Broadway castoff Johnny Bower found stardom in Toronto

Welcome to another edition of Blueshirts Briefs, a series profiling individuals who worked a short shift for the New York Rangers.

I was five years old on November 2, 1975, when Eddie Giacomin made his return to Madison Square Garden as a member of the Detroit Red Wings, just two days after he was waived by the New York Rangers. I remember asking my father why “the other goalie” and so many Rangers fans were crying, why they kept chanting “Ed-die, Ed-die, Ed-die!” My father, his own eyes swollen with saltwater, smiled and barely mustered, “you’ll understand someday.”

Time and technology have helped me (and fans younger than I) comprehend what transpired that night.

Flash forward to today. The buyout of franchise goalie Henrik Lundqvist and his subsequent signing with the Washington Capitals isn’t easy to digest, even if it is best for both “The King” and the Blueshirts. COVID-19 restrictions might limit (or prohibit) fan attendance when the NHL begins its 2020-21 season in January, but it will be strange (if not painful) the first time Hank mans the visitor’s crease at the 31st Street end of Madison Square Garden.

I feel your pain, Rangers fans. But this too shall pass. And know this: You’re not alone. Buffalo lost Tom Barrasso and later on Dominik Hasek. New Jersey saw Martin Brodeur sign elsewhere. Montreal watched as “Saint” Patrick Roy was traded after a battle with management. And Grant Fuhr won four Stanley Cups in Edmonton and left.

Besides, at least we had 15 wonderful seasons to enjoy Lundqvist. That’s considerably longer than previous generations of Rangers fans had with some other truly talented players.

Take Johnny Bower, for instance.

Bower was 29 years old when he was traded to the Rangers following the 1952-53 season by the Cleveland Barons (then of the AHL). The deal, consummated on July 20, 1953, brought Bower and career minor-league left-winger Eldred Kobussen to New York in exchange for goalie Emile Francis and Neil Strain.

The swap looked to be a swipe for the Rangers after one year.

Francis was 26 when traded, but had skated in just 22 games for New York over the previous four years and didn’t play in the NHL after being dealt. (As you know, Francis later returned to Broadway and, in 1965, became the Rangers’ coach and general manager. In 1972, he led the Blueshirts to their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals in 22 years but were overmatched by Bobby Orr’s Boston Bruins in six games. And he remains the Rangers’ all-time leader among coaches with 654 games, 342 wins, and .602 points percentage.)

Strain notched 11 goals and 13 assists in 52 games for the 1952-53 Rangers, but, like Francis, never played in the NHL after being dealt.

Meanwhile, Bower earned the starting job in 1953-54 from the reigning Calder Trophy winner, 24-year-old Gump Worsley, who reportedly was out of shape. Bower was the only NHL goalie that season to play in all 4,200 minutes of the 70-game schedule. He finished with a 29-31-10 record, 2.54 goals-against average and five shutouts.

As good as the trade appeared for the Rangers at that point, it proved the high point for the team and its fans.

Not all that unbe-Leaf-able

After his first season with the Rangers, Bower reportedly came to camp overweight and lost his job to Worsley. Bower was sent to the minors and played just seven more games for the Blueshirts over the next two seasons. In 1957, he was traded back to Cleveland and was claimed in the Inter-League Draft of 1958 by the Toronto Maple Leafs. He played 77 games for New York, going 31-35-11 with a 2.56 GAA, .882 Sv%, and five shutouts.

The Rangers got cash and career minor-leaguer Ed MacQueen in return from Cleveland.

The Maple Leafs picked a goalie who would help them win four Stanley Cups, earn two Vezina trophies, finish in the top-10 in voting for the Hart Trophy three times, lead the NHL in GAA on three occassions, and post the league’s best save percentage six times.

Bower played 475 matches for Toronto, from 1958-59 to 1969-70, going 219-157-79 with a 2.50 GAA and 32 shutouts. His career save percentage (.9219)  ranks second all-time among NHL goalies behind Hasek (.9223).

He was age 34 when he played his first match for the Maple Leafs, and is both the oldest netminder to appear in an NHL contest (45 years, one month, two days) and last backstop to win a Cup for Toronto.

Humble beginnings

According to accounts in The Original Six by Lew Freedman, Bower was born to a Ukrainian family in the Canadian Prairie province of Saskatchewan during the Great Depression. Money was tight for most, but especially so in his household, where he was one of eight kids. Hockey equipment simply couldn’t be afforded.

Undaunted — and determined to join more fortunate kids enjoying the game — he cut up and old matress for pads and used a tree branch for a stick.

Horse poop was turned into hockey pucks.

Bower’s hometown was Prince Albert, located in the central part of the province, where the average high temperature is below freezing from November through March. In December, January, and February, temps usually don’t make it out of the teens. Thus, to make pucks, the kids simply followed a horse, waited for it to relieve itself, shaped the residue, and let it freeze.

“They’d be like rocks in no time,” Bower noted. “Made great pucks.”

It was during this time Bower began honing his trademark poke check. By the time he reached the NHL, he was practically an expert at stopping and preventing shots. Also by that time, Bower had ditched his birth name, John Kiszkan. Asked why he changed his name to Johnny Bower, he told reporters he wanted to make life easier for sportswriters.

Final period

Bower might’ve been on the older side for an NHL goalie, but his age wasn’t an obstacle to winning.

“When the competition got stiffer I worked three times as hard,” he said. “Competition drove me.”

“He was an inspiration to us,” noted teammate George Armstrong. “He shamed others into hard work. John gave everything he could in workouts and we weren’t going to let that old guy show us up.”

Age eventually caught up to Bower.

After winning his fourth Cup in 1967 at age 42, he threw his stick in the air in jubilation. However, he’d forgotten he’d done so, and the wood crashed down onto his head, opening a gash that required stitches to close.

In 2007, he lost his 1967 Stanley Cup ring at a Tim Horton’s. The manufacturer made him a replacement, but not before teammate (and former Ranger) Eddie Shack offered his assistance.

“Eddie offered to sell me one of his,” Bower cracked.

Following his playing career, Bower worked for the Maple Leafs as an assistant coach for a bit, but spent most of his retirement donating his time to minor-league hockey teams and charities, as well as giving speeches at coporations and signing autographs at sports memorabilia events to raise money for charity.

Bower was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1976 and, having served his country in World War II, is honored with a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.

He died on December 26, 2017, at age 93.