Meteor? Streak? Legend? The immortal Howie Morenz was all of those things, and he was born on this date in 1903
Some called him the Mitchell Meteor. Others called him the Stratford Streak.
The NHL, eight decades after his untimely passing, called him one of its 100 greatest players ever.
Howie Morenz was born on this date in 1902 in the small town of Mitchell, Ont., where he earned his earliest nickname while playing hockey as a youth. When his family moved to nearby Stratford and he became a member of that town’s junior team, he picked up his second nickname.
Both were accurate handles – Morenz was one of the fastest skaters of his era, which teammates and opponents alike noticed when he signed with the Montreal Canadiens in the autumn of 1923. He scored 13 goals in 24 games as a rookie, and added seven goals in six playoff contests as the Canadiens won the NHL playoff championship and the Stanley Cup.
A year later, he truly came into his own, scoring 27 goals in 30 games during the regular season and seven more playoff tallies as the Habs won another NHL title and advanced to the Cup final against the Victoria Cougars of the Western Canada Hockey League. In 1927-28, Morenz led the NHL in goals, assists, and points, and won the first of his three Hart Trophies as the league’s most valuable player.
Morenz won two scoring titles and was named a post-season all-star three times while contributing to three Stanley Cup championships, but his skills were in decline when the Canadiens traded him to Chicago in 1934. After a season-and-a-half in the Windy City, he was on the move again, this time to the New York Rangers, but it did not help his play. Returning to the Canadiens in 1936-37, he was showing signs of his former brilliance when he suffered a badly broken leg during a game in January 1937, ending his season and confining him to a hospital bed.
Convinced that his career was also over, the disconsolate Morenz never left the hospital alive. He died there on March 8, 1937, due to untreated blood clots that stopped his heart. He was only 34 years old.
Morenz lay in state at centre ice at the Montreal Forum, with an estimated 50,000 fans filing past his casket. Tributes followed his passing, with the Canadiens retiring his No. 7 jersey and staging two benefit all-star games, including one in his adopted hometown of Stratford, to raise money for Morenz’s widow and children. He was one of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s first nine inductees in 1945, and Canadian sportswriters chose him as the best hockey player of the first half of the 20th century. The NHL remembered him as part of its Centennial celebrations in 2017, choosing him as one of the 100 greatest players from its first 100 years of operation.
Although Morenz couldn’t have predicted it, he also became the patriarch of the NHL’s first four-generation family. His son-in-law, Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, his grandson, Danny Geoffrion, and his great-grandson, Blake Geoffrion, followed him not only to the big league but also to the Canadiens. When the Canadiens retired Boom Boom’s No. 5 jersey in 2006 and raised a banner to the rafters of the Bell Centre, the banner with Morenz’s number was lowered halfway to meet Geoffrion’s, and then they were raised the rest of the way together. Fittingly, when Blake Geoffrion joined the Habs in 2012, he chose to wear No. 57 in honour of both of his legendary forebears.
Also born on this date:
1955 – Matti Hagman was born in Helsinki, Finland. The first Finnish-born and trained player in the NHL, Hagman broke in with the Boston Bruins in 1976-77 after a standout performance at the 1976 Canada Cup. As the Bruins’ fourth-line centre, stuck behind 30-goal scorers Jean Ratelle, Peter McNab, and Gregg Sheppard on the depth chart, Hagman still helped the team advance to the Stanley Cup final. After a disappointing partial second season in Boston and a stint with the Quebec Nordiques in the World Hockey Association, Hagman went home to Finland. He returned to the NHL in 1980 with the Edmonton Oilers and registered two 20-goal campaigns before going home for good in 1982. The father of NHL veteran Niklas Hagman, Matti was only 61 years old when he passed away in October 2016.
1962 – Gord Dineen was born at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. (He was not, as some hockey databases claim, born in Quebec City.) The son of Bill Dineen, who played five seasons in the NHL and many more seasons with a variety of teams in the American and Western Hockey Leagues, Gord was named after one of his father’s Detroit Red Wings teammates – Gordie Howe. The younger Dineen, one of three of Bill’s sons to play in the NHL, suited up in more than 500 games over parts of 13 seasons with the New York Islanders, the Minnesota North Stars, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Ottawa Senators. Like his father, he also had an extensive minor-pro career, and was part of four championship clubs in the Central and International leagues.
1963 – Troy Loney was born in Bow Island, Alta. A 12-season NHL veteran, Loney played 10 seasons with the Penguins, who drafted him in the third round in 1982 out of the WHL’s Lethbridge Broncos, and was part of their 1991 and 1992 Stanley Cup championship teams. Loney finished his career with a season in Anaheim and another season split between the New York Islanders and Rangers, retiring after 691 career regular season and playoff games.
1964 – Bob Errey, another two-time Cup winner with the Penguins in 1991 and 1992, was born in Montreal. He grew up in Peterborough, Ont., where he played minor and junior hockey, including with the Petes of the OHL. Pittsburgh’s first choice in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft (15th overall), Errey played 10 seasons with the Pens before being traded to the Buffalo Sabres in 1993. His later stops included two stints with the San Jose Sharks, who made him their second captain, and parts of three seasons with the Red Wings. Between regular season and playoffs, Errey dressed in 994 NHL games before retiring in 1999.
1969 – Curtis Leschyshyn was born in Thompson, Man. The 3rd overall pick in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft by the Quebec Nordiques, Leschyshyn accompanied the franchise to Denver in 1995 and won the Stanley Cup with them in their first season as the Colorado Avalanche. He then had the unique distinction of being with another franchise before and after its relocation, playing with the Hartford Whalers in 1996-97 and the Carolina Hurricanes beginning in 1997-98. Leschyshyn then suited up for yet another franchise new to its city when he was drafted by the Minnesota Wild in advance of their first season, 2000-01. The father of Rangers’ hopeful Jake Leschyshyn, Curtis retired in 2005 after having played in 1,101 career NHL contests.