RANGERS
Tex Rickard, one of the greatest promoters of athletic events in the Golden Age of Sport, expressed mild interest in hockey in the early 1920s but was not convinced the game was going to take off in New York when the NHL began to expand into the United States.
Although he was originally connected to the New York Americans club that started play in 1925–26, he chose to let bootlegger Bill Dwyer and his associates take the risk on hockey. But Rickard was won over once he saw the box-office success of the star-spangled outfit. He was granted a franchise of his own for Madison Square Garden in April 1926, and the New York Rangers were born.
Dubbed “Tex’s Rangers” by the press, the team was set to begin play in 1926–27. Rickard hired a Toronto sportsman named Conn Smythe to sign players. As the team’s architect, he scoured the pro and amateur ranks for potential stars and it was expected that he would serve as manager. Before the season started, he was fired and replaced by Lester Patrick. The legendary player had retired before the death of pro hockey out west, but his experience as a coach, manager and team owner made him a more ideal candidate for the position.
Smythe, having been bought out (and also shorted of some of his promised funds), soon resurfaced as owner of the Toronto St. Patricks and rechristened them the Maple Leafs. He later speculated that he was let go by the Rangers because his refusal to sign Babe Dye had angered Colonel John Hammond.
Although some felt the lineup might not be successful, the Rangers made some strong acquisitions before taking to the ice, and Smythe’s hard work and eye for talent ensured early success. On November 16, they made their home-ice debut against the previous year’s Stanley Cup champions, the Montreal Maroons, and won 1–0. It was hardly a fluke, as they went 6–3–1 over their first 10 games and later won four in a row in early January 1927.
The freshness of the game in the Big Apple ensured early box-office success, but the Rangers justified the adulation by gelling as a team. There were attempts to make the game more attractive to local ethnic communities by changing the names of Lorne Chabot and Ollie Reinikka to Lorne Chabotsky and Ollie Rocco, but the press saw through that ruse. The presence of a top-flight line made up of Frank Boucher and brothers Bill and Bun Cook and rock-solid defenders Taffy Abel and Ching Johnson helped the Rangers finish first overall in the American Division and win five straight before dropping the final game of the year to Boston on March 26, 1927.
After earning a bye in the playoffs, they faced the Bruins in a two-game total-goals clash. The momentum their opponents had was too much to overcome. The first meeting on April 2 was a scoreless tie, but the boys from Beantown won the second game 3–1 to move on to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Rangers worked hard to make sure the rest of the NHL knew they were not a one-year wonder, and they won the Stanley Cup in 1927–28. In one of the games during the final, 44-year-old coach Patrick stepped in for injured goaltender Lorne Chabot and helped defeat the Montreal Maroons before a replacement could be found for the rest of the series. Another championship followed in 1932–33, and the club continued to bring in top talent, fast becoming the act New York’s hockey fans wanted to see most.
In 1939–40, the Stanley Cup came back to Broadway once again, but the outlook was grim with the onset of World War II. The Rangers lost a great deal of talent as players took up with the various Armed Forces, and only a ragtag group of prospects remained. After making the playoffs 15 times in their first 16 seasons, there was little to celebrate at the end of the 1940s until the team’s stars returned. They made it to the Stanley Cup Final again in 1949–50, but lost a tight seven-game series to the Detroit Red Wings that sent the team into another downward spiral.
Between 1950–51 and 1965–66, New York made the playoffs only four times and finished in last place on only three occasions. By the mid-1960s, the organization was looking like a contender again with bright young talent such as Jean Ratelle, Rod Gilbert, Vic Hadfield, Jim Neilson and goalie Ed Giacomin leading them back to the postseason. In 1971–72, they finally made it back to the Stanley Cup Final but lost to Boston in six games.
