Imagine a time when the captain of an NHL team didn’t stand out in any specific way from the other players on the ice. This was in fact status quo back in the early days of the National Hockey League. If anyone were to peruse through photo galleries of early NHL hockey, one would notice, among many other differences to the modern game, that team captains bore no distinct mark on their jerseys. Meaning that legendary Montreal Canadiens captains such as Newsy Lalonde, Sprague Cleghorn, Sylvio Mantha, and Babe Seibert did not stand out from the group of players that they captained.
So when exactly did the captain’s ‘C’ and alternate captain’s ‘A’ marks first appear on NHL uniforms, and why?
Hector “Toe” Blake had been Montreal’s captain for five seasons already when the 1946-47 season started, taking over from Walter Buswell at the start of the 1940-41 season. At that point, the announcement of a new captain was done with little pomp, and the role of captain was hardly mentioned in the papers. In November 1940, newspaper readers would have learned of Blake’s ascension to the role of captain from a caption under the team photo at the beginning of the season that some papers ran– “Toe Blake; captain”. Fans in the stands would have had no other way of knowing that he was the captain, save for those hinting moments when he would be the one approaching the referee to have a conversation.
The Canadiens 1946-47 home opener was a grand event, with the opening of a renovated Montreal Forum coronated by the raising of three banners, given to captain Toe Blake by the President of the NHL Clarence Campbell, to the rafters of the Montreal Forum: the regular season championships for 1944-45 and 1945-46, as well as the Stanley Cup championship in 1945-46. The banners were raised simultaneously while “O Canada” and “God Save the King” were played. Four Canadiens greats of the past, Jack Laviolette, Pete Payan, Joe Malone and Newsy Lalonde, took part in a ceremonial puck drop. In the photo below, you can plainly see that Blake does not have any letter on his uniform.
The problem with nobody wearing any differentiating mark was that the referee would not always remember who the team captain was, and issue a penalty if a player skated up and started questioning some of the refereeing decisions. It is said that Detroit Red Wings captain Sid Abel was the first to regularly wear the “C” on his right shoulder to make it clear that he could enter into a discussion regarding a referee’s decision. In order to address the confusion, the NHL liked Detroit’s idea and decided that all team captains should wear the letter “C” on their uniforms and that one alternate captain would wear the letter “A”. La Presse was first to carry the news on December 24, 1946.
On December 28, Blake wore, for the first time, the letter “C” on his uniform, on the upper left, a spot that hasn’t changed since. Blake put up four points against the Blackhawks on that night, two goals and two assists, while playing on a line with Maurice Richard and Buddy O’Connor, who was replacing an injured Elmer Lach. Blake was a worthy captain, not just with his leadership qualities, but also with on-ice results, having earlier in the season passed Aurel Joliat as the best scorer in Canadiens’ history. Joliat held the franchise record of 462 points since retiring at the end of the 1937-38 season. The season prior, Blake surpassed Howie Morenz’s total of 421 points. It’s worth noting that with the dominance of the Punch Line, Lach and Richard quickly shot up in the all-time rankings as well, breaking Blake’s scoring record during the 1951-52 season.
Interestingly, it was noted in La Patrie that Blake also wore the C on one of his sleeves. There is no documented proof of this besides the article itself, but it wasn’t an unusual place, as teams in other hockey leagues previously had their captains wear the C on the arm rather than on the chest. The New York Rangers followed that practice when the captain rule was instituted and had the Captain and Alternate letters inscribed inside a white lozenge-shaped patch which was placed on the sleeve. The location was obviously not defined, as the Boston Bruins had it placed at the centre of the sweater (see photos below). This innovation by the NHL was clearly still being tweaked, as the rule was worded that the letter must be “on an appropriate part of the sweater”, with no further instruction.
The topic of assistant captain is more nebulous for the Canadiens. Although some NHL teams chose to follow the league guidelines of one captain with a “C” and one alternate captain with an “A”, the Canadiens decided to give goaltender Bill Durnan the “C” as well, claiming that he was acting captain whenever Blake wasn’t on the ice, leaving his crease to discuss on-ice calls for his team. The Canadiens played out the remainder of the 1946-47 season with both Blake and Durnan wearing the “C” on their uniforms, but there was little mistaking that Blake was the captain, and Durnan his assistant. A March 17 edition of la Presse solidifies this point, naming Blake captain and Durnan his assistant when listing all the leadership in the six team league.
1947-48 Season
The NHL formalized Rule 12 regarding captains at the beginning of the 1947-48 season, with the following formal definition: “The captain shall wear the letter ‘C’ approximately three inches in height in contrasting colour in a conspicuous position on the front of his sweater.”
Blake carried on wearing the “C”, as did Durnan, while Murph Chamberlain was named assistant captain by Dick Irvin. Chamberlain was the target of good-natured quips from his teammates who openly wondered what the letter “A” on his jersey could stand for. Chamberlain was the first player in Canadiens’ history to wear the letter of assistant on his jersey, but unfortunately was injured almost immediately and out for several months. He returned on January 11, 1948–an infamous date in Canadiens’ history–as Blake suffered a double fracture in his ankle in that game against the Rangers, ending his playing career.
Durnan was officially named the team captain, and Chamberlain took on additional responsibilities on the ice, arguing calls with the referee and breaking up scrums, a captain’s role. The NHL was mulling whether a goaltender could be captain at this point, worried that a goalie leaving his crease to enter a discussion with the referee would be an abused tactic to give other teammates more time to catch their breath. They eventually instituted a rule where a goalie leaving his crease to argue a call would receive a penalty, which meant the opposing team would receive a penalty shot, although they did not outright stop goalies from being captain, a position that Durnan held until the end of the 1947-48 season.
1948-49 Season
By September, Blake officially announced his retirement, and there was plenty of speculation as to the identity of the new captain. Blake himself, in an interview with La Patrie, saw plenty of potential candidates for new captain. His first choice was Durnan, but a new league rule that a goalie could not be captain made it unlikely to be him. Chamberlain, assistant captain the previous season, was worthy, but he was an aged veteran who was likely playing out his final season, and therefore not a long-term candidate in Blake’s view. His three logical candidates for the role were Lach, Billy Reay, and Emile “Butch” Bouchard. When the 1948 training camp opened, Durnan was still wearing the “C” on his jersey, but the transition was finally completed when the players voted to near unanimity on October 14, 1948 for Bouchard as their new captain. Durnan replaced the “C” on his jersey to an “A”, but it was eventually removed as the league closed the loophole, and Lach and Reay received the “A”, completing the leadership trio as it continues to operate to this day.
Denouement
By the 1970s, Rule 12 became Rule 14 as the league evolved. The revision added several important details such as a Captain or Assistant was not allowed to come off of the bench to protest or discuss anything with the referee and would be automatically be assigned a misconduct penalty. The rule mentioned that either a Captain or an Alternate must be on the ice at all times, and only they were allowed to approach the referee. Up to three alternate captains were allowed during a game. It was also not allowed by anyone to argue a penalty call, only to have a discussion, at the invitation of the referee, regarding the “interpretation of the rules”. A misconduct penalty would be assessed if the referee’s judgment was ever questioned.
In modern days, the rules surrounding the captain and assistant roles on a team are defined as Rule 6 in the NHL rule book, with a rule stating that no more than two alternate captains were allowed in any given line-up, and only three in the case of absence of the captain.
