Born and raised in Niagara Falls, Ontario, he played his junior hockey for the N.F. Flyers.  In 1965 Turk led his team to the Memorial Cup, symbol of junior hockey supremacy in Canada and in 1967 he was the recipient of the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as the OHL’s leading scorer.

Instinctively, Derek always understood the value of “the big stage.” In 1966, the Boston Bruins management, in the middle of a cellar-dwelling season, decided to arrange a game in the Boston Gardens between the Sanderson-led Niagara Falls Flyers and the Bobby Orr-led Oshawa Generals to showcase their up and coming talent.  Winning that night was not Sanderson’s agenda; enticing Orr into a brawl was.  The scouts and the fans took note.  A year later the two budding superstars were teammates on the Bruins.

stevegarfield/Flickr

Playing with the Bruins in 1967-68, he scored 24 goals with 25 assists and won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year.

Despite playing with a Hall-of Fame lineup in Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Gerry Cheevers and Ed Westfall, Turk became a fan favorite and to many the most exciting player on the ice;  with him on the ice you never knew what would happen next.

Those early years in Boston were the apex of his life.  Fame and fortune had come his way.  He drove a silver Rolls Royce, owned a nightclub, Bachelors Three, in New York and Boston in partnership with Joe Namath and could make quite an entrance with his full-length mink coat and a new blonde on his arm every night.

“I made the kid famous,” he joked.

After winning a second Stanley Cup two years later, Boston fans could not believe the news that summer that Sanderson had jumped to the upstart WHA, signing with the Philadelphia Blazers for 2.6 million dollars.  His new deal, that the Bruins would not match, made him the highest paid athlete in the world at that time.  Derek did know how to grab a headline.

Opening night in Philadelphia, there was a problem with the ice and pucks kept disappearing under the boards.  The referees were obliged to cancel the game.  As captain of the Blazers, Derek felt a responsibility to explain the situation to the fans.  As a promotion, the club had given each patron in attendance a souvenir orange puck.  As he started his speech at center ice, one puck was tossed in his direction in protest of the cancellation.  Before long, pucks were raining down and Captain Derek had to beat a hasty retreat to the dressing room to save his skin.

Unfortunately, the Philadelphia sortie did not have a happy ending.  A serious knee injury

kipl/flickr

six games into the season laid him up indefinitely.  A few smart-alec quotes in the press made his new owners irate and, before the season was over, the team bought him out for $1 million.  While his rights reverted to the Bruins, they traded him at the end of the season to the New York Rangers.

Derek’s off-ice troubles with alcohol and drugs were chipping away at his on-ice talents.  Slowly he lost the magic and for several years after he left hockey, he struggled with those addictions.  His lifestyle eventually left him penniless.  In 1980, through the good graces of Bobby Orr, he checked into rehab in Ste. Catherine’s Ontario, and he has been sober ever since.

The Bruins’ organization, fans and former teammates rallied around a rehabbed Sanderson and NESN hired him as a color man on its hockey broadcasts For ten years he worked as a sidekick and color commentator for Fred Cusick, the Bruins play-by-play guy.  After his broadcasting career, he went to work as a financial adviser to young hockey players who might experience the same dilemmas he did when the “too much, too soon” syndrome hit.

Boston fans remember him fondly.  Turk always came to play, night after night.  He was tough as nails.  He and Ed Westfall were considered the best penalty-kill pair in his era. His fights were as legendary as his charm, while his smothering fore-checks and tenacity in the corners were his trademarks. On the ice, he did it all.

Derek Sanderson was truly one-of-a-kind.

Prudential Center Gosh@/Flickr

There were Devilish smiles all around the table Tuesday at the Prudential Center news conference to formally announce the signing of Ilya Kovalchuk.

Chairman and Managing Partner Jeff Vanderbeek, who stepped up this summer  to put his own footprint on the Devils’ hockey landscape, welcomed Kovalchuk back to Jersey’s team.  With this signing and the addition of Jason Arnott, Anton Volchenkov, Henrik Tallinder and Johan Hedberg since Canada Day, July 1, Vanderbeek had every reason to be smiling. The Prudential Center that he and his partners built will be Rockin’ the Red come September.  Their commitment to the franchise’s future is solid.

Ilya Kovalchuk (Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger)

“Patience was the key,” he said, when asked  to pinpoint the hardest part of the recent negotiation.  “We made the best offer we could but it was up to Ilya to decide where he wanted to play out the final chapter of his career.  I want to thank my partner, Michael Gilfillan, for his support over the last three weeks and for joining me in this patient wait.”

Lou Lamoriello quietly stated that Kovalchuk was “one piece, a missing piece in the puzzle, that the team needed to continue being successful.  Ilya wants to be part of the team.  I have always said that the logo on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back and he agrees.  That is a conversation we had back in February when he joined the team.

Entering into this contract was not a decision I could make.  The owners of the team, Mr. Vanderbeek and Mr. Gilfillan, had to decide how far they were willing to go to make this happen.  It is to their credit that they had the foresight and the patience to see it to its conclusion.”

