Georges Vézina
Encyclopedia
Joseph-Georges-Gonzague Vézina (ˈvɛzɨnə, ʒɔʁʒ vezina, , 1887 – , 1926) was a Canadian professional ice hockey
goaltender
who played seven seasons in the National Hockey Association
(NHA) and nine in the National Hockey League
(NHL), all with the Montreal Canadiens
. After being signed by the Canadiens in 1910, Vézina played in 327 consecutive regular season games and a further 39 playoff games, before leaving early during a game in 1925 due to illness. Vézina was diagnosed with tuberculosis
, and died on , 1926.
The only goaltender
to play for the Canadiens between 1910 and 1925, Vézina helped the team win the Stanley Cup
in 1916
and 1924, while reaching the Stanley Cup Finals
three more times. Nicknamed the "Chicoutimi Cucumber" for his calm composure while in goal, Vézina allowed the fewest goals against in the league seven times in his career: four times in the NHA and three times in the NHL. In 1918, Vézina became the first NHL goaltender to both record a shutout and earn an assist on a goal. At the start of the 1926–27 NHL season, the Canadiens donated the Vezina Trophy
to the NHL as an award to the goaltender who allowed the fewest goals during the season. Since 1981, the award has been given to the most outstanding goaltender as determined by a vote of NHL general managers. In Vézina's hometown of Chicoutimi, the sports arena is named the Centre Georges-Vézina
in his honour. When the Hockey Hall of Fame
opened in 1945, Vézina was one of the original 12 inductees.
, to Jacques Vézina, a local baker and an immigrant from St. Nicolas de La Rochelle in France, and his wife Clara. The younger Georges attended school at the Petit Séminaire de Chicoutimi until the age of fourteen, when he left the school to help at his father's bakery. He played hockey from a young age, participating in informal street hockey matches with others his own age. Vézina partook in these matches in his shoes, and used skates for the first time at age 16 when he joined the local team in Chicoutimi. As Chicoutimi was in a remote area of Quebec
, more than 200 kilometres from Quebec City
, the hockey club was not in any organised league. Rather the club, known as the Saguenéens ("People from the Saguenay", the region where Chicoutimi is located), toured the province, playing exhibition games against a variety of clubs.
Vézina married Marie-Adélaïde-Stella Morin on , 1908, in Chicoutimi. After Vézina's death, it was reported that he fathered 22 children. This rumour was started when the Canadiens' manager, Leo Dandurand
, told reporters that Vézina "speaks no English and has twenty-two children, including three sets of triplets, and they were all born in the space of nine years." In actuality the Vézinas only had two children and Georges spoke broken English. In 1912 they had their first child, a son named Jean-Jules. A second son was born the night of the Montreal Canadiens' first Stanley Cup win in 1916. To honour the event, Georges named the child Marcel Stanley. When not playing hockey, Vézina operated a tannery
in Chicoutimi, living a quiet life.
On February 17, 1910, the Chicoutimi Hockey Club played an exhibition match against the Montreal Canadiens
. Though playing an inferior team the Canadiens failed to score a goal, losing the game. This prompted Joseph Cattarinich
, goaltender for the Canadiens, to convince his team to offer a tryout to Georges Vézina, who was Chicoutimi's goaltender. Vézina initially refused the offer, staying in Chicoutimi until the Canadiens returned in December of that year. This time they convinced Georges, along with his brother Pierre, to come to Montreal. The two Vézina brothers arrived on , 1910. While Pierre failed to make the team, Georges impressed the Canadiens, especially with the use of his stick to block shots. Vézina was signed to a contract for C$
800 per season, and made his professional debut , 1910, against the Ottawa Senators
. He would play all 16 games for the Canadiens in the 1910–11 season, finishing with a record of eight wins and eight losses, while allowing the fewest goals in the league.
