Broadbent, Punch

Broadbent began his hockey career in the amateur leagues of Ottawa - his hometown - and in 1911 and 1912, with two local clubs, reached the playoffs of the Inter-provincial Amateur Hockey Union ( eng. Interprovincial Amateur Hockey Union, IPAHU ) - leading Canadian amateur hockey. In 1912 he already played on a partial contract in the professional club of the National Hockey Association " Ottawa Senators ". Two years later, he spent in the “Senators” a particularly successful season, having scored 24 goals in 20 regular season games, which helped the Ottawa club to reach the Stanley Cup final. After the defeat in the Stanley Cup from Vancouver Millionaires , Broadbent went to the front and returned from world war only in 1918 as the holder of the Military Medal for bravery.

In the 1918/19 season, Broadbent was again accepted into the Ottawa Senators, during his absence they became the NHL club. In the next six seasons, he three times became the owner of the Stanley Cup as part of one of the best NHL attack triples with Frank Nybor and Sy Denneni , and his highest personal success came to him in the unsuccessful for the Senators season of 1921/22 . During this season, he scored 32 goals in 24 games and made 14 assists, becoming the NHL top scorer . This season, he also threw at least one goal for 16 games in a row, breaking the previous league record by Joe Malone . This Broadbent record is not broken to date ^{[1] [2]} .

At the peak of his career, Broadbent demonstrated not only good bombing qualities, but also a tough, aggressive style of play both in attack (many consider him to be the first real hockey power forward ^[3] ) and in defense. In each of the seasons played for Ottawa, with the exception of the record one, the number of penalty minutes exceeded the number of points scored. His playing in attack and constant readiness for physical combat brought Harold Broadbent the nickname “Punch” ( eng. Punch - “Strike”) ^[4] .

For almost his entire career, Punch Broadbent remained loyal to his hometown. It got to the point that when in 1920 they tried to sell it to Hamilton , he responded by announcing the end of his career. As a result, he lost six months, but managed to return to the Ottawa Senators, where he spent only nine matches that season ^[4] . Just before the 1924/25 season, the “Senators” sold Broadbent along with another leading player, Clint Benedict , to the new NHL club “ Montreal Maroons ”. The opinion was expressed that the reason for the deal was the deterioration of Broadbent's game, but he managed to prove to the critics that they were wrong, having thrown five goals in the Hamilton Tigers gate on January 7, 1925. The following season, the Montreal club, with the participation of Broadbent, who had received the nickname “Old Elbows” by this time (won the Old Elbows ), won the Stanley Cup. Broadbent’s playoff scores vividly characterize his playing style at this time: in eight games he scored two goals, but scored 36 penalty minutes ^[3] .

In 1927, Broadbent returned to Ottawa for one season, but already in the 1927-28 season, he was sold to one of the first teams representing the USA in the NHL, the New York Americans . The season with “Americans” was the last in his playing career.

In 1962, Punch Broadbent was elected a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame , and four years later a member of the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame ^[2] . He died in March 1971 , at the age of 78.

Statistics before the start of performances in the NHL are given according to the Hockey Hall of Fame , after the start of performances in the NHL - according to the database HockeyDB

• Punch Broadbent (inaccessible link) (inaccessible link from 14-06-2016 [1114 days]) in the Great Encyclopedia "Hockey"
• Profile on the Hockey Hall of Fame website (eng.)
• Statistics in the database HockeyDB.com (English)