he won a Stanley Cup championship with the Leafs in 1967. In 1972, he was a key member of Canada’s Soviet-downing Summit Series team. Ellis settled in as number 8 early in his Leaf career — as seen here — but in 1968 former Toronto great Ace Bailey made his admiration of Ellis clear by asking the team to unretire his own number 6 so that Ellis could wear it. Ellis did that for the remainder of his career. When he retired in 1981, the number was re-retired.

art installation

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Out Standing, In A Field: Art Gagne’s hockey career started out in his hometown of Ottawa before he went west in 1920 to play in the Big Four for the Edmonton Eskimos. I like to think that he spent his winters wandering Alberta’s byways in between games, like some skate-shod Don Quixote, but I guess that’s probably not what happened. He was with the WCHL Eskimos in 1923 when they battled the NHL’s Ottawa Senators for the Stanley Cup (and lost, in three games). Gagne went on to play (and well) for the Montreal Canadiens (he scored 20 goals in 44 games in 1927-28) along with the Boston Bruins, Senators, and Detroit Falcons. (He scored 19 goals for Ottawa in 1930-31). Art Gagne died on a Wednesday of today’s date in 1988. He was 91.  (Image: Glenbow Museum,  NC-6-7063)

lorne star

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New York State of Play: A right winger out of Stoughton, Saskatchewan, Lorne Carr made his start in the NHL with the New York Rangers in 1933, but it was with their rivals, the Americans, that he made his initial mark in the league later that decade. After seven seasons with the Amerks, Carr shipped out in 1941 to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He played five seasons with the Leafs, inheriting Charlie Conacher’s number 9 and putting up some impressive offensive numbers in the somewhat diminished wartime version of the NHL. In 1943-44, Carr collected 36 goals and 74 points in 50 games, finishing third in league scoring behind Boston’s Herb Cain and Doug Bentley of Chicago. He was a First Team All-Star in 1943 and in ’44. He helped Toronto claim two Stanley Cup championships, in 1942 and 1945. Lorne Carr died on a Saturday of today’s date in 2007. He was 96.

the cat came back

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The diminutive right winger Johnny (Black Cat) Gagnon played most of his hockey for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1930s, often on a line with Howie Morenz and Aurèle Joliat, but midway through the 1939-40 NHL season, Montreal sold his contract to the New York Americans. He and his new team were back at the Forum on Saturday, March 2, 1940. As seen here, there were gifts for him, pre-game, including this handsome cellarette (a liquor cabinet) presented by a deputation of fans from Gagnon’s hometown, Chicoutimi. That’s Le Canada journalist Paul Parizeau on the right, lending a hand, holding his hat.

Once the furniture had been cleared from the ice, New York surged to a 2-0 lead before Montreal tied the game, then went ahead in the second on a goal by Louis Trudel. It was left to Gagnon to come through as the spoiler and tie the game. Set up by Pat Egan and Tommy Anderson, he beat Montreal goaltender Mike Karakas with a slapshot, no less, as described by Montreal’s Gazette.

Ten minutes of overtime solved nothing and the game finished in a 3-3 tie. In fact, the overtime went on longer than it meant to, with the bell failing to chime to end the game, and referee Mickey Ion oblivious to the time. Finally, New York coach Red Dutton jumped on the ice to signal that it was all over.

The following night in New York, the teams met again. By the end of that night, it was almost over for the Canadiens, as the Americans prevailed 3-0 to push Montreal to the brink of mathematical elimination from the playoffs with five games to go in the regular season. Montreal would be the only team to fail to make the post-season grade that year, as they finished dead last in the seven-team NHL, nine points adrift of the Americans.

Johnny Gagnon died on a Wednesday of today’s date in 1984. He was 78.

(Image: Conrad Poirier, BAnQ Vieux-Montréal)

double boom

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Boom + Boom: Bernie Geoffrion died of stomach cancer on a Saturday of this date in 2006. He was 75. That very night at Montreal’s Bell Centre, the Canadiens retired Geoffrion’s number 5 in a previously scheduled ceremony. On yet another Saturday, March 11, this one in 1961, Geoffrion scored his 47th and 48th goals of the season on Boston goaltender Bruce Gamble. Geoffrion would win the Art Ross Trophy that year as the NHL’s leading scorer, finishing the regular season with 50 goals and 95 points, five points clear of teammate Jean Béliveau. (Image: Tex Coulter)

