O’Flaherty received ‘best Christmas gift’ making NHL debut on holiday

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com.

Fischler, known as “The Hockey Maven,” shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday. 

This week Fischler has a special story for the holiday season. He reaches back 52 years when the NHL last played games on Christmas Day, including one which provided the best Christmas present ever for an aspiring young professional player. 

Gerry O’Flaherty had reason to dream of becoming an NHL player. His father, John ‘Peanuts’ O’Flaherty, had played 20 years in the minor leagues and 21 games for the New York/Brooklyn Americans in the NHL from 1940-42 just before the team folded.

What Gerry O’Flaherty never could have imagined was that his hockey wish — to play for the hometown Toronto Maple Leafs — would be fulfilled in a game on Dec. 25, 1971. It also would turn out to be a historic contest — one of the last NHL games played on Christmas.

To that point O’Flahertry was a 21-year-old farmhand in the Maple Leafs system with the Class AA Tulsa Oilers in the Central Hockey League. As far as Christmas was concerned, the forward had no visions of sugar plums dancing in his head nor any idea of playing with the big boys. O’Flaherty simply was paying his hockey dues during his second pro season in Tulsa.

“I was no different from many Toronto kids my age,” O’Flaherty remembered, “I wanted to some day play for the Leafs. Not much else mattered at that time.”

His wish moved closer to reality when the Maple Leafs selected the Pittsburgh native with the No. 31 pick in the 1970 NHL Draft. Knowing that Gerry needed seasoning, Toronto general manager Jim Gregory dispatched him to the minors. O’Flaherty believed he was on the right track and chose to be patient about his future.

“I was just happy to be in the (Leafs) system but had no idea if, or when, I’d get a call to move up,” O’Flaherty said.

When his phone rang on Christmas Eve in 1971, it was Gregory telling him that Toronto forward Paul Henderson was injured and O’Flaherty would replace him on the top line.  He would be a Maple Leaf for a night, maybe more.

The Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 that Christmas night in 1971. Although O’Flaherty didn’t score, he played one more game without scoring a point before being demoted back to Tulsa.

“I fulfilled a lifetime dream and played in the NHL and that’s what I had wanted to do my whole life,” he told author Mike Commito in “Hockey 365.”

That gift was further enhanced because Peanuts O’Flaherty, his wife Mary and Gerry’s mom were there at Maple Leaf Gardens, watching with great pride.

And there was another interested observer watching him. A Vancouver Canucks scout liked what he saw in O’Flaherty.