The following season Vézina again led the league in goals against, as well as winning eight games, along with 10 losses. Vézina recorded his first career shutout
during the 1912–13 season, defeating Ottawa 6–0 on , 1913, for one of his nine wins in the season. The Canadiens finished first in the NHA for the first time in 1913–14
, in a tie with the Toronto Blueshirts
. Once again, Vézina led the league with the fewest goals against, while posting 13 victories and seven losses. Under the NHA rules, the first place team would play in the Stanley Cup Finals, but due to the tie for first, the Canadiens had to play a two-game, total-goals series against Toronto. Vézina shut out the Blueshirts in the first game, a 2–0 win for Montreal, but let in six goals in the second game, allowing the Blueshirts to play for the Stanley Cup, which they won.
After losing 14 games and finishing last in the NHA in 1914–15
, Vézina and the Canadiens won 16 games during the 1915–16 season, placing the team first in the league. As league leaders, the Canadiens earned the right to play in the 1916 Stanley Cup Finals
, where they faced off against the Portland Rosebuds
, champions of the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association
. The Canadiens defeated the Rosebuds three games to two in the best-of-five-games series, winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in team history. Vézina's second son was born the night of the fifth game, which coupled with a bonus of $238 each member of the Canadiens received for the championship, led to him considering the series as the pinnacle of his career. The following season Vézina again led the NHA with the fewest goals against, the fourth time in seven years he did so, helping the Canadiens to again reach the Stanley Cup Finals
, where they lost to the Seattle Metropolitans
.
(NHL) in , with Vézina and the Canadiens joining the new league. On , 1918, he became the first goaltender in NHL history to record a shutout by blanking the Torontos
9–0. On , 1918, he became the first goaltender to be credited with an assist, on a goal by Newsy Lalonde
, who had just picked up the puck after a save by Vézina. He finished the season with 12 wins, allowing the fewest goals against. Vézina also set a record, which was shared with Clint Benedict
of the Ottawa Senators
, for the fewest shutouts needed to lead the league, with one.
In 1918–19 Vézina won 10 games and helped the Canadiens defeat the Ottawa Senators in the NHL playoffs for the right to play for the Stanley Cup against the PCHA champion, the Seattle Metropolitans. Held in Seattle, the two teams were tied in the best-of-five series when it was cancelled due to the Spanish flu
epidemic, the first time the Stanley Cup was not awarded. In the 10 playoff games prior to the cancellation, Vézina had won six games, lost three and tied one, with one shutout. Vézina recorded nearly identical records the next two seasons, with 13 wins and 11 losses and a goals against average
above four in both 1919–20 and 1920–21. He won 12 games the following season, as the Canadiens again failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup.
After winning 13 games in 1922–23, Vézina led the Canadiens into the NHL playoffs, where they lost the two- game, total-goal series to the Ottawa Senators, who would win the Stanley Cup. The following season saw Vézina return to leading the league in fewest goals against. His average of 1.97 goals per game was the first time a goaltender had averaged fewer than two goals against per game. With another 13-win season in 1923–24, the Canadiens reached the NHL playoffs, where they again faced the Ottawa Senators. This time the Canadiens won the series, then defeated the Vancouver Maroons of the PCHA before reaching the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in five years. Playing the Calgary Tigers
of the Western Canada Hockey League
, Vézina and the Canadiens won the best-of-three series two games to none, as Vézina recorded a shutout in the second game. The championship was the Canadiens' first as a member of the NHL and second title as a club. After a 17-win season in 1924–25 where Vézina recorded a goals-against average of 1.81 to again lead the league, the Canadiens reached the Stanley Cup Finals. The Canadiens only qualified after the Hamilton Tigers, the regular season champions, were suspended for refusing to play in the playoffs unless they were paid more. Facing the Victoria Cougars
, the Canadiens lost the series three games to one.
Returning to Montreal for training camp for the 1925–26 season, Vézina was noticeably sick, though he said nothing about it. By the time of the Canadiens first game on against the Pittsburgh Pirates
, he had lost 35 pounds in a span of six weeks, and had a fever of 102 Fahrenheit. Regardless, he took to the ice, and completed the first period without allowing a goal. Vézina began vomiting blood in the intermission before returning for the start of the second period. He then collapsed in his goal area, and left the game, with former U.S. Olympic team goaltender Alphonse Lacroix
taking his place.
