"Taking A Bath With Tubby."
A never-ending debate during the World War II years — when the Rangers sat in the NHL cellar — was whether the New York skaters were that bad or whether goalie Ken "Tubby" McAuley was really the problem.
McAuley was in the Rangers net on the night of January 23, 1944 which also has been defined as "The Blueshirts Night Of Infamy." While McAuley had the job of stopping pucks, the Rangers were bombed 15-0 by the Red Wings at Detroit's Olympia Stadium.
According to Rangers coach Frank Boucher the problem was less McAuley's and more of the inferior team in front of him. "Ken," said Boucher, "should have been awarded the Croix de Guerre — if not, the Victoria Cross — for all the heroics he put up with those war years. Bless his heart, Ken very rarely complained about the fates that had deposited him in our goal."
During the 1943-44 season, McAuley played in all 50 Rangers games, allowing 310 goals for a 6.20 goals against average ("Only a fraction," said Bouher, "belonged to him, all of us should share in his glory").
He played in 46 games the following season, this time trimming his average to 4.94.
Relief — for McAuley, Boucher and the Rangers — finally arrived after the war. By 1945-46, the two Rangers regular goalies, Chuck Rayner and Sugar Jim Henry, were back from the conflict and McAuley bid adieu to the NHL.