McNeil still has special place with Canadiens long after bout with cancer

November is Hockey Fights Cancer month in the NHL. Throughout the month, NHL.com will be telling stories of those in and around the League who have been impacted by cancer. Today, an appreciation of late Montreal Canadiens goalie Gerry McNeil.

It was an early afternoon in June 2004 when I sat in Room 3410 of Montreal's St. Luc Hospital at the bedside of Gerry McNeil, and I listened.

The former Montreal Canadiens goalie was on his deathbed, and we both knew it. The 1953 Stanley Cup champion was in overtime against the cancer that was poisoning his brain and his lungs, the disease finally taking his life June 17 at the age of 78.

But Gerry's mischief was very much alive on this day. He spun one delightful yarn after another, many for the last time.

"I've had a good kick at life," he said, nibbling at the lunch that he praised. "They put the food in front of me, I make it disappear."

The 1951-52 Montreal Canadiens. Front row, from left: Billy Reay, Bernie Geoffrion, GM Frank J. Selke Sr., Gerry McNeil, coach Dick Irvin, Maurice Richard, Elmer Lach. Middle row, from left: Paul Meger, Floyd Curry, Dick Gamble, Bert Olmstead, John McCormack, Ken Mosdell, Dickie Moore. Back row, from left: Trainer Hec Dubois, Doug Harvey, Ross Lowe, Bud MacPherson, Tom Johnson, trainer Gaston Bettez. Macdonald Stewart/Hockey Hall of Fame

Our relationship had formed two years earlier, a reporter sitting in a former goalie's living room to talk about the pressures of playing the position in Montreal during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

But it very quickly became a good friendship, Gerry happy to share his endless stories for the price of a smoked meat sandwich. I scribbled many of them over our lunches.

During one talk, he wistfully expressed an interest in modern goaltending equipment, so I arranged a visit for us to the Canadiens' dressing room at Bell Centre. There, at the feet of Montreal goalie Jose Theodore, Gerry opened a green garbage bag and dumped his awful leather pads, one of only three pairs in which he played from the 1940s into the 1960s, and the flimsy chest protector he wore through three decades.

Canadiens goalie Gerry McNeil goes flying during a mid-1950s game at Detroit's Olympia Stadium, teammates Bernie Geoffrion (5) and Doug Harvey nearby. Le Studio du Hockey/Hockey Hall of Fame

Their careers were separated by a half-century, but that day, as they strapped one another's pads onto their shins, the two men were lodge brothers, teammates connected by the CH crest.

Three months later, Gerry was lost to cancer.

He played only for the Canadiens in the NHL, his 276 games unfairly lost in the mists between the careers of legendary Bill Durnan and Jacques Plante. The native of Quebec City went 119-105-52 between 1947-56 and had a 2.34 goals-against average and 28 shutouts.

In the playoffs between 1950-58, he was 17-18 with a 1.84 GAA and five shutouts. In the 1953 postseason, he was 5-3 with a 1.85 GAA and two shutouts. But it's two pucks which eluded Gerry that he's often remembered.

He was in goal for the Canadiens at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on April 21, 1951, when Bill Barilko scored in overtime to win the Stanley Cup for the Maple Leafs, four months before Barilko perished in a plane crash.

Toronto Maple Leafs' Bill Barilko scores his historic Stanley Cup-winning goal on April 21, 1951, beating Canadiens goalie Gerry McNeil at 2:53 of overtime. All five games in the Stanley Cup Final went into overtime. Le Studio du Hockey/Hockey Hall of Fame

And Gerry was in the net for Tony Leswick's overtime Cup-winner for the Detroit Red Wings in 1954, a fluky Game 7 deflection off the glove of Canadiens defenseman Doug Harvey.

But he should be remembered too for his 218:42 postseason shutout streak in March 1951 against the Red Wings' fearsome "Production Line" of Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Sid Abel, a stretch that included quadruple- and triple-overtimes in Games 1 and 2, the latter a 1-0 victory. Both games were won on goals by Maurice "Rocket" Richard.

In the NHL's modern era since 1943-44, the shutout streak is the longest in Canadiens playoff history. For 55 years, it would stand as the longest of any goalie in the era until Ilya Bryzgalov of the Anaheim Ducks went 249:15 without a goal against.

Gerry would have more history with Howe and the Rocket, denying Mr. Hockey in the final game of the 1952-53 schedule.

Howe was perched at 49 goals, one shy of Richard's then-record 50 for a season. Red Wings players passed at every opportunity to Howe, who was reported to unofficially have had five quality shots among several more, three almost certain goals that were foiled.

"I was lucky enough to stop them," Gerry said during a talk 20 years ago, happy to have preserved the record of the Rocket, one of his dearest friends. "To this day, it's still one of my good memories of hockey."

Gerry McNeil played 55 minutes against the Toronto Maple Leafs with a fractured cheekbone; a 1950s team portrait. Gerry McNeil collection; David Bier, Montreal Canadiens

On Oct. 29 of that season, maskless as he was throughout his NHL career, Gerry had his cheek shattered by a Ron Stewart shot five minutes into the first period in Toronto. He was stitched up, bandaged and finished the game, his right eye swelling almost completely shut, then underwent surgery the following day back in Montreal to reposition the bone.

Dr. Gordon Young, the Canadiens doctor, said that Gerry would be out for two to six weeks. He missed only four games.

