Linemate to legends ‘played only to win’
Forward won five Cups during his NHL career
In 2004, four decades after Bert Olmstead ended his decorated career as a power forward in the NHL, a reporter asked for his thoughts on the modern game: “The players may be bigger, but they’re bigger and dumber hockey-wise.”
Olmstead, who won the Stanley Cup more than once, who skated alongside some of the sport’s truly legendary names, who also once fought in an all-star game, died earlier this week. He was 89.
“I knew he was demanding,” former Maple Leafs teammate Dick Duff said with a chuckle late Wednesday afternoon.
“If he wanted to keep people at a distance, well, that’s where they stayed. There’s nothing wrong with that. He had a great career, a hardworking man.”
Olmstead appeared in the Stanley Cup final 11 times over his 14 seasons in the league, a career that included stops in Chicago, Montreal and Toronto.
He played on a line with no less than Maurice (Rocket) Richard and, later, with Jean Beliveau.
He was on five Cup-winning teams, including one with the Leafs, in 1962.
“He was kind of a grinder,” said Duff.
“He wasn’t the smoothest skater in the world, but he went and dug out a lot of pucks for Beliveau and (Bernie) Geoffrion and those guys, right?”
Life in the NHL during that era meant you had to accept opponents were going to “rub your nose in the cement,” Duff said, and you relished your chance to return the favour. Olmstead, he said, “didn’t mind that.”
“He played only to win,” he said. “And he was totally committed.”
Duff said that, since the Leafs had a number of young players on their way up, the team needed a veteran like Olmstead in the dressing room. He turned 31 that first season with the team, while Duff (22), Bob Pulford (22) and Frank Mahovlich (20) were still young.
“Every time they sat on the bench, when you saw Pulford’s face was fire red, you know he was getting a lesson from this guy,” Duff said. “That was great.”
That did not mean he was not popular among teammates, he said. Olmstead maintained a farm near his hometown, Duff said, and he would flee Toronto the second the season had ended to get back to it. One off-season, Duff said some of the young players — including Pulford — made the long trek west to visit him on the Prairies.
“He was a proud Canadian,” Duff said. “He loved the country and he understood that, in order to get ahead, you’ve got to work at it.”