The history of the extra attacker

[JianYang]

When was the extra attacker rule implemented? Was there a trailblazer who made it famous to pull the goalie? Was it always conventional wisdom to pull the goalie with a minute to go?

When I think about it, I don't recall highlights of goalies being pulled from the 60s, for example.

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[Bondurant]

According to Wikipedia the first time a goalie was pulled for an extra attacker in the NHL was on March 26, 1931. Boston pulled their goalie against Montreal.

 

[tarheelhockey]

When was the extra attacker rule implemented? Was there a trailblazer who made it famous to pull the goalie? Was it always conventional wisdom to pull the goalie with a minute to go?

When I think about it, I don't recall highlights of goalies being pulled from the 60s, for example.

It started with a newspaper column by Lou Marsh.

Marsh was sort of the Don Cherry of the 1920s -- an active NHL referee who was enough of a character to have his own "brand" as a media personality. He did things like write articles criticizing players in the games he himself had refereed, comment on disciplinary decisions, and suggest rule changes he wanted to see implemented.

On December 27 1928, Marsh wrote a column in the Toronto Star suggesting a loophole that teams weren't technically required to have an actual fully-dressed goalie on the ice:

About a week later, the varsity team at Toronto's St. Barnabas Catholic School got behind 4-0 in a game and decided to give Marsh's idea a try. They did score a goal, but also got scored on.

The real proof of concept came in an OHA junior game between West Toronto and the Young Rangers on February 3. Trailing with 3 minutes left, the Young Rangers pulled their goalie for a forward and tied the game. West Toronto objected that once pulled, the goalie shouldn't be able to return -- but that didn't fly.

Three days later, it happened for the first time in a professional game. In Marsh's original column, he had called out Hamilton coach Bernie Morris for having not been "quick-witted" enough to put extra forwards on the ice during a late PP. In the February game, Hamilton was trailing Buffalo 1-0 when Morris took Marsh's suggestion and pulled his goalie and defensemen, for a 6-forward attack. That backfired when Buffalo's Rolly Huard scored the first professional ENG, lifting the puck all the way down the ice. I'm sure Morris sent Marsh a nice thank-you card for the swell idea.

I suspect that Huard's goal slowed the momentum of the goalie-pulling concept, as the whole idea was still a bit of a gimmick and the idea of being scored on this way would have made professional coaches a bit more reluctant to try it.

It next surfaced in a high-level game on March 10, in the OHA junior playoffs. Young Rangers, the same team that tried it in Feburary, were trailing the Toronto Marlboros (a team that featured Charlie Conacher and Busher Jackson) by a goal late. The Rangers pulled their goalie for a forward, but kind of missed the point -- he went and stood in the net.

Two weeks later, it popped up again in the AHA (professional minor league) playoffs. In a total goals series, Minneapolis was trailing St. Paul by 2 with ten minutes left when Hall of Fame coach Lloyd Turner pulled goalie Hal Winkler. A penalty eventually forced Winkler back to the net, and nobody scored in the interim.

Summer of 1929 was decision-making time with respect to whether teams would be allowed to continue this practice. No rule was added to prevent it, which de facto instituted goalie-pulling as not just technically legal, but a valid part of the game. However, the NHL did reform the rulebook that summer to add forward passing and an illegal-defense rule which regulated the number of players who could be in the defensive zone; that may help explain the two-year gap before an NHL coach finally tried pulling his goalie. In the meantime, the tactic was practiced by various lower-level teams until it became familiar and somewhat systematic -- and as a result it stopped being treated as newsworthy.

Having said all that, strictly speaking the practice didn't originate with Marsh. Way back in 1907, Belleville played Lindsay in an OHA amateur game that turned particularly rough. Trailing 9-1 and with their goalie being treated for a gash across his face, Belleville declared that 4 of their players were unable to continue and suggested dropping to 3 players aside for the remainder of the game. Lindsay accepted, and sent out one player at each position (G, D, F). Belleville sent out 3 forwards. Six minutes later the score was 9-6, Belleville's forwards having scored five times in a row. At that point the Lindsay players and some bystanders rushed the ice to stop the game, forcing the referee to call the game off. Both teams claimed victory and the ref kicked it to the OHA to decide. Technically speaking, that was the first recorded goalie pull.

 

[Michael Farkas]

If a regular on this board doesn't change his username or at least that little headline under your name to "double-blanked yahoo" I will be surly, if not inconsolable...

(Also, nice find tarheel...I had never seen that article before)

 

[DJ Man]

I think that a pivotal moment in the evolution of the strategy went something like this ...

"You double-blanked yahoo coach -- because of your stupid idea, we lost by two goals!"

"So what?!"