Herb Cain persevered despite much adversity during 13 seasons in NHL

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 zeroes in on Herb Cain, a two-time Stanley Cup champion who set the NHL scoring record in 1943-44 but who’s playing career almost ended before it took off.

Exactly 80 years ago this month Herb "Sugar" Cain of the Boston Bruins embarked on one of the most amazing scoring sprees in NHL history.

Cain had 82 points (36 goals, 46 assists) in 49 games for the Bruins in 1943-44, setting an NHL record and more than doubling his previous NHL career high (36 points; 18 goals, 18 assists) set the season before.

"Considering Cain's previous 10 years in the League, that was darn good," said Jim Hendy, publisher of the “1944 Who's Who Of Hockey,” which featured Cain on the cover. "What Herb did the next year (1943-44) bordered on the unbelievable; a gain of 46 points from 36 to 82."

The new League scoring record lasted until 1950-51 when Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings had 86 points (43 goals, 43 assists), though in 70 games, 20 more than Cain.

Like Howe, Cain was deceptively speedy, packed a powerful shot and delivered precision passes. Bruins teammate Buzz Boll remarked that "Herbie was so fast that he'd beat me to all those loose pucks in front of the cage."

"Cain was a tremendous player during his long and successful career," wrote historian Andrew Podnieks in his book, ‘Players -- The Ultimate A to Z Guide.”

The Newmarket, Ontario native ended up playing 572 games over 13 NHL seasons. He finished with 398 points (206 goals, 192 assists).

"Yet every NHL points leader from 1918 to 1988 is in the Hall of Fame except Cain," hockey historian Brooke Broadbent said.

In 2022, Broadbent headed a five-person bloc that launched an elaborate bid to help Cain be enshrined in Toronto.

The team of researchers found that Cain's numbers compared favorably to his contemporaries who made it into the Hall. But Cain remains out in the cold. To this day Cain is the only scoring champion not in the Hall of Fame.

Goals and assists punctuated Cain’s career along with controversy. This included a bitter dispute with Bruins boss Art Ross. According to published reports, Ross allegedly blackballed Cain at the end of his stint with the Bruins.

Eric Zweig, author of the Art Ross biography, confirmed what other historians had written: that Ross blackballed him from the NHL in 1946 when the New York Rangers and Chicago Black Hawks were interested in signing Cain, then 34.

"The generally accepted story is that Cain held out prior to the 1946-47 season and that an angry Ross sent him to Boston's minor league team and buried him there with instructions that he was not to play for another NHL team,” Zweig explained.

Ross made his dictum stick and Cain never played again in the NHL. But Ross could not delete Cain’s NHL heroics that included scoring 20 goals in 44 games as a 22-year-old with the Montreal Maroons in 1934-35. That same season he played for his first Stanley Cup winner and later helped the Bruins win the Cup in 1940-41.

But none of that would have been possible had Cain not survived a bizarre near death-by-hanging episode when still a member of the Maroons.

As it happened, Maroons manager Tommy Gorman had been furious with his veterans "cheating" in a 1935 training camp workout in Winnipeg and ordered them back to the dressing room. He then came up with an idea recalled by left wing Toe Blake years later and recorded in “The Hockey Book” by Bill Roche.

"To stop the 'cheating'" Blake remembered, "Gorman brought strong rope and tied it from the tops of the goal posts to the heavy wire netting on the end boards. That was supposed to block off the ice area behind the nets and stop any player who tried to skate behind the nets."

Unfortunately, Gorman forgot to mention the detour to his players, especially Cain, the first one on the ice. Herbie took off at high speed, unaware a rope was going to circle his neck.

According to Blake, "It was the oddest spill I've ever seen in a hockey rink. Herb's head and body were bent when he was hooked under the chin by the rope. He became a human pinwheel as he looped the loop in the air and finally landed on the back of his head."

By the time anyone realized that a near-fatal episode was taking place, Cain was unconscious and remained out cold for almost a half-hour.

"Gorman was a very worried man," Blake recalled. "He was pacing up and down muttering to himself until he was sure Cain wasn't going to die of choking. And a good thing too because Herb was on his way to a terrific career."

The Maroons traded Cain to the Montreal Canadiens before the 1938-39 season. When the forward held out for a better contract after the season, the Canadiens traded him to the Bruins. And his career really took off from there.

Writing in "The Trail of the Stanley Cup," author Charles L. Coleman described Cain as "a brilliant player who only drew two minor penalties when he won the scoring championship in 1944."

That year, Cain finished second in voting for the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship and gentlemanly play. After Ross successfully blocked Cain's signing with the Rangers or Black Hawks, Cain starred for four seasons with Hershey of the American Hockey League and then retired.

Yet his resiliency continued to be tested.

In 1964, Cain was diagnosed with cancer and was told to prepare for the worst -- that he was expected to die. A Herb Cain Memorial Golf tournament was held by his pals.

Remarkably, experimental chemotherapy treatments worked and two years later Cain won his own tourney and lived 17 years beyond doctors’ expectations.

Broadbent and his team concluded. "It seemed as if Herb could beat every obstacle but the Hall of Fame Selection Committee. Now, it would be great if he could join the 11 players from his era who entered the Hall as veterans."