Bert Olmstead
Bert Olmstead | |||
---|---|---|---|
Hockey Hall of Fame, 1985 | |||
Born |
Sceptre, Saskatchewan, Canada | September 4, 1926||
Died |
November 16, 2015 High River, Alberta, Canada | (aged 89)||
Height | 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) | ||
Weight | 175 lb (79 kg; 12 st 7 lb) | ||
Position | Left wing | ||
Shot | Left | ||
Played for |
Chicago Black Hawks Montreal Canadiens Toronto Maple Leafs | ||
Playing career | 1948–1962 |
Murray Albert Olmstead (September 4, 1926 – November 16, 2015) was a Canadian professional
In the 1967–68 season, Olmstead served as coach of the expansion
Early life
Olmstead was born in
Playing career
Chicago Black Hawks
Olmstead played three full seasons for Kansas City, and part of another, later in 1950, for the Milwaukee Sea Gulls. In the 1946–47 season, Olmstead joined the Pla-Mors, finishing the season with 42 points in 60 games.[3] In 1948–49, the Canadiens, who had originally sponsored him and owned his rights, traded him to the Chicago Black Hawks.[4] The same season, Olmstead made his NHL debut, called up after scoring 33 goals and 44 assists, for 77 points, in 52 games with the Pla-Mors. Debuting on Christmas Day 1948, he played nine games for the Black Hawks and collected two assists. Olmstead played the entire following season for the Black Hawks, appearing in 70 games and scoring 20 goals.[3]
Olmstead split the 1950–51 season between four teams, playing for all but one of them. He began the season playing for the Black Hawks franchise, playing 15 games in the NHL and 12 in the USHL, for the Milwaukee Sea Gulls.[3] On December 2, 1950, Olmstead, with Vic Stasiuk, was traded to the Detroit Red Wings, in exchange for Lee Fogolin and Steve Black.[5] On December 19, 1950, 17 days after the trade to Detroit, he was traded again, without ever suiting up for the Red Wings, to Montreal, for Leo Gravelle.[5] Olmstead would never leave the NHL until his retirement in 1962, playing 39 games that season on a line with Maurice Richard and Elmer Lach, scoring 38 points. Olmstead also appeared in 11 playoff games, collecting six points, as the Canadiens lost the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Finals to the Toronto Maple Leafs in five games.[3][4]
Montreal Canadiens
Olmstead and the Canadiens appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals again in the 1951–52 season, losing to the Detroit Red Wings; after recording 35 points in 69 regular season games, Olmstead was limited to an assist in 11 playoff games. In his third season with the Canadiens, Olmstead won the Stanley Cup for the first time.[2] Earning 45 points in 69 games, he was named to the Second All-Star Team.[5] In the last game of the season, Olmstead bodychecked Gordie Howe, stopping him from tying Maurice Richard's record of 50 goals in a season.[6] Olmstead played all the 70 games in the next two seasons, scoring 52 and 58 points in the 1953–54 and 1954–55 seasons, respectively.[3] The Canadiens lost to the Red Wings once more in the Stanley Cup Finals, in both seasons.[2] In the 1954–55 season, Olmstead led the league in assists, with 48, as Montreal lost another Stanley Cup Finals to Detroit.[6]
The 1955–56 season saw the start of Montreal's five consecutive Stanley Cup championships. In that season, Olmstead played on a line with
Olmstead won two more Stanley Cups in the 1956–57 and 1957–58 seasons.[2] After the conclusion of the 1957–58 seasons, doctors informed him that he had no strength left in his knees, and that he should contemplate retirement.[2] As a result of this prognosis, the Canadiens left Olmstead unprotected in the Intra-League Draft, and he was claimed by Billy Reay, the head coach of the Canadiens' chief rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs.[4]
Toronto Maple Leafs
Early in the 1958–59 season, Punch Imlach, the assistant general manager of the Leafs, fired Reay, installed himself as head coach, and appointed Olmstead as the playing assistant coach. This meant that while Imlach coached the team during games, Olmstead was in charge of the practices; however, Olmstead only lasted three months as assistant coach, resigning to devote more time to improving his play.[4] The same season, the Leafs went on a long winning streak in order to qualify for the playoffs, but they lost to the Canadiens in the finals.[2] After losing in the Finals the next season, and falling short of the Finals the next season, Olmstead won his fifth and final Stanley Cup in 1962, missing two months of the season with a broken shoulder,[2] and being limited to only four out of the 12 playoff games.[3]
Retirement
Following his fifth Stanley Cup win, with Toronto, the
After retiring from playing, Olmstead attempted coaching. In the 1965–66 season, Olmstead coached the Vancouver Canucks, of the WHL; he finished with a 33–35–4 record, for a .486 winning percentage.
