Here's a Rangers record you won't find in any record book:
The Blueshirts were the only team in the NHL between 1946 and 1948 to have a pair of stickhandlers who wore glasses when in action on the ice.
First of the bespectacled Rangers was Hal Laycoe, a defenseman who The Maven "discovered" just after World War II.
In those post-war seasons the twin Rangers bosses Lester Patrick and Frank Boucher nurtured their young stars via "The Two R's," the AHL Ramblers of New Haven and the Eastern Amateur Hockey League Rovers.
The Rovers – they really weren't amateurs – played home games on Sunday afternoons at The Old Garden on Eighth Avenue and 50th Street. That fast, thrilling brand of shinny often prepared prospects for the NHL and that's where Hal got his start.
After serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, Laycoe was discharged in 1945, came to the Rangers fall training camp in Winnipeg and impressed both Patrick and Boucher.
"The only thing 'odd' about Hal was that he wore glasses," Boucher remembered, "but the specs never interfered with his game in any way. We liked him enough to sign Laycoe with the Rovers."
The Redshirts had a terrific club in the 1945-46 season and Laycoe was one of the reasons why. "He was big and rangy," Lester Patrick remembered, "and was equally good on offense as he was behind the blue line."
Before his freshman EAHL season was over, Laycoe impressed the general staff enough to win promotion to the Rangers and – once there – became a fixture on defense.
By contrast Clint Albright was a left wing who – like Laycoe – wore glasses and thought nothing of it. He was studying mechanical engineering at the University of Manitoba when he decided to
delay his education and play for the Blueshirts.
"Clint was a smooth and exceptionally clever stickhandler," wrote club publicist Stan Saplin in his 1948-49 Inside The Blueshirt – The Official Guide and Record Book of the Rangers.
Although Albright scored 14 goals in 59 games for the Rangers, the general staff – somewhat surprisingly, I might add sent him to the club's minor league club in St. Paul for the 1949-50 campaign.
That was enough for Clint. He quit hockey, finished college and became a full-time mechanical engineer!