Former Maple Leaf Forbes Kennedy dead at 90

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The Forbes Kennedy NHL timeline reached an abrupt halt on April 2, 1969.

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A certain vintage of Maple Leaf follower knows exactly how it ended for the pugnacious Prince Edward Islander, who brawled his way out of The Show that day in Boston with a record eight playoff-game penalties.

That mayhem match in Boston was already noteworthy for the lopsided score, a 10-0 loss that historians pinpoint as the end of Toronto’s 1960s glory days, and Pat Quinn’s violent check that knocked Bruin great Bobby Orr cold, nearly causing a Boston Garden riot on its own.

But it was a later exchange between Kennedy and Bruins goalie Gerry Cheevers that boiled over and involved every player, including backup netminders. Taking exception to a Cheevers slash, Kennedy fought him and then several black-and-gold challengers. In the emotion of trying to be pulled to the dressing room, things erupted again and Kennedy knocked down linesman George Ashley. He was immediately suspended by league president Clarence Campbell.

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It was only a four-game sentence, but in those days enough that Kennedy never got another chance in the NHL, done at age 34 after 603 appearances. A couple of final flings in the minors, winning the Calder Cup with Buffalo and the Central League title with Omaha preceded years of coaching junior in Charlottetown where he eventually operated a bar.

But highlights of that bench-clearing slugfest in Boston still get many YouTube views. Known as ‘Forbie’ to many Islanders, he died at age 90 on Monday. The Philadelphia Flyers, one of his five NHL teams, posted an obituary, while his passing was mourned across his home province.

“Every summer I came home from the NHL, he’d always have good words for you and definitely checking in on you,” NHL player and coach Gerard Gallant told CBC. “He was a guy who cared about P.E.I. and all the players that played there, and he probably had a good part to do with a lot of us getting the opportunity to play in the NHL.”

At 5-foot-8, the Dorchester, N.B.-born Kennedy racked up 888 NHL regular season penalty minutes, maintaining that fighting was a necessity in the sport.

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“I don’t believe in cross-checking, I don’t believe in spearing,” he said during induction to the PEI Sports Hall of Fame. “I believe in good hitting, and a good fight sometimes clears the air.

“I don’t knock fighting. You take fighting out of the game, then you’re really going to get the spear jobs and the chopping. It’ll be a bloodbath out there.”

Kennedy carved a career with the Chicago Blackhawks, starting in 1956 via the Montreal Junior Canadiens, went on to Detroit, spent time in Boston as a fan favourite, the expansion Flyers and then the Leafs, where Cheevers had begun his NHL journey.

For years, Cheevers felt terrible about Kennedy getting suspended as he felt he had initiated the original incident. He contacted Campbell to urge leniency, but to no avail.

Ironically Kennedy wore 22 in Toronto. A few years later, Tiger Williams would make that sweater synonymous with penalties as the league’s leader in career penalty minutes with 3,966.

Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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