Ancestors come from Western Ukraine. This began the biography of Terry Savchuk. More precisely from Galicia, or as it is more often called - Galicia. Terry's father, Louis tinman (perhaps this name was already obtained in Canada) Savchuk, arrived in Canada as a boy, where he married the Ukrainian girl Anna (maiden name - Maslak). The Savchuk gave birth to four sons and sheltered one adopted daughter. The family was closely integrated into the life of the Ukrainian community in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Therefore, the Ukrainian language and traditions were not foreign to Terry; he always remembered his origin. For this, in the future, from partners in Detroit, he received the nickname Yukey (from the first letters of the word Ukraine).
Goalkeeper childhood
The first sports idol of Terry Savchuk (Terry himself is the third and third son in the family) was his older (second oldest) brother, who played great in the hockey goal. However, at the age of 17, his brother died of scarlet fever, which was a big shock for the whole family. Louis and Anna considered that the primary cause of scarlet fever was the son’s excessive passion for hockey, which caused a severe catarrhal disease. Therefore, they disapproved of the sports activities of the remaining sons. However, Terry secretly kept his brother's discarded goalkeeper's ammunition (she was his first in his career) and the dream of becoming a goalkeeper.
Alas, the parental ban led to the fact that Terry at age 12 received a chronic injury that interfered with his whole life. While playing Canadian football, he dislocated his right elbow, but hid it from his parents for fear of punishment. The elbow somehow healed, but since then it has been limited in movement and hurt under stress. Moreover, this sore spawned chronic arthritis.
Terry inherited the profession of a tin father and began working in this specialty, but not for too long. Quite quickly, the talent of the 14-year-old goalkeeper of an amateur team from Elmwood (Winnipeg area) was discovered by the Detroit Red Wings scout, signed as an amateur and sent to the Galt youth team, which this NHL club looked after. Since then, “Detroit” did not let Terry out of sight: baseball and American (Canadian) football, trying to steal a talented guy, did not succeed.
Road to fame
The further career of the hockey player Terry Savchuk went as if on a knurled road. In any case, she is seen as such. In all the leagues in whose teams he played, goalkeeper Terry Savchuk has always been considered, if not the best (rarely), then one of the best goalkeepers. Quite often, making his debut, he made a splash with his appearance. What evidence - the prizes of the best newcomer. It happened even in the NHL. We must pay tribute to the Detroit Red Wings system, which managed to keep and introduce the guy into an adult game just when he was really ready for it.
A year later, Terry Savchuk became not only the Stanley Cup holder, but the best NHL goalkeeper. Yes, and the Detroit Red Wings franchise today is largely associated with his name.
Savchuk's success was facilitated by his character and natural data. This large goalkeeper did not just close the gates with his body, but as if provoked the attackers to throw the puck into seemingly unprotected zones, which were actually well controlled. Add to this a phenomenal reaction and sharpness of movement. We will exacerbate everything with the character of Savchuk: courage (to neglect dangers) and the ability (since childhood, and in 1954 he broke several ribs and damaged a lung in a car accident) to endure pain. A goalkeeper without a mask, when almost all his colleagues have already put them on, is a shock in itself for a hockey player throwing at the goal. Only at the end of his career (in 1962), having received a concussion from a puck that hit his head after a powerful throw by Bobby Hall, Savchuk finally decided that extra bravado was useless (and so the whole face is scarred): he and so much already proved ... And indeed, Terry Savchuk is still considered the best goalkeeper in NHL history.
Live life, do not beat the puck
Unfortunately, in ordinary life, Terry Savchuk was not as magnificent as at the gate. The aura of the hero, hockey exploits and personal charm were very popular with women, whose attention the goalkeeper was never deprived of, despite the fact that he married already at 23 years old. Wife Patricia forgave a lot to her husband, apparently hoping that another child would finally calm Terry. However, after seven “attempts” he did not improve.
Moreover, the negative traits of his character were aggravated: his tendency to solve problems by force and his temper. Strengthened and inherited from his father in the "inheritance" craving for alcohol. The latter, despite a successful career, progressed every year. In the end, when the children grew up, the wife filed for divorce.
And Terry Savchuk, even under alcoholic pairs, playing exclusively on class and experience, remained one of the best goalkeepers in the NHL. And, in fact, he didn’t end his career in the best league in the world: he passed away, being almost the current goalkeeper.
