The Day Bob Probert Knocked At My Door

By Thom Racine





















It was a normal day off, after working a weekend night shift and sleeping until noon. I knocked the cobwebs out and grabbed a stale cup of coffee, when the phone rang to tell me that a visitor would be dropping by.

He looked a little different than I expected, and for an instant I thought I might have to start ducking.

Bob Probert was on my doorstep. He heard I that wanted him to sign some things and was taking a few minutes to oblige me.

I shook his hand as he entered and instantly realized I was shaking the very set of knuckles that had been so feared for 15 NHL seasons.

You can feel the barely veiled anger in his handshake, and see the scars that came with the job that made him the stuff of legend.



















Much has been written about Bob Probert, and not all of it good. His very public private life makes him less of an enigma, if he ever was one at all. Because Probert is so revered, we tend see him differently. We rehearse what we would say to them if we ever got a chance, and if and when it happens, we forget everything and stand in a fog. Players are used to it, in fact are likely embarrassed - for us.

The obvious topic of discussion when you meet Probert would be to go over some of his bouts - Crowder, Domi, Coxe, McSorley or Semenko.

What one tends to forget is that along with 3,300 penalty minutes, are close to 400 career points, including 163 goals with the Red Wings and Blackhawks. Probert also added 48 playoff points in 81 games along the way.

In a way it may mean more to him one day than any of his epic battles. Make no mistake he knows what people associate him with and I am sure he must catch himself day dreaming from time to time as he hear's the crowd at the Joe rise to their feet in unison as he would get set to square off.

I was in that crowd once, and experienced the sight first hand.

That same Joe crowd let him know again, during his introduction on Steve Yzerman's retirement night this past January, just how much they love him. After all he has put himself through on and off the ice, he smiled, saying the ovation made him feel pretty good.

The topic I wanted to discuss with Probert took place on February 13th, 1999.

That night, Probert was not the usual suspect to accomplish the feat of scoring the last ever goal at Maple Leaf Gardens. On November 12th, 1931 when the Gardens held it's first game the Hawks won 2-1. The Hawks Harold "Mush" Marsh scored the first ever goal in the Gardens. As the Hawks had opened the Gardens, it was no accident they were invited back to close the hockey shrine.They won again, this time by a 6-2 score.

Bob takes the story from here.

"I scored with about ten minutes to go in the third period. There was lots of time left to play, so I didn't think about it too much. Guys were keeping their goal pucks that night, and at the bench the trainer would tape the puck and put it away. Then with about four minutes to go I thought about it and figured I might have a chance, and how cool would it be."

"Then the ref called a penalty on us, there was about a minute and a half left in the game. I remember thinking they don't want me to be the guy. The Leafs did everything but score. I thought they might come and take the puck to the Hall of Fame but I still have it, and it's for my son one day. It could have been anyone that night but I'm glad it's me.I have the stick too" he added.

Probert's five minute autograph session had turned into an hour in my home. This notorious legend was as much a little boy as I am every time I open the door to my sports room. He talked about playing in Anaheim's home opener and was surprised when I pulled out a ticket stub from that very game.

He looked at cards he had collected as a kid and, like all of us who collected, remembered them and that gum that came with them. He found a few pucks from Windsor area teams that he either played for, or knew guys that did.

Lately Probert has been doing some speaking engagements about his career, and the demons he has faced.

He plays in old timers games and hopes to play here in town one day. He even took a couple of jabs at the heavy bag in the garage reminding me that it's still ingrained in his psyche.

As he walked away, I could not help but watch him head up the street where five neighborhood kids were exercising their Canadian right to play road hockey. As he approached the game he leaned towards his right, I am sure he said something as they paused ever so briefly to let him walk through. None of them had any idea who had just walked by and that was the best part. I smiled because I knew. It really was one of those great Canadian hockey moments.

Bob, your legion of fans hope that you continue to have the courage to face every day, and know that you made my day when you knocked on my door.


(Note from Robert L - I was about to post a story on Probert this afternoon, as I'd read about his hockey school via a link from Mirtle's site. At that very moment Thom reached me with this article on Bob, so I'm including my bit here as well. Probert has a little known connection to Cornwall, if I were to divulge it, he might well bring his knuckles to my door! Thanks for the puck, Thom.)