John MacLean’s smile was the brightest of them all.  The newly anointed head coach looked like the kid at Christmas who got both the new bicycle and the pony.  Sitting directly in front of the podium were Devils stars that had flown in from various points in the country to welcome their new teammate: Marty Brodeur, Zach Parise, Jamie Langenbrunner, Patrik Elias and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond.

As Johnny Mac waxed poetic about the team’s new offensive power, the ability of his forwards to take greater chances, to look around and create, he was forced to pause a moment to reassure his frowning Future-Hall-of-Fame goalie that team defense would not be neglected.  The players all laughed and MacLean promised the fans a great year.

Ilya Kovalchuk, the fourth man on the podium was at first nervous and a bit self-conscious, as if he wasn’t quite sure that the events of the past 48 hours had really happened.  He thanked the owners for their patience and generosity.  He thanked Lamoriello for his guidance.  He thanked his teammates for their tremendous support, noting their presence and the effort each had made to fly in from various points across the country to be there for him.

Acknowledging the importance of Marty Brodeur, long the public face of the Devils, Kovalchuk jokingly urged Vanderbeek to “sign him back for a couple more years.”

Regarding his reasons for signing with New Jersey, the vaunted star mentioned the consensus of he and his wife that the schools and neighborhoods available there were best for the way they wanted to raise their three children.  A second factor was the organization’s commitment to winning.

“When I cam here in February the first thing I saw was the way the organization treated their players and how the players, in turn, played for each other, how they always had each others backs.  I wanted to be in an organization that has winning most on their minds.  Mr. Lamoriello always puts the best possible team on the ice.  This was the biggest decision of my life.  Now I will be a Devil for life.”

The Arch

“Sure, a little bit of heaven fell from out the sky one day” - from an old Irish ballad

“Entering Paradise” is the feeling you get as you drive through the Arch at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Faribault, Minnesota.   Framed in its arc are the limestone school buildings; the Chapel of the Good Shepherd with its rare, all-stone spire; and the lush green playing field inviting you to come kick a soccer ball around.  This fairy-tale campus, sitting on the bluffs above the Straight River, sparkles in the sunlight like a precious jewel beckoning to all who come its way.

Founded in 1858, the same year Minnesota became a state, the school’s reputation for hockey excellence far exceeds its modest size.  A writer in Sports Illustrated summed up its importance in the world of hockey: “Shattuck-St. Mary’s School is to high school hockey what Harvard is to law schools.”

The school fields eight hockey teams with each playing a seven-month season of 50-70 games: two Girls’ teams (U-16, U-19) two Bantam teams (Tier I, A) and four Midget teams (Bots Prep, AAA, AA, U-16).  One hundred sixty student-athletes participate in the program with a high percentage going on to play at Division I, Division III colleges or for junior hockey organizations.  The success of the program can be seen by the accomplishments of its alumni.

Jonathan Toews

Zach Parise

Sidney Crosby

The last two Stanley Cup winning captains, Blackhawk Jonathan Toews and Penguin Sidney Crosby, honed their skills here.  Seven 2010 Olympians, five men and two women, are among the alumni.  Zach Parise, Jack Johnson, Ryan Malone, the Lamoureux twins (Jocelyne and Monique), and the Cup captains all plied their trade in recent years in the SSM uniform.  Fifteen NHL jerseys currently hang proudly in the Arena lobby.  Three Shattuck players were chosen in the 2009 NHL draft.  Surely these results are not by divine intervention; they must be the product of human design.

Let’s look at the evolution of this unique community.

The school moved to its current location in 1864 with the completion of Seabury Hall and became a boarding school for young men and boys.  It owes its impressive campus buildings to the generosity of its early patrons.

Bishop Whipple

Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck of Boston funded the building of Shattuck Hall.  Soon after, the grammar school became known as Shattuck School.  Henry Benjamin Whipple, the first Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota opened a girls’ school, St. Mary’s School, in his home in Faribault.  In 1872, through the grace of Augusta Shumway of Chicago, the chapel was erected.  Dr. James Dobbin, rector of the school from 1866 to 1914, commissioned many of the limestone buildings still in evidence throughout the campus.  In 1972 the two entities were merged into what is now known as Shattuck-St. Mary’s School.

Although its first hockey team was formed in 1925, a serious approach to the game was not taken until 1990.  Over time, the program had deteriorated to the point of barely existing.  To strengthen its teams a recruitment program was launched to attract new player talent to the school.  In 1993, seeing the possibility of growing the school population through an accelerated hockey program, Director of Hockey Craig Norwich convinced the powers-that-be to leave the Minnesota High School Hockey League and strike out on its own.  All high school hockey in Minnesota is community based; if you live in Edina, you play in Edina.  The uniqueness of SSM’s program (the boarding school aspect, players from across the world, 50-70 game schedule) allows Shattuck to register with USA Hockey as the only non-community-based Minnesota team and consequently to represent the state in the USA Nationals playoffs every year.

Before moving on in 1996, Norwich suggested hiring ex-NHL star, Jean-Paul Parise, to run the hockey program and the road to excellence was paved.  A strong believer in nose-to-the-grindstone hard work and integrity of character, Parise ran the program for ten years and established the philosophy that exists till this day.

