Another illustrative gem from Lee Kavetski brings us the news of the day from November 1949, with the New York Rangers and their AHL farm team, the New Haven Ramblers, in the spotlight.
Both the Rangers and Ramblers took on a combative streak that season, leading their leagues in PIM early on. Blueliner Walter ‘Gus’ Kyle and left winger Tony Leswick led the sin-bin parade in New York, while D-men Jack Evans and Orval ‘Slim’ Lavell kept foes on their toes in New Haven.
Depicting the teams as Snidely Whiplash-esque villains who might delight in tying helpless maidens to train tracks may have been harsh – but it got the joke across.
Meanwhile, the Detroit Red Wings were making pre-season prognosticators look good early on, getting off to a hot start in a campaign in which they were expected to excel.
Sure enough, the Wings rode that momentum all the way to the Stanley Cup in 1950, led by soon-to-be franchise legends Ted Lindsay, Sid Abel, and Gordie Howe. Detroit beat those villainous Rangers in seven games to clinch the final, with Pete Babando scoring the double-overtime winner in Game 7.
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