Worsley didn't have merry Christmas against Howe, Red Wings in 1956

It was Christmas night at Detroit's Olympia Stadium 65 years ago, and
Gump Worsley
was about to witness the greatest 60 minutes in
Gordie Howe
's legendary career.

Mr. Hockey would score three goals and pick up three assists
Dec. 25, 1956
, the most prolific game of his Hall of Fame-bound career, when the Detroit Red Wings defeated the New York Rangers 8-1.
Worsley, the Rangers goalie, wished he hadn't been given a front row seat to history.
There are no postgame comments on record from Worsley, which is probably just as well. One of the most quotable characters the game has ever known -- with New York, he once said that the Rangers were the team that gave him the most trouble -- Worsley stopped 24 of the 32 pucks fired at him.

Gump Worsley with the Montreal Canadiens in the 1960s, and Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe, with coach Sid Abel, on Nov. 27, 1965 after Howe had scored on Worsley for his 600th regular-season NHL goal.
Lou Fontinato's first-period goal was the only shot among New York's 38 that beat Detroit goalie Glenn Hall.
But the Rangers' 1-0 lead evaporated in the second period, Howe and Ted Lindsay making it 2-1 before the Red Wings blew it wide open in the third with six goals, scored by Norm Ullman, Bill Dineen, Al Arbour, Metro Prystai and two by Howe.
It was the third of Worsley's 11 Christmas games played between 1954-71, going 5-6-0 with an .899 save percentage in seven starts for the Rangers, two for the Montreal Canadiens and two for the Minnesota North Stars.
Howe was pleased with his six points, but told reporters he'd had a better game.
"Fourteen goals and an assist for King George School when I was in the eighth grade back in Saskatoon," he joked of his Saskatchewan youth.
Howe would enjoy other historic games against "The Gumper."
On March 14, 1962 in New York, he beat Worsley for his 500th NHL goal to join retired Canadiens legend Maurice "Rocket" Richard, then the only two players in that exclusive club.
On Oct. 27, 1963 in Detroit, Worsley was in goal for the Canadiens when Howe scored his 544th goal to pass Richard for most in NHL history.
On Nov. 27, 1965 at the Montreal Forum, Howe beat Worsley for his 600th career goal.

Gump Worsley keeps an eye on a flying puck during a 1950s game at Maple Leaf Gardens against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Howe would play more games (145) and have more regular-season goals (70) and assists (105) against Worsley than any other goalie. His six-point game came during his most successful season against Worsley, scoring 20 points (11 goals, nine assists) in 14 games. Six of those goals were on the power play, four were game winners.
Worsley often was the bright spot on many of his struggling Rangers teams between 1953-63, indeed voted winner of the 1952-53 Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year.
His career was reborn June 4, 1963, not having won a Stanley Cup Playoff series during his decade with the Rangers, when a blockbuster trade sent him to the Canadiens with forwards Dave Balon and Len Ronson and defenseman Leon Rochefort in exchange for goalie Jacques Plante and forwards Phil Goyette and Don Marshall.
With Montreal, Worsley would win the Stanley Cup in 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969 and twice share the Vezina Trophy -- in 1965-66 with Charlie Hodge and in 1967-68 with Rogie Vachon.

Gump Worsley in the early 1950s, in the first years of his NHL career with the New York Rangers, and in 1965-66 with Montreal Canadiens teammate Charlie Hodge, with whom he won the Vezina Trophy.
He was traded to Minnesota for cash on Feb. 27, 1970, playing the final 107 games of his 21-season, 860-game NHL career with the North Stars before retiring in 1974 with a record of 333-348 with 149 ties, along with a 2.87 goals-against average and 43 shutouts. Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1980, Worsley died in January 2007 at age 77.
There's at least one story for every one of Gump's NHL games and everyone who knew him had a favorite.
Late Montreal teammate John Ferguson loved one about the 1969 playoff run that had coach Claude Ruel sequester the Canadiens at Holiday Lodge, a couple hours northwest of the city.
Canadiens forward Ralph Backstrom, a partner in the lodge, had 12 dozen souvenir golf balls in his room, neatly boxed for guests until Worsley and Ferguson broke in under cover of darkness and scattered them on the floor. Backstrom returned and, 144 balls at his feet, naturally went flying.

Gump Worsley swats a puck away from Bob Pulford of the Toronto Maple Leafs during a 1958 game at Maple Leaf Gardens, New York's John Hanna skating near.
"Then we thought, 'Jeez, what if he broke his leg?'" Ferguson related in the 2002 book "Without Fear: Hockey's 50 Greatest Goaltenders," by Bob Duff and Kevin Allen.
The mischievous pair learned that Backstrom was indeed healthy when he arrived at the room they shared and opened their door with an axe.
That lodge stay got Ferguson thinking about his own second career as a horse breeder. In the summer of 1971, freshly retired, he returned to Montreal from his Double 2 stable in Vancouver with a 2-year-old thoroughbred named Gump Worsley, set to make its debut at Montreal's Blue Bonnets racetrack in a half-mile sprint for juvenile maidens.
"I told Gump about the mare in foal and said if we won the (1969) Stanley Cup, I'd name it after him," Ferguson told Montreal Gazette hockey writer Pat Curran. "'The Gumper' thought I was joking but we won the Cup and I sent him pictures of the colt after he was foaled."

Gump Worsley seems to have Maple Leaf Gardens ice to himself during a 1960s game with the Montreal Canadiens.
With modest expectations, the big grey bred for longer distances, Ferguson arrived in Montreal with the four-legged Gump Worsley.
"If he can't run, maybe we can make him a goaltender," his amused namesake quipped.
"It's a toss-up which one is better looking, the horse or the goaltender," Ferguson replied.
With jockey Bobby Stewart in the irons in the fifth race Aug. 10, 1971, Gump went off at 8-1. The colt's placid amble to the starting gate didn't concern Canadiens defenseman Serge Savard, who said, "That doesn't mean anything, Gump never liked to warm up before a game anyway."
A prerace announcement declared that Gump Worsley was two pounds overweight, which surprised no one given that the goalie never was svelte.
Ferguson bet $10 on Gump because, "I've got to be loyal," then watched his colt finish up the track, last in the field of eight.

Gump Worsley watches Minnesota North Stars teammate Danny O'Shea carry the puck out from behind the net during a 1970 game at Maple Leaf Gardens.
"He ran a lot like I expected, he needs distance," the owner reasoned.
Then, booting a waste basket across the press box, "But (expletive), Gump Worsley didn't have to finish last."
The two-legged Gumper wasn't witness to his also-ran history, having been the victim of Gordie Howe's six-point night 25 years earlier and much Mr. Hockey history still to come; he was 300 miles west, teaching at a hockey school in Ontario.
Two months later, back in Minnesota with the North Stars, Worsley was spinning yarns with the media, every tale more delicious than the last. He'd finally solved his morbid fear of flying, he told reporters, talking his way onto the flight deck of team charters.
"I can read all the instruments and I like listening to the radio conversations between planes," he said. "And it doesn't get nearly as bumpy up front, either."
North Stars coach Jack Gordon was standing nearby as his goalie held court.
"Gump is very outspoken," he said with a laugh. "The trick is that you just don't listen to him."
Photos:Hockey Hall of Fame: Turofsky; Graphic Artists