There have been many great goaltenders in NHL history. Many of those goalies have played for the Montreal Canadiens including Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy.
But the first big goaltending star for the Canadiens was a man named Georges Vezina.
He was so relaxed in the crease they called him the Chicoutimi Cucumber. He could stop anything, and he helped lead the Canadiens to glory.
Then, it all came to an abrupt end.
Georges Vezina was born on Jan. 21, 1887 in Chicoutimi, Quebec. The fifth of eight children, he was born to Georges-Henri Vezina and his wife Clara.
Until the age of 14, Georges attended school but he left to work in his father’s bakery.
As a young man, Vezina began to excel at hockey, playing in street hockey matches with other kids in his neighborhood. The games were best after a snowfall, and they often played with homemade sticks.
It was not until he was 16 that he played for the first time on skates with an organized team. To practice, he had his friends throw rubber balls at him so that he could practice stopping them.
Since he lived 200 kilometres from Quebec City, there was no organized league to be part of, just exhibition games between clubs. It wasn’t long before he emerged as the best player in his area, and one coveted by every team he played against.
In 1908, Vezina married his wife Marie-Adelaide-Stella.
And he likely would have settled into a nice family life, but everything was about to change thanks to one single game.
On Feb. 17, 1910, the Chicoutimi Hockey Club played an exhibition game against the Montreal Canadiens. Even though the Canadiens were a far superior team, they were unable to score on Georges Vezina and lost the game.
Almost immediately, Vezina was offered a tryout with the Canadiens. Vezina had no desire to leave his life or his team. He refused the offer and stayed in Chicoutimi.
The Canadiens were not to be refused. They returned later in the year and convinced Vezina to come to Montreal with his brother Pierre. After tryouts, Pierre did not make the team, but Vezina easily did.
In truth, Pierre was never going to make the team. He was simply a ploy to get Vezina to try out so the team could offer him a contract.
The ploy worked and in December 1910, Vezina signed a salary of $800, which was about average for that time.
On Dec. 31, 1910, Vezina made his professional debut with the Canadiens in a game against the Ottawa Senators.
By the end of the season, Vezina had eight wins and eight losses, but he also allowed the fewest goals in the league. He was so good, he helped bring down the NHL goals-against average for the entire league. The season before he debuted, the average was 6.46. After his first season, it was 3.90.
Vezina earned a nickname during his first season He was called The Deer. The nickname came because he was homesick and often too shy to talk to anyone.
While the team did poorly for the next couple seasons, Vezina continued to shine. He recorded his first shutout in 1912-13 and by 1913-14, thanks to the play of Vezina, the Canadiens were first in the NHA.
Since the Canadiens were tied for first place with the Toronto Blueshirts, they had to play two games against the team to determine who would play for the Stanley Cup. While in the first game Montreal won 2-0, they lost heavily in the second game and Toronto won the series.
The Canadiens fell hard the next season, losing 14 games.
The following season, Vezina was back in form, and he led the team to wining 16 games in 1915-16 and a first place finish.
To capture the coveted Stanley Cup, the Canadiens played against the Portland Rosebuds of the PCHA. The Canadiens won the series three games to two and captured their first Stanley Cup.
Vezina considered this the pinnacle of his career.
The Ottawa Citizen wrote,
“For the first few minutes the visitors had the edge and had the Canadiens bottled up but were unable to beat Vezina. On two occasions Tobin was inside the local defense but failed to score.”
The Winnipeg Tribute wrote,
“Canadiens played a better defense than was shown on Monday but Vezina in goal for the local was the mainstay. Vezina shoved aside numerous shots that appeared likely to be sure counters.”
To raise money for the war effort in 1917, the Canadiens took on a team of soldiers in an exhibition match. Vezina was put in goal for the soldiers to make the match a bit more equal between the teams.
But a major change was coming for Vezina and the Canadiens.
