CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence

Below, is one of my favourite hockey pictures.

It’s not about love and acceptance, like the “Stevie Y” picture, on the side of the Detroit building.

It’s about desolation – alienation.

Terry Sawchuk had some 600 stitches that scribed his face. He didn’t start wearing a mask until 1963, and had been playing in the NHL for 14 seasons, and in junior and the minors for 5 years before that (He was awarded the Rookie of the Year in three different leagues.).

The photographer from Life Magazine – March 4, 1966 - had Sawchuk’s stitches retouched and highlighted – to make the picture even more effective.

The spread was called: “Hockey Goalies: Their Bludgeoned Faces and Bodies.”

But, the picture isn’t haunting just because of the scars. Terry Sawchuk was very troubled, and would probably be diagnosed as clinically depressed today.

Sawchuk’s torment adds to the desolation.

I see it as a picture of the times: a player poorly paid – who played injured – and did it for the love of the game.

"I'm proud of it (the record) and feel it means something. After all, for a shutout, you're not allowed one mistake.”

But, the picture also illustrates triumph.

Terry Sawchuk’s number of wins has only been surpassed by Patrick Roy’s. Sawchuk played in 971 regular season games, and won 447. This record lasted for some 30 years, when Patrick Roy – protected by better equipment, and with the help of better diet and medications, etc. – would play 1029 games, and achieve 551 wins.

Terry Sawchuk still holds the NHL’s record of 103 shutouts.

When the Hockey News listed The Top 100 NHL Players of All-Time, Sawchuk was ranked as Number Nine – the top goalie – and ahead of Jacques Plante, Glen Hall and Patrick Roy (He had played fourteen years in the NHL by this time.), in that order.

How good was Terry Sawchuk?

Gordie Howe once said of his Red Wing teammate: “The Uke was the best goalie I ever saw. Everything that a goalie should be!”

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The Hockey News‘ list was compiled in 1998, and the judges were: Don Cherry, John Davidson, Milt Dunnell, Stan Fischler, Dick Irvin, Brian McFarlane, Bob McKenzie, Jim Matheson, Harry Neale, Frank Orr, Al Arbour, Scotty Bowman, Emile Francis, Howie Meeker, Scotty Morrison, Roger Neilson, Bud Poile, Sam Pollock, Marcel Pronovost, Billy Reay, Glen Sather, Harry Sinden and Red Story.