Gilles Villemure's Tales from the Ranger Locker Room

In the late 1960s, the New York Rangers were transformed from National Hockey League also-rans to Stanley Cup contenders. Gilles Villemure was part of that transformation. The little goaltender, who had a long wait to make it to the NHL because the league had six teams until after the middle of the decade, joined Eddie Giacomin to give the Rangers as strong a 1-2 goaltending tandem as there was in the league. The Vezina Trophy-winning twosome was a fixture on Ranger teams that threatened to end the franchise's long Stanley Cup drought, only to come up short. Now, 30 years later, Villemure writes about his days with the Rangers, telling stories about old pals like Rod Gilbert, Vic Hadfield, Brad Park, Jean Ratelle -- and his boss, Emile "The Cat" Francis. The Rangers finally won that Stanley Cup in 1994, ending over 50 years of frustration, but it was those Francis teams -- the ones with Villemure and Giacomin in goal -- that brought New York's Blueshirts, Madison Square Garden's finest, to the top of the NHL. Read what Gilles Villemure has to say about this wonderful team in his "Tales From The Ranger Locker Room.