For the next 20 years, the Rangers were competitive and further endeared themselves to their local fan base with their hard work on the ice. It was an especially daunting task after the arrival of local competitors in the New York Islanders in 1972–73 and the New Jersey Devils a decade later. They made another return trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 1978–79 but barely avoided being swept by the Montreal Canadiens. The arrival of Mark Messier in a trade early in 1991–92 helped the team to a regular-season title, and they finally reclaimed Lord Stanley’s Mug two years later in a dramatic seven-game clash with the Vancouver Canucks. Three seasons later, Wayne Gretzky joined their roster, but his presence was not enough to help them to glory, and they set a franchise record for futility by missing the playoffs for seven straight seasons from 1997–98 to 2003–04.
Following the lockout that eliminated the 2004–05 campaign, the Rangers were back among the NHL’s elite and have since regularly competed for a playoff spot. The play of Henrik Lundqvist in net has given them a solid defensive backbone and the addition of top scorers like Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik helped New York celebrate an Eastern Conference crown in 2011–12.
Bill Cook
A pure goal scorer who developed into one of hockey’s best in the west in the mid-1920s, Cook was a marquee player the New York Rangers needed to ensure early success on Broadway. The club picked him up when the Saskatoon Crescents liquidated their assets.
On November 16, 1926, Cook secured the team’s first victory, scoring the only goal in a 1–0 win over the Montreal Maroons. The goals after that came at an incredible pace as he played the right side of the Bread Line with his brother, Bun, and passing-wizard Frank Boucher. In New York’s second game, he recorded the first hat trick in franchise history in a 5–1 romp over the Toronto St. Pats. On January 9, 1927, he had the winning goal against Detroit that secured the Rangers the top spot in the American Division.
Cook scored all three goals, including the overtime winner, in a battle with Pittsburgh on February 12, and the same club surrendered another hat trick to him on March 22. In the next outing against Chicago, he potted the winning goal in a 4–0 triumph for the Rangers. He finished the year as the NHL leader in both goals and points. Once the playoffs began, the team hit a scoring slump and Cook got their only offence in during the two-game total-goals series.
Bill Cook
Frank Boucher
Boucher returned to NHL action with the Rangers in their first season. He had spent his first pro season with the Ottawa Senators before heading west for four years with the Vancouver Maroons. A budding playmaker, he was sold to New York for just $15,000 and proved one of the team’s superstars in their early years.
Even though he was considered a gentlemanly player by fans and peers — he later won the Lady Byng Trophy a record seven times — Boucher’s debut with the Rangers saw him earn a major penalty in a melee with Bill Phillips of the Maroons. He sustained a cut above the eye and was fined $15 for the infraction. Placed on a line with the Cook brothers, he began to rack up lots of points and scored twice when New York visited the Boston Bruins on January 18, 1927. He scored the winning goal against the Pittsburgh Pirates on February 6 and repeated that feat two weeks later in a rematch with the Bruins. On March 26, he closed out the season with a hat trick in a close 4–3 loss to Boston.
Frank Boucher
Bun Cook
During his amateur days, Fred “Bun” Cook helped take the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds to the Allan Cup and at age 21 turned pro with the WCHL’s Saskatoon Crescents, a team that already had his older brother, Bill, on the roster. Over two seasons there, he proved one of the most promising young players in the game but was sold to the Rangers, along with his sibling, before the start of the 1926–27 campaign.
Bun was a skilled playmaker and is credited by some historians as being the inventor of the slapshot. The
first goal of his NHL career gave the Rangers some insurance in a 2–0 win over the Canadiens on November 27, 1926. He was also at his best in the February 10, 1927, come-from-behind victory over the Toronto St. Pats when he scored twice to make it 3–2. On February 27, he got the winning goal in a 4–1 triumph over the New York Americans.
Taffy Abel
Even though he was born in Canada, Clarence “Taffy” Abel rose to prominence playing amateur hockey in the United States in the early 1920s. During his time with the St. Paul Athletic Club, he was permitted to play for the American team at the 1924 Winter Olympics and scored 15 goals over just five games. He turned pro with the Minneapolis Millers in 1925–26 and signed with the Rangers as a free agent soon after.