In 1999 the Boys Prep Team won its first Tier One U-18 National Championship.  Since then it has won four more titles (2001/3/5/7). The Girls Prep Team has won four National U-19 titles (2005/6/7/9).  This year the U-16 team won its National title as well.

Tom Ward was named Director of Hockey four years ago.

Tom Ward

Asked what he looks for in a young prospect, Ward had some very straight advice:

“A candidate for our program must first be a person of good character; have a passion for the game; and understand that the environment here is unique.  He has to be willing to put in the effort it takes to be the best he can be.  It is a full day here.  His chemistry teacher will expect him to be fully present when he is in class and we will expect the same when he hits the ice.  Our expectations are very high.  We have high standards for a kid entering the school and once he has arrived in the program, we like to create an atmosphere here for him to grow that talent, to reach his potential as an athlete and as a member of the community.”

Asked what common mistakes hockey parents make, Ward had this to say:

“Sometimes parental love blinds them to the reality of their child’s talent level.  That’s why we invite them to come skate with our teams, so they can see how they match up, what they have to work on, and what level they have to reach.  At some point you have to let your kid go.  Let him or her swim.  Parents have to trust that there are hockey people out there who can teach their kids to improve.  At the same time, young players need to know the parents are there for them – to comfort them and to listen to their needs.  It’s a fine line to walk.  We do a lot of nurturing here.  You have to know whether a kid needs a pat on the back or a kick in the ass, words of encouragement or some tough love.  We do a lot of that here, especially in the first year.

Parents who can’t let go, who never let go, have a tug-of-war going on.  They have every intention of helping their child but it is actually hurting them, holding them back.  What happens when the parents finally get comfortable and let go is that the kid evolves.  He takes ownership of his own career.  Then the fear disappears. They are no longer afraid.  They are not scared of tryouts, of putting it all on the line when they have to.  They walk into new situations with their heads high, full of confidence.  They understand that there is no free lunch, that hard work is what it is all about.  They go from boy to man.

Outdoor Hockey - The Early Years

What makes me most proud is that whatever they go on to do in life they have developed into solid people.   When pros like Pierre Maguire talk about NHLers who have gone through our program they always talk about their character, that they are outstanding citizens, well mannered, well behaved.  Their teammates appreciate that; their coaches appreciate that.  That is what we want to achieve with our program.  Wherever they go, whatever they do, they will be good fathers and good contributing members of the community cause they are willing to roll up their sleeves and work things out.  At the end of the day, that is what is unique about our program, about our school.”

There is no doubt that the core mission of the school has been in place for a long time.  Leadership, integrity, focus are the basic tenets of the school.  During the Korean War and World War II, a graduate of SSM could join the Army as a Second Lieutenant.   What worked for the U.S. Army then, works for Jonathan Toews today.  A new chapter in the Shattuck-St. Mary’s story is being written by its current administration.

Nick Stoneman, hired as Head of School nine years ago, was given a mandate to grow the school’s population and to increase its revenue and endowments.  He began by ordering a case study of the hockey program to determine why it had evolved so successfully.

Nick Stoneman Head of School

The vast majority of the best American prep schools are in the Northeast.  The first question to be answered was:  how do you offset that?  How do you attract students from Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York to a prep school on the great plains of Minnesota?  What had created the influx of hockey players from across the globe? The answer was simple: to attract elite players, pursuit of their passion had to be a top priority.  An immersive environment that fosters daily practice and high-level training must be created without losing sight of the academic goals needed to enter the University level.  This was a simple solution but difficult to execute.  Could this hockey paradigm be used to attract elite talent to other disciplines?

In his tenure at SSM, Stoneman has tackled this execution with the creation of Centers of Excellence in the Arts, Athletics, Bioscience and Academics. The Arts add cultural, economic and global diversity.  Nurturing the passionate pursuit of excellence attracts students from all parts of the globe..

Expansion was vital.   Twelve million dollars were poured into new facilities to house these Centers.  A new arena, a new soccer Dome, two Arts and two academic Centers sprung up on the campus.  Soccer and figure skating coaches were hired.  The vocal, dance and orchestra faculties were revamped.  Each Center focused on the individual path to excellence.  Nine years ago, out of 260 students 160 were hockey players.  In the fall of 2010, there will be a student body of 480 with kids from 25 countries and 35 states.

Elite soccer players and figure skaters are drawn to their own Centers of Excellence.

The Center for Academic Achievement provides support, resources and instruction for students with mild learning disabilities.  An English as a Second Language program helps foreign students to become fluent in the language of their adopted country.

Fayfield Hall

The Bioscience Center for Medicine and Research and Science will open Fayfield Hall, its new building, in January of 2011.  Students in the Bioscience program will have state-of-the-art laboratory classrooms, lab space dedicated to independent student research, and an engineering lab providing opportunities to develop programming, design, and problem solving skills critical to medical engineering.  This new venture takes advantage of the unique location of the school in the “medical alley” mid-way between The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and the great hospitals in Minneapolis.  By partnering with the great medical minds of these world-renown institutions, the school will introduce its students at an early stage in their chosen careers to cutting-edge ideas and research.

The Vocal Performance Program has partnered with the Minnesota Opera where students can attend Master classes; participate in the Saturday program for aspiring vocalists, etc. – all within the context of a college preparatory academic program.

