Andy Hebenton, New York Ranger

I love the obits about former New York Rangers. Andy Hebenton at 89 has passed away. He was playing for the Rangers before I ever went to games on a consistent basis, and quite frankly, I never heard of him. But anyone who could score 33 goals in a season for the Rangers in that era had to be some kind of player.

I love the black and white photos of games played at the Old Garden, where I first was introduced to the game the night Jacques Plante came out wearing a mask for the first time after being injured in the first or second period. I've already written about that.

In the above photo, said to be undated, Andy is closing in on Chicago Black Hawk players, with Stan Makita appearing in the upper left of the photo. Makita had the chiseled features of a Slav and was nicknamed Stash by the Chicago fans. He was a fantastic playmaker for the Black Hawks.

Interesting in the text, Andy is described as being small at 5'9" and 180 pounds. Small by today's standards, but not back then. The weight was probably exaggerated, but the height might have been right. In those days, I doubt anyone was listed as being 200 pounds.

Also interesting to be is that I can tell Andy is a left-handed shot. His left hand is closest to the blade. Normally, a left-handed shot would have played left wind; a right-handed shot would play right wing. The coaching then was very rigid in the approach to the game.

It took the Russian coaching to make the NHL realize that a left-handed shot on right wing, and a right-handed shot on left wing had more net to shoot at as they skated toward the net. They weren't in the way of their own shot.

The greatest scorer of that era was Maurice (The Rocket) Richard, who played for the Montreal Canadiens. He was a left-handed shot who played right wing, and scored many of his goals on the backhand. A backhanded hockey shot floats somewhat like a knuckle ball and often fools the goaltender. The Rocket had the then record for scoring 50 goals in a 50 game season.

That Ranger fans wanted blood and lots of fights rings true. I remember being at games in the 60s and 70s when there was so much fighting you wondered if they were ever going to finish playing the game. There was a wrestling match feel to the crowd.

I particularly remember the enforcer Bob Plager at the Old Garden who had a reputation for pounding his opponents. The fans started screaming when he got on the ice. They wanted action. The Rangers pretty much stunk then, but they were always willing fighters.

That Andy Hebenton came from the Western Hockey League and won a Lady Byng for gentlemanly play belied the reputation of the players from that region. The Eastern Canadiens from Quebec were small French-Canadiens who were very fast and typically small. They could skate like the wind and stick handle like basketball players dribbling. The bigger guys thumped them pretty good trying to slow them down.

By league decree at the time, the Montreal Canadiens always had the No. 1 draft choice from the Quebec Junior Leagues, considered the best in Canada. This served to fill their roster with the speedy French-Canadiens.

Obviously with the kind of consecutive playing game streak that Andy held he was more than durable. And to have played until he was 45 in the minors when the young guys were trying to make a name for themselves has to be a testament to his talents.

I wish I had seen him play when I was older and paid more attention to the game.

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