National Hockey League General Managers are not usually know for being altruistic. They rarely voluntarily reach out to strengthen a rival team, but when they do there’s usually a hidden agenda behind their action. But in January of 1971 when Montreal GM Sam Pollack sent veteran center Ralph Backstrom to the Los Angeles Kings, there was nothing at all hidden about his agenda.
On November 7th 1975, the Rangers swapped Jean Ratelle, Brad Park and minor league defenseman Joe Zanussi to the Boston Bruins for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais in a blockbuster deal that shocked the hockey world.
Hockey Lifers can be described as people who fell in love with the sport at an early age and found a way to stay involved with the game even when their playing days were over. In most modern-day cases, players move into coaching, scouting or broadcasting. But back in the days of the Original Six, those opportunities were few and far between.
Raise your hand if you ever fantasized about practicing with the Rangers and having a couple of beers with them later on. Well, our fantasies became Gene “Scoop” Koerner’s reality as he did that and much more when he became the Blueshirts practice goalie in the 1970s.
Goaltenders Lorne “Gump” Worsley and Johnny Bower had a lot in common. Both made their NHL debuts with the New York Rangers in the 1950s, both have earned multiple Vezina Trophies, both are members of the NHL Hall of Fame and both played into their 40s and won four Stanley Cups during their long playing careers. And of course both also had to leave New York to achieve their future success.
Goaltenders Lorne “Gump” Worsley and Johnny Bower had a lot in common. Both made their NHL debuts with the New York Rangers in the 1950s, both have earned multiple Vezina Trophies, both are members of the NHL Hall of Fame and both played into their 40s and won four Stanley Cups during their long playing careers. And of course both also had to leave New York to achieve their future success.
Barry Beck’s THE CELL: A Story of Tragedy and Survival, is an extremely well-written chronicle of the author’s personal triumph over addiction and unimaginable grief.
Red Berenson was one of the first stars to emerge from the NHL’s initial expansion in 1967, scoring over 100 goals in his first three seasons with the St. Louis Blues and leading them to three consecutive appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Jack McCartan is best remembered for leading the surprising Team USA Hockey squad to the Gold Medal at the 1960 Winter Olympics, but he also had a brief NHL career with the Rangers.
Bob Dill was a bruising defenseman who was acquired by the Rangers in January 1944 to add some muscle to their lineup. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota in April 1920, Dill played hockey for his local high school, and then traveled to Florida to play for the Miami Clippers of the four-team Tropical Hockey League in 1938.
Rick Carpiniello spent the better part of 43 years (1978-79 – 2020-21) covering the New York Rangers and the NHL for the New York Journal News as well as The Athletic. And his new book, The Franchise: New York Rangers… A Curated History of the Blueshirts, does a great job of condensing all those years into a highly informative and entertaining 256 page read.
The legendary Maurice Richard was one of the greatest players in NHL history, but the man who would later be called “The Rocket” got off to a sputtering start during his rookie season in Montreal and was almost traded to the Rangers.
Sean McCaffrey is at it again. The author of three previous books about the New York Rangers, including the massive four-volume “Tricks of the Trade,” has just released another lengthy volume called The Top 100 Villains of New York Rangers History.
Don Simmons was a very good goaltender who just happened to be playing in the wrong era. Like many netminders in the years before expansion, Simmons had the great misfortune of trying to break into the NHL during what many consider to be the Golden Age of Goaltending.
On March 9, 1948, NHL President Clarence Campbell announced that Billy Taylor of the New York Rangers and Don Gallinger of the Boston Bruins would be banned for life for betting on hockey games. Campbell claimed to have conclusive evidence that Taylor was involved with a known criminal and gambler.
“Leapin’ Louie” Fontinato was one of the most popular players to ever don a New York Rangers sweater. The 6-1. 195 pound defenseman was born in January 1932 in Guelph, Ontario and came up through the Guelph Biltmore pipeline that provided the Rangers with so many young prospects such as Harry Howell, Dean Prentice, Ron Murphy and later Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert.
Like most NHL teams. the New York Rangers have had their share of eccentric fans. There was Sally Lark, a buxom, platinum blonde, interior decorator from Brooklyn, who was a fixture at the Old Garden during the 1940s and 1950s. Her seat was directly adjacent to the penalty box and she was given the nickname “Sin Bin Sally.”
Tony Leswick was born in March, 1923, in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. He was the seventh of nine children born to Jim and Mary Leswick and learned how to play hockey from his three older brothers who had varying degrees of success in the sport. After playing Junior hockey with the Saskatoon Quakers, Tony turned pro at age 19, with the Cleveland Barons in 1942. He served two years in the Royal Canadian Navy and was then selected by the Rangers in June 1945 in the Inter-League Draft.
It’s been said that Dean Prentice is one of the best players not in the Hockey Hall of Fame. It can also be said that he was one of the toughest to ever play the game, considering that he once scored on a penalty shot after suffering what proved to be a broken back.
On Saturday December 10,2022, the city of Long Beach, New York renamed their municipal skating rink in honor of the late Emile Francis. The facility, now known as the Emile Francis Memorial Ice Arena, was built in 1973 and was used by the Rangers as their practice site until the 1980s when they moved their operation to Rye, New York.
Bill Gadsby was one of the best defensemen of his era. He played for three teams and appeared in seven All-Star games during his 20-year NHL career. He was never on a Stanley Cup winner but was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1970.
While Billy Joel, Harry Styles and the band Phish all have banners hanging from the rafters at Madison Square Garden, there is still nothing up there honoring former Rangers captain and NHL Hall of Famer Brad Park. It’s time for that to change.
It’s hard to believe in this technology-laden age of 24-Hour sports coverage, but 50 years ago when Canada faced off against Russia in their now famous Summit Series, the games were not initially scheduled to be broadcast in the United States. None of the major networks were interested, including NBC, which was about to embark on their “Peter Puck” era of hockey coverage.
The New York Islanders were born in 1972 in an attempt to keep the WHA’s New York Raiders from setting up shop in the brand new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island. Nassau County officials wanted nothing to do with the WHA, which they...
Separately, Jim Gordon and Bill Chadwick were each very good at their jobs, but together they were great and formed one of the most popular broadcasting teams in Rangers history. Gordon was the straight man, the professional broadcaster of the duo. A Brooklyn...
Back in the days before air travel became the norm, NHL teams rode the rails to their road games within the then six-team league. Bob Chrystal, who patrolled the Rangers Blue Line for a couple of seasons in the mid-50s was one of those players who spent countless...
Johnny Bower and Terry Sawchuk, Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante, Ed Giacomin and Gilles Villemure are just a few of the fine goaltending duos that were formed after the NHL made it mandatory for teams to dress two goaltenders for games. But the two-goalie concept was a...
Bill Mosienko enjoyed a very productive 14-year NHL career, scoring 258 goals with 282 assists for 540 points in 711 games, all with the Chicago Black Hawks. He scored thirty or more goals twice and reached the 20-goal plateau five times. He was also a dependable...
One of the most remarkable things about Rod Gilbert’s brilliant NHL career was that not only did he make it back from two spinal fusion surgeries but also survived a near-death experience nearly 60 years ago. Gilbert originally underwent spinal fusion...
Back in the early 1970s, after watching Gene Carr blow yet another scoring opportunity, Ranger broadcaster Bill “The Big Whistle” Chadwick, loudly proclaimed to play-by-play man Jim Gordon, that the long-haired forward “couldn’t put the puck in the ocean if he was...
