George Grimm

Retro Rangers: Remembering Bob Dill

Retro Rangers: Remembering Bob Dill

Bob Dill was a bruising defenseman who was acquired by the Rangers in January 1944 to add some muscle to their lineup. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota in April 1920, Dill played hockey for his local high school, and then traveled to Florida to play for the Miami Clippers of the four-team Tropical Hockey League in 1938.

Retro Rangers: Book Review – The Franchise

Retro Rangers: Book Review – The Franchise

Rick Carpiniello spent the better part of 43 years (1978-79 – 2020-21) covering the New York Rangers and the NHL for the New York Journal News as well as The Athletic. And his new book, The Franchise: New York Rangers… A Curated History of the Blueshirts, does a great job of condensing all those years into a highly informative and entertaining 256 page read.

Hockey History: “Dippy Don” was the Best Backup!

Hockey History: “Dippy Don” was the Best Backup!

Don Simmons was a very good goaltender who just happened to be playing in the wrong era. Like many netminders in the years before expansion,  Simmons had the great misfortune of trying to break into the NHL during what many consider to be the Golden Age of Goaltending.

Hockey History: When the NHL Cracked Down on Gambling

Hockey History: When the NHL Cracked Down on Gambling

On March 9, 1948, NHL President Clarence Campbell announced that Billy Taylor of the New York Rangers and Don Gallinger of the Boston Bruins would be banned for life for betting on hockey games. Campbell claimed to have conclusive evidence that Taylor was involved with a known criminal and gambler.

Retro Rangers: Remembering “Leapin’ Louie” Fontinato

Retro Rangers: Remembering “Leapin’ Louie” Fontinato

“Leapin’ Louie” Fontinato was one of the most popular players to ever don a New York Rangers sweater. The 6-1. 195 pound defenseman was born in January 1932 in Guelph, Ontario and came up through the Guelph Biltmore pipeline that provided the Rangers with so many young prospects such as Harry Howell, Dean Prentice, Ron Murphy and later Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert.

Retro Rangers: Book Review – The Franchise

Retro Rangers: The Garden’s Cast of Eccentric Characters

Like most NHL teams. the New York Rangers have had their share of eccentric fans. There was Sally Lark, a buxom, platinum blonde, interior decorator from Brooklyn, who was a fixture at the Old Garden during  the 1940s and 1950s. Her seat was directly  adjacent to the penalty box and she was given the nickname “Sin Bin Sally.”

Leswick Knew How to Launch “The Rocket!”

Leswick Knew How to Launch “The Rocket!”

Tony Leswick was born in March, 1923, in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. He was the seventh of nine children born to Jim and Mary Leswick and learned how to play hockey from his three older brothers who had varying degrees of success in the sport. After playing Junior hockey with the Saskatoon Quakers, Tony turned pro at age 19, with the Cleveland Barons in 1942. He served two years in the Royal Canadian Navy and was then selected by the Rangers in June 1945 in the Inter-League Draft.

Hockey History: The HoF Case for Dean Prentice

Hockey History: The HoF Case for Dean Prentice

It’s been said that Dean Prentice is one of the best players not in the Hockey Hall of Fame. It can also be said that he was one of the toughest to ever play the game, considering that he once scored on a penalty shot after suffering what proved to be a broken back.

Retro Rangers: The Emile Francis Memorial Ice Arena

Retro Rangers: The Emile Francis Memorial Ice Arena

On Saturday December 10,2022, the city of Long Beach, New York renamed their municipal skating rink in honor of the late Emile Francis. The facility, now known as the Emile Francis Memorial Ice Arena, was built in 1973 and was used by the Rangers as their practice site until the 1980s when they moved their operation to Rye, New York.

Bill Gadsby was a Survivor

Bill Gadsby was a Survivor

Bill Gadsby was one of the best defensemen of his era. He played for three teams and appeared in seven All-Star games during his 20-year NHL career. He was never on a Stanley Cup winner but was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1970.

Retro Rangers: Time for a Banner Night for Brad Park

Retro Rangers: Time for a Banner Night for Brad Park

While Billy Joel, Harry Styles and the band Phish all have banners hanging from the rafters at Madison Square Garden, there is still nothing up there honoring former Rangers captain and NHL Hall of Famer Brad Park. It’s time for that to change.

