Behind the Mask: A Revealing Look at Twelve of the Greatest Goalies in Hockey History
Behind the Mask: A Revealing Look at Twelve of the Greatest Goalies in Hockey History
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Overview
A dozen incredible stories about hockey’s legendary goalies, on and off the ice—including Carey Price, Marc-André Fleury, Roberto Luongo, and Henrik Lundqvist.
“Hockey goaltenders have forever been thought of as unique, eccentric, weird and wacky. Also misunderstood. Randi Druzin’s Behind the Mask is a fascinating examination of a dozen of those who have played the position at the highest levels. This well-researched and well-written book is revealing and delightful at the same time.”—Roy MacGregor
While his teammates rush up the ice in a coordinated attack, the goalie is alone in his net. And when the play turns back toward him, he's prepared to step in front of a frozen rubber disc traveling 100 miles an hour. He's the last line of defense in a pitched battle. The goalie stands apart, on and off the ice. Like the relief pitcher in baseball and the place kicker in football, he is a maverick.
Behind the Mask profiles 12 legendary NHL goalies, emphasizing the traits that make each one unique. It blends accounts of the goalies on-ice exploits with anecdotes about their lives off the ice information gleaned from archival research as well as interviews with teammates, family members and the goalies themselves.
The careers here cover the last half-century of professional hockey from the personal struggles of Roger Crozier and Ed Giacomin on their way to stardom in the 1960s, to the recent brilliance of Carey Price, whose character blends stoicism with a deep warmth and pride in his Indigenous background.
Told with author Randi Druzin’s trademark mix of knowledge and wit, Behind the Mask has all the insight and color to make it a bestseller like her previous book on NHL goalies, Between the Pipes.
Hockey goalies profiled include:
- Roger Crozier, Detroit Red Wings / Buffalo Sabres
- Rogie Vachon, Los Angeles Kings
- Gerry Cheevers, Boston Bruins
- Ed Giacomin, New York Rangers
- Tony Esposito, Chicago Black Hawks
- Vladislav Tretiak, Soviet Red Army
- Mike Palmateer, Toronto Maple Leafs
- Grant Fuhr, Edmonton Oilers
- Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks
- Marc-André Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins / Vegas Golden Knights
- Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
- Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781771649643 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Greystone Books |
| Publication date: | 10/24/2023 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Randi Druzin is an author and journalist. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Time magazine, the Globe and Mail and several other major publications. She is the author of three books including Between the Pipes. She lives in Toronto.
Read an Excerpt
1. THE NERVOUS WRECK: ROGER CROZIER
Just four years after making his NHL debut, Roger Crozier retired. He left the Detroit Red Wings in November 1967 and retreated to his hometown, in Ontario. He found work as a carpenter and soon wielded, in his own estimation, “the fastest hammer in the north.” For the first time in years, he was in good health.
A teammate headed to Bracebridge, located 123 miles north of Toronto, where he found Crozier pounding shingles onto the roof of a house. But he wasn’t able to convince the goalie to return to the ice. “If I bend a nail up here, I don’t have 12,000 people booing me!” Crozier explained.
He unfastened his tool belt and rejoined the Red Wings six weeks later. But he continued to suffer from ulcers and bouts of pancreatitis, even while making headlines with his acrobatic performances.
By the time he retired for good in 1977, he had established himself as one of the best goalies of his era—a remarkable accomplishment, especially for someone who was a bundle of nerves from his first game to his last.
Crozier was born in March 1942 and raised in a working-class family. He was the fourth of 14 children—yes, you read that right, 14—in a family headed by Lloyd and Mildred Crozier.
No sooner had he learned to walk than he took his first tentative steps on the ice. Crozier started playing goal when he was seven years old, primarily because he was small, but he soon grew to like it.
When Crozier was 13 years old, a coach with a keen eye realized that the young goaltender, unlike most, was more comfortable catching with his right hand than his left, so he bought the boy a catching glove he could actually use—and it worked wonders.
A year later, the head of the town’s senior hockey team, the Bracebridge Bears, recognized the nimble goalie as a special talent and added him to their roster. Even though Crozier was just 14 years old, he excelled playing alongside others who were, you know, old enough to shave.
Crozier grew a few inches, though not many, in the next few years and was good enough to play in the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), a major junior league that served as a breeding ground for NHL players.
In the fall of 1959, he traveled 175 miles south to join the St. Catharines Teepees, which were sponsored by the Chicago Black Hawks. Crozier was a standout playing with future NHL stars such as Chico Maki and Vic Hadfield, and the fleet-footed young goalie helped the Teepees win the Memorial Cup in his first season.
Crozier also developed an ulcer around this time, but the pain didn’t affect his play. He continued to excel and caught the attention of the Buffalo Bisons of the minor-pro American Hockey League (AHL), who needed a goalie to fill in for their injured starter. Crozier played three games for the team in the 1960–61 season, recording two wins, before rejoining the Teepees.
