Dishing the Dirt

[rmartin65]

2. Johnson invented the poke check in Montreal. This was confirmed by Alf Smith and others in very fine detail. The NHL singled him out for his absolute dominance decades later with the poke check, which has to be put into the class of how Nighbor and Walker are talked about, reading everything above. Defensively he was a good as you can get. Offensively he was a sensational rusher, very highly regarded, though his effectiveness was more tied to creating/passing than shooting (missing a few fingers on his left hand key reason)

Interesting. I've seen a couple players credited with the creation of the poke check- two that come to mind (besides Johnson, now) are Peg Duval (according to his brother in the Star Weekly, 16 February 1935 Page 6- though I don't know how much stock to put in this one) and Pud Glass (according to Jack Marshall in the Moncton Transcript, 13 March 1916 Page 6). I've quoted the Moncton Transcript article below-

"You fellers have got it all wrong about the poke check," Jack Marshall announced in the course of a hockey fanning bee. "Every paper I pick up says that this guy Nighbor uses a poke check t perfection, but he doesn't. What Nighbor uses isn't a poke check at all. It's a hook check, that's what it is."

"And don't make any mistakes about who invented the poke check, either. Pud Glass was the genius that first put that idea into force. Ol' Pud Glass, he was the chap. Pud used to have six inches added to his stick on purpose so he could make that poke check of his good, and he was the best poke checker I ever saw, or ever expect to see."

"But about this Nighbor boy. Every time he reaches for the puck he reaches with the inside of his stick, and tries to hook the puck toward him. That's what he does, and that isn't the poke check at all. Now the real poke check, is to poke the puck away from the man that has it. That's the real poke check. What Nighbor uses is a hook, I tell you. It's not a poke at all."

Who else gets strong "old man yelling at clouds" vibes here, haha?

The origin of the puck check has interested me for a bit, because it always strikes me as something that wouldn't need to be invented. So before Johnson/Glass/Duval/whoever players weren't poking the puck away from opponents? That just doesn't make sense to me. What else were they doing in an effort to defend? It's such an intuitive concept/action that I really struggle with it being something that suddenly came into being.

Anyway... it makes sense that there would be some confusion about who did it first, Johnson or Glass (if one of them was indeed first), as they played on the same team for years and were apparently close.

 

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Interesting. I've seen a couple players credited with the creation of the poke check- two that come to mind (besides Johnson, now) are Peg Duval (according to his brother in the Star Weekly, 16 February 1935 Page 6- though I don't know how much stock to put in this one) and Pud Glass (according to Jack Marshall in the Moncton Transcript, 13 March 1916 Page 6). I've quoted the Moncton Transcript article below-



Who else gets strong "old man yelling at clouds" vibes here, haha?

The origin of the puck check has interested me for a bit, because it always strikes me as something that wouldn't need to be invented. So before Johnson/Glass/Duval/whoever players weren't poking the puck away from opponents? That just doesn't make sense to me. What else were they doing in an effort to defend? It's such an intuitive concept/action that I really struggle with it being something that suddenly came into being.

Anyway... it makes sense that there would be some confusion about who did it first, Johnson or Glass (if one of them was indeed first), as they played on the same team for years and were apparently close.

What really excites me is that no matter what I think I know about a player, doing this research always ends up bringing us a clearer picture on the players/coaches from ages long past.

I should have stated "seems to have invented or originated" rather than what looks to be concrete by saying "he invented."

I knew about Glass, but what taken aback by just how often Johnson's check was noted. If it was just Alf Smith, I think there'd be more guesswork and while I don't consider it a slam dunk, the volume and quality of citations, coupled with the actual game reports, makes it pretty likely that Moose was at the very least, one of the first, and eventually best practitioners of the poke-check.

The Barney Gross article in 1916 is key for me. That was written during the middle of Johnson's career (along with most of the other pre-consolidation greats) so remembering or confirming details would seem to be easier and more reliable than say in 1940. And obviously it's just one of the many mentions.

Daily News Advertiser​

Vancouver, Metro Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia, Canada • Sun, Jan 16, 1916Page 12

I also liked this entry I found describing the difference between Nighbor's hook and Moose's poke.

The Sunday Oregonian
Portland, Oregon • Sun, Jan 10, 1915Page 18

 

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And I should add, that while I have a good number of game reports in these latest bio's, I've been primarily focusing more on the grander contemporary praise, such as that Barney Goss piece.

I think you start seeing separation from the stars to superstars when articles such as those appear with consistent frequency, not just during a player's career but decades after.

With the Clapper and Johnson research I also wanted to try and cite sources from beyond their local papers, of which there ended up being a large amount of. Clapper seems to have been one of the most respected players ever, regardless of which city is reporting, and Johnson was being called Taylors equal by the Ottawa papers (Taylor's team) when he was still with the Wanderers. When out west, Vancouver papers lauded him on the grandest scale, even when he was in Portland.

 

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This was another big bullet point from when Johnson was still in the East (1911). Getting called the most sensational player over Taylor, Lalonde, and others speaks volumes, especially coming from a rival city paper.

The Toronto Star​

Toronto, Ontario, Canada • Wed, Jan 11, 1911Page 13

Just a neat "best of" rundown covering numerous categories. Apparently Pud Glass and Fred Lake took the cake for best looking!