Great Left Wingers
Stars of Hockeys Golden Age
AUTHOR: Chris Robinson
FORMAT: 5.5 x 8.5 pb / pages
ISBN-10: 1554390826
ISBN-13: 9781554390823
Some were known for their speed, others for their accuracy, others still for their sneaky dekes, but these legendary left wingers were all admired for the power behind the plays that took their teams to the top. Aurel Joliat's dazzling puck dance, Harvey Jackson's finesse and grace, Bobby Hull's slapshot that struck fear in the hearts of goalies ‹these are just a few of the inspiring wing men of hockey history.
Prologue
The Detroit Red Wings opened the first round of the 1956 Stanley Cup playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Detroit won the first two games at home. Game two was a tight-checking, violent affair. Elbows, sticks, fists, and bodychecks were delivered with reckless abandon.
As usual, Detroit's left winger, Ted Lindsay, was in the middle of things. In the second period, Lindsay and Toronto's Tod Sloan engaged in a nasty stick swinging incident that left Lindsay with a bloody gash above his eye. Later in the game, Gordie Howe hammered Sloan into the boards. Sloan had to be carried off because he had suffered a broken shoulder. His season was finished.
With the Leafs down 2-0, the series headed back to Toronto, where Leafs fans were in a grim mood. The day of game three, a man called Toronto newspapers and warned, "Don't worry about Howe and Lindsay tonight. I'm going to shoot them if they play in the game."
At first, Lindsay and Howe knew nothing of the threat because they had been staying at a hotel in Hamilton. However, in Toronto, the story was big news. "Will Shoot Howe, Lindsay, To Avenge Sloan, is Threat," said one headline.
Lindsay and Howe did not hear about the threat until they arrived at Maple Leaf Gardens for the game. On the surface, neither man took the call too seriously. Their Detroit teammates even tried to make light of the situation. Red Wing defenceman, Bob Goldham, jokingly suggested that rookie Cummy Burton skate out for the warm-up with Howe's number nine on his back and Lindsay's number seven on the front. Burton was then supposed to skate up and down the ice to see what happened. Burton refused, of course.
Beneath the laughs, though, there was genuine concern. Undercover policemen were on the watch throughout the Gardens. The threat clearly rattled the Wings. Just 29 seconds into the game, Toronto's George Armstrong scored to give the Leafs an early lead. Throughout the first two periods, the Wings looked nervous and hesitant. With just over 10 minutes remaining in the game, they found themselves down 4-2. Gordie Howe scored on a sizzling 36-foot slapshot to bring the Wings to within one point of a tie. Then it was Lindsay's turn.
With five minutes remaining and the Wings down 4-3, Lindsay decided that he'd had enough. He was going to show Toronto just what he thought of their threats...
About the Author
Chris Robinson lives in Ottawa with his wife and son. He is the artistic director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival and writes a controversial monthly column called The Animation Pimp for Animation World Magazine (Los Angeles). His first book, Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy: A Story of Estonian Animation, was published in May 2003.
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