The day after the game, Vézina was diagnosed with tuberculosis and advised to return home. He made a last trip into the Canadiens dressing room on to say a final goodbye to his teammates. Dandurand would later describe Vézina as sitting in his corner of the dressing room with "tears rolling down his cheeks. He was looking at his old pads and skates that Eddie Dufour [the Canadiens trainer] had arranged in Georges's corner. Then, he asked one little favour—the sweater he had worn in the last world series." Vézina returned to his hometown of Chicoutimi with his wife Marie, where he died in the early hours on , 1926, at l'Hôtel-Dieu hospital. Though he played only one period for the Canadiens during the entire season, the team honoured his entire $6,000 salary, a testament to how important Vézina had been to the team.
appearances, where they won the title twice. Seven times in his career, Vézina had the lowest goals-against average in the league he played, and he had the second-best average another five times. From when he joined the Canadiens in 1910, until being forced to retire in 1925, Vézina never missed a game nor allowed a substitute, playing in 328 consecutive regular season games and an additional 39 playoff games. Though he played the bulk of his career in an era when goaltenders could not leave their feet to make a save (the rule was changed in 1918), Vézina is regarded as one of the greatest goaltenders in hockey history; the Montreal Standard referred to him as the "greatest goaltender of the last two decades" in their obituary.
Well liked in Montreal, Vézina was often seen as the best player on the ice for the Canadiens, and was respected by his teammates, who considered him the spiritual leader of the team. Referred to as "le Concombre de Chicoutimi" (the "Chicoutimi Cucumber") for his cool demeanour on the ice, he was also known as "l'Habitant silencieux" (the "silent Habitant", Habitant being a nickname for the Canadiens), a reference to his reserved personality. He often sat in a corner of the team's dressing room alone, smoking a pipe and reading the newspaper. When news of Vézina's death was announced, newspapers across Quebec paid tribute to the goalie with articles about his life and career. Hundreds of Catholic masses were held in honour of the devout Vézina, and more than 1,500 people filled the Chicoutimi cathedral for his funeral.
A lasting legacy of Vézina was the trophy named after him. At the start of the 1926–27 season, Leo Dandurand
, Leo Letourneau and Joseph Cattarinich
, owners of the Montreal Canadiens, donated the Vezina Trophy
to the NHL in honour of Vézina. It was to be awarded to the goaltender of the team who allowed the fewest goals during the regular season. The inaugural winner of the trophy was Vézina's successor in goal for the Canadiens, George Hainsworth
. He went on to win the trophy the next two seasons as well. In 1981, the NHL changed the format of awarding the trophy, instead giving it to the goaltender deemed best in the league based on a poll of NHL general managers. The Hockey Hall of Fame
was established in 1945 and among the first 12 inductees was Vézina. In 1998 Vézina was ranked number 75 on The Hockey News
list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In honour of the first professional athlete to come from Chicoutimi, the city renamed their hockey arena the Centre Georges-Vézina
in 1965.
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
goaltender
Goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...
who played seven seasons in the National Hockey Association
National Hockey Association
The National Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor organization to today's National Hockey League...
(NHA) and nine in the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL), all with the Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
. After being signed by the Canadiens in 1910, Vézina played in 327 consecutive regular season games and a further 39 playoff games, before leaving early during a game in 1925 due to illness. Vézina was diagnosed with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, and died on , 1926.
