Clint "Benny" Benedict

Last updated

BIOGRAPHY

BORN: Ottawa, Ontario, September 26, 1892.
DIED: November 12, 1976.
HEIGHT:
WEIGHT:
UNIFORM #:
CATCHES: Left

Entry in "Inside Sports: Hockey": A goalie on five winning Stanley Cup teams, four with Ottawa and one with the Montreal Maroons. Allowed only three goals in a four-game Cup series while with the Maroons in 1926-27.

PRAYING BENNIE:

"That first season (1917), the new league (NHL) made a significant change in the rules it carried forward from the NHA, becoming the first league to permit goaltenders to drop to the ice. Benedict's play has long been credited as the motivating factor. He had devised an elaborate series of ruses to allow him to get to his knees - ruses that other goaltenders began copying. One routine allegedly saw him dropping to his knees to give thanks to God - a play that gave rise among outraged Toronto fans to the nickname "Praying Bennie". (Douglas Hunter, "A Breed Apart")

THE FIRST MASK:

"Without warning, Benedict's career was derailed on January 7, 1930 in a game against the Canadiens. As the great Howie Morenz closed in, defenceman Jim Ward cut in front of Benedict, trying to break up the play. Using Ward as a screen, Morenz fired the puck high from twenty-five feet out. "I saw it at the last, split second and lunged," Benedict would recall. "Wham, I'm out like a light and wake up in the hospital."

The shot had smasked into Benedict's cheekbone and nose. Two seasons later, a reporter would write that the puck "had crushed in the side of Benny's face like an eggshell."

Whether to protect his fragile face or his now-precarious confidence, Benedict set out to create the game's first face mask. There are two stories on its origins. One says he had a Boston firm make him one out of leather, built around a football face mask in use at the time. Another has it that the Maroons trainer modified a black leather face mask boxers wore in sparring by riveting a thick black bar across the front to protect Benedict's nose and cheekbone. The confusion is heightened bt the face that a Benedict mask in the collection of the Hockey Hall of Fame doesn't look like the mask Benedict wore in a photo. Whatever it was, it didn't work. "The nosepiece protruded too far and obscured my vision on low shots." After losing 2-1 to Chicago wearing it, "I threw the darn thing away. I blamed it for the loss and that was that." He then tried a wire cage-style protector, like a baseball catcher's mask, "but the wires distracted me. That's when I gave up." (Douglas Hunter, "A Breed Apart")

TRANSACTIONS:

Joined the Ottawa Senators at age twenty, 1911-12.
Rights retained by Ottawa Senators after National Hockey Association folded, November 26, 1917.
Traded by Senators (with Punch Broadbent) to Montreal Maroons for cash, October 20, 1924.

ACCOLADES:

Second goaltender in NHL history (after Georges Vezina) to record a shutout, a 9-0 drubbing over Toronto, February 18, 1918.
Only National Hockey League goaltender to record a shutout (Benedict had five), 1919-20.
Member of Stanley Cup-winning Ottawa Senators, 1919-20.
Member of Stanley Cup-winning Ottawa Senators, 1920-21.
Member of Stanley Cup-winning Ottawa Senators, 1922-23.
Member of Stanley Cup-winning Montreal Maroons, 1925-26.
Elected to Hockey Hall of Fame, 1965.

RECORDS:

In 1926, with the Montreal Maroons, Clint set a National Hockey League record (later tied) with four shutouts in the postseason.
In 1928, again with the Maroons, Clint became the second National Hockey League goaltender to record four shutouts in one postseason.

INJURIES:

DID YOU KNOW?

On March 10, 1920, Clint was in goal when Quebec's Joe Malone scored six goals in a single National Hockey League game.
Clint was the first goaltender in hockey history to don a facemask in a National Hockey League game, February 20, 1930.
After his career ende, Clint coached the Wembley Lions (British ice hockey) from 1934 through 1938.

