Felix Potvin

Potvin was one of the first of seemingly countless great Quebecois puck stoppers to follow in the footsteps of Patrick Roy. Judging by his junior career, Potvin would be the next Roy and perhaps better! He was born and raised in Montreal but was never a Habs fan. He liked the Quebec Nordiques better, but liked Billy Smith and the New York Islanders best of all. He led the QMJHL in shutouts three straight seasons. His final year he was named as the Canadian major junior goaltender of the year after backstopping Chicoutimi to the Memorial Cup finals. He also earned a gold medal at the World Junior championships.

The Leafs were pleasantly surprised to see Potvin still available in the second round of the deep 1990 NHL entry draft. Ht Leafs grabbed him with 31st overall pick. After a year of learning English and successful of apprenticeship in the American Hockey League (he was named as the top rookie, top goalie and first team all star) Felix made the move to Toronto in 1992-93.

Potvin took the NHL by storm once he arrived. In his rookie season Potvin led the league in goals against average with a 2.50 mark, and backstopped the Leafs not only to their first true mark of respectability since the 1970s, but to playoff success. Potvin was brilliant as the Leafs went on a magical playoff run, only to fall short in a 7 game conference finals against Wayne Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings. Had the Leafs been successful, the Stanley Cup would have been a classic showdown - Leafs vs. Habs, Potvin vs. Roy.

Potvin followed up his rookie season with a 34 win season, tying Johnny Bower's team record for most wins in a year. He represented the Leafs in the All Star game and was even named player of the month in October. Potvin led the Leafs deep into the playoffs again, this time falling short against the Vancouver Canucks in the conference finals. Potvin was brilliant, perhaps no more so than in the opening round against Chicago. Potvin and Eddie Belfour had a classic goaltender grudge match. Potvin prevailed, including 3 nail biting 1-0 shutouts!

The Leafs fortunes sagged after that season. Potvin continued to be the workhorse goalie, including setting a Leafs record with 74 games appeared in 1996-97. That season Felix also set a league record with the most shots faced with 2662. Somehow Felix saved almost 91% percent of those shots! Yet increasingly it was the shots that eluded him that were beginning to bother people. He could stop 35 pucks in a game, but somehow would often let in a soft goal or a goal at exactly the wrong time.

By the summer of 1998 the Leafs had signed Curtis Joseph as their goalie. Potvin was out of the Leafs goaltending picture, and soon dispatched to the lowly New York Islanders where he, like everyone else on Long Island, struggled. The Cat was then moved on to Vancouver where he was subsequently booed out of town before finding another of his 9 lives in Los Angeles and then Boston.

Felix was nicknamed The Cat not only because he obviously held the same name as the famous comic strip, but because he relied on his cat-like reflexes to stop pucks. Potvin tended to stay back in his net too much and struggled with his lateral mobility. Word quickly got around the league to shoot up high on him and make him move around. He would lose his angle and his cat-like reflexes weren't able to stop the onslaught. After a great start to his career, he fell from his status as one of the league's best goaltenders.

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Bob Hassard

I just learned of the passing of Bob Hassard on December 30th, 2010. He was 81 years old.

Hassard is best remembered as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the early 1950s, including as a member of the 1951 Stanley Cup championship team. Interestingly, he only played 12 games with the Leafs that season, and none in the playoffs. Yet his named was still inscribed on the Stanley Cup. He may be the only player who never played a single playoff game in his career to have his name on the Stanley Cup.

Winning was something Hassard got used to. The previous season he helped the senior Toronto Marlies win the Allan Cup as Canada's amateur champions. Then the year after the Stanley Cup victory he helped the Pittsburgh Hornets capture the Calder Cup as AHL champions!

Though he was born in Lloydminister, Saskatchewan, he grew up in Toronto, not far from Maple Leaf Gardens. it was his dream to play for the Leafs. Actually, he was just as thrilled to make the Bantam Marlies at the age of 14 and later the junior Marlies.

Described as a great skater and a junior and minor league offensive dynamo, Hassard was in many ways burdened by his position. He was most comfortable at his natural position of center. The problem was the championship Leafs teams of his era had centers named Teeder Kennedy and Max Bentley, both Hall of Famers, and Cal Gardner and Tod Sloan, no slouches in their own right.

The gentlemanly center played sparingly in 5 NHL seasons, all with the Leafs except for 17 games with Chicago. He totalled just 126 games played, including 70 in 1952-53, his only full season in the league. He enjoyed long tenures with the junior and senior Marlies, as well as in the AHL. He left pro hockey in 1958, but returned to amateur senior hockey with the Whitby Dunlops through 1960. He helped Whitby win the Allan Cup in 1959.

All in all, not a bad hockey career considering he almost embarked upon a career in professional baseball, instead. When he was just 18 the Brooklyn Dodgers offered him a chance to play in the minor league system and work his way up to the minor leagues. He passed on the offer of reportedly $100 per month.

After retiring from the game in 1958, Bob Hassard settled in Stouffville, Ontario, a beautiful city just north of Toronto. Along with a business partner named Birkett, he opened up a successful insurance business. He was also a long time local minor hockey coach, teaching a generation of hockey loving kids including a young Keith Acton.

He enjoyed the slower pace of life in Stouffville and became a noted bluegrass musician. He also enjoyed giving free Christmas Eve wagon rides to children as well. Often long time Leaf and Hassard's close friend George Armstrong would join in for the night.

Hassard is survived by his son Bill, a Leaf draft pick in 1974, and daughters Kim and Jacqui, nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

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