In 1917, the Montreal Canadiens became one of the founding teams of the National Hockey League. That winter, the NHL had its first season and on Feb. 18, 1918, Vezina became the first NHL goalie to record a shutout.
By the end of the season, he had 12 wins and the fewest goals against in the league.
The next season, 1918-19, Vezina became the first NHL goalie to be credited with an assist. He won 10 games and the Canadiens played the Seattle Metropolitans for the Stanley Cup. That Stanley Cup was cancelled due to the Spanish Flu.
For the next two seasons, Vezina continued to dominate as a goalie in the NHL, winning 13 wins each season.
In 1922-23, he led the Canadiens into the playoffs where they lost a total-goal series to Ottawa, the eventual Stanley Cup champions.
Even as Vezina aged, he continued to dominate the league, posting a 1.97 goals per game average, the first time a goalie had fewer than two goals against on average.
Frank Boucher said of him,
“I remember him as the coolest man I ever saw, absolutely imperturbable. He stood upright in the net and scarcely left his feet. He was remarkably good with his stick. He’d pick off more shots with it than he did with his glove.”
On Dec. 20, 1923, the Hamilton Spectator wrote of him,
“They call Georges Vezina the Chicoutimi Cucumber but he is much more frigid than any long green vegetable that ever caused a stomach ache. It was the veteran Georges who made it possible for the Canadiens to defeat Hamilton in an NHL fixture here last night when the Hams had two shots to the visitor’s one but shooting at Vezina was like flipping the puck against a brick wall.”
Vezina was so confident in his playing ability that it was not unusual for Vezina to stick-handle with an opponent at the mouth of the goal until his teammates could get up the ice. Known for his composure, he once stopped 78 out of 79 shots in a single game.
The Montreal Gazette wrote of him several years later,
“Statuesque in his immobility, he was uncanny in his ability to turn aside the hardest shots without batting an eyelash, earning for himself the nickname of the Chicoutimi Cucumber.”
After the 1922-23 season, there were rumours that Vezina was holding out for a larger contract, however this proved to be untrue when he signed a new contract on Nov. 21, 1923.
A few months later, Vezina endured one of his worst injuries when a shot from Bert Corbeau broke his nose and caused a serious gash on his head. Despite the injury, Vezina never missed a game.
In 1923-24, Vezina won another 13 games, and the Canadiens reached the playoffs where they battled the Senators once again. This time the Canadiens won and then went on to defeat the Vancouver Maroons to capture their second Stanley Cup.
The Victoria Daily Times wrote,
“From start to finish the pace was cyclonic and the Calgary team carried Canucks along at a furious clip, storming their net with combined and individual rushes, the ferocity of which carried Couture and Cleghorn off their feet, only to break before the archbishop-like calm and placid demeanor of Georges Vezina.”
In 1924-25, Vezina had his best season ever when he recorded 17 wins and had a 1.81 goals-against average. The Canadiens reached the Stanley Cup Final but lost to the Victoria Cougars.
This would prove to be the beginning of the end of for the great goalie.
The next season, Vezina arrived at training camp looking ill. Over the course of the next six weeks, he lost 35 pounds and seemed to be consistently sick with a fever. When the Canadiens took to the ice on Nov. 28, 1925, he played the first period without allowing a single goal despite his growing illness.
During the intermission, he began to vomit blood in the dressing room but returned to play for the second period.
He collapsed in the goal area and left the game.
He never returned to the ice again.
The Montreal Gazette wrote,
“He was pale and haggard-looking as he turned shots aside in the first period. At the interval, it was decided to replace him and for the first time since he took up hockey eighteen years ago, the veteran goalkeeper was forced to drop out of play.”
The next day he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and returned home to Chicoutimi. He was told he had a month or two left to live. Despite his sickness, he tried to return to practice once he felt well enough.
Eventually, even he had to accept that he would never play hockey again. His legendary career was over.
