A total of 866 men have played goalie in the National Hockey League since the birth of the NHL in 1917.
The late Donald Robert James Keenan is one of them, and on this Aug. 8, the anniversary of Keenan's 1938 birth in Toronto, his NHL career -- all 60 minutes of it -- is worth revisiting.
It doesn't take long to recite: one game, played March 7, 1959, for the Boston Bruins in emergency relief of Harry Lumley, a 4-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Keenan is one of 111 men to play goalie for the Bruins in their 99-year history, one of 19 to appear in a single game.
In the one-goalie era, Lumley was subbing in early March 1959 for ailing Bruins starter Don Simmons, who was recovering from an appendectomy.
Don Keenan stands in goal for the Boston Bruins during his team's 4-1 loss to Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens on March 7, 1959. It was Keenan's only NHL game. Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame
Lumley contracted food poisoning on Boston's train ride to Toronto for their March 7 game and Keenan, a backup goalie for Toronto St. Michael's of the Ontario Hockey Association, got the urgent call. Hence, he became Boston's EBUG (emergency backup goalie) long before the term was used.
Keenan, 20, had played 15 games for St. Michael's and St. Francis Xavier University of the Maritime Intercollegiate League in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, studying mechanical engineering. He'd returned to Toronto to complete his education at the University of Toronto, playing a bit as a backup and practice goalie for St. Michael's when he needed a break from his books.
And then just a few hours before the opening face-off of March 7, 1959, he was told to report to Maple Leaf Gardens, in the event the Bruins needed a goalie.
Indeed they did.
"I was at my buddy's house studying late Saturday afternoon when my brother, Harry, phoned me and told me that (Maple Leafs coach and GM) Punch Imlach wanted me at the Gardens to probably play for Boston," Keenan said after the game.
Boston goalie Don Keenan gloves a puck during a goalmouth scramble March 7, 1959, at Maple Leaf Gardens. From left: Billy Harris, Bruins captain Fernie Flaman, Gerry Ehman, Fleming Mackell and Keenan. Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame
"I thought Harry was pulling some kind of a joke to get me home for supper, but when my mother got on the telephone and told me, I knew it was for real.
"I was nervous between the time I found out I might be playing for Boston and the time Bruins coach Milt Schmidt actually said I'd be in nets. After that, I didn't feel nervous at all. The Leafs didn't give me much chance to worry with all of those (41) shots."
The game was covered for the Canadian Press wire service by staff writer Ron Andrews, who within a few years became the NHL's first official statistician.
"Don Keenan thought it was joke when he was first told he might be in nets for the Bruins," Andrews wrote. "But he says now it was anything but a joke."
In the day, each home team in the NHL was required to furnish a goalie for the visitor in the event the regular goalie was unable to play, so it was Keenan who skated into the visitors' net of his famous hometown arena and made 37 saves, not having a chance on the four Maple Leafs shots that got by him.
Gerry Ehman opened the scoring for Toronto at 10:30 of the first period, Bronco Horvath tying the game for Boston on the power play at 18:47. Ron Stewart then scored twice 28 seconds apart early in the third, Carl Brewer adding Toronto's fourth on the power play at 15:45.
Don Keenan robs Toronto's Dick Duff on a breakaway March 7, 1957. Michael Burns Sr./Hockey Hall of Fame
What a night for Keenan, who was selected the game's third star playing opposite boyhood hero Johnny Bower, who made 24 saves for the win.
The highlight surely was Keenan's second-period breakaway save on Dick Duff, who three years earlier had been one of the goalie's classmates at St. Michael's. Frank Mahovlich, another former St. Michael's teammate, provided a stern test or two as well.
Quizzed postgame about which shots might have given him the most difficulty, he told Andrews, "The four that got by me."
Maple Leaf Gardens fans, sensing the occasion, gave the emergency fill-in a few rousing ovations, delighted by his acrobatic, diving, fish-out-of-water style.
"I was pretty nervous in the second period when Don flopped around in front of the goal, but he managed to keep the puck out of the net," Bruins GM Lynn Patrick said.
"It wasn't the kid's fault that we lost," chimed in Bruins captain Fernie Flaman.
Goalies Don Keenan and Johnny Bower shake hands at Maple Leaf Gardens on March 7, 1959. Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame
And just like that, shaking hands with Bower, he left the ice. This emergency goalie's NHL career was done, his final game to be played the following season for the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.
Keenan put his education to good use. With his engineering degree, he went to work for Societe Trane, a France-based multinational that manufactured heating, ventilation and cooling equipment. The company promoted him to general sales manager in November 1971.
He died Nov. 29, 2005, at age 67.
Keenan is among the nearly 8,500 names in official records who have played in the NHL. But one game or 1,000-plus, he is remembered among those whose love of hockey took them to the greatest league in hockey, his chance coming with a phone call that he thought was a prank.
Top photo: Don Keenan, in his only NHL game, kicks at a Toronto shot during the March 7, 1959 game at Maple Leaf Gardens. It's likely that Ron Stewart (12) has beaten him on a third-period backhand. Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame
