Style of play Although Kennedy was not a gifted skater, he compensated with a fierce determination and tireless hard work. Among modern era players his style of play has been compared to
Bobby Clarke and
Jarome Iginla. Line-mate Howie Meeker said that while he was a much better skater than Kennedy, . He brought to the Leafs a classy, humble leadership and was difficult to separate from the puck. stick-handling, playmaking, passing skills and physical toughness.
Dick Irvin once compared the styles of
Syl Apps, previous captain of the Leafs, to Kennedy in how the two centres used their wingers. "Apps used to hit the defence at top speed and
Gordie Drillon would come along and pick up the garbage", said Irvin, whereas Kennedy would "go into the corners and get the puck out to their wings." Hap Day had said he could see Nels Stewart's influence on Kennedy. Like Stewart, Kennedy had a more upright
lie on his hockey stick which kept the puck closer to his feet. Kennedy was also widely believed to be the best
faceoff man in hockey but management of the Leafs still wished to see Kennedy playing in an NHL game. Late in the
1942–43 season, they received permission from Kennedy's mother to take him out of school so he could accompany them on a road trip. He played in two of the final three games of the regular season, but did not continue with them into the playoffs. he was put on the Leafs' third line on rightwing, instead of his customary centre position, on a line with
Bud Poile and
Gaye Stewart. He was told by coach
Hap Day to simply "stay with your check and keep him from scoring." Kennedy's line scored three goals and he picked up one assist in a 5–5 tie. but his rights were still "officially" owned by the Montreal Canadiens. Toronto first tried to buy his rights from Montreal, but a trade was arranged exchanging Kennedy for
Frank Eddolls. Nevertheless, interim manager Frank Selke had made the trade while
Conn Smythe, owner of the Leafs, was away in service in World War II and Eddolls was one of his prized prospects. Smythe was furious when he discovered the trade, creating a rift between the two which ultimately led Selke to leave Toronto to manage the Canadiens. Looking back, some hockey pundits have called the trade the best the Toronto Maple Leafs have ever made. In 2001,
Sports Illustrated writer and Montreal native,
Michael Farber, included the Kennedy trade for Eddolls as one of "the five darkest days" in Montreal Canadiens' history. Kennedy played full-time with the Leafs for the first time in the
1943–44 season. Although the Leafs had won the Stanley Cup in 1942, at the time of Kennedy's arrival the Leafs were a team decimated by the loss of some of its best players to the war effort. Andy Lytle, sports editor of
The Toronto Star, wrote of the Leaf team eliminated from the previous season's playoffs, "I do not suppose that Toronto was so weakly represented in the N.H.L. playoffs since the club originated." During training camp, Kennedy read in a newspaper interview of Coach Hap Day speaking about the best new prospects on the Leafs, but he had failed to mention Kennedy. This served to fire up Kennedy to give an even greater effort towards making the team. advised when facing the goaltender to "either draw him out, or pick the corner." Kennedy began the season playing right wing. Then, in mid-December, Leaf centre
Mel Hill fractured his ankle. This gave Kennedy his first opportunity to play regularly at the centre position, where he remained for most of his career. In a January 8 game at Maple Leaf Gardens against the Boston Bruins, the mayor of Port Colborne presented Kennedy and Don Gallinger with gold watches on behalf of his town's citizens. Kennedy finished the season as the team's second best goal-scorer with 26 and was fourth in points. He was just 18 years old. In the playoffs, Toronto faced the powerful Montreal Canadiens. Although Toronto won the first game 3–1, they were then swept in the next four and eliminated from the playoffs. The
Toronto Daily Star said of Kennedy's rookie season, "For our money the best rookie of the year though playing with one of the weakest lines in N.H.L. history." Kennedy was ineligible for the rookie-of-the-year award because of the two games he played with the Leafs at the end of the 1942–43 season.
The first Stanley Cup and the great upset In only his second NHL season, Kennedy finished the
1944–45 regular season leading the team in goals and points with 29 goals and 25 assists. The Maple Leafs finished in third place and faced the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round of the playoffs. The Canadiens of 1944–45 were a record-breaking, powerhouse hockey team. Going into the playoffs, their coach, Dick Irvin, declared them as the greatest team to have ever played in the NHL. The Montreal club had the top three point leaders in the league, placed 5 of the 6 positions on the first All-Star team,
Maurice Richard had scored his famous
50 goals in 50 games, Montreal had finished 28 points ahead of Toronto and scored almost a goal-per-game more. The Leafs were given little chance of winning the series. As with all NHL playoff series of the era, the winner was the first team to win four games of a best-of-seven. Going into the series, Hap Day made a critical decision to predominantly play only two lines of his best players to compensate for the Canadiens' depth in talent. The first game was in Montreal and no goals were scored for the first two periods. In the third period, with just twenty-two seconds remaining and everyone anticipating overtime, Ted Kennedy banked a backhand shot off the goalpost which then rebounded off goaltender
Bill Durnan's pads and into the net to win the game 1–0. The goal shocked the Montreal team, especially as the famed "Punch Line" had been held scoreless. In the second game, also in Montreal, Kennedy struck again only four minutes into the first period scoring the all-important first goal to put the Toronto ahead by 1–0. Montreal won the next game in Toronto 4–1. In the fourth game in Toronto, Montreal got off to a quick start and led 2–0 on goals by Elmer Lach and Richard, his first of the series, before the game was three minutes old. In the second period, Kennedy set up
Mel Hill to get Toronto back in the game and the Leafs went on to win in overtime. As Toronto needed only one more victory to win the series, Montreal was facing elimination in game five in Montreal. Maurice Richard finally overcame Leaf
checking and scored four goals in an 11–3 victory. However, Toronto won the sixth game in
Maple Leaf Gardens 3–2 to win the series and complete the shocking upset. In the game, Toronto's
Elwyn Morris, a defenceman who had scored only one goal all season, sparked the Leafs when he stole the puck from Montreal defenceman Frank Eddolls to score the first goal of the game. Eddolls was the player traded to Montreal to bring Kennedy to Toronto. This series is considered one of the greatest upsets in NHL history. On completion of the Montreal series,
the Globe and Mail said of the 19-year-old Kennedy, "Ted Kennedy's all-round display was the best individual performance of the six-game set." The
Toronto Star was even more laudatory "There are a few great hockey players in the N.H.L. today. Kennedy is assuredly and emphatically one." Kennedy said that the 1945 upset of the Canadiens was the peak event of his career. Toronto faced Detroit in the Stanley Cup Final. Toronto won the first three games of the series without giving up a goal, as rookie goaltender
Frank McCool recorded consecutive shutouts. Toronto then had to ward off a determined Detroit comeback bid, before winning the Stanley Cup in the seventh game. Kennedy had continued with a strong performance against Detroit, scoring the game-winning goal in game two, was chosen the first star (best player) of game three and scored all three goals in a 5–3 loss in game five. whose rights were owned by the New York Rangers. A deal could not be made as New York General Manager
Lester Patrick was asking for several players in return. After the triumph of the previous season, the
1945–46 season was a complete loss for Kennedy. He got off to a slow start, beginning the season at right wing before being returned to his center position and he also fell ill. By January Kennedy had only 5 points in 21 games and was then lost for the rest of the season due to an injury to his foot, when a Boston Bruin player's skate dug into his boot. With the Leafs also losing Captain
Syl Apps to injury Toronto missed the playoffs.
The NHL's "first dynasty" On September 19, 1946, an informal ceremony was held in which former Leaf great Charlie Conacher presented Ted Kennedy with his No. 9 sweater he had worn during his career. Conacher had been Kennedy's boyhood hero, but when Kennedy arrived Lorne Carr already wore No. 9. Kennedy was initially given No. 12, then switched to No. 10. When Kennedy heard Carr was retiring, he immediately wrote a letter to Leaf management requesting No. 9. Conn Smythe instituted a major rebuilding campaign for the
1946–47. Gone from the team was
Sweeney Schriner,
Lorne Carr,
Bob Davidson,
Mel Hill,
Elwin Morris,
Babe Pratt,
Billy Taylor and new additions were
Harry Watson,
Jimmy Thomson,
Gus Mortson,
Garth Boesch,
Joe Klukay,
Don Metz,
Vic Lynn and
Howie Meeker. The team was very young, with six rookies in the lineup, and was felt to be two years away from challenging for the championship. However, some of those rookies, such as Boesch and Meeker, had just returned from the war and were more mature than most. As Hap Day observed, "They'd been through real battles." Kennedy said that during this period, with all the changes on the team and with players returning from the war he had to "re-establish myself as an NHLer." Due to Kennedy's poor start to the previous season, there was some talk around this time whether Kennedy was going to turn out to be just a "wartime flash in the pan". Many of the players in the NHL during this period failed to stick with their teams once the war ended and the stars returned. However, Kennedy was one of the exceptions "Come on, Teeder!" was to become a familiar rallying cry in Maple Leaf Gardens. The cheer, a howl that could be heard throughout the building, was performed by, the otherwise quiet, season ticket-holder John Arnott whenever the Leafs needed a goal. Kennedy became famous across Canada from the radio broadcasts of
Foster Hewitt. It was not until the 1952–53 season that hockey games were broadcast on television in Canada. Kennedy now centered a line between Howie Meeker and Vic Lynn and they clicked "immediately". These were the line-mates Smythe had been trying to find for Kennedy since 1945. Kennedy served as the playmaker between the fast skating and goal scoring of Meeker and Lynn. At the end of the season Kennedy led the Leafs in points and they finished in second place to Montreal. In the first round of the playoffs Toronto faced Detroit. Except for a one-sided 9–1 loss in the second game in Detroit, Toronto dominated the series and won in five games. Toronto now faced Montreal for the Stanley Cup. The match up was between the very young Maple Leafs and the veteran Montreal Canadiens who had dominated the NHL for the past four years. After Toronto lost the opening game by a one-sided 6–0, Canadien goaltender
Bill Durnan was quoted in a Montreal newspaper as saying, "How did the Maple Leafs manage to get into the playoffs?" Hap Day used the quote to inspire his team. In the second game, Kennedy opened the scoring at 1:12 of the game then assisted on line-mate Lynn's goal on the next face-off putting the Leafs up 2–0 at less than 2 minutes into the game. Toronto went on to win the game 4–0. In game 3 Toronto had built a 3–0 lead by halfway through the second, but Montreal battled back to close the gap to 3–2. With Montreal pressing in the dying seconds of the game, Kennedy dug the puck out of a desperate scramble in front of the Toronto goalmouth, carried the puck up ice, then forcing goaltender Durnan to go down, he put the puck behind him to clinch the game. Toronto won game 4 in overtime 2–1 while the Canadiens won game 5 in Montreal 3–1.
"Strongest team ever" The
1947–48 season brought
Max Bentley to Toronto from Chicago in what has been called the biggest trade in NHL history as the Leafs gave up five regular players for the league's scoring leader. Evincing the depth of the team at centre, Bentley played on the team's third line, behind Apps and Kennedy. Decades later, Hap Day argued that this team was the strongest NHL team ever and
The Globe and Mail reporter Dick Beddoes also stirred up controversy by saying
Wayne Gretzky would have been relegated to the fourth line on this Leaf team. The Leafs finished in first place at the end of the regular season. Kennedy had finished the regular season third in points on the team behind the other two star centres Apps and Bentley, but it was Kennedy who was to dominate the playoffs. In the first round Toronto played Boston and eliminated the Bruins in five games. Kennedy set up the tying goal which led to an overtime win in game 1 and scored four times in the second game. But it was in the fifth and deciding for which he received greatest praise for his fore-checking tenacity and clutch goalscoring. First, with Toronto down 2–1 and the Bruins having the better of the play, he out-fought two Boston players for possession to get the puck to Bentley who in turn set up Lynn for the tying goal. Then later, Kennedy was carrying the puck into the Boston end. He passed to Meeker, who returned the pass, Kennedy faked once, moved in front of the net, forced goaltender
Brimseck to go down, then lifted the puck over him. In the Cup Finals, Toronto swept Montreal in four straight games to win the Stanley Cup. Kennedy scored twice in the Cup-winning game His checking and work in the corners has been credited as critical to the victory. In the off-season, on Saturday, June 12, 1948, Kennedy married Doreen Dent of Toronto in
Knox College Chapel in Toronto. The Leafs struggled early in the
1948–49 season having lost Apps and
Nick Metz to retirement, and then Kennedy for a month and
Cal Gardner for two months due to injuries. By the end of January, Toronto was only one point ahead of the last place New York Rangers who had even played two fewer games than Toronto. Kennedy's return to the team in mid-January provided the needed spark to pull the Leafs out of their prolonged slump. Although finishing the regular season with a losing record of 23 wins 25 losses and 12 ties, they were able to place fourth, which was the last position qualifying for the playoffs. However, in the first round of the playoffs they defeated Boston in five games. Kennedy had scored the game-winning goal which put Toronto up 3–0 in games. Toronto then faced the first-place Detroit Red Wings. During the season, Detroit General Manager
Jack Adams said of the Red Wings, "This is the greatest team in my 22 seasons here." However, Toronto swept the Red Wings in four straight games to win their third consecutive Stanley Cup. Kennedy finished the playoffs with two goals and six assists to lead the Leafs in points and was second only to Detroit's
Gordie Howe overall. This was the first time a National Hockey League team had won three Cups in a row and had not been accomplished since the
Ottawa Silver Seven in the pre-NHL era, 44 years before. The Leafs had also won nine consecutive Stanley Cup Final games dating back to April 19, 1947 (initial cup won on this date, with the following two wins being finals sweeps).
The Gordie Howe incident At the beginning of the
1949–50, Conn Smythe liked the Leafs' chances for continued success, saying, "We'll be hard to keep away from a fourth Stanley Cup," but as the season progressed many hockey people felt Detroit would end the Leafs' Stanley Cup streak. By the end of the season, Toronto had finished in third and Kennedy finished second on the Leafs in points. The 1950 playoffs were overshadowed by an on-ice mishap in the opening game between Toronto and Detroit, in which the Red Wings' young star player,
Gordie Howe, was seriously injured. Late in the game with Toronto leading 4–0, and Howe was coming in fast from the side to try to cut him off. Kennedy saw Howe coming at the last moment, and was able to dodge Howe's check while passing the puck to
Sid Smith, Howe sustained a concussion, facial fractures, and a lacerated right eyeball, and doctors had to perform emergency procedures on him at the hospital to save his life. Detroit coach
Tommy Ivan and general manager
Jack Adams accused Kennedy of deliberately
butt-ending Howe. Kennedy had not been assessed a penalty on the play. After the game Kennedy said, "I don't know how he got it. I avoided his check along the boards and didn't feel anything hit me, although he may have struck my stick." cleared Kennedy of wrongdoing and rebuked Detroit coach
Tommy Ivan for accusing Kennedy of a deliberate attempt to injure the Red Wings'
Gordie Howe.NHL President
Clarence Campbell was at the game and was seated near where the incident occurred. After receiving a report from the game's officials, Campbell called a news conference and said the injury was not Kennedy's fault. Campbell also publicly rebuked Ivan for his accusation, saying, "That is a pretty serious business and a very vicious charge." It was also argued that since Kennedy was a right-handed shot, the butt-end of his stick was towards the boards and away from Howe. Sportswriter
Ted Reeve of the
Toronto Telegram quipped, "How would a right-handed stickhandler going down the left boards give anyone a butt end? Unless he wanted to lift the snappers out of someone in the rail seats." Howe was lost from the playoffs, but the incident influenced the momentum of the series. Detroit won the second game of the series 3–1, a violent and fight-filled affair which included a stick-swinging incident between the Leafs'
Jimmy Thomson and Detroit's
Leo Reise and a fight between Kennedy and
Ted Lindsay. After the game, Campbell threatened the players with fines if the violent play continued, and both teams continued to play hockey for the remainder of the series. However, Detroit was now determined to "win the series for Gordie" and defeated the Leafs in seven strongly-contested games to eliminate them from the playoffs, going on to win the Stanley Cup. Then, years later, while still believing that he had been hit by Kennedy's stick, Howe reiterated that there was no intent to injure on Kennedy's part and considered his injuries self-inflicted. However, the incident still continues at times to be described as a deliberate act by Kennedy. In 2001,
The Sporting News ran an article on the 30 toughest players in the NHL. In referring to Howe's injury, the incident was described "he was knocked heavily into the boards by Toronto's Teeder Kennedy".
