Work ethic made Bower HOF goalie

BINGHAMTON, NY – For hockey fans like Derek Green, heading out to a Broome County Barons FHL game on a Wednesday night is simply something that a hockey fan does. Getting the chance to meet a living member of the Hockey Hall of Fame takes it to a whole other level. That was the case on December 15th when Green and the rest of the crowd who attended the Barons game against the New York Aviators had the opportunity to meet present day Binghamton Senator center Corey Locke and legendary NHL net minder Johnny Bower. The pair signed autographs, posed for pictures and took part in the opening puck drop for the game. “It’s an incredible honor. He’s had such an illustrious career. He played old time hockey

and that’s what I really like about Johnny Bower,” Green said. “He was just an amazing goaltender, very fast with cat-like reflexes. He remind me a lot of Felix Potvin.” Bower, a two-time Vezina Trophy winner, is most known for his time spent in net for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He wowed fans with his famous poke check that neutralized many a scoring opportunity. Bower would dive head first (without a mask, mind you) into opponents to thwart scoring opportunities. It was the type of fortitude required to allow a goalie to enter and stay in the NHL back in the days of the “Original Six”. What many people forget is that Bower toiled in the minor leagues for 12 season, most of them in the AHL. Much of that time was spent with the Cleveland Barons, a team that at the time was so good that many considered it as the “7th NHL team”. He also played for the AHL Providence Reds and the WHL Vancouver Canucks. Along the way, he backstopped four Calder Cup championships, three of them as his team’s number one goalie. “He’s one of the greatest goaltenders ever,” Jim Mancuso, author of 75 Seasons: American Hockey League Legends , said of Bower. “A lot of people would ask how many goalies out there can you say had a career with some longevity in the majors and minors that was great. The answer would be Johnny Bower because since the end of the six-team era, guys don’t spend that much time down there (in the minors).” Bower’s list of minor league milestones is long, long enough to encompass an entire career. They include:
– WHL leading goaltender award winner in 1954-55 while with the Vancouver Canucks. – Career leader in AHL wins (359 victories in 592 games played). – Career leader in AHL shutouts (45). – Three-time Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award recipient for lowest goals against average in the AHL (1952, 1957 & 1958). – Three-time winner of Les Cunningham Award for AHL Most Valuable Player (1956-1958) one of only two players to win award three times. – Teamed with Roger Bessette to lead the Cleveland Barons to an AHL-record 27-game winning streak during the 1947-48 season. – Recorded a 47-save shutout for the Providence Reds against the AHL All-Star team in 1956, the only shutout in the history of the AHL All-Star Game. – Recorded his best statistical minor league season in 1957-58 with eight shutouts and a 2.17 goals against average. – Inducted into the AHL Hall Of Fame as part of its inaugural class in 2006. It was during his time in Cleveland that Bower earned the nickname “The China Wall”. “Oh, I love Cleveland and the people were just great to me there,” Bower said. “It was when I was going for my fourth shutout.I didn’t get the fifth one, darn it. But anyway I got the fourth and I picked up the paper the next day and it said ‘Johnny China Wall Bower’ and I said to myself ‘what the heck is this?’. So I phoned the guy and I asked him “what’s the China Wall thing?’ He said ‘John, do you know how hard it is to get through the walls of China?’. Oh, thanks very much – that’s what I told him.” Cleveland was also where Bower got maybe the best advice he ever received during his career. Mired in a funk at one point because it was taking him so long to get to the NHL on a full-time basis, Barons coach Fred “Bun” Cook sat him down and turned Bower’s outlook completely around. “He said ‘John, I think you’ve got the ability and talent. Keep going and don’t give up. You’ll make it.’ That was good advice for me,” Bower said. “You have a childhood dream of having your name engraved on the Stanley Cup. Sometimes you get there and it’s been so long. He helped me out and I was very fortunate.” The 1957-58 season would be Bower’s last one in the minors as the Maple Leafs brought him up to stay. By the time he retired at the end of the 1969-70 campaign, his named was etched onto the Stanley Cup four times, including the last time Toronto won the Cup in 1966-67. He attributed his success in the NHL to his personal work ethic and all those years in the minors. “I lasted until I was 45 years old in the NHL. I was very fortunate but I spent a lot of time in the minors as well – 13 years,” he said. “I never gave up or anything like that. We just kept on going and going and going and gathering experience there and there. That’s how we stayed up there longer.” It is fair to say that Bower learned some of that “never give up” attitude on the frozen ponds and ice of post-Depression Saskatchewan, where imagination and ingenuity were at times more important than knowing how to skate, especially if you wanted to be a goalie. “When we were kids, we didn’t have anything like that (goalie pads),” Bower said. “This lady threw out a crib mattress in the garbage. This other guy I knew was a pretty intelligent