The Lost Habs Goalie - Gene Decosse

In my seemingly never ending quest for knowledge of the Montreal Canadiens goaltenders history, I recently unearthed the story of Gene Decosse at www.LostHockey.com.

The story of Decosse is an interesting one. Let me suggest that the man had a brush with infamy, to say the least.

I hope you enjoy the read.

Eugène Décosse, born on December 9th, 1900 in Hull, Québec, had the honour of backing up the legendary Montreal Canadiens goaltender Georges Vézina for a lone game in the 1924 season opener against the Toronto St-Pats.

As a boy, Décosse was raised in the heart of the blue-collared area of Hull a few streets away from the E.B. Eddy paper mills and just around the corner from the Bank Hotel, which would later be owned by D'arcy Coulton. Much of this neighborhood was demolished in the 1970's to make way for government office complexes, but his childhood house remains intact, wedged between two parking lots at 57 Wellington street.

Gene made his way up the Ottawa and Hull hockey ranks, playing for such teams as the Hull Canadiens, the Ottawa Royal Canadiens and the Ottawa New Edinburghs. Gene had his first great season in 1918-19, earning a Goals Against Average (GAA) of 0.50, managing 6 wins, 5 of which were shutouts, in his 8 appearances for the Ottawa Royal Canadiens. The next four years saw him put in good performances with three different teams in the OCHL, earning two First All-Star and one Second All-Star title.



In November of 1924, Gene got his chance with the NHL, joining the reigning world champion Montreal Canadiens at training camp. It is unclear exactly why he and relatively average fellow Ottawa players René Joliat and René Lafleur all got a chance with the Habs at the same time.

Signed as a free agent, he headed to Toronto with the team to open the season against the St-Pats, but Vézina was in fine form, and back stopped the Habs to an easy 7 to 1 victory, leaving Gene to warm the bench.

The very next day, Décosse was headed for home. The french language Ottawa newspaper Le Droit painted Décosse's return to Ottawa as a good thing, claiming the conditions offered by the Canadiens contract were not worth throwing ones future away for a few dollars. The paper did not elaborate on what those expectations were, but they were presumably equally unacceptable to René Joliat and René Lafleur, who also returned to the Ottawa area following their lone games in the NHL. The pressure of family no doubt also factored into Gene's decision, as he was the primary bread winner in the family following the loss of his father to Influenza.

Now back in Ottawa, Gene somewhat reluctantly returned to the amateur hockey ranks and would play two more seasons with the Ottawa New Edinburghs before hanging up his pads for good at the age of 25. With hockey behind him for the time being, Gene focused on his career and founded the "L'Opinion de Hull" newspaper and assumed the role of editor-in-chief. Described as a workaholic, Gene also took on various other positions which included the role of Provincial Finance Receiver for the city of Hull, Special Investigator for the provincial Receiver General and Director of Provincial Security for the city in addition to serving as a city alderman for two years. During this time, he would return to the newspaper offices at the end of the day to work late into the night.



Not one to sit still, Gene also continued to make time for his love of sports, which now included baseball. He took on the roles of president for the Interporvincial League and the city of Hull League. In 1940, he built Décosse Stadium which was the centre of baseball activity for a decade before outgrowing it's needs, and falling victim to expropriation to make way for office buildings. He also served as director of the National Baseball Team in Ottawa and as manager of the Ottawa Auditorium.

In 1936 Gene returned to hockey as a coach, putting together the Hull Volants team from what was described as "leftover" players. Against all odds, the team had a great season and went on to win the OCHL championship, earning them a birth in the Allan Cup's eastern finals, were they were later defeated.

During the Christmas holiday season of 1954-55, the long hours of hard work and volunteering caught up to Gene, and he was admitted to hospital following a heart attack. On January 2nd, 1955, he succumbed to heart failure, leaving behind his wife and son. As the city he had given his life to continued to grow, Gene's contributions were honoured with the naming of Décosse street.

More Masked Men

I recently updated my Montreal Canadiens goalie post titled "Who Were Those Masked Men?.

It features 75 goaltenders to have played for the Habs from 1909 to the present and over 40 more who were either drafted, signed or traded for by the team but never made it to the NHL. Many of the names are instantly recognizable, and some others are quite surprising. There are lots of curious names in the listing, some remembered and others surely forgotten through time.