The only goaltender
Goaltender
In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...
to play for the Canadiens between 1910 and 1925, Vézina helped the team win the Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
in 1916
1916 Stanley Cup Finals
-See also:* 1915–16 Montreal Canadiens season* 1915–16 NHA season* 1915–16 PCHA season* List of Stanley Cup champions...
and 1924, while reaching the Stanley Cup Finals
Stanley Cup Finals
The Stanley Cup Finals is the championship series to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the professional club championship of ice hockey. Although the Cup itself has existed since 1893, an annual championship series between professional teams was not established until 1913...
three more times. Nicknamed the "Chicoutimi Cucumber" for his calm composure while in goal, Vézina allowed the fewest goals against in the league seven times in his career: four times in the NHA and three times in the NHL. In 1918, Vézina became the first NHL goaltender to both record a shutout and earn an assist on a goal. At the start of the 1926–27 NHL season, the Canadiens donated the Vezina Trophy
Vezina Trophy
The Vezina Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League's goaltender who is "adjudged to be the best at this position". At the end of each season, the 30 General Managers of the teams in the National Hockey League vote to determine the goaltender who was the most valuable to his team...
to the NHL as an award to the goaltender who allowed the fewest goals during the season. Since 1981, the award has been given to the most outstanding goaltender as determined by a vote of NHL general managers. In Vézina's hometown of Chicoutimi, the sports arena is named the Centre Georges-Vézina
Centre Georges-Vézina
The Centre Georges-Vézina, formerly the Colisée de Chicoutimi, is a 4,651 capacity multi-purpose arena in Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada...
in his honour. When the Hockey Hall of Fame
Hockey Hall of Fame
The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...
opened in 1945, Vézina was one of the original 12 inductees.
Personal life
Georges, the youngest of eight children, was born on , 1887, in Chicoutimi, QuebecQuebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, to Jacques Vézina, a local baker and an immigrant from St. Nicolas de La Rochelle in France, and his wife Clara. The younger Georges attended school at the Petit Séminaire de Chicoutimi until the age of fourteen, when he left the school to help at his father's bakery. He played hockey from a young age, participating in informal street hockey matches with others his own age. Vézina partook in these matches in his shoes, and used skates for the first time at age 16 when he joined the local team in Chicoutimi. As Chicoutimi was in a remote area of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, more than 200 kilometres from Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, the hockey club was not in any organised league. Rather the club, known as the Saguenéens ("People from the Saguenay", the region where Chicoutimi is located), toured the province, playing exhibition games against a variety of clubs.
Vézina married Marie-Adélaïde-Stella Morin on , 1908, in Chicoutimi. After Vézina's death, it was reported that he fathered 22 children. This rumour was started when the Canadiens' manager, Leo Dandurand
Leo Dandurand
Joseph Viateur "Léo" Dandurand , was a sportsman and businessman. He was the owner and coach of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team in the National Hockey League...
, told reporters that Vézina "speaks no English and has twenty-two children, including three sets of triplets, and they were all born in the space of nine years." In actuality the Vézinas only had two children and Georges spoke broken English. In 1912 they had their first child, a son named Jean-Jules. A second son was born the night of the Montreal Canadiens' first Stanley Cup win in 1916. To honour the event, Georges named the child Marcel Stanley. When not playing hockey, Vézina operated a tannery
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
in Chicoutimi, living a quiet life.
NHA
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ...
. Though playing an inferior team the Canadiens failed to score a goal, losing the game. This prompted Joseph Cattarinich
Joseph Cattarinich
Joseph "Joe" Cattarinich , was a professional hockey player, and co-owner of horse racing tracks in Canada and the United States as well as a co-owner of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League....
, goaltender for the Canadiens, to convince his team to offer a tryout to Georges Vézina, who was Chicoutimi's goaltender. Vézina initially refused the offer, staying in Chicoutimi until the Canadiens returned in December of that year. This time they convinced Georges, along with his brother Pierre, to come to Montreal. The two Vézina brothers arrived on , 1910. While Pierre failed to make the team, Georges impressed the Canadiens, especially with the use of his stick to block shots. Vézina was signed to a contract for C$
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
800 per season, and made his professional debut , 1910, against the Ottawa Senators
Ottawa Senators (original)
The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934...
