This Day in Hockey History – July 1, 1941 – G is for GAG Line

Jul 1, 2019

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During the 1960s and 1970s, no one represented the New York Rangers more than right wing Rod Gilbert. With his skating partner since childhood, center Jean Ratelle, and left wing Vic Hadfield, they had great success on the G-A-G Line (Goal-A-Game). It all started with Gilbert’s birth on July 1, 1941.

Gilbert was born in Princeville (between Montreal and Quebec City), and he was raised in the Pointe-Aux-Trembles neighborhood of Montreal. The arena there has since been named the Rodrigue Gilbert Civic Centre. The Gilbert family had five children, and the brothers would share equipment and spend their days skating outdoors. The second-youngest Gilbert was a huge fan of the Montreal Canadiens and emulated his favorite player, Bernard “Boom Boom” Geoffrion. “‘Boom Boom’ had this big slapshot and (we loved it because) it made a lot of noise against the boards.”

At 12, Gilbert began his hockey partnership with Jean Ratelle. According to Gilbert, “When I first saw him on the ice, I said, ‘You play with me all the time, okay?’” Naturally then, when 14-year-old Gilbert was recruited for the Rangers’ Junior B team, he convinced Yvon Prud’homme to sign Ratelle “without ever seeing him play.” Gilbert then played for the Rangers’ Junior A team, the Guelph Biltmores. After a season there, the 17-year-old told the coach to bring Ratelle saying, “We’d like to play together.” They finished the season with 61 and 51 points, respectively. The next season, 1959-60, they won the Memorial Cup. Just as Gilbert was finishing his junior career, he fell into the boards after skating over some debris, which basically left him paralyzed until he had surgery on his vertebra.

Finally, in 1962, Gilbert began playing full-time with the Rangers. “My career didn’t start out on fire,” noted Gilbert. He still managed to score 31 points despite issues from his back injury forcing him to wear a custom-fitted brace until he could have another operation. The Rangers also struggled during that time. Gilbert remarked, “When I got to New York, the Rangers were in last place. We were re-building. . . . We fought with the Bruins for fifth place. We had Muzz Patrick as our general manager. Lynn Patrick was in Boston. We used to say that whoever finished sixth won the Patrick Trophy.” Gilbert had another back surgery in January 1966, and his scoring took off soon thereafter. After having basically died and come back, Gilbert said, “A doctor here in New York saved my career. He took a bone from the pelvis and interwove it between the fourth, fifth and third vertebrae. It made a solid piece out of it. I played another thirteen or fourteen years after that.”

The high point of Gilbert’s career began in 1970-71, when the GAG Line formed. “It was quite a formation. Jean and I had played together since peewee. We were good together. We needed somebody to complement us. Jean Ratelle was a left-handed shot and he came to the right wing all the time with the puck. Jean and I needed somebody to go to the front of the net and hold his ground. Emile Francis decided that Vic Hadfield was the guy. Vic had a very short fuse. He was a tough guy; very robust. He established himself well in front (of the net) and could shake himself loose from the defense.”

That season, the Rangers set a new record for themselves with 109 points (49-18-11). The next season, the line became the NHL’s first in which all three topped 40 goals, and they ranked third through fifth in the top NHL scorers. The only two to beat them (Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr) played for their Stanley Cup rivals, the Boston Bruins. Gilbert commented, “The bottom feeders of the NHL for so long became forces. And so did the Boston Bruins. . . . We were supposed to win the Stanley Cup in ’71, ’72 and ’73. We had a really good team, but Bobby Orr made the difference between the two of us. Boston won two Cups instead of the Rangers. What a rivalry we had! We were very close in talent.”

In 1972, Gilbert and his linemates joined Team Canada playing the USSR for the Summit Series. “Team Canada ’72 was the greatest accomplishment of my career. It was the event of the century in Canada,” said Gilbert. He and the team improved dramatically over the course of the series. “That win with Team Canada in 1972 was my Stanley Cup.”

Gilbert played 18 seasons for the Rangers, becoming their all-time leading scorer in points (1,021) and goals (406). In addition to still holding those records, he also had the most game-winning goals (52). In 12 of those seasons, he scored 20 plus goals, and in five straight years, he scored at least 75 points. Gilbert became the first Ranger to score 300 goals back on March 24, 1974. In the NHL, he ranked in the top-ten scorers five times. With the start of the 1977-78 season, Gilbert’s contract negotiations had not gone well, so he only ended up playing 19 more games before retiring.

Over time, Gilbert earned numerous awards. For his dedication and perseverance, he received the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy in 1975-76. He was named Rangers MVP at least three times. The Rangers retired his No. 7 on October 14, 1979, as the franchise’s first ever retired sweater. For his contribution to hockey within the U.S., he received the Lester Patrick Trophy in 1991. Upon his 1982 induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, 41-year-old Gilbert remarked, “At no time do you foresee that there is any possibility that at the end of your career, your peers and the fans are going to recognize you by being elected to the Hall of Fame. You never think that. I had played all those years in New York. I didn’t even think about the honour. You don’t even know the meaning of it until you get the phone call. You say, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been elected to the Hall of Fame!’”