What a sad day for the world of hockey was Memorial Day, 2016, as our game lost two of its brightest lights and best centers of the mid 1970s through to the mid 1980s: Tom Lysiak and Rick "Hawk" MacLeish. Together these two appeared in a total of 1,765 regular season and 190 Stanley Cup games and combined for 1,602 regular season points on 641 goals and 961 assists while in Stanley Cup play they appeared in 190 games collecting 79 goals and 91 assists for 170 points. Of MacLeish's 54 career Stanley Cup goals, of course, by far the most memorable came on May 19, 1974 in the Flyers' 1-0 win in game six of the finals against the team that had drafted him 4th overall in the 1970 Amateur Draft, the Boston Bruins, that brought the Cup to Philadelphia.
Tom Lysiak was taken by the 1972 expansion Atlanta Flames with the second overall pick in the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft behind only future Hall of Fame defenseman Denis Potvin who went first to the New York Islanders and ahead of his Medicine Hat Tigers' teammate Lanny McDonald (4th pick to Toronto) and Peterborough's Bob Gainey (8th to Montreal) after three starring seasons with the Western Canada Hockey League Tigers with whom he won the Bob Clarke Trophy in each of his last two seasons as the WCHL's leading scorer with a combined total of 297 points (104 goals, 193 assists) in 135 games.
Tom Lysiak as a Medicine Hat Tiger
He made an immediate impact with the young Flames with a team-high 64 points (19-45) helping the club to its first playoff berth in just its second year and personally finishing second to Potvin for the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year. Ironically the team Lysiak and the Flames faced in the then three-round playoffs of that time was the Flyers which saw MacLeish score a natural hat trick in the second period of game two and a Flyers' sweep in four games that featured a monumental bench clearing brawl in game three at the Omni in Atlanta.
Tom Lysiak as an Atlanta Flame
Lysiak would lead the Flames in scoring in each of his five full seasons with the team which he also captained during in 1977–78 and 1978–79 before being traded to the Chicago Black Hawks late in the 1978–79 season with Pat Ribble, Greg Fox, Harold Phillipoff and Miles Zaharko for Ivan Boldirev, Phil Russell and Darcy Rota. In 445 games with Atlanta in almost six full seasons Lysiak had 155 goals and 276 assists for 431 points while in his just over seven full seasons with Chicago he appeared in 474 games adding another 137 goals and 275 assists for 412 points led the Hawks in scoring in 1980-81 with 76 points (21-55).
Tom Lysiak as a Chicago Blackhawk
After his retirement in 1986 Lysiak settled permanently in the Atlanta area where in worked in the landscaping, real estate and construction industries. Diagnosed with leukemia in May 2013 he was taken by the disease on Monday morning after a valiant three year fight. His daughter, Jessie, is married to San José Sharks defenseman Justin Braun who is currently playing in the 2016 Stanley Cup finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Rick MacLeish flying down the ice
While I saw Tom Lysiak play many times for the Flames and Blackhawks, I never knew him personally. That was not true, however, for Rick "Hawk" MacLeish who I knew since February, 1971 when he was traded by the Bruins to the Philadelphia Flyers. I remember "Hawk" (also known as "Bedrock" and "Cutie") as a smooth and powerful "river" skater with a deadly wrist shot who although a left winger was most often found centering the Flyers' "second line" with the late Ross "Roscoe" Lonsberry on the left side and Gary "Otto" Dornhoefer on the right. His long flowing locks and mustache were his trademarks on the ice in the days before helmets were even common let alone mandatory. Excellent at faceoffs he often found himself opposite the top center on the opposing team such as Gregg Sheppard of the Boston Bruins who he beat on a draw which led to his tip-in that proved to be the only goal in the Flyers' 1-0 win in game six of the 1974 Stanley cup finals that brought the Cup to Philadelphia in just the club's seventh season.
MacLeish was one of those rare "natural" talents who often made the game look easy. While I was sitting with Fred Shero in the Class of '23 Rink after a practice during the Flyers' training camp in 1975, for instance, MacLeish and a couple of other Flyers were still on the ice playing a little shinny at which MacLeish, as usual, was dazzling. As Shero and I were watching the action Freddie started to laugh. When I asked him what he found so amusing he said "Look at MacLeish out there. He's a great player, but you know he will never be a coach in this game." When I asked Freddie why he thought that he replied with a chuckle "Because he really has no idea how he does all that great stuff he does!"
