Cyclone Taylor - Hockey Career

Hockey Career

For the 1905–06 season, Taylor played a handful of games for Portage la Prairie in Manitoba. Several teams in the new International Professional Hockey League tried to get Taylor to join them, including Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and Calumet, Michigan, which even got Taylor to sign a contract. But in February 1906 he ended up reuniting with Forrester on the Portage Lake team, based in Houghton, Michigan. The team won the league championship with Taylor playing point. He had started as a forward, but was too fast for his linemates to keep up with him. Player salaries outpaced revenue in the league and the IPHL went out of business in 1907.

"In Portage La Prairie they called him a tornado, in Houghton, Michigan, he was known as a whirlwind. From now on he'll be known as Cyclone Taylor"

Malcolm Brice, reporter for the Ottawa Free Press, after hearing the Governor-General of Canada refer to Taylor as "Cyclone" in reference to his skating ability.

Taylor then joined the Ottawa Hockey Club of the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association, for whom he played two seasons, for an annual salary and the promise of a civil service job. While playing for Ottawa in 1907, the Governor General gave him the nickname "Cyclone", based on his skating ability. In December 1907, it was reported that Taylor had been offered $1,500 to leave Ottawa and play for the team in Renfrew, Ontario for the 1907–08 season. He declined the offer.

Taylor played lacrosse in 1908 for the Ottawa Capitals. On June 27, 1908, he was arrested during a game for punching referee Tom Carlind in the face after receiving a penalty. The referee would not press charges, but the league president was in attendance and recommended that Taylor be given a lifetime suspension from the National Lacrosse Union. The league governors only issued a censure. The team expected Taylor to join them the following season, but he chose to focus on his job and hockey. He tried to return to the Capitals in 1910, but was released by the team. He played for the Caps in 1911.

At the start of the 1908–09 season, Taylor was given a month's vacation from his government job in Ottawa and went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to play in the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League. The WPHL season opened in mid-November, so Taylor could play there for a month and not miss any of Ottawa's ECAHA games.

In December 1909, coming off a Stanley Cup winning season in Ottawa, it was reported that Taylor had a falling out with the club over his government job and his demand for more money. The Renfrew Hockey Club of the new National Hockey Association (NHA) announced that they had signed Taylor, but a week later Taylor said that he had decided to stay in Ottawa. After another week, Taylor changed his mind and said he would join Renfrew, signing for a reported $5,250 for one season (because of the high salaries the players got, the fans called them the Renfrew Millionaires). This made him the highest paid Canadian athlete, and he made more money than the Canadian prime minister.

At the same time, Lester Patrick was given a similar contract to join the Renfrew team, along with his brother, Frank Patrick. Newsy Lalonde joined the team mid-season. Despite the high-priced talent, with four future hall-of-famers in their starting seven, Renfrew finished third. It was reported at the end of February 1910 that the team would lose $17,000 during the season and was in danger of folding. The team played one more season—with significantly reduced salaries, and without the Patricks and Lalonde—and then disbanded.

It was during his playing days at Renfrew that a legend developed around Taylor. Before his first appearance in a game for Renfrew in Ottawa, Taylor claimed that he would score a goal against Ottawa while skating backwards. In the actual game, he did not score. However, in a later game in Renfrew against Ottawa, Taylor did score a back-hand goal while skating backwards and the legend was born. However, Taylor himself long disputed the legend, saying he made the comments as a joke, and his famous "backwards" goal, only involved a brief period of backward skating and the actual goal was scored just like any other.

In 1911, Taylor became the property of Sam Lichtenhein and the NHA Montreal Wanderers. Lichtenhein wanted Taylor as a drawing card in Montreal, but, in November 1911, Taylor said he would sooner retire from hockey than join the Wanderers. To the uproar of the Wanderers, he played for Ottawa against the Wanderers on January 24, 1912. Taylor's play was so poor, he was replaced after one period, with Montreal leading 2-0. Ottawa came back to win the game, 10-6. The Wanderers formally protested and the game was ordered replayed. Taylor and the Ottawa team were each fined $100 by the league and Taylor was given an indefinite suspension. However, despite this, at the end of the season in March, Taylor was selected for an NHA All-Star team which played against the three PCHA teams in British Columbia.

Meanwhile, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was formed by Taylor's former teammates, Lester and Frank Patrick. They encouraged Taylor to come west. In November 1912, it was announced that he would be paid $1,200 to join the Vancouver Millionaires. As he prepared to leave for the west coast, Taylor said he would not play in the NHA again under any circumstances. Before he left, Taylor said one of the two new Toronto teams in the NHA was owned by Lichtenhein, who was plotting to send Taylor to Toronto and prevent him from playing for Ottawa. The accusation was denied by the presidents of both Toronto teams and by Lichtenhein, who all said he had no ownership stake in either team.

In Vancouver, Taylor was moved from cover-point (defence) to centre, a position he played the rest of his career. Taylor helped lead the Millionaires to their only Stanley Cup victory in 1915. He won five scoring titles in the PCHA, including 32 goals in 18 games in 1917–18. He ended his career in 1921. However he played one final game in the 1922–23 season, appearing with Vancouver, then known as the Maroons, against Victoria on December 8, 1922. Taylor was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947.

Taylor remained involved in hockey after he stopped playing. He was president of the Pacific Coast Hockey League from 1936 to 1940. Taylor helped start the B.C. Hockey Benevolent Association in the 1950s, and served as a director until his death. He dropped the puck in the ceremonial faceoff that preceded the expansion Vancouver Canucks' first home game when the expansion team joined the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1970. Taylor was a fixture at Canucks games, sitting in the crowd with his Homberg hat.