On Dec. 3, he went to the Canadiens dressing room to say goodbye to his teammates. He broke down in tears looking at his goalie pads and skates that were in the corner where he usually sat.
The Montreal Standard wrote,
“Vezina reported at the usual hour at the dressing room yesterday morning and sat down in his usual corner. I glanced at him as he sat there and saw tears rolling down his cheeks. He was looking at his old pads and skates that Eddie Dufour had arranged in Geroge’s corner thinking probably that Vezina would don them.”
The Vancouver Sun wrote,
“The sun has gone down for Georges Vezina as a hockey player. No more will the famous veteran, hero of many a thrilling battle on the ice, keep goal for Canadians.”
Before he left, he asked for the sweater he wore in the last Stanley Cup series. Once the team grabbed it for him, he went home. Most of his teammates never saw him alive again.
He returned to his hometown of Chicoutimi with his wife to live out his final days.
On March 11, 1926 it was announced by the Canadiens that Vezina was at death’s door and receiving the last rites.
Two days later, a team doctor stated that Vezina could live at least two or three months and there was no immediate danger of his death.
That was wishful thinking.
Vezina died on March 27, 1926. His wife Mary and his two sons were by his side.
His great grandnephew said,
“It was a horrible sight. It took him five months to die.”
At the time, news reports stated he had 22 children, of which only two survived. The truth is he had only the two sons, one of whom he made Stanley as the child was born on the day Vezina won the Stanley Cup.
On May 29, fans in Ottawa paid tribute to Vezina. After Montreal and Ottawa finished their warm-ups, referee Lou Marsh called the two teams to centre ice and announced to the crowd that a tribute to Vezina was about to happen.
Everyone stood at centre ice with their heads bowed, while the band played two verses of Nearer, My God, To Thee. The Hamilton Spectator wrote,
“The ceremony was one of the most impressive ever witnessed here, and in that vast throng there were many who stood unashamed while tears coursed down their faces.”
Even though he played just one period that season, the Canadiens paid his entire $6,000 salary to his widow. On April 5, a benefit game was held to help Vezina’s family. It raised $3,000 for the family. Today, that would be worth $52,000.
The team did not fair well without their star goalie.
Without Vezina, the Canadiens finished in last place. While the team rebounded, it was another four years before the won a Stanley Cup. This time it was with their new star player, Howie Morenz, who also had a tragic end.
Through his career, Vezina led the Canadiens to five Stanley Cup appearances. Seven times he had the lowest goals-against average in the league.
From 1910 to 1926, he never missed a game, playing in 328 consecutive games in the regular season and 39 playoff games. On average, he played 21 games per year, as well as exhibition games.
On the Canadiens, he was the most beloved player on the team and called the spiritual leader of the Canadiens.
Catholic masses were held to honour Vezina, and hundreds showed up. At his funeral in Chicoutimi, 1,500 people paid their respects.
At the start of the 1926-27 season, the Montreal Canadiens donated the Vezina Trophy to the NHL to honour him and to be awarded to the goalie with the lowest goals-against average. In 1981, the NHL began to award the trophy to the best goalie in the league from a poll of general managers.
Georges Hainsworth, the goalie who replaced Vezina on the Canadiens, won the first three Vezina Trophies. Montreal Canadiens goalie Jacques Plante holds the record with seven Vezinas. Goalies with the Montreal Canadiens have won the trophy 29 times.
When the NHL established the Hockey Hall of Fame, Vezina was one of the first nine inductees.
In 1950, when the greatest players of the first 50 years of the century were picked, Vezina was the most common name cited for the goalie position. Jack Adams wrote,
“In my opinion, the greatest goalie of all-time. He was always good against us and rose to his greatest heights in playoffs and championship series which is the test of any great player. I don’t believe many players today would be able to score many goals on Vezina of the Canadiens.”
In 2017, he was listed as one of the 100 Greatest Players in NHL history.