A caricature of Windsor's Bob Probert on the cover of a brochure for his hockey school is definitely eye-catching. Seated in the penalty box in his Detroit Red Wings uniform, there's a bandage under Probert's right eye and instead of hockey gloves.

One of the game's toughest customers ever is ready to go, wearing Everlast boxing gloves.

Probert appeared in Toronto last Tuesday, taking in the Leafs / Devils, or shall I suggest, the Belak / Janssen tilt, while also making stops on TSN's Off The Record and Leafs TV.

The Bob Probert Hockey School will feature Probert and guest instructors including current Red Wings Chris Chelios and Kyle Calder, former Wings Joe Kocur and Petr Klima and ex-Toronto Maple Leafs Dave Hutchison and Ernie Godden and will offer training in passing, shooting, stickhandling, skating and goaltending.

Probert has been a busy man of late, and you can read all about what he's been up to here.

A Tale For The Grandchildren, And An NHL Record Too!

By Thom Racine

The best part about a site like this, is that anyone can tell stories that would otherwise be locked away, known only to the people involved.

In the giant scale of NHL history and folklore, this is one of those stories that have to be told because it belongs in those history vaults, just as the best told stories we all have known over the years.

As most Saturday nights go in the NHL, November 18th, 1995 had the usual heavy schedule.

In the original six city of Boston, the Bruins were hosting an original expansion team in the St. Louis Blues. On the Blues bench was a goalie that had been in this position for five years total, 3 in Pittsburgh and 2 in Toronto.

Good enough to be there on that bench, but never called upon, and wondering if he ever would be.

The Blues were his third team. In fact, he had dressed for about 15 games in his NHL career to this point, playing only exhibition games over the years, yet oddly he did have a Stanley Cup ring from his first year in Pittsburgh. He is seated at the right hand of Mario Lemieux in the 1990-91 Stanley Cup photo.

There have been a few interesting moments along the way as well.

One particular exhibition games was in Tampa Bay, played in an open-air stadium in front of 25,000 fans. The Kings and Wayne Gretzky were the opposition and the Penguins showcased their newest star Jaromir Jagr. He would get the win that night, sealed when "JJ" scored into an empty net with six seconds to go.

In his excitement, Jagr never retrieved the puck from his very first NHL goal, and at the final buzzer, the goalie scooped it up - having won his first NHL game. Exhibition game as it was, it made no difference to him.

When Jaromir realized his gaff, he tried to arm-wrestle that biscuit away on the flight home. The goalie would not let go, almost as if he knew "JJ" would score a few more, and he may never win another.

That night in Boston was one in a long string that found him sitting on that bench, still holding on to his dream.

He was now 28 years old, and 8 years earlier had stormed onto the college hockey scene in Boston. An unknown, who would carve out a name for himself at the "Safety School" on Huntington Avenue and lead the Northeastern Husky's to two Beanpot Championships. He'd win the tournament MVP and Eberly award for top goalie twice.

In his senior year, a blocker save made late in the game off current Canucks GM Dave Nonis of Maine, resulted in the first ever Hockey East Championship.

They would vote him an All-American twice, and years later into the Beanpot HOF. He was named to the Hockey East team of the decade and the Husky HOF as well.

He was a surefire prospect and no one thought he would have to toil harder than most for his opportunity.

Ten minutes remained in the Bruins game when they took a three-goal lead. This was the realization of every Canadian kids dream. It is ironic that it would be in the very same city where it all started, when he was set to make his NHL debut - insignificant at the time to all except himself.

Who would have ever thought, that a one in a million chance happening, would be the first of two rather strange incidents in NHL history? The first of the oddities for this career minor league goalie, came a few minutes after entering the game.

Cam Neely took a snap shot from the slot, and there it was - his first save. It was similar to one's he'd made thousands of times on the backyard rink, or house league games back home.

After the ensuing draw, the next whistle stop a few seconds later was for a puck out of play, which happened to land in the Blues bench. Quick thinking by the Blues trainer led to the puck being saved for that goalie.

Now goalies keep momento's of their first wins and other milestones. yet I have to wonder how many goalies have the puck from their first save!

It would be the first game of 11 he would play in for the remainder of the season. A brief playoff appearance would bring the total to 12.

In one of those games, Dino Ciccarelli scored one of his 600 plus NHL goals on him.

Dale Hawerchuk would score his 500th goal in Toronto one night and that goalie would be the last of the Blues to congratulate his teammate on the ice.

