The backstory to this photo involves a death threat against Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe following Game Two of the 1952 semifinal between Detroit and Toronto. The threats were taken seriously by the RCMP and Toronto Metropolitan Police, and additional security was arranged for games three and four at Maple Leaf Gardens.
On the way to Toronto, Lindsay and Howe decided they wanted to have a little fun with the situation, which most of the players dismissed as empty threats. They approached Lefty Wilson, who was the equipment manager at the time, and asked him to take a spare sweater and sew Howe's number 9 on one side and Lindsay's number 7 on the other and have another player wear it to "fool the snipers." The two players then went to Coach Jack Adams, who promptly nixed the idea.
In a story he told years later, Lindsay also said that in the dressing room before Game 3, he joking asked rookie Marcel Bonin to wear his sweater during the warmup. Bonin declined.
The game went on without incident. Lindsay scored both the tying goal in regulation and the overtime winner. As the teams were leaving the ice, Lindsay playfully "shot at the fans" with his stick.
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Ditto on that one. Especially into a headwind over wide open acreage for about a mile to the semi warmth of a drafty old farmhouse.
