Metz brothers combined to win Stanley Cup 9 times with Maple Leafs

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

This week Fischler tells the tale of Nick and Don Metz, brothers who combined to win the Stanley Cup nine times in the 1940s.

It's likely that no brother act will ever top Henri and Maurice Richard, who combined for 19 Stanley Cup championships, most for siblings in NHL history. Henri is the all-time individual leader with 11 rings and Maurice has eight.

But the runners-up -- Nick and Don Metz -- have virtually disappeared from memory despite combining for nine Stanley Cup titles and doing so in just seven seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1942-49. By comparison, the Richard brothers required 29 seasons (1944-73) with the Montreal Canadiens to amass their total.

Wheat-growing Saskatchewan farmers, the Metz brothers neither weren’t stars on those successful Maple Leafs teams. But each was in the right place at the right time and contributed some fabulous feats.

Nick Metz played 517 games and 12 NHL seasons with the Maple Leafs. He scored 22 goals in 1944-45 and twice reached 35 points.

Don Metz appeared in 170 NHL games over seven seasons. He had 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in 33 games during the 1940-41 season and never scored more than four goals.

Historian Andrew Podnieks, writing in his book, “Players -- The Ultimate A-Z Guide,” capsulized Don's career: "He timed his contributions perfectly and when he was given a chance he made the most of it. The crowning glory of his ability to perform gracefully under pressure came in the spring of 1942."

Having played 25 NHL games during the 1941-42 season when he scored two goals, Don became an unlikely hero after the heavily favored Maple Leafs lost the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final to the Detroit Red Wings.

In a desperation move prior to Game 4, Toronto coach Hap Day benched his leading scorer Gordie Drillon and astonishingly replaced him with Metz.

"Don scored four goals in the next four games and helped the Leafs complete the most remarkable comeback in the history of the game,” Podnieks explained.

According to You Tube Hockey Time Machine producer Paul Patskou, "Nick also played a big part in the 1942 playoff comeback."

Two years older than Don, Nick had eight points (four goals, four assists) in 13 games during the 1942 postseason. He scored the winning goal in Game 6 of the semi-final against the New York Rangers that lifted Toronto into the Stanley Cup Final.

"Nick was versatile and could score at the right time," said author-publicist Ed Fitkin, who wrote books about the 1940's Maple Leafs, "but best of all was his penalty-killing which ranked at the top of the League."

After Nick tallied the goal that lifted Toronto into the Cup Final, Maple Leafs boss Conn Smythe called him, "The best all-round player in the NHL. He can play anywhere and in any kind of going."

The Metz brothers had their NHL careers interrupted by World War II, when they served in the Canadian Armed Forces.  Each returned in time for the 1945 Stanley Cup Playoffs and another seven-game Final against Detroit. Like 1942, the series was tied after six games.

"Coach Day had been gambling on a two forward line system through the sixth game," Smythe remembered. "Up until then his judgement had been vindicated. But then he did a surprising turnabout somewhat similar to what he did in '42 and the Metz brothers took center stage."

Although Don didn’t play a regular-season game for Toronto that season, Day again pressed him into service for the Cup-deciding game. Historian Eric Zweig noted in his oral history “The Toronto Maple Leafs” that, "Day surprised the Red Wings by employing a third forward line featuring Don Metz, Nick Metz and Art Jackson."

The Metz brothers again helped the Maple Leafs win the championship. A tightly-contested Game 7 was decided late in the third period when Toronto scored on a power play, winning the game 2-1,  and the Stanley Cup.

Together, the Metz Brothers sipped champagne from the Cup a second time and yet, for them, the best was yet to come, starting with the 1946-47 season. This time Don played in an NHL career-high 40 games and his big brother played in a career-best 60.

When Don did get ice time -- mostly as a defensive forward -- foes kept their heads up. For those who didn't, the result could be perilous. On the night of Feb. 6, 1947, Don delivered a volcanic hit to Montreal's Hall of Fame center Elmer Lach that had long-term repercussions.

Lach was carried off with a fractured skull, never to return for the regular season nor the playoffs. The episode set off volleys of charges and counter changes between Montreal and Toronto principals, each raising the question: "Was it a legal or illegal hit?"

Canadiens coach Dick Irvin claimed that it was a dirty play. What's more -- and despite Metz's denial-- Irvin kept repeating his mantra right into the Cup Final against Toronto. Irvin even suggested that a higher authority would determine the Cup-winner and if Metz had, in fact, delivered a dirty hit, his Canadiens would win the title. But Toronto triumphed 2-1 in Game 6 to secure a major Cup upset.

"Many believe that Don's hit on Lach helped the Leafs win the Cup," Fitkin said. "Elmer had centered Montreal's first line and because he missed the entire Cup Final that gave Toronto a big edge."

It also gave the Metz Brothers their third hug around Lord Stanley's silverware with still more to come. Looking ahead to 1947-48, Smythe beefed up his offense by trading for Hall of Fame center Max Bentley. That dropped Nick Metz to fourth center behind Bentley, Ted Kennedy and Syl Apps. Undaunted, Nick delivered for the Maple Leafs in the playoffs against the Boston Bruins.

Following Game 1 of the 1948 playoffs, the Globe and Mail headline proclaimed -- NICK METZ SCORES OVERTIME MARKER TO BEAT BRUINS.

"The veteran hockey warhorse slapped home a backhand to give the Leafs a 5-4 victory," Jim Vipond wrote in The Globe. "Nick capitalized on a nice pass from Max Bentley."

Relegated to AHL Pittsburgh during most of that season, Don still managed to play 26 NHL games. Coach Day also employed him for two postseason matches. The Leafs won their second straight championship and the Metz brothers each won his fourth ring.
 
Meanwhile, Smythe called his '48 champs, "The best team in Leafs history," adding, "I'd like this club against any I could name."

Day also explained that "Nick Metz -- with Bentley, Kennedy and Apps -- gave us four centermen of the highest ability. Very few clubs ever had centers like that."

Finishing a winner, Nick Metz retired to his wheat farm in Wilcox, Saskatchewan after that championship. Don played one more season in a personal drive for his fifth Stanley Cup title.

"But it didn't look like he'd get it," Paskou said. "Without Apps -- he also retired -- and Nick Metz, the Leafs played under .500 hockey and barely made it to the playoffs. Then, all of a sudden, they got hot."

Don Metz played a small part in the recovery. After 33 regular-season games with the big club, Don was retained for playoff insurance, playing in three postseason games. Toronto defeated Boston in a five-game semi-final and then swept Detroit in four straight for their third straight Stanley Cup championship.

Without any fuss or fanfare, part-timer Don Metz retired, secure in the knowledge that he then was the only player to have skated for five Stanley Cup-winning teams. Teammates Turk Broda and Ted Kennedy would match that mark after they helped the Maple Leafs Leafs to another title in 1951.

"I have 500 acres of wheat and barley to take care of on our farm," Don concluded, when he packed his gear for good.  “My hockey work -- along with Nick's -- is done!"