Paired with Ching Johnson on New York’s blue line, Taffy was the team’s top-scoring defenceman during the Rangers’ first season in the league. On December 7, 1926, he scored his team’s only goal in a 1–0 triumph over the Boston Bruins, their fifth win in their first seven games. He was also New York’s lone producer in a 1–1 tie with the Toronto St. Pats on January 13, 1927.
Murray Murdoch
Before turning pro, Murdoch was a star with the University of Manitoba and helped take the team to the Memorial Cup in 1922–23, after scoring an incredible 30 points over eight games. He joined the Winnipeg Maroons for the 1925–26 season and there caught the attention of Conn Smythe, who made him the first player ever signed to a contract by the New York Rangers.
Murdoch is remembered as a checking forward. He made his NHL debut in the season opener against the Montreal Maroons on November 16, 1926, and scored his first goal four days later on John Ross Roach of the Toronto St. Pats. The Madison Square Garden audience warmed up to him rather quickly when he came off the bench in overtime to score against Boston on December 12.
His best performance of the year came on January 16, 1927, when he had a hat trick in a 5–4 win over the Chicago Black Hawks, his final tally proving the winner that night. Murdoch was involved in controversy about a month later when he scored against the Maroons, but the goal judge failed to signal the marker since he was too busy talking to a woman in the crowd.
Ching Johnson
Johnson was unlike many of the other players who joined one of the three NHL expansion teams for 1926–27, because his previous experience came in the hockey hotbed of Minnesota. There he starred for teams in Eveleth and Minneapolis before taking a three-year contract with the Rangers.
Unafraid to play a physical game, the burly and balding defender served notice early on that he was focused on protecting New York’s net. He took the first penalty in franchise history for cross-checking Babe Siebert, and his rambunctious play meant he missed some ice time early in the year with a broken collarbone. On November 27, 1926, he scored the winning goal in a shutout victory over the Canadiens. At the end of the season, he still managed to rank second on the team with 66 penalty minutes.
Johnson’s nickname had roots in racist sentiment, as some felt that his face looked Asian and reportedly chanted “Ching Ching Chinaman” whenever he carried the puck. This was shortened to “Chinaman,” then to the even more offensive “Chink,” before becoming “Ching.” Despite this, Johnson had an amazing career and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Ching Johnson
Ollie Reinikka
A top amateur player in the early 1920s, Reinikka turned pro with the Vancouver Maroons in 1924–25 and had a 10-goal season as a sophomore. When he was sold to the Rangers, a publicity man thought it would be a good idea to try to attract some of New York’s Italian community with a “native son” named Ollie Rocco. The stunt managed to fool a few people and some of the published game summaries list Rocco as a member of the Rangers, but the truth was quickly made public and he was able to resume playing under his real name.
What the Rangers were not counting on, however, was the distinct lack of offence they would get from Reinikka, and he was sent down to the Springfield Indians of the Can-Am League after 16 games.
Hal Winkler
After two seasons with the Calgary Tigers, Winkler was the first goalie to step between the pipes for the New York Rangers. The team made the rare decision to start the year with two goaltenders, but he got the nod for the season opener against the Montreal Maroons and came out with a big 1–0 victory at home.
Not wanting to interrupt a hot streak, Lester Patrick let Winkler start the next game, and he came away with a win against the Toronto St. Pats. Even after Lorne Chabot got a shutout victory on November 27, 1926, Winkler returned to the crease three days later and earned his third and final win with the Rangers in overtime as the Chicago Black Hawks went down by a score of 4–3.
The Rangers sold Winkler to the Boston Bruins on January 17, 1927, and he helped his new club to the Stanley Cup Final against the Ottawa Senators. He played one more season in the NHL before heading to the minors. Strangely, the Bruins engraved his name on the Stanley Cup when they won it in 1928–29.
Lorne Chabot
Chabot is perhaps the greatest goaltender who is not a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Teammates knew him best as a fun and loyal player, but that does not mean he didn’t have a great deal of on-ice success. Before he joined the Rangers, he starred at the senior level for the Port Arthur Ports club and even took them to the Allan Cup one year while reportedly taping his broken hand to his stick.
