Nicknames helped Fischler fall in love with hockey

Legendary hockey reporter and analyst Stan Fischler will write a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com this season. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," will share his knowledge, brand of humor and insight with readers each Wednesday. Today, he reveals his favorite nicknames from the pre-1967 era.

I was 10 years old in 1942 when I heard my first hockey nicknames; I immediately fell in love with them, and hockey, simultaneously.
The Detroit Red Wings were playing the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup Final, and I was listening to Foster Hewitt doing the play-by-play on CBL Radio in Toronto. As it happened, that Maple Leafs team had some of the NHL's all-time best nicknames, starting with Rudolph "Bingo" Kampman and Wilfred "Bucko" McDonald.
How about that: a Bingo and a Bucko on the same defense pairing!
Toronto, which won the Cup after losing the first three games of the Final to Detroit, also had a "Sweeney," as in Dave Schriner, up front. In goal, the Maple Leafs had a "Turkey," or, more precisely, Walter "Turk" Broda.
From that point on, I collected nicknames. Here are some of the best from the pre-1967 era:

'Mud'

Modere Bruneteau was a young forward who spent most of his time on the bench with a strong Red Wings team in 1935-36. When Detroit and the Montreal Maroons wound up playing the longest game in NHL history on March 24, 1936, Red Wings coach Jack Adams needed some fresh legs in the sixth overtime. He called on Bruneteau, and Mud turned to magic, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory.

'Killer'

Alex Kaleta was a left wing who came to the New York Rangers in a 1948 trade that sent goalie "Sugar" Jim Henry to the Blackhawks. "We loved Alex," Rangers publicist Stan Saplin once told me, "because he could score and he was a great guy. But he didn't like rough stuff at all, and you'd rarely even see him near the boards. So it was only natural that the New York fans label him what he wasn't. Hence 'Killer' Kaleta got his nickname."

'The Duke of Paducah'

When the Maple Leafs became the first NHL team to win the Stanley Cup in three consecutive years (1947, '48, '49) one of their ace penalty killers was forward Joe Klukay. He teamed with Nick Metz in 1947 and '48 to form the best PK unit in the NHL. Somewhere along the way, a teammate figured Joe's handsome mug reminded him of an English duke. If you said "Klukay" fast enough, it sounded a bit like Paducah (as in Kentucky). That's how he got his nickname.

'Shrimp'

Some nicknames are far-fetched (Klukay's, for example), while others fit a player as snugly as hockey stockings over shin guards. In the case of goaltender Roy Worters, "Shrimp" was right on the money. Hard as it may be to believe in an era when teams are looking for jumbo-sized goaltenders, this future Hockey Hall of Famer was all of 5-foot-3,making him the shortest player in NHL history. Worters' lack of size didn't keep him from being a star with the Pittsburgh Pirates (not the baseball team) and later for the New York Americans and Montreal Canadiens; He won the Hart Trophy in 1929 and the Vezina Trophy two years later.

'Mitchell Meteor' or 'Stratford Streak'

When it came to Howie Morenz, a superstar forward with the Canadiens in the 1920s and 1930s, fans had their pick of nicknames, depending on which of two Ontario towns (Mitchell or Stratford) they liked best. Because Morenz had played on teams representing each, it really didn't matter. What did matter was that the speed Morenz displayed so thrilled millionaire American sportsmen that the likes of New York's Tex Rickard and Boston's Charles Adams soon brought NHL teams to their cities after watching the Mitchell or Stratford star.

'The Rocket'

Based on some early-career injuries, Maurice Richard's label could have been "Brittle." But once the Canadiens right wing began to stay healthy and started to make life miserable for goalies, his sizzling shot was being compared to rockets being fired during World War II. A teammate said Richard "went in like a rocket" toward the opposition's net, and sports writers soon dubbed him "The Rocket." After he scored 50 goals in 50 games during the 1944-45 season, there was no way Maurice could be anything but "Rocket" Richard.

