This Day in Hockey History – November 9, 1996 – MacTavish Finishes Ahead
By the 1996-97 season, only one NHL player skated without a helmet, Craig MacTavish. In August 1979, the NHL had ruled that everyone had to wear a helmet but exempted players who signed NHL contracts before June 1, 1979. MacTavish was drafted in 1978, so he was grandfathered. Although he attempted to wear a helmet earlier in his career, he ditched it claiming, “It was just a comfort thing for me.” Thus, when he scored his final NHL goal on November 9, 1996, it was the last scored without a helmet.
As of the 1978 NHL Amateur Draft, MacTavish skated for the Boston Bruins until February 1, 1985. That fateful day, he signed as a free agent with the Edmonton Oilers. Not only did he win the Stanley Cup championship three times with them, but his place on the team earned his place in future franchises. On March 21, 1994, Mike Keenan brought him on board the New York Rangers to join several other former-Oilers, just in time to win the Stanley Cup. That summer, he signed with the Philadelphia Flyers, but Keenan again traded for him on March 15, 1996. He finished out his skating career there with the St. Louis Blues.
In his final season, MacTavish started out with two goals and four assists. The second goal was scored on November 8 (against the Canucks in Vancouver). He would score his final NHL goal on November 9 and his final NHL assist on November 16. Both of these happened against the Calgary Flames.
On November 9, Calgary’s Canadian Airline Saddledome hosted a crowd of 16, 786. Unfortunately for the home fans, it took nearly half a period before the Flames even managed a shot on net. The Blues had the only goal for the first two periods.
In the third period, the teams alternated scoring. According to the recap, the Flames tied and quickly fell behind again when “Todd Hlushko and Craig MacTavish, a pair of checking specialists, traded goals less than four minutes apart.” MacTavish “got in behind defenceman Cale Hulse, tipped in a Rob Pearson pass at 6:34, restoring the Blues’ one-goal lead.” At 10:12, Calgary’s Theoren Fleury made the best of a four-on-three advantage when he “corralled a rebound with his foot, kicked it to his stick and lifted the puck into the net as he was falling.” Finally, at 16:09, Brett Hull notched the game-winner “on the power play when he lifted one of his trademark wrist shots past Rick Tabaracci who was without his goalie stick, coincidentally, because he lost it while sprawling to stop another Hull shot that hit the post.”
Of course, at the time, no one knew that game would feature the final helmetless goal. Ironically, Flames coach Pierre Page expressed his displeasure with his own team by saying, “It’s about time we got our hard hats on and really worked hard.”
That season, MacTavish would go on to play his last regular-season game on April 9 and his only postseason game on April 20. At 38, after 17 seasons, he retired on 29 April 1997. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, “Craig MacTavish’s retirement ends an era in the NHL. He was the last player in the league who did not wear a helmet.” He had 213 goals and 267 assists for 480 points in 1093 games.
After his playing career, MacTavish became an assistant coach of the Rangers, his former team. In October 1997, the Post-Dispatch highlighted that the “helmetless wonder . . . is still learning to watch for flying pucks. He was recently skulled in the melon by a stray pass.” MacTavish told the press, “I didn’t get much sympathy from the guys. They were doubled over in laughter. Guys were tossing me their helmets.” From 2000 until 2009, MacTavish served as head coach of another former team, the Edmonton Oilers.
Additional Sources:
- Mike Commito, Hockey 365: Daily Stories from the Ice (Toronto: Dundurn, 2018), kindle version.
- Dave Luecking, “Hull’s Third-Period Goal Snuffs Out Flames 3-2,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10 Nov. 1996, pp. F1 and F13.
- Mike Board, “Flames wait too long to answer wakeup call,” Calgary Herald, 10 Nov. 1996, p. B1.
- “Game Story,” Calgary Herald, 10 Nov. 1996, p. B2.
- Dave Luecking, “MacTavish Retires; Who Else Will Be An Ex-Blue In ’97-98?” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 30 April 1997, p. 2D.
- “Road to Nowhere,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 15 Oct. 1997, p. 3D.
- https://thepinkpuck.com/2019/06/14/this-day-in-hockey-history-june-14-1994-rangers-in-94-after-54/
- https://thepinkpuck.com/2019/07/14/this-day-in-hockey-history-july-14-1995-oilers-keep-wearing-blue/
