Howe piano

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 every Wednesday.

This week goes back eight decades to a night when a grand piano was wheeled to center ice. A member of the Detroit Red Wings then played it, went on to score two goals and win the game and continued to set NHL records.

It was Jan. 29, 1942, exactly 83 years ago today, that a once-in-a-lifetime event took place at Detroit Olympia, where the Chicago Black Hawks played the Detroit Red Wings, but the game had to wait.

Sitting in front of a grand piano at center ice in full uniform and skates was Red Wings forward and future Hockey Hall of Famer Syd Howe. To the delight of 7,164 fans, Howe played "Bye Bye Blackbird" by Jerome H. Remick, a hit tune from 1926. It was the piece de resistance on "Syd Howe Night" and the press loved it.

"In a pregame ceremony the hockey virtues of the Red Wings star were extolled by numerous admirers," wrote Doug Vaughan in The Windsor Star. "Howe was the recipient of many handsome expensive gifts. But when asked which present he most wanted, he requested a spinet piano."

He also received a War Bond, desk set, toolbox, set of silver hurricane lamps and a suit of clothes, among other gifts.

"The piano surprised everybody," Red Wings publicist Fred A. Huber later told me. "It actually was bought from dimes sent in by fans who considered Syd a great hockey hero."

Howe Norris

Howe travelled a circuitous hockey route to the Motor City. It began during the 1929-30 season with his hometown Ottawa Senators. That was followed by the Philadelphia Quakers, a brief stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs and then back to Ottawa for two more seasons. His pre-Detroit expedition ended with the St. Louis Eagles, who sold him and defenseman Scotty Bowman in February 1935 to the Red Wings for $35,000.

Howe was the only man to have played for both the Quakers and Eagles. He not only helped the Red Wings to their first Stanley Cup championship in 1935-36 but was on the ice at 2:25 a.m. ET on March 25, 1936, when Mud Bruneteau scored in the sixth overtime for a 1-0 victory at the Montreal Canadiens, the longest game in NHL history.

Detroit won the Cup again in 1937, but Howe said his favorite goal was scored in the Stanley Cup Playoffs that gave the Red Wings a 2-1 overtime win against the New York Americans in Game 1 of the Quarterfinals on March 19, 1940.

"Syd scored in 25 seconds," Huber said. "It stood as the fastest overtime goal for 29 years, and another highlight of a 17-year NHL run."

When Howe retired in 1946, he was the NHL's leading scorer with 529 points (237 goals, 292 assists) in 700 games and a three-time Stanley Cup winner who had 44 points (17 goals, 27 assists) in 70 Stanley Cup Playoff games. Although Howe was a left wing, he played every forward position -- even defenseman -- and won critical acclaim for playing the 88 keys.

Said Vaughan: "No nimble-witted Hollywood scenario writer could ever have thought up a yarn that would pack more dramatic appeal, or worked half as successfully from start to finish than Howe's night."

It began with Syd in uniform too choked up to speak when the spinet piano appeared. He played Bye, Bye Blackbird with ease and then prepared for his hockey role against Chicago.

"Once the game started," Vaughan said, "Howe didn't choke up. Here it was his chance to show his appreciation in Frank Merriwell fashion to make the evening complete."

Syd 1930s PS

Howe beat Chicago goalie Sam LoPresti at 3:21 of the second period. He put the final stamp on his night with his second goal at 9:43 of the third to give Detroit a 2-0 victory.

"Howe opened the show at the piano," wrote historian Mike Commito in Hockey 365, "and stole the show on the ice."

Wrote in the Ottawa Journal: "Syd tickled the ivories at center ice to the delight of the fans and then tickled them even more with his game-winning goals."

On Feb. 3, 1944, after two periods, Howe's four goals helped give the Red Wings a 6-0 lead against the New York Rangers. He scored two more in a 12-2 win at Detroit Olympia.

"Syd put on a performance that had not been seen for nearly a quarter century," Commito said. "Although Howe finished just short of Joe Malone's seven-goal benchmark (set Jan. 31, 1920), he still left his mark on the game's history."

Short on words, Howe was nicknamed "Silent Syd," but revered for his sense of humor. One night after a hat trick, he told a reporter from the Detroit Evening Times: "Believe it or not, I did it with a sore back, a headache and without my good luck chewing gum, which I swallowed after my first goal."

Howe's six-goal game, considered a modern record at the time, was achieved when Red Wings icon Gordie Howe was only a month from turning 16 and aiming for a pro career. Gordie signed with the Red Wings in 1946, a season after Syd retired. At the time hardly anyone had heard of Red Wings rookie Gordie Howe, but everyone knew Syd Howe, including Gordie.

"Heck," Mr. Hockey later recalled, "the only thing people asked me when I came to Detroit was whether I was related to Syd Howe!"

Syd Howe was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1965 and died of throat cancer at age 64 on May 20, 1976. Before his death, he gave his 1936 Stanley Cup ring to his great-grandson David Lahey. Howe lost his second ring in 1939 but remarkably it emerged last year at a New York auction.

According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, Howe's heirs pooled their resources and bought back the heirloom 85 years after it disappeared. They paid $15,000 plus another $3,000 to the auction house.

"We were over the moon excited," Lahey recalled. "Syd was a great man and we had to reunite his ring with his family!"