Over the next two seasons, Crozier played a handful of games for the Bisons and the Sault Ste. Marie Thunderbirds of the minor-pro Eastern Professional Hockey League (EPHL). But he spent most of his time with the Teepees and then with the St. Louis Braves of the EPHL.
In June 1963, the Black Hawks traded his rights to the Detroit Red Wings, who sent the goalie to their AHL team, the Pittsburgh Hornets. In the Steel City, Crozier adopted an unconventional playing style. His coaches urged him to face the puck standing up, but he preferred to make saves on his knees with his legs extended like the beating wings of a monarch butterfly—and it worked for him. He emerged as one of the best players in the AHL.
Still, scouts weren’t convinced he could play in the NHL; he was only five foot eight and weighed less than 160 pounds. That was uncommon then and is unheard of today—the average NHL goalie is seven inches taller and 40 pounds heavier.
NHL
1963–64
Crozier got a break when the Red Wings’ star goalie, Terry Sawchuk, got injured. Crozier made his NHL debut in November at Maple Leaf Gardens. Detroit was leading 1–0 when Toronto forward Frank Mahovlich fired a shot that struck Crozier in the face, shattering his cheekbone. One eloquent sportswriter noted that Crozier’s face was “mashed like chicken fricassee.” The goalie left the ice for treatment but soon returned wearing a new contraption meant to keep his cheekbones intact and his teeth in his mouth. It was called—wait for it—a mask. He made 23 saves in that game, which ended in a 1–1 tie.
Sawchuk soon returned to the ice, but Crozier was back in net for a game against Chicago in December. He played well in the contest, which Detroit won 5–4, but he felt he would have played better had he not been wearing a mask early in the game. “That was a bad move on my part,” he said, explaining that he had worn it, despite his misgivings, because his doctor had said another shot to the cheek would sideline him for the season.
By the time the season ended, Crozier had played in 15 regular games and three playoff games for the Red Wings, including the seventh and deciding game of a semifinal against the Black Hawks. In that contest, he took over from Sawchuk, who was nursing a sore shoulder, in the third period. He stopped all seven shots he faced. Detroit won 4–2 and advanced to the final against the Leafs, who won the Stanley Cup.
When he wasn’t with the Red Wings that season, Crozier was honing his skills in the AHL. He played 44 games for the Hornets, winning 30 of them. That spring, he won the Hap Holmes Memorial Award, given to the goalie with the league’s lowest goals-against average, and was named the AHL’s best rookie.
The Red Wings managed to look beyond his diminutive size—literally and figuratively—and decided the 22-year-old would be their starter. They left Sawchuk, who was 12 years older and nearing the end of his legendary career, unprotected in the intra-league draft in June. The Leafs claimed him.
“It was a big boost for me to know the job in Detroit was mine and all mine,” Crozier said years later. “If Terry had still been on the team, I would have been on the spot every game. The fans would just have been waiting for me to make a mistake and demanding his return.”
1964–65
Detroit’s decision baffled some people in hockey circles. Critics looked at Crozier flopping on the ice like a smallmouth bass on a dock in Lake Muskoka and predicted disaster for the Red Wings. Jacques Plante, the high priest of goaltending, said Crozier would never make it in the NHL.
“One look at pale, self-conscious Roger Crozier when he is not in the nets would convince almost anybody that Plante was right,” one journalist wrote. “He is small and wispy, filled with doubts about his ability, and he even has an ulcer. He is the despair of coaches who try in vain to cure him of the habit of flopping and falling all over the ice, often in attempts to stop shots that would probably never reach the goal anyway.”
The journalist noted that criticism upset Crozier and that his eyes “seemed almost to brim with tears” when discussing it. “People are sitting around, waiting for the big collapse,” he quoted Crozier as saying. “They’re waiting to say, ‘I told you so.’”
Popular sports columnist Dick Beddoes described Crozier as “a splinter of bone and shred of gristle who resembles a dissipated jockey,” and said he played “like a frenzied acrobat plagued with itch.” Huh?
But Red Wings coach Sid Abel was confident the franchise had made the right choice, and he praised Crozier for having “the fastest hands of any goalie I have ever seen.”
Abel was rewarded for his faith in Crozier. By mid-November, the goalie had the best goals-against average (1.75) in the NHL. Thanks to his performance and that of star forward Gordie Howe, who poked fun at the pint-sized goalie by calling him “Muscles,” the Red Wings sat atop the standings. “I’m glad we got off to such a good start,” Crozier said. “If we hadn’t, everybody would be on my back.”
