Tiny Thompson's rookie season remains among the best in NHL history.
Thompson, a four-time Vezina Trophy winner who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1959, burst into the League as a 25-year-old rookie with the Boston Bruins in 1928-29 by going 26-13 with five ties, a 1.15 goals-against average and 12 shutouts. He topped that during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, going 5-0 with three shutouts, allowing a total of three goals against the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers, to help Boston win the first of its six Stanley Cup championships.
Tiny Thompson's rookie season remains among the best in NHL history.
Thompson, a four-time Vezina Trophy winner who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1959, burst into the League as a 25-year-old rookie with the Boston Bruins in 1928-29 by going 26-13 with five ties, a 1.15 goals-against average and 12 shutouts. He topped that during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, going 5-0 with three shutouts, allowing a total of three goals against the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers, to help Boston win the first of its six Stanley Cup championships.
That remarkable rookie season started Thompson on a 12-year NHL career in which he went 284-194 with 75 ties, a 2.07 GAA and 81 shutouts in 553 games. He was the most durable goalie of his time, playing in 171 more games than any other goalie during his career.
Thompson followed his sensational rookie season by winning an NHL career-high 38 games in 1929-30, when Boston finished first in the regular season but were upset by the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final. The 38 victories remained a Bruins single-season record until Pete Peeters won 40 games in 1982-83.
He had 11 shutouts in 1932-33, 10 in 1935-36 and won 30 games again in 1937-38, his last full season with the Bruins. Thompson won the Vezina Trophy, then awarded to the goalie on the team that allowed the fewest goals in the regular season, in each of those seasons (1929-30, 1932-33, 1935-36 and 1937-38). On Jan. 14, 1936, he became the first goalie in NHL history to earn an assist when he passed the puck to Babe Siebert, who scored during a 4-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Boston Garden.
Thompson wound up on the wrong end of the longest playoff games in history when he allowed the only goal of the deciding Game 5 of the 1933 Semifinals to Ken Doraty of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Doraty scored at 4:46 of the sixth overtime (104:46 of total overtime play) on April 3, 1933, to give Toronto a 1-0 win.
Though Thompson was an NHL First-Team All-Star in 1937-38, his run in Boston ended early in the 1938-39 season, when an eye injury forced him out of the lineup. He was replaced by rookie Frank Brimsek, who played well enough that the Bruins decided to trade Thompson to the Detroit Red Wings on Nov. 16, 1938. Brimsek joined Thompson in the Hall of Fame in 1966.
Thompson went 32-41 with 12 ties, a 2.53 GAA and seven shutouts with the Red Wings before retiring after the 1939-40 season.
After retiring, Thompson served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, then became chief Western Canada scout for the Chicago Blackhawks. He died at age 77 on Feb. 8, 1981.
NOTES & TRANSACTIONS
- NHL Second All-Star Team (1931, 1935)
- NHL First All-Star Team (1936, 1938)
- Played in NHL All-Star Game (1937)
- Signed as a free agent by Minneapolis (AHA), June 8, 1926.
- Traded to Boston by Minneapolis (AHA) for cash, May 12, 1928.
- Traded to Detroit by Boston for the rights to Normie Smith and cash, November 28, 1938.
- Named Head Coach of Buffalo (AHL), October 11, 1940.
