1959 Stanley Cup - Montreal Canadiens

The year is 1959. The Montreal Canadiens win their 4th consecutive Stanley Cup championship, the first team to accomplish that magnificent feat. The Canadiens knocked off the streaking Toronto Maple Leafs in five games.

Although Jean Beliveau, missed the finals with two cracked vertebrae, the Canadiens had plenty of fire power in the likes of Boom Boom Geoffrion, Doug Harvey, Tom Johnson, Dickie Moore, Bert Olmstead, Jacques Plante, Henri Richard and of course Maurice "Rocket" Richard.
But the spring of 1959 was all about an unheralded left-winger named Marcel Bonin, who is better remembered for wrestling bears and refusing to score goals.

Marcel Bonin was a very solid player, but not a true front-liner. He was feisty and physical, good at retrieving pucks in corners and scrums. Though he never had dominating scoring statistics, he had decent enough hands to make a nice pass after securing the puck from a battle. He was very versatile, able to play either wing and a nice fit with several line combinations.

Bonin averaged about 15 goals a season, but he could have scored more. Interestingly, the following Bonin quote suggests he didn't really want to score more.

"I reached my yearly average. I scored 15 goals like in the previous years. If I score 19, they will expect 25 for next year. I don't want to get into that. So...for the next 7 or 8 games, I'll be the playmaker but you score the goals. It's over for me."

That definitely wasn't the case in the 1959 playoffs. The left-winger had the greatest moments of his career as he led the playoffs in goals with 10, four more than anyone else, in 11 games. Three of his goals were game winners. He scored 7 goals in the first round against Chicago and added another three, including the championship winning goal, in round two against Toronto.

Bonin had a reputation as a solid playoff performer, but his scoring outbreak was nothing short of incredible. Much like a modern day John Druce or Chris Kontos, Bonin's hot streak was a blip. Though he was a nice piece of 4 Stanley Cup championships, Marcel Bonin would only score 1 goal and 10 assists in 39 other career NHL playoff games.

1959: Bonin's Big Spring

The year is 1959. The Montreal Canadiens win their 4th consecutive Stanley Cup championship, the first team to accomplish that magnificent feat. The Canadiens knocked off the streaking Toronto Maple Leafs in five games.

Although Jean Beliveau, missed the finals with two cracked vertebrae, the Canadiens had plenty of fire power in the likes of Boom Boom Geoffrion, Doug Harvey, Tom Johnson, Dickie Moore, Bert Olmstead, Jacques Plante, Henri Richard and of course Maurice "Rocket" Richard.

But the spring of 1959 was all about an unheralded left-winger named Marcel Bonin, who is better remembered for wrestling bears and refusing to score goals.

Marcel Bonin was a very solid player, but not a true front-liner. He was feisty and physical, good at retrieving pucks in corners and scrums. Though he never had dominating scoring statistics, he had decent enough hands to make a nice pass after securing the puck from a battle. He was very versatile, able to play either wing and a nice fit with several line combinations.

Bonin averaged about 15 goals a season, but he could have scored more. Interestingly, the following Bonin quote suggests he didn't really want to score more.

"I reached my yearly average. I scored 15 goals like in the previous years. If I score 19, they will expect 25 for next year. I don't want to get into that. So...for the next 7 or 8 games, I'll be the playmaker but you score the goals. It's over for me."

That definitely wasn't the case in the 1959 playoffs. The left-winger had the greatest moments of his career as he led the playoffs in goals with 10, four more than anyone else, in 11 games. Three of his goals were game winners. He scored 7 goals in the first round against Chicago and added another three, including the championship winning goal, in round two against Toronto.

Bonin had a reputation as a solid playoff performer, but his scoring outbreak was nothing short of incredible. Much like a modern day John Druce or Chris Kontos, Bonin's hot streak was a blip. Though he was a nice piece of 4 Stanley Cup championships, Marcel Bonin would only score 1 goal and 10 assists in 39 other career NHL playoff games.

"Marcel Is Going Into A Slump"

In this day and age of performance bonuses, scoring 20 or 25 goals could mean 100s of 1000s of dollars in extra income.

But such salary clauses didn't really exist back in the days when Marcel Bonin played with the Montreal Canadiens. Therefor, Bonin didn't see scoring more goals as a positive, but a negative.

In Jean Beliveau's autobiography My Life In Hockey, Beliveau remembered a time when Marcel was riding a real hot streak late in the season. But because Bonin had reached his usual output of 15 goals, he didn't want to score any more goals.

"Jean, starting tonight, Marcel is going into a slump," Bonin told the dumbfounded Beliveau. Goals are hard enough to come by in the NHL. A player purposefully not trying to score goals was ridiculous.

"Fifteen goals, that's my usual production. I'm already there. If I score twenty, they'll ask me to score twenty five next year, and I can't. So for the next seven or eight games, I'll be the play maker," he told Beliveau, of all people. "You score. Marcel is going into a slump."

It's stories like that one that made Marcel Bonin's profile a fun biography to write. He was quite the character, once spending part of his summer wrestling a bear with the great boxer Joe Louis acting as the referee. And no, I'm not making that up.

NHL Playoff Legends - Marcel Bonin

Marcel Bonin was a very solid player, but not a true front-liner. He was feisty and physical, good at retrieving pucks in corners and scrums. Though he never had dominating scoring statistics, he had decent enough hands to make a nice pass after securing the puck from a battle. He was very versatile, able to play either wing and a nice fit with several line combinations.

Bonin averaged about 15 goals a season, but he could have scored more. Interestingly, the following Bonin quote suggests he didn't really want to score more.

"I reached my yearly average. I scored 15 goals like in the previous years. If I score 19, they will expect 25 for next year. I don't want to get into that. So...for the next 7 or 8 games, I'll be the playmaker but you score the goals. It's over for me."

That definitely wasn't the case in the 1959 playoffs. The left-winger had the greatest moments of his career as he led the playoffs in goals with 10, four more than anyone else, in 11 games. Three of his goals were game winners. He scored 7 goals in the first round against Chicago and added another three, including the championship winning goal, in round two against Toronto.

Bonin had a reputation as a solid playoff performer, but his scoring outbreak was nothing short of incredible. Much like a modern day John Druce or Chris Kontos, Bonin's hot streak was a blip. Though he was a nice piece of 4 Stanley Cup championships, Marcel Bonin would only score 1 goal and 10 assists in 39 other career NHL playoff games.

Full Marcel Bonin Biography, including his summer job wrestling bears.