He is a man who has parlayed an astounding memory and a penchant for National Hockey League trivia into a career. He lives and breathes hockey. In fact, he has the distinction of being the only person in history to propose marriage (successfully, it should be noted) on the ice at the Montreal Forum.
Welcome to the amazing hockey world of Liam Maguire.
That proposal story is remarkable enough, even if you ignore his wife’s original aversion to the game of hockey.
“[The] first night I met her, April 3rd, 1993,” he says, “it was a Saturday night. Montreal was playing Buffalo. A group of us met at this house in downtown Ottawa….Of course, we couldn’t leave ’til Coaches Corner was done and we had to make sure the tape was taping the rest of the game.
“She came in the room with her sister and introductions were being made. I shook her hand and she said ‘I know who you are, and I just wanted to let you know I don’t like hockey.’ I said ‘Okay!'” he recalls, laughing. “Six months later, we were engaged, so figure it out.”
Most anyone could tell you those sorts of details about the day they first met their spouse. Maybe not the date, but at least who was on Hockey Night In Canada that evening. The thing with Maguire is, he would have remembered all those things even if he hadn’t met the future Mrs. Liz Maguire. The man, who figures he has seen about 800 games live and another 2500 on the box, could fill a book with all the stuff he knows about hockey. It stands to reason, then, that he has filled a book.
What’s the Score? published by Random House Canada, is billed as a one-of-a-kind compendium of hockey lore, legend, history, facts and stats.
Maguire’s especially proud of what he calls “the most incredible statistic of all time,” involving the 1970 Stanley Cup winning goal, which has been immortalized by Ray Lussier’s photograph of Boston’s Bobby Orr celebrating in mid-air.
Six years ago, Liam and his friends were hanging out at his Ottawa area sports bar when the conversation turned to who tripped Orr.
“‘You know, that was [St. Louis Blue] Noel Picard,'” he recounts the conversation. “‘What number was he?’ ‘Well, Noel was four.’ ‘Orr wore four and Noel wore four.’ ‘Now wait a minute now, it was the fourth goal in the fourth period of the fourth game to make the score 4-3, for the four-game sweep. It was Boston’s fourth Stanley Cup….”
Sesame Street’s Count von Count would be proud. All told, Maguire discovered an astounding seventy correlations between Orr’s goal and the number four.
“I think, if you do nothing else, go to the store and just read that part of the chapter, even if you don’t want to buy the book,” he pleads. “Read through that because it is freaky stuff, man.”
What’s the Score? is Maguire’s second book, and while his first was strictly trivia, his newest contains more editorial content. Those who are familiar with Liam’s numerous appearances on TSN’s Off the Record will know he’s a very opinionated man.
One of his pet peeves is Paul Henderson’s baffling exclusion from the Hockey Hall of Fame.
“It was just one of those magical times, when you think about it,” he says of the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviets. “Thirty-four seconds to go in the final game? You couldn’t have written that script. No one would’ve believed it. To come back and win the last three games? Win ’em all by one goal, same guy gets the winner all three games. How do you figure that? It’s unreal.”
“I know, though, I’ve pissed off a lot of people,” he says regarding his crusade to get Henderson in the Hall.
“The Selection Committee would probably like to have me run over,” he admits. “I got a phone call from one of them six months into it, telling me things I should and shouldn’t be saying publicly. I had to tell the guy ‘Hey listen, no offence, but go fly a kite, brother.'”
He promises he won’t be placated.
“One of two ways, boys: put the whole team in or put Paul in,” he says. “Otherwise, somehow, we’ll bring the whole friggin’ country down on ya.”
“We have big plans for next year,” he says. “I want the whole team to get the Companion Order of Canada. Can you believe [Henderson] doesn’t have it? You know, they give it to Mary Walsh, from This Hour Has 22 Minutes…and they won’t give it to Paul Henderson.” If the folks in charge have the idea that Maguire will blink first, they ought to think again. It’s not in his nature.
