When discussing America's all-time greatest hockey teams – Olympics or otherwise – it's inevitable that one outfit often fails to get mentioned because so few had the occasion to see them.
But The Maven did – and I for one will never forget the Cutters.
I was eleven years old when the Coast Guard team made its first appearance at the Old Garden in the fall of 1942.
World War II was in its third year – actually the first for Uncle Sam – when the Eastern Amateur Hockey League welcomed the sailors based at the Curtis Bay Coast
Guard Yard in Baltimore.
The EAHL had lost its Baltimore Orioles franchise due to the war but the Sailors brand new sextet fit right in. That was thanks to Commodore MacLean, a former Minnesota hockey player, who ran the Curtis Bay Yard.
MacLean sent word out through the hockey world that if NHL players or minor leaguers are planning to enlist in the armed forces – and also want to play hockey – the Coast Guard would welcome them. The Cutters in their star-spangled uniforms were sprinkled with former NHL aces.
One of the first to enlist was Rangers defenseman Art Coulter, (Hall of Famer) and captain of the Blueshirts 1940 Cup team. Chicago Black Hawks tough defenseman Johnny Mariucci followed suit along with minor pros goalies Muzz Murray and Hub Nelson – later Bruins netminder Frank Brimsek would enlist – and Minnesota ruffian blue liner Manny Cotlow.
Virtually every Coast Guard game featured a rousing fight that sometimes included fans who then had no sideboard glass between them and the players
During the 1942-43 season and 1943-44 as well, the Cutters dominated the EAHL and won two straight AHAUS national championships.
Sunday afternoon MSG games against the Rangers' farm team, the New York Rovers, were both boisterous and fun; plus well-covered in the newspapers.
Dick Young, one of the most famous of New York sportswriters, took a keen liking to the Cutters and their fighting spirit. In the March 8, 1943 edition of the Daily News, Young's story had this headline: CUTTERS 5, ROVERS 2; 22 PENALTIES CALLED.
My All-time Favorite Blueshirts Poll And Players
The Maven's Roundtable continues to receive choices for My All-time Favorite <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers" target="_blank">Rangers</a> – In Alphabetical Order:
Young's lead paragraph said it all about the skating sailors:
"If Garden fight promoter Mike Jacobs is still toying with the notion of staging fights twice a week at the Garden, all he has to do is keep the Curtis Bay hockey team coming back to New York every Sunday!
"Those rip-snorting body bruisers put on their socko show yesterday before some 9,000 howling fans. The Cutters spent the entire afternoon fighting with officials and and rinkside cash customers, as 22 players staged a season record march to the penalty box."
Which is one of many reasons why I loved that Coast Guard team!