The Blues relied heavily on Grant Fuhr who would set a modern day record for consecutive starts in one season, that year. Fuhr recorded his 300th win along the way, and for some reason, gave that goalie the puck as a memory of the season he spent backing him up, spelling him when coach Mike Keenan had seen enough.

At the end of that year he'd had a bird's eye view of Steve Yzerman's double OT winner in game 7 of the playoffs. From his vantage point, he knew before even Stevie Y did, that it was going in.

He traveled to Japan with the Sharks a few years later as the NHL opened the season in the land of the rising sun.

He'd also travel to London, England with the Leafs in 1994, for a couple of pre-season games against the Rangers.

Not a bad journey for 11 regular season games.

Oh, and of those games, he never won any.

He never started any either.

As a result, he currently holds the dubious NHL mark, or record if you wish, of having played in the most NHL games without a start.

For Bruce Racine, the man surely wishes some things had turned out different.

In a recent conversation with him, he admits he has a few regrets, and looks back on all of it with great memories for what the game did for him along the way.

Fifteen years playing the game, the game we all dream of playing.

The Bell Tolled...But Where?

By Thom Racine

All good stories start out with a history based on facts, some can be far fetched and in some cases not even true.

Several years ago I was made aware of the possibility that a Bell that once sounded at the old Victoria Arena prior to it burning down during the late 1930's (and nearly taking half of Cornwall with it) was in Oshawa Ontario. Bells were used before sirens and horns and buzzers to signal the end of periods among other things. So, it was possible.

It was only a bell but since it may have come from an arena in Cornwall and being a bit of a wanna-be sports historian I could not let it go with out trying. A rainy day project so to speak. As the years rolled by I could not find any information about the Bell and although the story was intriguing it appeared to be a dead end as far as confirming it.
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Was it salvaged after the fire and some how ended up finding it's way to Oshawa?

Did such a bell even exist and if it was in Oshawa where was it?

Like any good mystery one has to ask questions. I returned to the original source of information and confirmed that a bell did exist and that it was displayed in of all places a funeral home somewhere in Durham Region.

Hmmm a funeral home! Another dead end perhaps!

Well a little research and a tip lead my search to, of all places, a prominent funeral home in Durham Region.

"It's in a glass case right in the lobby" advised another source.

Armstrong's Funeral home is a family run business that has been in the motor city of Durham since 1930. It's founders Matthew and his son, Albert "Army" Armstrong were prominent citizens. Army was quite the sportsman. He played golf and curled. He excelled at Tennis and was a hockey referee.

A referee eh! - That's encouraging!

"Army" Armstrong's sporting exploits eventually landed him in the Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame.

It was my best lead yet and now that I was sure I had at least found a bell, my next question was how it came to be placed in the Funeral Home lobby. That was easily explained when Armstrong's administrator Alison Craig informed me that it was placed there as it was one of Army's prized pieces of memorabilia.

I asked how he came into possession of it? "He's had it since the thirties." Damn, right era, yet still no closer to the answer.

So what exactly was the Cornwall connection to this story?

The answer was in the photo that Alison sent of the Bell on display. Seems that the Bell has more of a story to tell. Seems like it never survived the fire in Cornwall because it did not have too. Seems like that Bell never hung in our old Victoria arena at all. But, that's not to say it never rang there?

I know this is sounding like a Paul Harvey "rest of the story", and maybe it is because in order for that Bell to have ever rang at the Victoria rink, old Army would have to have been here with it.

You see, before whistles, the referee's used bells to signal stoppages of play. And shown in the picture was Army Armstrong set to ring his Bell during a goalmouth scramble in a game played in the late thirtie's? Not at the Victoria rink though. You see, Army indeed was a prominent referee in the late 30's and was actually the referee for the Allen Cup final played in 1938 in Calgary Alberta.

The very same Allen Cup when the Trail Smoke Eaters beat our Cornwall Flyers (3-1) to capture the crown and would eventually go on to win the 1939 World Championship.

One of the Flyers who played in that game remembers Army Armstrong as a "pretty good referee".

Fred Gardner, who passed away shortly after speaking to me at age 87, remembered the game against Trail and called them a "hell of a team." The Flyers played with only 8 skaters, half of what they had when they beat the Quebec Aces to advance to the Allen Cup. Like many of the players in that game, the war called them, and hockey was put on hold. For Fred Gardner, 6 years of his prime were lost due to the conflict.

