Strange But True Rangers Tales: The Greatest One-Punch Win in Blueshirts History

The greatest fight in Rangers history? 

You start with the Rangers-Canadiens at the Old Garden, March 1947. That featured every man on both teams and was so wild that the Police Riot Squad was summoned to quell the madness.

Then there was Gordie Howe vs. Lou Fontinato for the unofficial NHL Heavyweight title in March 1959, also at the Old Garden. It was all Gordie by TKO. "Louie," Howe later told my journalistic buddy Al Greenberg, "didn't hit me once."

But another classic brawl too often forgotten took place during a Rangers-Bruins playoff in 1939, also at the Old Garden. While many players were involved the main event featured Boston Bad Boy Eddie Shore vs. Muzz Patrick of New York.

Trouble started after Bruins goalie Frankie Brimsek made a save whereupon the Blueshirts Phil Watson and large Jack Portland of Boston collided and started swinging. 

Watson's linemate Bryan Hextall, who didn't like the way Watson was being manhandled, rushed to help and that's where Shore came in and the milling became menacing. 

There was a short pause for inhaling when Watson suddenly punched Shore with a right cross and soon all the cats joined in including Patrick who also bopped Shore on the chin.

"Shore was no match for Patrick, the youthful pugilist," wrote Shore biographer C. Michael Hiam, "and Muzz had the upper hand throughout."

Writing in the New York Times, John Kieran, noted, "Muzz was having a fine time and would have lingered longer over Shore except that the referee and gendarmes interfered.

"By that time the very Good Eddie looked as though he had gone through a threshing machine.on his hands and knees, and it took a good half-hour to paste and patch him together again so that he could go back and play with the boys."

Shore's nose was broken in two places; he had a cut under the right eye and a badly lacerated mouth. After the game Boston sportswriter Austen Lake visited the beat-up Bruin in the dressing room.

Lake: "Shore for his part was philosophical. Later as he sat while Dr. Crotty probed his nasal passages and added new layers of adhesive, he mustered a grin which was painful to watch and remarked that it 'was part of the game.'"

Somebody should have told journalist Lake that Patrick once had been the amateur light-heavyweight boxing champion of Canada!