CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence

Roberto was talking like some New Age parishoner.

“It’s the kind of experience I would want for my whole career,” he said. “You want to be in a city where people care, where there is life in the building, an energy.”

It sounded like the ‘nucks’ captain was getting in touch with his mind-body-spirit.

Many fans have felt a spiritual energy – New Age or not – in their hockey houses of worship.

“Even though it wasn’t the Forum,” George Stroumboulopoulos said in the document 100 Years, 100 Stars, ”hockey is my religion, the Canadiens are my god, so this then was my cathedral.”

He was talking about Montreal’s Bell Centre, which has been the Habs’ home for only 13 years – since 1996.

Hockey has many cathedrals – from the small arenas in one street towns to the Bell Centre – the NHL’s largest with a capacity of 21,273.

Hockey’s spirituality is mostly uplifting, but sometimes hateful – like religious bigotry.

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully,” Blaise Pascal said, “as when they do it from religious conviction.”

Some of the internet’s rabid echo the inquisitors of the 13th century.

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To me hockey’s spirituality is most apparent during hockey’s funerals.

Marc-André Déraspe R.I.P.

courtesy of cbc.ca

Hockey’s first two epic funerals celebrated the lives – and mourned the deaths – of icons Howie Morenz and Maurice Richard – on March 11, 1937 and May 31, 2000.

The two recent funerals, were for future stars Luc Bourdon and Alexei Cherepanov, who both died during the past twelve months.

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“…the flashing, dashing Morenz, the streak of Stratford, the beloved of the hockey gods who sit in silence or roar like maddened souls during the progress of the games in Montreal.”

The hockey gods – and some of the world’s most unpleasant mortals – mourned the passing of the Stratford Streak.

Eddie Shore was called “Ol Bl00d ‘n Guts” and was the meanest man of his era. He said of Morenz:

“[He] had a heart that was unsurpassed in athletic history and no one ever came close to him in the colour department. After you watched Howie you wanted to see him often, and as much as I liked to play hockey, I often thought I would have counted it a full evening had I been able to sit in the stands and watch the Morenz maneuvers. Such an inclination never occurred to me about other stars.”

Shore – a four time Hart Trophy winner – would batter down Morenz, and Howie would get up with a smile on his face and come back again.

The 170 pounder could also hit with the best of them, and you never put your head down when you were on the ice with the Stratford Streak.

The hard men of Boston also appreciated Howie. There were two floral hockey sticks placed at Morenz’s funeral, and one was from the “boys in the balcony” at the Boston Garden.

Morenz was not only tough and the best, but he was dedicated to the game.

In New York one night, Morenz skated out to face the Rangers.

New York coach Lester Patrick instructed his players: “Don’t hit Morenz tonight. The little guy is nursing a leg so sore he shouldn’t be playing. He only dressed because he knows our fans are anxious to see him perform. So get in his way but go easy on him and his gimpy leg.”

In the end, it was a leg injury which put him in the hospital, where he died of pulmonary embolism.

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On March 11, 1937 Howie Morenz’s body lay in state at centre ice in the Montreal Forum.

In less than three hours over 50,000 mourners filed past his casket. A second crowd – estimated at 250,00 – lined the route of his funeral procession.

Later, radio stations narrated the funeral proceedings across Canada.

Hockey pundits talk about Gretzky bringing hockey to the Sun Belt.

Howie Morenz effectively brought the NHL to the U.S. during the mid-1920s.

Boston millionaire Charles Adam decided to attend a Stanley Cup game in Montreal in 1924 – the Habs vs. the WCHL’s Calgary Tigers.

In game 1, rookie Howie Morenz scored 3 goals and Montreal won 6-1 and Adams had to have an NHL team in Beantown.

The following autumn, MSG’s Tex Rickard saw Howie play – in an exhibition game – and contacted “Big Bill” Dwyer to bring an NHL team to New York – with the first game to be scheduled against Morenz and the Habs.

And later, according to a  New York newspaper, the Americans team offered the Canadiens $50,000 for Morenz.

How fast and exciting was Morenz?

King Clancy once said:

“He was the best. He could stop on a dime and leave you nine cents change. He was in a class by himself. And when he couldn’t skate around you, he’d go right over you … Morenz could get to top speed in one stride, he was a threat to go from end to end through an entire team at any time and he shot the puck as hard as any man ever did.”

Morenz played fourteen seasons in the Big Tent. He was a member of three Stanley Cup winning teams – all with the Canadiens (He was briefly traded to Chicago and New York.).

The Stratford Streak finished in the top ten in scoring ten times in his fourteen seasons. For seven straight campaigns, Morenz led the Canadiens in both goals and points. Morenz scored 271 goals, along with 201 assists in 550 career games.

courtesy of the hockey hall of fame

Three times, Morenz was named the NHL’s MVP and led the league in goals and total points twice.

His number 7 was the first that the Canadiens retired, and he entered the Hockey Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1945.

A 1950 press poll named Howie Morenz the greatest hockey player of the half century.

The Stratford Streak was the greatest, played tough and loved hockey. For that he was loved by many – both Habs’ fans and their rivals.

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Habs’ aficionado Dennis Kane talked about Morenz:

‘In the 1980’s I sat in an old tavern in Ottawa with Aurele Joliat, drinking beer and talking hockey. Joliat was at first very gruff, and when I asked him to compare the Rocket to Morenz, he almost appeared insulted, saying the Rocket wasn’t the player Morenz was by a long shot. And then this gruff old man, as he continued to talk about Morenz, became the nicest old gent you’d find, and he was even close to tears. Thinking about his old friend changed him completely, and in the end admitted that Richard wasn’t so bad a hockey player after all.”