But the good times didn’t last. Two months later, the team was in a slump and sitting fourth in the six-team league. Abel decided that Crozier needed a break and dispatched him to Florida. He and his wife, Arlene, stayed in Miami, where they lounged on beach chairs, went swimming and played shuffleboard. “I just put on the sun tan oil and relaxed,” he said. “I felt as though I didn’t have a care in the world.” He returned to Detroit for the team’s next game, to find sun lamps and a beach umbrella set up in the dressing room, compliments of his teammates.
In the following months, the Red Wings got their groove back and climbed up the standings. They ended the regular season in first place with 87 points. Much of the credit went to three hotshots: Norm Ullman finished second in league scoring (83 points), while Howe finished third (76 points) and Alex Delvecchio placed fifth (67 points). But Crozier was the toast of Motown.
He started in all 70 of his team’s games that season—the last NHL goalie to accomplish that feat—and led the league in wins (40) and shutouts (6). He also had the second-best goals-against average (2.42), behind the Leafs’ Johnny Bower. To no one’s surprise, Crozier won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie.
Sportswriters marveled at his abilities that season—one stated that “his acrobatic movements were a thing of pure delight. On many plays around his goal crease, Crozier would be flat on the ice, his legs and arms flapping to reach the puck or cover as much space as possible.”
He was riding high when the team opened the playoffs against Chicago. The Black Hawks’ roster included two of the NHL’s top offensive threats: Stan Mikita, who led the league in scoring (87 points), and Bobby Hull, who placed fourth (71 points). Known as the Golden Jet, Hull took flight in the seven-game series, scoring eight goals and adding five assists to lead his team to victory. Crozier posted a 3.29 goals-against average in that semifinal.
The season was over for him, but his health woes weren’t. A few months later, he suffered a bout of pancreatitis, which is inflammation of—you guessed it—the pancreas. The chronic ailment worsened until he had to be hospitalized. He was fed intravenously and lost almost 20 pounds.
1965–66
Crozier’s health forced him to spend some time on the sidelines in this season, but he eventually played 64 games and led the NHL in shutouts (6) once again. He also had the third-most wins (27).
The Red Wings had been on a fast track to success early in the season and were tied with the Black Hawks for most points (52) by the end of January. But the wheels fell off in February, and they won just six of their final 20 games. Still, they managed to squeak into the playoffs by finishing fourth in the league (74 points). They took on the Black Hawks (82 points) in the semifinals.
Howe had placed fifth in league scoring (75 points) during the regular season, but the NHL’s top two scorers, Hull (97 points) and Mikita (78 points), were in the Windy City. The Black Hawks, a powerhouse that often fell short of expectations in the playoffs, also had a star in net. Glenn Hall had led the league in wins (34) and had a sparkling goals-against average (2.63) and save percentage (.916). The Red Wings were in tough.
They suffered a 2–1 loss in the opening game at Chicago Stadium, but bounced back to win four of the next five games and advance to the Stanley Cup final. Crozier was a big factor in his team’s success against the Black Hawks; he allowed just 10 goals, a dozen fewer than Hall.
But the series hadn’t been all sunshine and lollipops for Crozier. He’d been rushed to the hospital with abdominal pain after one game and stayed there until just hours before the next one. He had suffered another bout of pancreatitis and had, in the opinion of many people at the time, no one to blame but a hot dog. Not even the Maalox he drank by the gallon could counter the harmful effects of the concession stand delicacy.
Five days after eliminating Chicago, Detroit players took the ice at the Montreal Forum to face the Canadiens, a well-balanced team that had won the Stanley Cup the previous season and had also finished the regular season at the top of the standings (90 points). Forward Bobby Rousseau had tied Mikita for points, and “Gentleman Jean” Béliveau had finished fourth (77 points). The munchkin standing in the crease opposite Crozier was an inch shorter but more than 20 pounds heavier. Gump Worsley had finished second in wins (28) and also had an excellent goals-against average (2.36) and save percentage (.917).
The Red Wings managed to silence raucous Habs fans by winning the first two games, thanks in large part to Crozier’s fast glove hand. “The hottest man on the ice in those games was Roger Crozier, the Detroit goaltender,” one reporter commented. “A little fellow, Crozier looks vastly more like an amiable clerk than a hard-nosed goalie, but his deftness and courage as he stood up to and deflected 100-mile-an-hour slap shots had Montreal fans gasping and Montreal players dismayed.”
Some optimistic Detroit supporters started preparing for a Stanley Cup parade, but fate soon rapped them on the knuckles—hard. The Habs won the next two games at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, and in the second of those contests, Crozier got injured while attempting to block a shot. He had to be helped off the ice. One newspaper speculated that the injury to the “gutsy little guy could be the kiss of death for the hungry Red Wings.” It was.