The Final Cup Except for being left with a lifelong facial tick, Howe made a full recovery and for the
1950–51 season as he finished the season leading the league in points. The Maple Leafs finished in second place behind Detroit. Kennedy finished second on the team in points behind Bentley and tied with Howe for the league lead in assists with 43. In the first round of the playoffs Montreal upset Detroit and Toronto defeated Boston. The Stanley Cup Final between Montreal and Toronto went five games, but is remarkable as each game required overtime to be decided. In the third game, with the series tied at one game a piece, Kennedy both saved the game for the Leafs and won it. First, he prevented a goal by clearing a puck that was heading into the Toronto net, then, just fifty seconds later at the other end of the rink, he intercepted a
clear-out pass from Montreal's
Calum MacKay and scored to win the game. The fourth game was won by Toronto to lead the series 3–1. It was in the next game of the series which Leaf defenceman
Bill Barilko scored one of the most famous goals in NHL history with a goal in overtime to win the Stanley Cup. However, without Kennedy's face-off skills Barilko's goal would not have occurred. Montreal had been leading late in the game 2–1 and it appeared that the teams were headed to a sixth game in Montreal. With just 39 seconds remaining, Toronto was able to get a faceoff in the Montreal end. Toronto coach
Joe Primeau had pulled the goaltender so they could have six skaters. Primeau had the option of changing his players, but decided to leave Kennedy out to take the faceoff against Canadien
Billy Reay. Kennedy's plan on the faceoff was to get the puck to Max Bentley, who was stationed at the
point. Then Montreal coach Dick Irvin decided to switch and have his best forwards, the
Punch Line, out for this critical faceoff. Kennedy faced
Lach instead. Kennedy later recalled he was relieved at the switch as he had trouble with Reay on faceoffs, but when Lach came out he felt "I had a chance," Kennedy won the faceoff from Lach, got the puck to Bentley and from the ensuing scramble around the net
Tod Sloan tied the game. The goal dispirited the Montreal team and led to Barilko's famed overtime goal which won another Stanley Cup for the Leafs. Following the 1951 cup, Kennedy said that without the Howe incident of the previous season, "we probably would have been the first team to win 5 in a row." Kennedy said it was a thrilling moment and recalled thinking at the time, "Here's a kid from the little village of Humberstone, Ontario being presented to the Queen." The 1951–52 season was dominated by Gordie Howe and the Red Wings as they finished the regular season in first and then swept third place Toronto in the first round of the playoffs and Montreal in second round without losing a single game. In a game in Boston in January of the 1952–53 season Kennedy suffered a
separated shoulder in a scuffle with
Milt Schmidt of the Bruins and underwent surgery. Originally thought lost for the season, Kennedy trained hard and was able to return to the Leafs in mid-March. However, Toronto still finished out of a playoff position. Despite missing more than two months of the schedule Kennedy still finished second in points on the team. For his efforts Kennedy received the
J. P. Bickell Memorial Trophy which is awarded by the Maple Leaf Gardens board of directors as the player most valuable to the Leafs. For the 1953–54 season, Kennedy finished tied for second on the team in points and was elected to the NHL's 2nd All-Star team. The Leafs finished in 3rd place and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Detroit in five games. At the end of the season, Kennedy announced his intentions to retire. Conn Smythe told reporters he had tendered Kennedy "the highest offer ever made a hockey player". This was a raise above his $25,000 yearly salary (approximately $ in dollars) according to a contemporary newspaper report. Smythe was able to talk Kennedy into playing the
1954–55 season. At the conclusion of the season, he won the Hart Memorial Trophy, To this point Kennedy had had an impressive career. He had played on five Stanley Cup teams, something no other NHL player had achieved at the time. Toronto had only missed the playoffs twice during his eleven years, one of which Kennedy was injured. By age 22 he had won three Stanley Cups and was the youngest player to have scored 100 goals. Yet, Kennedy had never won an award, nor been elected to a first
All-Star team. Kennedy along with first ever Hart recipient
Frank Nighbor, are the only forwards to have won the award without finishing in the top ten in league scoring. After the Leafs were swept in four straight games in the playoffs by the Detroit Red Wings, Kennedy announced his retirement. After missing the entire
1955–56 season, he came out of retirement to play half of the 1956–57 season to help the Leafs who were short on players due to injuries and were struggling to make the playoffs. Kennedy returned November 27 to train himself back into shape after the Leafs had won only one game in their last 11. He scored 22 points in 30 games, but the Leafs finished out of the playoffs. He shared the captaincy with Jim Thomson. A highlight of the season was March 16, 1957, when the Maple Leafs scored 14 goals against the New York Rangers and Kennedy got four assists in what is still the Leafs' all-time record for goals in a single game. When it became clear the team was not going to make the playoffs, he sat out the last two games so the management could have a look at a young
Frank Mahovlich. Kennedy said, "It was time for a new generation to lead the team." During Detroit Red Wing
Ted Lindsay's attempts to form a players' union in the 1950s, he was approaching selected leaders among the other five NHL teams. Although Kennedy was the lone holdout, which greatly disappointed Lindsay, he still respected Kennedy for not informing Conn Smythe about being approached. "I won't squeal", Kennedy told him. According to Glenn Hall, Conn Smythe "ostracized" his captain when he discovered Kennedy had not told him about Lindsay's endeavours. There was speculation that this led to Kennedy failing to land a job with the Leafs after retirement. ==Retirement==