Robert James "Bobby" Boucher (February 14, 1904 – June 10, 1931) was a Canadian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

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who played 11 games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) for the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

during the 1923–24 season. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1919 to 1929, was spent in the minor leagues. He won the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

with Montreal. He was one of four brothers who played in the NHL.

Personal life

Bobby was one of six sons born to Tom Boucher and Annie Carroll. His paternal grandfather, Antoine Boucher was French while his other grandparents were of Irish descent. His brothers

Billy Billy may refer to: * Billy (name), a name (and list of people with the name) Animals * Billy (dog), a dog breed * Billy (pigeon), awarded the Dickin Medal in 1945 * Billy (pygmy hippo), a pet of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge * Billy, a youn ...

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and Georges would also become professional ice hockey players. There were two other brothers, Carroll and Joseph, and two sisters, Irene and Lily. Their father played rugby football, winning the Canadian championship in 1894, 1896, 1897 and 1901. Bobby had a daughter with his wife Kay Wilson. Kay was a successful speed skater, who won civic titles in Hamilton and Ottawa. Bobby died at 27 years of age on June 10, 1931, of tuberculosis. Bobby's funeral was held at his brother Carrol's in Ottawa followed by a service at St-Theresa's church and was attended by many members of the sporting circle of the Nations's Capital including all of his famous hockey playing siblings. He was later interred at Notre Dame cemetery alongside his parents.

Playing career

Boucher played junior hockey with the

Ottawa New Edinburghs The Ottawa New Edinburghs (also known as the Ottawa Seconds) were a senior ice hockey team from the New Edinburgh neighbourhood of Ottawa that played in various ice hockey leagues in Canada during the early 1900s, such as the Ottawa City Hockey L ...

, Ottawa Muchmore and Creighton Public School. During this time he was no stranger to professional hockey, as he was also a mascot for the Ottawa Senators until 1921. Although no details of what that entailed are available, he was likely a stick-boy. He then spent the next three seasons with the Iroquois Falls "Baby" Eskimos before returning to Ottawa to play for the Ottawa Gunners for a portion of the 1923-24 season. On January 24, 1924, Bobby was signed as a free agent by the Montreal Canadiens. He played 12 regular season games alongside his brother Billy, as well as three of the four Stanley Cup playoff games. Despite having shared in the success in Montreal, he was traded to the

Vancouver Maroons The Vancouver Millionaires (later known as the Vancouver Maroons) were a professional ice hockey team that competed in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the Western Canada Hockey League between 1911 and 1926. Based in Vancouver, British Col ...

of the WCHL on the very day the Canadiens were celebrating their Stanley Cup win. Team owner Leo Dandurand felt Bobby was "too small", and traded him for

Charlie Cotch Charles M. Cotch (February 21, 1900 – November 14, 1932) was a Canadian Hockey left winger. He played two seasons in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association with the Vancouver Maroons and one season in the National Hockey League with the Hamilton ...

. This may well have been one of the shortest stints in the NHL on a Stanley Cup winning team for a player. He then bounced between 5 teams in the next 4 seasons in the WHL, Can-Pro and the Can-Am hockey leagues, and had his best season with the London Panthers in 1926-27, marking 8 goals and 2 assists and a career high 39 penalty minutes. His last season was with

Sprague Cleghorn Henry William Sprague "Peg" Cleghorn (March 11, 1890 – July 12, 1956) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player from Westmount, Quebec who played 17 professional seasons between 1911 and 1929 for the Renfrew Creamery Kings and Montreal Wand ...

's Newark Bulldogs, with which he played only 5 games, presumably because his tuberculosis began to hinder his performance. After Boucher retired from hockey, he became a referee in the Ottawa Valley Hockey League.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boucher, Robert 1904 births 1931 deaths 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Canadian ice hockey centres Edmonton Eskimos (ice hockey) players Ice hockey people from Ottawa London Panthers players Montreal Canadiens players Newark Bulldogs players Quebec Castors players Stanley Cup champions Toronto Falcons (CPHL) players Tuberculosis deaths in Canada Vancouver Maroons players