He's the Lilly of the Valley,
The Bright and Morning Star,
He's the fairest of 10,000 to my Soul[1]
-Hymn by Englishman Charles W. Fry, sung in Canada, and by black people in the Deep South
Georges Vezina was the Canadiens' only goaltender from 1910-1925. His consistent dominance between the pipes during this period of time made him one of hockey's first stars, and would be the subject of much fanfare for years to come. Yet, the story of Vezina's remarkable life and untimely death would elevate his status beyond that of hockey hero, making him something of a legend.
As with any legend, it is difficult to distinguish true stories from false ones. For instance, there remains a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the circumstances of Vezina's debut with the Canadiens. Vezina became a member of the Montreal team after their barnstorming tour in 1910. The Canadiens were playing the Sagueneens, a small team from Chicoutimi, Quebec. Legend has it that the Sangueneen's goalie, a young Vezina, shut the mighty Canadiens out, preventing even a single goal against him. The Canadiens own goalie, Joseph Cattarinich, was so impressed with the performance that he talked their owner, George Kennedy, into signing the young backstop even though it likely meant the end of his own career with the team. But was it really a shutout? Two young men were discussing this very matter in a hockey chatroom a few years ago, and one said:
"The Sangueneens with Vezina are supposed to have shut out the Canadiens on February 20, 1910?" "Sure. Everyone knows that," said the other. "But two articles in the Chicoutimi newspaper from the next day say Sangueneens 11, Canadiens 5. It was the only time they played them that year".. Guy Villeneuve had the scores of all the important games the Sangueneens played during the Vezina years- 1904-1910.
While it is evidently quite difficult to discriminate truth from legend, it is matter of record that from the winter of 1910 onward, through good years and bad, championships and near championships, Stanley Cup victories and losses, Vezina, in Gehrig-like fashion, played fifteen spectacular years for the Habs and never missed a single game.
"Habs" has always been the Canadiens' nickname, derived from the term "Habitants" which more or less means French speaking country boys from Quebec. The expression itself dates back to the settlers in New France in the 17th century, and has come to mean "farmers of Quebec". The Montreal Canadiens were established in 1909 as a French-Canadian hockey team, appealing to the city's francophone community.
And a rough lot they were. Vezina, however, was a country boy, competent in both French and English, and from Quebec, but Vezina was not rough. In fact, his calm and cool demeanor inspired his two nicknames- "the Chicoutimi Cucumber" and "L'habitant Silencieux".. No matter how the other team buzzed around his cage, no matter how the sticks flew and pucks soared, Vezina remained stoically calm and radiated a disconcerting dignity. Even after rival goaltenders were permitted to leap or fall to the ice for a save, Vezina rarely left his feet.
In the NHL, the Canadiens' league, the expert floppings and slippings of goalie Clint Benedict led referees to tell league president Frank Calder that it was completely impossible to tell when Benedict fell accidentally or purposefully. Calder finally resolved the problem by an edict, issued on January 9th 1918 in the Montreal Star: "In the future, they (goalies) can fall on their knees, or stand on their heads if they think they an stop the puck better that way than by standing on their feet." This statement brought about the expression "he (the goalie) stood on his head", used occasionally after an acrobatic goaltender makes a great save or has had a particularly excellent game.
Vezina was the prototypical "stand up" goalie. He had a tremendously quick and accurate stick. As Frank Boucher, a renowned player of his era said, "He stood upright in the net and hardly ever left his feet. He'd pick off more shots with his stick than glove." As hall of fame goaltender Jonny Bower said, "(He) handled his goal stock with the sterling touch of Ty Cobb, batting pucks away from his net with supreme confidence and ease." He was particularly adept at airborne angle shots, clearing the puck well away from the goal, and sometimes as far as the crowd.
Each year, the goalie voted best in the NHL is awarded the Vezina trophy. The trophy used to go to the goalie who allowed the fewest goals that year, but this was changed in 1982. This was a very good idea, because although Vezina led the league in Goals Against Average (GAA- sort of like ERA) three times in his career (or five times if you count the years the Canadiens were in the National Hockey Association, before the NHL), his average number of goals allowed per game- and that of all other contemporary goalies- was usually much higher than later great goalies because they played the position from a standing position, and with minimal padding. However, towards the end of his career, Vezina's GAA began to approach that of the great modern goalies. Today, the Jennings trophy, named after the long-time president of the New York Rangers, is awarded in tandem with the Vezina trophy after the requirements for the latter were changed. But what really makes a goalie the best? Does he block the puck when it counts the most? Does he keep a cool head? Is he agile? Enduring? And - even today, with all his armor, is he willing to give up his body to protect his net?
The author of a modern book on goaltenders said something like: who wouldn't have wanted to keep his face and body as far from the ice and puck as possible, with no thigh, chest, shoulder, stomach or elbow protectors, no masks, no helmets, no blocker, and low-ankle top skates? But one has the feeling that Vezina's "stand-up" goaltending had more to do with personal preference based on his attitude toward life than the lack of equipment, which consisted of skates and pads (a thick, ribbed covering, padded fabric which encased rods of light cane from ankle to a few inches above the knee, 1910). I still don't know whether Vezina's pads in 1910 were made of leather yet, or simply stuffed cloth, but it is obvious from a full figure photo of Ottawa's goalie LeSeueur, wearing cricket pads in 1910, that that they had pretty much the shape of modern goalie pads. Modern goalie pads buckle twice under the skate, and almost cover the toe. Before 1893, the puck was rarely lifted off the ice, and goalies wore simple shin protectors; when the puck became airborne, goalies donned cricket pads. The gloves were already thick leather and gauntlet-style by 1910 [some deny the gloves!]. Most people think the goaltender's stick looked more like a walking cane than a hockey stick - the word "hockey" may come from a French word meaning "shepherd's crook" or "curved stick."
