Makar's deceptive toughness with Avalanche brings to mind 'cerebral' Harvey

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly hockey scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.

This edition of "Then and Now" compares two outstanding defensemen from different eras. Doug Harvey was a six-time Stanley Cup winner with the Montreal Canadiens while Cale Makar is aiming for his second NHL championship with the Colorado Avalanche.

Their common traits include elite play and the ability to make a complicated game look simple and easy to execute.

Nobody had a better view of Doug Harvey's magic than Dick Irvin Jr., who watched the extraordinary defenseman while his father, Dick Irvin, coached the Montreal Canadiens in the early 1950s.

"Doug Harvey must be front and center in any summary of the Montreal team that won five straight Stanley Cups," wrote Irvin, Jr. in his book, "The Habs: An Oral History of the Montreal Canadiens, 1940-1980."

It has been said that Harvey played defense with rocking chair comfort.

"Nobody could control the puck like Harvey," defenseman and teammate Hal Laycoe told Irvin Jr. "One of his favorite ploys was to slow the game down or speed it up as the Habs' needs may have been."

That ability to alter a game's pace remains a rare skill among defensemen, but since his rookie year with the Colorado Avalanche in 2019-20, Cale Makar has often looked like a facsimile of Harvey or Bobby Orr, if you will.

"When Wayne Gretzky mentioned Makar in the same sentence as Orr, it meant that Cale was doing something right," said Ryan Kennedy, Editor-in-Chief of The Hockey News.

The "something right" included Makar winning the Conn Smythe Trophy, Norris Trophy and Stanley Cup in 2021-22 while leading the Avalanche with 29 points (eight goals, 21 assists) in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"It's the way Makar uses his amazing skating at both ends of the ice that sets him apart," Kennedy said. "He can effortlessly break the puck out on transition and also chase down the fastest in the game to eliminate scoring chances."

That's why Colorado's high command chose Makar with the No. 4 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. After two years of honing his game to sharpness at UMass Amherst, Makar dazzled in his rookie NHL season by winning the Calder Trophy with 50 points (12 goals, 38 assists) in 57 games. One poetic critic described his skating ability as "sublime." A rival coach said, "Makar plays his best when it really matters. No moment is too big for him."

The same was said of Harvey, who had the uncanny ability of moving from a standing position to high gear in a matter of seconds. His confidence was second to none, especially the nonchalant manner he handled the puck around his goal crease, a move that unnerved Dick Irvin.

Irvin, Jr. recalled a game against the Detroit Red Wings when Irvin Sr. almost fainted. Harvey nearly lost the puck in front of his net but recovered and sped along the boards. When he passed the Canadiens bench, he turned to his coach and said, "See, Dick, he missed me!" The Montreal bench chuckled, including Irvin. Future Hockey Hall of Fame forward Dickie Moore later quipped, "How many guys would do that? Only Doug!"

Harvey played some of his best hockey when Al "Junior" Langlois joined the Canadiens for the
1957-58 season in time for three Cup victories.

"They made videos of the five Cup wins in a row," Langlois said, "You watch those games, and it seems like nothing happens until Doug makes it happen."

Few thought Harvey had anything left in his tank when the Canadiens traded him to the New York Rangers for Lou Fontinato on June 13, 1961. Yet, Rangers general manager Muzz Patrick named Harvey, at age 37, player-coach. All Harvey did was turn them into a respectable playoff team and won his seventh and final Norris Trophy.

Makar is regarded as the balance wheel of a Cup contender. His nonpareil skills annually put him in Hart Trophy contention while his exceptional stamina had enabled the 25-year-old to average 24:33 of ice time in five seasons with the Avalanche. Veteran hockey analyst Vic Morren of the "NHL Wraparound" podcast believes that Makar also has the same deceptive toughness of an angry Harvey.

"Cale's angelic appearance belies the fact that he'll knock an opponent into next week given an opening to do so," Morren said. "Similar to Harvey, he also has a cerebral component that enables him to think the game on a level different from most players."

But it's doubtful that Makar ever will match Harvey as a multisport champ. Harvey was an excellent pro baseball and semipro rugby player.

"He was one of the greatest all-round athletes in the history of Canadian sport," wrote Irvin, Jr.

Said historian Andrew Podnieks: "He established himself as the best defenseman in the world. In the (Canadiens) dressing room Doug was calm when everyone else was all nerves."

Such easy riding has been part of Makar's game since his youth hockey days in Calgary and little has changed. Writing in "The Hockey News Yearbook," Ken Campbell noted that after scoring a goal, "Makar would lift his eyebrows up higher than his stick."

After Makar won the Calder Trophy, he modestly explained, "I felt like it was an average first year. I know there's room for improvement."

There was.

"Makar is the most dominant defenseman in the League and such a smart player," Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon said a few years later. "He finds me in really good areas and makes my life easy."

Writing in The Hockey News, Mike Chambers put it another way: "Nobody else does it as well as Makar."

Seven decades ago, they were saying the same things about Doug Harvey.