. He would play all 16 games for the Canadiens in the 1910–11 season, finishing with a record of eight wins and eight losses, while allowing the fewest goals in the league.
Shutout
In team sports, a shutout refers to a game in which one team prevents the opposing team from scoring. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball....
during the 1912–13 season, defeating Ottawa 6–0 on , 1913, for one of his nine wins in the season. The Canadiens finished first in the NHA for the first time in 1913–14
1913–14 NHA season
The 1913–14 NHA season was the fifth season of the National Hockey Association . At the end of the regular season, a tie for first place necessitated a playoff to determine the championship. The Toronto Hockey Club defeated the Montreal Canadiens 6–2 in a two-game, total-goals playoff...
, in a tie with the Toronto Blueshirts
Toronto Blueshirts
The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blue Shirts were a professional National Hockey Association team that played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...
. Once again, Vézina led the league with the fewest goals against, while posting 13 victories and seven losses. Under the NHA rules, the first place team would play in the Stanley Cup Finals, but due to the tie for first, the Canadiens had to play a two-game, total-goals series against Toronto. Vézina shut out the Blueshirts in the first game, a 2–0 win for Montreal, but let in six goals in the second game, allowing the Blueshirts to play for the Stanley Cup, which they won.
After losing 14 games and finishing last in the NHA in 1914–15
1914–15 NHA season
The 1914–15 NHA season was the sixth season of the National Hockey Association and played from December 26, 1914 until March 3, 1915. Each team played 20 games. The Ottawa Senators won the NHA championship in a two game, total goal playoff against the Montreal Wanderers...
, Vézina and the Canadiens won 16 games during the 1915–16 season, placing the team first in the league. As league leaders, the Canadiens earned the right to play in the 1916 Stanley Cup Finals
1916 Stanley Cup Finals
-See also:* 1915–16 Montreal Canadiens season* 1915–16 NHA season* 1915–16 PCHA season* List of Stanley Cup champions...
, where they faced off against the Portland Rosebuds
Portland Rosebuds
Portland Rosebuds is the name of at least three professional teams based in Portland, Oregon during the first half of the 20th century. Two were professional men's ice hockey teams playing their home games at the Portland Ice Arena, one from 1914 to 1918 and another in 1925-6...
, champions of the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association
Pacific Coast Hockey Association
The Pacific Coast Hockey Association was a professional men's ice hockey league in western Canada and the western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League...
. The Canadiens defeated the Rosebuds three games to two in the best-of-five-games series, winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in team history. Vézina's second son was born the night of the fifth game, which coupled with a bonus of $238 each member of the Canadiens received for the championship, led to him considering the series as the pinnacle of his career. The following season Vézina again led the NHA with the fewest goals against, the fourth time in seven years he did so, helping the Canadiens to again reach the Stanley Cup Finals
1917 Stanley Cup Finals
-See also:* 1916–17 NHA season* 1916–17 PCHA season...
, where they lost to the Seattle Metropolitans
Seattle Metropolitans
The Seattle Metropolitans were a professional ice hockey team based in Seattle, Washington which played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1915 to 1924. They won the Stanley Cup in 1917, becoming the first American team to do so...
.
NHL
The NHA gave way to the National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL) in , with Vézina and the Canadiens joining the new league. On , 1918, he became the first goaltender in NHL history to record a shutout by blanking the Torontos
Toronto Arenas
The Toronto Arenas, Toronto Blueshirts or Torontos was a professional men's ice hockey team that played in the first two seasons of the National Hockey League . It was operated by the owner of the Arena Gardens, the Toronto Arena Company...
9–0. On , 1918, he became the first goaltender to be credited with an assist, on a goal by Newsy Lalonde
Newsy Lalonde
Édouard Cyrille "Newsy" Lalonde was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward in the National Hockey League and a professional lacrosse player, regarded as one of hockey's and lacrosse's greatest players of the first half of the 20th century and one of sport's most colourful characters...
