Billy Coutu was one of the brightest stars of the NHL during his career. He won Stanley Cups, captained the Canadiens and mentored a young and tough Eddie Shore.
And then it all faded away when he was banned for life from the NHL.
Billy Coutu was born in North Bay, Ontario on March 1, 1892 as Billy Couture. His name later became Coutu when he joined the pros because of an error listing his name. When asked about it years later, he said,
“Couture or Coutu, what’s the difference. I am paid to play hockey and I don’t care what they call me. It could be Coutu or Couture and that is for sure.”
While he was born in North Bay, the family moved to Sault Ste. Marie when he was an infant, where he grew up. He began playing hockey for Sault Ste. Marie, and joined the Sault Nationals when he was 18. He eventually found his way to the Cobalt Lake Miners.
After an excellent bit of time with the Miners, he was scouted and given the chance to tryout for the Montreal Canadiens.
In 1916, Coutu joined the Montreal Canadiens in their last season in the National Hockey Association as a free agent. He finished with no points in 18 games. During that time, he had nine penalty minutes. In four playoff games that season, he had an astounding 38 penalty minutes.
When the NHA folded and the NHL was formed, Coutu remained with the Canadiens and began his first NHL season.
In 1917-18, he had four points in 20 games, with 49 penalty minutes. The following season he finished with three points in 15 games.
In 1919, Coutu, along with four other teammates, contracted the Spanish Flu during the Stanley Cup Final. He was hospitalized but survived.
On Nov. 27, 1920, Coutu was loaned to the Hamilton Tigers as part of a trade that sent Dave Ritchie and Harry Mummery to Hamilton in exchange for Joe Matte and Jack Coughlin. During the 1920-21 season with Hamilton, he had his best season with 12 points in 24 games and 95 penalty minutes.
On Jan. 26, 1921, he returned to Montreal. At this point, he went from being a forward to a defenceman so he could play alongside Sprague Cleghorn. The two made one of the most fearsome defensive duos of their era. The Standard Freeholder wrote,
“When it came to defencemen, Coutu and Cleghorn were just about as good as they came.”
On Nov. 15, 1921, Coutu was suspended and fined $200 for rough play.
On March 7, 1923, Coutu set an NHL record when he had 42 penalty minutes in a playoff game, all in one period. That record still stands. The game record is shared with Dave Shultz and Deryk Engelland, and the period record is shared with just Deryk Engelland.
On Jan. 21, 1925, Coutu was suspended for two games, and fined $100 for misconduct. He had only been given a minor penalty for elbowing, but he protested so much he was given a 10-minute major, and from there it just started escalating with each outburst from Coutu in the game until it reached $100 in fines.
For the 1925-26 season, Coutu was named captain of the Canadiens.
On Jan. 19, 1926, Coutu was suspended for one game and fined $100 for tripping referee Jerry LaFlamme. This was not the last time Coutu and that referee would have an altercation.
But for the Canadiens, it appeared that Coutu was too much of a liability and they decided it was time to part ways.
On Oct. 22, 1926, Coutu was traded to the Boston Bruins for Amby Moran.
During his first practice with the Bruins, got into it with rookie Eddie Shore.
Shore stated he was just trying to practice and Coutu kept hitting him. Shore said,
“I told him, look, all I want to do is play. I’m here to get a job. I don’t want your job. I just want a job.”
Coutu responded that all the western rookies think they were so tough. At the time, Coutu weighed 215 pounds and Shore was 185. Coutu said,
“I can pick you up and throw you 10 feet every day of the week and twice on Sunday.”
Things began to escalate and in another practice a few days later, Coutu body-slammed Eddie Shore. Shore responded by catching Coutu with his right shoulder. He said,
“He bounced back about eight feet and went down, got up, sank down, got up and went down. The third time he went down, he stayed down.”
In the collision, Coutu’s forehead hit Shore’s skull so hard it severed Shore’s ear. Shore was able to get it sewed back on.
Shore stated that Coutu used a hockey stick to cut his ear, and Coutu was fined $50. Shore later recanted what he said and Coutu’s money was refunded.
Shore said,
“I’m sorry to say, he wasn’t so good after that.”
Coutu was known to be a rough player, but he was also well liked by many around him. The Ottawa Citizen wrote,
“Coutu is generally a most affable player, but he is prone on occasion to run amuck and do things for which he is very sorry afterwards.”
At the end of that season, an event took place that changed the life of Coutu and the NHL.
In the playoffs, the Ottawa Senators received a bye through the first round, and then beat the Montreal Canadiens in the second round. Now they were playing Coutu and the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup.
Games one and three were ties, and game two was won by the Senators. If they won game four, they would win the series.
In that game on April 13, 1927, Coutu started a bench clearing brawl. According to Coutu, it was at the request of coach Art Ross.
The Montreal Gazette described it as a,
“rowdy free-for-all which rivaled gang warfare at its worst.”
The brawl was bad enough that police presence was needed.
The Senators won the game 3-1 to capture their 11th and final Stanley Cup.
After the game, while in the hallway leading to dressing rooms, an irate Coutu assaulted referees Jerry LaFlamme and Billy Bell in the corridor off the ice.
Jack Adams said years later,
“He led a surge of Boston players towards referee Jerry Laflamme when the game ended. They engulfed the referee, knocked him to the floor near the referee’s room in the Ottawa Auditorium, and cutting and bruising his face.”
