Toledo Mercurys

10/14/2026

Today in Red Wings' Histroy, 14 Octobre 1964: The Wings reacquire the rights to Ted Lindsay form the Blackhawks, where he had played for three season before retiring in 1960. Lindsay was able to make a comeback with the Wings at age 39.

"Terrible" Ted Lindsay is with out a doubt one of the Red Wings of Legend, a member of the original production line and four time winner of the Stanley Cup. He was the first player in the NHL to hoist the Cup and skate around the ice with it, he says he did this so the fans could get a better look at it.

He played in 1068 career games with the Red Wings and Blackhawks and had 851 points, 379 goals and 472 assists. He was in 133 play off games and had 96 points, 47 of them goals. He was awarded the Art Ross Trophy in 1950. The Red Wings retired his number 7 sweater on 10 Novembre 1991.

Robert Blake Theodore Lindsay was born on 29 July 1925 in Renfrew Ontario and has hockey in his blood. His father, Bert, played professionally for the Renfrew Millionaires, one of the greatest teams from the pre-NHL days.

Mr Lindsay joined the Red Wings in the 1944-1945 season when he was 19 years old. His previous team was the Oshawa Generals who won the Memorial Cup in 1944 which brought him to the attention of the Red Wings.

In the 1947-48 season Mr Lindsay, who played left wing, was lined up with Sid Abel at centre and Gordie Howe on right wing to form the original production line. This line up produced immediately for the Red Wings and became the team's top scoring line. In 1950 Mr Lindsay won the Art Ross trophy and the line was 1-2-3 in League scoring, a feat never duplicated.

Known for being a tough player with a gritty playing style he was also know for his use of his elbows and knees against opposing players, which earned him the nickname "Terrible Ted". He has said that in his playing days he hated the nickname but has come to appreciate it as part of his legacy.

His penchant for the use of his knees and elbows led to the league creating kneeing and elbowing penalties to discourage the practice.

During Mr Lindsay's playing heyday even the top players in the NHL earned no more than $25000 a year and their pension system was practically non-existent. Many players had to take regular jobs in the off season just to make ends meet. It was tis situation that led Mr Lindsay and Doug Harvey of the Canadiens to attempt to form the National Hockey League Player's Association to look out for player's interests.

Although the players were unanimous in their support for the Association it's formation was feircely contested by many teams. Many of the organizers were punished by trades or were sent to finish their careers in the minors. This is beleived to the reason for Mr Lindsay's trade to the Blackhawks after the '56-57 season. The NHLPA was not formed until 1967.

Mr Lindsay played three years for the Blackhawks before retiring in 1960. Red Wings coach Jack Adams, the primary instigator for Mr Lindsay's trade to Chicago, was fired in 1961. Sid Abel became the new Red Wings coach and general manger and was able to convince Mr Lindsay to return to the Wings for the 1964-65 season, he was 39 at the time.

The next year there was an interleague draft and the Wings did not have enough room for him on the protected roster. Mr Abel attempted to protect Mr Lindsay by listing him as retired and then bringing him back for one last season. The owner of the Maple Leafs, Stafford Smythe, discovered the plan and reveiled it to the League which forced Mr Lindsay to remain retired.

After his final retirement Mr Lindsay became a TV broadcaster calling games for the Rangers in the late 1960's and early 1970's. In 1972 NBC won the US broadcasting contract and hired him to do color analysis.

In 1977 Mr Lindsay became the Red Wings general manager and said "Aggressive hockey is back in town". He was named that year's NHL Executive of the Year.

Mr Lindsay remains active in the Detroit area running his charity the Ted Lindsay Foundation which was started in 2001. It's focus is on funding for autism research.

In 2010 the Lester B Pearson Award was renamed the Ted Lindsay Award because of his "skill, tenacity, leadership, and role in establishing the original Players' Association". The award is given annually to the NHL's most outstanding player in the regular season as judged by the player's association.

Terrible Ted Lindsay is truly one of the Red Wings of legend and remains a favorite of all Wingnuts. The Wings are fortunate to have him as a par of their heritage.

Ted Lindsay passed from the mortal coil on 4 March 2018.

Information from redwings.nhl.com and nhl.com was used in compiling this post.

BELEIVE!

~Red

10/04/2026

Toledo Mercury's 1948/49, year two. The IHL expanded into North and South Divisions, with the Mercs playing in both.

10/04/2026

10/03/2026

Hockey Night in Canada is the longest-running program in Canadian television history and one of the few institutions in Canadian cultural life that can genuinely claim to have shaped the country's sense of itself. The first broadcast on October 11 1952 was a modest technological achievement, a single camera feed from Maple Leaf Gardens to CBC Television transmitters in Toronto, but it inaugurated a Saturday night ritual that persisted for over 70 years and that became so embedded in the Canadian calendar that the phrase Hockey Night in Canada carries cultural weight entirely out of proportion to its literal content. The radio tradition that preceded the television program was already 29 years old when the first TV broadcast aired. Foster Hewitt had called his first hockey game over the radio on March 22 1923, transmitting a Toronto St. Patricks game from the Mutual Street Arena over CFCA radio in a broadcast that was experimental and technically primitive and that nobody at the time imagined would be the beginning of something that would run for a century. Hewitt's voice and his famous call, He shoots! He scores!, became so associated with the game in Canada that for a generation, hockey on the radio meant Foster Hewitt in the gondola above centre ice at Maple Leaf Gardens, peering through cigarette smoke and cheering noise at the action below and describing it with an urgency that transmitted perfectly to kitchen radios and parlour sets across the country. When CBC Television launched in September 1952, with stations in Toronto and Montreal, the corporation's programmers immediately understood that hockey was the natural flagship program for the new medium.