Tiny Thompson

**Cecil Ralph "Tiny" Thompson** (May 31, 1903 – February 9, 1981) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played 10 seasons with the Boston Bruins and two seasons with the Detroit Red Wings. He won the Vezina Trophy, given to the NHL's best goaltender, four times. He was added to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1959. He won the Stanley Cup once, in 1929 with Boston. At the start of the 1938–39 season, after ten entire seasons with Boston, he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings, where he played the rest of the season, and played another full one before stopping.  During his time in the NHL, Thompson made 81 shutouts. This is the sixth-most of any goaltender. After stopping playing, he coached some lower-league teams before becoming a famous professional . Thompson helped to make common the  of catching the puck as a method of making a save. He was good at using his stick to play the puck. He was the first goaltender in the NHL to record an assist by passing the puck with his stick to a player on his team.

## Early life
Thompson was born in Sandon, British Columbia, on May 31, 1903. He grew up in Calgary, Alberta. In 1906, his brother Paul was born in Calgary. Paul would also become a professional ice hockey player. When Cecil was a child, he enjoyed playing baseball and ice hockey. When he became a teenager, other persons on his team began to call him "Tiny" since he was the tallest player. He would be known as "Tiny" for the rest of career.

Thompson began playing junior hockey when he was 16 with the Calgary Monarchs. In his first season, he competed for the Memorial Cup. The Memorial Cup is given to the best junior ice hockey team in Canada. In the two games in which he competed for the Memorial Cup, he gave up 11 goals, which was an average number of goals to give up in that period of ice hockey.

In the 1920–21 season, Thompson played for Calgary Alberta Grain. In the next three seasons, he played for a team in Bellevue, Alberta. In the 1924–25 season, he joined the Duluth Hornets. He played 40 games for the Hornets. In those 45 games, he had 11 shutouts. I In his first season, Thompson played in all of Boston's 44 games. He made 12 shutouts and has a 1.15 goals-against average. In one full season, a goals-against average of 1.15 is the second-lowest ever in NHL history. George Hainsworth has a lower goals-against average of 0.98 that season, which is the lowest-ever goals-against average for a full season. In the playoffs, they won all of their five games, as they won the Stanley Cup for their first time. In the five playoff games, Thompson made three shutouts, and gave up only three goals during the playoffs. Cecil and Paul also played against each other in the Stanley Cup Finals, which was also the first time when brothers played against each other. In the playoffs, they lost two games in a row for the first time in that season. The lost the Stanley Cup finals against the Montreal Canadiens. Earlier in the playoffs, his streak of winning his first seven games was ended. It remains the longest winning streak to start a playoff career. Thompson won his first out of four Vezina Trophies that season.

In the 1930–31 season, he played all 44 games again,  In the next season, Boston lost the semi-finals of the playoffs to Montreal. In the second game of the series against Montreal, Thompson was removed from the net near the end of the game. That was so done so Boston would have six attacking players against Montreal's five. Having more attacking players gave Boston a bigger  to score. Although Boston lost, their coach's idea was described as "".

In the 1931–32 season, Boston did not play in the playoffs for the first time when Thompson played for them. He missed five games during that season, which was the only time that happened to him. In the 43 games he played, Thompson won only 13. The next season, Boston made the playoffs again, but they lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Thompson was chosen to the Second All-Star team for his second time.  At end of the season, he won his fourth and last Vezina Trophy, To make space for Brimsek, Thompson was traded to the Detroit Red Wings for Normie Smith and $15,000. Thompson also received $1000 from Boston. Art Ross, still the manager of the Bruins, predicted that Thompson would play five more years for Detroit; however, he only played two. Although Detroit lost more games than they won, they made the playoffs in both seasons, but they did not win the Stanley Cup. Overall, Thompson appeared in 85 regular season games for Detroit, recording a 32–41–12 record, seven shutouts, and a 2.54 goals-against average, and in 11 playoff games, posting a 5–6, with one shutout and a 2.41 goal-against average. In the 1940–41 season, he played one game for the Bisons as an emergency goaltender.

During World War II, Thompson served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). He was also the coach of the Calgary RCAF Mustangs of the Alberta Senior Hockey League. He led the Mustangs to the league championship series in 1942–43 against the Calgary Currie Army team. In March 1943, injuries to the Mustangs' goaltenders made him play again. With Thompson in goal, the Mustangs won against Currie Army, 8–4, to tie the best-of-five series at two wins each. He played the deciding game, but his team fell short of winning the Alberta title with a 3–1 loss.

After the war, Thompson became chief Western Canada scout for the Chicago Black Hawks. He was one of few scouts who tried to find a player's personality along with their playing skills, often talking with players as part of efforts to learn about the players he was watching.

## Playing style
Thompson was stand-up goaltender, which mean he rarely fell to both knees to try to stop the puck. He was one of the first goaltenders in the NHL to catch the puck in order to stop it. He was the best puck-catcher when he played. With gloves smaller than one of other players, Thompson did not have a lot of ding when he was in net.

## Legacy
Thompson's points percentage in a season of .875, recorded in the 1929–30 season, still remains a record. His 38 wins during that season was a Boston record that was beat only in the 1982–83 season, by Pete Peeters; since then, no Bruins goaltender has had more than 37 wins in a season. Thompson is the all-time Bruins leader for games, wins, shutouts and goals-against average. Throughout his entire NHL career career, Thompson made 81 shutouts, which is sixth all-time in NHL history, He also made seven shutouts in the playoffs. He is fifth all-time in goals-against average, allowing on average only 2.08 goals in a 60-minute span. He led all goaltenders in regular season games played 10 times, and in regular season wins five times. He was survived by his wife, Edith, and his daughter, Sandra.

## Career statistics
### Regular season
### Playoffs
## Awards
### NHL
## Notes
## References
*
*
*
*
*
*

## Other websites 
*
*
*