gaineyesque

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“The curly-headed lad from the lakehead has speed, power, and a vicious shot. He revels in the heavy-going and can carry a big load alone when a team is faltering.” That was the Montreal Gazette‘s 1927 scouting report on Jimmy Ward, the young right winger from Fort William, Ontario, who’d just signed with the local Maroons. A steady scorer and tenacious checker, Ward went on to play 11 seasons with the team, becoming one of its most respected players, and winning a championship, to boot, when the Maroons claimed the Stanley Cup in 1935. He suffered a serious concussion that same year after a mid-season collision with Boston’s Eddie Shore. Ward’s luck was better than Toronto’s Ace Bailey, whose NHL career was ended as the result of a 1933 clash with Shore; Ward was back on the ice after a little more than two weeks’ convalescence. After the Maroons folded in 1938, he played his final NHL season with the Canadiens. In the 1980s, Gazette columnist Tim Burke asked a colleague who, as a boy, had watched Ward play whether he was the Bob Gainey of his time. “Yeah, but I think he was better,” Marc Thibeault opined. “He scored more in the clutch.” Ward died on a Thursday of today’s date in 1990, at the age of 84.

the decider

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Lace Up: The Sudden Death Kid they came to call him, that spring of 1939. Mel Hill was a right winger, at the time, for the Boston Bruins, a 24-year-old product of Argyle, Manitoba, who was playing in his second NHL season. The Bruins’ Stanley Cup semi-finals series against the New York Rangers was the first in NHL history to go to seven games, with Boston prevailing on the strength of Hill’s three overtime winners. In early April of ’39, he ended the deciding game when he Bill Cowley set him up in the third overtime to put a puck past Bert Gardiner. Hill another two (non-overtime) goals in the Finals that year as the Bruins dismissed the Toronto Maple Leafs in five games to take the Cup. Hill won another Cup with Boston in 1941 before going the Leafs, with whom he won a third championship in 1945. Mel Hill died on a Thursday of this date in 1996 at the age of 82. (Image: Leslie Jones, Boston Public Library)

tuning peg

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It’s A Wrap: Born on a Thursday of this same date in 1913, Peggy O’Neil played the right wing for the Boston Bruins in the 1930s. He was named James at the start, Jim, originating in Semans, Saskatchewan, which you’ll find on the map between Punnichy and Elmer Lach’s hometown of Nokomis. (O’Neil played parts of couple of seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, too.) Here, in a scene from February of 1937, O’Neil undergoes a restorative wrapping by Bruins’ trainer Win Green at Boston Garden. (Image: ©Richard Merrill, Boston Public Library)

guilt trip

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Binned For His Sins: Toronto Maple Leafs’ right winger Bill Ezinicki visits the penalty bench at the Montreal Forum at some point in the late 1940s. The absence of gloves and Ezinicki’s reputation both suggest he’s been exchanging punches with a galled Canadien, maybe Murph Chamberlain or Ken Reardon. A three-time Stanley Cup winner with Toronto, Ezinicki was a bumptious and thereby much-sanctioned member of the Leafs; he led the NHL in penalty minutes in 1948-49 and almost did it again the following year, finishing a minute behind Gus Kyle of the New York Rangers. Off the ice, Ezinicki was an accomplished golfer, turning pro after his hockey career reached its end in the later 1950s.

diesel power

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Benchview: Born in Capreol, Ontario, on a Wednesday of this same date in 1933, Doug Mohns started out a defenceman, winning a pair of Memorial Cups with the Barrie Flyers in 1951 and ’53. In the NHL, the man they called Diesel played a decade with Boston, which is where coach Phil Watson converted him to a winger. With Chicago, he made his name as a member of the Black Hawks’ high-yield Scooter Line, lining up alongside Ken Wharram and Stan Mikita and scoring 20 goals or more in four consecutive seasons. He later played for the Minnesota North Stars, Atlanta Flames, and Washington Capitals before setting skates and sticks aside. The Stanley Cup eluded him: all in all, Mohns played 1,484 NHL games without winning a championship. (Artist: Tex Coulter)

can take care of himself in any kind of sailing

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Hot Shots: Ranger linemates (left to right) Grant Warwick, Ab DeMarco, and Hank Goldup face the camera in January of 1945 during a week in which the trio accounted for seven Ranger goals in two games.

It was on this date in 1999, another Monday, that former New York Rangers right wing Grant Warwick died at the age of 77. He was just 20 in 1942 when he was voted the NHL’s top rookie, winning the Calder Trophy ahead of Montreal’s Buddy O’Connor and Bob Goldham of Toronto. A proud Saskatchewan newspaper reported on the distinction: “Warwick, native of Regina, is just five feet six, but he packs about 175 pounds on that frame and can take care of himself in any kind of sailing on the ice.” He played parts of seven seasons with the Rangers through the ‘40s, twice notching 20 goals; he later had a 22-goal season with the Boston Bruins before finishing up his big-league career with the Montreal Canadiens in 1949-50. Skating alongside his younger brother Bill, he was the playing coach of the Penticton Vs when they represented Canada at the World Championships in West Germany and beat the Soviet Union 5-0 to win gold.