This Day in Hockey History – October 6, 1955 – Hall Starts a Streak

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Glenn Hall was born in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, October 3, 1931. After signing with the Detroit Red Wings in 1949, he spent the next four years playing in the juniors with the Windsor Spitfires for two years and then in the minors for the next two.

Though he was called up by the Red Wings during the 1952 playoffs, he didn’t actually get into any of the games. That didn’t stop Detroit from putting his name on the Stanley Cup that year. He had yet to actually play in his first NHL game which wouldn’t happen until the next season. He played just six games at the NHL level during the 1952-53 season.

It took him three more years before he finally earned his spot with the Red Wings as their starting goaltender to begin the 1955-56 season, after the Wings general manager, Jack Adams traded Terry Sawchuk during the offseason.

“As a dealer in hockey flesh Jack Adams of the Detroit Red Wings makes the fabulous Trader Horn look like a piker. Last Saturday [May 28, 1955] he consummated an unexpected four-for-four deal with the Chicago Black Hawks. Yesterday’s [June 3, 1955] deal with the Boston Bruins, in which Goalie Terry Sawchuk, three-time winner of the Vezina Trophy, was the key figure, was not unexpected but there can be no denying that its magnitude was startling,” reported Doug Vaughn in The Windsor Star.

“I’ve waited a long time to get this far,” Hall said a few days before the Red Wings season opener. “I know playing in the NHL will be tougher. Every player up here can really fire that puck at you. They’re more accurate too.”

Two nights later on October 6, 1955, Hall would suit up for the first time as the starting goaltender, as the Red Wings opened their season against the Chicago Blackhawks. It didn’t go quite as Hall would have liked.

“Leave it to Dick Irvin to spoil a good thing. He walks into Chicago, takes hold of the dying Black Hawks and fires them up to such a point that they wreck in 60 minutes a record Detroit held for 16 years. Hawks opened their National Hockey League season Thursday night with a surprising 3-2 victory over the new-look Red Wings. It was the first time since 1938 the Wings were beaten in a home opener,” printed The Calgary Herald the next day.

While it may not have been the most auspicious of beginnings in net for Hall, it turned out to be the first of 502 consecutive starts for the netminder. It was not until November 7, 1962, now playing with Chicago to whom he was traded before the 1957-58 season began, that he had to be relieved by Denis DeJordy midway through the first period against the Boston Bruins; the result of his back tightening up. And then three days later DeJordy played the entire game against the Montreal Canadiens.

“There comes a time when the most durable of iron men must take a rest,” reported The Daily Chronicle in DeKalb, Illinois on November 8th. “It came Wednesday night for Glenn Hall, the Chicago Black Hawks’ goalie who had logged more than 33,000 consecutive minutes while playing 551 <sic> National Hockey League games.”

Hall had injured his back during practice the day before the game and was suffering from a pinched nerve that prevented him from making a stop on the Bruins’ first shot of the game.

“It was a shot I could have saved, but the pain in my back made me afraid to bend down as far as I should have. I decided that it was time to get out of the game,” Hall described.

Hall’s record is something that will stand forever, in large part because of the use of backup goalies and limiting the number of games starting goaltenders usually play in today’s NHL.

While his streak may have ended, he would continue to play in the NHL for another eight seasons, the last four with the St. Louis Blues, before retiring in 1971.

Additional Resources:

• Doug Vaughan, “On the Rebound,” The Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario), Saturday, June 4, 1955, p. 26.
• “Wings Sold Solid on Goalie Glenn Hall,” The Lethbridge Herald (Lethbridge, Alberta), Tuesday, October 4, 1955, p.7.
• “Hawks Away on Right Foot,” The Calgary Herald (Calgary, Alberta), Friday, October 7, 1955, p. 46.
• “Glenn Hall’s String Ends at 551 Games,” The Daily Chronicle (DeKalb, Illinois), Thursday, November 8, 1962, p. 16.