Similarly, the Pre-Conservatory Music Program for violinists and pianists is partnered with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra – again within the framework of the academic curriculum.

Stoneman sums it up like this:  “When the entire school attends a performance of the Minnesota Symphony because one of our students is a solo pianist that night, it is not only an amazing thing for our kids to see but for that kid to be seen as a rock star in their school because of it is a life’s lesson in itself.  This is all made possible because the school fosters the pursuit of excellence.  All our students appreciate that fact and take great pride in each other’s achievements.  What our environment creates and thrives on is focus.”

The mission statement reads:  “As a school community, Shattuck-St. Mary’s guides young people to be strong in character, mind, body and spirit for a life of learning and service. “

Whether they aspire to play in the NHL, to sing on the great opera stage of La Scala, to win figure skating gold in the Olympics, to discover a cure for a life-threatening disease or to eventually become CEO of a Fortune 500 company, each individual student will find the focus and the life’s lessons they will need at this jewel of a school in the heart of Minnesota.

Photos:  Paul Swenson, Michelle Phillips,  and Public Domain/Author Unknown.

Special Thanks:  Amy Grant, Mary Hart and Michelle Phillips.

Canadiens Retired Jerseys

“Boom Boom” Geoffrion, born on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1931, came into this world with his own royal lineage.  His father Jean-Baptiste Geoffrion was a direct descendant of Pierre Joffrion and his wife Marie Priault, early French settlers to the colony of Montreal.  Marie Priault was a King’s daughter.

His ascension to hockey royalty would be earned on the ice.

Coming out of High School where he played for Mont St-Louis, Geoffrion broke into the Quebec Junior Hockey League with Montreal Concordia, moved on to the Laval Nationales and finally the Montreal Nationales.  Playing in the “Golden Age” of junior hockey, he immediately caught the eye of both the pro scouts and the hockey press with his thundering slap shot that would boom off his stick and resound off the glass like a cannon shot. Charlie Boire, a hockey scribe for the Montreal Star, gave him the nickname “Boom Boom” that stuck with him throughout his career.

Three teams represented Montreal in the QJHL, all playing out of the Forum: the Montreal Nationales, the Montreal Royals and the Junior Canadiens.  Every Tuesday night at seven, a double-header featuring at least two and sometimes all three of the teams would pack the Forum to the rafters.  A smooth and truly gifted Jean Beliveau would visit with the Quebec Citadelles.  An intense, hard-driving Dickie Moore skated with the Junior Habs.  Add to this the freewheeling Geoffrion displaying a heavy, hard shot the fans had never seen before, and then hold on tight, as the building would rock all night long.  Along with Citadelles’ new goalie, Jacques Plante, these youngsters dominated the league.  In consecutive years -1949 and 1950 – the Montreal Royals and the Junior Canadiens won the Memorial Cup, emblematic of the Canadian Junior Championship.

During this pre-NHL period, at a Forum figure skating event where several junior stars were being introduced to the crowd, Howie Morenz Jr. introduced Bernard to his sister Marlene, by now an accomplished figure skater who was performing that evening.  The couple hit it off instantly, started dating and the rest is history.  They married shortly thereafter and were blessed with three children.

On December 16, 1950, Montreal Canadiens’ G.M. Frank Selke called up both Geoffrion and Beliveau to play against the New York Rangers to showcase these future stars for an eager fan base who had followed their young careers and knew their incredible potential.  The Boomer did not disappoint, scoring the only Habs’ goal in a 1-1 tie.  In all, he played eighteen games that year with the big club, scoring eight goals for a point total of 14.

Entering the 1951-52 season the Canadiens’ youth movement rekindled a spark in the team that had been flickering for a couple of years.  Despite playing the year before, Geoffrion was still considered a rookie by league rules.  Goalies throughout the league were amazed at his shot, not just the velocity of it but the heaviness as well.  This was indeed a turning point in the game of hockey, one that would eventually lead to curved sticks, pucks breaking the glass and Jacques Plante donning the first mask.  Though often criticized for its lack of accuracy, something every netminders in the NHL was well aware of, the Slap Shot was here to stay. Dickie Moore joined the Tricolore that same season, settling in on a line with Rocket Richard and Elmer Lach, finally solving the club’s problem of replacing “the Old Lamplighter”, Toe Blake. Geoffrion led the Canadiens in scoring that year with 30 goals / 54 points and won the Calder Cup as rookie of the year.  By season’s end the rookies had set the table for the feasts of the years to come.

October 11, 1952, was another life-altering event in Canadian history that would change the Saturday night viewing habits of Montreal Canadiens fans from coast-to-coast.  For the first time in NHL history, CBC-TV televised a live game between the Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings.  Fearing a drop in ticket sales, they were allowed to broadcast only the third period.  At the start of the telecast the score was 1-1 tie in a game that Montreal eventually won 2-1 on a goal by Billy Reay.  The timing of the advent of TV for Geoffrion and other newcomers to the team meant that their entire careers would be the weekly focal point for hockey fans all across the country.  Hockey Night in Canada was born and it exists till this day.

