It may seem hard to believe -- especially for the young set -- but there was a time at Rangers home games when players of both teams shared the same penalty box.
It may seem hard to believe -- especially for the young set -- but there was a time at Rangers home games when players of both teams shared the same penalty box.
This was back in the Original Six days when old Madison Square Garden sat on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets.
Those were the days when the only music you ever heard at games was when Gladys (Two D's) Goodding was at the MSG organ console.
It also was the era when the penalty box consisted of one bench long enough to hold four players. In that, long ago NHL it was no big deal when a Ranger and, say, a Canadien were given dual penalties.
They'd dutifully go to the one and only penalty box door and then share the benches if there really was peace in our time. Ah, but it wasn't always that peaceful.
My favorite single-bench penalty box episode took place in the 1956-57 season when the Montreal-New York rivalry was at its most intense peak.
The Rangers "policeman" was a tough defenseman named Lou Fontinato who had a running battle with Montreal's Hall of Fame left wing Dickie Moore.
As it happened, they both were whistled off for roughing and, after being separated, were escorted to the line penalty box bench.
Fontinato very courteously -- or so it seemed -- allowed Moore to enter the sin bin first. Once Louie realized that Dickie was as comfortable as could be on a slab of wood, the Ranger blueliner entered.
Then, he plunked his behind onto the bench as if peace had been restored, but it had not -- not even close.
WHAM! Fontinato suddenly twisted his hip, sending the stunned Moore off the bench, on his back to the ground, but ready to retaliate.
However, a Garden cop had been stationed right behind the bench, and before Dickie could start swinging at Louie, the cop intervened and ended the fracas by sitting between them.
I watched all this from the overhead press box and remember thinking to myself that if those two guys weren't so serious, this would have been one helluva sight gag!