, who had just picked up the puck after a save by Vézina. He finished the season with 12 wins, allowing the fewest goals against. Vézina also set a record, which was shared with Clint Benedict
Clint Benedict
Clinton Stevenson "Praying Bennie" Benedict was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Maroons. He played on four Stanley Cup-winning squads. He was the first goaltender in the National Hockey League to wear a face mask...
of the Ottawa Senators
Ottawa Senators (original)
The Ottawa Senators were an amateur, and later, professional, ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada which existed from 1883 to 1954. The club was the first hockey club in Ontario, a founding member of the National Hockey League and played in the NHL from 1917 until 1934...
, for the fewest shutouts needed to lead the league, with one.
In 1918–19 Vézina won 10 games and helped the Canadiens defeat the Ottawa Senators in the NHL playoffs for the right to play for the Stanley Cup against the PCHA champion, the Seattle Metropolitans. Held in Seattle, the two teams were tied in the best-of-five series when it was cancelled due to the Spanish flu
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
epidemic, the first time the Stanley Cup was not awarded. In the 10 playoff games prior to the cancellation, Vézina had won six games, lost three and tied one, with one shutout. Vézina recorded nearly identical records the next two seasons, with 13 wins and 11 losses and a goals against average
Goals against average
Goals Against Average is a statistic used in ice hockey, water polo, lacrosse, and soccer that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender....
above four in both 1919–20 and 1920–21. He won 12 games the following season, as the Canadiens again failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup.
Calgary Tigers
The Calgary Tigers, often nicknamed the Bengals, were an ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from 1920 until 1927 as members of the Big Four League, Western Canada Hockey League and Prairie Hockey League. The Tigers were revived in 1932, playing for a short-lived four years in the...
of the Western Canada Hockey League
Western Canada Hockey League
The Western Canada Hockey League , founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.-History:...
, Vézina and the Canadiens won the best-of-three series two games to none, as Vézina recorded a shutout in the second game. The championship was the Canadiens' first as a member of the NHL and second title as a club. After a 17-win season in 1924–25 where Vézina recorded a goals-against average of 1.81 to again lead the league, the Canadiens reached the Stanley Cup Finals. The Canadiens only qualified after the Hamilton Tigers, the regular season champions, were suspended for refusing to play in the playoffs unless they were paid more. Facing the Victoria Cougars
Victoria Cougars
The Victoria Cougars were a major league professional ice hockey team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1922 to 1924, and in the Western Hockey League from 1924 to 1926...
, the Canadiens lost the series three games to one.
Returning to Montreal for training camp for the 1925–26 season, Vézina was noticeably sick, though he said nothing about it. By the time of the Canadiens first game on against the Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL)
The Pittsburgh Pirates were an American professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League , based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1925–26 to 1929–30. The nickname comes from the baseball team also based in the city...
, he had lost 35 pounds in a span of six weeks, and had a fever of 102 Fahrenheit. Regardless, he took to the ice, and completed the first period without allowing a goal. Vézina began vomiting blood in the intermission before returning for the start of the second period. He then collapsed in his goal area, and left the game, with former U.S. Olympic team goaltender Alphonse Lacroix
Alphonse Lacroix
Alphonse Albert "Al, Frenchy" Lacroix was an American ice hockey goaltender who is best known as a member of the silver medal-winning American ice hockey team at the 1924 Winter Olympics, and as the emergency goaltender who replaced Georges Vezina when he collapsed in a game in...
taking his place.
The day after the game, Vézina was diagnosed with tuberculosis and advised to return home. He made a last trip into the Canadiens dressing room on to say a final goodbye to his teammates. Dandurand would later describe Vézina as sitting in his corner of the dressing room with "tears rolling down his cheeks. He was looking at his old pads and skates that Eddie Dufour [the Canadiens trainer] had arranged in Georges's corner. Then, he asked one little favour—the sweater he had worn in the last world series." Vézina returned to his hometown of Chicoutimi with his wife Marie, where he died in the early hours on , 1926, at l'Hôtel-Dieu hospital. Though he played only one period for the Canadiens during the entire season, the team honoured his entire $6,000 salary, a testament to how important Vézina had been to the team.