By 1954, Jean Beliveau and Jacques Plante, both serious rivals from the Boomer’s junior days, had joined the Canadiens. Beliveau, Geoffrion and Bert Olmstead became a formidable scoring combination, with Olmstead digging pucks out of the corners and Beliveau and Boom Boom able to score from anywhere inside the opponent’s blue line.  On March 17, days after Rocket Richard had been suspended by Commissioner Clarence Campbell for the balance of the season and the playoffs for hitting a linesman in an altercation with the Bruins, the restless crowd attending a Detroit-Montreal game hurled insults and invectives at Campbell as he sat passively in his regular seat at the Forum.  As the anger grew to a fever pitch a smoke bomb was hurled to the ice and thousands of frenzied fans poured out of the building, forming into a mob that wound its way east on Ste Catherine street destroying everything in its path.  Storefronts, police cars, restaurants, and tramway cars were ravaged and set fire.  The looting and burning lasted for hours.  Police were unable to quell the trouble.  Fearing the worst, management used local radio stations to broadcast a plea for peace from the Rocket himself.  Eventually the disturbance died out.  This infamous event would forever be known as the Richard Riot.

Richard was leading the league in scoring at the time he was suspended but, in the last game of the season, Geoffrion scored a goal to pass him and become as the league’s leading scorer, giving him his second Art Ross Trophy.  The Canadiens fans were distraught.  The booing and jeering that accompanied his latest feat pained Geoffrion, who, by now, was used to basking in the applause of his adoring Montreal fans.  “ I couldn’t NOT score,” he pleaded, but the fan rejection continued.  Geoffrion, sensitive as usual to everything around him, started thinking of quitting the game.  Richard and Beliveau interceded on a timely basis and he decided to stay on the team.

Boomer's 6 Stanley Cups - Photo: KRH

Over the next five years, Les Canadiens won five straight Stanley Cups.  Under new coach Toe Blake, in 1955, the team swept its league and most of the individual trophies.  Geoffrion scored 62 points in 59 games playing on a line with Henri Richard and Dickie Moore.   Trophy winners were:  Jacques Plante (Vezina), Jean Beliveau (Hart), James Norris (Doug Harvey), Art Ross (Jean Beliveau).  Plante and Harvey became perennial winners of their respective trophies while Geoffrion won both the hart and the Art Ross trophies in 1961, becoming only the second player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a single season.  Both he and Beliveau were First All-Star Team picks that year.

Of the five year run of Stanley Cups the Boomer had this to say:  “It was not easy. There were only six teams at that time.  Today, it’s hard enough for teams to win one let alone five.  As far as I am concerned we had the best team ever in the NHL.”  It is hard to argue with the man when you realize that ten players from that team are in the Hall of Fame: Jacques Plante, Doug Harvey, Butch Bouchard, Tom Johnson, Maurice Richard, Henri Richard, Jean Beliveau, Bert Olmstead, Dickie Moore and, of course, Bernie Geoffrion.

In the summer of 1964, he accepted Frank Selke’s offer to retire as a player and to coach the Quebec Aces, the Montreal farm team.  Believing he was on the path to becoming Head Coach of his beloved Canadiens, he reluctantly gave up his playing career for a shirt and tie and a spot behind the Quebec bench.  After two years in Quebec, realizing that his dream job was not in the offing, Geoffrion returned to Montreal and was left to wonder about his future.  He did not wonder long.  In the summer draft, Emile Francis picked up Geoffrion’s player rights and he was more than willing to return as a Ranger.  “I wanted to prove I could still play.  The year before the Rangers did not make the playoffs. That season we did.”  After one good season and a second in which he numbers fell off badly, Geoffrion finally retired as a player and again accepted an offer to coach. This time it was the New York Rangers.

As a coach, Bernard was plagued by an oversensitivity to criticism and an active duodenal ulcer.  Every time he ended up in a new coaching job, his stomach problems betrayed him.  Despite his happy public face as a jokester and his polished manner as a raconteur, the internal drive for perfection that drove him throughout his playing career became his undoing as an NHL coach.  In 1968, he could not finish the season with the Blueshirts.  In 1972, he became the inaugural coach for the newly- minted Atlanta Flames.  In his third season there, he was once again forced to the sidelines by ongoing stomach ailments.  Finally, in 1979 he was installed by Irv Grundman as Head Coach of the Bleu, Blanc and Rouge.  He figured to be home at last.

Unfortunately, the dream job quickly turned into a nightmare.  “I had three guys telling me what to do.  Toe Blake, as Vice President of Hockey, travelled with the team.  Claude Ruel was a coaching advisor while G.M. Irving Grundman also offered his input.  Besides that, they were unfair to my son Danny.  He had been a first round draft pick of the Canadiens and they wouldn’t let me play him.  I had dreamed about coaching the Canadiens but not like this.”  After thirty games, with the team in first place, he resigned his post.

Boom Boom’s son, Dan Geoffrion, played five seasons in the QMJHL for the Cornwall Royals.  His junior career climaxed in 1978-79 when he scored 68 goals in 71 games and was drafted in the first round by the Canadiens.  He played 111 games in the NHL, split between the Canadiens and the Winnipeg Jets.  His game never caught fire and eventually he retired and moved his family to Nashville.

