I've got some time, so I'll go ahead and do the same for Mike Grant right now. Right off the bat, I want to note that there are less quotes about him, as he peaked (and declined) before papers started to cover the game in detail with regularity. Furthermore, the Ottawa players are usually going to have more press than the Montreal players, as the Ottawa papers didn't really cover games between Montreal teams in the same manner that they covered Ottawa games, whereas the Montreal papers were more even in their coverage (in my opinion).
1894-
"but it seemed impossible to pass Lewis and Grant"
1895-
"Grant and Elliott were a very strong defence- the best seen in Montreal in years"
“Davidson, McDougall and Capt. Grant of the Vics were conspicuous for their good work"
“Another time near the last, big Captain Grant of the Vics hurled himself with all his strength against Smith, who was sweeping towards goal. They met with terrific force. Smith quivered for a moment then went on over the body of Grant, who went down”
“Grant did not appear to be in his usual form, but Henderson and Jones were bright, shining lights"
1896-
“Vics were short of the services of Bob MacDougall, and that may help to account for their defeat, it was the Vics defence that were weak, not the forwards. Grant was away off. He was slow and only occasionally did any effective work”
"Grant redeemed himself by his splendid work, and Jones seconded both of them”
“In fact, no one, outside of Capt. Mike Grant, could compare with little Westwick"
“The Victoria men whose play showed improvement on Saturday were McLea and Grant. The former put up the best game of all the Victoria forwards and the latter never played better”
“Mike Grant’s easy nonchalance surprised his friends. When the puck dropped in his vicinity he would take his time about sending it back, and often waited until Quebec forwards were on him before he cleared… on several occasions the Quebec men took the puck from him while he was waiting”
1897-
“Grant shone particularly in this line. In fact, several times his long lifts were most dangerous for Montreal, as they usually landed near Collins”
“Drinkwater was not up to his usual standard, and this weakened the Vics’ forward line somewhat; but McLea, Macdougall and Davidson played a rattling game. Grant was in splendid trim and worked like a Trojan. It was Grant’s good judgment that won the deciding game”
“MacDougall and Grant were seeming to do all the aggressive work for their side”
“Grant did some excellent defence work, and his lifting was very puzzling, while Lewis, who was arrayed in armor that much increased his bulk, made some phenomenal stops between the poles”
"Grant played a good game, but at times he was certainly “rattled” and tried to get the better of his opponents by methods not included in the laws of hockey"
“Lewis, their goaler, was padded to such an extent as to make him appear almost a monstrosity, and rendered scoring next to impossible. As for Grant and Henderson, both of them played grand games”
“For the visitors perhaps Davidson performed the hardest work on the forward line, but all were magnificent, and a run by Grant, the cover-point, from behind his own goals, clear through the Ottawa team to score a goal, was a wonderful achievement”
“Of the visitors, Drinkwater was a little off color, but nevertheless played well, while the others were well nigh perfect. ‘Mike’ Grant showed that he is almost the equal of ‘Weldy’ Young at cover-point”
"Grant’s lifting was not as effective as usual, and the forwards did not play the combination game that one expects from men like MacDougall, Davidson and McLea"
"Westwick was probably the star of the who fourteen, and he outplayed Mike Grant several times"
“Grant came up towards centre and time and time again tried to get in one of his famous rushes, but someone was always there to stop him”
"Lewis in goals is a wonder, and used great judgment. He was rarely from between the posts, not caring to take chances on a run out. He had excellent support in Henderson and Grant, the latter playing faultlessly. The way he would return with a lift was wonderful, one goal he scored being from cover point”
1898-
"Grant played a splendid game and was the cool and dashing ‘Mike’ of old"
"Grant was cool, and did his work thoroughly"
1899-
“Mike Grant did a great deal towards winning the match and his work at cover was as reliable as ever"
"Mike Grant played well down, and kept the other forwards at their work”
"Grant did not play like the Grant of old. He worked hard and tried all sorts of schemes to get the puck through the Shamrock goals, but without avail, and in the end he appeared to be out of the game."
