Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.
This week Fischler details a goaltending feat that's likely never to be matched nor surpassed. It's a tale of extraordinary courage blended with artistry that also would inspire a new style of puck-stopping.
Early in November 1962, a streak that likely will never be challenged came to an end. Chicago Black Hawks goalie Glenn Hall played 502 consecutive NHL regular-season game and his 552 straight, including the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The streak began at the start of the 1955-56 seasons when Hall played for the Detroit Red Wings. He was traded to the Blackhawks prior to the 1957-58 season and helped lead Chicago to the Stanley Cup championship in 1961.
Hall didn’t miss a game for seven full seasons and part of an eighth. Asked by a Chicago reporter why he would put himself through such torture, Glenn flashed a knowing grin.
"I learned a long time ago that I do this job because it's the only way I can support my family,” Hall said. “If I could do it some other way, I wouldn't be playing goal."
Hall was pretty good at his job. He won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1955-56 and the Vezina Trophy as top NHL goalie three times. He replaced Hall of Famer Terry Sawchuk his rookie season.
And as Black Hawks legend Bobby Hull said, "No question, we'd never have won the Stanley Cup (in 1961) without Glenn's goaltending."
That was high praise, indeed, considering that Chicago hadn't won the Stanley Cup since 1938. But for Hall to reach a championship level, he had to pay a stiff physical price. That included playing through injuries that would have floored more fragile souls. Exhibit A took place during the Stanley Cup Playoff semi-final against the Boston Bruins in 1957 when it appeared that his career had ended right then and there.
A screened shot by Bruins forward Vic Stasiuk struck Hall on his unprotected face. He dropped to the ice, blood flowing from his mouth.
A reporter in the press box typed out, "He looks dead!"
Not quite. Taken from the ice on a stretcher, Hall regained consciousness in the trainer's room. Unimpressed with the severity of his injury, the goalie's first words were, "C'mon, doc, let's get this thing over with."
The medic obliged by embroidering 23 stitches into Hall's upper lip and mouth, which the puck had ripped open. Hall soon returned to his position between the pipes and successfully completed the game. In the postgame media scrum, he even was able to joke about his bandaged mouth.
"My problem," Hall chuckled, "is that I don't know how to do anything else, so I pay the ransom."
Hall kept playing, but there were whispers that Red Wings boss Jack Adams believed the Stasiuk shot made Hall "puck shy." Hall was traded to Chicago in the offseason.
Contrary to Adams’ concerns, Hall kept improving. He was an All-Star and came close to winning the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP several times.
"When it comes to consistency between the pipes, no one will ever touch Glenn Hall," wrote Hockey News Editor in Chief Ryan Kennedy. “His record for most consecutive starts is impossible to fathom in the modern era."
Hall started his 500th straight regular-season game on Oct. 30, 1962. Black Hawks president Gene Metz presented Hall a gold stick and the goalie obliged with 24 saves that night against the Red Wings to pick up the win.
A bit more than a week later -- on Nov. 7, 1962 -- Hall took the ice against the Bruins for his 552nd consecutive game overall. A day earlier he had pulled up lame after trying on a new set of pads. According to historian Mike Commito, the stiff pads caused Hall to move unnaturally.
"He took the first period against Boston," Commito wrote in his book ‘Hockey 365.’ "But after allowing a goal from forward Murray Oliver, it was clear that Hall was not himself.”
The streak ended but Hall played 66 games that season and 65 the next, in 1963-64. He retired in 1971 after closing his NHL career with four seasons playing for the St. Louis Blues. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975.
Resistant to change in his refusal to don a protective mask until the very end of his career, Hall was an innovator, nonetheless. He's credited with being the forerunner in developing the "butterfly style” of goaltending that is popular today.
It consisted of fanning out the pads toward the goalposts while dropping to the knees to block shots.
"My first priority," he concluded, "was staying alive. My second was stopping the puck!"
He succeeded admirably in achieving both objectives.
Really, they didn't nickname him "Mr. Goalie" for nothing!
