Former Pembroke Lumber Kings meet at centre ice after Leafs' OT loss in Game 7
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They embraced at centre ice at Boston’s TD Garden. The last two men to participate in the traditional handshake following a grueling seven game series won by Boston, extending Toronto’s agonizing losing streak in the playoffs that has not seen the Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup since 1967.
There they were, leaning into each other for a few parting words. Two former Pembroke Lumber Kings, one a star forward for Jim Farelli’s powerhouse teams of the 1980’s, the other a coach who got his start behind the bench in Pembroke and brought the city its only national junior A championship after winning five consecutive league titles.
For Jim Montgomery and Sheldon Keefe, Pembroke was a stepping stone to bigger things. Montgomery joined the Lumber Kings as part of a pipeline of Montreal area players who found their way to the small city that was known for producing championship teams. Under Jim Farelli, the Kings won six league finals in eight years. By the time Montgomery arrived for the 1988-89 season, Farelli was considering leaving the organization, but with Montgomery producing a 154-point campaign, the Kings sent Farelli off with another championship.
Sheldon Keefe was talked into buying the Lumber Kings when he expressed some interest in owning a junior hockey team while he was trying to get his National Hockey League career started. A few years later when he suffered a serious knee injury and after bouncing around some minor league cities, Keefe pulled the plug on his professional hockey player aspirations and moved to Pembroke full time to be the club’s owner, general manager and coach.
It was a move filled with uncertainty, but it became transformational and started Keefe’s ascension to coaching the most storied franchise in the National Hockey League. From the time he stepped behind the Lumber Kings bench, Keefe was a winner. His teams won five consecutive league titles and capped the run with a RBC Cup, now the Centennial Cup, in the spring of 2011.
For years he was ignored by higher levels because of a less than stellar reputation during his playing days in the Ontario Hockey League and his controversial connection to his former player agent David Frost, but now Kyle Dubas was ready to take a chance on Keefe. Dubas, who was the General Manager of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, was trying to turn his struggling OHL team around. He hired Keefe who had an immediate impact as the Greyhounds moved up the standings, earning Keefe an OHL coach of the year award.
Within a few years Dubas was on his way to becoming the general manger of the Maple Leafs and quickly brought Keefe along with him, first to the Marlies who Keefe led to a Calder Cup American Hockey League championship, and then in 2019 to the Leafs when Mike Babcock was dismissed. By then, Montgomery was already coaching in the NHL, behind the bench of the Dallas Stars.
After his one season in Pembroke, Montgomery played college hockey at the University of Maine in the United States. He continued to put up big points in Maine, eventually helping him get a chance to play in the NHL with a number of teams, but like Keefe he spent time going up and down in the minor leagues. When he retired as a player, he started coaching and had a lot of success in college hockey where he led the University of Denver to a national championship. The next step was an NHL bench as Montgomery was hired to start the 2018-19 season with the Stars.
But like Keefe, Montgomery faced obstacles. After a great first season in Dallas, Montgomery started to have off ice trouble in Texas and was dismissed by the Stars. He later shared he needed to seek help through a rehabilitation centre for alcohol abuse, calling it a “wake-up call.”
Montgomery got his life back together and the first team he played with in the NHL, the St. Louis Blues gave him another chance to become an assistant coach with the organization. After a couple of seasons with the Blues, a new head coaching opportunity became available in Boston when the Bruins fired Bruce Cassidy following the 2022-23 season.
It was a magical start for Montgomery in Boston. In his first season, the Bruins established a new regular season point total record, but all of that was forgotten when they were eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Florida Panthers. The Bruins had blown a 3-1 series lead.
In Toronto, Sheldon Keefe’s teams have also struggled in the first round, winning only one of the five first round series they have played in under Keefe. So, when Keefe and Montgomery shook hands at centre ice, they could relate to the pressure both were feeling as coaches of original six teams with rabid fan bases and unforgiving media.
In the days ahead, Keefe will again be on the hot seat in Toronto. It’s not new. Toronto is the most difficult place to coach in the NHL and given the excruciating losses the Leafs have suffered in recent years in the playoffs, particularly to the Bruins, it’s uncertain what his future holds in Ontario’s capital city.
What is clear is that two men who had stops in Pembroke along their hockey journey have made Lumber Kings fans proud. Both have faced life challenges, both work in high pressure jobs and both are Lumber Kings alumni. No matter what happens next, Pembroke will remain on their resume in a hockey life that is still evolving.
Jamie Bramburger is the play-by-play voice of the Pembroke Lumber Kings and author of Go Kings Go! A Century of Pembroke Lumber Kings Hockey. His newst book is Sudden Impact – The Almonte Train Wreck of 1942.
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