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Top 50 Players of All-Time
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
No. 44 Right Winger Bill Cook
It was a pre-game sight that provided infinite comfort to New York Rangers’ coach Lester Patrick. In the hubbub of the dressing room, he would spy his captain, Bill Cook, rubbing his palms against his hockey pants, rocking gently on his stool. “He’d be a bundle of nerves, just aching to get at it and break the tension,” Patrick said. “The placid player can be depended on for a safe, steady game, but for the kind of inspired hockey needed to win championships, I need the Bill Cooks. When it comes right down to the crunch, the other players will follow the Bill Cooks.” Today, he would be called a premier power forward, but before there was such a term there were two words to describe a gifted goalscorer who delivered as much…
No. 45 Left Winger Johnny Bucyk
Stonefaced, Johnny Bucyk watched them go, friends and teammates, one by one, sent packing back to real life. The Boston Bruins’ all-time leader in games outplayed most of them and outlasted them all. “It breaks your heart when a club lets your buddies go,” Bucyk once told a writer. “But you can’t be soft about it. It’s a hard game and a hard life and you do the best you can.” Bucyk did the best he could for as long as he could and he was a champion on both counts. Twenty-one Boston seasons, 545 goals, both club records. Another mark, 1,436 games as a Bruin will fall under Ray Bourque’s relentless assault. Bucyk grew up poor in Edmonton. His father, Sam, was out of work for four years during the Depression and…
No. 16 Goalie Glenn Hall
The Butterfly, like the man who borrowed from it, is at once languid and anxious, skittish and resolute; both are moved by subtle jetstreams only they can feel. At 66, Glenn Hall, the father of the butterfly style of goaltending, is a genial Alberta farmer who reads William Wordsworth and Robert Service. The butterfly is above all unpredictable. Hall, deferential and soft-spoken, defied Jack Adams when the despotic Detroit Red Wings’ general manager was at the height of his power. Hall’s pregame nervousness was legendary. He threw up regularly before games and between periods (“Someday, Hall’s bucket should be in the Hall of Fame,” a teammate once cracked), but he proved unbelievably durable. His regular season consecutive games streak of 502 contests is an unassailable goaltending record and one of the prime…
Top 50 Update
Now: New York Rangers’ center NHL season: 19th Age: 36 Now: Player agent, woolf Associates Res.: Boston Age: 49 Now: President, Mr. Hockey Enterprises Res.: Traverse City, Mich. Age: 69 Now: Retired Res.: Sewickley, Pa. Age: 32 Now: Montreal Canadiens’ ambassador Res.: Montreal Age: 76 Died: Dec. 26, 1989 Age at Death: 65 Now: Montreal Canadiens’ ambassador Res.: Longueuil, Que. Age: 66 Now: Celebrity spokesman Res.: Chicago Age: 58 Died: May 31, 1970 Age at Death: 40 Died: March 16, 1985 Age at Death: 82 Now: Montreal Canadiens’ ambassador Res.: Ile-Bizard, Que. Age: 46 Now: Vancouver Canucks’ center NHL season: 19th Age: 36 Died: Feb. 27, 1986 Age at Death: 57 Now: Boston Bruins’ defenseman NHL season: 19th Age: 37 Died: March 8, 1937 Age at Death: 34 Now: Calgary Flames’ goaltending consultant Res.: Stony Plain, Alta. Age: 66 Now: Plastics representative Res.: Chicago Age: 57 Now: Tampa Bay Lightning GM Res.: Tampa Age: 55 Now: Florida Panthers’ color commentator Res.: Lighthouse Point, Fla. Age: 44 Now: Stockbroker Res.: Laval, Que. Age: 40 Now: Auto firm representative Res.: Rochester Hills, Mich. Age: 72 Now: Retired Res.: Toronto Age: 70 Now: Philadelphia…
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