Dan’s son Blake, fourth generation Morenz, third generation Geoffrion and newest star on the hockey horizon is known as a defensive and penalty-killing specialist. Blake has already excelled on both the collegiate and Junior International stages and will return to Nashville soon, as a Predator, where he will write his own page in NHL history.  As such, he will be the first homegrown hockey talent in Nashville’s brief history. Somewhere, sitting in the Royal Box, high above the Bridgestone Arena, a proud grandfather and great-grandfather will applaud his every move while they regale each other with war stories from their own illustrious careers.

Joseph Andre Bernard “Boom Boom” Geoffrion played fourteen seasons for his beloved Canadiens.  In 766 games, he scored 371 goals, added 388 assists for a point total of 759.  He won six Stanley Cups.  His jovial personality and natural flair for the comedic response made him a fan favorite.  It was not easy to stand out in the crowd playing with Beliveau, the two Richards, Doug Harvey and Jacques Plante, but stand out he did.  He was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1972.  Over thirty years later, when management finally announced the retirement of his jersey, the reaction amongst the faithful was:  “ En fin. What took you so long?”

He passed away on March 11, 2006, hours before the retirement-of-the-jersey ceremony was to take place.  He insisted that the event should proceed and, that night, his family and friends along with 21,000 fans joined to celebrate his illustrious career.  In an emotional salute, Howie Morenz’s Number 7 was lowered to half-mast where it was joined by Boom Boom’s Number 5 and together they were flown to the rafters to join those of their fellow retired Superstars.  His wife Marlene and their three children waved goodbye as the jerseys rose high above the crowd.  The adoring crowd did not miss this incredibly touching metaphor as they joined the family in saying their fond goodbyes.  Not one person in the crowd doubted that the Boomer was there in the building that night, smiling that incredible smile and taking it all in.

Blake Geoffrion Photo: Jibby7/CC

University of Wisconsin’s Blake Geoffrion, winner of the 2010 Hobey Baker Memorial Award for college hockey’s best player, is the new Crown Prince of NCAA Hockey.  Like a champion thoroughbred racehorse, Blake’s hockey bloodlines can be traced back four generations. Howie Morenz, his great-grandfather, who played fourteen years in the NHL (twelve of those years with the Montreal Canadiens), is considered by some to be the best of all time.  His grandfather, Bernie “Boom-Boom” Geoffrion married Howie’s daughter Marlene and after an outstanding career in Montreal, New York and Atlanta as player, coach and TV personality, followed his father-in-law into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Dan, his father, played four years in the NHL.  Now, it is Blake’s turn.

Let’s take a look back in time at the evolution of this family dynasty.

It all began at the turn of the 20^th century with a talented young forward from Stratford, Ontario.  Born in Mitchell, Ontario on June 21,1902, he started his career playing pond hockey on the Thames river.  When the family moved to Stratford in 1917 Howie played five seasons with the Stratford Midgets of the OHL, leading them to the 1921 Memorial Cup finals against the Winnipeg Falcons.  Despite his spectacular personal performance, they lost eleven-nine in a two-game total point series.  After the series, Falcon defenseman, Harry Roth said: “It was Morenz, Morenz, Morenz, as the fastest Junior I ever saw scored goal after goal.  Howie had speed to burn.  He would come right up to you and when you tried to check him he wasn’t there.”   He was soon dubbed:  ”The Stratford Streak”.

In 1920 he became an apprentice in the Canadian National Railway shop in his hometown.  His hockey ability had a great deal to do with his appointment.  Playing in a CNR Tournament game between teams from Point-St-Charles and Stratford at the Mount Royal Arena in December of 1922, Morenz scored nine goals.  Ernest Sauve, after refereeing the game, drove immediately from the arena to the Windsor Hotel office of Leo Dandurand, managing partner of the Montreal Canadiens. There he informed his friend of this newfound marvel on skates.

Dandurand, who, along with his two friends, Joseph Cattarinich and Louis Letourneau, had acquired the team for eleven thousand dollars the year before, made a trip to Stratford in January to see him play and marveled at his innate abilities on the ice.  His speed, his passion for the game, his checking prowess, all added up to a brilliant future wherever he decided to play.  In a meeting at the Morenz home with Howie and his father William, Dandurand was informed that the boy would not be allowed to make any move away from Stratford that would interfere with his apprenticeship at the CN factory that had two years to go before completion. “It would be regrettable if he abandoned his trade,” mused William.

In July, after hearing that Morenz father and son had been considering playing for the Toronto St. Pat’s, Dandurand summoned Cecil Hart, his trusted negotiator, to his office, armed him with signed checks for different denominations and put him on a train for Stratford.  “Do not return without a signed contract,” he told Hart.  By the end of the next day Hart visited Stratford, had worked his magic and was able to inform his Montreal patron that the deed was done. By coincidence the signing was concluded on July 7, 1923, Dandurand’s 34^th birthday, prompting Leo to decide that Morenz would wear Canadiens sweater number 7.

