Bruce Gamble

Bruce George Gamble (May 24, 1938 – December 29, 1982) was a professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1962 and 1972, with some stints in the minor leagues during that time.

Bruce Gamble
Born (1938-05-24)May 24, 1938
Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada
Died December 29, 1982(1982-12-29) (aged 44)
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
Height 5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
Weight 190 lb (86 kg; 13 st 8 lb)
Position Goaltender
Caught Left
Played for New York Rangers
Boston Bruins
Toronto Maple Leafs
Philadelphia Flyers
Playing career 19581972

Junior career

Gamble played three seasons with the Port Arthur Bruins of the Thunder Bay Junior A Hockey League between 1953 and 1955. In the 1955–56 season, he backstopped the Port Arthur North Stars to a berth in the Memorial Cup. He did so again the following season with the Guelph Biltmores of the OHA, and was elected to the 1957 OHA first All-Star team. He made it to the Memorial Cup a third time with the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens the following year.

Professional career and after

Gamble played his first year as a pro with the Vancouver Canucks of the WHL, and also played two games in the NHL for the New York Rangers. His performance impressed other NHL teams, and the Boston Bruins chose him in the 1959 intra-league draft. After a year with the Providence Reds in the AHL, Gamble became the team's starting goalie in 1960–61. During the next four seasons he played mainly in the minors with the Portland Buckaroos, Kingston Frontenacs and Springfield Indians, and was called up by the Bruins for 28 games in 1961–62.

Gamble refused to go back to the minors in 1964–65, and so the Bruins suspended him from Springfield for the entire season. The following year he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In his first few seasons in Toronto, Gamble was a back-up to Hall of Famers Johnny Bower and Terry Sawchuk. He recorded four shutouts in five games in March 1966. In 1966–67, when the Leafs won the Stanley Cup, he played in 23 regular season games and rang up a record of 5–10–4 and a GAA of 3.39. However, he was sent to the minors to the Tulsa Oilers before the trading deadline; as a result, he did not spend the whole season with Toronto, and his name was left off the Stanley Cup. With the loss of Sawchuk in the 1967 NHL expansion draft, Gamble saw more action with the Leafs and established himself as a solid, workhorse goalie. He played in 41 games in 1967–68, 62 in 1968–69 and 52 in 1969–70. He played in the 1968 NHL All-Star game and was named its Most Valuable Player. He was the last Leaf goalie to play without a mask, finally donning one in 1970-71. Gamble, along with a first-round selection (Pierre Plante) in the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft, was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for Bernie Parent and a second-round pick (Rick Kehoe) in the same draft as part of a three-way deal which also involved the Boston Bruins on January 31, 1971. The Leafs also sent Mike Walton to the Bruins who shipped Rick MacLeish and Danny Schock to the Flyers.[1]

Gamble served mainly as a back-up to Doug Favell with the Flyers for the rest of that season, appearing in 11 regular season games and two playoff games. The following year he began to compete for the starting role. He put in a run of solid performances which ended when he suffered a heart attack during a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on February 8, 1972. Although he fell at one point during the game,[2] he did not complain of problems until afterward, and traveled with the team to Oakland on February 9 for a game that evening against the California Golden Seals. As his chest pains continued, Gamble was admitted to an Oakland hospital where it was found that he had had a heart attack.[3] Gamble did not play in the NHL again.

On December 29, 1982, after a practice session the evening before with an old-timers hockey team, the Niagara Falls Flames, Gamble woke up with chest pains, and died at a hospital in Niagara Falls, Ontario at the age of 44.[4]

Urban legends regarding Gamble

Because Gamble suffered both heart attacks after playing or practicing hockey, accounts have been written that he was taken to a hospital during the 1972 NHL game, or that he "died during an old-timers game". Neither of Gamble's heart attacks forced him from the ice; he finished the game after the first attack and suffered the second one the morning after a practice session.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GPWLTMINGASOGAASV% GPWLMINGASOGAASV%
1952–53 Port Arthur Bruins TBJHL 116608207.45
1953–54 Port Arthur Bruins TBJHL 3620151216015004.17 95404204.67
1954–55 Port Arthur Bruins TBJHL
1955–56 Port Arthur North Stars TBJHL 311910218609703.13 9815402703.00
1955–56 Port Arthur North Stars MC 13768005304.74
1956–57 Guelph Biltmores OHA 40236010262.59 106003403.40
1956–57 Guelph Biltmores MC 6143702804.54
1957–58 Guelph Biltmores OHA 5013325300020514.10
1957–58 Providence Reds AHL 110060101.00
1957–58 Hull-Ottawa Canadiens MC 131036103022.95
1958–59 New York Rangers NHL 30301801103.67.894
1958–59 Vancouver Canucks WHL 65292610390019973.06.891 5233001122.20
1959–60 Providence Reds AHL 7137322428023143.24 5143281903.48
1960–61 Boston Bruins NHL 5212337311819303.71.892
1960–61 Providence Reds AHL 19613011408504.47
1961–62 Boston Bruins NHL 286184168012114.32.879
1961–62 Portland Buckaroos WHL 4128112247610822.62
1962–63 Kingston Frontenacs EPHL 68391811408022013.23 5413001312.60
1963–64 Springfield Indians AHL 21512312308003.90
1965–66 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 105235022142.51.925
1965–66 Tulsa Oilers CPHL 5421249324015542.87
1966–67 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 23510511816703.40.900
1966–67 Tulsa Oilers CPHL 72414202403.43
1966–67 Rochester Americans AHL 52303002505.00
1967–68 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 412014221948552.32.934
1968–69 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 61282011343916132.81.914 302861309.08.803
1969–70 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 5219249305415653.06.915
1970–71 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 23614112808323.89.882
1970–71 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 113626583703.37.901 2021201206.01.821
1971–72 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 2478211845822.94.912
NHL totals 3281111524618,470993223.23.906 5042062507.28.809

References

  1. O'Hara, Dave. "Mike Walton Traded to Bruins," The Associated Press, Monday, February 1, 1971.
  2. Damien Cox and Gord Stellick, 67: The Maple Leafs, Their Sensational Victory, and the End of an Empire (J. Wiley & Sons Canada, 2006), p73; ("He asked teammate Barry Ashbee who had hit him, and Ashbee told him that nobody had")
  3. "Heart Attack Sidelines Bruce Gamble", Winnipeg Free Press, February 10, 1972, p46
  4. Cox and Stellick, at p73-74
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