It Wasn't Easy Being Cheesy

… But who could forget the crazy goalie with all the stitches on his mask?

Born on December 7th, 1940 in St. Catherines, Ontario, Gerald Michael Cheevers would eventually become a hockey legend in Beantown. And, although Cheesy never won a Vezina as the NHL’s top netminder, he will go down as one of the greatest (and most popular) goalies in league history.

Cheevers began making a name for himself while playing for the Rochester Americans in the American Hockey League. In 1964-65 Cheesy was impressive between the pipes while helping Rochester capture their first ever Calder Cup. Along the way, Cheevers won an astonishing 48 games out of 72 in 1964-65 (still the AHL single season record for wins by a goalie).

In 1967 Cheesy made the leap and joined the Big Bad Boston Bruins, a match made in heaven for the passionate, off-the-wall, netminder. Cheevers’ aggressive and emotional style of play made him a fan-favorite among the Boston faithful. While Orr and Esposito dazzled fans with their offensive wizardry, Cheesy would leave his crease to challenge all shooters, earning the reputation as a money goalie and winning two Stanley Cups with the Bruins in 1970 and 1972.

However, the turning point of his famed career may have been the day the quirky Cheevers took a puck to the face during practice. After the shot rang off his noodle, Cheesy retired to the dressing room for repairs. When he didn’t return shortly, Bruins coach Harry Sinden went to check on his backstopper and found him leaning back in the dressing room with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other. At that point, Cheesy had the Boston trainer Frosty Forestall paint a stitch on his mask where the puck hit him. From that point on, each time Cheevers took a shot up high, another stitch would be added to the ever-popular mask.

In a 1999 interview with “Be A Player, The Hockey Show,” Cheesy shed some insight on the birth of his stitches mask: “Well, when the mask first became a reality in the game of hockey, the first ones were all plain white and I hated wearing anything white. It was to me a sign of purity and I wasn't in a pure business as far as I was concerned, playing goal and hacking away and all that stuff. And I also had a daily practice of trying to get out of practices. Going to practice, all I could think about was getting out of it. And one day this puck flipped up and hit me in this new white mask I had. It wouldn't have cut me if I didn't have the mask on but I acted like I was seriously hurt, went to the dressing room, and Harry Sinden, who was coaching, came in and told me to get the heck out of there. And so I was about to go out onto the ice and our trainer, John Forestall, said to wait a minute and he went and painted a big 12-stitch cut on my mask and I got a chuckle out of that and we went from there. A very, very simple thing happened there but maybe, just maybe I was the pioneer in the art of decorations of masks. That's what I'd like to think about it.”

In 1972, Cheesy packed up his stitches mask and headed to the bizarre World Hockey Association to play for the Cleveland Crusaders. After a short stint in the WHA (close to four seasons), Cheevers returned to the Bruins in 1976.

Cheesy finished his career in Boston in 1980 and took a job as the Bruins bench boss, coaching the team until 1985. During his 13-year NHL career, Cheesy compiled 230 wins, 26 shutouts, a 2.89 GAA, and a fond reputation as one of the game’s greatest characters.

-- TGOJ