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Zero Superstitions - Nov. 13, 2023 - By Arnie Jones
HOCKEY PLAYERS ARE NO exceptions to the habit. They too, like other amateur or professional athletes, have their little superstitions, oddities and idiosyncrasies.
Some of the greatest players that ever laced up a pair of skates in National Hockey League competition had odd habits that they maintained throughout their long careers in the fastest game in the world.
Today, as in the years gone by, the players in the big-money company have superstitions. Some are silly, yet on the other hand, some are not. Many players never even give the subject a thought. One is Frankie Brimsek, the great Mr. Zero of the Boston Bruins.
Frank claims he doesn’t own such a thing as a superstition. When asked about it, he stated, “But I always dress the same way.” Brimmie claims that it is not because the same procedure will help him in any way during a game but it’s because he finds it the easiest way to put on all his equipment.
Says Brimsek, “For instance, I have to put on my skates before I put on my pads, and I always put the left pad on first. That’s because the left one is harder to buckle and takes longer.” Many fans who have watched Frigid Frank in action have always wondered why he continually keeps biting his glove. But he has an answer for that one, too. “That’s only to pull the webbing out.”
The great Chuck Gardiner of the Chicago Black Hawks, who was awarded the Vezina Trophy in 1933-34 and was an original member of hockey’s Hall of Fame, carried a superstition through his outstanding puck-stopping life.
Throughout the entire hockey season, Gardiner never once attended a movie and on the day of a game he always rested in a darkened room. He claimed it rested his eyes for the game.
Another great National League netminder and Gardiner’s successor, the sad-eyed Lorne Chabot, would always give himself a shave before game time. The logical reason – “I stitch better if I am cut.”
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Even Eddie Shore, one of the greatest defensemen of all time, had a strange habit. He always had to have a towel on his chair and the club’s assistant trainer, Hamie Moore, had to pull off his sweater after a game.
Two members of the Kraut Line went through odd tactics before the opening whistle. Porky Dumart never dons his sweater until the dot of eight o’clock, not a second before or a second after. Milt Schmidt, the pivotman of the once smooth-working trio – now broken up due to the retirement of Bauer – always glanced over his right shoulder before stepping on the ice.
Schmidt also wipes the blades to the left…when he first reaches the ice. That’s to avoid having tape or such stick to the blades. Bauer claimed, however, that he never believed in such goings-on.
Dit Clapper’s rabbit’s foot was the talk of the league. The Boston coach always carried the token along with him in a game. Well, he played 20 seasons with Boston, thereby setting a new long service record. What role did that rabbit’s foot play in that lengthy stay? Maybe Dit can answer that one!
“I PUT ON MY SKATES BEFORE MY PADS, AND I ALWAYS PUT THE LEFT PAD ON FIRST
– FRANK BRIMSEK
A little piece of black headwear also played the part of a good omen. Nels Stewart, the great center of the Montreal Maroons, Boston and New York Americans, always wore a baseball cap. It might have looked odd but how many players have scored 323 goals? Old Poison holds the record for the most goals scored by an individual player.
Like Stewart, Aurel Joliat, the Canadiens’ mighty mite, was another great oldtimer who liked wearing a little black cap. Both players were known to break into a rage if someone so much as touched their caps. To get a puck for a referee was worse than death to Joliat. He would let the official skate from end to end all night before retrieving the disc.
The Thompson brothers, Paul and Tiny, also took a place in the “parade of oddities.” This is more of an oddity than a superstition, but Paul was never able to score more than one goal in a season against his brother when the latter was kicking them out for the Bruins.
Paul was always a trouble shooter and during his days as a player with the Black Hawks there were always two opponents who fell victim to his antics. They were Hec Kilrea and Joe Lamb, and Paul was always successful in luring them into taking penalties.
Bep Guidolin, who was recently traded to Detroit by Boston for Billy Taylor, will never get dressed for a game unless he has his stick lying right beside him on the bench. There also existed a two-man superstition on the old Bruins club. Tiny Thompson would always let Cooney Weiland flip the puck into the open cage before the game. It was considered bad luck if Tiny so much as even touched the puck.
The Bentley brothers have a procedure that they never change. As the players file from the dressing room, Doug always takes the lead and brother Max follows. When Mush March was patrolling the right side for the Hawks he insisted on being the first man on the ice.
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