In December 1923, Morenz joined the Canadiens, quickly impressing his new teammates and the local press with his speed and scoring touch.  Three games into this first season, Elmer Ferguson of the Montreal Herald wrote: “He’s the best looking youngster who has broken into the NHL.  If he isn’t a star of the first magnitude by season’s end, it‘ll be because he has lost a leg.”

His new line mates were Aurel Joliat and Billy Boucher, the youngest forward line in the league, and they led the team to its first NHL regular-season title in five years.  With the great Georges Vezina in goal and Sprague Cleghorn on defense, they went on to win his first and the Canadiens’ second Stanley Cup, defeating first the Ottawa Senators for the Eastern title, and then both the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey League and the Calgary Tigers of the Western Canada Hockey League.  In the first game of the Cup Finals, Morenz notched a hat trick as the team won, 6-1.  In the second and final game, each member of his line scored, leading the team to a 3-0 victory.  His legend was launched.

The Stratford Streak played eleven consecutive seasons for Les Habitants (1923 – 1934).   In that time he became the brightest star ever to appear in the Canadiens’ constellation.  With their flashing speed and laser-like scoring abilities, he and his teammates filled not only the Mount Royal Arena but also every NHL arena they visited.  Teamed with his friend and line mate, Aurel Joliat, he was never far from leading the league in goals scored and points earned.  Though not a big man by NHL standards, (he stood 5’9” and weighed 165 lbs.) he played with a ferocity and passion that made him seem much bigger to his opponents.

In the 1927-1928 campaign, Morenz set a new league record, breaking the fifty-point barrier for the first time in the league’s history with 33 goals and a 51-point total.  His 18 assists also tied the league record set the year before by Chicago Blackhawk Dick Irvin.

In 1929-1930, he scored 40 goals in 44 games, and led his team to another Stanley Cup, adding three playoff goals to his totals, one

Bell Center Montreal - Photo: WallyG/Flickr

of which was the Cup winning goal against the Boston Bruins.  The following season he won the Hart Trophy for the second time, his second Art Ross Trophy for the scoring title and his third Stanley Cup.

In 1931-32 dark financial clouds were gathering over the Montreal Canadiens and their hard-working blue-collar fans.  Every team in the league was affected by the stringent conditions brought on by the Great Depression.  Thousands of seats in their home rink were empty, game after game.  Despite winning his third Hart Trophy that year, Howie worried about his and his team’s future.

Cecil Hart resigned the coaching position.  Soon after, Dandurand and Cattarinich decided to sell the team to The Canadian Arena Company, owners of the Montreal Forum, for one hundred sixty-five thousand dollars.  To make matters worse, in the fall of ’33 the years started to catch up to the great Stratford superstar.  Canadiens were no longer dominating their opponents.  As he struggled with his scoring touch, the fans turned against him, disappointed that their hero could no longer leave defenders bewildered at the blue line.  His vaunted speed was now a step slower.  On October 1^st, 1934, the rumors that had been bandied about in the Montreal press, rumors that the team was preparing to trade him, suddenly came to fruition.  Headlines blared that the great Howie Morenz was traded to Chicago.

Forever Enshrined - Photo: WallyG/Flickr

Without his beloved Bleu, Blanc et Rouge jersey Morenz was devastated.  His turn in Chicago ended mercifully with a trade eighteen months later to the New York Rangers.  His results there were not much better.  At the end of that miserable season, Howie was forced to ask himself if indeed this was the end.  Was it indeed time to hang them up?  Then, to his delight, a miracle occurred.

The Canadiens had not fared much better than Morenz after their separation.  The team was experiencing fiscal deficits, losing seasons, empty stands and disillusioned new owners.  Looking to right the ship, the new management reached back in the club’s history to rehire Cecil Hart, the winningest coach in their history.  Hart’s one condition for returning behind the bench was that the club re-acquire the Stratford Streak.  Days later the deed was done and a jubilant Morenz could not believe his good fortune.  He would return where he always knew he had belonged.

The season started out with the Canadiens battling the Montreal Maroons for first place.  The rivalry was renewed, the spirit was back in the team, and the fans were returning.  Morenz was high on his and the club’s future.  Reunited with Aurel Joliat and his old teammates the magic had returned.

On January 28 the Canadiens played the Black Hawks at home.  Early in the game Morenz darted into the Chicago end with burly defenseman Earl Seibert in close pursuit.  Suddenly, he lost an edge and fell feet-first towards the end boards.  The blade of his left skate sliced through a crack in the planks.  Seibert, caught by surprise at the fall, was unable to stop and piled into the fallen winger.  The momentum of the collision carried both players further toward the goal but the snared leg did not move.  Spectators could hear the bone snap. Writhing in pain he was carried from the ice by his teammates and later taken to L’Hopital St-Luc where the club doctor determined that his leg was broken in four places.

Morenz in Hospital - 1937

Hockey fans across North America prayed for his recovery.  Bags full of get-well mail arrived at the hospital and at the Forum.  After the initial expectation that the leg would heal quickly, reality and the seriousness of his injury slowly seeped into the atmosphere surrounding him.  The fallen star became obsessed with the realization that he would never play again. His passion, “the fire in his belly”, that had driven him to the elite level of modern hockey was now turning inward on him, gnawing away at his psyche.  He did not sleep and he would not eat. By the first week of March his doctor determined that he had suffered a nervous breakdown and ordered all visitation stopped so he could recover.

