Incredible But True Rangers Stories; The Guy Who Couldn't Shoot The Puck In The Ocean

When the Rangers fleet-but-inaccurate forward Gene Carr was blowing scoring chances galore, the club's radio play-by-play analyst Bill Chadwick liked to say, "Gene Carr couldn't shoot the puck into the ocean if he was standing at the shore."

What Chadwick didn't know was that there was such a player in real life – and he started out as a Ranger during the World War II years.

His name was Fern Gauthier who had one rather productive year in New York. He later was traded to the Montreal Canadiens where his scoring tailed off a bit.

After the war, Gauthier was dealt to the Detroit Red Wings and, by this time, he couldn't score at all. That prompted Detroit Times hockey writer Lew Walter to write: "Fern Gauthier couldn't fire the puck into the ocean if he was standing on an Atlantic pier.”

When Rangers publicist Stan Saplin read Walter's story, he phoned Wings press agent Fred Huber, Jr., and suggested that when the Wings come to New York, they take Gauthier to Battery Park where there's a pier for puck-shooting-into-the-ocean.

Remarkably, Gauthier agreed and brought his Detroit teammates, Gorde Howe and Ted Lindsay, with him; plus a photographer to record the event.

Saplin: "There are two sides to the end of this story. The one I like is that it took three shots before Fern could fire the puck into the briny. The first shot was nabbed by a passing sea gull. The second shot landed on a passing barge and the third, finally, hit the water!

"But the truth is that Gauthier got it on the first shot. Better still, he showed all of us that he was a good sport."

Either way, it was one heckuva funny tale!