Hitchman, 2nd captain in Bruins history, was ‘cornerstone of the franchise’

BOSTON -- There are 20 defensemen enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame who played all, part or for just a single bowl of chowder of their careers for the Boston Bruins.

You could convincingly argue there should be 21.

Lionel Hitchman should be remembered Sunday when the Bruins host the Montreal Canadiens at TD Garden on the 100th anniversary of Boston’s first game (3 p.m. ET, NESN, SN, RDS).

Hitchman, the second captain in Boston franchise history, played the final of his 417 NHL games 90 years ago this coming Jan. 28, his No. 3 Bruins sweater retired immediately after the home team’s 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators at Boston Garden.

“All that cheering over Eddie Shore’s return to the Boston Bruin lineup (following suspension) has dimmed considerably the announcement that the veteran Lionel Hitchman has completed his long and honorable term as a major league puckman,” columnist Walter Graham wrote in the Jan. 31, 1934, Springfield (Massachusetts) Daily News.

“A great fellow and a sterling defenseman was Hitchman, and for several years he was one of the most important cogs in the Bruin machine. He never got anywhere near the publicity he rated, for he was one of those steady performers who concentrated on efficiency rather than the spectacular.

Lionel Hitchman’s No. 3, the first number retired by the Boston Bruins, hangs between those of fellow defensemen Eddie Shore and Bobby Orr at TD Garden on Oct. 6, 2011.

“Master of the sweep and poke checks, the possessor of a terrific body check and a boundless supply of courage, Hitchman, in his prime, was as fine a defenseman as there was in the business.”

Hitchman’s No. 3 would be the first of now 12 numbers the Bruins have retired and just the second in NHL history, coming eight days after the Toronto Maple Leafs similarly honored the No. 6 of Ace Bailey, whose career was cut short by injury.

(More than three decades later, Bailey would ask his former team to allow the late Ron Ellis to wear No. 6, which Ellis did from 1968 until his retirement in 1981.)

The Senators would spoil “Lionel Hitchman Night” on Feb. 22, 1934, scoring twice in overtime -- you’re better not knowing early rules -- for their 3-1 victory.

But the Bruins stalwart didn’t leave the building empty-handed, carrying two checks of $500 -- one from team management, the other from fans -- and a variety of gifts, the defenseman’s stick and jersey presented to his parents who had travelled from Ottawa for the occasion.

Hitchman had come to the Bruins from the Senators, the Toronto native having moved with his family to Ottawa, where he made his NHL debut on Feb. 28, 1923.

The 1928-29 Boston Bruins. Bottom row, from left: Tiny Thompson, Frank Frederickson, Eddie Shore, Lionel Hitchman, Cy Denneny, Norm Gainor, Hal Winkler. Top row: Cooney Weiland, Harry Oliver, Gord Pettinger, Dit Clapper, Lloyd Klein, Percy Galbraith, Eddie Rodden, Red Green.

He had arrived in the league from a curious background, a constable in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who was scouted while playing senior and civil-service hockey.

Worldly beyond the game, he was an avid outdoorsman who excelled at football, baseball, lacrosse and golf, playing a fine ukelele as a hobby.

Relegated to spot duty behind defense regulars King Clancy and George Boucher in 1924-25, Hitchman asked the Senators that he be loaned temporarily to Boston to increase his ice time.

The transfer was made, though Bruins owner Charles Adams didn’t much like the idea of accepting a handout.

“I cannot accept charity from the Ottawa club or any other club for that matter, and furthermore I do not intend to,” Adams told the Montreal Gazette, quoted in Eric Zweig’s 2015 biography of Bruins manager, coach and hockey pioneer Art Ross.

“I appreciate (Senators manager Tommy) Gorman’s offer but we would a great deal rather lose with our men than win with players borrowed from other clubs. We will stand or fall upon merits of the team of our own that we can put on the ice. … I am ready to buy hockey players or trade them, but I haven’t got to where I have any desire to borrow them.”

Members of the Boston Bruins arrive at Banff, Alberta, for some relaxation following the 1929-30 season. From left: coach Art Ross, Bill Carson, Lionel Hitchman, Percy Galbraith, Marty Barry, Harry Oliver, Dit Clapper, Cooney Weiland and Mickey MacKay.

The Senators sold Hitchman to the floundering Bruins the following day and it wasn’t long before their new defenseman assumed such a strong role that he was named captain in 1927, the second in franchise history, replacing his mentor, the retiring Sprague Cleghorn.

Hitchman would never be a marquee star in Boston, where he patrolled the blue line for nine-plus seasons. The spotlight mostly would follow his rushing defense partner, Shore, who arrived in 1926-27 and became the Bruins’ first legitimate superstar.