"Complete coincidence"
What were the causes of Terry Savchuk's death? After the end of the 1969-1970 season, Savchuk and his teammate and Ron Stewart, a neighbor in a rented apartment in New York, drank, noting this event, and somehow, by the way, switched to discussing personal topics, which turned into a fierce drunken brawl, ending in Savchuk, after a Stuart hit with a knee or after a fall, suffered terrible damage to his internal organs: the gall bladder burst and the liver was torn. In the hospital, Savchuk underwent three operations, but he did not recover from injuries, later dying of a pulmonary embolism caused by the above-mentioned problems.
Already in the hospital, Savchuk publicly called himself guilty of what had happened, cursing him for his temper. He said that he started a fight. That everything was "a complete coincidence." Guided by his testimony and sorting out the circumstances of the case, the court acquitted Ron Stewart and indeed recognized the injuries as an accident.
Here, however, the posthumous “Leicester Patrick Trophy” and the almost instantaneous inclusion in the Hockey Hall of Fame was not an accident. Terry Savchuk at the hockey site earned the right to be at the very top of the pantheon of the greatest players in world hockey.
Dossier
- Terry Savchuk is a hockey player.
- Ampoule is the goalkeeper.
- Full name is Terrence Gordon Savchuk.
- Born December 28, 1929 in Winnipeg. He died on May 31, 1970 in New York.
- Anthropometrics - 180 cm, 88 kg.
Career:
- 1945-1946 - Winnipeg Monarx (MJHL - Manitoba Junior Hockey League) - 12 games.
- 1946-1947 - Galt Red Wings (OHA Junior - Ontario Junior Hockey Association) - 32 games.
- 1947-1948 - Windsor Spitfires (IHL - International Hockey League) - 3 games, Omaha Knights (UESHL - United States Hockey League) - 57 games.
- 1948-1950 - Indianapolis Capitals (AHL - American Hockey League) - 138 games.
- 1949-1955, 1957-1964, 1968-1969 - Detroit Red Wings (NHL) - 819 games.
- 1955-1957 - Boston Bruins (NHL) - Games.
- 1964-1967 - The Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL) - Games.
- 1967-1968 - Los Angeles Kings (NHL) - game.
- 1969-1970 - The New York Rangers (NHL) - 11 games.
Achievements:
- Winner of the Stanley Cup 1952, 1954, 1955, 1967.
- The best newcomer to 1948.
- The best newcomer to the AHL of 1949.
- Winner of the Calder Trophy (the best newcomer to the NHL) in 1951.
- Winner of the Vezina Trophy (the best goalkeeper of the NHL) 1952, 1953, 1955, 1965.
- The posthumous owner of "Leicester Patrick Trophy" (for outstanding services) 1971.
- Eleven-time participant in the NHL All-Star matches.
- Three times joined the seasonal first symbolic six of the best NHL players, four more times - the second.
- The first NHL goalkeeper to have played 100 matches with no goals conceded.
- NHL record for the number of matches in a draw for a career (172).
- Until 2009 (39 years old) he was the NHL champion in the number of matches without goals conceded (103).
- He was included in the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame in 1971.
- Inducted into the Canada Sports Hall of Fame in 1975.
- Savchuk’s number (No. 24) in Detroit Red Wings has been retired.
- In 1997, he was included in the Hockey News magazine at number 8 on the list of 50 best NHL hockey players in history. In 2010, the magazine expanded the list to hundreds, placing Savchuk in ninth position, but the first among goalkeepers.
- Named the best hockey player of all time from the Canadian province of Manitoba.
Distinctive features:
- Speed ​​response.
- Playing without a mask (most of a career).
- Semi-bent unique ("Savchuk") goal post. Due to a back disease (lumbar lordosis), he simply could not straighten completely freely, as well as a chronic dislocation of his right elbow.
Personal life
He was married to Patricia Ann Bowman-Mori (since 1953). In marriage, seven children. However, the family suffered a lot from alcoholism, moral and physical violence of the head of the family, as well as his marital infidelity (Savchuk also had an illegitimate child during the marriage). As a result, in 1969, the wife filed for divorce.
Died of the aftermath of a drunken brawl with a New York Rangers teammate Ron Stewart, with whom he rented a house in a suburb of New York.