Hockey legend Alex Delvecchio, a longtime linemate of Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay and later coach of the Detroit Red Wings, apparently agreed with Shero's assessment of how easy MacLeish made the game look. "Rick doesn't have to go all out all the time. He moves when he has to and has that anticipation for the play and where the puck will be." MacLeish later admitted, however that he "needed someone to push me." On those Flyer teams led by the likes of leaders such as Bob Clarke, Barry Ashbee, Moose Dupont, Dave Schultz et al, however, there was never a lack of that type of internal push that fit MacLeish's needs perfectly.
MacLeish and the Flyers in a "typical" bench clearing brawl with the Vancouver Canucks in December, 1973. The main combatants are that night's backup goalies, Gary "Suitcase" Smith of the Canucks and Bobby "Chief" Taylor of the Flyers.
While in all his years on the "Broad Street Bullies" the surprisingly soft-spoken and almost reticent MacLeish was never a highly penalized player averaging about 35 PIMs a year over his career. That did not mean that he could not take care of himself on the ice when needed however. Although he was always a dangerous scoring threat, "Hawk" was seldom bothered by the many tough guys who served as the NHL's feared "policemen" in the 70s and 80s because they knew better. Although MacLeish was always very slow to anger and rarely fought more than once or twice in a season, when he was finally provoked whoever did so was immediately very sorry they did as there was probably no better pure fighter on those "BBB" clubs than was "Bedrock". Those rare fights would usually be over in 10 to 15 seconds if that with MacLeish's opponent such as Jerry Butler of the New York Rangers or Henry Boucha of the Detroit Red Wings often seeking medical attention before heading to the penalty box. Even Flyer teammate Bob "Hound" Kelly was once a "victim" of MacLeish's fists in junior hockey when he played against MacLeish as a member of the Oshawa Generals.
As was Lysiak, Hawk was also a very high draft pick taken by the Bruins from the then Roger Neilson coached Peterborough Petes in first round of the 1970 draft after only Gilbert Perreault (1st, Buffalo), Dale Tallon (2nd, Vancouver), and his future Flyer teammate Reggie Leach (3rd, also Boston) and ahead of Darryl Sittler (8th, Toronto). MacLeish never played in a game for Boston, however, as he was assigned by the then reigning Stanley Cup champion Bruins to the CHL Oklahoma City Blazers at the start of the 1970-71 season and on February 1st, 1971 was traded to the Flyers in a three-way deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs that sent Bernie Parent to the Leafs and Mike Walton to Boston.
Rick MacLeish in 1971
While MacLeish finished the 1970–71 season with the fourth year Flyers then coached by Vic Stasiuk, he collected just six points (2-4) in 26 games and added a single goal in four playoff games. With just one goal and two assists in 17 games with the Flyers in 1971-72 under new head coach Fred Shero, he was finally shipped off to the Flyers' then new first year AHL affiliate, the Richmond Robins, where he would be under the "old school guidance" of onetime AHL Philadelphia Rockets (1947-48) star defenseman Eddie Bush, a task master who was the polar opposite in approach and temperament of the Roger Neilson he had in junior.
It was a tough transition for the 21-year old MacLeish, but also a turning point as Bush began to instill the intense work ethic of the pro game in him and he finally started to blossom with 24 goals and 11 assists in 42 games which earned him another serious look with the Flyers at the start of the 1972-73 season training camp in his quest to earn a spot with the club.
That he would do -- and in a fashion that he would never have to look back again either.
Not wishing to return to Richmond, MacLeish arrived at training camp with a new attitude and by season's end it turned to magic as he collected 50 goals and 50 assists for what would prove to be a career high 100 points that year including 21 power play markers. MacLeish would never play another game outside the NHL (except for a single contest for EHC Kolten in Switzerland in 1983) over the next dozen years that marked the remainder of his professional playing career.
