Delisle’s youngest Bentley brother was a whiz on skates
Max Bentley’s nickname was The Dipsy Doodle Dandy from Delisle.
Sometimes, and more simply, hockey teammates called him Pills because of his never-ending hypochondria. He never did feel very well.
But at 4 p.m. every game day, he’d quietly and with great intensity dig into a steak, and that night, he’d skate into the maelstrom of an NHL arena. More often than not, Bentley lit the place up.
The Delisle product — who played 12 seasons between 1940 and 1954, losing two years to the Second World War — won two NHL scoring titles; earned an MVP award; collected three Stanley Cup rings; was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He’s one of just 12 NHL players to score four goals in a period. He did it all with a small frame — fivefoot-nine — that never got much above 158 pounds. Bentley’s artistry with the puck, and the skate blade, made him great.
He “could skate circles — rectangles, if you wish — around many of today’s high-salaried performers,” the Toronto Star’s Rex MacLeod wrote in a 1983 retrospective piece. “He bounced around as if the rink were his trampoline.”
Bentley’s brother, Doug, was a great player, too — he won the NHL scoring race in 1942-43, with Max three points behind — and the two men played together on the Chicago Blackhawks’ famed Pony Line.
Another sibling, Reg, played 11 NHL games. Max and Doug assisted on his only goal.
Max was the youngest of 13 kids in a family that set roots into Delisle in 1903, when father William arrived and played an instrumental role in building the town.
Max returned to Delisle every summer, trading hockey stick for baseball bat, after his NHL labours had ceased for another year.
When his career ended, Bentley settled back into the Delisle area, where he farmed. He died in 1984 at age 63.
As we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, the StarPhoenix and Leader-Post are telling the stories of 150 Saskatchewan people who helped shape the nation. Send your suggestions or feedback to sask150@postmedia.com.