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In the 1930s, it seemed that most of the best NHL goalies could be traced back to the Detroit franchise. As they sold off and let loose goaltenders, Detroit found themselves without a lead for their NHL team. Thus, on November 28, 1938, the Red Wings paid $15,000 to obtain Tiny Thompson from the Boston Bruins. Filling Thompson’s role for the Bruins would be Frank Brimsek, who had originally been tied to Detroit but had played for Boston’s affiliate, the Providence Reds before signing with the Bruins on October 27, 1938. Soon after taking on their new roles, on December 4, Thompson earned his 75th NHL shutout on the same night as Brimsek earned his first.

When Thompson was bought by the Red Wings, he was nearing the end of his playing career. He had begun his time in the NHL with a shutout on November 15, 1928. At the end of that first season, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup championship. Thompson went on to earn the Vezina Trophy four times between 1930 and 1938. Thus, it was almost exactly ten years into his NHL career when he moved from Boston to Detroit.

Before a sellout crowd of 11,855 at Detroit’s Olympia, Thompson shutout the Toronto Maple Leafs. In net, the Leafs had Turk Broda, whom they had obtained from Detroit’s Olympics in May 1936. The only goal of the game came in the last six minutes, when Modere “Mud” Bruneteau scored on a rebound off Broda’s pads. The scorer and goalie had been former roommates when playing for the Olympics.

This was only the second game Thompson minded the net for the Red Wings. He had already had three front teeth loosened in his first practice with the team. Then a flying puck in a practice the night before the game made his left hand swell to twice the normal size. Still, both games were victories, and the latter made him the first NHL goalie to reach 75 shutouts. With some modesty, Thompson asked the press, “Don’t give me credit for that one. You have to be good when you got boys like they are fighting to help you.” Either way, the game pulled the Red Wings out of the bottom of the standings.

Meanwhile, Brimsek’s first NHL shutout put the Bruins at the top of the standings. The “largest crowd of the Chicago season,” 17,894, saw their Blackhawks completely crushed. No one scored until Milt Schmidt’s goal at 9:34 of the second period. Then Dit Clapper started off the third by scoring at 4:37. As the clock tipped into the final half of the final session, “Brimsek turned aside brilliantly” Chicago’s “one furious rush after the other.” Then the Bruins came flying in with three goals in one minute (between 15:53 and 16:51).

Brimsek had only allowed five goals throughout his four NHL games. In the next six games, he would have another five shutouts. Unsurprisingly, he ended the season winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year and the Vezina Trophy as top goalie. The Bruins also won the Stanley Cup. Over the next few seasons, the Bruins won the Cup again in 1941, and Brimsek earned the Vezina the following season. After 11 seasons with the Bruins, they traded him to Chicago on September 8, 1949.

In their entire NHL careers, Thompson played 553 games with a record of 284-194-75 while Brimsek played 514 games with a record of 252-182-80. Brimsek only ever had about half the number of shutouts as Thompson. His 40 shutouts ties him for 42nd in the rankings of most career shutouts. Thompson’s 81 places him sixth on the all-time list. Both goalies have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, with Thompson entering in 1959 and Brimsek in 1966.

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