A Man called the Edmonton Express

The story of a young frontier rancher who developed a style all his own that led the the Hall of Fame in the game he loved and worked hard to get good at.

Our story starts with the birth of a lad named Edward in 1902 in a western frontier territory. Edward's family were ranchers in the region and live a hard life. His parents dreamed of their children getting an education and escaping the tough farming life bestowed upon them. In school, their son Edward was... let's just say not the best of students. One story has him receiving a school assigned to learn 20 spelling words, when the teacher corrected  Edward’s work he had misspelled 18 of them. Yes he was known to skip school often and spent most winter days on the outdoor rink playing hockey instead of attending class. When his parents could find him he spent time working on the ranch and he spent his time breaking horses, herding stock and hauling grain. All of this helped form him into a man who could handle  physical activities with grit and determination

After World War I, Edward would go to the Manitoba Agricultural College with his brother, but he had not become the player he would eventually be. He did not make the school’s hockey team. His older brother told him he would never be a good hockey player, but this made him all the more determined to work hard and get better at the game he had grown to love. He began a stringent work routine to improve and soon played for the Cupar team that was in the Saskatchewan Intermediate C League from 1919 to 1923.

Edward found that playing an extremely physical game could have its rewards. Opponents did not care for his rough play though and there are stories that some did some things to nullify his ferocity on the ice.

Once while playing in Moose Jaw Edward seemed unusually awkward on the ice during the game. He was having issues with his skating and kept tripping and falling over. Fans booed and heckled the defenseman assuming that Edward had hit the sauce before the game and was overly intoxicated. They were badly mistaken as it was later discovered that the man at the Moose Jaw rink had sharpened Edward’s skates backward. No proof of this could be found, but the Cupar team would be outscored in this contest.

Edward and his Cupar teammates would rebound a year later, getting past Moose Jaw and in the end defeating the Melville Millionaires for th title of the league.

Eventually, he moved on in the world of hockey when he joined the Melville Millionaires who had requested Edward to play for them in the 1923-24 season after his former team had defeated Melville in the league title game. He would accept their offer, and led them to the Saskatchewan Senior Championship in his first year. This was not a professional league so Edward moonlighted as a fireman for the railway during his time in Melville.

His style of play was that of a punishing bruiser known for his violence. The Melville coach knowing this asked Edward not to take even one penalty minute during a championship game. Edward took an oath to the team that he would not for any reason commit a foul in the contest and he held true to his word.It was not the style of play that Edward succeed at though. When his opponents, the Winnipeg players began to see that Edward was not going to retaliate and started to hit him harder and harder. The young skater played a full 50 minutes in the game and was eventually hit so hard that he was taken to the dressing room, he was knocked unconscious, found to have had a broken jaw, a broken nose and the lost of six of his pearly whites.
Edward moved up the ranks to play professional hockey with the Regina Capitals of the Western Canada Hockey League in 1925. His team finished last in the league and then abruptly relocated to Portland after the season. Edward soon transferred to be on the roster of the league champion Edmonton Eskimos in 1926, where he converted from forward to a defensive position and was given the nickname "the Edmonton Express".
Edward helped to guide Eskimos to first place in the Western League and they would play in the final round against Vancouver. In one of the first games in the final, Edward was cut on the leg by a skate, requiring 14 stitches. His status to play in the final game of the series was in serious question. However one of his teammates jokingly remarked that he was faking the injury. Edward, taking it seriously, went out to prove his sarcastic buddy wrong. He played the entire game but the stitches in his leg came out and blood started to seep down his leg, leaving a bright red trail of blood on the ice as he played. He played an outstanding game but Vancouver came out ahead and won the series.
In 1926 the western League of hockey folded and was soon purchased by a Boston Mass. grocery store tycoon named Charles Adams, who also happened to own the Boston Bruins NHL hockey club. Edward was immediately transferred to the Bruins along with other stars f the WCHL
His physical style was really suited for the NHL game and Edward set a then-NHL record for 165 penalty minutes in just his second season.
Edward William Shore was the first defenseman to take the puck from behind his own net and rush electrifyingly up ice to score. Also renowned as one of the toughest players to ever play the game, Shore developed into the top box office attraction of his day.
Eddie Shore was said to have once missed a team train to Montreal in 1929 and drove straight through from Boston in a blinding blizzard to arrive in Montreal at 6:30 the night of the game. Although suffering from frostbite, he scored the game's only goal in a Bruins victory.
Eddie Shore wearing the Number 2 sweater for Boston went on to win the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player four times, the most of any defenseman and only the Great One, Wayne Gretzky and Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe have won it more often. After the league began naming NHL All-Star Teams at the end of Shore's fifth season, Shore was honored as a First Team All-Star in seven of his last nine seasons, while being named a Second Team All-Star one of the other seasons; in the remaining season he missed over half the schedule due to injury. Eddie was enshrined into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
 

The photograph in the banner above is courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons collection of public Domain pictures. It is a 

Special thanks to Hockey-Reference.com, Stathead.com and the websites of Canadian History EHX and NHL.com for the great hockey history they provide.