By: Camryn Meece | Follow me on Twitter / X @MeeceCamryn
On March 15, 1932, the Boston Bruins scored three goals in roughly two minutes. Every shot was legal, with no player interference, and the Toronto Maple Leafs were pissed. Goaltender Lorne Chabot had been sent to the penalty box for tripping Bruins forward Cooney Weiland, leaving Toronto in a bind. With no backup goalie ready to jump in, the Maple Leafs had to send three defensemen into the net to try their hand at goaltending. It did not go well.
At the time, National Hockey League (NHL) goalies had to serve their own penalties, and teams did not have a backup goaltender ready to take over. Toronto coach Dick Irvin had to get creative and turned to defenseman Red Horner first. Horner couldn’t keep Boston off the scoreboard, so Alex Levinsky took over next. He lasted about 10 seconds before Marty Barry scored again. With two goals already against them, Toronto sent King Clancy in for a third attempt. It was fruitless, and Boston was striking while the iron was hot. George Owen scored against Clancy, giving Boston three goals during Chabot’s penalty. In roughly two minutes, Toronto had gone through three defensemen in goal, and Boston had scored on each one.
The goals were bad enough, but things got worse when Toronto manager Conn Smythe went after referee Bill Stewart. Smythe reached from the bench and grabbed Stewart by his sweater, reportedly because the referee was blocking his view. When the Boston Garden superintendent, backed by two Boston police officers, tried to remove Smythe, Toronto players stepped in. The confrontation turned into a scuffle near the bench, and Boston Globe reporter Victor Jones later wrote that the incident could have turned into a riot. Bruins owner Charles F. Adams eventually helped calm things down, and Smythe was allowed to remain on the bench as long as he kept his hands off Stewart.
Boston went on to win 6–2, but Toronto was not the first team to pay the price for having a skater in goal. In 1931, Chicago’s Tommy Cook scored the winning goal against Montreal with just three minutes left in a 1–1 game while Canadiens goaltender George Hainsworth served a penalty. Incidents like these showed how easily teams could exploit an empty net and an unprepared replacement.
The NHL addressed the situation the following season by adding a rule requiring a team manager to appoint a substitute when a goaltender had to leave the ice to serve a penalty. The change formalized how teams handled the situation, though it did not require them to dress a second goaltender. That requirement wouldn’t be in place until the 1965–66 season.
The Bruins weren’t the only team to exploit the rule, but the chaos they brought to the Leafs was one for the record books. Before the 1933 season rule change, incidents like this were rather normal. In 1925, Hamilton Tigers goaltender Jake Forbes served a penalty while defenseman Jesse Spring took over in net. Years earlier, Ottawa Senators defenseman King Clancy had also stepped into goal when goaltender Clint Benedict was sent to the penalty box. We love seeing the Bruins beat a historic rival, but we’re also glad the NHL eventually put an end to this madness.
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