RIP 'Pit' Martin

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Tragic. He was one of the best during his career.

MONTREAL (AP) _ Hubert "Pit" Martin, a four-time NHL All-Star in the 1960s and '70s, has died after his snowmobile plunged into an icy lake, Quebec provincial police said. He was 64.

Const. Marie-Josee Ouellet said Martin was driving the vehicle on Lake Kanasuta in northwestern Quebec on Sunday when the ice cracked and he plunged into the freezing water.

Another man who was driving a separate snowmobile at the time has confirmed Martin ended up in the water, Ouellet said.

Divers were attempting to retrieve Martin's body.

Former Chicago Blackhawks teammate Dale Tallon, now the team's general manager, said Martin was a "wonderful guy" and a great hockey player.

"He always came back in the summer to play golf," Tallon said. "I always admired him as a kid growing up in Noranda. ... It's very sad."

Martin, who would have turned 65 next week, lived on an island in the lake that was reached by boat in summer and snowmobile in winter, but there were always tricky periods in spring and fall when the ice had to be tested regularly, Tallon said.

Martin played 1,101 NHL games with the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks, amassing 809 points from 1963-79.

"He was a very smart player, with good speed, and an excellent playmaker," said Tallon, who was seven years younger than Martin and was a good friend of his younger brother while growing up. Tallon and Martin ended up as teammates through most of the 1970s in Chicago.

Martin was part of one of the biggest blockbuster trades in hockey history in 1967, when he and two other players were shipped to Chicago in the deal that made Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield part of a Bruins dynasty.

The 5-foot-8, 165-pound Martin was a strong skater and passer whose best years came on Chicago's MPH line with Jim Pappin and Dennis Hull. The Blackhawks had been planning to honor the line at the United Center this season.

Martin won the Masterton Trophy for sportsmanship and perseverance in 1969-70, his first of three 30-goal campaigns. He had a career-high 90 points in 1972-73 with the Blackhawks.

 

[slappy4428]

I dont remember him playing for the Wings, but do the Hawks...

 

[Joe Williams]

RIP to a guy who took some of the sting out of that Esposito-Hodge trade. Still has his autograph.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

He was one of the first to wear a helmet...a black one, that made him stand out among the other helmet-less ones of the early 70s.

I have a Blackhawks-Bruins game from '74 on DVD where he scored a goal in a 2-1 win. Graceful player on a team that should have won a lot more during that time period.

(As an aside, that game was also great because a) Derek Sanderson charged the ref, Wally Harris, and was thrown out, and b) in the final minute, Bobby Orr got tripped on a rush, no call, went ballistic and got tossed. As the refs were speaking with the scorer's table, Harry Sinden comes running down (he wasn't coaching anymore) and also went nuts, resulting in a bench minor. On his way out, which was in the corner of the old Boston Garden rink where the zamboni was kept, Orr smashed his stick on the side of the door and kept walking. The Garden crowd went nuts, fans started throwing stuff on the ice and there was a 10-minute delay. Ahh, old time hawkey).

 

[Bubbler]

How did the Bruins have a "dynasty" back then? They won the Cup twice in three years and made the Cup finals one other time. Methinks Habs, Red Wings, Islanders, Oilers and even Maple Leafs fans are not impressed with their dynastic dreaming.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Although they were upset in the first round of the 70-71 playoffs, I think the Bruins most certainly deserved the dynasty tag. That year, sandwiched around the two Stanley Cups, Boston had 121 points — 12 more than anyone else in the league. The team was made up of a who's who of great players...Orr, Esposito, Hodge, Cheevers, Johnston, Cashman, Sanderson, Stanfield, MacKenzie... You talk about great teams, IMO the Big, Bad Bruins of that era rank up near the top in league history.

 

[Double J]

I believe a dynasty is defined by championships, repeated ones, more than two in a very short period of time- think Toronto in the 1940s and 1960s, Montreal in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the Islanders and Edmonton in the 1980s, Detroit from 1997 to today - which means Boston comes up short.

It doesn't matter who finished first in any given season. It matters who wins the Stanley Cup. When you think of the 1971 Bruins, you don't automatically think that they finished first. You think that they were upset by the Habs, who went on to win the Cup. You think of them (or you should!) as the biggest washouts in league playoff history, taking the place of the 1967 Black Hawks - at least, until the 1996 Red Wings came along.

