HOCKEY NOTES

Lester Patrick (The Praying Colonel, The Silver Fox)

Defense

6-1 180

b. 31 Dec 1883 Drummondville, Quebec
d. 1 June 1960 Victoria, B.C.

Lester Patrick was one of the classier figures in hockey history, and he was one of the sport's most prolific builders. He was a perennial All-Star rover and defender for 21 seasons, and he just happened to have a penchant for team-building. And his ambitions did not end there: he and his brother Frank were behind the construction of rinks and operators of a league of their own.

As a tall, gawky-looking boy, Lester Patrick played shinny on the frozen ponds of Drummondville, Quebec. A move to Montreal in the early 1890s introduced him to the real game of hockey, and as a teenager he would haunt the old Victoria Rink. One evening, Montreal AAA forward Clare McKerrow met and took an immediate shine to Patrick, teaching him about hockey and about how to carry himself as a gentleman. McKerrow was a lasting influence in Patrick's long and eventful life.

Patrick got his first crack at hockey's top levels in 1903-04 in Brandon, Manitoba, where he played defense on a team that tried unsuccessfully to pry the Stanley Cup from the Ottawa Silver Seven. After a season at Westmount Academy, Patrick joined the Montreal Wanderers in time for the 1905-06 season. It was with the mighty Redbands that he reached the peak of his powers. Players like Ernie Russell, Pud Glass and Cecil Blachford benefited enormously from Patrick's smooth passing.

In 1907, the Patrick brothers headed west to Nelson, British Columbia, to work for their father's lumber operation, and they played the next two years for a local Senior team. They were both drawn back east to play the 1909-10 season for the National Hockey Association (NHA) Renfrew Creamery Kings, then it was back to Nelson for one more year. In 1911, the brothers founded the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, and Lester became owner and player-manager of the league's Victoria Aristocrats. To stock their teams, the Patricks raided NHA rosters and managed to lure some top talent to the west coast. To quote Lester later on in life: "We had a league of superstars on the coast from 1911 to 1925. In the early days there was Cyclone Taylor, Newsy Lalonde for a time, Harry Hyland, Ken Mallen, Eddie Oatman and Tommy Dunderdale. They were among the biggest names of the day."

The PCHA folded in 1924, and the Victoria and Vancouver clubs joined the Western Canada league until it, too, faded from the scene in 1926. At the same time, the NHL was in the midst of a growth spurt, going from 4 to 10 teams between 1924 and 1926. One of those new teams was the New York Rangers, who had hired Conn Smythe as manager. Ranger brass was convinced, mistakenly, that Smythe hadn't built a strong enough roster, so they called on Lester Patrick to manage and coach.

Lester Patrick was involved in one of the most unusual moments in hockey history when he put himself into the Ranger net during the 1928 Cup finals. New York had lost the first game of the best-of-five series 2-0 to the Montreal Maroons, and in game two their situation looked desperate. Four minutes into the second period, star goalie Lome Chabot was hit in the eye by a puck and had to be taken to hospital. Enter Patrick, then in his mid-40s. New York wanted to use Ottawa goalie Alex Connell, who was in the stands, but Maroons coach Eddie Gerard would have none of it. The rules said a replacement had to be someone already signed to a Ranger contract, and Gerard wouldn't give in on this point. The 44-year-old Patrick was left with no choice but to put on the pads and play. He would save 17 of 18 shots and hold the line for the Rangers, who won 2-1 in overtime. Joe Miller of the New York Americans was enlisted and he backstopped the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup title.

It wasn't the first time Patrick had come out of retirement. In 1925-26, Gordon Fraser and Harold "Slim" Halderson suffered major injuries, so Patrick, who at 42 hadn't played in the last three years, joined the blue-line corps, playing 23 games and leading his men to the Cup finals. Nor was Patrick any stranger to pitching in between the pipes: he'd played 10 minutes of a game in goal for Victoria in 1921-22.

Patrick played in 205 top-level games during a career that spanned from 1904 to 1928. He captained eight clubs and was on the Cup-winning side as a player, coach or GM six times. In all, he spent 33 seasons as general manager of clubs in Victoria and New York. He was the original "Mr. Hockey."

Lester Patrick was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947.

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