Rangers endured difficult stretch during World War II

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.

This week looks back eight decades to the World War II years and how the New York Rangers struggled during the conflict.

Contemporary fans of the New York Rangers could not imagine that it was possible.

How could any other Rangers team endure a tailspin like the 4-15-0 slide from Nov. 21 to Dec. 30 of this season that sent it plummeting to near the bottom of the Metropolitan Division?

One was worse, between 1942-45 during World War II.

For New York hockey fans, the bizarre saga unfolded after the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1940, and finished first two years later, under coach Frank Boucher and general manager Lester Patrick.

"World War II saw this Rangers team fade," wrote New York Herald-Tribune hockey writer Kerr N. Petrie in the 1947-48 Rangers hockey guide. "The best of its players were in service, and no worthwhile substitutes were to be had."

Just one year after finishing on top, the Rangers were last among the NHL's Original Six, dropping from a League-leading 60 to 30 points under circumstances far removed from how the current team finished 2024. By the start of the 1942-43 season, wartime enlistments ravaged New York's lineup.

"Since the outbreak of hostilities, over 75 percent of the personnel which comprised the professional leagues had volunteered or were on active service," according to Jim Hendy's "1942-43 National Official Hockey Guide."

Rangers defenseman Muzz Patrick joined the U.S. Army while the Stanley Cup championship team captain Art Coulter enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard. Forward Alf Pike wound up in the Royal Canadian Air Force and the successful "Bread Line" of Alex Shibicky and Neil and Mac Colville in the Canadian Army.

From left: Bryan Hextall Sr., Neil Colville and Muzz Patrick of the New York Rangers pose for an on-ice portrait at some point between the 1937-38 and 1945-46 NHL seasons at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

Boucher was stunned when training camp opened in the fall of 1942. Not only was he stuck with a skeletal roster, but there was also a challenging issue, Boucher wrote in his autobiography.

"We had nobody to play goal, literally nobody" he said in the book, "When the Rangers Were Young."

Boucher was better off than his rivals, the New York (Brooklyn) Americans and executive Red Dutton, who "had lost 14 of his 16 players, mostly to the Canadian Army," wrote historian Stephen Smith in his book, "Puckstruck." Dutton put the Amerks in mothballs, never to return. Lester Patrick was tempted to do likewise because of the war's daunting effects on his team.

One of Lester's prize rookies, Dudley "Red" Garrett, played 23 NHL games before enlisting in the Canadian Navy. He died at age 20 aboard HMCS Shawinigan on Nov. 25, 1944, when the vessel was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the waters off the tip of Newfoundland.

"Those were grim times for Boucher and Patrick. The Rangers headed into the most abysmal losing spell in NHL history and set new records for ineptitude," wrote Eric Whitehead, in "The Patricks, Hockey's Royal Family."

Patrick finally found a goalie. Steve Buzinski worked in agriculture and played for the Swift Current (Saskatchewan) Intermediates. Lester mistakenly thought he had struck hockey gold.

"You'll be pleasantly surprised," Buzinski assured his coach.

Boucher was stunned by Buzinski's failures.

"He was not a big-league goaltender," he wrote. "In fact, he was not even a wartime big-league goaltender."

Wrote Whitehead: "Buzinski was a grab-bag prize who let in 55 shots in nine games before being mercifully removed and treated for shellshock. A sportswriter labelled him 'Steve Buzinski -- The Puck Goes Insky.'

Goalie-less. Patrick "borrowed" Detroit Red Wings minor leaguer Jim Franks. He played 23 games until a broken wrist ended his season in a 7-0 loss at Detroit Olympia on Jan. 24, 1943.

"Finally, Patrick was able to convince the AHL Cleveland Barons to 'loan' him Bill Beveridge, but Cleveland had to take Beveridge back before the Blueshirts final game of the season," wrote Rangers historian George Grimm in "Guardians of the Goal -- A History of Rangers Goalies.'

Goalie searching again, Patrick persuaded the Montreal Canadiens to loan farmhand Lionel Bouvrette. He lost the season finale 6-3 to the Canadiens at the Montreal Forum on March 18, 1943.

The Rangers' four goalies (three borrowed) allowed 253 goals, 62 more than their nearest competitor (the Canadiens), and finished last (11-31-8).

"Unbelievably," noted Boucher, "we were even worse next year, but at least we had a full-time goalkeeper, Ken McAuley, out of Edmonton."

New York Rangers forward Neil Colville chats with coach Frank Boucher during the 1944-45 NHL season at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Colville was only permitted to play in games at Toronto and Montreal while enlisted in the Canadian Army.

On the night of Jan. 23, 1944, Boucher was called to his brother Carroll's funeral in Ottawa and Patrick coached the Rangers in Detroit. With the embattled McAuley in goal, they lost 15-0, which still is a League record.

"It was a shocking experience for Patrick," Boucher recalled on his return to New York.

That happened at age 42. Although he hadn't been in a game for five years, Boucher laced on his skates in 1943-44 and played quite well in 15 games.

"I got four goals and 10 assists in that brief period," he wrote, "and, at that, I outscored 19 other players we tried that season."

McAuley played all 50 games, gave up 310 goals -- the Rangers scored only 162 -- and barely avoided collapse. He was inducted into the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame with the Class of 2005, 13 years after his death at the age of 71.

"McAuley should have been awarded the Croix de Guerre," Boucher suggested, "if not the Victoria Cross!"

At war's end, Boucher ironically found himself with two first-rate goalies. He signed Chuck Rayner, a 1973 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, from the Americans when they folded and then "Sugar Jim" Henry returned from Army duty.

"Now," Boucher laughed, "I not only didn't have to 'borrow' a goalie, Sugar Jim and Charlie were so evenly matched, I kept them both for over parts of three seasons."

And that's how the two-goalie system was born.

Top photo: New York Rangers’ general manager Lester Patrick and coach Frank Boucher on Feb. 13, 1941 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.