fellow. He got it (the mattress) and cut it in halfand he made a nice pad for me and for himself. I used to take shots at him with that. I didn’t even feel a shot because the mattresses were thick. It was something for us to play with and it was good protection at that time because that’s all we could have. Otherwise, we would have used catalogs or something like that.” Of course, the fact that he played net before Jacques Plante came up with the idea of the goalie mask tells you that Bower was pretty tough. Challenging a forest of sticks and razor-sharp skate blades by diving head first into them wasn’t an option – it was a part of the job. “Well there’s only one thing you have to do (which) is to stop the puck no matter where you possibly can,” he said. Bower would eventually become one of the first net minders to use the stick poke check as a defensive tool thanks to one of his first NHL teammates – New Your Rangers’ goalie Charlie Rayner. When Bower was brought up to the Big Apple in 1953, Rayner took the time to show an eager youngster the art. “He was a great goaltender. He told me ‘you’ve got to use that’,” Bower said of Rayner. “I didn’t know what he was talking about. Finally after practice he got me out (on the ice) and told me.” Bower took everything Rayner taught him and worked on perfecting the skill. “It’s all timing and it’s very, very effective. In the NHL (today) you don’t see it too often. (Martin) Brodeur will once and awhile use it,” He said. “It’s hard to do the poke check unless you dive on it. The players don’t realize that when you do dive, your stick comes outand the shooter comes out about another 53 inches longer so you can get him there. He (the shooter) figures you won’t come closer so as soon as he comes in you can get him real quick. Your timing has to be perfect (because) if you miss him, you’ve got 15,000 people on your back. You’ve got to work at it though. I worked and worked and worked at it until I got it (the timing) down pretty well.” Like most things, the game has changed since the last time Bower played professionally almost 40 years ago. Back in his day, shots were primarily wrist shots that were “not that hard but hard enough”. When asked about the difference that new technology – in particular composite sticks – have made, he figured that the puck speed has gone up 25 miles an hour or more. What would his reaction have been if either Dennis or Bobby Hull had the use of one of those hi-tech weapons? “Oh wow,” he said. Known as a “stand-up” goalie, Bower said he’s seen an obvious evolution into a hybrid of the “butterfly” style that started to come into use just after he retired. The butterfly, where goalies drop to their knees and spread their pads to gain better coverage of low shots, has become more and more popular as equipment such as lighter pads and masks have come along.
“I don’t even know who started it. I think Tony Esposito from Chicago was the one who started that style (in the NHL),” Bower said. “We were taught to stand up, know your angles, challenge the shooter and work with your stick and your poke check. It’s great to do the butterfly style with all the low shots but there’s a lot of space up top.” Although most of the pictures of Bower in his heyday are in black and white, his impact on the game is painted in vivid color for those who are fans in the minds of fans. Broome County goalie Chris Testa is more than familiar with Bower’s career, thanks to his father. He recalled his dad telling him of Bower’s exploits and those of his 1964-65 Vezina trophy partner Terry Sawchuk. Testa admitted that he has a stick signed by Bower and the rest of the 1967 Stanley Cup champs. “Honestly, when I was growing up and started playing hockey, my dad always said ‘if you’re going to be serious about playing the game, you’re going to learn the history’,” Testa said. As of 2010, there have been just nine “regular” goalies who have played in the NHL into their 40’s – Bower is one of that select group. Testa, a graduate of UMass-Boston, would like to some day join that list but he knows it will take a lot of work. “I think it takes goalies a little more time to develop if you will,” he said. “I think it’s just more of a seasoning thing and working on the little aspects of your game like rebound control and the simplest things that you wouldn’t think at this level you need to work on but you really do.” When asked what sage advice he would leave with the young net minders  of today, Bower brought everything back to being willing to put in the effort to get better each and every day. “I think the big key thing with the younger kids coming up is that they have to work on everything because if you don’t work and practice at something you’re not going to get anywhere no matter what profession you choose,” he said. “You’ve got to work and you’ve got to be hungry for it. Always work on your negative points. If your catching glove is good, work on your blocker. If you’re weak on the ice, use your stick a lot or your feet, whatever way you play the game. That’s the way I learned. You’ve got to work hard or you’ll never get anywhere.” By the end of the evening, neither goalie had delivered a Bower-like poke check to wow the crowd. That didn’t bother the Hall Of Famer in the least because he saw a tightly fought contest that the host Barons won 3-2. Judging by the smile on his face, Bower knows that the future of the game is in good hands – or at least a quick catching glove. Contact the author at wendy.hull@prohockeynews.com