After Chabot signed on with New York, a creative marketing man decided to promote him as a Jewish player with the last name of Chabotsky in an attempt to draw in some fans. This deception was quickly vetoed and he made his NHL debut on the road against his hometown Montreal Canadiens, winning the game and the adulation of the crowd for his 2–0 shutout victory. In a matter of weeks, he won the number one position in net over Hal Winkler and ended up ranking second in the league, with a goals-against average of 1.46. His 10 shutouts that season put him in fourth place among all netminders.
In the postseason, Chabot gave up just three goals to the Bruins in one contest and earned a shutout in the other, but it was not enough to take the total-goals series. The next year, he led the Blueshirts to their first Stanley Cup title.
Lorne Chabot
THE ORIGINAL SIX
When the Brooklyn Americans shut down after the 1941–42 season, the NHL was reduced to a roster of clubs that will forever be known as the Original Six — the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. For 25 years, these teams were at the pinnacle of the professional hockey world and their owners controlled the game with iron fists.
The early part of this era was marked by the fact that many players were going off to fight in World War II. But at the same time, a new generation of stars was coming to the forefront and the NHL continued to grow in popularity through radio and newspaper coverage. The league brought in Clarence Campbell as its new president in 1946.
Throughout the rest of the 1940s, the rivalry between the Canadiens and Maple Leafs intensified, and it was this rivalry that brought the game to new levels among Canadian fans. The Habs, who often featured the best players out of Quebec, had icons like Maurice Richard heading the charge, but Syl Apps (and later Teeder Kennedy) ranked among the most popular Toronto players. Once the NHL expanded to a 70-game schedule, the two teams met 14 times during the regular season. The intensity spilled off the ice as players did not even acknowledge each other outside of the rink.
The early 1950s saw the Red Wings dominate, as they won seven straight regular-season crowns, and between 1949–50 and 1954–55, they captured four Stanley Cups. Otherwise, it was Montreal controlling the decade — winning five straight championships from 1955–56 to 1959–60. The Bruins had a spotty record during this time, the Rangers rarely made the playoffs and Chicago was regularly excluded from the playoff picture.
Perhaps the most significant events of the 1950s were the Richard Riot that took place after Richard was suspended by the NHL in 1954–55 and the brief formati
on of a players’ association created by Ted Lindsay and Doug Harvey in 1957. Team owners quickly moved to squash the association, and any players involved in unionization efforts were dispatched to other teams.
Heading into the 1960s, the hard-luck Black Hawks had several aces up their sleeves after they picked up goaltender Glenn Hall and developed two major prospects in Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita. In particular, Hull emerged as one of the game’s greatest superstars, and Chicago won a Stanley Cup in 1960–61. Afterward, the resurging Maple Leafs won three more Cups of their own before the Canadiens began a quiet dynasty that carried over into the expansion years. The only interruption was Toronto’s championship in 1966–67 — the final year of the Original Six, and the last time the Leafs won the Cup.
Some owners resisted the first official signs the league wanted to add to their membership, but in time, the threat of the Western Hockey League getting a national television contract in the United States changed their minds. The Americans had earlier attempted to return along with a Philadelphia-based group that owned the Montreal Maroons franchise, but they were rebuffed. Other cities had come forward at various times, but the NHL wanted to protect its own interests as much as possible. The most notable attempt to get a team was from Jim Hendy in 1951, who ran the American Hockey League’s Cleveland Barons. He wanted an NHL team badly, but the team owners collaborated to keep him out.
William M. Jennings, who was a governor for the New York Rangers, proposed the idea of expansion in 1963 and pushed for the creation of teams on the west coast to battle the WHL threat. The owners balked but he persisted, and by March 1965, the NHL was officially considering doubling in size.
1967
The Year that Changed Hockey Forever
Most professional sports leagues in the United States in the 1960s grew tremendously, but the National Hockey League was comparatively slow to expand beyond its beloved Original Six teams and gain a greater market share.
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