Birthday boy Bouwmeester was a strong and steady presence on the Blues' blue line
Dependable and durable – that was Jay Bouwmeester.
One could easily imagine that if he hadn’t been forced to retire after going into cardiac arrest during a game in February 2020, he might be celebrating his 41st birthday today by preparing for yet another season with the St. Louis Blues, or another NHL club.
As it is, Bouwmeester did retire after that incident in Anaheim. But before he hung up the blades, the Edmonton native put together a steady and solid career as a defenseman for the Florida Panthers, the Calgary Flames, and the Blues, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2019.
Bouwmeester played junior with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL and was Florida’s top pick, third overall, in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. He had his best offensive seasons with the Panthers and had just registered two back-to-back 15-goal seasons when they traded him to the Flames in 2009. The Blues picked him up near the trade deadline in 2013, and this enabled him to make his playoff debut in his 10th NHL season, having played nearly 800 games by that point.
Bouwmeester eventually dressed in 75 NHL playoff games to go along with 1,240 during the regular season. His last playoff contest, on June 12, 2019, was undoubtedly the most memorable; he played more than 28 minutes and collected an assist as the Blues beat Boston 4-1 to win their first championship.
There were other career highlights, including an Olympic title and four other gold medals while playing for Canada in international competition. Between March 2004 and November 2014, he put together an ironman streak of 737 consecutive games, which at the time was a record for defencemen. That mark has since been surpassed by Keith Yandle and Brent Burns, but Bouwmeester’s streak remains the third longest by rearguards and the 10th longest among all players in NHL history.
After he collapsed on the bench that night in Anaheim, he was revived by a defibrillator. He was given an implantable defibrillator a few days later and made a full recovery, although playing pro hockey again was out of the question. He announced his retirement 11 months later, in January 2021.
Also born on this date:
1886 – Tommy Smith was born in Ottawa. His NHL stats are unimpressive – one assist in 10 games with the Quebec Bulldogs in 1919-20 – but those were the last games in an illustrious professional career that dated back to 1906. One of three brothers to play for the famed Ottawa Silver Seven, Tommy suited up for a number of teams but had his greatest success with the Bulldogs while they were members of the National Hockey Association, winning the Stanley Cup in 1913. He captured two scoring titles in the NHA and registered 141 goals in only 93 games in that league between 1912 and 1917. He died in August 1966 and followed his brother Alf Smith into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1973.
1935 – Al MacNeil was born in Sydney, N.S. He broke in with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1956 and later also played for the Montreal Canadiens, the Chicago Black Hawks, the New York Rangers, and the Pittsburgh Penguins, but he made his biggest mark behind the bench and in the executive offices. Elevated to the Canadiens’ head coaching position after the sudden resignation of Claude Ruel early in the 1970-71 season, MacNeil led the Habs to a surprise Stanley Cup. Demoted to Montreal’s AHL affiliate in his home province, he coached the Halifax-based Nova Scotia Voyageurs to three Calder Cups between 1972 and 1977. Promoted back to the Canadiens to work as their director of player personnel, he got his name engraved on the Stanley Cup again in 1978 and 1979. He then began a long relationship with the Atlanta/Calgary Flames, working in various capacities with that team and winning a fourth Cup as the Flames’ assistant general manager in 1989.
1942 – Wayne Maxner was born in Halifax. Maxner had a brief NHL career with the Boston Bruins after leading the Ontario Hockey Association Junior A Series in scoring in 1962-63 and being chosen the league’s MVP while playing with the Niagara Falls Flyers. He later became a fixture in the OHA league and its successor, the OHL, where he coached the Windsor Spitfires (three times), the Sudbury Wolves, and the London Knights. He also coached the Detroit Red Wings from 1980 to 1982. He passed away in July 2023.
1945 – Dennis Kearns was born in Kingston, Ont. Kearns played nearly 700 games over 10 seasons with the Vancouver Canucks between 1971 and 1981. Kearns was a playmaking defenseman whose 55 assists in 1976-77 was a team record for blueliners that stood until 2021-22 when Quinn Hughes broke it. Kearns also held the club marks for career points and assists among defencemen until being surpassed, respectively, by Matthias Ohlund in 2009 and Alexander Edler in 2020. He is the father of Bracken Kearns, who had short stints with the Florida Panthers, the San Jose Sharks, and the New York Islanders in the 2010s.
1976 – Daymond Langkow was born in Edmonton. A solid two-way center who played for four NHL teams, he was the top pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft after winning the WHL scoring title while a member of the Tri-City Americans, scoring 67 goals and 140 points in 72 games. Although he was never that prolific in the NHL, he did score 20 or more goals on seven occasions. His best campaign was 2006-07, when he played for the Calgary Flames and recorded career bests of 33 goals, 44 assists, and 77 points. Also a member of the Philadelphia Flyers and the Phoenix Coyotes, Langkow retired in 2013 after having played 1,165 regular season and playoff games.