Gerald Michael "Gerry" Cheevers was born in
St. Catharines,
Ontario on
December 7, 1940. He started his
NHL
goaltending career with two games in
1961-
62 for the
Toronto Maple Leafs before being claimed by the
Boston
Bruins, where he played from
1965-
66 to
1971-
72 and
1975-
76 to
1979-
80 and was on two
Stanley Cup
winning
teams. He also played
four seasons in between with the
Cleveland Crusaders of the
World Hockey Association.
Cheevers played 418 regular-season and 88 playoff games
in the NHL and compiled a combined 2.85 goals-against
average with 34 shutouts. His 283-136-74 record gives him
a winning percentage of 67.6%, the second best of all
time when he retired. He also amassed over 250 career
penalty minutes. In 1985 he was elected into the Hockey
Hall of Fame.
In 1971-72 he had an undefeated streak of 32
games. In 1969-70 he had 10 consecutive playoff
wins.
Cheevers is also notable for being one of the
innovators in the early days of painting goalie masks.
His mask was decorated with stitches, each one
supposedly designating where he either was or would have
been cut on the face.
Cheevers also served as coach of the Bruins from
1980-81 to 1984-85, and went 204-126-46 in the
regular season and 15-19 in the playoffs.
Ralph Slate. The Internet Hockey Database.
http://www.hockeydb.com. April 26, 2002.
Doug Norris. "Gerry Cheevers (1961-1980)", The
Goaltender Home Page.
http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~norrisdt/bio/cheevers.html. April
26, 2002.
Joel Ferchoff. "Gerry Cheevers Profile", Joel's World
of Goalies.
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/7632/cheevers.html.
April 26, 2002.