Legacy
Known as "Dirty Bertie" because of his physical playing style, Olmstead was a power forward, making hard hits and winning battles in the corners. He was not a very good skater, and thus he had to compensate by bodychecking. Olmstead was not regularly involved in fights, but in the ones he participated, the majority were started with his hits.[6]
Olmstead was inducted into the
Career statistics
Regular season
|
Playoffs | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
1944–45 | Moose Jaw Canucks | S-SJHL | 16 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 | ||
1944–45 | Moose Jaw Canucks | M-Cup | — | — | — | — | — | 17 | 10 | 8 | 18 | 18 | ||
1945–46 | Moose Jaw Canucks | S-SJHL | 18 | 24 | 19 | 43 | 32 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
1945–46 | Moose Jaw Canucks | M-Cup | — | — | — | — | — | 8 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 6 | ||
1946–47 | Kansas City Pla-Mors | USHL
|
60 | 27 | 15 | 42 | 34 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | ||
1947–48 | Kansas City Pla-Mors | USHL | 66 | 26 | 26 | 52 | 42 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0 | ||
1948–49 | Chicago Black Hawks
|
NHL | 9 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
1948–49 | Kansas City Pla-Mors | USHL | 52 | 33 | 44 | 77 | 54 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
1949–50 | Chicago Black Hawks | NHL | 70 | 20 | 29 | 49 | 40 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
1950–51 | Chicago Black Hawks | NHL | 15 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
1950–51 | Milwaukee Seagulls | USHL | 12 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 11 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
1950–51 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 39 | 16 | 22 | 38 | 50 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | ||
1951–52 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 69 | 7 | 28 | 35 | 49 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
1952–53 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 69 | 17 | 28 | 45 | 83 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | ||
1953–54 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 70 | 15 | 37 | 52 | 85 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 19 | ||
1954–55 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 70 | 10 | 48 | 58 | 103 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 21 | ||
1955–56 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 70 | 14 | 56 | 70 | 94 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 8 | ||
1956–57 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 64 | 15 | 33 | 48 | 74 | 10 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 13 | ||
1957–58 | Montreal Canadiens | NHL | 57 | 9 | 28 | 37 | 71 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | ||
1958–59 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 70 | 10 | 31 | 41 | 74 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 13 | ||
1959–60 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 53 | 15 | 21 | 36 | 63 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 0 | ||
1960–61 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 67 | 18 | 34 | 52 | 84 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 10 | ||
1961–62 | Toronto Maple Leafs | NHL | 56 | 13 | 23 | 36 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
NHL totals[3] | 848 | 181 | 421 | 602 | 884 | 115 | 16 | 43 | 59 | 101 |
Coaching record
Team | Year | Regular season |
Post season
| |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | W | L | T | Pts | Finish | Result | ||
Oakland Seals |
1967–68 | 64 | 11 | 37 | 16 | (47) | 6th in West | (resigned) |
References
- ^ "Dickie Moore might have been the best of Canadiens' dynasty". Toronto Star. December 19, 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "One on One with Bert Olmstead". Hockey Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on June 5, 2008. Retrieved November 14, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Bert Olmstead's statistics". The Internet Hockey Database. Retrieved November 14, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e "Bert Olmstead—Biography". Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved November 14, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e "Bert Olmstead—Career statistics". Hockey Hall of Fame. Retrieved November 14, 2008.
- ^ a b c Mark Leonetti and Jean Beliveau (2004). Canadiens Legends: Montreal's Hockey Heroes. Raincoast Books. p. 70.
- ^ a b c "Stanley Cup Journals 23". Hockey Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved November 14, 2008.
- ^ "Bert Olmstead Coaching Record". Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 14, 2008.
- ^ "Bert Olmstead est décédé" (in French). TVA Sports. November 18, 2015. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
External links
- Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database