Maguire - Next Goal Wins!

PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE CANADA

Copyright 2012 Liam Maguire

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in 2012 by Random House Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in Canada by Random House Canada in 2001. Distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited.

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Random House Canada and colophon are registered trademarks.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Maguire, Liam
Next goal wins! : the ultimate NHL historians one-of-a-kind collection of hockey legends, facts and stats / Liam Maguire.

eISBN: 978-0-307-36341-1

1. HockeyMiscellanea. 2. National Hockey LeagueMiscellanea. I. Title.

GV847.M1855 2012 796.962 C2012-902119-9

Cover design by Andrew Roberts

Cover images: (Bossy and Dryden) Mecca/Hockey Hall of Fame;
(Gretzky) Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images

v3.1

To my mother, Sarah Maguire, for her incredible love, patience and understanding as I follow the game of hockey through life; to my children, Rory and Shanna Maguirewhere they go, I go; and to the memory of my father, Noel Patrick (Pat) Maguire: until our next pint, Dad, God bless

On December 4, 1995, my father passed away. It was one of the most emotional nights of my life. That day was also the first time I met Paul Henderson. My father had been fighting cancer, and things were not going well. As a family, we knew that the end was near. However, I was scheduled to appear on Pamela Wallin Live with Carl Brewer and Paul Henderson. It would be my first opportunity to meet Paul, and if youve read the last chapter in this book youll know what that must have meant to me. I agonized over what to do, but my mother, Sarah Maguire, convinced me to go. She said thats what Dad would have wanted. So I travelled down to Toronto and headed to the studio. I was scheduled to go on the show in the last block at 9:40 p.m.

In the early days of my trivia travels, I would quite often give a quick call home moments before the show started to let my folks know I had arrived and was okay. I looked at my watch at 9:31 p.m., said a prayer for my father and told him that I was soon going to meet a true Canadian hero. Moments later I was called out and I finally got to shake Paul Hendersons hand. Later that evening, I found out that my dad had passed away at 9:31 p.m. Although this book is dedicated to my family and my father, I just want to thank him againand Paul Hendersonfor being my heroes. Two men who never, ever gave up.

To my brothers and their families, Jennifer and Mike Maguire, Kiera and Mariah Maguire, Sean and Patrick Maguire, thank you all for your support, especially Spike with his timely help financially. You are always there to get that last round and then some, brother, and its always been very much appreciated.

I would also like to thank Craig Pyette of Random House of Canada who took on this project with me late in the game. Hes done an outstanding job pulling the copy out of me, as well as editing and overseeing the process, despite the fact that we were well into the third period. Thank you to the entire team at Random House who helped in this project.

On May 10, 11 and 12, 2012, I had occasion to work with Wayne Gretzky in Fort McMurray, Alberta, at a fundraiser for Keyano College. It was another in a long line of incredible opportunities for me, and born out of that were some extremely kind words from Number 99 about yours truly, which he put together for our foreword, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Finally, Id really like to acknowledge three people who went the extra mile to help me during the rough few years after my separation. Rock Villeneuve, Ken Craig and Rodd Brown, your help to me was immeasurable. A huge thanks for your friendship and your support over the years. God willing, weve got a few miles of road to go yet. Next goal wins, fellas. Gidday.

And finally to all those people who have asked me questions over the years, to the fans of the game and the players, thank you. Lets make 2012 a hockey trivia odyssey!

I owe most of what Ive enjoyed in life to the sport of hockey. Having had the chance to win the Stanley Cup, play for my country and compete with and against some of the greatest athletes in the world is something I will always cherish.

Equally important have been the fans, and as you can imagine, Ive met many. I had the chance to formally meet Liam Maguire at a function in Fort McMurray, Alberta, in May of 2012. Liam and I were able to sit down a couple of times and talk hockey. It was one thing for him to enlighten me on how many times Jean Beliveau has his name on the Stanley Cup or how many assists Tom Barrasso had in his career or who was drafted by Philadelphia ahead of Bobby Clarke; it was another thing entirely when we discussed the minutiae of my career, such as historical data surrounding my first NHL goal, the 1851 connection, who was the goalie of record the night I scored my 500th career goal and who served the delay-of-game penalty on December 30, 1981, the night I scored my 50th in my 39th game.

Liam took a hobby, turned it into an obsession and then made a career out of it. For that I commend him. His passion for hockey and knowledge of it, specifically regarding the NHL, are second to none. All of that comes through in Next Goal Wins!, a must-read for fans of all ages. It shares the trivia, statistics and history of the sport as seen through his keen eyes and mind, and the result is a very comprehensive look at our game and a great read.

And by the way, the answers to those questions I mention above can be found in these pages. Enjoy!

Wayne Gretzky

INSIDE THE WORLD OF HOCKEY trivia with Liam Maguire: To say the least, its an unusual world. The years have flown by. It seems like only yesterday that Id get on the school bus on a Monday morning, bound for St. Leonards or St. Pius in the Ottawa area. Waiting patiently in the back would be Phil Byrne, ready to drill me on all the teams leading scorers and who had accomplished what over the weekend in the NHL.

On another day at St. Pius, in Mr. Duggans science class, I spent the better part of the 40 minutes memorizing the Hart Trophy winners from the 1930s. Thats when Brian Leroux, without question the smartest kid I ever knew, taught me my first memory tip.

The 1930s are easy, Liam. Only two cities won the Hart Trophy in that decade: Montreal and Boston. Eddie Shore was a four-time winner1933, 1935, 1936 and 1938. Toe Blake won in 1939 for Montreal, Babe Siebert in 1937, Aurel Joliat in 1934, Howie Morenz in 1932 and 1931 and Nels Stewart in 1930 with the Montreal Maroons. Two cities, three teams, easy. This, of course, from a kid who, in high school, would ace algebra and calculus exams. And Im not kidding, he would get 100 percent on them.

Later that year, Brian and four others were a part of a night that changed my life forever.

In September 1975, Brian, Rob Drapeau, Paul Horscroft, Chris Traynor, Andrew Marquis and I attended an exhibition game between Montreal and Chicago at the Ottawa Civic Centre. To find out who was in the lineup you had to purchase a media guide for two bucks. Nice little scam. We all bought one. I took that little booklet home that night and read it from cover to cover well into the night. Names like the aforementioned Toe Blake, Dickie Moore, Elmer Lach, Bill Durnan, George Hainsworth and many others were documented throughout, along with the current players, and there was loads of statistical information and trivia. The next day at lunch we had a little trivia contest. I happened to have retained the most, probably because Id been reading until two in the morning, and the seed was sown.