The Ottawa Citizen reported,
“Dr. Laflamme, when interviewed afterwards, stated that he was unhurt and that he contemplated taking no action in the matter except to report the affair to the league president, Frank Calder, who attended the game but who was not present when the fracas occurred”
There are some who claimed Bruins owner Charles Adams was the one to attack Laflamme, and that Coutu simply took the blame. The Toronto Star wrote,
“The main culprit, according to the report sent in by Referee Laflamme was Billy Coutu, spare defense player of the Bruins. Coutu jumped into Laflamme and knocked him down, and according to the reports, Manager Art Ross and even owner Charlie Adams were involved in the tussle.”
One day later, Coutu was suspended for life from the NHL for assaulting referee Jerry LaFlamme, tackling referee Billy Bell and starting a brawl after a Stanley Cup game. Several other players received fines, and all money from the fines was given to charities in Boston and Ottawa.
Bruins president Charles Adams protested the lifetime ban and asked for a hearing. A month later, the team governors in the NHL voted to uphold the ban.
The Windsor Star wrote,
“Calder’s drastic action in banning Billy Coutu for life will not be criticized by the moguls and fans who have the interests of hockey at heart. No less a penalty should be imposed upon an athlete who deliberately assaults an official, particularly when the attack takes place after a game and not in the heat of battle. Coutu’s part in an attack on referee Jerry Laflamme is inexcusable and it is a good thing that he is out for all time.”
Not every newspaper was on board with the suspension, the Winnipeg Free Press wrote,
“The public will not stand for Billy Coutu being made the goat for the cowardly attack upon Laflamme if others higher up are in any degree to blame for the unfortunate occurrence.”
On Jan. 5, 1928, Coutu was traded to New Haven as he could no longer play in the NHL. Coutu was described as bitter and without remorse over his demotion to the minor leagues.
In his NHL career, Coutu had 54 points in 244 games, with 478 penalty minutes. In the playoffs, he had a further 89 penalty minutes in 36 games.
Only three weeks after he was traded, Coutu was suspended for the season after hitting George Redding with his stick on Jan. 23, 1928. Some called for Coutu to be expelled from the league as well. The Hamilton Spectator wrote,
“Coutu knocked Redding unconscious in this game with his stick.”
The following day, the suspension was lifted and he was charged a $200 fine.
On Aug. 19, 1928, he was traded to Minneapolis. The Montreal Gazette wrote,
“Billy Coutu, star defence hockey player of the New Haven Club, was sold outright to Minneapolis of the American Association.”
On Oct. 8, 1929, NHL president Frank Calder stated Coutu was free to sign as a free agent with an NHL team if Minneapolis released him. Many thought that Coutu may rejoin the NHL. The Montreal Gazette wrote,
“Coutu has been training all season and is fit and ready to start strenuous practice at any time. He looks fit and ready and will no doubt prove a useful defenceman to some of the clubs in the NHL this season. For the past two or three seasons Coutu has been playing in the minor leagues and has made good with each of the clubs he represented. He has been in Montreal since the close of last hockey season and late this summer started in to get in condition for hockey.”
The Vancouver Province wrote,
“Feeling that the player had been punished enough for his part in abusing referee Laflamme in Ottawa during a championship playoff game in 1927, the Governors of the National Hockey league restored Billy Coutu to good standing.”
But he never rejoined the NHL.
He may have been reinstated, but Coutu was still a rough customer. While managing the Providence Reds in 1934, he faced another suspension after punching a referee after a game. The punch resulted in 300 people swarming onto the ice, and a huge fight breaking out. Two days later, he was fined $100.
On March 24, 1935, Coutu was ejected from a game for abusing referee Jack Cameron.
In later years, he coached various teams into the early 1940s, including the Newark Bulldogs.
In 1936, Coutu went into a line of work that surprised many. He became a referee, and spent several years keeping order on the ice.
The Standard Freeholder wrote,
“In the role of referee, Coutu evidently saw that the road of the hockey arbiter is not a smooth one. One year with the whistle was enough for Bill and he is back, taking an active part in hockey, the game he helped a lot to make the most colorful in the world.”
He eventually returned to refereeing in the 1940s.
In 1937, Coutu did an interview with the Standard Freeholder, stating that he may have been 45 but he was still in excellent shape. The newspaper wrote,
“He would fight at the drop of the hat if anyone told him 45 is old. And judging from the broad shoulders, the wiry frame and Bill’s stormy career in hockey, he would be a bad man in a mix-up.”
In 1938, Coutu, now coaching the New Haven Eagles, paid $10 for sassing a police officer while at a traffic stop. Coutu was only going to get a warning but his attitude resulted in a summons to court. Coutu stated in court he wished the officer had bad dreams.
In a bit of irony, he too was attacked by a player in 1948. In March of that year, Hugh Muzz Murray attacked him during a game on March 7, 1948 but Coutu, despite being older, was easily able to defend himself.
In 1974, Jim Kearney of the Vancouver Sun cost Coutu the most villainous player in the history of pro hockey. That same year, Jim Coleman wrote that by this point, there was no chance of Coutu ever making it into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Conn Smythe, near the end of his life, called Coutu a real wild man.
On Feb. 25, 1977, Coutu died at the age of 84 in Sault Ste. Marie. By the time he died, Coutu had been forgotten by hockey it seemed. There was not a single mention of his death in the newspapers.