Although his regular season output dropped in 1973-74 to 77 points on 32 goals and 45 assists, MacLeish paced the entire NHL in play off scoring in both goals with 13 and points with 22, and of course the most important of those goals was the last one which came in May 19th. At 14:48 of the first period MacLeish beat Bruin netminder Gilles Gilbert when he tipped in a shot from the blueline by Andre "Moose" Dupont on a power play with Boton's Terry O'Reilly in the penalty box for hooking Bill Barber. Ironically also in the Bruins' and Flyers' boxes at the same time were those teams' two star players -- Bobby Orr and Bob Clarke -- who veteran referee Art Skov (who was working his last ever NHL game) had sent off for roughing 26 seconds before MacLeish scored his cup winning goal.
MacLeish scoring the Flyers first Stanley Cup winning goal on May 19, 1974
Macleish led the NHL in playoff scoring again in 1975 with 20 points on 11 goals ind 9 assists as the club won its second consecutive Cup championship although this time the Cup winning goal against Buffalo was scored by Bob "Hound" Kelly, one of only nine such markers he would ever have in 101 playoff games. MacLeish remained a stalwart with the Flyers for another five seasons and helped lead them to the Stanley Cup finals once again 1979-80 as a member of the club's remarkable and never matched 35-game unbeaten streak club (25-0-10). On July 3, 1981, however, he was traded to the Hartford Whalers along with Blake Wesley, Don Gillen and Philadelphia's 1st (Paul Lawless), 2nd (Mark Paterson) and 3rd (Kevin Dineen) round choices in 1982 Entry Draft for Ray Allison, Fred Arthur and Hartford's 1st (Ron Sutter), and 3rd (Miroslav Dvorak) round choices in 1983 Entry Draft. In 741 regular season games as a Flyer he compiled 328 goals and 369 assists for 697 points (4th overall in Flyer history) for an average of 0.94 points per game, and was +181 while in 113 Stanley Cup tilts in Orange and Black he notched 54 goals and 53 assists for 107, also 4th overall in team history.
Lysiak (back row left) and MacLeish (back row right) were teammates on the Campbell Conference All Star team in Vancouver in 1977
MacLeish would appear in just 34 games with the Whalers in 1981-82 before being traded again to Pittsburgh two days before New Years and played in another 46 games with the Pens before being released in 1983. Signed by the Flyers as a free agent just before opening day of the 1983-84 season, he added 8 goals and 14 assists to his Flyer career totals before finishing his playing career with the Detroit Red Wings to which he was traded for future considerations on January 8, 1984 and where he collected the final ten points of his career (2-8) in 25 games.
MacLeish with a right to the jaw of the Islanders' Dave Langevin in 1980
Rick Macleish returned to the live in the Philadelphia-South Jersey area for the remainder of his life living in Ocean City, NJ where he worked for Financial Options Insurance Company. He also owned or bred many Standardbreds race horses, a passion from his youth. In 2002, however, he suffered a heart attack during a Flyers Alumni game and had cardiac bypass surgery the next day. In failing health he was hospitalized in early April and passed away on Monday at age 66.
I last saw "Hawk" in March, 2014, when he and many of his teammates from the 1974 and 1975 Stanley Cup teams assembled for the dedication of a statue of their beloved coach, Fred Shero, at the corner of 11th Street and Pattison Avenue, just a stone's throw from where the Spectrum stood from 1967 to 2011. Although his hair was grey and he was far above "playing weight", MacLeish's presence was still that of the square jawed player who had scored that unforgettable goal forty years earlier that brought out literally millions to Broad Street for a parade that will never be forgotten by this city.
The Flyers two Cup winning goals scorers -- Bob Kelly and Rick MacLeish -- at the dedication of the Fred Shero statue in March, 2014
And neither will Rick MacLeish be forgotten, whether one thinks of him as "Hawk", "Bedrock" or even "Cutie". His mark on the history of Philadelphia is indelible, and as Fred Shero once said, he will continue "walking together forever" with his Flyer teammates -- and the rest of us as well.
So RIP Tom Lysiak and Rick MacLeish -- two of the greatest players of the 70s and 80s. And thanks for the memories.
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