Former Canadiens Great Gump Worsley Dead at 77

[EagerBeaver]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/hockey/nhl/01/27/bc.hkn.obit.worsley.ap/index.html

I don't really understand how you can play goalie in the NHL for 20 years without a mask and still have a head on your shoulders.

 

[joelcairo]

A pretty damn good goalie and a great guy with a lot of balls.

 

[Cosmo]

Habs goalies:

Habs won their firsts couple of SC in 1916 and 1924.Goalie was Georges Vezina.The guy has a trophy who bares his name on top of beign Hall of Famer.

Habs won SC in 1930 and 1931.Goalie was George Hainsworth another Hall of famer.

Habs won SC in 1944 and 1946 with Bill Durnan,a pionneer who was ambidext and could catch the puck with BOTH hands.He was also team captain for a time.Another Hall of famer.

Habs won the SC in 1953 with Gerry MacNeil as goalie.I'm not sure he's Hall of Fame.

Habs then set the record of 5 staright SC with another great pionneer Jacques Plante.

Habs won SC in 1965,66,68 and 69 with Gump Worsley as top Goalie and Rogatien Vachon in a back-up role mostly.Not too shaby.Both Hall of famer if I'm not mistaken.

Habs won SC in 1971,73,76,77,78, and 79 with Ken Dryden another Hall of Famer.

Habs won SC in 1986 and 1993 with Patrick Roy the last of the great goalie even if controversial.

There you go.

 

[joelcairo]

Gerry McNeil and Rogie Vachon are not in the Hall, although Vachon should be. Montreal has always had good goalies even when it didn't have good teams. As for Worsley he was great and he showed it when he finally played for a good team (the 60s Habs). Before that the poor guy was mired in the Hell of New York which was a woeful franchise during the years the Gumper spent there. His numbers there were bad but any goalie's numbers would have been bad with the Rangers at that time. Bad numbers but still a great goalie - one of the four best in the world in those days (alongside Plante, Sawchuk and Hall)

 

[Cosmo]

Joelcairo,thanks for the precisions about MacNeil and Vachon.As I said I wasn't sure about them being in the Hall of Fame.
You,re right,Rogie should be in.
Femaleluver2,the guy from Edmonton I think it was Doug Soetaert.
As for ther others,Bunny Laroque was ok but not as good as Dryden,although he could have had no.1 spot in many teams back then.
Other good goalies spent time on the bench watching Dryden:Michel Plasse,Phylippe Myre,Wayne Thomas,even Richard SEvigny replaced an injured Larocque in the 79 playoffs against Rangers.
Steve Penney went to Winnipeg,Heron back to Pittsdburgh,Hayward to San Jose,Laroque to Toronto then Philly,Sevigny to Quebec,Wayne Thomas to NY Rangers,Myre to Atlanta then Philly,Plasse to Colorado then Quebec(WHL).
You guys know thatTony Esposito played for the Habs?
He did played 13 or 16 games in the late 60's.
Another Habs goalie HoFamer....

cosmo

 

[EagerBeaver]

FML2,

I was told by someone who saw Bunny Laroque play througout the 1970s that he was just an okay goalie which was also noted by Cosmo, and so this speculation that he may have been a Hall of Famer if Dryden did not come up is likely unfounded. It's likely that the the Canadiens would have won a few less Stanley Cups without Dryden who as I recall was MVP of the playoffs at least once.

 

[Ben Dover]

quote

I loved the Gump Worsley quote that was on the cover of the Gazette... I'm paraphrasing now, but it was along the lines of this:

"Anyone who wears a mask is a chicken. My face is my mask"

They don't make players like that anymore...

I wonder what Gump thought about all of these overpaid prima-donna wanna-bees that fill the NHL these days?

BD

 

[bumfie]

I saw Gump play against the Flyers in Philly many moons ago. It was fascinating to watch him; he looked absolutely nothing like an athlete, but managed to keep the puck out of the net.

Guys like him redefined "balls." Sounds trite, but they just don't make them like him anymore.

 

[Cosmo]

Can it be Jeff Hackett???
Andy Moog???

 

[picasso]

Andy Moog

Can it be Jeff Hackett???
Andy Moog???

I'll bet you it's Andy Moog. He's like 5'9" and that's putting it generously. Plus he was one of the original Oilers until Grant Fuhr supplanted him as the no. 1 goalie there. Moog did help take the Oilers to their first SC finals though they lost to the NY Islanders that year. The only other guy I thought of when I saw this thread now is Ron Tugnutt but he's from the Roy era. He had some problems with Roy in those years.

 

[Avery]

I grew up in Montreal, and I remember all the goalies from Gerry McNeil onward.

My favourite memory of The Gumper was a Saturday night home game in the mid 1960's. I was watching it on TV with my father. I don't remember who the Canadiens' opponent was.

