Kennedy dies at 90, was member of 1st Flyers team

Forbes Kennedy never was going to make his way in the NHL for his silky scoring touch or playmaking skills. So from 1956-69, the hard-nosed Maritimer ground out a career with five teams as a hybrid tank/bulldozer, flattening anyone in his path or anyone who dared to get within a few strides of it.

Born in Dorchester, New Brunswick but beloved in his adopted home of Prince Edward Island, where he moved with his family two weeks after his birth, Kennedy died Monday at age 90, stories of his rugged career being shared with relish by islanders who adored him on and off the ice.

The man affectionately known as "Forbie" was a larger-than-life folk hero in PEI. At 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds, Kennedy forever played taller than the tape measure and heavier than the scale; he was a bantam rooster who roared around a rink-size hen house coming at opponents more often than not with bad intentions.

Forbes Kennedy (c.) with Chicago Black Hawks teammates Ed Litzenberger (l.) and Harry Watson in a 1956 photo taken at Maple Leaf Gardens; and Kennedy in a 1956-57 portrait.

In 603 regular-season games for the Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and finally the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kennedy 178 points (70 goals, 108 assists) and 888 penalty minutes.

In three trips to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, he had six points (two goals, four assists) in 12 games. But it was his one for Toronto, against Boston in Game 1 of the 1969 Quarterfinals, that was his most memorable as he had 38 of his 64 penalty minutes. 

The Bruins won that game 10-0 at Boston Garden, with Boston outshooting their visitor 51-40. Phil Esposito scored four goals, and Johnny Bucyk and Derek Sanderson each had two. Kennedy tagged by referee John Ashley with four minor penalties, two fighting majors, a misconduct and a game misconduct.

On the bright side, he was only minus-1 in the blowout loss.

Boston's Forbes Kennedy prepares to take a shot on Toronto goalie Don Simmons during a 1964 game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

The game is legendary for Toronto defenseman Pat Quinn flattening Boston superstar Bobby Orr, knocking him out. But Kennedy shone on the undercard, battling Bruins goalie Gerry Cheevers and a handful of others, finally decking linesman George Ashley in a melee that lasted more than a half-hour.

The four-game suspension meted out by NHL President Clarence Campbell would see Kennedy never skate in another NHL game, though he'd win championships in the American Hockey League and Central Hockey League before retiring to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, popular everywhere he went as a coach, mentor, storyteller and bar owner.

"Every summer I came home from the NHL, he'd always have good words for you, definitely checking in on you," former NHL player and coach Gerard Gallant told CBC, remembering his friend.

"He was a guy who cared about PEI and all the players that played there, and he probably had a good part to do with a lot of us getting the opportunity to play in the NHL."

From left, Carl Brewer, Forbes Kennedy, Kent Douglas, Johnny Bower and Jerry Toppazzini during a 1963 game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Kennedy's roots were planted in PEI perhaps out of necessity. His father was a prison guard in Dorchester, New Brunswick, his mother unsettled by the idea that an escaped convict might turn up on the family's doorstep.

The eldest of four children, Kennedy began skating at age 11, playing on Montreal Canadiens-sponsored teams until the Black Hawks acquired his NHL rights.

If he was disappointed to be traded by Montreal, the League's supreme powerhouse, he was happy to even have an NHL job, never having expected to be a pro hockey player.

"If they had sent me to Timbuktu, I would have gone," Kennedy said in 1968, upon his induction into the Prince Edward Island Sports Hall of Fame. "I believe to play hockey, you've got to love the game. If you don't, it's a job. When we played hockey, it wasn't a job, not for one guy in the League."

From left, Forbes Kennedy, Jim Morrison, Billy Harris, Norm Ullman, Ron Stewart and goalie Ed Chadwick in 1957 Maple Leaf Gardens action.

Kennedy would play one season for the Black Hawks, in 1956-57, assigned in his first game to check Red Wings legend Ted Lindsay.

He was paid $8,500 his rookie season, with a sweet $2,000 signing bonus.

"If I would have held out, I could've gotten more," he said. "But I really felt I was a millionaire coming out of there with my signing money."

His path would cross Lindsay's again. Kennedy was packaged by Chicago to Detroit on July 23, 1957 with Hank Bassen, Johnny Wilson and Bill Preston in exchange for Lindsay and Glenn Hall, the Black Hawks acquiring two future Hall of Famers in one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history.

Philadelphia Flyers forward Forbes Kennedy battles Toronto's Mike Pelyk and captain George Armstrong near goalie Bruce Gamble in a 1968 game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

He would shuffle around the NHL, shipped by Detroit to Boston in a Dec. 3, 1962 trade for Andre Pronovost, then claimed from the Bruins by the Flyers in the NHL Expansion Draft on June 6, 1967, skating for Philadelphia their first two seasons before he was traded to the Maple Leafs on March 2, 1969, along with Brit Selby, for Mike Byers, Gerry Meehan and Bill Sutherland.

The Flyers have been among the many to mourn Kennedy's passing, in a social media post saying that his hard-rock style of play "helped establish the identity and the culture of Flyers hockey. …

"Although he was never the biggest player on the team, Kennedy brought toughness, energy and a fearless style that would become synonymous with the Flyers. Above all else, he was a loyal teammate and was crucial to establish what became a close-knit group from an expansion team."

Philadelphia Flyers alumnus Forbes Kennedy during ceremony at Wells Fargo Center on Jan. 14, 2017, and in a late 1960s Flyers publicity photo.

His dustup in Boston for the Maple Leafs sent him into a summer under the knife, cartilage in a battered knee removed to leave him barely able to walk, much less skate.

So Kennedy turned his attention to coaching, a huge influence in the lives of countless islanders on the rink and away from it.

"It was a good life playing hockey," he said as he was enshrined in the hall of fame. "You couldn’t ask for a better life with the education I had. You got places you'd never get if you weren't playing hockey."

Top photo: Boston Bruins forward Forbes Kennedy challenges Toronto goalie Johnny Bower in a 1963 game at Maple Leaf Gardens.