NHL playoff time is a perfect time to remember one of the league’s all-time great goalies, Glenn Hall.
Glenn Hall will be remembered for an ironman record. The Hall of Fame goaltender had a record of 502 consecutive starts, a mark that remains untouched. He achieved the record without even wearing a mask.
Hall was also the innovator of the butterfly style, in which he would drop to his knees, spread his legs to clear the bottom of the net, and rely on his gloves to handle high shots.
Born in 1931 during the Great Depression, Hall began playing hockey in his native Saskatchewan, where he initially played forward before switching to goaltending at the peewee level. Hall played minor league hockey for four seasons, playing for the Humboldt Indians and the Windsor Spitfires. Hall also played with the Indianapolis Capitals of the AHL and the Edmonton Flyers of the Western Hockey League.
Hall as a Red Wing (photo courtesy Detroit Hockey Insider)
In the NHL, he first played for the Detroit Red Wings in the 1955-1956 season, becoming the team’s starting goalie and winning the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year, posting a .925 save percentage and recording 12 shutouts. He was also runner-up for the Vezina Trophy (Montreal’s Jacques Plante won the award that season), and the two goalies dueled in the 1956 Stanley Cup Finals, which the Canadiens won.
In his second season with Detroit, Hall played every game and led the team to a 38-win season. Then he joined the Chicago Black Hawks, where he didn’t miss a game over his first five seasons. The best season in that string was 1961, when Hall propelled the Black Hawks to their first Stanley Cup Championship since 1938, winning the Cup by beating his old team, the Red Wings.
It was also during his time with the Black Hawks that his consecutive starts as a goaltender ended. The year was 1962. But Hall continued to play good hockey, earning the Vezina Trophy in 1963 and 1967.
Glenn Hall as a Blue (photo courtesy the NHL)
Hall was planning to retire after the ’67 season until the St. Louis Blues selected him in the expansion draft. It was a momentous decision, for him and for the team. Hall helped the first-year St. Louis Blues reach the Stanley Cup Final, but the Montreal Canadiens then swept them. Hall won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MPV award for his play in the 1968 playoffs.
Hall’s Blues returned to the Stanley Cup Final in 1969 and 1970, but again the team was swept (by the Canadians, then the Bruins). Hall was in the net when Bobby Orr scored in overtime and became one of the most famous plays in NHL history. Orr flew through the air with the winning goal that led the Bruins to their first title since 1941.
Hall played one more season before retiring in 1971. His overall NHL records include 407 wins, 84 shutouts, a goals against average of 2.50, and he was a seven-time first-team All-Star, playing in 13 All-Star Games. Hall was elected to hockey’s Hall of Fame (1975), and he was also enshrined in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, the Chicago Sports Hall of Fame, and the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.
Hall as a Blackhawk (photo courtesy Chicago Sun-Times)
Hall’s hockey exploits included his penchant for getting sick before playing. “I always felt I played better if I was sick before the game. If I weren’t sick, I felt I hadn’t done everything I could to try to win.”
After playing, Hall transitioned to coaching. He was a goaltending consultant for the St. Louis Blues and the Colorado Rockies. In 1989, Hall won his 3rd Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames as a goaltending coach.
Glenn Hall passed away at 94 in January of this year. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman noted Hall’s passing with these words:
“Glenn Hall was the very definition of what all hockey goaltenders aspire to be. Aptly nicknamed ‘Mr. Goalie,” Glenn was sturdy, dependable, and a spectacular talent in net.”
