Hainsworth among small goalies who achieved NHL success

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 a bygone era when several goalies were tiny compared with their contemporaries, though no less successful. Some, such as Roy Worters, George Hainsworth and Charlie Hodge, were more than a foot shorter than Edmonton Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen, who measures 6-foot-7, 202 pounds.

It's virtually impossible to imagine goalie Roy Worters -- even in his prime -- being able to gain a roster spot on a contemporary NHL team.
Worters won the Hart Trophy voted as NHL most valuable player in 1929 and the Vezina Trophy voted as the League's top goalie in 1931. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1969 after playing 12 seasons in the NHL for the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Americans and Montreal Canadiens from 1925-37.
But the goalie nicknamed "Shrimp" measured a skimpy 5-foot-3 inches tall and 135 pounds. And he was often injured, perhaps because of his small physical stature.
"With 216 stitches in his face alone," author Ron McAllister wrote in 'More Hockey Stories,' "Roy carried on with cracked ribs, a broken knee-cap, three broken toes and countless lesser injuries including loss of eight of his teeth."
Although Worters never got his name on the Stanley Cup, he did play for a Cup-winner. During the 1929-30 season he appeared in one game when Canadiens goalie George Hainsworth was hurt. The Canadiens went on to win the Cup that season.
Ironically, Hainsworth was another tiny goalie (5-foot-6, 150 pounds). He won the Stanley Cup twice and the Vezina Trophy three times during 11 NHL seasons.
"He was a dumpy, diminutive figure, who looked as though he should have been managing the team's accounting books, not carving a place for himself in history books," columnist Ken Campbell wrote in The Hockey News.
In 1928-29, Hainsworth had 22 shutouts in 44 games and a 0.92 goals-against average with the Canadiens.
"He did that," added Campbell, "while playing with a broken nose sustained early that season."
Of the post-World War II goalies, Charlie Hodge ranks among the best. The 5-foot-6 goalie played 13 seasons in the NHL, won the Vezina two times and the Stanley Cup six times, all with the Canadiens in the 1950s and 1960's.
"Hodge was like 'Shrimp' Worters," author Ira Gitler wrote in 'Hockey - The World's Fastest Sport.' "Neither could escape a dressing room gag. They'd say, 'Charlie, you're so small you're the last one to know when it rains!'"
The jokes kept coming, even as the wins piled up.
"Of course 'Shrimp' was a stand-up goalie," chuckled Worters' teammate with the Americans, Lorne Carr. "If he wasn't, you wouldn't be able to find him!"