A look back at Rangers history from The Maven.
A look back at Rangers history from The Maven.
It was to be a super-duper slambang season, 1948-49 was going to be; no question about it.
For the first time since the 1941-42 season, the Rangers had finally climbed into a playoff berth in the spring of 1948. Granted they didn't get past the opening round – Detroit beat them in six games – but a nucleus had been built around a super trade.
Manager Frank Boucher had traded several prospects to the Montreal Canadiens for center Buddy O'Connor and defenseman Frankie Eddolls.
It was as one-sided as any deal ever could be. None of the players dispatched to the Canadiens amounted to anything but minor leaguers.
The normally astute Canadiens boss Frank Selke incorrectly had believed that O'Connor was over the hill and that Eddolls never amounted to his early billing as a top defender.
Were they ever wrong! O'Connor won both the Lady Byng and Hart Trophies and came within a point of winning the scoring championship behind former teammate Elmer Lach. Meanwhile the crafty Eddolls ranked among the best Rangers blueliners, if not the best.
Along with some promising rookies the Rangers were expected to be a strong playoff contender from the start of 1948-49 to the end.
"It wasn't only Buddy," said Rangers publicist Stan Saplin. "Edgar Laprade was one of the top NHL centers as well plus we had the great Charlie Rayner in goal. Training camp was very promising – UNTIL."
On October 9, 1948 the Rangers departed Montreal, heading home to New York City.
They normally would have headed South toward the border with America in a team bus since that was the National Hockey League rule.
But for reasons nobody ever could figure five of the team's best players headed home in an automobile. They were centers O'Connor and Laprade, left wing Tony Leswick and defensemen Eddolls and Bill Moe.
Just six miles from the border their car collided with a truck. The good news was that none of the Rangers were killed.
The bad news – which made headlines across the continent – was that four of the Blueshirts were hospitalized with serious injuries:
O'Connor – broken ribs; Eddolls – severed knee tendon; Moe – concussion; Laprade – broken nose. (Leswick was uninjured.)
The wounded Rangers were hospitalized with O'Connor and Eddolls unavailable until late December.
"The accident had a terrible effect on the team," Saplin recalled. "We lost a core of our hockey club and a chance to do damage in the playoffs."
In fact the car crash crashed the Rangers playoff hopes because so many key personnel all missed the early portion of the season. A should-have-been playoff team was not!
"If there's anything good that could be said," Saplin concluded. "It was that in the following season (1949-40) Buddy, Edgar, Frankie and Tony helped us to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Final before we lost to Detroit in double overtime!"