'Boom Boom'

Prior to the 1950-51 season, NHL players basically used two kinds of shots: forehand (wrist) and backhand. But when Montreal rookie forward Bernie Geoffrion showed up, all bets were off. While playing junior hockey, Geoffrion was the first player to regularly employ the slap shot and began terrorizing netminders. One Montreal writer watched Geoffrion in practice and was impressed by the "boom" as the puck left his stick and the second "boom" as it bounced off the boards; before long, Bernie was "Boom Boom." Longtime teammate Dollard St. Laurent told the Montreal Gazette in 2006 that Geoffrion "changed the game with the slap shot. Goalies were afraid to face him. He's the reason goalies started wearing masks."

'The Eel'

Slithery was one way of describing the manner that super-thin (officially 5-foot-9, 152 pounds) forward Camille Henry eluded opponents as a New York Rangers rookie. Goalies, especially Red Wings Hall of Famer Terry Sawchuk, had other words for him. Since Henry's style suggested an eel, it was perfectly natural for him to be known as "Camille The Eel." Henry won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie in 1953-54; one reason was a four-goal game against none other than Sawchuk. He slithered past opponents long enough to play 727 NHL games and score 279 goals, all but 13 with the Rangers.

'Gump'

When goalie Lorne Worsley, a Montreal native, was playing junior hockey for the Verdun Cyclones, he bore a strong resemblance to a popular comic strip character named Andy Gump. The name followed Worsley as he advanced from the Cyclones to the New York Rovers and eventually to the Rangers in 1952-53, when he won the Calder Trophy. No longer were fans or media members referring to him as Lorne; "Gump" was here to stay.

'Atomic Line'

Soon after the first atom bombs were dropped in 1945, hastening the end of World War II, the Rangers were nurturing three potential NHL players on their New York Rovers farm team in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League. The line of Cal Gardner at center, Rene Trudell on left wing and Church Russell on right wing wowed the Sunday afternoon crowds at Madison Square Garden. Their blasting shots earned them the nickname "Atomic Line," and all three eventually were promoted to the Rangers. Gardner, the best of the three, had a 12-year NHL career and was part of Stanley Cup-winning teams with the Maple Leafs in 1949 and 1951. Trudell played 129 games during three NHL seasons. Russell, the handsomest of all, played 90 games in the NHL; he scored 20 goals in 1946-47 but was back in the minors for good the following season.

'Gazelle'

Had there been a high-tech method of measuring the speed of skaters in the early years after World War II, chances are that Montreal forward Leo Gravelle would have been the NHL's fastest skater. Back then, it was sufficient to call him "Gravelle The Gazelle," and there were no arguments there. However, Gravelle's speed was one thing but his failure to match it with offensive numbers shortened his NHL career. A teammate who endured the same fate was Norm Dussault, though he didn't earn a nickname.

'Gertie'

One of the most popular comic strips of the 1940s featured a detective named Dick Tracy. Creator Chester Gould regularly introduced new characters, and one of them was a wizened woman named Gravel Gertie. That was the era when George Gravel was one of the NHL's top referees, as well as one of the most entertaining. He even liked the idea of being tabbed "Gertie" Gravel.

'The Dipsy Doodle Dandy from Delisle'

Hall of Fame forwards Max Bentley and Doug Bentley were part of a larger hockey-playing family that included seven sisters who comprised their own team. But it was Max who got the best nickname of all, starting with his skating style (dipsy doodle), which some said resembled a scared jackrabbit. Since he was a dandy stickhandler and he came from the town of Delisle, Saskatchewan, the "Dipsy Doodle Dandy from Delisle" couldn't have been more appropriate. Max lived up to his nickname by winning two NHL scoring titles with the Chicago Blackhawks and playing on Stanley Cup winners with the Maple Leafs in 1948, '49, and '51.

'The Puck Goes-Insky'

Who was the worst goaltender in NHL history? Steve Buzinski's play for the Rangers during World War II makes him a good candidate for this unwanted "honor." A youthful wartime replacement in 1942-43 after the Rangers lost most of their regulars to military service, Buzinski originally worked for the Dominion Grain Station near his hometown of Dunblane, Saskatchewan. Though his goals-against average was abominable, he fancied himself a pretty fair goalie. Asked how it felt to stop big-league shots after jumping straight from the Swift Current Intermediates, Buzinski replied, "Same as back home. It's easy as pickin' cherries off a tree." Nevertheless, he could not escape his nickname -- "Steve Buzinski: The Puck Goes-Insky!" -- and had a 5.89 GAA in nine games with the Rangers before he was sent packing.