Ching Dheere

This is Marcel Albert "Ching" Dheere. He was a war-time fill in for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1942-43 season, playing a total of 11 games (scoring 1 goal and 3 points). Interestingly, in those 11 games he wore 4 different jersey numbers - 8, 18, 19 and 21.

Dheere himself would lose his NHL job to the war service. In 1944 and 1945 he served in World War II. He would never play again the NHL, though he would play professionally for six more seasons.

Ching Dheere hung up the skates in 1953. He would work with the Canadian National Railway as a switchman for 30 years.

Dheere passed away in 2002 at the age of 83. He had a short fight with cancer.

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Smiley Meronek

This is William "Smiley" Meronek. He was a sensational hockey star in his native Manitoba. He moved to Verdun in 1937 and continued to star with the Maple Leafs of the QSHL, capturing the attention of the Montreal Canadiens.

Meronek agreed to a contract in both the 1939-40 and 1942-43 seasons. However in that 1943 season he would only play home games. He refused to travel with the Canadiens for road games due to his day job at a war plant in the city. Alex Smart was signed under the same circumstances at the same time.

All told, Smiley Meronek played parts of two NHL seasons, totalling 19 games. He scored 5 goals and 13 points.

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Ray Getliffe

This is Ray Getliffe, pride of Galt, Ontario. He was a NHL regular from 1936 through 1939 with Boston and from 1939 through 1945 with Montreal. He was originally scouted by the New York Rangers, but never played for the Blue Shirts.

Getliffe was lucky to play at all. In 1933 he was in critical condition in hospital with a serious case of pneumonia.

Ray Getliffe made a brief appearance with Boston in 1935-36 and then became a regular on a line with Bill Cowley and Charlie Sands, and was second to Cowley as leading scorer for the Bruins in 1936-37. He combined with Dit Clapper and Cooney Weiland when Boston finished first and won the Stanley Cup in 1938-39.

Getliffe was traded to the Montreal Canadiens in 1939-40 where he played for six years, being on two first place teams and another Cup winner. In his first two years with the Habs he played with Sands and Toe Blake. Playing with Elmer Lach and Joe Benoit in 1942-43, he scored 5 goals in a game against Boston.

Ray suffered a bad face cut in 1943-44 and missed several games. However, back in action again, he made this his best scoring year working on a line with Phil Watson and Murph Chamberlain, scoring 28 goals in the 50 game schedule and the Canadiens coasted to first place and won the Stanley Cup.

He played one more year on another first place team before retiring. He was actually traded by Montreal to Detroit in September 1945, but he decided to retire rather than move southward. He put on the stripes for the next two seasons, refereeing NHL games.

Getliffe, a left-winger, played in 393 regular-season games during his career, scoring 136 goals and adding 137 assists to go along with 250 penalty minutes.

It should also be noted that it was Getliffe who is responsible for Maurice Richard's moniker "the Rocket." Getliffe was in awe of Richard in practice, and was prompted to say "That kid can take off like a rocket!" The other players picked up on his comment right away, and the nickname stuck. Prior to that, Maurice's early nickname was "The Comet."

Getliffe would go on to become a legendary senior golfer in Canada. Getliffe had a keen eye for talent on the links as well as at the rinks. In 1960 he was quoted as saying "I've just seen a kid who is going to become the greatest golfer in the world." Getliffe had just finished watching a young Jack Nicklaus.

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Polly Drouin

This is Polly Drouin. You can tell just by looking at this Beehive photo that he was a tiny hockey player. The native of Verdun stood just 5'7" and 160lbs.

From 1935 through 1941 Paul-Emile Drouin skated with the Montreal Canadiens. He was actually originally property of the St. Louis Eagles (who, one season after transferring from Ottawa, folded). The Habs grabbed the 19 year old in the subsequent dispersal draft.

Over the next season Drouin struggled for ice time. He was bouncing around between the Habs and the minor leagues. When with the Habs he was strictly a support player, never scoring more than 7 goals in a single season. He was seemingly on the sidelines a lot, often nursing an injury. In a total of 156 career NHL regular season games he scored 23 goals and 73 points.

