The Game I'll Never Forget: Pierre Pilote - hockey player hall of famer

Hockey Digest, Dec, 2001 by Chuck O'Donnell

The Hall of Fame defenseman remembers his first NHL game--and why it was almost his last

MY FIRST GAME IN THE National Hockey League was almost my last one.

I was standing at the blue line, waiting for the puck to be dropped for the start of the game. I had my new Chicago Black Hawks (it was spelled with two words back then) sweater on. We we're playing the Maple Leafs in Toronto and I was ready to go.

Or so I thought.

The opposing centerman was Tod Sloan. When you're new to the league, you don't know all the offensive and defensive skills and tricks that the opposing players have. So I'm standing frozen, six or seven feet outside our blue line. The puck is dropped and Sloan pushes it ahead of himself, behind our centerman. Then Sloan jumps around our center and picks it up. He went by me so quick, that I didn't even know what happened. He was gone on a breakaway.

I turned around and started chasing him. He was already five or ten feet in front of me. I didn't have a prayer of catching him. I was just skating with my head down, thinking, "God, I hope our goalie can stop him. Please stop him."

I figured if Sloan scored, they may never let me back on the ice again.

And I had traveled a long road to get to the NHL. I didn't play organized hockey until I was 17. I played a couple years in juniors, then four years in the American Hockey League with the Buffalo Bisons.

My first year with Buffalo, I barely hung on. We had too many defensemen, so the Bisons moved me up to forward, then had me killing penalties, and finally moved me back to defense. The second year, they kept me on defense, so I was learning a lot. The third year, I picked it up. I had started to make the right plays. I started to feel like the game had hit me somehow. All of a sudden, it was like, "Oh, this is how you do things." I acquired some crucial inside knowledge of the game by making plays and passes. It had hit me.

Pierre Pilote's Career Stats

Position: Defenseman
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 178 lbs
Born: December 11, 1931, Kenogami, Quebec

Season           Team      Games   Goals   Asst.  Pts.    PIM

1955-56          Chicago     20      3        5     8      34
1956-57          Chicago     70      3       14    17     117
1957-58          Chicago     70      6       24    30      91
1958-59          Chicago     70      7       30    37      79
1959-60          Chicago     70      7       38    45     100
1960-61          Chicago     70      6       29    35     165
1961-62          Chicago     59      7       35    42      97
1962-63          Chicago     59      8       18    26      57
1963-64          Chicago     70      7       46    53      84
1964-65          Chicago     68     14       45    59     162
1965-66          Chicago     51      2       34    36      60
1966-67          Chicago     70      6       46    52      90
1967-68          Chicago     74      1       36    37      69
1968-69          Toronto     69      3       18    21      46

Totals                      890     80      418   498    1,251
Playoff Totals               86      8       53    61     102

I think it was a Saturday morning during the 1955-56 season that our trainer in Buffalo, Frank Christie, called me. He told me the organization wanted me to play for the Black Hawks in Toronto. I said OK and called my parents, who I was still living with during the offseason. They only lived 100 miles away from Maple Leaf Garden, but I told them not to bother going to the game. "They'll never play me," I said.

Back in those days, the only way you got into the game as a rookie is if you were winning or losing big time. Then the coach might throw you in.

Next I had to figure out how to get to Toronto. Christie volunteered to drive me. So it was me, him, and his wife in his car. As we were driving, he kept trying to build up my confidence by telling me, "Ah, you'll do great kid. No problem."

I got to Toronto with plenty of time before the game. I checked into the hotel, then went to the dressing room, and just hung around Maple Leaf Garden. I had played there in juniors, but I never got a really good look around.

Frank Martin was the only guy I knew on the Black Hawks. I had played with him in Junior A. Chicago wasn't a very good team at the time. Our strength was our goaltending. Al Rollins played great for us most every night, and our backup, Hank Bassen, was pretty darn good, too. But we had some older players who were coming to the end of their careers, such as Tony Leswick, Harry Watson, Ed Sandford, and Gus Mortson.

There was a hint that this team was building what would become a Stanley Cup contender down the road. They brought me up, and they brought up Ken Wharram, a real good scoring winger, and Ed Litzenberger, who was a big, strong forward. So we were starting to build toward the future, when guys such as Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull, and Glenn Hall would lead the team to the playoffs every year.

But back before those guys landed in Chicago, if I remember right, we were especially thin on defense. Maybe that's why coach Dick Irvin came out before the game and announced I would be starting on defense with Frank. I was stunned.