“Whenever we needed a goal in a pinch, Butch always seemed to be there.”
Lester Patrick1
Melville Keeling grew up in Ontario the son of a butcher, and was thus known as “Butch” throughout his life. Between ages 18–21, before starting his long career in the National, he tore up nets across Canada with 73 goals in 59 games played in various leagues. The Maple Leafs took notice and signed him up in 1926. Keeling spent two fairly promising years as a Leaf before Conn Smythe inexplicably shipped the 22 year old to the Rangers in exchange for $10,000 and Alex Gray, a 28 year old with little experience who went on to skate in seven scoreless games for Toronto and was never seen in the NHL again.
The trade was a steal for the Rangers, and Keeling was happy with the change too. He considered Smythe a “pretty rough” disciplinarian but found Lester Patrick’s Rangers to be “a happy family.”2 The happy family was a force on the ice, having claimed the 1928 Stanley Cup two weeks before Keeling joined the roster. Their first line was the legendary unit of Cook brothers Bun and Bill with Frank Boucher, so Keeling joined Murray Murdoch on the overlooked second line that played their supporting role extremely well. Keeling and Murdoch were both almost impossible to knock out of the lineup so were both a part of a secondary unit almost every game for the first nine of Keeling’s 10 Rangers years. (The record books call both men left wings, but Keeling shared points on scoring plays with Murdoch much more than any other player, so something is fishy there.)
Throughout his decade with the team, the Rangers could safely rely on a nice goal total from Keeling plus a playoff appearance. Keeling is one of only 17 players to appear in nine or more postseasons with the Blueshirts, and he authored several dramatic playoffs moments. In his very first playoff series, the Rangers advanced out of the first round on a double-overtime Keeling snipe. That 1929 squad made it to the finals, where Keeling was the only Ranger to find the back of the net in the short two-game series.
Keeling’s inability and/or lack of interest in collecting a few assists to go along with his goals is almost comical. His assist numbers suggest a strict policy of never making a pass if a shot could be attempted instead. His ratio of adjusted goals to assists is the highest in my top 60, and his 15 adjusted assists per 82 games is the lowest. So, naturally, Keeling’s finest moment on ice came on a beautiful pass to pick up perhaps the most consequential assist in team history. In the spring of 1933, the Rangers held a two games to one lead in the best-of-five Stanley Cup finals against Keeling’s former Maple Leafs squad. Game four on April 13 in Toronto was “a mighty defensive struggle all the way,”3 and regulation time expired without a goal having been recorded. Roughly six minutes into overtime, the Rangers found themselves with a two-man advantage, and Lester Patrick put five forwards out together in hopes of finding the Cup-winning goal. The April 14 edition of The New York Times reported the ensuing action like this:
“…this quintet battered away relentlessly at the Toronto guardians. Time after time, though, the speedy New York charges were turned aside…” With one of the penalized Leafs’ sentences nearly expired, “Keeling garnered the puck in mid-ice. Breaking away instantly, Butch sped along the left alley far into Toronto’s territory. Bill Cook accompanied him on his journey, traveling along the right lane near the side boards. As Red Horner approached Keeling in an endeavor to steal the disk from him, the latter transferred it rink-wide quickly and precisely to the fast-skating Bill, who took the pass easily. Not breaking his stride a bit, the Ranger captain swooped in on (Lorne) Chabot, and when the Leaf goalie sought to come out of the cage to topple his adversary Bill lifted the puck swiftly into the far corner, ending the game…The Rangers went almost frantic with joy as soon as the puck lodged in the cage. The entire team rushed to Bill’s side and patted him enthusiastically, while he, in his excitement, skated back and forth rapidly, waving his arms wildly to the crowd.”
When time caught up with the Cooks and Boucher, new stars like Cecil Dillon and Lynn Patrick took over as the top forwards, and Keeling kept his familiar second-line status. The one possible exception came late in his career with an explosion of goals in 1936-37 that looks like a typo compared to the metronomic consistency with which he had scored for so many years. His 22 actual goals that season were one behind the league lead, and translate to a 43 goal season in my adjustments. I don’t know if his line with Murdoch and Phil Watson was considered the top unit or not, but they were the most offensively productive even strength forward trio that season. Keeling kept up the scoring in the 1937 playoffs and helped the club get to overtime in the deciding game of the finals before a heartbreaking loss.
Murdoch retired in the summer of 1937, so Keeling went without his familiar teammate in 1937-38. He still chipped in as a useful player, but his point total was only good for 10th highest on the team. At 32 years old, he had reached old age for a hockey player of the time. Lester Patrick held Keeling in high esteem, so I imagine it was not easy for Patrick to release him after the season. On the day of the release, Patrick praised Keeling as “one of the great players of all time.”4
Keeling’s time in the NHL as a player was over, but he skated a couple of more years in the minors, including a year as a player-coach. He also returned to the NHL as a referee for three seasons. Melville “Butch” Keeling passed away in 1984.
click here for the list of the Rangers Top 60 Producers of Offense
and an explanation of my adjusted stats and ranking method
Leave a Reply