LeSeuer, Ottawa Bulldog goalkeeper in full goalie gear, 1910.
Note regular curved stick, like that used by the rest of team, short cricket pads, flaring around the foot, and coming to just above the knee (easily less than 28", the height of the first true goalie pads, for sale in 1912, and made of leather or horsehide stuffed with felt, deer hair or sponge), padded pants and mirror-image gauntlet gloves of leather. Otherwise, he looked no different from a man on the street.
C55 (Imperial Tobacco) Vezina rookie, 1911-1912, his second professional year, wearing gloves!
This photo was taken in 1918; Vezina has been in the nets for the Canadiens for 9 years, and had taken his team to championships and a Stanley Cup. This was the season of the Canadiens' first Stanley Cup Series in the NHL. Played in 1919 against the Seattle Metropolitans, it was abandoned in a tie (1919 was the only year the Cup was not awarded) because of the influenza pandemic. Incapacitating the Canadiens, the disease took the lives of two of them: the great "bad man" of hockey, Joe Hall, and George Kennedy, the Canadiens' owner, who died a year later of complications of the illness. Kennedy and Vezina arrived at the Canadiens about the same time: November, 1910. The pads he now wears are clearly leather, and may tie under the skate. Notice the patch on the upper left thigh-probably applied by Vezina himself, as he was a tanner.
In reality, the main difference between the 1910 goaltender's stick and the modern ones is that in 1910, there was little difference between the goalie's stick and those of his teammates. The bottom of the stick often had an extra piece of wood affixed to it to stop the puck, but it lacked the broad blade and flat bottom, the almost right angle change from the lower shaft to the blade. As can be seen in the 1918 photo of Vezina, this change began early on.
Above the waist, the only thing to distinguish an early 20th century professional hockey player from the man on the street was the brightness of the woolen sweater he wore, with the team logo on it. Goalies, however, had thicker sweaters, allowed them because of unheated buildings and outdoor arenas (goalies were very rarely replaced during a game-and still aren't, for that matter!), but also affording some protection. Vezina always wore a toque, a short woolen brimless hat, colored the blue, white and red of the Canadiens.
Born in 1887, Vezina never played hockey in skates till his late teens. Instead, he'd skate in his boots, an accepted practice for young men at the turn of the century. A tanner by trade in the off-season, he had 24 children, 22 of which died in infancy.
But two of them, boys, J.J. and Marcel, grew to manhood. They were still schoolboys, however, when their father lay dying of T.B. in a hospital, and they would rush there to see him every day after school. His exit from the team, where he had played 367 consecutive games, regular and post season (that's 15 years worth of hockey!- hockey teams never hired substitute goalies in those days; you started a game; you finished a game), was as dramatic as his demeanor had been calm. Perhaps few of the fans saw the blood dribbling from his mouth when he collapsed in the net, just before the referee dropped the puck for the beginning of the second third of the game against Pittsburgh, November 28, 1925. And no one knew he had had an arterial hemorrhage.
This can be no myth, for teams keep records of injuries which cause a man to have to leave a game for the rest of its duration, and Vezina has only one against his name: "bleeding from the mouth," November 28, 1925. He could not have but known he was sick, for he had lost 30 pounds since training camp began, and that fall, Dandurand, the owner, noticed his gaunt face and laborious movements. Yet he had continued to block pucks as efficiently as ever.
Not long after his dramatic collapse in the net, the doctor told him he was dying of tuberculosis. His family and the team's owner (but not the team, at his request) were also told. Kevin Allen and Bob Duff in "Without fear: Hockey's 50 Greatest Goaltenders" say the occasion of his going to inform Dandurand of his approaching death was his last visit to the Canadiens' Mount Royal Arena (actually, "Without Fear" has it "The Forum", but the Forum had been having electrical problems for 2 years, so the Canadiens were still playing at Mount Royal Arena). The trainer, Eddie Dufour, seeing him in the locker room, began laying out his pads, gloves and stick, and Vezina thought the ruse might help for at least one game: "Perhaps they will play better if they think I am coming on" he told Dandurand. The Canadiens had not yet acquired George Hainsworth, the great goalie who succeeded Vezina and won the first Vezina trophy-and then did it twice more later in his career. Vezina sat among his equipment for a few minutes, tears rolling down his cheeks, and then asked for the sweater he'd worn in the team's last Stanley Cup victory (1924); then he took the train home to die.
[2]The Vezina Trophy, donated to hockey in 1926 by the three owners of the team, Dandurand, Letourneau and Joseph Cattarinich (the goalie he replaced in the fall of 1910) is very beautiful, silver, round and columnar, with a disc at the top as hockey puck. The trophy has a rich, square wooden base with the names of all the winners carved on little silver shield-plaques. It is not like baseball trophies, where each man gets his own to put on his mantle and keep forever. Winners are all awarded a pale shadow of the original. There is only one true Vezina trophy, and more and more names have since been added to it in honor of Vezina. Well, there is a second one, of nearly the same magnificence: after Jacques Plante had won the trophy 5 times, they made him one of his own (he went on to win it two more times, setting an all-time record).
Vezina's notable achievements:[3]