The listing created is meant to serve as a type of database, with hyperlinks to sites that detail the career stats and timelines of these mysterious men behind the masks. Try as I did, I could not find one singular site dedicated only to the Canadiens goalies over the years.
























In time, I will be adding more information to the post, in regards to records with the Canadiens, others who were signed as free agents, playoff wins, individual awards, and other pertinant details as I come across them. There is a lack of factual detail concerning the original 6 era, and even less for the Habs pre-NHL years of 1909-17.

Over the years, I have heard of certain goalies, such as Glenn "Chico" Resch, one-time Islander goalie, as having at one point belonged to Montreal, and the next such statistical data I will pursue will be trade logs where such information can be found.

Anyone knowing where I can access such sites or information, it would be tremendously appreciated if you could drop me a note in the comment box or at my e-mail address.

For those interested in finding out more about the goaltenders who've played for other teams in the NHL since 1917, be sure to check out the Goalie Archive and Hockey Goalies.org. There are also dozens of netminders profiled at Joe Pelletier's Legends of Hockey under the heading of Goalie Legends. Joe has recently began posting NHL Playoff Legends and has kicked off the feature with an excellent read on this one-time Habs prospect pictured below.

Don't Rush Price: Kolzig

(Note: A commenter of this piece has linked to my Habs 75 goalies post from a few days back. In case anyone has missed Stubbs' articles, both sections of it are reprinted below. Following the Gazette link will provide additional Kolzig audio. Stubbs also wrote on Price back on March 13.)

Washington Capitals goaltending star Olaf Kolzig, who made 36 saves in his team's 4-1 loss to the Canadiens' victory on Saturday, is in a unique position regarding Montreal blue-chip netminding prospect Carey Price.

In the fall of 2004, shortly before he purchased a large piece of the Western Hockey League's Tri-City Americans – Price's junior team the past four seasons – Olie the Goalie spent several months working on and off the ice with the 17-year-old.

Kolzig now hears the suggestions coming from many corners that Price might well be in the Canadiens net as early as next season, and he recalls his own experience, stepping from junior directly into the NHL – for a very brief spell.





















An update: Price was named first star in Saturday's 2-1 Tri-Cities victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds to tie at 1-1 the best-of-seven WHL divisional semi-final playoff. On Friday, Price made 30 saves and was beaten just once in the 2-0 series-opening win for Seattle, the Thunderbirds' second goal coming into an empty net.

A junior with Tri-Cities in 1989, Kolzig began that season in Washington, playing two games for the Capitals just months after being their first-round (19th overall) draft choice. He was returned to the Americans to finish up the year.

Kolzig spent the better part of the next four seasons in the minors, and while he doesn't recommend that kind of stay for Price, he wonders what's the rush to get the promising youngster into the NHL, before he's seasoned a little as a professional?















(Note: This is the Dave Stubbs piece in today's Montreal Gazette, dated Sunday March 25, 2007.)

Red, white and blue-chip goaltending prospect Carey Price says he’s coming to the Canadiens training camp next fall to earn a job in the Montreal net.

Don Nachbaur, Price’s coach with the Western Hockey League’s Tri-City Americans, believes his junior star could make the huge leap to the NHL in a single bound, without benefit of seasoning in the minors.

But Washington Capitals goalie Olaf Kolzig, while hailing the 19-year-old’s physical gifts, mental strength and the poise he showed in leading Canada to January’s world junior title, is a slightly leaky, quite sensible cloud over the Price parade.

A 15-season NHL veteran and co-owner of the Americans, his junior alma mater, Kolzig questions the rush for Price to be thrust into a Canadiens net.

"Montreal has a different set of pros and cons than 29 other NHL cities – the history of goaltending here, the scrutiny and the pressure," Kolzig said Friday over an hour-long coffee at the Capitals downtown hotel.

"Carey has the physical ability to make the Canadiens, there’s no question. And while I think he could handle the pressure well, it might be too much, too soon. I don’t see him making the team here next year because of all the other things that go with being a goaltender in Montreal."

Kolzig has played his entire pro career in the Capitals organization, drafted in the first round, 19th overall, in 1989. He began the 1989-90 season with the Capitals, playing two games before being returned to Tri-Cities in upstate Washington.

It was another three years before he’d be back in the NHL for a snack, five before he had a main-course taste following stints with four American and East Coast league teams.

But Kolzig, 37 next month, believes that two championships he won in the minors built the foundation for his NHL career, which has earned him two all-star games, the Vézina Trophy, a trip to the 1998 Stanley Cup final and legendary status with his adoring Capitals fans.