Gerry was brilliant in the 1953 Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins, winning all three of his starts, two by shutout, including a 1-0 championship-clincher decided 1:22 into overtime on center Elmer Lach's goal.
Plante, with just five NHL games to his credit, was in goal for the first two games of the Final in Montreal, winning the first 4-2 then surrendering four goals in a 4-1 Game 2 loss. Playing a hunch, coach Dick Irvin went back to his veteran.

Gerry McNeil in a 1950s portrait and celebrating a 1940s win with the senior-league Montreal Royals. Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame; Gerry McNeil collection

It wasn't without discomfort, Gerry having suffered a fractured ankle in practice. On the train to Boston for Game 3, he plotted his strategy with team trainer Bill Head.

"We got into the baggage car and took out my skate, figuring where we could drill a hole to shoot my foot (with a freezing agent) without stopping the game," Gerry recalled. "In the game, I'd loosen a strap on my pad and tell the referee I'd get it fixed at the bench. They'd open the door and I'd put my foot in, and while I fixed the strap, they gave me the needle through the boot. It worked great."

Gerry blanked the Bruins 3-0 in Game 3, won Game 4 in a 7-3 rout, then returned home for the decisive 1-0 Game 5 win.

He had understudied in the Canadiens organization for seven years, playing six NHL games from 1947-50. Then, three games into the 1950 semifinals, crushed by pressure and beaten for 10 goals in three losses to the New York Rangers, Durnan abruptly announced his retirement.

"I didn't want to replace Bill like this," Gerry said. "I told him, 'Don't do this to yourself.'"

Toronto's Harry Watson leaps between Canadiens goalie Gerry McNeil and defenseman Doug Harvey during a 1951-52 game at Maple Leaf Gardens. Michael Sr. Burns/Hockey Hall of Fame

But Durnan, a six-time Vezina Trophy winner during seven seasons in Montreal, was done, Gerry winning one and losing one in the Rangers' five-game series win. He played all 70 games the following two seasons, then 66 and 53 in 1952-53 and 1953-54 when Plante began to emerge as the team's next great goalie.

We spoke about Durnan and Plante that afternoon in his hospital room, among many others. Gerry emotionally remembered the Rocket, for whom he had been a pallbearer four years earlier when Richard was lost to abdominal cancer. But then he'd brighten, telling me stories I never tired of hearing.

Gerry was a high school goalie in Quebec City when the Canadiens brought him to Montreal on the recommendation of defenseman Mike McMahon. He soon was offered a one-year contract for $2,300, on top of his schooling and board.

He was 17 when he moved into the Queen's Hotel, all expenses paid. At once, Gerry was playing hockey for Catholic High School, tending goal for the senior-league Royals, and practicing with the Canadiens, backup to the great Durnan.

Gerry McNeil signs autographs for young fans at the Montreal Forum during the late 1940s. Gerry McNeil collection

"It was a swanky hotel; my own room, meals in the dining room, shrimp cocktails, butlers," he said when we first met. "A few other guys had to pay their own way, and they'd give me their laundry and tell me, 'Put it through with yours.'"

At Catholic High, he billed 48 textbooks to the Canadiens for classmates from families who couldn't afford them.

As he spoke that afternoon, his mind fogged by cancer, Gerry would fade into a heavily sedated sleep. And then he'd stir awake with something new.

"Here's one about Skippy," he said. "Do you have a notebook? Jot it down if you want. Maybe you'll want to retell it one day."

Fred "Skippy" Burchell, a friend and former senior-league Royals teammate of Gerry's, had been called up to the Canadiens for a road game in Chicago against the Black Hawks.

Gerry went to the front desk at 11 p.m. and told the hotel clerk, "My name is Skippy Burchell, and my doctor wants me to take some pills throughout the night. I need you to call me every hour, on the hour.

"Now, understand I'll be confused and a little angry when you call, but that's why I need the pills. I'll probably curse at you for waking me, and I apologize for that now. But remember: every hour, on the hour."

Maurice Richard congratulates his friend Gerry McNeil in the Canadiens dressing room after an early 1950s game at the Montreal Forum. Gerry McNeil collection

He promptly forgot all about it, until he saw Skippy the next morning, exhausted but bouncing off the lobby walls, yelling at anyone in a hotel uniform.

Our last words that day were about his consecutive 1-0 victories on Nov. 19 and 21 in 1953, defeating the Maple Leafs and Red Wings at the Forum to give him 25 and 26 shutouts.

"(Maple Leafs captain) Teeder Kennedy, then Howe and Lindsay two nights later," he said with a satisfied smile.

On this 69th anniversary of his second in that back to back, Gerry McNeil's place is safe in the pantheon of Canadiens goaltending.

"Gerry never got the credit he deserved," Canadiens great Bernie Geoffrion said upon his friend's death. "You only heard about Plante and (Detroit's) Terry Sawchuk in those days, but Gerry was a warrior."

Gerry McNeil makes a pad save at Maple Leaf Gardens during a 1953 game, defensemen Butch Bouchard and Tom Johnson (10) nearby to help. Turfosky/Hockey Hall of Fame

Top photo: Gerry McNeil makes a sprawling save during an early 1950s game at Maple Leaf Gardens, defenseman Butch Bouchard and forward Maurice Richard (background) nearby. Gerry McNeil collection