THE FLYERS’ HISTORY
Senior
hockey disappeared from the prairies after the 1941-42 season when so
many of the players went off to war and, in
The Flyers’ amateur years were characterized by considerable success. In 1948, they were led to an Allan Cup championship by the likes of future NHL goaler Al Rollins, “Handy Andy” Clovechok, league scoring champion Morey Rimstad, 20-year-old Doug Anderson, the tough and colourful Pug Young, and the best-named hockey line of all-time - the “Receding Hairline”. In the years that followed, the Receding Hairline was rivalled in popularity by the “Gold Dust Twins – Anderson and the high-scoring, feisty Colin Kilburn. In 1951-52, the Flyers, along with the Calgary Stampeders and the Saskatoon Quakers joined the professional Pacific Coast Hockey League. The team began its pro life as the number two farm team of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. A year later, the league, acknowledging its new prairie clubs, changed its name to the Western Hockey League. With the demise of the Indianapolis Capitals of the American Hockey League, the Flyers became the Wings’ number one farm club. A new influx of top-notch professionals, just one step away from the six-team NHL, featured 21-year-old Glenn Hall, scoring champion Earl “Dutch” Reibel, Vic Stasiuk, and “the Rock” – Larry Zeidel. The Flyers took the President’s Cup as the first WHL champions. After a semi-final loss to the rival Stampeders in 1953-54, coach Bud Poile and the parent Red Wings were determined to re-tool the club for the ’54-55 season.
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The following excerpts from The Fabulous Flyers look at how Poile, with the help of Jack Adams and Red Wings coach Jimmy Skinner, built his Flyers team for the ’54-55 season. The end result was a team long considered to be minor hockey’s best.
Excerpt: Chapter 16.
TRAINING CAMP: BUD’S BLUEPRINT
Each year
the team was part of the Red Wings’ pre-season training camp in Sault
Ste. Marie,
Bud Poile was excited
about the prospects of his defence brigade, with Arbour, Hrymnak,
Zeniuk, Coflin and, hopefully, holdout Larry Zeidel, and claimed that
there would be nothing in the WHL to match it. In addition, he had “the
best goalie outside the NHL,” and a trio that he predicted would be the
league’s most productive line.
The coach wasn’t the
only one impressed with goaltender Hall.
The Edmonton Journal described him as “a great goaltender—a man
possessed.” Veteran Ray Hannigan, for whom the 1954-55 season would be
the third with both the Flyers and Hall, was even more generous in his
praise of Glenn: “Without a doubt, in my mind the greatest goaltender I
ever watched or played with. I played against him in the AHL and with
him three years in
The “league’s most
productive line” would be centered by Bronco Horvath. His wingers were
to be Vic Stasiuk and rookie Johnny Bucyk. Poile’s prediction that the
trio would outscore every other line in the league probably seemed
outrageous to some observers. After all, Horvath’s production in pro
hockey to date had been modest, and he had limited ice time in camp due
to an injury; Bucyk was just a 19-year-old rookie; and Stasiuk was still
on the comeback trail following his broken hip, and had been described
by Poile himself at the end of the ’53-54 season as “a disappointment”.
Other hockey people
agreed, though, that the Flyers might have something special with this
line.
Horvath liked his new
line’s potential. With the cockiness that his former coach had spoken
of, he told John and Vic, “I’ll have you both up in the big league next
year.” Shore didn’t expect Horvath to be in
Even before camp was
over, The Journal dubbed
Johnny Bucyk the “camp sensation” and observed that the young left
winger “shapes up as a prominent contender for freshman of the year
honours.” Ray Hannigan concurred; he saw John as “a diamond in the rough
but could do it all and only get better.”
Camp was over. The
junior hopefuls scattered to
Excerpt:
CHAPTER 22. “THE BEST BUNCH OF
ATHLETES”
The players usually
approached games and practices in a very business-like manner. Eddie
Stankiewicz said, “At practice we didn’t fool around much. There was no
slacking off. There were some battles.” In fact, he says, “Some of our
practices were tougher than the games. Zeidel and Coflin always tried to
stop us in practice. They had these black sweaters on—practice sweaters.
We called them the ‘undertakers’. They would try to run us into the
boards. Larry and I became great friends right from the start but we
still ran each other in the corner.” Linemate Bronco agreed with Eddie.
“Even in practice I tried to stay away from Larry Zeidel. I wouldn’t go
down his side— your own teammate—no way.” But it wasn’t always business;
there was still some time for slacking off. “Of course, Glenn always
wanted to play forward and not play goal. Glenn would be playing center
ice and we would end up scrimmaging with no goaltenders. That used to
happen quite often,” recalled Lorne Davis. He added that, “It was one of
the easiest-going teams I think I ever played on.”
While the younger
players were benefiting from the experience of the veterans, the older
pros continued to hone their skills in practice. Zeidel, Horvath and
Bucyk stayed on the ice to practice getting the puck to Bronco in the
slot. Buddies Ray Hannigan and Glenn Hall would stay out after practice
and Ray “would go in on him” over and over. “It helped both of us,” said
Ray. “We would bet a milkshake each shot. Glenn said I owed him a
drive-in restaurant.”
The players respected
each other’s talent. “No one ever suggested for a minute that there was
anything wrong with Bronco not checking,” said Don Poile. “Like, who
cared? When you’ve got a guy who can score 50 goals, you just let
him play. Bud certainly did that with Bronco.” And it didn’t bother his
teammates. Bronco knew what his job was; and the other members of the
high-scoring Horvath line knew their roles clearly. Left winger John
Bucyk, one of the biggest, strongest players in the league, was to get
the puck to Bronco in the slot; and despite his prolific goal scoring,
Eddie Stankiewicz saw his job as riding shotgun for Horvath. “I was
Bronco’s bodyguard,” he said.
They played an
unselfish game. “When we were down 4-3 in the last period with a power
play,” said Don Poile, “nobody ever said ‘oh, there goes Horvath’s line
again.’ We all said, ‘Yeah, let’s put that line on again.’”