‘Mr. Goalie’ at the WIFF
A nationally recognized, industry leading, cultural event, the renowned Windsor International Film Festival is back for another year. Among the featured WIFF presentations is Mr. Goalie, which deals with legendary National Hockey League goalie Glenn Hall, who turned 94 years of age earlier this month.
Hall starred for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks during the Original Six days of the NHL. And when the NHL first expanded — going from six to 12 teams — Hall was part of it, as he went from the Blackhawks to the St. Louis Blues.
Always one of my favourite NHL goalies from back when I was a young kid playing road hockey on the inner city streets of Windsor and Sault Ste. Marie, Hall holds accomplishments and records that will never be matched by modern day goalies.
After playing junior hockey for the Windsor Spitfires from 1949 to 1951, Hall a few years later began his NHL career with Detroit. In fact, during his first full season with the Red Wings, Hall played in every game — yes, all 70 regular season games — and recorded 12 shutouts. Notably, from 1955 to 1962, while playing for first Detroit and then Chicago, Hall played in every regular season game, a remarkable iron man achievement if there ever was one.
Before finally bring sidelined with an injury, Hall managed to play in 502 consecutive complete games, which spanned eight seasons, an NHL record for goaltenders that is highly unlikely to ever be matched.
Remarkably, Hall never wore a goalie mask or helmet during the streak, only doing so late in his career — which will be an unbreakable record as the mask has now become a mandatory piece of equipment.
I remember my dad telling me that Hall threw up before every game, then drank a glass of orange juice. My oh my, what a remarkable goalie. Mr. Goalie, for sure.
And I for one can’t wait to watch Mr. Goalie as part of the WIFF lineup.