PART II, Chapter 9 December 7, 1930

Morenz in New York

In his book Face-off: A Guide to Modern Ice Hockey, (D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc. (New York:1968), pp.117 – 118), former NHLer George Sullivan explained Howie Morenz’s influence on the spread of professional hockey in the United States in the 1920s:

Morenz had an important bearing on the growth of professional hockey. At the peak of his career his name was a household byword in every city of the league. So great was his eminence that he is credited as the player who took hockey out of the horse-and-buggy era and propelled it on its way to the days of glory that were to come.

Nowhere was this truer than in New York City. Morenz had opened Tex Rickard’s new Madison Square Garden in December 1925, consistently drew large crowds for his appearances there over the next dozen years. New Yorkers knew him as “effervescent”: (The New York Times, April 1, 1930, p.28.), He made himself the standard against which his fans there measured their expectations for professional performance.

Of course the Stanley Cup champion Canadiens had won that first game on December 15, 1925. Howie Morenz had scored a goal on a rebound from a shot by Joliat, at the 8 minute mark of the third period – the final goal in a 3 – 1 victory. The crowd had given the 23 year old a standing ovation for that, and he had become the darling of the city’s attention ever since (Robinson, Dean; “Howie Morenz was a Very Special Person,” London Free Press, March 4, 1977, pp.10, 13).  

Even now, five years later, New Yorkers watched him play knowing that he and the Canadiens were:

. . .  considered the winners before the game even started.(The Montreal Daily Star, December 8, 1930, p.22, c.7 – 8)

That allowed them to watch with a detached appreciation. They were being entertained by the acknowledged star performer of the league. They were content to watch the show without any burden of contention. Instead, they mostly wanted to see what unique  thing he might do next.

Game reports from New York, even when prepared for the consumption of Montreal fans, sometimes read more like theatrical reviews – as did this one for the December 7, 1930, match:

. . . his best performance came in the third period, a few minutes after the play started. Taking the puck at Worters’ left, less than 10 feet away from the net, he raced with it all the way down the Arena, around his own net and to within 15 feet of the Americans’ goal; his shot was blocked by Worters, but it brought the whole crowd to its feet cheering. And his skating alone would have been sufficient to keep the spectators interested.(The Montreal Daily Star, December 8, 1930, p.22, c.7)

Was he showing off, toying with his opponents, attempting to taunt Americans’ coach Red Dutton about the inadequacy of the Americans’ “defensive system”? He was playing then as Mario Lemieux would sometimes do:

. . . he sometimes toyed with them, faking his way around them three or four times on one shift, sometimes with an expression that said, “Come on loser, I’ll give you some more.” (Martin, Lawrence; Mario, Lester Publishing Limited (Toronto:1993), at p.18)

The crowds in New York loved Morenz for that kind of display. 

The New York American referred to him later in the season as “magnet enough to draw a crowd” to the Garden, even when playing injured, (New York American, January 9, 1931, p.9). It was not uncommon for the Times to use a large picture of him to alert its readers that he would be playing at the Garden that night: e.g., The New York Times, March 30, 1930, p.S7, c.2 – 30

This season The New York Times would celebrate Morenz with a feature story and a photo on the eve of the Stanley Cup Finals. Both local teams had been bounced out of playoff competition for weeks. With no local game, and no promotional purpose, The Times did it because Morenz simply remained one of the most important “Players of the Game” (The New York Times, April 6, 1931, p.28).

The Times would also acknowledge off-ice events in Morenz’s life, in and out of the hockey season, just like it would for other entertainment celebrities: (e.g., The New York Times, May 25, 1932, p.20, c.3).

In January 1936 the New York dailies would join in a glad chorus as they celebrated Howie’s arrival by trade to play for the Rangers – even in the midst of his most frustratingly futile season. The year after that the Times would give precious news and obituary space to his death. (The New York Times, March 9, 1937, p.23 (news story), and The New York Times, March 10, 1937, p.29 (obituary))

Then in 1939, despite Morenz himself having been dead for two years, the Times gave additional obituary space to the death of Howie’s youngest son as well: The New York Times, January 16, 1939, p.15, c.4

Howie was important there because of how he played everywhere. Howie loved New York in return because New Yorkers never failed to recognize him as important, and as the best. He could always be counted on to provide a meaningful show when he came to town.

No one in New York, except perhaps Red Dutton, begrudged Howie’s success. There were reasons for Dutton to be out of step with the New York fans. Howie had been the rookie who scored the Cup-clinching goal against Dutton’s Calgary Tigers in the spring of 1924. And now Dutton was the coach of the New York Americans, who were regularly taunted and embarrassed by Morenz. Although Dutton chose to criticize Morenz in his book Hockey: The Fastest Game on Earth, Funk & Wagnalls Company (New York:1938), Dutton did not write the reviews for the New York papers.