One of the opposition's players picked up the puck near centre ice. Only Habs' defenceman J.C. Tremblay was between that player and Gump. The guy deked J.C. out of his jock strap, skated in on Gump and scored. Gump was furious! As the camera zeroed in on him, Gump charged out of his net right up to J.C.. slammed his stick on the ice, and in a voice that could be heard on the TV over the crowd noise, screamed at J.C., "Open your fuckin' eyes!!"

 

[joelcairo]

I always disliked Dryden - very good goalie no doubt, but still overrated. Look at the great teams he played on and especially at the great defence he enjoyed. Also think of two of his most famous games. One is the comeback against Boston that Red Fisher writes about. Great comeback, yes, but by the TEAM not by Dryden who had let in a fistful of goals. His other famous game was the 3-3 New Years tie with Russia where again his TEAM played great but he let in 3 goals on I think 13 shots. When he sat out for a year he basically said "Screw you, team", ushering in the modern era "me first and the hell with everyone else" type of athlete. I remember being in a restaurant in the 70s. There was a lineup but the great Ken Dryden in his fur coat went right to the front claiming noblesse oblige. Yes, many others have done similar things (using their fame as a free pass to push in front of the great unwashed) but I can't imagine someone like Stevie Yzerman doing it. Finally, Dryden showed his colours by becoming a politician in the Paul Martin machine - and there is NOTHING lower than that!

 

[picasso]

I always disliked Dryden - very good goalie no doubt, but still overrated. Look at the great teams he played on and especially at the great defence he enjoyed. Also think of two of his most famous games. One is the comeback against Boston that Red Fisher writes about. Great comeback, yes, but by the TEAM not by Dryden who had let in a fistful of goals. His other famous game was the 3-3 New Years tie with Russia where again his TEAM played great but he let in 3 goals on I think 13 shots. When he sat out for a year he basically said "Screw you, team", ushering in the modern era "me first and the hell with everyone else" type of athlete. I remember being in a restaurant in the 70s. There was a lineup but the great Ken Dryden in his fur coat went right to the front claiming noblesse oblige. Yes, many others have done similar things (using their fame as a free pass to push in front of the great unwashed) but I can't imagine someone like Stevie Yzerman doing it. Finally, Dryden showed his colours by becoming a politician in the Paul Martin machine - and there is NOTHING lower than that!

I think you're letting your dislike of Dryden the politician color your perspective of Dryden the goalie. Sure it helps to have guys like Savard, LaFleur and Cournoyer as your teammates but luck can only carry you so far. It takes real talent to win the Vezina award as the top goalie five times including four years in a row. In my view, Dryden was one of the best ones out there and he deserves all the accolades he got as well as having his jersey retired tonight in Montreal.

 

[joelcairo]

Yeah he was okay but in those days the Vezina was awarded purely on goals against so a goalie with an outstanding team in front of him had a big advantage. 3 of his 5 Vezinas were shared with Bunny Larocque who probably didn't get enough credit. The Vezina at that time was pretty much the equivalent of the Jennings nowadays. For sure Dryden was good - I just don't think he was as good as he's painted out to be. It also didn't hurt that he was a big motherfucker who filled most of the net. I think I read that he used to drink 16 cokes a day which might explain why he's even bigger now.

 

[bumfie]

I Gump charged out of his net right up to J.C.. slammed his stick on the ice, and in a voice that could be heard on the TV over the crowd noise, screamed at J.C., "Open your fuckin' eyes!!"

just curious...did he yell it in French or English?

 

[Avery]

just curious...did he yell it in French or English?

English.

If he had yelled it in French, it would have been something like, "Ouvres tes hosties d'yeux, calisse!!"

 

[bumfie]

English.

If he had yelled it in French, it would have been something like, "Ouvres tes hosties d'yeux, calisse!!"

Can you blame him? I mean, today's goalies depend on their defensemen to win games. Without a mask, Gump's life depended on them.

 

[joelcairo]

As President of the Toronto Maple Leafs Dryden was opposed to the retirement of sweaters. He apparently was quite moved by the retirement of his own sweater on Monday night however. Hypocrisy? Noblesse oblige? Do as I say, not as I do? Any or all of the above?

 

[picasso]

As President of the Toronto Maple Leafs Dryden was opposed to the retirement of sweaters. He apparently was quite moved by the retirement of his own sweater on Monday night however. Hypocrisy? Noblesse oblige? Do as I say, not as I do? Any or all of the above?

BIG FUCKING DEAL! The only things that matter ultimately are that Dryden is a good family guy, that he had the respect of and for his teammates, his opponents, and the fans. Dryden was self-effacing last night, acknowledging his HoF compadres that made it possible for him to win 6 SC in only 8 NHL seasons. The only other NHL goalie with that many SC was Jacques Plante but that was accomplished in 18 NHL seasons. He also showed some class by recognizing everyone down to the training staff and Forum workers.