92-year-old ex-Ranger gets VIP treatment
A year after causing a WINNIPEG bit of a stir with his old team, Max Labovitch is getting the royal treatment.
The 92-year-old Winnipegger and ex-New York Ranger will be honoured with a limousine ride, a steak dinner and tickets to Thursday’s game between his old team and the host Winnipeg Jets.
“A first-class operation,” Labovitch said Monday. “They don’t forget the veterans.”
Sometimes, though, they don’t treat them quite right. Just over a year ago, the Rangers called Labovitch and offered him two tickets to that week’s Jets-New York game — if he paid $180 each for them.
Shortly after, Winnipeg businesses offered Labovitch tickets, but he got sick and couldn’t make it to the game. The Rangers franchise turns 90 this season and is honouring alumni throughout the year.
“They’re doing everything for me, because I’m the last of the alumni from that particular year,” he said.
Believed to be the first Jewish player to sign an NHL contract, Labovitch suited up for the Rangers during the 1943-44 season, playing just five games in the NHL. The highlight, he said, was squaring off with the eventual Stanley Cup champs.
“Playing centre between Bryan Hextall Sr., and Dutchy (Wilbert) Hiller against the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal,” he said. “When Montreal had (Rocket) Richard, Toe Blake, Elmer Lach — that was a great club.”
Labovitch toiled for the Rangers’ minor-league teams for nearly a decade, winning three different titles in 1948.
“These days they give a rookie an opportunity to develop,” Labovitch said. “In those days, if you didn’t score a goal in the first game, they’d farm you out. Like Gordie Howe — they farmed him out to Omaha.”
Labovitch recalls not playing much in those games, along with other rookies, under coach Frank Boucher.
One comical incident stands out. “We were the kid line,” he said. “Frank says, ‘You guys ready to go?’ And Billy Warwick didn’t have his skates on.”
Boucher: “Where are your skates?”
Warwick: “My feet are getting cold sitting here.”