Gerald Eskenazi Remembers the 1972 Summit Series

Gerald Eskenazi Remembers the 1972 Summit Series

It’s hard to believe in this technology-laden age of 24-Hour sports coverage, but 50 years ago when Canada faced off against Russia in their now famous Summit Series, the games were not initially scheduled to be broadcast in the United States. None of the major networks were interested, including NBC, which was about to embark on their “Peter Puck” era of hockey coverage.

Retro Rangers: Book Review – The Franchise

Retro Rangers: Remembering Jim Gordon and Bill Chadwick

  Separately, Jim Gordon and Bill Chadwick were each very good at their jobs, but together they were great and formed one of the most popular broadcasting teams in Rangers history. Gordon was the straight man, the professional broadcaster of the duo. A Brooklyn...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Back in the days before air travel became the norm, NHL teams rode the rails to their road games within the then six-team league. Bob Chrystal, who patrolled the Rangers Blue Line for a couple of seasons in the mid-50s was one of those players who spent countless...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: Boucher Developed 2-Goalie System

Johnny Bower and Terry Sawchuk, Glenn Hall and Jacques Plante, Ed Giacomin and Gilles Villemure are just a few of the fine goaltending duos that were formed after the NHL made it mandatory for teams to dress two goaltenders for games. But the two-goalie concept was a...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: Gilbert’s Remarkable Recovery

    One of the most remarkable things about Rod Gilbert’s brilliant NHL career was that not only did he make it back from two spinal fusion surgeries but also survived a near-death experience nearly 60 years ago.   Gilbert originally underwent spinal fusion...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: ”A Year on Ice” Turns 50!

Former New York Times sportswriter Gerald Eskenazi produced 16 books during his 47-year career as a journalist, but none has earned the lasting acclaim as his groundbreaking 1971 offering, “A Year on Ice.” The book is a day-by-day chronicle of the New York Rangers...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: The Hockey Time Machine

  While the COVID-19 pandemic has cast a long, dark shadow on everyone’s lives, one unexpected bright spot has been the weekly ‘Hockey Time Machine’ broadcasts featuring a host of former players, coaches, announcers, referees, trainers and team executives The...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: The Cal Gardner – Ken Reardon Feud

At 6-1 and 185 pounds, Cal Gardner did not shy away from the physical side of the game and in 1947 he became embroiled in what was then described as the biggest, longest brawl in NHL history. Cal Pearly Gardner signed as a free agent with the Rangers in 1945 following...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: Reminiscing with Tim Ryan

Tim Ryan graduated from Notre Dame University in 1960 with a journalism degree, in hope of becoming a newspaper reporter. He began working at the Toronto Star but was intrigued when he heard that a new commercial television network called CTV was coming to Canada....

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: Remembering Edgar Laprade

Edgar Laprade was considered by many to be the best senior hockey player in Canada during the early 1940s. Laprade began playing junior hockey with his hometown Port Arthur, Ontario, Bruins at the age of 16 in 1935. Three years later he moved up to senior hockey and...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: Forgotten Blueshirts

Do the names Hub Anslow, Ron Rowe, Herb Foster, Huddy Bell, Jean-Paul Denis or Alex Ritson, ring a bell? How about Len Wharton, Henry Dyck, Max Labovitch or Art Strobel? Unless you’re a true student of the game and the Rangers of the 1940s and 50s, most of those names...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: Pavelich Paid the Price

In February 1980, Mark Pavelich was sitting on top of the world as a key member of the US Hockey team that won the Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. He then went on to be an unlikely star for the New York Rangers before walking away from the...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: From House Goalies to EBUGs

During the NHL’s early years, teams were only required to dress one goaltender. If that netminder was injured he either had to play through the pain and return to the game after being repaired or his team had to scramble for a replacement. Sometimes that meant a...

Retro Rangers: When the NHL rode the Rails

Retro Rangers: The Quest for Big Ned

At 6-foot-2, 205 pounds Czechoslovakian Vaclav Nedomansky was everything Emile Francis, as well as most of the other GM’s in the league, was looking for in a center during the 1970s. He was big and strong, could skate and possessed a wrist shot that was once clocked...

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