Fans of hockey's New York Rangers are a nasty bunch. They'll say you suck even if you're not on the team they're playing tonight. They'll even turn on each other.
On November 2, 1975, they cheered on the opposing goalie. It was Eddie Giacomin.
Edward Giacomin (no middle name) was born on June 6, 1939 in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Like his older brother Rollie, he was a goaltender. A professional team was interested in Rollie, but he couldn't get out of his other job to take the tryout, so he suggested Eddie.
With only 6 teams in the NHL at the time, and most of the goalies then -- Jacques Plante in Montreal, Johnny Bower in Toronto, Terry Sawchuk in Detroit, Glenn Hall in Chicago, Eddie Johnston in Boston and Lorne "Gump" Worsley in New York -- playing pretty much every game, big-league jobs were hard to come by. Bower was emblematic of this: Despite starring in the minor leagues with the Cleveland Barons and, as Giacomin later would, with the Providence Reds, he didn't become an NHL starter until he was 34 years old, except for 1953-54 with the Rangers. Prior to becoming the Leafs' starter in 1959, he had played just 77 NHL games, all but 70 in that 1 season.
The Rangers acquired Giacomin from Providence, and he made his NHL debut on October 24, 1965, a 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at the old Madison Square Garden. He led all NHL goalies in games and minutes played in the seasons of 1966-67, 1967-68 (the year the Rangers, and the NBA's Knicks moved from the old Garden to the new one), 1968-69 and 1969-70. In 1970-71, he made his 5th straight All-Star Game, and won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender.
During that year's Stanley Cup Quarterfinals, Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks was unable to stop after Giacomin saved one of his shots, and his skate blade sliced right through Giacomin's glove. Giacomin left the ice, got the hand stitched up, got back in the game, and played the rest of the way. Ranger fans loved him for such determination, and would chant, "Ed-die! Ed-die! Ed-die!" when he made a save.
With Giacomin in goal, Brad Park and Rod Seiling on defense, and the "Goal-A-Game Line" or "GAG Line" of left wing Vic Hadfield, center Jean Ratelle and right wing Rod Gilbert, the Rangers reached the Stanley Cup Semifinals in 1971, losing to the Canadiens; the Finals in 1972, losing to the Boston Bruins; and the Semifinals in 1973, losing to the Black Hawks. (That season, he played in his 6th and last All-Star Game.) That was as close as the team would get to the Stanley Cup between their 7-game Finals loss in 1950 and finally winning the Cup in 1994.
By the start of the 1975-76 season, the Rangers' 50th Anniversary season, age and injuries were catching up with them. Giacomin was 36, and while plenty of goalies have played at a high level past that age, he'd also been hurt, and wasn't as effective. Ranger management went into rebuilding mode.
The Rangers went into rebuilding mode, acquiring Dunc Wilson and John Davidson, and promoting Doug Soetaert from their minor-league system. This left Giacomin and his 35-year-old backup, Gilles Villemure, as odd men out. Before the season began, they traded Villemure to the Black Hawks. And then, on October 29, they put Giacomin on waivers. On October 31, he was claimed by the Red Wings. Davidson was promoted to starting goalie.
According to legend, the Rangers' next game was against those very Red Wings. It's not true: On November 1, they played the Canadiens in Montreal, and lost, 4-0. But the next game, their 1st home game after the waiver claim, on November 2, was at The Garden against the Wings, and Davidson and Giacomin were the opposing starting goalies.
Wearing not the white jersey that NHL teams usually wore for home games at the time, but the red of Detroit, Ranger fans gave him a long standing ovation and chanted his name. It was a message to Ranger management: "You shouldn't have done that, and we are angry." They booed their own team when they took shots or scored on Giacomin, and chanted his name throughout the match. The Wings won, 6-4, and Ranger fans cheered at the end.
Just 9 days after The Giacomin Game, they would trade Brad Park, Jean Ratelle and Joe Zanussi to the Bruins for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais. The Rangers would miss the Playoffs in 1976 and '77, before bouncing back in '78 and reaching the Finals in '79.
Giacomin played 3 seasons in Detroit, before falling victim to another youth movement. He retired on January 17, 1978, with a career record of 289-208-97, a 2.82 goals against average, and 54 shutouts. Sensing a public-relations coup, the New York Islanders hired him as a broadcaster, and he was one of their announcers for their epic Stanley Cup Semifinal series against the Rangers in 1979. He became an assistant coach with the Isles before going back to Detroit and serving in the same role with the Wings, establishing his permanent home in suburban Birmingham, Michigan.
He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987. With new management coming in, the Rangers made peace with Eddie, hired him as a coach, and retired his Number 1 in 1989. In 2009, in their book 100 Ranger Greats, authors Adam Raider, Russ Cohen and John Halligan ranked him the 6th-greatest player in team history, behind Brian Leetch, Rod Gilbert, Mike Richter, Mark Messier and Jean Ratelle.
Eddie Giacomin died yesterday, September 14, 2025, at the age of 86, at his home in Birmingham, Michigan.
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