Height: 5-8
Weight: 170
Shoot: L
Born: 27 Aug 1937, Cowan MB
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Winnipeg | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Tic-tac, Tic-tac • by Vic Grant • The Hockey Spectator • January 27, 1973
Tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac. It is a noise patent registered by Walter Boyer in countless hockey arenas. Wally Boyer could be classed as one of the old guard, he's 35 years old (he'll hit 36 in August), this is his 14th season of professional hockey, and he's one of the last of the lickety-split stickhandlers, The tic-tac bit is only one way of knowing Boyer has control of the puck as he winds his way down the ice. Boyer was around hockey when trains were the class of team transportation and as far as he's considered trains are still the only way a team should travel. Boyer's one of the classic "white-knucklers" when it comes to sitting on an airplane and it won't be old age which finally forces the diminutive centerman to give up the game. It'll be the tedious flying routine which all teams go through in this modern age. Boyer's a World Hockey Association player with the Winnipeg Jets now after a long career in the National Hockey League with such teams as the Toronto Maple Leafs, Chicago Black Hawks, California Golden Seals (when they were known as the Oakland Seals) and Pittsburgh Penguins. He spent the 1971-72 season with Hershey Bears of the American League and at season's end was prepared to hang up his skates and become a full-time motel owner. But the loquacious Annis Stukus, the Jet General Manager, pointed out to Boyer that he still had talent worth exploiting, if not in the NHL then in the WHA. So the 5-8 speedster signed a one-year contract and will continue to take his career one year at a time until he decides enough is enough. After 43 games as a Jet Tic-Tac, he had registered 26 points, four goals and 22 assists. His greatest contribution to the team is making his wingmen. While Boyer has the moves of a magician when he's stickhandling, he's also pretty cute with the passes and a nation of television viewers were able to attest to that when he broke open a gigantic struggle against the Minnesota Fighting Saints. It was a game billed as the battle of the West Division giants when the Jets moved in to the magnificent new arena home of the Fighting Saints. It was the first television production of the WHA by CBS, which had billed Bobby Hull as the leading man. But, it wasn't Hull or the new St. Paul Civic Centre that stole the show but Wally Boyer. After the Saints grabbed a 1-0 lead and Jack McCartan had foiled all the Jet firepower, Tic-Tac laid down perfect passes for teammates Milt Black and Dunc Rousseau and it opened the floodgates. Jets won the game 6-2 but it was Boyer who got it all started and it was rated as a must game for the Jets, let alone the Saints. Not exactly a giant among athletes who play the game, Boyer relies mostly on finesse to get past the bigger men. It's not uncommon, though, to see him barrelling into a corner and come out with the puck while the defensemen glare down in amazement. As far as the WHA goes, Boyer figures it's the break hockey players have needed: "This is its first year and it can't help but get better. The players who came to the league have to be credited with making the break from the other leagues and anyone who'll knock it in its first year has to be crazy. We're trying to build this league up and so are the people who are running it. I've been in hockey 20 years and this new league is the best thing that has happened in that time." |
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander's Guide to Pro Hockey, 1973-74 (by Reyn Davis & Charley Hallman)
Came to Toros in offseason trade with Winnipeg Jets ... Boyer had an off season in 1972-73, totaling just 34 points in 70 games ... Longtime NHL performer, had 159 NHL lifetime points, mostly with the Pittsburgh Penguins... An excellent stickhandler, also anticipates very well, his ratio of assists to goals is almost 2-1 ... Once had six straight seasons in minors of 20 goals or more ... Returns to Toronto where he played junior for the Marlies and later played for the Maple Leafs. |
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