Drouin's professional hockey career came to an end due to two years of military service in World War II. During that time he played with Ottawa based military teams, helping lead the Ottawa Commandos to the 1943 Allan Cup championship. Upon his release from the military Drouin remained in amateur hockey for several years where he was known as an offensive dynamo.

Drouin was also a heck of a pitcher, playing in many baseball leagues in the summer time. He remained in Ottawa the rest of his life, passing away in 1968.

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Bill Taugher

Kingston, Ontario's Bill Taugher was a long time goaltending hero with the Buffalo Bisons of the IHL in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Though details are very sketchy, it appears he also played a single NHL game really early in his game. I say appear because not every source credits him for 60 minutes played with the Montreal Canadiens in the 1925-26 season. Those that do agree he surrendered three goals in a loss.

Which game that would have been remains a mystery though. My search suggests Herb Rheaume and Alphonse Lacroix played in the Habs net in the season following the loss of Georges Vezina.

Taugher may have been an emergency replacement. In the 1925-26 season Taugher was playing junior with the Kingston Frontenacs. In fact, Taugher helped Kingston reach the Memorial Cup finals that year.

He signed pro with Hamilton Tigers of the Can-Pro league. Two years later he signed on with the Buffalo Bisons where he starred for 7 seasons. He wound up his career with a season split between Rochester and Cleveland, both of the IHL as well.

Life was not all fun and games for Taugher. He suffered a back injury vs London (IHL) on March 20, 1936 that left him paralyzed. He actually resumed walking in 1942, but his health failed him again in the fall. He required brain surgery. The Society for International Hockey Research suggests the brain injury may have been from an old hockey injury. The Windsor Daily Star newspaper archives suggest it was from a puck to the head some fourteen years earlier.

Whether it was or not remains a mystery to me at this time, but I do know a few months later, on February 25, 1943, Bill Taugher passed away from complications of a brain tumor. Whether the two brain injuries were related or actually one also remains a mystery to me.

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Gerald "Stub" Carson

This is Gerald "Stub" Carson, brother of fellow NHLers Frank and Bill.

Born in Parry Sound, Ontario, "Stub" was a sensational amateur player with the Grimsby Peach Kings. He turned pro in 1927-28 with the Philadelphia Arrows of the Can- Am League. The following year this swift skating defenseman known to enjoy the physical game was in the National Hockey League.

Carson joined the Montreal Canadiens that season, although he also spent part of the season as loaned player to the New York Rangers. He returned to Montreal for the 1929-30 season.

That second season was one to remember for the man they called "Stub." He was a significant contributor to the Habs blue line, earning lots of playing time. He helped Les Canadiens win their second Stanley Cup championship (in the NHL) that season.

For whatever reason that was not enough to keep Carson in the NHL. For the next three seasons he was dispatched to the Providence Reds of the CAHL (forerunner of the NHL).

Carson returned to Montreal in 1932 and remained with the Habs through the next four seasons. He suffered a serious off-season knee injury in the summer of 1935, causing him to miss the entire 1935-36 season.

Carson successfully returned for one more NHL season in 1936-37, though the Canadiens had traded him. Fortunately for Carson he did not have to move very far, as they traded him across town to the arch rival Montreal Maroons.

Gerry "Stub" Carson played a total of 261 NHL games scoring 12 goals and 11 assists. He played 22 playoff games with no points.

When Carson retired he returned and worked as a salesman for the Don Brewing Company, just as he did each summer break during the hockey season. He died prematurely in 1956. He was just 53 years old.

The Bobby Orr Hall of Fame is a hockey museum in Orr's home town of Parry Sound. The museum has also taken to inducting other area legends, and in 2005 they included Gerald Carson, saying "he was a tower of strength on the ice and if necessary would hit his opponents hard, but cleanly. He acquired only 205 penalty minutes in his NHL career. He never cared who scored the goals. Preventing the opposition from scoring and feeding the puck to the slick, stick handling forwards was his job on defense. Just as long as they scored, he was satisfied. He would, on occasion, zoom down the ice, leaving everyone on the opposing team behind him and if a goal wasn't scored, would return to his own end just as quickly."

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