“My second game in the NHL, 1961-62 at the Detroit Olympia,” Gilbert recalled at an NHL Alumni gala a few years ago. “I’d heard the legend of Gordie’s elbows, but I’m not even a rookie. He doesn’t have a beef with me, right?
Rod Gilbert in an early 1960s New York Rangers portrait, and with the team during his 1970s prime.
“Never saw Gordie, or his elbow. I’m waking up on the ice to ammonia and smelling salts, seeing the lights in the ceiling, and as I’m being helped off, the linesman skates by and almost whispers to me, ‘It was No. 9 …’
“I figure, ‘OK, I’ll pick my spot and get my revenge.’ We played in the League together for nine years, but it just never happened.”
More than four decades later, Gilbert and Howe were at a banquet at the 2004 NHL All-Star Game, at different tables, and Gilbert was regaling fellow diners with the story.
“What I want,” he told his audience, “is to live long enough to visit Gordie in his retirement home, come up behind him in his wheelchair, dump him on the floor, walk away, and have one of the nurses lean down to him and say, ‘It was No. 7 …'”
New York Rangers famous line of Rod Gilbert (left), Jean Ratelle (center) and Vic Hadfield at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 2, 2018, for Hadfield’s jersey retirement.
Laughs all around until the following morning, when Mr. Hockey saw Mr. Ranger at breakfast and wandered over wearing a look of purpose.
“Did I ever get you, Rod?” he said.
“Gordie, who did you not get? You got everyone,” Gilbert replied.
“Are we OK?”
Gilbert, now squirming a bit: “Sure we are. Why do you ask?”
“I just wonder why you’d want to dump me out of my wheelchair in a nursing home. Do you still intend to get me back?”
Gilbert grinned.
“Not yet,” he replied, two old friends laughing.
A young Rod Gilbert chases Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Al Arbour behind the net at Madison Square Garden in the mid-1960s.
This was one in an encyclopedia of stories that Gilbert had filed away from his remarkable career with the Rangers, the team that for 18 Hall of Fame-bound seasons was his only NHL address.
The only other jersey he wore in major professional hockey — he had a short stint in the minor pros — was that of Canada, for whom he played in the historic eight-game 1972 Summit Series against an all-star team of Russia players.
From his hometown of Montreal, Gilbert would find his way to fame and fortune in New York via the Rangers’ junior system in Guelph, Ontario, he and fellow future New York legend Jean Ratelle developed by coach Emile Francis. There has been no one in team history who better embodied what it was to be a Ranger than Gilbert, no one who loved the franchise quite as much.
It was a triumph that he could lace his skates, much less play 1,065 games and set team records for goals (406) and points (1,065), all of which stand 44 years since his final game, on Nov. 23, 1977.
Rod Gilbert in pursuit of Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Bobby Baun during a 1970s game.
Twice Gilbert confounded doctors by returning to play following major back surgeries.
“I’m lucky Gordie didn’t dump me out of my wheelchair,” Gilbert joked.
The first in 1961, during Gilbert’s junior career, required spinal fusion to repair an injury sustained when he stepped on debris thrown onto the ice. The operation was performed only after he’d been in traction for 10 days for what was believed to be a pulled muscle.
The fusion didn’t go according to plan, and an infection in his left leg left him hospitalized for two months. But Gilbert recovered and from 1962-65 he played three consecutive 70-game seasons for the Rangers, scoring 11, 24 and 25 goals.
Rod Gilbert with the New York Rangers in the 1970s, and with Team Canada for the 1972 Summit Series.
He re-injured his back in the fall of 1965 while pulling a boat out of the water. A second spinal fusion was done after Gilbert no longer could play, having skated 34 games that 1965-66 season wearing a steel-ribbed back brace.
There were complications from the second surgery too, during which a bone from his pelvis was used to fuse three vertebrae. Infection set in and he nearly died when he lapsed into unconsciousness for several minutes, choking on medication that had lodged in his throat.
Not only did Gilbert return from that, he showed tremendous durability, scoring 25 or more goals in 10 of his next 11 seasons, with a career high of 43 in 1971-72.
