Celebrating BANNERMAN on his 65th birthday
It's not easy following a legend. Those are shoes that few people can fill because you're always going to be compared to that legend. For the Blackhawks in the early 1980s, they had Hall of Fame goaltender Tony Esposito on the last legs of his career so they brought in Murray Bannerman, a 23-year-old who played one period for the Vancouver Canucks in 1977 without allowing a goal making him the only goalie in Canucks history to not allow a goal.
Bannerman finally got a chance to shine in the first round of the 1982 playoffs. He won his first two games on the road and powered the Hawks to a series victory over the heavily favored Minnesota North Stars.
He became the starting goalie the following season with Tony O as his backup and posted a 24-12-5 record with a .901 save percentage and four shutouts. He quickly was a popular player among Hawks fans and his teammates and made two all-star teams. Bannerman would play another four seasons in Chicago and still ranks in the top ten in virtually every goaltender category in Blackhawks team history. He finished his career with 288 games played (9th), 116 wins (6th), 8,777 shots against (5th), 7,726 saves (6th) and 20 playoff wins (5th).
He's probably remembered most for a sprawling save in game 6 of the 1985 division series against Minnesota in which radio announcer Pat Foley made the famous "BANNERMAN" call.
The Hawks would win 6-5 on team captain Darryl Sutter's overtime winner to claim the series 4-2. Unfortunately they ran into the Edmonton Oiler buzzsaw in the conference finals as the Oilers scored a NHL record 44 goals in their six game series victory.
Enjoy some highlights of Bannerman in action in that sweet mask of his!
| POLL | ||
What rank would you give Bannerman among Blackhawks goalies? | ||
| Top 5 | 80 | 27.8 % |
| Top 8 | 60 | 20.8 % |
| Top 10 | 68 | 23.6 % |
| Top 15 | 80 | 27.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