SEASON-BY-SEASON:

REGULAR SEASON
Year  Team                        GP    Min   W   L   T    GA    GAA   Shots    Sv%   ShO   G   A   PiM     S/60    PERS
09-10 Ottawa Stewartons OCHL       7    420   5   2   0    21   3.00                    0
10-11 Ottawa New Edinburghs IPAHU  5    300   5   0   0    18   3.60                    0
      Ottawa New Edinburghs OCHL   6    360   2   3   1    24   4.00                    0
11-12 Ottawa New Edinburghs IPAHU 11    657  11   0   0    34   3.11                    0
12-13 Ottawa Senators NHA         10    275   7   2   1    16   3.49                    1
13-14 Ottawa Senators NHA          9    474   5   3   0    29   3.67                    0
14-15 Ottawa Senators NHA         20   1243  14   6   0    65   3.14                    0
15-16 Ottawa Senators NHA         24   1447  13  11   0    72   2.99                    1
16-17 Ottawa Senators NHA         18   1103  14   4   0    50   2.72                    1
17-18 Ottawa Senators NHL         22   1337   9  13   0   114   5.12                    1   0   0     0
18-19 Ottawa Senators NHL         18   1152  12   6   0    53   2.86                    2   0   0     3
19-20 Ottawa Senators NHL         24   1443  19   5   0    64   2.66                    5   0   0     2
20-21 Ottawa Senators NHL         24   1457  14  10   0    75   3.09                    2   0   0     0
21-22 Ottawa Senators NHL         24   1508  14   8   2    84   3.34                    2   0   0     0
22-23 Ottawa Senators NHL         24   1486  14   9   1    54   2.18                    4   0   0     2
23-24 Ottawa Senators NHL         22   1356  16   6   0    45   1.99                    3   0   0     0
24-25 Montreal Maroons NHL        30   1843   9  19   2    65   2.12                    2   0   0     2
25-26 Montreal Maroons NHL        36   2288  20  11   5    73   1.91                    6   0   0     0
26-27 Montreal Maroons NHL        43   2748  20  19   4    65   1.42                   13   0   0     0
27-28 Montreal Maroons NHL        44   2690  24  14   6    76   1.70                    7   0   0     0
28-29 Montreal Maroons NHL        37   2300  14  16   7    57   1.49                   11   0   0     0
29-30 Montreal Maroons NHL        14    752   6   6   1    33   2.63                    0   0   0     0
30-31 Windsor Bulldogs IHL        40   2478  20  15   5    92   2.23                    1
THIRTEEN (13) NHL SEASONS        362  22360 191 142  28   858   2.30                   58   0   0     9
FIVE (5) NHA SEASONS              81   4542  53  26   1   232   3.06                    3

POST-SEASON
Year  Team                        GP    Min   W   L   T    GA    GAA   Shots    Sv%   ShO   G   A   PiM     S/60    PERS
09-10 Ottawa Stewartons OCHL       1     60   0   1   0     2   2.00                    0
10-11 Ottawa New Edinburghs IPAHU  3    180   3   0   0    13   4.25                    0
11-12 Ottawa New Edinburghs IPAHU  4    237   3   1   0    18   4.56                    0
14-15 Ottawa Senators NHA          2    120   1   1   0     2   0.50                    1
16-17 Ottawa Senators NHA          2    120   1   1   0     7   3.50                    0
18-19 Ottawa Senators NHL          5    300   1   4   0    26   5.20                    0
19-20 Ottawa Senators STANLEY CUP  5    300   3   2   0    11   2.20                    1
20-21 Ottawa Senators NHL          2    120   2   0   0     0   0.00                    2
      Ottawa Senators STANLEY CUP  5    300   3   2   0    12   2.40                    0
21-22 Ottawa Senators NHL          2    120   0   1   1     5   2.50                    1
22-23 Ottawa Senators NHL          2    120   2   0   0     2   1.00                    1
      Ottawa Senators STANLEY CUP  6    361   5   1   0     8   1.33                    1
23-24 Ottawa Senators NHL          2    120   0   2   0     5   2.50                    0
25-26 Montreal Maroons NHL         4    240   2   0   0     5   1.25                    1
      Montreal Maroons STANLEY CUP 4    240   3   1   0     3   0.75                    3
26-27 Montreal Maroons NHL         2    132   0   1   1     2   0.91                    0
27-28 Montreal Maroons NHL         9    555   5   3   1     8   0.86                    4
NINE (9) NHL POSTSEASONS          28   1707  12  11   3    53   1.86                    9
TWO (2) NHA POSTSEASONS            4    240   2   2   0     9   2.25                    1

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