Leo Labine died at age 73...

Onlypsahockey

In case anyone missed it as I did. Leo paved the way for the Theo Fleury's of the game. Standing only 5' 10" 170 lbs. Leo earned the nickname "The Lion" with his tenacious forechecking and tooth jarring body checks. R.I.P.

Boston Globe 03-06-05

When Leo "The Lion" Labine died Feb. 25th at age 73, the former Bruins right wing was mourned by many, including former teammate Ed Sanford.
"He and I roomed together when we were bachelors," said Sanford. "We lived in West Newton, so I knew him well. We kept in touch over the years. He was agood kid. He first came up and played a couple gamesand they wanted to send him down to Hershey. He was really heartbroken. I took him to the Back Bay station that night and told him the best thing in the world for him was to go down to Hershey and play the same way you played here - hard - and you'll be back up, and once you come back up, you'll be in the big leagues forever.
"It kind of picked up his spirits, and he went down and played well in Hershey. The next year, the Bruins signed him to a contract and he played years for us."
Labine's NHL career spanned 11 seasons (1951-52 to 1961-62), during which he played 643 regular season games - 571 with Boston before being traded to Detroit during the 1960-61 season - and racked up 730 penalty minutes. He tied Don McKenney for the team lead in scoring in 1954-55 with 42 points.
He still holds the Bruins' record for points in a period. On Nov. 28, 1954, Labine had a hat trick and a pair of assists in the second period of a 6-2 win over Detroit.
He played with a tremendous amount of heart, and although he was only 5 feet 10 inches and 170 pounds, he loved to mix it up.
"He was a rugged kid," said Sanford. "He wasn't as big as Terry O'Reilly, but he was a good body checker. He really had a knack of hitting guys with his shoulder and really knocking them flying."
The most famous example was in Game 7 in the first round of the playoffs against Montreal on April 8, 1952.
"He hit Rocket Richard," said Sanford, "and Rocket went flying head over heels and landed on his face and it split his brow. He got cut for a number of stitches. Leo didn't get a penalty because it was a clean check. he caught him right at center ice, shoulder to shoulder. I thought when I saw it happen that we were going to win the game because Rocket was hurt."
"Lo and behold, that's the night Rocket scored the winning goal in the last minute and a half of play to win the game and series."
"Leo was a tuff kid, he was a good skater, and he was a good goal scorer. He was always yapping all the time."
And Montreal talked back. Asked to name the three players he hated to play against the most, Richard said Labine, Ted Lindsay, and Tony Leswick. Leo Labine was booed more than any other visiting player at the Montreal Forum. That was the ultimate in respect.

Yzerman19C

Always like Leo and had the chance to meet him several times and get a bunch of stuff autographed over the years. He enjoyed meeting up with other players he played with and against so much he would often tell the promoter he would come and sign for free as long as he got to go out for the entertainment before and afterwards.

As for the hit on Rocket Richard that was told in the story. Leo loved to tell the story that 40 years after that hit he was involved in a charity golf game and all of a sudden he felt someone hit him in the back fairly hard with a golf club. It was Rocket Richard who said thats for that hit 40 years ago and walked away glaring

Sad news but i knew Leo had been battling illness for a while now

Randy

interchanges

any relation to Clem?