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PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 12:29 am 
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Un-Tenured Professor of Hockey
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https://www.nhl.com/news/canadiens-ralp ... -321195750

Ralph Backstrom won the Calder Trophy in 1959 and the Stanley Cup six times with the Montreal Canadiens, but it was a stop with the short-lived WHA Denver Spurs in the 70s that apparently stuck with him. He later returned to Colorado to serve as an assistant and later head coach of the men’s hockey team at the University of Denver. He later left to coach in the pros and founded the RHI roller hockey league, then served as a scout for the St. Louis Blues. But his most lasting legacy will be as a founder and, for the first three years of its existence, president and GM of the Colorado Eagles Franchise. The Eagles have been wildly successful in Windsor/Loveland, Colorado, and I’m almost certain throughout their existence as a CHL, ECHL, and AHL organization, they have not missed the playoffs once. They won a CHL title with Backstrom at the helm, and later won back-to-back ECHL titles before jumping to the AHL last season.

The article above even says that he played a part in the development of inline roller skates and composite sticks. I don’t know how much of a part he played but it only adds to the legend.

Backstrom retired but remained in Windsor, Colorado until his death today. Fare thee well and thanks so much for all you did for hockey in my home state, Ralph.


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PostPosted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 11:27 am 
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Here's the Montreal obit https://montrealgazette.com/sports/hock ... -at-age-83

Sam Pollock used him to get Lafleur. The Habs had the Seals' no. 1 pick and they were neck and neck with LA for worst team in the league. Sam gave Ralph to LA in order to make them better.

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2021 4:33 pm 
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E.L. wrote:
Here's the Montreal obit https://montrealgazette.com/sports/hock ... -at-age-83

Sam Pollock used him to get Lafleur. The Habs had the Seals' no. 1 pick and they were neck and neck with LA for worst team in the league. Sam gave Ralph to LA in order to make them better.


See? Even helped his old team then too. :lol:

The overarching narrative is that he could have been a bigger star outside of Montreal but decided to stay, and both he and the Habs benefited from that.

I imagine the Eagles are going to put together some kind of tribute for him, hope it's something better than a silly sticker on the helmet.


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PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 6:02 pm 
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Yep, they went the sticker route, which I absolutely detest with the Pierre Lacroix tribute (seriously? You couldn't do something with a little more personality?) but I really like that they made the one for Backstrom look like the back of a Canadiens jersey.

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PostPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2022 4:26 pm 
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Don't know if it's been posted anywhere else but apparently Backstrom's brain was analyzed following his death and it was determined he was suffering from Stage 3 CTE.

https://www.tsn.ca/former-montreal-cana ... -1.1753405

Very sad, even at an advanced age, the head trauma suffered from his playing days came back to ultimately kill him.

It's kinda scary. These days there are times I feel like my brain is in a fog and I'm starting to forget things I remembered easily before. Just innocuous things like the name of an NHL player here and there on a given team, I have to go and look the name up sometimes when I didn't before. Obviously I'm not to the point where I feel I need to take the MoCA or anything like that, but I'm no longer a young man and slight memory lapses like this give me pause from time to time. Now that I know I was concussed several times during my playing days and didn't know it, it's a little disconcerting.


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