Crozier was in net for the next two games, but with a sprained left knee and a twisted ankle, he couldn’t stop the Canadiens—they won both contests and their second consecutive Cup. Henri Richard’s overtime goal in Game 6 remains controversial to this day: many fans and players insist that he pushed the puck into the net with his hand.
Despite the outcome, Crozier became the first goalie and the first player on a losing team to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the postseason. He found out while he was removing tape from his injured leg in the dressing room. He changed into his street clothes to accept the trophy. If the MVP award didn’t take the sting out of losing, the prize might have. He won $1,000 and a gold Mustang convertible, which he drove around Bracebridge that summer with the wind blowing through his close-cropped hair but failing to budge even a strand. Residents of his hometown held a parade in his honor.
1966–70
Detroit fans who thought their team was on track for a Stanley Cup victory were sorely mistaken. The Red Wings’ next few years were mediocre at best. Despite having Howe and two other high-scoring forwards in Alex Delvecchio and Frank Mahovlich, who joined the Red Wings in March 1968, the Red Wings finished near the bottom of the standings and missed the playoffs in three straight seasons. They made the playoffs in the 1969–70 season but were eliminated in the first round.
Crozier managed to post the second-most wins (22) and shutouts (4) in the NHL in the 1966–67 season, but other than that, his statistics were middling. Fans fretted as he fell apart as dramatically as the Ford Pinto would four years later.
He suffered several more bouts of pancreatitis during that span, but that wasn’t the worst pain he endured. In the first game of the 1967–68 season, Boston Bruins star Bobby Orr fired a shot that struck Crozier in the temple and flattened him.
The goalie was back in action by November, but when he allowed 18 goals over three straight losses, Abel decided Crozier would benefit from time on Detroit’s farm team in the Central Professional Hockey League (CPHL). He summoned the goalie to his office, but before he could inform him he was being sent to the minors, Crozier delivered some bad news of his own: he was retiring. “My confidence was gone,” Crozier explained later. “I would have been a nut in a month if I had continued to play.”
“Roger has taken this thing worse than anyone,” Abel said, referring to the Wings’ losing streak. “He needs a rest very badly in order to keep his health and I hope that after a few weeks he will feel better and begin to think about playing hockey again.”
The dressing room door had barely swung shut behind Crozier when he was back in cottage country, working as a carpenter. He was far more relaxed playing Mr. Fixit in the Muskokas than he was playing goal in Detroit. “It was a different world and I was a different person,” Crozier later recalled.
The stress of playing for the Red Wings was too much for him, says his daughter Katie. “That stress is what caused all his health problems. He left the game at that point because, in Detroit, he was thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is just crazy. I don’t know if I can do this anymore.’”
Within six weeks, the mercury had plummeted and working indoors must have seemed like an attractive option. Crozier returned to active duty in the NHL.
“My father realized there was no job he could take on that would give him as much money as playing professional hockey,” says Katie. “Also, there was nothing else that would keep him as busy and feeling as successful.”
Unfortunately, the Red Wings continued to struggle for the rest of that season and the next two. Sawchuk returned to the team in October 1968 and played in 13 games, but even he couldn’t make the team a contender. The Red Wings traded him away in June.
One year later, they did the same to Crozier, dispatching him to the not-so-sunny climes of Buffalo, New York. The Sabres and the Vancouver Canucks expanded the NHL ranks in 1970, bringing the league’s team count to 14. (Six other teams had joined the league in 1967.)
“Punch told me, ‘Look, we’re going to be awful. Your job is to keep us from getting embarrassed. Can you handle that?’” Crozier said, recalling a conversation with Sabres general manager and coach Punch Imlach. “What a sales pitch that was!”
In the off-season, Crozier landed in the hospital with yet another bout of pancreatitis. “The affliction is just something I have to live with,” he said. “I just have to remember to stick to my diet. A plain, bland diet and no alcohol at all.” But Crozier might have been tempted to drink nonetheless; the Sabres were bad enough in their first few seasons to lead even the most dedicated teetotaler to crawl under the covers clutching a bottle of vodka.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Author’s Note
1 THE NERVOUS WRECK ROGER CROZIER
2 THE CASTAWAY: ROGIE VACHON
3 THE CHARACTER: GERRY CHEEVERS
4 THE WORKING-CLASS HERO: ED GIACOMIN
5 THE KID BROTHER: TONY ESPOSITO
6 THE STRANGER: VLADISLAV TRETIAK
7 THE SHOOTING STAR: MIKE PALMATEER
8 THE SURVIVOR: GRANT FUHR
9 THE CROWD-PLEASER: ROBERTO LUONGO
10 MISTER CONGENIALITY: MARC-ANDRÉ FLEURY
11 THE CLASS ACT: HENRIK LUNDQVIST
12 THE STOIC: CAREY PRICE
Notes
Glossary
Acknowledgments