Height: 5-10
Weight: 210
Shoot: L
Born: 6 Feb 1936, Cobalt ON (d. 2009)
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | New York | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Would You Believe Buddha on Skates? • by Larry Bortstein • The Hockey Spectator • January 12, 1973
The Raiders' oldest and most experienced player doesn't quite go as far back as that ancient religious leader, but he's known as "Buddha" by many of his teammates. Burly defenseman Kent Douglas doesn't espouse meditation as the way to reach Nirvana. The one-time Rookie of the Year in the National Hockey League comes by his nickname because of his, er, physique. Douglas is not, let us say, among the most svelte individuals in the World Hockey Association. "I'm down to 200 pounds now," said the 5-foot, 10-inch Douglas recently, perched in front of his locker in the Raiders' dressing room at Madison Square Garden. Through his pink shirt and red tie, his gut hung slightly low over his belt. "I weighed 220 when I reported here," Kent continued. "I knew I was kind of out of shape but Cammy (New York Coach Camille Henry) worked us very hard, so I took off a lot of the weight. I always carried at least 200 pounds, though. I was never skinny." Kent, who is a regular New York defenseman on the left side, controls his intake of water as a means to keep his weight constant. It's one of the many things Douglas learned from Eddie Shore, the all-time great Boston Bruins' rearguard who ran the American League club in Springfield when Douglas played there. A native of Cobalt, Ontario, who'll turn 37 on February 6, Kent first played pro at Springfield for three games in 1955-56, and after stops at Winnipeg and Vancouver in the Western League, returned to Springfield for a prolonged stay in 1958. There he came under the watchful eye of the irascible, though brilliant, Shore. "Playing under Shore was like getting a doctorate in hockey science," Douglas recalls. "He taught me things about hockey nobody else ever thought of. He showed me you don't have to hit a man real hard — just get a piece of him and throw him off balance. Then you can take the puck from him. "Then he figured out, when I was having troubles with my weight, that I was drinking too much water," continues the . Raider blueliner. "I cut down on water, and right away I found I had more speed and stamina. That season I got the Eddie Shore Trophy for being the best defenseman in the American League." That was in 1961-62, and Douglas was acquired by the Toronto Maple Leafs, who gave him his first taste of life in the NHL at the rather advanced rookie age of 26. With 22 points and 105 minutes in penalties as an NHL yearling, Kent won the 1962-63 Calder Trophy, though he now pooh-poohs the whole thing. "I played mostly on the power play as the pointman," he recalls. "I don't think I was so great that I should win any awards, I thought I just did my job. I guess there wasn't much to beat out that season." Trailing Douglas in the rookie balloting for 1962-63 were Detroit defenseman Doug Barkley, now coaching the Red Wings' American League farm club at Tidewater, and Ranger right wing Rod Gilbert. Like many Leafs of the period, Kent had repeated differences with Punch Imlach, and was eventually dispatched to Oakland in the expansion draft of 1967. He treasures the memory of having played on three Stanley Cup-winning teams while he was in Toronto. Kent contributed to title causes in 1963, 1964, and 1967. After NHL whirls in Oakland and Detroit, Douglas returned to the American League with the Rochester Americans in 1969-70, There he formed a defensive tandem with Ken Block, currently a teammate with the Raiders. With the Baltimore Clippers in the AHL in 1970-71, Kent made the league's second All-Star team, and was a key member of last year's Baltimore squad that went to the finals of the Calder Cup playoffs, where they were beaten in six games by Nova Scotia. "I officially 'retired' after the playoffs last spring," Douglas recalls. "But the Raiders contacted me during the summer and asked me if I would play. I spoke to the Baltimore people and told them I was considering coming with New York. The playoffs lasted until the end of May — even longer than the Stanley Cup playoffs — and I wasn't set with New York until August. Now I want to play until I can't play any more. I'll know I'm through before they do. But I think I can help this club get going. I haven't been skating with any regular partner on defense this year. I've been a partner of almost every other defenseman we have. Maybe Cammy thinks my experience will help some of our younger defensemen. I don't know. Whatever he thinks is okay with me." Kent always has been the type of lumbering defenseman who wasn't often called on to earry the puck. "I feel I can play more of an offensive game," he says, "but nobody's ever asked me to carry the puck. I've been passing it all my life." Though the Raider offense has been one of the most potent in the WHA, the defense has been the source of criticism. "I think our defense has been criticized unjustly," Douglas say. "They say we're slow. Maybe our guys are out of position sometimes, but I don't think we do a bad job. When I first came to this league there were a lot of players here I never heard of. But names don't mean a thing. It's a question of having guys who can do the job. I think we do." |
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