Doug McKay got into one NHL game, but it was a memorable one

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Doug McKay Sr., who had a big influence in pro hockey and a small part of Stanley Cup history, died this week just shy of his 91st birthday.

McKay is the only NHLer whose one game came in the Cup final — Game 3 for the Red Wings against the Rangers in 1950 — a neutral-site tilt at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens with a circus bumping New York out of Madison Square.

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Doug McKay got into one NHL game, but it was a memorable one Back to video

But his career was much more than one night.

“It was a thrill to grow up with him and meet all the people he knew in the game,” said Doug Jr., who followed his father into coaching as an NHL assistant on many teams. “Gordie Howe, Sid Abel, Ted Lindsay, Glenn Hall … dad was one of those people you admired for being from a different generation, full of hard-nosed work ethic and commitment.”

Late in the 1949-50 season, the Hamilton-born left winger had already won the Calder Cup with the Wings’ AHL farm team in Indianapolis, when summoned to Toronto.
McKay was held pointless in a 4-0 win in a series that went the distance. Farm teammate Gord Haidy was in one game in the semifinals versus Toronto and, 22 years later, Chris Hayes was in and out for a semifinal for the Bruins.

But you won’t find McKay’s name on the Cup. Though he would qualify today with one final-round game, that wasn’t the rule 70 years ago.

“It was at the discretion of the team manager, Jack Adams,” said McKay Jr. “But dad said he couldn’t care less. It’s my understanding his name is on the Detroit Cup team plaque at the Hockey Hall of Fame. That is special.”

Through the farm system, McKay became well-acquainted with the stars of Detroit who led the Wings to four Cups and seven final appearances overall from 1948-56. When Lindsay went into Wings management, he recruited McKay to coach in Kalamazoo of the International League where the latter won two Turner Cups in 1980 and ’81, totalling more than 100 regular season and playoff wins, with his son on one of the title teams.

McKay Sr. was named The Hockey News minor league coach of the year and moved up to Adirondack of the AHL in ’81-82, a team with seasoned NHLers such as Peter Mahovlich and Dennis Polonich. He was promised the Red Wings’ top job that coming autumn.

“They wanted to promote him earlier, but Detroit was really struggling,” Doug Jr. said. “Then Bruce Norris sold the team that summer (to Mike Ilitch) and dad didn’t get the job at all.”

Meanwhile, Doug Jr., was making his own way in the game and was hired as Mike Nykoluk’s assistant with the Leafs in the early ’80s.

“It was exciting to work in the same building where dad had played his game. We both grew up in the area so we knew what a famous place it was.

“A few years later when I was with Hartford, Howe was on the Whalers board of directors. We were talking at training camp when Gordie took out a marker, made up a sign that said ‘Hi Dad’ and posed with me while holding it.”

In the 1988 playoffs as Jim Schoenfeld’s New Jersey assistant, McKay Jr. was sandwiched between referee Don Koharski and his irate boss in the infamous hallway tussle where Koharski fell and Schoenfeld fired his “have another donut” zinger.

Schoenfeld was accused of pushing the ref in what became a major off-ice row, but Doug insisted “Don’s skate slipped off the mat onto the tile floor and it was my arms trying to catch him.”

lhornby@postmedia.com