Fred remembers the old Victoria rink too, and clearly remembers helping Herbie Faubert scrape and flood the ice. So, a Bell does exist. It happened in the 1930's and that's about the only truth to the original story. The Cornwall angle was simply that someone one day noticed the caption under the picture, which identified the teams involved, and on and on it went, until it landed on my lap the way it did. Researching this story proved a few things. Army Armstrong still "rang a bell" at this end of the province and the caption under the picture identifies the game as the "Memorial Cup".

That would be a rainy day project for someone at Armstrong's to correct one day.

It also allowed me to spend a little time speaking to a man who lived in a much different time, who prior to his death remained a link to those times. Thanks for that, Fred. One never knows what you can find when you are tossed a carrot. In this case it was well worth the search because "now you know the rest of the story".

Sorry, Mr. Harvey!

Cops and Robbers, Kids being Kids, a Jersey, and Something Cheesy

There are weird stories and then there are hoodoo voodoo tales, those of the variety filled with such coincidental occurances, it makes one truly believe that at times there is a greater karma at work in our lives.

The mention of Mario Lemieux at the Waiting for Stanley blog got me thinking about such a weirdness that all came together a few months back. This story is right up Tapeleg's alley, as it has to do with a particular jersey my daughter received as a gift. Given all the coincidental twists this story has, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Tapeleg and the giver of this gift have done business somewhere back in time.

There are a few back threads to unravelling this tale. Blindsided events back thru time that made everything oddly connect one particular morning. I'm rarely at a lost for words (insert joke here!), but I was on this day.

It starts when I met Thom Racine about 15 years ago. He is a well respected police officer with the Cornwall Police department. I know Thom just a little but he is very well known and much liked about town. He is quite active within the community doing a wide variety of activities. His father, Moe "The Toe" Racine was an excellent place kicker for the Ottawa Rough Riders in the 1960's. His brother Bruce was an NHL goalie for a time. Thom has done play by play on radio for the Cornwall Royals, been the house announcer for the Comets, hosted a sports card show on the community TV channel, and participated in dozens of other activities involving sport and community events. Among his most treasured passions is one wicked hockey memorabilia collection, with an accent on jerseys.

I didn't know this much about him when he knocked on my door all those years ago. He was at my home on a matter of police business. Back then I was heavily into the hockey card collecting and trading hobby and had a prized possesion stolen from right under my nose. My Mario Lemieux Rookie Card.

I had a neighbour with whom I exchanged cards with on a daily basis, and often she would send her son to pick up and deliver. One day, this boy was over to collect some trades, when the phone rang calling me to another room. Apparently this was when the boy lifted my card. I only noticed days later and was very hesistant to approach a friend to suggest her son had stolen from me. I managed to ease into the situation and find out that it was in fact he who'd stolen it. My friend had had enough of her sons sticky finger antics and wanted the police called. How Thom taught the boy a lesson without charging him was quite unique. He made him collate in numerical order a complete vendors case of 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Cards. A set of 396 into likely 40 or so sets. I'm sure he never wanted to see, let alone touch, another hockey card for quite a long while after.

This was the circumstances under which I got to know Thom. Over the years we would run into each other periodically and reminisce over that day.

At some point, Thom began making the rounds of primary schools with parts of his memorabilia collection. It was always an entertaining day for the kids, who got to check out some cool hockey stuff and connect with a local officer. He stopped by my daughter's school two years ago for one such day, and the school principal decided it would be a neat tie-in to have prizes and a trivia contest.

Thom complied by bringing out 3 members of the Cornwall Colts team for autographs and questions. I found out all of this much later. At the time I had no idea that Thom was even involved. My daughter had only refered to him as "some guy with lots of stuff".

A contest was part of the fun day. All the questions had either a local sports angle to them or be somehow connected to the Habs, Leafs, or Sens, thus simplifying the kids search for correct answers. The principal was Kennedy McDonald, younger brother of former NHLer Blair McDonald. Blair was the beneficiary of some smooth Gretzky passes in 1979-80, accounting for 48 goals. That was question #1. Kennedy did not want anyone to get all the questions correct, so he loaded a trick answer to one of them, so no one would score 25 out of 25. Parents were of course allowed to help. Since no one would get all the right answers the first prize would be drawn from a hat filled with all 55 participants.

Yours truly, saw to it that the hat had but two names in it!

