Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports
It’s probably fair to say that former Montreal Canadiens stalwart Donald ‘Donnie’ Marshall could have accomplished more individually if he hadn’t played for the most dominant team in the history of the game.
Had Marshall not broken his leg in training camp in 1955 and lost his spot as the center on the Canadiens’ top line with Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard and Bert Olmstead, perhaps things might have turned out differently.
Instead, Marshall became the ultimate foot soldier on the Canadiens’ five-Cup dynasty, switching to left wing and becoming a defensive player and penalty-killer. When he died at the age of 92 on Thursday, the core of that dynastic team died with him.
Marshall was the last of the 12 Canadiens players who played on all five Stanley Cup winners during that dynasty. And that’s a big, big deal. Because we’ll never, ever see it again in the NHL, not with the parity in the league and a salary cap that would make it impossible to keep a core that large together for that long a time.
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