Boston Bruins All-Star defenseman Ted Green in September 1969 was rushed to Ottawa General Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery on his fractured skull after being felled by a blow in a stick fight with St. Louis Blues forward Wayne Maki during an exhibition game.
The Bruins held a team vigil at their hotel while Mr. Green’s teammate Ed Westfall was summoned by doctors after the nearly three-hour operation.
“They wanted Ted to respond to sounds,” Westfall recalled, “so I took hold of his hand and starting yelling and screaming things to him, and at some point something triggered in him and Ted started to squeeze back. I said, ‘I got him,’ and then I cried. That moment is still vivid in my mind.”
Dubbed “Terrible Ted” for his physicality on the ice and willingness to stand up for his teammates, Mr. Green missed the entire 1969-70 season, when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup.
Mr. Green, who returned to the ice at Boston Garden in May 1970, wearing street clothes, with tears in his eyes to help celebrate that triumph, died Oct. 8, according to a death notice his family placed in the Edmonton Journal in Canada. He was 79.
Though Mr. Green underwent subsequent surgeries for potentially fatal hemorrhages and the insertion of a plate in his head, and endured partial paralysis, he returned to professional hockey and played until 1979, including with the 1971-72 National Hockey League champion Bruins.
Mr. Green and Maki, who struck him in the stick fight, were charged with assault causing bodily harm — the first time a criminal action was brought because of on-ice violence during an NHL game. They were acquitted.
In addition, the NHL issued fines and suspensions to both players.
Mr. Green, meanwhile, forgave Maki.
“He should not be punished any more than Ted Green. I hold no malice against him,” Mr. Green told the Toronto Telegram News in October 1969. “My wife and I wrote to Maki over the weekend telling him how we feel.”
Maki died in 1974, at age 29, from brain cancer.
After the injury, Mr. Green wore a helmet when playing. He subsequently served as an assistant coach on five Edmonton Oilers teams that won Stanley Cups.
Shortly after Edmonton defeated the Bruins in the 1990 finals, Mr. Green returned to Boston from Edmonton with the Stanley Cup as part of the 1970 Bruins’ 20th anniversary reunion.
“I’ve never been to a reunion in my life,” Mr. Green told the Globe. “But I knew right away that I had to come to this one. Seeing these guys . . . it holds such a special significance in my memory.”
In 1970, Bruins players had insisted that Mr. Green’s name be engraved with theirs on the Stanley Cup and that he receive a full playoff share.
“Teddy was the epitome of determination and toughness, both physically and mentally,” said Westfall, who broke in with Mr. Green as a Bruins rookie in 1961. “There are few people I know or have ever met who could have survived what he did.”
In January 1971, Mr. Green was given a night in his honor at Boston Garden. He received 30 gifts, including a new station wagon. Montreal captain Jean Beliveau presented him with a silver plate autographed by the Canadiens players.
“It’s awfully good to be back in Boston,” Mr. Green said into the microphone after repeated ovations.
“We both lived in Nahant and would drive to practice together,” goaltender Gerry Cheevers recalled. “We got to know one another pretty well, and I believe his wife and family inspired him to come back.”
Edward Joseph Green grew up in St. Boniface, Manitoba, and played for the Winnipeg Braves, winners of the Memorial Cup in 1959 as Western Canada’s “Junior A” hockey champions.
Initially, Mr. Green was part of the Montreal Canadiens organization, and he recalled at his induction to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame that he wasn’t really a Montreal fan.
Claimed by the Bruins in the summer of 1960, Mr. Green played for Boston’s farm team in Kingston, Ontario, where he was coached by Harry Sinden.
“Ted came to us with the reputation as a pretty tough dude, but we could see his potential. He was a wonderful puck carrier with a wicked shot,” recalled Sinden, who went on to coach Boston’s 1970 Stanley Cup championship team, and later was the team’s president and general manager.
“In those days, the six NHL teams had to have someone who always had your back, and he was our guy,” Sinden said. “He was a tremendous leader and a great Bruin.”
Mr. Green left Boston to captain the New England Whalers, who in their inaugural season of 1972-73 won the Avco Cup as champions of the new World Hockey Association.
Former Boston College star Tim Sheehy, a Whalers teammate, said that when Mr. Green spoke, “everybody listened because he had their respect. It was a great thrill to play on the same team with him and I felt that someday he would stay in the game as a coach.”
Indeed, after winning two more Avco Cups with the Winnipeg Jets, Mr. Green contacted former Bruins teammate Glen Sather, who was then head coach of the Edmonton Oilers.
Mr. Green “wrote me a letter asking if we could talk about coaching, and he showed up with a binder, about two inches thick, on all the teams he had scouted,” Sather told the Edmonton Journal. “He wrote it all out, left-handed . . . you remember he had to learn to write with his other hand after the injury? Soon as I saw what he had done, I said, ‘You’re hired.’ ”
Mr. Green’s close friend Ron Low, a former NHL goaltender, enjoyed hanging out at Mr. Green’s golf driving range in St. Boniface. Years later, he coached with Mr. Green with Edmonton and the New York Rangers.
“It was a dream relationship,” Low said. “Teddy understood the game as well as anyone I have ever met. He sometimes got emotional when he talked, and you had to pay attention because it was heartfelt.”
Mr. Green was head coach of the Oilers for more than two seasons, from 1991 to 1993. He also was an entrepreneur who promoted a coin-operated skate sharpening machine.
And he often reached out to others in need, including volunteering at The Mustard Seed organization in Edmonton, washing dishes and serving meals to those who were homeless and living in poverty.
A complete list of Mr. Green’s survivors was not available.
Low said a service was held.
Don Awrey, Mr. Green’s partner on defense with the Bruins, said he “played with gusto and with his heart on his sleeve.”
“Teddy kind of groomed me and told me if I wanted to stay in the NHL, I’d have to play tougher,” Awrey added. “I called him to say hello about four years ago and thanked him again for giving me that advice.”
Marvin Pave can be reached at marvin.pave@rcn.com.