SinBin.vegas Podcast #296: Not Really Ready To Look Forward

his is much more interesting

hroughout the 1958-59 season, New York Ranger coach Phil Watson had assigned Eddie Shack, then a bumptious rookie, to stick with Gordie Howe when the Rangers played Detroit, and for the first several games Shack did a remarkably fine job. In New York one night, though, the predictable occurred. Shack emerged from a skirmish with Howe with a face cut that needed three stitches to close. Lou Fontinato drew a bead on Howe at the first opportunity and smashed him into the boards. Howe and Fontinato dropped their gloves. Fontinato went low, for Howe’s body. Howe grabbed him by the sweater with his left hand and, with his right, administered the most famous single punch in NHL history, shattering Fontinato’s nose.
(Brian Burke with a Howe and Shack anecdote): “Then he told me this story, his first or second year in the league, he said he was playing in Toronto, and Eddie Shack’s playing opposite him. Eddie said, Look, I don’t want a rough game tonight, so you lay off me and I lay off you.’
“Puck goes down to the corner, and Gordie’s got a chance to hit Eddie Shack and Gordie lays off, just kind of rubs him. We go back down to Gordie’s corner and Eddie almost kills him. Of course Gordie wasn’t ready for the hit so he got crumpled. He skates back to Shack and goes, ‘What the hell was that? And he goes, ‘You believed me?’
In January 1961 Detroit was at Maple Leaf Garden when Eddie and Gordie collided violently. Howe hit the ice and was knocked out cold. Taken to the hospital for x-rays, Gordie had a concussion and needed 10 stitches, and although he didn’t blame Shack, Jack Adams was furious after Eddie denied crosschecking Howe, “Maybe Howe was hit by a [rolled-up] program.”
In 1967, when Eddie was with the Bruins, he knocked Gordie out again. Shack came in with his elbows u and caught Gordie off-balance, and Howe once again struck his head on the ice and was ko’d.
In those days the NHL would hold a summer golf tournament and bring in someone from every team. Eddie was sitting there with Gordie and Gordie said, “Shackie, you don’t hit me and I don’t hit you. Put’er there.” Gordie held out his hand.
Shack said, “Gordie, it’s a deal,” and they shook on it.
At the start of the next season during a Boston v. Detroit game Bruin Coach Harry Sinden called Shack over to the bench. He said, “Eddie, Gordie Howe is the meanest, most competitive man out there. What are you doing skating around him with your head down?”
Shack replied, “Aw don’t worry about it. We got a deal.”