Springfield Indians 1959 to 1962: Best All-Time AHL Team?

The Springfield Indians of the early part of the 1960’s were perhaps the best American Hockey League ever assembled. The Indians won the Calder Cup in three consecutive years from 1959-60 to 1961-62, the only AHL team to ever accomplish this feat. Five players from those teams are now enshrined in the AHL Hall of Fame and two are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. In addition, owner of the Indians, Eddie Shore, is in both.

Check out this unique hockey trivia revolving around that 3-peat Springfield Indians team:

The top 5 all-time Springfield Indians point producers played in at least two of those three years. Jim Anderson, Bill Sweeney, Brian Kilrea and Floyd Smith played on all three, while Harry Pidhirny played in 1959-60 and 1960-61.

Five that played for the Indians during those three years are now members of the AHL Hall of Fame. Bill Sweeney, Jim Anderson, Noel Price and Marcel Paille played all three years while Harry Pidhirny played two of the three. The AHL Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 2006. Team owner Eddie Shore has also been inducted.

Two players are now members of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lorne ‘Gump’ Worsley played just 15 games with the Indians in 1959-60. Gump was inducted into the Hall in 1980. Brian Kilrea was inducted in 2003 in the builder’s category for his work with Ottawa 67’s of the Ontario Hockey League. In addition, Eddie Shore was long a member of the Hall of Fame before Springfield’s glory days, inducted in 1947 for his NHL accomplishments with the Boston Bruins.

Surprisingly, the Indians didn’t dominate the AHL’s individual awards during the three year stretch. In 1959-60, they were shut out of the awards ceremony. Bill Sweeney and Floyd Smith finished 2-3 in AHL scoring but it was Fred Glover of the Cleveland Barons that took the John B. Sollenberger Trophy.

In 1960-61, Bill Sweeney took the scoring title as Springfield placed five players in top ten. Bob McCord won the Eddie Shore Award as the league’s top defenseman and Marcel Paille won the Harry ‘Hap’ Holmes Award for the goalie with the lowest goals against average. 1961-62 was a bit of a repeat, except it was Kent Douglas winning the Eddie Shore, not McCord.

Interestingly, over the three year span, not one of the highly talented Springfield Indians won the Les Cunningham Award as AHL MVP. Fred Glover won twice and Phil Maloney of the Buffalo Bisons won in the middle year. In fact, over the life of the franchise, just one player was honoured as MVP. Ross Lowe will forever be in the Springfield hockey trivia books as the lone man, winning in 1954-55.

At the time, Springfield was the minor league affiliate of the NHL’s New York Rangers. The Rangers were not enjoying as much success, to say the least. 1961-62 was the only year New York made the Stanley Cup playoffs between 1958-59 and 1965-66. They were quickly ousted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. It is said by many that the team in Springfield would have done better in the NHL than the Rangers.

NHL Hockey Trivia: Boston Bruins and the Hart Trophy

The Hart Memorial Trophy was first handed out in 1923-24. The Boston Bruins began play in the National Hockey League the following season. Since that time, five different Boston players have won the Hart Trophy a total of 12 times in a time spanning from 1933 to 1974. Test and expand your knowledge of the Boston Bruins and the Hart Memorial Trophy with the following four hockey trivia questions and answers.

Q. What Boston Bruins player won the Hart Memorial Trophy on four occasions?

A. Eddie Shore won the Hart four times during the 1930’s, his first in 1932-33 and his last in 1937-38. The only other winners of the trophy during that decade either played for the Montreal Canadiens or the Montreal Maroons. Just Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe have won the Hart more times that Eddie Shore.

Shore played nearly his entire National Hockey League career with the Bruins. From 1926-27 until four games into the 1939-40 season, he played for Boston. He finished his NHL career that same year with ten games for the New York Americans. Eddie was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947. The Eddie Shore Award is now given out to the top defenseman in the American Hockey League.

Q. Over the 12 times a Boston Bruins player has won the Hart Trophy, only twice has the team won the Stanley Cup in the same season. Which one of the Bruins was the recipient of the Hart Trophy in both those years?

A. The Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 1969-70 and 1971-72. In both years, Bobby Orr won the Hart Memorial Trophy. He also won in 1970-71 and is one of only two NHL players to win on three or more consecutive occasions. The other, of course, is Wayne Gretzky. Orr played for Boston from 1966-67 to 1975-76 in an injury shortened Hockey Hall of Fame career.

Q. Which Hart Trophy winner from the Boston Bruins went on to coach the team for eleven years after retiring as a player?

A. Milt Schmidt won the Hart Trophy in 1950-51. He began the 1954-55 season as a player and took over the head coaching role midway through the season. He coached the Bruins until the end of the 1965-66 season. He returned to coach in the NHL one last time in 1974-75, standing behind the Washington Capitals bench for just seven games.

Q. Who is the only Boston Bruins player to win the Hart Trophy but not have his jersey number retired by the team?

A. Bill Cowley won the Hart in 1940-41 and 1942-43. He was a point per game player over his career that spanned from 1935-36 to 1946-47. Cowley is enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Yet, the Bruins have not honoured his number 10.