And when the beam wasn’t shining on Shore, other Bruins were basking in it, among them future captain Aubrey “Dit” Clapper and goaltender Cecil “Tiny” Thompson, each bound for the Hall of Fame.

But even with barely 170 pounds on his 6-foot-1 frame, it was Hitchman’s rock-solid work in his own end of the rink that allowed Shore to go on the rush and become a fearsome offensive threat.

“Shore may be the dynamo of the Boston club, but Hitchman is the balancing wheel,” author C. Michael Hiam quoted a Boston columnist in his 2010 biography of Shore.

Friends relax in Alberta at Banff Hot Springs following the 1929-30 NHL season. From left: Dr. Joseph Shortell, Percy Galbraith, Marty Barry, Hec Kilrea, Dit Clapper holding Cooney Weiland, trainer Charles Winslow Green, King Clancy, Lionel Hitchman and Bill Carson.

Former Bruins center Frank Fredrickson compared the two defensemen in a 1968 interview with Stan and Shirley Fischler in the book, “Heroes and History.”

Said Frederickson: “(Shore) was a good skater and puck-carrier but wasn’t an exceptional defenseman like his teammate Lionel Hitchman. ‘Hitch’ was better because he could get them coming and going.”

And the rangy defenseman raised the blood pressure of not just his opponents. He once told of being struck in the head along the boards in Montreal, getting up in a rage and discovering that his attacker was in fact a female fan who had clobbered him with a souvenir stick while calling him a roughneck.

Hitchman had been joined in Boston from 1925-28 by former opposition sparring partner Cleghorn, a large package of bad attitude with whom he had feuded regularly. Indeed, during the 1924 playoffs, then Canadiens’ Cleghorn had relieved Senators rookie Hitchman of a few teeth.

“Lionel learned a lot from Cleghorn but did not adopt some of Sprague’s lesser attributes,” author Charles L. Coleman wrote delicately in his seminal 1969 three-volume, “The Trail of the Stanley Cup.”

Hitchman led the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1927, Boston falling to the Senators. He took them to first place in the American Division the following year and in 1928-29, scoring just once, anchored a defense that allowed just 52 goals in 44 games.

The 1929-30 Bruins photographed at Boston Garden. Lionel Hitchman is standing on the far right.

It was in 1929 that the Bruins would win their first Stanley Cup, having set an American Division record for wins (26) and goals scored (89).

Thompson outduelled Canadiens goalie George Hainsworth in a three-game first-round sweep, the Bruins advancing on the back of Hitchman, bloodied and bruised. A sweep of the New York Rangers in the best-of-three Stanley Cup Final sent all of Boston into hysterics.

At the team’s victory banquet, manager Art Ross singled out his captain for praise, calling Hitchman “a cornerstone of the franchise.”

He would finish second in balloting the following season for the Hart Trophy, voted to the player deemed most valuable to his team, and soldiered on as one of the NHL’s most unsung greats, of his or any other generation.

In time, Hitchman would get a little of his due.

In late January 1934, the end of his playing career at hand, the Bruins named him manager of the Bruin Cubs, their Can-American league farm team, charged with developing young talent for the NHL club.

Lionel Hitchman’s game worn 1925-26 Boston Bruins sweater, displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

His industriousness and resilience were noted:

“At the start of the present season, Hitchman had a bad charley horse and was bothered by a head cold,” Arthur Siegel wrote in the Boston Herald’s Feb. 1, 1934, edition. “The Bruins had been trounced in Toronto and the defense situation was acute. Yet Hitch went out and played without complaint, refusing to stay in bed as he should have done.”

At retirement, Hitchman’s statistics appeared underwhelming:

His first full season in Boston saw him earn a personal-best 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in 36 games; he wasn’t noted for his physicality, his career-high 87 penalty minutes in 1927-28 ranking him only 10th that season; he never played in an All-Star Game.

But Hitchman was a huge presence on his early Bruins team, a solid, dependable, quiet leader who never sought the spotlight and excelled in the shadows.

He died in Glens Falls, New York, on Jan. 12, 1969, at age 67. His passing was almost invisible, unreported by the media for about a week.

“That’s the only way Hitch would have it,” his saddened friend Shore told the Springfield Republican. “He was one of the quietest fellows in the world, never sought recognition.

“As a hockey player, he did his job well and never wanted any acclaim. And that’s undoubtedly the way he wanted it in death. He just couldn’t stand to have anybody fussing over him.”

Now, nearly nine decades since his final game, the defenseman’s banner hangs above TD Garden ice in Boston, among much better-known fellow legends but well worthy of note.

It is a black-and-gold tribute to one of the Bruins’ early icons whose name would not for a moment look out of place in the Hockey Hall of Fame, celebrated alongside his contemporaries on whose backs the NHL was built.

Top photo: Lionel Hitchman in two portraits with the Boston Bruins.