Ed Hospodar made his NHL mark on opponents & the rulebook

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

Ed Hospodar played just nine seasons in the NHL, but no one can successfully argue that he failed to make his mark.

He made them on opponents, feeding opponents sandwiches of knuckles and lumber to their face, head, torso, and pretty much anywhere else he pleased.

He made one on the NHL rulebook, having sparked one bench-clearing brawl too many.

And he made one on technology, unwittingly supplying plenty of footage for hockeyfights.com.

Hospodar grew up in football-mad Ohio, but unlike most youngsters with his size growing up there, he put his 6-foot-2, 210-pound frame to use in hockey rinks instead of on the gridiron. He soon developed a reputation for being a physical and aggressive defenseman.

By the end of his time in juniors with the Ottawa 67’s, Hospodar had terrorized the Ontario Hockey League with so many aggressive hits, he was given the name “Boxcar” by a local scribe. The New York Rangers liked what they saw and took Hospodar in the second round (34th overall) of the 1979 Entry Draft.

Hospodar was only 20 years old but played in 20 games for the Rangers in 1979-80. True to form, he racked up 76 penalty minutes. The following season, “Boxcar” skated in 61 contests and posted 214 PIMs, along with five goals and 14 assists. And in 1981-82, his final season on Broadway, he recorded 152 PIMs and 11 points in 41 matches.

According to hockeyfights.com, Hospodar fought a total of 57 times for five teams, 23 for the Rangers, and another 15 for the Hartford Whalers. He also had four postseason bouts for the Blueshirts and was especially volatile on April 9, 1981, taking six penalties totaling 39 minutes in the first period of a 5-4 loss to the Kings in Los Angeles.

The second game of the best-of-five preliminary series, the match featured a brawl after the opening period. Six players were ejected, including Hospodar and teammates Barry Beck and Chris Kotsopoulos. Hospodar’s six penalties and 39 PIMs are single-period Rangers records. His 39 PIMs rank third all-time in the NHL, while only five other players in league history have been called for six infractions in one stanza.

The ejections of Hospodar, Beck, and Kotsopoulos left the Rangers with just three defensemen for the remainder of that game, which appeared headed for overtime before Dean Hopkins scored the winner with 2:44 remaining. That the Blueshirts were even in a position to win was remarkable — especially after Dave Maloney left the ice on a stretcher with around seven minutes to play after suffering a knee injury in a collision with the Kings’ Mark Hardy.

The Rangers, who earned 200 of the game’s 267 PIMs, won the next two games by a combined 16-6 score and beat the St. Louis Blues in the next round before getting swept by the New York Islanders.

Hospodar finished the ’81 playoffs with 93 penalty minutes, a team record for one postseason. His 135 playoff PIMs ranks third in club history behind Ching Johnson (150) and Jeff Beukeboom (147). However, Johnson amassed his PIMs in 54 matches, while “Beuke” compiled his in 70 contests. “Boxcar” got close to both in just 19 tilts.

Despite being just 23 years old after the 1981-82 season, Hospodar was traded on October 1, 1982, to Hartford for right-winger Kent-Erik Andersson (no relation to former Ranger, Lias). The 31-year-old Swede posted 13 goals and 35 assists along with 22 PIMs in 134 matches for New York.

Meanwhile, “Boxcar” would continue to run over opponents and help re-write the NHL rulebook.

“Don’t do it, Claude”

The date was May 14, 1987. The venue was the venerable Montreal Forum. And the mayhem between the Flyers and Canadiens that evening before Game Six of the Wales Finals would infuriate Habs general manager Serge Savard, brighten the spirits of Philadelphia GM Bob Clarke, and prompt the NHL to make changes to its rulebook.

The mayhem was a pregame brawl started by Claude Lemieux (who else?). According to a 2012 story in the Toronto Globe and Mail published on the anniversary of the game, the pesky Habs winger grinned at Hospodar and other Flyers who warned him not to shoot the puck into Philadelphia’s net after warmup. “Don’t do it, Claude,” Hospodar barked.

