Times-Advocate, 1988-03-30, Page 20Page 4A Times -Advocate, March 30, 1988
George Shaw a lively reservoir of hockey history
By Mark Bisset
George Shaw has worn -many
different hockey sweaters in his
time -- from the colours of Streat-
ham in England, to the red, white
and blue of the Montreal Canadiens
-- and he's got a story or two to tell
about hockey in the old days.
Shaw recently returned from a trip
to England where he dropped the
puck for the opening face-off of a
British Ice Hockey Msociation
charity game between his old team,
Streatham and an all-star collection
from the rest of the league.
The Exeter resident was invited to
perform the task by Phil Drackett,
editor of Ice Hockey World, a Brit-
ish publication which covers events
in the BIHA.
Crossing the ocean in 1932,
Shaw spent four years in England,
playing for Streatham in the Eng-
lish version of the NHL. In 1936,
Shaw became a member of the Brit -
skates -- it sure felt funny."
Shaw feels the calibre of hockey
in England -- free of the violence so
common in Canada -- is getting
better all the time.
"The European influence has got
them passing, passing, passing. It's
great to watch, he says.
While he was in England, Shaw
stayed with Alice Stapleford, the
widow of his old friend and team
mate Harvey "Red" Stapleford.
Their daughter Sally, it turns out,
was a British figure skating judge at
the Calgary Winter Olympics.
When the British Olympic team
returned, Shaw and Mrs. Stapleford
met them at the airport, where they
met Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards the
ski-jumping star of the 1988
Games.
Cornwall Flyers
The time Shaw spent in England
with Streatham was only the begin-
ning of his colourful hockey career.
GEORGE SHAW -- Reputed to have
area at one time, Shaw played with a
Montreal Canadiens.
ish Olympic hockey team, but a
Canadian inquiry into his citizen-
ship removed him from the team af-
ter two games. To be eligible,
Shaw had to play in England for
five years.
Britain went on to win the gold
medal in hockey that year -- a feat
the English had never done before
and have never done since.
It was a special moment when
Shaw return.d to drop the puck in
the same arena in which he had
played so long ago.
"It was a funny feeling, Shaw
says. "I played there four years at
centre ice and walking out to centre
.in front of all those people without
had one of the hardest shots in the
number of teams, among them, the
When he returned to Canada, Shaw
took a job at centre ice for Corn-
wall Flyers, then a farm team for
Montreal Canadiens. Flyers were in
the Quebec Senior League, which
featured better hockey than the
NHL at that time, according to
Shaw.
"That was the best hockey in the
world back then," he says. "It was
booming.
"We used to watch the pros back
when they used to play Saturday
night and they weren't drawing
flies."
The stint with the Flyers turned
out to be the most lucrative posi-
tion of his entire hockey career.
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While full -tame Montreal Canadi-
ens. received roughly 54,500 per
year, Shaw was getting 54,000
from the NHL club, plus "54,000
from Cornwall's booster club.
On top of the 58,000 he was rak-
ing in from hockey, he had a full
time job as a draftsman for Cor-
dall's in Cornwall. When you
played hockey, Shaw says, your
employer was very lenienj. They
had to be -- the Quebec league had
seven teams and an 80 game sched-
ule. -
As a member of the Flyers, Shaw
was eligible to play three games
' with the Canadiens per year. When
they were called up, amateur players
who made twice as much money,
rarely received a warm reception
from the pros.
"You'd go in the room and dress
with them," Shaw remembers.
"They were hooked. They were get-
ting S4,000 a year. You could feel
the resentment in the dressing
room . "
Corning from four years of hock-
ey played on an ice surface which
measured 120 feet by 220 feet,
Shaw found it difficult to adjust to
the smaller Canadian rinks.
"It was just like playing in a
box," he notes.
During his stint with Cornwall
and Montreal, Shaw played with the
likes of goalie Bill Durnan and
Claude Bourque. When the Second
World War started, most of the pros
joined the Service Lcaguc which
was formed by Canadians owner
Tommy Gorman.
Shaw explains that entire- teams
joined up and played together in
Gornian's new organization. It was
in that league that Shaw lost his
taste- for hockey. Anxious to get
into action over -seas, Shaw was
held hack by teams who wanted his
seryices at centre ice.
'Transferred to Centralia for an ad-
vanced flying course, he played for
Centralia RACF Flyers against the
likes of Syl Apps but was_again
held back from active duty. A trip
to Calgary for more courses, and
then a return to Centralia continued
the frustrating cycle.
As the war in Europe wound
down, Shaw enlisted for duty in the
Pacific.
"They were taking applications
for the Pacific war," Shaw recalls.
"I said good -- there won't be any
hockey in the Pacific."
But he never got there.
When he was discharged, despite a
promising future with the Montreal
Canadiens, Shaw had lost his taste
for hockey.
Modern goalies weak
The big difference between hock-
ey in the past and today's brand of
the sport is the goaltending, accord-
ing to Shaw. Goalies today, he
maintains, lack the discipline 9f
their forerunners. They wander too
much and fail to hug the posts in
tight situations.
"Players today, if they were play-
ing against the old-time goalies,
there wouldn't be half the goals,"
Shaw claims. "Goaltending is terri-
ble now."
The hockey veteran recalls match-
ing his shot against the talents of
Duman who is still ranked among
the top three or four goalies in NHL
history.
"You'd go in on him (Duman) and
he just wouldn't move. The closer
you got the worse he'd get."
The slap shot was a thing of the
future at that time too.
"There were never any slap shots
in my day either," Shaw says: "To
get off a slap shot you had to stop
and shoot. You can go 20 feet in
the time it takes.
"You didn't give a guy the time to
get away the shot," he laughs.
Another aspect of modern hockey
Shaw cannot tolerate, is the vio-
lence which permeates today's
game.
As an All -Ontario boxing cham-
pion for the Stratford YMCA at 19
years of age, Shaw was more than
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able to hold his own in a brawl, but
he never engaged in what he consid-
ers a despicable aspect of the game.
And that's something he's very
proud of.
"In all the years I played hockey, I
never got into a fight," Shaw says.
"I could have licked a lot of guys
but 1 didn't believe in it.
"There used to be an old saying in
hockey -- if you can't play hockey,
you fight. It still holds true I guess.
The good hockey players don't
fight."
A REAL FLYER George Shaw as he appeared with the Centralia Air
Force team during the Second World War. Shaw spent four years at centre
ice in England before coming back to Canada and playing for Cornwall Fly-
ers, a farm team for Montreal Canadiens.
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