Brimsek an All-Time Goaltending Great
In his day, Happy Day has seen a lot of goaltenders, and played with and against most of those he saw. Included in the group were such past masters of the art as Georges Vezina, Clint Benedict, Alex Connell, Hughie Lehman, George Hainsworth, Roy Worters, Chuck Gardiner and Cecil "Tiny" Thompson. Yet the best netminder Hap Day ever laid eyes on was not one of these. The best goaler the Toronto coach and former defense star ever saw was Boston's Frank Brimsek.
Day has a pretty sweet netminder of his own in Turk Broda and a great admiration for him, but when it comes down to brass tacks and all sentiment aside, Hap plumps for Brimsek as the best in the league today - and the best he ever saw.
"That Brimsek belongs among the all-time great goalkeepers: no questions about that," said Day, "and don't forget playing goal nowadays is a lot more difficult than it used to be."
Happy says one reason he thinks so highly of Frigid Frank is because he has never, never seen Brimsek play a bad game, and he usually sees him against Toronto. Day goes on, "He's practically unbeatable against us any time; and it was he who stopped us in the playoffs last spring no question about it. I said I never saw him play a bad game, and that goes for the playoff game we beat Boston 7-2. Brimsek was still phenomenal. We'd have had 15 goals that night but for him."
Day knows, though he rarely sees Brimsek in action against other clubs, that Frank seldom if ever plays a bad game against anybody.
Two Hallmarks of His Work
There are two points that impress Day particularly about Brimsek; one is that he always seems to be in position, waiting for the puck - like a top-notch outfielder in baseball, the kind who never has to make spectacular catches because he is always there ahead of the ball - and because of the shots Frank stops with his hand; shots that whip goalward four of five inches off the ice to the corner; shots that beat other netminders, but shots that Brimsek picks off with that hand of his.
Happy says, "You know, for quite a while, I kept telling my boys, 'You're always shooting right at Brimsek. Put that puck where he isn't.' But the more I see of him, the more I realize that there isn't anywhere around the nets that Brimsek isn't. I mean the fellows always seem to be shooting at him, because he always gets in front of the puck. He must have all the angles figured to a tee, and probably all the habits of the men who shoot at him, too. He anticipates where the shots are going to go. It's not often you see Brimsek making that last sensational, hair's-breadth save, like a lot of goalers have to do. He is there waiting for it ahead of time."
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In this new game of heavy pressure and constant attack, it's a lot tougher on a goalkeeper than in the good old days, says Day. "You don't see goalies standing around, taking it easy now," Hap declares, "they have to be more active; they have to watch for pucks coming at them out of a forest of figures; often they have to make their moves instinctively on screened and deflected shots. And despite all those handicaps, Brimsek is the best I've ever seen."
Day adds that if you don't believe him you should talk to Gordie Drillon about Brimsek. Drillon - a pretty fair hockey player himself who averages about 40 scoring points a year for Toronto, including some 25 goals which win a lot of hockey games for the Leafs - played amateur with Brimsek in Pittsburgh, and even then Gordie had him tabbed as a coming great. When Drillon first went to Toronto, he told the Leafs then of this Brimsek. Drillon was sold on Brimsek that far back. And to show you just how serious Frigid Frank was about his work from the very beginning, big Gordie relates that scoring a goal on him in practice was like cutting Brimsek's heart out.