On March 8, suffering from chest pains late in the day, he was diagnosed with a heart attack.  That night, around eleven-thirty, he struggled out of bed headed for the washroom.  He never made it.  Falling hard to the floor of his room, his heart gave way and he quickly passed away.

The funeral was held on March 10 at the Montreal Forum.  The doors opened at 11 a.m. and thousands of fans had formed a three-wide line all the way around the building, waiting to file past the casket and pay their last respects to their idol.  His commitment to excellence in every aspect of the game, his loyalty to his team, and his love of the fans had won him a permanent place in their hearts. No one would ever replace him.

The service began at 2:30.  Every seat in the building was filled.  Thousands, after being turned away, milled about in the surrounding streets.  His wife Mary and the children Howie Jr., Donald and the baby, Marlene sat in the first row of chairs placed on the boarded-over ice surface.  Eight of his teammates acted as pallbearers and, at the conclusion of the eulogy, followed his cortege to the Cote-des-Neiges Cemetery where he was laid to rest.

Aurel Joliat spoke for the entire masses when he told the press: “Hockey was Howie’s life.  When he realized he would never play again, he couldn’t live with it.  I think Howie died of a broken heart.”

Part Two of Hockey Royalty – Boom-Boom Geoffrion

JVR Photo: Beauty Playin/Flickr

That 6’3”, 210-pound rookie is New Jersey native is James van Riemsdyk.  His first career playoff goal, in the dying minutes of the first period to make the score 3-1, gave the Flyers some hope after a dismal opening stanza in which they allowed Boston a three-goal lead.  JVR, as he is called by his friends and teammates, flew up and down the ice from the outset of the game like he had jets on his skates.  While the Flyers are known as a team that never quits, on that particular day this rookie showed the way.

Born on April 5, 1989 in Middletown, NJ, JVR started his hockey career in the Kelly green uniform of the Brick Hockey Club, playing out of the Ocean Ice Palace in Brick, NJ.  Proudly displayed on the wall was a banner paying homage to Jim Dowd, the only New Jersey grad playing in the NHL at that time.  It was immediately evident that this young forward was also special.

In 2004-2005 he split his season between the Brick organization and his high school team, the Christian Brothers Academy.  Big, fast, smart and with magic in his hands, he captained the Brick Midget AA team to the Atlantic District Championship.  In November of that year, he moved on to play for CBA where he scored 60 points (33-27) in just 30 games.  He was named First-Team All-State Forward.

JVR Team USA

The following year he joined the National Team Development Program where, in his second season, he earned his upper-level draft rating scoring 63 (33-30) points in 42 games and leading the NTDP in goals, points, PPG (11) and GWG (6).  At the 2007 Entry Draft, van Riemsdyk was chosen second overall by the Flyers, immediately after Chicago picked Patrick Kane.

In the fall of 2007, JVR entered the University of New Hampshire, scored 11 goals and 23 assists in his first year and was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team, finishing the season a plus 14.

Known by all those who coached him or managed him as a strong-willed individual who knows what he wants and usually gets it, that summer James was about to face one of his toughest challenges.  G.M. Paul Holmgren of the Flyers, wanting his high draft pick to move to the NHL, openly criticizing his choice to spend a second year at UNH as a “waste of his time.”  Feeling he was not ready for the big league, he held his ground and played a second year at school.  Reflecting on his decision to return to school instead of joining the Flyers, “It was definitely the right decision,” he declared.  It has given me a lot of confidence. I wasn’t ready yet.  I felt like I was still getting stronger and still getting bigger.”

Playing at UNH also gave James the opportunity to play for the third consecutive year in the World Junior Championship for the USA under-20 team.  In the previous World Juniors (2008) he was the leading scorer with five goals and six assists ad was named to the Tournament All-Star Team.  Though he followed that performance in 2009 with ten points (6-4), his USA Team finished a disappointing fifth.

When the 2009-2010 Flyers training camp opened, there was no doubt about JVR’s readiness.  Though not expected to join the club immediately, his play dictated otherwise.  In the annual rookie game against the Capitals, he dominated, counting four goals and adding one assist.  Starting in a preseason game against Detroit, he once again grabbed Holmgren’s attention with a two-goal effort in a 5-2 win.  When the final cuts were made and the roster posted, his name appeared as a third line winger.

He earned his first assist in the season opener and two more in his second start, back in his native New Jersey against the Devils.  In November he scored four goals and had five assists, earning him the NHL’s Rookie of the Month honors.  Establishing himself as a hard-working two-way player he played 78 games finishing the regular season with 15 goals and 20 assists, a very respectable total for his rookie year.

Off to an amazing start, James van Riemsdyk is part of the “new” Flyers.  Along with Mike Richards, Danny Briere, Simon Gagne, Chris Pronger, Claude Giroux and a host of other power players, he has brought the swagger back to the Broad Street Bullies.  This time around it is size and speed, not muscle and brawn, but the result is the same.

With all of this happening one hour from his front door in Middletown, NJ., JVR could not be a happier man, nor could Paul Holmgren.