Posted on 08/10/2021 5:22:17 PM PDT by rickmichaels
Tony Esposito, the pioneering Hall of Fame goaltender who played almost his entire 16-year career with the Chicago Blackhawks, has died following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer, the team announced Tuesday. He was 78.
Esposito debuted with Montreal during the 1968-69 season and appeared in 13 games. He was then left unprotected with the Canadiens deep in goalies and taken by the Blackhawks in an intraleague draft for $25,000, an investment that paid immediate dividends for a team that finished last in its division.
Esposito helped lead the Blackhawks to first place, showcasing his butterfly style to post a 2.17 goals-against average and 15 shutouts, still a modern record for an NHL goalie. He won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year as well as the Vezina Trophy given to the top goaltender. He also won the Vezina in 1972 and 1974.
``Tony was one of the most important and popular figures in the history of the franchise as we near its 100th anniversary,'' Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz said. ``Four generations of our family — my grandfather Arthur, my father Bill, my son Danny and I — were blessed by his work ethic as a Hall of Fame goalie, but more importantly, by his mere presence and spirit.''
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsnet.ca ...
RIP
Dying at 78, of anything except murder or misadventure, should be listed as natural causes.
Pancreatic cancer used to be rare.
It ain’t so rare anymore.
Dying of pancreatic cancer is never ‘natural’. It’s an ugly disease.
A friend of ours has Stage 4. They gave him about 2 months.
Very sad.
L
RIP.
famous (not fampous)
1973 Stanley Cup finals.
From what I heard, it’s the worst of cancers for men. It’s literally a death sentence.
In the 1970s you could recognize a goaltender by his mask, before they started painting them.
A guy I worked with and liked a lot got it about this time last year. Didn’t last long.
I think that’s what Bobby Bowden just passed with.
Old School. (Maybe not as old school as Gump Worsley...:)
My equipment looked exactly like his...dating myself.
RIP, Tony. Make a save for us in the big hockey game in the sky my friend.
The master of the V style. Another sports legend from my childhood gone.
When hockey was great
I remember going up to the Winter Carnival in Quebec City in 1987, and they had the traveling NHL Hall of Fame there.
Four of us rented a camper to drive up, and it was one of the coldest snaps up there ever. It was brutal. The bathroom in the camper froze solid, the one thing the guy told us not to let happen, but it did, even though we put the antifreeze in it just like he told us.
But it still froze.
My neck was killing me by the time we got home. Three out of four of us in that camper were named “Bob” and every time someone said “Bob” you turned your head!
Our heater didn’t work right, and I woke up with my sleeping back and hair frozen into an inch of ice on one of the windows.
Anyway, the day we went to the NHL Hall of Fame, it was bitter, BITTER cold. We were dressed appropriately, but it did no good, it was that cold. I had a knee length down filled coat, big boots and a russian fur hat, and it wasn’t enough. As we stood in line, it was so cold that you had to move. It wasn’t optional. You had to almost dance around in place, jumping up and down, flapping your arms.
As I was doing this, I became aware that EVERY person in this huge line was doing the same thing-it was unreal, and I remember thinking that if some alien came to Earth and saw this behavior, they would assume it was some kind of primitive ritual dance.
Everyone, bulked out in clothes and hats, jumping and moving ponderously while the plumes of frozen vapor issuing from our mouths and noses made us all look like odd prehistoric beasts!
When we got inside, the first table we came to had Gump Worsley at it, signing autographs...being a goalie, I was a big fan of his.
He regarded us, and said “Did you people stand in line outside in that cold to get in here?” Shaking his head, he said “You guys are crazy.”
That sounded completely incredible and funny, coming from a man who played hockey as he did, with no mask for so many years.
I stopped watching in the mid-late Nineties...it became excruciatingly boring to me with all the clutching and grabbing.
I think the worst thing they did was to change the divisions. Lots of great rivalries, and they threw that down the toilet. But then, I am a traditionalist, no doubt.
Cancer is in large part a lifestyle disease. As our lifestyles have changed, so have cancer incidences.
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