"Goaltending is the hardest position to make the jump (from junior to the NHL). You don’t realize how big it is," he said. "It’s one thing to impress over a month, but it’s totally different to do it over a full year.

"There’s the skill of the players you’ll face night in and night out, the pressure of being paid to perform your best every night. There’s living on your own, managing your money, doing the everyday stuff as an adult that a kid takes for granted.

"I’m an old school guy, and I think that everybody, no matter what level – with exceptions like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin – should spend at least a year in the minors to go through that grind so that when you’re in NHL you really appreciate where you’re at."













This said, Kolzig is dazzled by what he’s seen from Price, the Canadiens’ first pick, fifth overall, in the 2005 entry draft.

They first met in September 2004, during the NHL lockout when Kolzig fine-tuned the 17-year-old native of Anahim Lake, B.C., for a few months.

"My first impression was:’Whoa, this kid’s going to be great, he’s head and shoulders above where I was at 17,’ " recalled Kolzig, who came to the net by chance at age 10, earning a shutout in his first game.

"Then there’s his demeanour. To me, that is what’s going to make Carey very successful, especially in Montreal. He doesn’t get too high or too low."

Kolzig worked on Price’s fundamentals, teaching him that no matter his quickness or glove skill, it’s the basics around which a goalie builds his game.

The two drilled footwork; Price was strong moving one way through the crease, but a little off balance the other.

"Even with the talent and the future he has, Carey showed me a great deal of respect," Kolzig said, praising the mentoring of Price’s father, Jerry, a former minor-pro goalie and 1978 Philadelphia Flyers draft pick.

"Mostly I was there as his big brother and to help him keep any kind of slump from lasting. I gave him some mental tools he could use so that if he ever got into a funk, he could get out of it more quickly.

"There are so many goaltenders who, on talent and skill level, should be here ahead of me. I worked on the mental side of it, and having that belief in yourself makes a world of difference. The only way you’ll succeed is with what you have between the ears."

The Americans considered trading Price before this season, realizing the goalie’s value in his final season of junior eligibility as his team headed into what seemed to be a rebuilding year.

But GM and Western Hockey League executive-of-the-year Bob Tory engineered a few shrewd deals and the Americans enjoyed a club-record season, finishing at 47-23-1-1.

Price, 30-13-1 with three shutouts and a save percentage of .917, last week was named top goalie in the WHL’s Western Conference for 2006-07, and now has his team in a first-round playoff series against Seattle.

The Americans went into last night’s late game trailing the Thunderbirds 1-0 in their best-of-seven division semi-final, spending 18 minutes shorthanded in losing Friday’s opener 2-0. Price allowed one goal on 30 shots, the second finding an empty net.

Kolzig keenly follows the team online and hopes they’re still in action when he goes west to join them in a few weeks.

The franchise was on thin ice in 2005 when then-co-owners Brian Burke and Glen Sather announced plans to move it to Chilliwack, B.C. That was shot down by league governors, though the two were granted an expansion team in Chilliwack.

Kolzig, with Dallas Stars friend and former Americans teammate Stu Barnes, stepped in. Both have offseason homes in the area and they arrived as badly needed local ownership, co-presidents with a commitment to the club’s long-term future.

GM Tory and Dennis Loman complete the ownership group.

"It’s been great, but I haven’t been able to be there and be involved. That’s for when my career is done," said Kolzig, who figures he’ll play until he’s 40.

"I’ll be more hands-on, learning the business, finding a way to market and improve the junior game and attending meetings."

On the buses again?

"No," he said, laughing, "scouting peewee games in Manitoba doesn’t interest me."

But Kolzig will watch the progress of Carey Price with a sharp eye, aware that he might see his junior-team superstar at the opposite end of an NHL rink before his own career is done.

"I’m amazed I made it through one NHL game, my goal when I was drafted," he said, now two games shy of 700. "But I’ve always believed in myself, and that will be my advice to Carey.

"I’ll tell him, ‘Don’t believe everything you hear, good or bad. You’re not always as good as people say you are, and you’re never as bad. Just believe in yourself, and draw on what you’ve done.’

"Carey will have some experiences that he probably won’t like, but they’ll make him stronger as a person and a goaltender. He should enjoy the game and absorb the history, especially in Montreal. This is an unbelievable city."