This Day in Hockey History – October 20, 1965 – An All-Star Game Without the All Stars…Almost

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The 19th National Hockey League All-Star game, scheduled to launch the 1965-66 season, was set to take place on October 20, 1965. The Montreal Canadiens, winners of the 1965 Stanley Cup, would take on the All-Star team at the Montreal Forum. However, as the date loomed, the game was at risk of being without many of its “all stars.”  The problem? Contracts.

On the eve of the game those players who hadn’t signed a contract for the season with their teams were considered ineligible to take the ice.  The players who had been selected for the All-Star team but who were ineligible included: Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, of the Chicago Black Hawks; Roger Crozier, of the Detroit Red Wings; and Bobby Baun, Tim Horton, Bob Pulford, and Dave Keon, of the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Also unlikely from the Toronto Maple Leafs was Carl Brewer.

All-Star coach, and head coach of the Black Hawks, Billy Reay was uncertain of the lineup with face-off fast approaching.

“Hull was reported asking for an unprecedented $100,000 contract following his brilliant first half-season last year and a big comeback in the semi-final playoffs,” wrote Dick Bacon of The Ottawa Journal.

Crozier, a goaltender, signed his contract the day before the game was to be played. As it turned out, Reay had to use his own Glenn Hall of the Hawks between the pipes when the game actually took place, as Crozier got sick after the pre-game warm-ups.

 In the nick of time, the National Hockey League’s governors made the decision to allow everyone, signed or unsigned, to play in the game.  There were still a few missing stars. Black Hawk Mikita was not on the roster. And Brewer, of the Leafs, had taken the hockey world by surprise on Monday, the 18th, when he announced his retirement.

“Carl Brewer has decided to quit hockey and hopes to be placed on the voluntary retired list of the National Hockey League,” announce The Gazette of Montreal.

“Hockey’s a great game, but I’ve decided to retire for personal reasons. That’s all I care to say,” said Brewer.

Brewer, a defenseman, was replaced on the All-Star roster by Marcel Pronovost, who had spent the previous 14 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, but in the fall of 1965 played for the Leafs.

The game got underway, as scheduled, at 8 P.M., in front of more than 14,000 fans at the Montreal Forum. It was a record-breaking 7th All-Star game appearance for the Canadiens as the reigning Stanley Cup champions.

Toe Blake, coach of the Canadiens, used both his goaltenders—Gump Worsley and Charlie Hodge—in tandem, swapping them out roughly every five minutes.

After a scoreless, but penalty-filled, first period, Montreal’s Jean Béliveau and Jacques Laperriere scored the first two goals within 11 minutes of play in the second period.  Not to be outdone, the All-Stars Norm Ullman scored at 12:40 and Hull knotted things up at 16:35.  Gordie Howe, scored at 19:19, to give the All-Stars a 3-2 lead. 

In the third period, Johnny Bucyk, scored the All-Stars’ fourth goal at 10:01, giving his team a two-goal lead.  With less than one and a half minutes left in the game, Howe, unassisted, scored a shorthanded goal, giving the All-Stars a 5-2 lead.  The final score was All-Stars 5, Montreal 2.

“The All-Stars counted four of their five goals against Charlie Hodge, who alternated at five-minute intervals throughout the contest with Lorne (Gump) Worsley.” reported The Vancouver Sun the following day.

With his two goals and two assists, Howe—“Mr. Hockey”—was named the MVP of the game.

Perhaps the win going to the All-Stars should have been anticipated.

“Since the game was inaugurated in 1947 as a source of revenue for the players pension fund, the All-Stars hold an 8-5 edge over the Stanley Cup champions, with three games tied. On two other occasions the format was changed to have the first All-Stars play the second All-Stares. Both these games ended in deadlocks,” reported Dick Bacon in The Ottawa Journal before the game got underway.

Maybe, in an effort to no longer run into the problems of unsigned All-Stars in the future, the 1965 All-Star game was the final one played before the actual NHL season got underway.

Additional Sources:

• “Hull Top All-Stars, 5-2,” The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), Thursday, October, 21, 1965, p. 52.
• Dick Bacon, “All Stars Face Prospect of Playing Without Stars,” The Ottowa Journal (Ottawa, Ontario), Wednesday, October 20, 1965, p. 20.
• “Carl Brewer Quits Hockey,” The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec), Tuesday, October 19, 1965, p. 31.