The Bruins are in good company, though, among almost-but-not-quite NHL dynasties. The Flyers of the mid '70s also fall short, in my opinion, as do the Penguins of the early '90s. Two Cups just don't cut it. But even those teams were fortunate to do that much when you consider that Chicago could easily have won another four or five Cups between 1961 and 1973 and settled for just one.

 

[Colton]

What a terrible way to go.

RIP

 

[JR]

RIP.

I'm old enough to remember Pit Martin when he played junior hockey for the Hamilton Red Wings.

And one of his teammates was "No, Double J, He Should Not be in the HOF", Paul Henderson.

 

[Double J]

That means he was also a teammate of John ("If anybody throws me against the boards, I'll **** all over myself") Gofton.

 

[JR]

The goalie for that Hamilton team was Stratford's own Buddy Blom who also played for the Burlington Junior B Red Wings. He was the first southpaw goalie I ever saw.

If I remember correctly, the '62 Red Wings won the Memorial Cup.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I have terrible arguments all the time about this. I think the Espo-Orr Bruins are one of the most underachieving teams of all time. They won two Cups. They should have won four or five. They're right up there with the 1985-86 Mets in that regard.
RIP, Pit. That is one seriously Canadian death right there.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Very sad.

Still liked him, despite the fact that he was one of the booby prizes in what was one of the worst one or two Blackhawk deals, EVER.

 

[Huggy]

The goalie for that Hamilton team was Stratford's own Buddy Blom who also played for the Burlington Junior B Red Wings. He was the first southpaw goalie I ever saw.

If I remember correctly, the '62 Red Wings won the Memorial Cup.

Indeed, '62 Mem Cup champs. Lowell MacDonald was also on that team.

JJ, the coach was Eddie Bush. Is he the guy the barn in Collingwood is named for?

 

[Joe Williams]

Martin and Mikita wore those big round Great Gazoo helmets. Always thought those Northland "Dome" helmets looked like the Cadillacs of early helmets, compared to other makers' more streamlined, close-fitting models.

 

[Double J]

The very same guy, Huggy. A Collingwood native who, after his pro playing career, made his name as a coach with two local teams.

Get this - he coached the Junior C team (the Greenshirts) to three straight OHA championships (1951-53) while simultaneously playing for and coaching the Shipbuilders as they won two consecutive Intermediate A titles (1952-53). I can't think of any other guy who would or could have coached five Ontario champions in three years.

Funny thing about Bush during that '62 Memorial Cup. Hamilton and the Edmonton Oil Kings, the other finalists, were both farm clubs of Detroit. Howie Young of the parent Red Wings showed up at a game and started cheering for Edmonton while standing right behind the Hamilton bench. I guess he and Bush got into an argument and Bush let him have it. Young was this supposed "bad man" of hockey, but Bush was as tough as they came (while playing defence for the Collingwood Shipbuilders, he loved road games where he would crunch guys into the boards and stand over them while whooping it up for the crowd, which would go berserk and throw all kinds of **** at him). Anyway, Young got hauled off to jail and Bush went back to coaching his team to the title.

He only coached part of one season in the NHL but how he got the job is another beauty story, as Grapes might say. He was coaching the Collingwood Blues Junior B team when Kansas City Scouts GM Sid Abel, his old buddy from Detroit, needed a guy to finish off the second and final year in KC. He gave the job to Eddie, who'd had all kinds of experience in Junior A and the AHL. But the Scouts stank it up while Collingwood went to the OHA final and lost in the seventh game to the St. Marys Lincolns. That was where Eddie had really wanted to be; he had taken the Scouts job more or less as a favour to Abel. The next season, the Scouts were in Denver and Eddie was back behind the Collingwood bench, and that's where he finished out his career and his life.

 

[Huggy]

I knew JJ would have all that dope. The Eddie Bush Arena is one of the great old barns in Ontario.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I knew JJ would have all that dope. The Eddie Bush Arena is one of the great old barns in Ontario.

I'm glad you cleared that up because, dumb Yank that I am, I was wondering if it was a strange Canadian custom to name barns after people.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Martin and Mikita wore those big round Great Gazoo helmets. Always thought those Northland "Dome" helmets looked like the Cadillacs of early helmets, compared to other makers' more streamlined, close-fitting models.

Yup.

 

[JR]

Double J knows way, way, way too much about this stuff.