Legacy
One of the dominant goaltenders in the NHA and early NHL, Vézina led the Canadiens to five Stanley Cup FinalsStanley Cup Finals
The Stanley Cup Finals is the championship series to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the professional club championship of ice hockey. Although the Cup itself has existed since 1893, an annual championship series between professional teams was not established until 1913...
appearances, where they won the title twice. Seven times in his career, Vézina had the lowest goals-against average in the league he played, and he had the second-best average another five times. From when he joined the Canadiens in 1910, until being forced to retire in 1925, Vézina never missed a game nor allowed a substitute, playing in 328 consecutive regular season games and an additional 39 playoff games. Though he played the bulk of his career in an era when goaltenders could not leave their feet to make a save (the rule was changed in 1918), Vézina is regarded as one of the greatest goaltenders in hockey history; the Montreal Standard referred to him as the "greatest goaltender of the last two decades" in their obituary.
Well liked in Montreal, Vézina was often seen as the best player on the ice for the Canadiens, and was respected by his teammates, who considered him the spiritual leader of the team. Referred to as "le Concombre de Chicoutimi" (the "Chicoutimi Cucumber") for his cool demeanour on the ice, he was also known as "l'Habitant silencieux" (the "silent Habitant", Habitant being a nickname for the Canadiens), a reference to his reserved personality. He often sat in a corner of the team's dressing room alone, smoking a pipe and reading the newspaper. When news of Vézina's death was announced, newspapers across Quebec paid tribute to the goalie with articles about his life and career. Hundreds of Catholic masses were held in honour of the devout Vézina, and more than 1,500 people filled the Chicoutimi cathedral for his funeral.
A lasting legacy of Vézina was the trophy named after him. At the start of the 1926–27 season, Leo Dandurand
Leo Dandurand
Joseph Viateur "Léo" Dandurand , was a sportsman and businessman. He was the owner and coach of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team in the National Hockey League...
, Leo Letourneau and Joseph Cattarinich
Joseph Cattarinich
Joseph "Joe" Cattarinich , was a professional hockey player, and co-owner of horse racing tracks in Canada and the United States as well as a co-owner of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League....
, owners of the Montreal Canadiens, donated the Vezina Trophy
Vezina Trophy
The Vezina Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League's goaltender who is "adjudged to be the best at this position". At the end of each season, the 30 General Managers of the teams in the National Hockey League vote to determine the goaltender who was the most valuable to his team...
to the NHL in honour of Vézina. It was to be awarded to the goaltender of the team who allowed the fewest goals during the regular season. The inaugural winner of the trophy was Vézina's successor in goal for the Canadiens, George Hainsworth
George Hainsworth
George Hainsworth was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League, and the Saskatoon Crescents in the Western Canada Hockey League....
. He went on to win the trophy the next two seasons as well. In 1981, the NHL changed the format of awarding the trophy, instead giving it to the goaltender deemed best in the league based on a poll of NHL general managers. The Hockey Hall of Fame
Hockey Hall of Fame
The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...
was established in 1945 and among the first 12 inductees was Vézina. In 1998 Vézina was ranked number 75 on The Hockey News
The Hockey News
The Hockey News, commonly abbreviated to THN, is a North American ice hockey magazine published by Transcontinental. The Hockey News was founded in 1947 by Ken McKenzie and Bill Côté, and has since been the most recognized hockey publication in North America...
list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In honour of the first professional athlete to come from Chicoutimi, the city renamed their hockey arena the Centre Georges-Vézina
Centre Georges-Vézina
The Centre Georges-Vézina, formerly the Colisée de Chicoutimi, is a 4,651 capacity multi-purpose arena in Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada...
in 1965.
