So, it was Wilson to whom Hall turned that night in Montreal, a nervous 21-year-old borrowing his trainer’s awful equipment and dull skates. Despite all of that, he was excellent in a 2-2 tie, playing five more games – four wins and a tie – before Sawchuk returned and Hall was shipped back to the minors.
Hall finished his 1955-56 NHL rookie season with a .925 save percentage, 2.10 goals-against average, and 12 shutouts, winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. He was named a First-Team All-Star for the first of a record seven times.
But after a 38-win season in 1956-57, Hall was on the move; he was shipped to the Black Hawks on July 23, 1957, packaged with Red Wings superstar Ted Lindsay in exchange for Chicago goalie Hank Bassen and skaters Johnny Wilson, Forbes Kennedy and Bill Preston.
By then, Hall had started and finished 140 consecutive regular-season games. He didn’t miss a second of action during his first five seasons with Chicago, a stretch in which he was a First-Team or Second-Team All-Star four times and sparked the Black Hawks to the Stanley Cup in 1961, ending the Canadiens’ unprecedented run of five consecutive championships.
The streak lasted until back problems forced him to leave a game on Nov. 7, 1962 and sit out Chicago’s next game on Nov. 10.
