THE NEW YORK TIMES – Eddie Giacomin, the Rangers’ Hall of Fame goalie of the late 1960s and early ’70s who became a fan favorite when the team emerged as Stanley Cup contenders after a string of lackluster seasons, died on Sunday at his home in Birmingham, Mich. He was 86.
Giacomin joined the Rangers in 1965 as a prematurely graying 26-year-old and blossomed as a star the next season, when he was selected as a first-team all-N.H.L. player, was chosen for the first of his six All-Star Games and posted what became his career-high nine shutouts.
He went on to lead the N.H.L. in shutouts and single-season victories three times and shared the 1971 Vezina Trophy — awarded by the league for best goaltender — with the Rangers’ Gilles Villemure for lowest goals-against average.
The Rangers had made the playoffs every spring from 1967 to 1974 with Giacomin in the nets.
The Rangers reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1972, bolstered by Giacomin along with Jean Ratelle at center, Rod Gilbert and Vic Hadfield on the wings, and Brad Park on defense.
Sports aficionados regarded Giacomin as a brilliant stick-holder who was unafraid to take chances and who had an approach seldom seen among goalies of his era.
The Rangers were denied its first Stanley Cup championship since 1940 when the Boston Bruins defeated the team in six games in the 1972 playoff final. But the Rangers remained one of the N.H.L.’s leading franchises during the next two seasons.
Then, on Halloween night 1975, Emile Francis, the Rangers’ general manager and coach, seeking to overhaul his roster, summoned Giacomin to his office at the team’s practice rink in Long Beach, N.Y., to tell him he was being sent to the Detroit Red Wings on waivers.
As Giacomin recalled, his wife was waiting in their car while the men spoke …
