Morenz’s Adoring “Gods†of Boston
Madison Square Garden in Boston was a compact building facing Commercial Street, with seven tall glass panels across its façade, bookended by two broad spires at each. Inside, the ice surface was shorter than any in the league except for (surprisingly) the mammoth Chicago Stadium. Boston’s ice dimensions of 195 x 83 feet (Montreal Forum Hockey Bulletin and Sports Magazine, Season 1934 – 1935), or perhaps 191 x 83 (Sullivan, George, Face-off: A Guide to Modern Ice Hockey, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc. (New York:1968), p.84; and Hunter, Douglas; Yzerman: The Making of a Champion, Doubleday Canada (2004), at p.25),forced the Bruins to shrink the space between the two blue lines to about 3 good skating strides. As a consequence, the Boston Garden compelled players to be face to face with their opponents more often and more quickly throughout a game.
The corners were “shallow†too, curved closer towards the middle at each end, making those corners narrower than in other rinks. As with the egg-shaped Ottawa Auditorium ice surface, the design propelled rushing forwards in towards the defence. (See Hood, Bruce, with Townsend, Murray; The Good of the Game: Recapturing Hockey’s Greatness, Stoddart Publishing Co. Limited (Toronto:1999), p.64, 65; as well as Cole, Cam; “Ancient Edifice Pulls the Plugâ€, The Edmonton Journal, May 25, 1988, in Cole, Cam, ed.; Ice Level: Greatest Hockey Stories from the Last 50 Years, CanWest Books (Toronto:2005), p.58).
As a result of these idiosyncracies, the building gave the Boston fans exactly the kind of abrasive and forbidding, but honest, physical challenge that they wanted to watch.
That too was why Howie Morenz had quickly become a favourite with the Boston crowd:
. . . before the introduction of the forward pass, the defencemen usually refrained from much rushing and would be found lined up, side by side, in front of the net. Most forwards tried to get around them; Morenz just as often tried to hurtle through them.           Time and again he’d go down with bone-rattling bodychecks, often he’d get caught squarely in the “sandwich.†But he’d come back and leave the crowd aghast as he’d hurtle through, pick up the puck and score – or nearly score. On several occasions I saw this meteoric Morenz bowl over both defencemen with sheer, reckless savagery.           Like the Babe who used to pack a thrill even striking out, Morenz in missing was an experience. (O’Brien, Andy; Headline Hockey, The Ryerson Press (Toronto:1963), p.42 – 43)
Morenz had been doing that repeatedly and consistently for the five years of the Bruins’ existence. His kind of determination, and its appreciation by the Bruin players and the Boston fans, was all captured in an oft-repeated story, which can be found in Liss, Howard; Goal! Hockey’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, Delacorte Press (New York:1970), at p.37, and in Stan Fischler’s Those were the Days, Dodd, Mead & Company (New York:1976), at pp.78 – 79:
How courageous was Howie Morenz? In one game he found himself up against two of the toughest bruisers ever to play defense in hockey’s history – Eddie Shore and Lionel Hitchman. Taking he puck, Morenz decided to split through them. . . . They converged on Howie and belted him down. The speedy Morenz got up and tried it again. Once more he was pounded to the ice. A third time he tried to split Shore and Hitchman, with no better results. As he rose shakily to his feet, Morenz muttered, “Don’t you guys ever get tired?†The peerless Eddie Shore grinned at the little gamester and, as he was skating away, remarked, “Mister, I take my hat off to you. You’ve got guts.â€
Years later, when Morenz died and more than a hundred floral tributes to his memory were delivered to the Montreal Forum, there was one among them from Boston’s own famous ‘Murderer’s Row’ up in the second balcony of the Boston Garden. It was in the shape of a hockey stick, in red roses with white carnations, and a card that read:
From Howie’s friends in the first two rows of the top balcony of Boston Gardens.
(The Gazette, March 11, 1937, p.14, c.7)
Tonight the goal, assist, and tackle by Morenz; the banging; and the Bruin victory, added up to a satisfying evening on Commercial Street:
Canadiens 2 at Boston 5
Lineups
Canadiens Starters: Hainsworth, S. Mantha, Burke, Morenz, Larochelle, Joliat
Canadiens Subs: Leduc, Lepine, Gagnon, G Mantha, McCaffrey, Wasnie, Mondou, Rivers
Boston Starters: Thompson, Shore, Hitchman, Barry, Oliver, Galbraith
Boston Subs: Gainor, Weiland, Clapper, Owen, Chapman, Pratt, Hutton, Harris
Referees: Mickey Ion, Jerry Goodman
First Period
1. Boston Clapper (Weiland) 3:41
2. Canadiens Morenz 6:12
Penalties: Clapper (board check – major); Joliat (roughing), Barry (roughing), Hitchman (tripping), S. Mantha (illegal check), Morenz (holding – major); Larochelle (charging), Harris (board check), Leduc (tripping)
Second Period
No scoring
Penalties: S. Mantha (tripping), Burke 2 (delay of game; anti-defence)*, Leduc (tripping), Galbraith (tripping), Lepine (holding)
Third Period
3. Boston Gainor (Oliver) 0:52
4. Boston Weiland (Clapper) 2:10
5. Boston Chapman (Harris) 7:30
6. Boston Barry (Oliver) 15:05
7. Canadiens Gagnon (Morenz, Mondou)17:01
Penalties: Gainor (roughing), Larochelle (roughing), Shore (roughing), Burke (roughing), S. Mantha (holding), Pratt 2 (tripping, hooking), Clapper (handling puck), G. Mantha (tripping), Leduc (slashing), Hutton (tripping)
Shots:
By Canadiens 10 9 10 29
By Boston 11 4 10 25
* The second Burke penalty in the second period only appears in The Boston Globe summary.