In retirement, Gilbert championed myriad worthy causes and waded into the spotlight of New York, his thousand-watt personality a Manhattan beacon. He admitted that it was a bit selfish, the embrace of his city and Rangers fans as important to him as was his ability to raise funds and awareness for charities.
Rod Gilbert camps in front of Toronto goalie Jacques Plante during an early 1970s game.
Indeed, the Rangers were his lifeblood. Gilbert adored his teammates, especially Goal-A-Game (G-A-G) linemates Ratelle and Vic Hadfield. Reached on Sunday night, Hadfield was shattered, unable to speak about his late friend.
Gilbert, whose No. 7 became the first jersey retired by the Rangers in 1979, was bursting with pride when Ratelle’s No. 19 and Hadfield’s No. 11 joined him 10 months apart in 2018. It was on Madison Square Garden ice, during Ratelle’s ceremony, that Gilbert announced that Hadfield’s would join them the following season, the rugged winger reduced to tears.
At every turn, Gilbert promoted the Rangers brand and history as a team ambassador, community relations representative, the locomotive for the Garden of Dreams Foundation and the Rangers’ director of special projects.
The coronavirus pandemic, he said 16 months ago, shoved a stick in the spokes of a free-wheeling man who genuinely loved people.
Rod Gilbert’s charity endeavors involved work with Ronald McDonald House. Here, in 2019, with two children for the 25th Annual Skate With The Greats at The Rink at Rockefeller Center in New York City.
“For a social guy like me, distancing has been pretty tough,” Gilbert said, his mingling with fans reduced to Zoom chats and phone calls with season-ticket holders. “I love to yak and shake hands and hug and tell the fans how much I appreciate them. Not being able to do this is a little depressing, to tell you the truth. I love to socialize with fans. They’re my family, actually.”
A month into the pandemic, Gilbert expressed his awe for the work being done by New York’s front-line workers by saluting them from the 33rd-floor Upper East Side apartment he shared with his wife, Judy.
Every night at 7 p.m., beginning in April 2020 and continuing for some months, he would go out onto his balcony with a wooden stick. And then for a few moments he would bang his Sher-Wood on the metal railing, tapping out his thanks to New York’s health-care professionals and countless others who were working at great personal risk to protect and serve the population.
Gilbert would have hollered his appreciation to accompany the percussion of his stick, but it probably wouldn’t have been heard over Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” that he had blaring in the background.
Rod Gilbert and his wife, Judy, attend the National Meningitis Association’s Give Kids A Shot gala at the New York Athletic Club on April 28, 2014, in New York City.
He had long ago found his place, happiest in the public eye, delighted to dig into his encyclopedia of stories, always finding something for the occasion. The word “no” wasn’t in his vocabulary, and everyone who wanted to bask in his glow knew it.
In Gilbert’s youth he worshipped Montreal Canadiens legend Jean Beliveau, one of the greatest ambassadors hockey ever has known. It was from that cloth that Gilbert would cut his own fine suits.
“I feel like I’m a bit of a statesman now, a little like Jean was,” Gilbert reflected a few years ago.
“Every morning I open my eyes and say that life is for the living. You’re going to go out there and not get upset or create turmoil. Be peaceful and don’t allow anyone to break that. Be happy with your production and be of service to people.”
TORONTO – Reigning PWHL MVP and scoring champ Natalie Spooner will miss the start of the regular season for the Toronto Sceptres, general manager Gina Kingsbury announced Tuesday on the first day of training camp.
The 33-year-old Spooner had knee surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after she was checked into the boards by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series on May 13.
She had a goal and an assist in three playoff games but did not finish the series. Toronto was up 2-1 in the semifinal at that time and eventually fell 3-2 in the series.
Spooner led the PWHL with 27 points in 24 games. Her 20 goals, including five game-winners, were nine more than the closest skater.
Kingsbury said there is no timeline, as the team wants the Toronto native at 100 per cent, but added that “she is doing really well” in her recovery.
The Sceptres open the PWHL season on Nov. 30 when they host the Boston Fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.
“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”
Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.
The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.
Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.
“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”
Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”
The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.
“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”
Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.
“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