For a few minutes, it appeared Lemieux (father of Rangers’ forward Brendan) had heeded the warnings. But after both teams left the ice, Lemieux and teammate Shayne Corson sneaked back on with a puck to shoot into the Flyers net. Hospodar and goalie Chico Resch dashed back onto the ice after spotting Lemieux and Corson.

“Chico was an innocent bystander,” Hospodar joked to the Globe and Mail, “and I took him to the dark side.”

Soon the 24 Flyers head coach Mike Keenan dressed for warmup were brawling with Montreal’s 18 skaters and two goalies. Meanwhile, the game itself saw each team penalized for 29 minutes (including 10-minute misconducts to one player from each side) before Philadelphia ended the series with a 4-3 victory.

Hospodar was among the extra Flyers who skated in the warmup, but he didn’t play. However, he was among those who started the melee, so he was called to answer to Brian O’Neill, the NHL’s vice president in charge of discipline. Hospodar reportedly refused to comment and was banned for the entire Stanley Cup Finals, which Philadelphia lost in seven games to the dynastic Edmonton Oilers.

In the summer of 1987, the NHL implemented Rule 70.1 to penalize players who left the bench to engage in a fight, plus fines for coaches who lost control of their players (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). The league also reduced the number of players who could skate during pregame warmup (sorry, Iron Mike).

Any player who violated the new rule was subject to a 10-game suspension and $10,000 fine in U.S. dollars (which back then was a lot of dough, especially so for those playing for Canada-based teams and being paid in Canadian currency).

“The league didn’t do anything to stop the brawling (before Montreal),” Hospodar told the Globe and Mail. “I was a knucklehead. I was getting a big fat (pay)check. You want to fix something; hit the players in their wallet. That gets their attention every time.”

Not always the winner

Nearly five years before issuing a warning to Lemieux, Hospodar received one from Islanders tough-guy Clark Gilles. In a match at Madison Square Garden on December 30, 1981, the two squared off in what proved to be a short and painful bout for the Rangers defenseman. Gilles landed a ferocious uppercut, breaking Hospodar’s jaw.

After playing two seasons for Hartford, Hospodar signed with the Flyers prior to the 1984-85 season. In that season’s Wales Finals against Quebec, he was cross-checked in the back of the head by Peter Stastny seconds after the Flyers’ defenseman cross-checked Peter’s brother, Anton, then glided ahead of the Nordiques’ forward, spun around, and caught him in the helmet with his stick.

“There was no suspension (of Stastny),” Hospodar told The Hockey News in 2015. “I guess it was like the league sending a message: You got what you deserve.”

During the Stanley Cup Finals later that spring, Hospodar became Public Enemy No. 1  in Edmonton. In the first game, he skated cross-ice behind the play and flattened Kevin McClelland, who was knocked unconscious. Hospodar went unpenalized. His high stick to Mark Napier’s face in Game Three would cost the Oilers forward a bundle in dental work in the off-season.

“If the league doesn’t do something about this guy, we’re going to get two boxes for him — one for his head and one for his body,” Sather told reporters before Game Four. “The referee was out to lunch, but Mark won’t be, with three broken teeth. There was nobody in the building who didn’t see Hospodar cross-check him in the mouth except the referee.”

Sather reportedly sent out Dave Semenko (a.k.a Wayne Gretzky’s bodyguard) to take care of Hospodar in Game Four. However, officials broke up Semenko’s first attempt to engage and Hospodar turtled the second time “Cement” came calling.   Hospodar wasn’t penalized and escaped what likely would’ve been a sure beat down, while Semenko got a double minor.

Final period

Hospodar was traded by the Flyers to the Minnesota North Stars in November 1985, but re-signed with Philadelphia in June of ’86. He played in 45 games in 1986-87 and went to the Finals for a second time with the gang from Broad Street in South Philly. He was claimed in the Waiver Draft by the Buffalo Sabres in October of ’87 and posted 98 PIMs in 42 matches before retiring at age 28.

In all, he played 450 NHL games, notching 17 goals and 51 assists for 68 points along with 1,314 PIMs.

At last check, Hospodar was working in real estate in suburban Philadelphia, where he and his wife, Dana, raised three children.