“Mike Grant’s attempts to score on long lifts failed for once”
“Mike Grant was the whole defence for his side, the point man not being fit for senior honors"
“Mike Grant, for the visitors, excelled his former reputation as a model cover point"
“Mike Grant did what he has done on more than one occasion on Ottawa ice. He turned the tide in favour of the Victorias. From the face the puck was passed back to Grant, who made a lightning rush. He was forced into a corner, but Bowie was waiting for a pass and scored when the puck came out from Grant”
“For the visitors all played well. Grant never appeared to much better advantage and his lifting was a feature"
“The visitors played a brilliant game, but their style was more showy than effective. The men performed many fancy plays and handled their sticks as if they didn’t care whether they won or not. The defence seemed careless, and even big genial Mike Grant put up a listless game at times. The forwards skated well, and on several occasions performed pieces of combination play that were fairly dazzling. There is but one worker on the forward line, and that is Cam Davidson. The other three who formed the attacking portion of the Vics were content to hang back and wait for a chance to rush up the ice while Davidson followed up every lift made by Grant or Capt. Drinkwater. McLea did some bery effective work, and his shooting at long range was simply beautiful. Bowie and Ewing also did some nice work. Mike Grant’s rush when he tallied the goal that made the score five all was one of the features of the evening”
“Mike Grant is as reliable as ever. Mike has done the Anson act- shaved off his moustache to make himself look younger”
“The centers are good scorers, but Howard is liable to go down under heavy defence work, such as Mike Grant is able to dole out. Howard throws a wonderfully fast puck. Bain is a better man than ever this year”
“The Vics missed the reliability of MacDougall and the rushing power of McLea, but their back division was imperturbable and steadier than Montreal’s. The latter seemed to be able to get into the wrong place at the wrong time, and how the agility of the Vics forwards told against them, for a goalkeeper, be he ever so vigilant, cannot withstand a combined rush of forwards if the point and cover men have been left hopelessly in the rear. It was in a particular method of steady defence that the Victorias showed superior judgment. Grant, for instance, could afford to take a dashing chance because he knew Drinkwater was in his place behind him and that the latter would be able to attend to anything that came his way. In fact had it not been for the fine defence of the point and cover, Montreal would likely have won, for their forward line took every chance and went fast”
“But the Victoria defence played a grand game too. Mike Grant by all odds played his best game of the season"
1900-
“Grant was as serviceable as ever"
“The same crowd acted unfavorably to Grant. No matter what Grant did he was hooted and hissed, and yet in only one instance did Grant do anything that deserved condemnation”
"The fact that Grant was on seemed to brace the rest of the team, and they put forth their best energies to defeat their Montreal rivals”
“Grant played a nice easy defence, but his presence put a vim into the work of the other six players, and they hustled every time and all the time”
1901-
"Those who know Grant are certainly disposed to believe that he had sufficient provocation to justify his striking Duval in the face, for the Shamrock man’s record as a good sport and a gentleman, bears out the conviction that he did not act as he did without sufficient cause”
“McKenna was alright in goal, but Tansey seemed a bit clumsy at point, and Grant, the once-famous, almost proved a complete failure at cover point. There were dozens of times when Grant might have stopped the puck and sent it out of danger, but it rolled right past him unopposed”
"Tansey and Mike Grant, the other two defence men, though not brilliant were fairly effective and while Grant is not by a long shot the hockey player of the olden times, his bodying prevented the Ottawa line from getting far into Shamrock territory. He, however, handles his stick too much with the one hand to keep possession of the rubber”
“Had the Shamrocks had Wall on instead of Grant, the former’s ability to lift the puck back would certainly have made a hard proposition for the home team to buck up against”
1902-
“Grant had been doing fine work although he is apparently not the man he was, and he was particularly shy in the lifts he was distinguished for”
“For Quebec, Pacaud, Stanley and Stuart particularly distinguished themselves through brilliant play, while for the Victorias Grant, Russell, Bowie and Stewart were the stars”
“Victorias, though fortunate in this, that their last two opponents have not been in the best of form, were unfortunate in having to suffer for the absence of Bowie. The absence of a strong man always disturbs the equipoise of a team, and besides this particular weakness, Grant, though a grand hockey player in his time, and, no doubt, a source of confidence to the younger members of the team, is hardly a source of strength. The team cannot fail to appreciate his jumping into the breach to help them out, but they should not rely too much on the kindness of the veterans”
“Mike Grant, at cover point, put up as good a game as he ever did, and Lockerby stopped some hot shots from the Ottawa firing line”
"Strachan and Grant, on the defence, took advantage of the leniency of the referee, and devoted too much time to the body and too little to the puck to be thoroughly effective"
“Grant, but the way, played a great game, and the defence was a very hard one to beat”
“The Victoria defence played almost a perfect game. Grant, although he did not seem to be a favorite, covered his tracks in a way that put one in mind of the old times when the Vics were a considerable parcel in the make up of anything that went for hockey"
Closing Thoughts
I had Grant ahead of Pulford on both my preliminary list and last round's ballot, but that's certainly going to change moving forward. To be fair, I'd like to foot-stomp the note I made earlier about Ottawa players vs Montreal players in terms of coverage quantity, and I'd also note that the way I wrote down the seasons seems to have done Grant a disservice, as the game summaries have a lot of mentions of Grant's rushes and play that I didn't directly quote (so I didn't include them here). The primary sources do reference him more favorably than the direct citations I pulled did, and I think that reflects more in the
season summaries than it does here in this post. So, if you have the time and inclination, I'd humbly encourage everyone to read (or re-read) those seasons and to put more stock in those than in this post.
But, man, there are some unflattering quotes about Grant here.
