Gerard, Eddie

Eddie Gerard's sporting interests were wide: he played football , lacrosse , tennis and cricket , rowing. However, he achieved the most notable successes in ice hockey ^[2] . On the ice, he demonstrated high skiing technique and brilliant puck possession, providing efficiency in both attack and defense, as well as leadership qualities that allowed him to remain the captain of the Stanley Cup team for four years, and then win this trophy with another club already as a trainer ^[3] .

Gerard's entire playing career took place in his native Ottawa. He started it at the Ottawa Seconds and Ottawa New Edinbergs amateur clubs before joining the Ottawa Senators professional club in 1913 as a left hitter. This decision was not easy for him, because by that time he already had reliable, well-paid work in the Surveying Service of Canada. In order to persuade Gerard to sign a contract, the Senators had to offer him a one-time payment of $ 400 — a considerable amount at that time ^[2] . For three years, Gerard continued to play in the attack, starting his career at the Senators in one of the three with and Skin Ronan ^[3] . In the NBA season 1914-15, he made 10 assists, which at that time was considered an exceptionally good result, and played with the Senators in the Stanley Cup finals, where the Ottawa club lost to Vancouver Millionaires ^[2] .

When Gerard moved to the position of defender, where played with him, he quickly became the pillar on which the defense of the Ottawa was built. At this time, his leadership data was fully manifested ^[3] . In the first season of the National Hockey League, Gerard was a Senators playing coach, but his team was unsuccessful, and the next year he lost the coaching post to Alf Smith. In the 1918-19 season , thanks in large part to Gerard's Ottawa game, conceded the lowest number of goals in the next five years. The following year, he became the team captain, and led by him, the Senators won the Stanley Cup at the end of the season ^[2] . In the final series with the Seattle Metropolitan , Gerard and put a reliable barrier before the attackers of the opponent, and in the fifth decisive game, Gerard himself scored a goal, driving the puck from his own to another's goal ^[3] .

Gerard remained the captain of the Senators, known at that time as the Super Six ⁽³⁾ , and for the next three seasons. In the 1920-21 season, he scored 11 goals in 24 games, and Ottawa remained thanks to his efforts the best NHL team in defense. In the playoffs, Gerard played extremely aggressively, gaining 53 minutes of penalty time in 7 matches - more than any other player ^[2] , and Ottawa won the Stanley Cup for the second time in a row, winning Vancouver Millionaires in the five-game match of the HATP champions " ^[3] . The following season, Gerard again showed excellent results in the attack, scoring 7 goals and making 11 assists in 21 matches, but the Senators dropped out of the fight for the Stanley Cup, losing to the Toronto St. Patricks club in the NHL playoffs ^[2] . Nevertheless, Gerard again managed to compete for the cup, which became possible due to numerous injuries that hit the Toronto club in the final series against the Vancouver Millionaires. By agreement with the manager of the Vancouver team, St. Patricks were entitled to call up any defender of Eastern Canada instead of the retired Harry Cameron before the fourth game of the series and chose Gerard. The Ottawa defender played so well in this match that Patrick refused to allow the Toronto club to challenge him to the fifth, decisive game, but St. Patricks managed to win both in it and in the entire series. The Stanley Cup won with Toronto became the third in a row for Gerard ^[3] .

The 1922-23 season was the last in Gerard's playing career, to whom a casual hit by a teammate injured his throat. Gerard’s injured vocal cords didn’t recover until the end of his life, but he played 23 matches in a season ^[2] , winning the Vancouver and Edmonton clubs for the fourth time in a row with the team in the Stanley Cup playoffs. After defeating Edmonton, Gerard completed his performances ^[3] .

After the speeches, Gerard took up coaching, already in 1923 becoming an assistant head coach of the Montreal Canadiens . In the course of the next season, Cecil Hart, the acting general manager and coach, vacated the second post for Gerard, focusing on managerial work, but already before the 1925-26 season he moved to another Montreal club - Montreal Maroons . Gerard managed to attract such players as future members of the Hockey Hall of Fame Babe Seebert and , and his first year as the head coach of the Marunes turned out to be victorious for him - the team won the Stanley Cup ^[2] .

In 1928, the Maroons re-managed under the leadership of Gerard to the Stanley Cup final, but this time lost to the New York Rangers . In one of the matches of the final series, the Rangers were left without a goalkeeper, but Gerard refused to provide them with one of his spare goalkeepers, instead taunting the 44-year-old Lester Patrick, who trained the American team, to get into the goal himself. Patrick not only did this, but also won this match with his team and then the series (in the remaining matches, the Rangers goal was defended by the former New York Americans goalkeeper Joe Miller, called out especially for this from the minor league) ^[2] .

In 1930, Gerard moved to New York Americans for two years, and then returned to the Maroons for another two years. He spent his last year as a coach in the 1934–35 season with the St. Louis Eagles , after which a deteriorating state of health forced him to stop working ^[3] . Gerard died of laryngeal cancer in August 1937, at the age of 47. In 1945, after the establishment of the Hockey Hall of Fame, he became one of the first nine players on the list of its members ^[2] (a total of 12 people became members of the Hockey Hall of Fame this year ^[3] ).

• Eddie Gerard. Biography (neopr.) . Legends of Hockey . Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum. Date of treatment January 11, 2017.
• Joe Pelletier. Eddie Gerard (neopr.) . Joe Pelletier's Greatest Hockey Legends (February 21, 2013). Date of treatment January 11, 2017.
• Eddie Gerard - statistics on The Internet Hockey Database