Regular season and playoffs
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season Season (sports) In an organized sports league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season lasts approximately from April 1 through October 1; in Association football, it is generally from August until May In an... |
Team | League | GP | W | L | T | Min | GA | SO Shutout In team sports, a shutout refers to a game in which one team prevents the opposing team from scoring. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball.... | GAA Goals against average Goals Against Average is a statistic used in ice hockey, water polo, lacrosse, and soccer that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender.... |
GP | W | L | T | Min | GA | SO | GAA | ||
| 1909–10 | Chicoutimi Saguenéens | MCHL | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1910–11 | Montreal Canadiens Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is officially known as ... |
NHA National Hockey Association The National Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor organization to today's National Hockey League... |
16 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 980 | 62 | 0 | 3.80 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1911–12 | Montreal Canadiens | NHA | 18 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 1109 | 66 | 0 | 3.57 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1912–13 | Montreal Canadiens | NHA | 20 | 9 | 11 | 0 | 1217 | 81 | 1 | 3.99 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1913–14 1913–14 NHA season The 1913–14 NHA season was the fifth season of the National Hockey Association . At the end of the regular season, a tie for first place necessitated a playoff to determine the championship. The Toronto Hockey Club defeated the Montreal Canadiens 6–2 in a two-game, total-goals playoff... |
Montreal Canadiens | NHA | 20 | 13 | 7 | 0 | 1222 | 64 | 1 | 3.14 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 120 | 6 | 1 | 3.00 | ||
| 1914–15 1914–15 NHA season The 1914–15 NHA season was the sixth season of the National Hockey Association and played from December 26, 1914 until March 3, 1915. Each team played 20 games. The Ottawa Senators won the NHA championship in a two game, total goal playoff against the Montreal Wanderers... |
Montreal Canadiens | NHA | 20 | 6 | 14 | 0 | 1257 | 81 | 0 | 3.86 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1915–16 | Montreal Canadiens | NHA | 24 | 16 | 7 | 1 | 1482 | 76 | 0 | 3.08 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 300 | 13 | 0 | 2.60 | ||
| 1916–17 | Montreal Canadiens | NHA | 20 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 1217 | 80 | 0 | 3.94 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 360 | 29 | 0 | 4.83 | ||
| 1917–18 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 21 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 1282 | 84 | 1 | 3.93 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 120 | 10 | 0 | 5.00 | ||
| 1918–19 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 18 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 1117 | 78 | 1 | 4.19 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 636 | 37 | 1 | 3.49 | ||
| 1919–20 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 24 | 13 | 11 | 0 | 1456 | 113 | 0 | 4.66 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1920–21 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 24 | 13 | 11 | 0 | 1441 | 99 | 1 | 4.12 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1921–22 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 24 | 12 | 11 | 1 | 1469 | 94 | 0 | 3.84 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1922–23 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 24 | 13 | 9 | 2 | 1488 | 61 | 2 | 2.46 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 120 | 3 | 0 | 1.50 | ||
| 1923–24 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 24 | 13 | 11 | 0 | 1459 | 48 | 3 | 1.97 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 360 | 6 | 2 | 1.00 | ||
| 1924–25 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 30 | 17 | 11 | 2 | 1860 | 56 | 5 | 1.81 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 360 | 18 | 1 | 3.00 | ||
| 1925–26 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| NHA totals | 138 | 70 | 67 | 1 | 8484 | 510 | 2 | 3.61 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 780 | 48 | 1 | 3.69 | ||||
| NHL totals | 190 | 103 | 81 | 5 | 11592 | 633 | 13 | 3.28 | 26 | 17 | 8 | 1 | 1596 | 74 | 4 | 2.78 | ||||
- NHA statistics are from Trail of the Stanley Cup.
- NHL statistics are from NHL.com.
See also
- History of the Montreal CanadiensHistory of the Montreal CanadiensThe Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club, formally , was founded on December 4, 1909. It is the oldest professional hockey franchise in the world, and one of the four founding teams of the National Hockey League . The Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup 24 times: once while part of the National Hockey...
- List of ice hockey players who died during their playing career