Yes I got all 25 right. I knew 19 of the answers off hand, and did net searches on the rest. Both my daughters scored perfect. As far as the tricky trivia questions goes, it had to do with which year the Ottawa Senators won their first Stanley Cup in the NHL. Most answered the first year that they'd won it, in the NHA instead.

What ensued was the stuff of a kids comedy show. My oldest daughter badly wanted the signed Colts jersey, my youngest had no idea what was of any value. She had her young eyes on the collections of McDonald's NHL replica trophies. The principal drew her name to go first (my oldest didn't get to go second) and she went straight for the shiney little plastic toys. My oldest was fuming, "Daddy would have wanted that sweater!" "Would have" is right. Today,I wouldn't trade it for this annecdote. My daughter never quite got over it though.

I still collect memorabilia odds and ends. At my Kraft workplace this past winter, the company was running a national promo called "Skate With The Greats". We have a small store on my way out of the plant, and they had two large cardboard cutouts of players featured in the promo along with booklets of contest rules and product tie ins. One immediatly caught my eye. It was one of Dale Hawerchuk and Darryl Sittler. I went in to put my name on it, but it had already been taken. A second one featuring Steve Shutt and Yvan Cournoyer became my possession three months later when the promo ended.

It was so huge that I had to put both the back and front seats down in the car just to haul it away.

I was planning to give it to a friend of mine for whom I'd gotten others for, such as a Don Cherry cutout, a Gretzky and a Muller/Gilmour silhouette. He didn't want it.

His apartment was now too small. I placed it in the darkness of friend restaurant owners office in order to spook him into keeping it. He didn't want it.

He offered to find a home for it for me, and kept it in his office to wake himself up in fright each morning and it sat there for weeks. I offered to take it off his hands but he really wanted to be the one to give it away. He had somebody in mind. They didn't want.

All said "Thanks, but no thanks" - it was way too huge to place anywhere!

When the Canadiens played the Hurricanes in game six of these past playoffs, I watched the game on the big screen at this restaurant and went to get the cutout. I thought that placing it next to our table would provide good luck to my Habs, with Shutt and Cournoyer looking on. I got the night shift manager and we snuck quietly into the darkened office and there it was - gone! Needless to say the Habs were eliminated that night.

I found my owner friend two days later and asked who finally had found room for the cardboard monolith. No it wasn't the kid that ripped off my Lemieux RC, but close. It was someone named McDonald - who giving it to their Dad! Hmmm!

Round about this time, a senior sports writer in the city had passed away. He was well known about town also and had once written a book on the Cornwall Royals called "The Frozen Stage". He had a small sports column in a local weekly and when he passed, I saw myself filling his shoes. I applied, was given some consideration, but the job in the end landed in the hands of one Thom Racine.

After he had published a few columns, I used his e-mail address to contact and congratulate him. I asked him a question or two, and after all these years he remembered me from the stolen card incident. We were e-mailing each other for a bit after that as he was on holidays at the time. One day he sent me some awesome pics from his basement collection. I showed them to my oldest daughter who immediatly said " That's the guy who was at school with the Colts jersey I didn't win!" I explained to her how I knew him as she told me that she'd seen all that memorabilia at her school.

Next day when I e-mailed Thom and told him all this, he laughed and said he remembered that day, and those two kids, very clearly. He thought the story of how we missed out on the jersey was funny as hell and agreed it was more special than the sweater itself. We were throwing trivia questions back and forth at each other for a bit when suddenly he was no longer responding.

A half hour later there is a knock at my door. There is Thom and he's pulling a jersey out of a bag. "Here", he said, "give this to your daughter. Maybe she won't be so sad anymore about losing the other one."

At first I thought he was pulling out a Colts jersey, but instead he hands me this beauty:


Funniest thing was, he had no idea I worked at Kraft. I asked where he'd gotten it and he said it was from a Kraft plant manager who was a friend. I asked if he worked at the same location as I did, and he said that he worked out of Montreal. He asked me not to tell anyone about it (Shhh! It's just between us!) As it was way too large for my daughter for now, I wore it to work the very next day.

When I arrived at work I found I was scheduled for a one hour meeting/seminar prior to heading off to my line. I walked into the makeshift classroom office when a gentleman walks in, puts his books down on the desk, takes one look at me and says, "Hey cool sweater, I just gave mine away to a dear friend last week!"