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New York Rangers goalies revisited: So close

By Brett Schultz

Canadian hockey player John Davidson, goalkeeper for the New York Rangers, on the ice during a playoff game against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York, 1979. (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images)
Canadian hockey player John Davidson, goalkeeper for the New York Rangers, on the ice during a playoff game against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, New York, 1979. (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images) /
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1979 – Canadian hockey player John Davidson (left), goalkeeper for the New York Rangers, (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images) /

Many Rangers goalies gave the team everything they had, but most went their entire New York careers without ever bringing a Stanley Cup to Madison Square Garden.

In our last story we looked at Rangers goalies of the past who won the Stanley Cup or made it to the Finals, just not in New York.  There is no greater glory than winning a Cup with the Rangers, it is sports immortality, and no bigger disappointment than almost making it to the mountain top but ultimately coming up empty.

Six Blueshirts goaltenders have known that agony.

John Ross Roach

John Ross Roach deserves to be recognized, if for no other reason than his impressive collection of nicknames: Little Napoleon, The House Cleaner, The Port Perry Cucumber, and/or The Port Perry Woodpecker.

Only 5’5″ and a buck-thirty, Roach is among the NHL’s tiniest goalies ever. But that’s not all he was known for. He is one of only six people to mind the net while captaining his team, the 1924-25 Toronto St. Patricks. In 1922, he led Toronto past the heavily-favored, defending champion Ottawa Senators, then beat the Pacific Coast Hockey Association’s Vancouver Millionaires (a team name decades ahead of its time) for Toronto’s only Stanley Cup as the St. Pats.

There was also a franchise in the PCHA called the Victoria Aristocrats. Obviously, team names in the Roarin’ Twenties said more about the owners than players or fans.

In 1928, Toronto (now the Maple Leafs) traded Roach to New York for Lorne Chabot (more about him tomorrow), in an exchange of netminders. That season, Roach set Rangers’ team records for shutouts (13) and Goals Against Average (1.41), marks that still stand nearly a century later, taking them to the Stanley Cup Finals.

In the first battle of two American-based teams for the Cup, the Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins and their star goalie, “Tiny” Thompson, though it’s worth noting that Tiny was actually five inches taller than John Ross Roach.

It was a close series, at least, which couldn’t be said when the Rangers returned to the Cup Finals in 1932 . Game Two of that best of five series had to be played in Boston because the circus had taken over the Garden. Roach allowed 6 goals in all three games and his old team won their first Stanley Cup as the Maple Leafs.

Maybe because of that disappointment, Roach was sold to Detroit after the season ended. He then had a great year, but fell just…uh…short of winning the Vezina Trophy, losing to nemesis Tiny Thompson.   Roach is left with the destinction of being the only New York Rangers netminder to lose two Stanley Cup Finals.

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