bob cole, 1933—2024
He’ll be missed — oh, baby, will he. So sorry to hear that Bob Cole died last night in his hometown, St. John’s, Newfoundland, aged 90. The inimitable Hockey Night In Canada play-by-play man worked his last NHL game in 2019 from Montreal’s Bell Centre, with the Canadiens host the Toronto Maple Leafs. His very first call? That was 55 years ago yesterday when, on Thursday, April 24, 1969, he was in voice in a CBC radio broadcast booth as Montreal beat the hometown Boston Bruins 2-1 in double overtime. Jean Béliveau scored the winner (the only overtime goal of his career) to wrap-up a Stanley Cup semi-final in six games.
leafs + bruins, 1935: talking pep, a north bay nugget
When last we looked in on the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs of 1935, they were battling hard: that’s over here.
Today we’re gazing on a pair of key goals from that same game at Maple Leaf Gardens on Saturday, March 30, 89 years ago. Focus your eye first on the image below, which shows the moment in the third period that Toronto’s Baldy Cotton scored to tie the game at 1-1. That’s (balding) Cotton departing the scene in exultation. The Bruins’ #11 is Red Beattie and beyond him, I think that might be Charlie Sands. If they appear dejected, teammates Tiny Thompson (in the goal) and (behind the net) Eddie Shore seem to be directing their energy into outrage and remonstration. As it turned out, referee Ag Smith did call off the goal, ruling that Cotton was infringing on Thompson’s crease when he scored. (Cue the aforepictured chaos.)
As previously mentioned, Toronto winger Regis (a.k.a. Pep) Kelly scored on the ensuing powerplay to tie the game. Then in overtime, the 21-year-old product of North Bay, Ontario, scored again to seal the deal for the Leafs. The top image shows one of those goals, though I don’t know which one. That’s Kelly with stick raised nearest the camera; his helmeted teammate is, I think, Joe Primeau. Tiny Thompson is the dispirited goaltender, with Eddie Shore facing him. Boston’s #4 is defenceman Bert McInenly, with Babe Siebert (#12) and Red Beattie (#11) turning away in disappointment.
(Images: City of Toronto Archives, Globe and Mail fonds, Fonds 1266, Items 36277, 36272)
ed chadwick, 1933—2024
Sorry to be seeing news today of the death of former Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Ed Chadwick at the age of 90. Born in Fergus, Ontario, on May 8, 1933, he made his NHL debut in February of 1956 at the age of 22, when he stood into the Toronto net as a replacement for an injured Harry Lumley. Chadwick held the powerful Montreal Canadiens to a 1-1 tie that night. The following night he came up with the same result against the Boston Bruins. He went on to play in parts of five seasons with the Leafs, including a run of 140 consecutive games between 1956 and 1958. His last NHL season was 1961-62, when he was a member of the Boston Bruins. Ed Chadwick went on to serve as a scout for the Edmonton Oilers, and as such he was in on five Stanley Cups between 1984 and 1990.
jets setter
flower power
leafs + bruins, 1932: on their mettle
leafs + bruins, 1935: few blows, but lots of hot talk and wrestling
“It was a wild spot for a minute or two — few blows, but lots of hot talk and wrestling.”
It was on the night of Saturday of March 30, 1935 that the Toronto Maple Leafs dispensed with the Boston Bruins in a Stanley Cup semi-final, earning the right to play the Montreal Maroons in the finals (Maroons won). In the decisive game against Boston, the Bruins took a first-period lead through Red Beattie. Toronto tied it in the third through Baldy Cotton — or thought they did.
“Leaf players threw their sticks into the air,” wrote Lou Marsh of the Toronto Daily Star, “and hugged each other. The crowd stood right up and a blast of cheers split the air like an explosion. Hats flews.” But — no goal. Referee Ag Smith ruled that Cotton was in Tiny Thompson’s crease. Chaos ensued. The Leafs rushed Smith, the Bruins mobbed the Leafs. Marsh:
Cotton jabbed Thompson in the mouth and cut his sore lip. Thompson fought back. Cotton tore free and raced at the referee. He was a wild man — berserk. Players clinched and wrestled and jabbed at each other and pulled the official around.
When the fury abated, Cotton and Boston Peg O’Neil were assigned majors by referee Smith, “for fighting,” as Marsh wrote, “— or just because.” (Cotton, he pointed out, was fighting Tiny Thompson.) Boston’s Babe Siebert got an extra two for leaving the penalty box during the fight.
On the ensuing Toronto powerplay, Pep Kelly scored, with assists to Joe Primeau and Charlie Conacher, sending the game to overtime. That didn’t last long: the same combination, Kelly from Primeau and Conacher, ended the game, and the series, which finished 3-1.
(Images: City of Toronto Archives, Globe and Mail fonds 1266, items 36271 and 36273)
wane check
the end is nigh (begin the beguine)
bird’s-eye maple (leaf gardens)
on this day in 1940: leafs languish, rangers revel
Another Saturday, April 13, another Stanley Cup championship: on this date in 1940, the New York Rangers powered to their third Cup win by toppling the Toronto Maple Leafs in a six-game series that ended with New York’s 3-2 overtime win at Maple Leaf Gardens in front of 14,894 fans. (They wouldn’t win a fourth Cup, of course, until 1994.) Bryan Hextall beat Turk Broda with a backhand in 1940 to end it and claim the Cup. The final four games of the series played out at Toronto’s Gardens, the circus having ousted hockey from New York’s Madison Square after the first two games. Shown here, that’s Ranger coach Frank Boucher, hatted at left, during one of the Toronto games, overseeing Neil Colville (6), Muzz Patrick (15), and Alex Shibicky (4).