March 24

Doug Jarvis

Today we visit with hometown boy (Brantford, On) Doug Jarvis. Another Washington Capital.

Hockey’s reigning iron man, Doug Jarvis broke into the NHL on opening night of the 1975-76 season and remained in his team’s lineup for the next 964 consecutive games, a record that may never be broken.
In 560 regular season games with Montreal, Jarvis scored 91 goals and assisted on 154 others while accruing only 151 penalty minutes. He also picked up 31 points in 72 playoff games.
Traded to Washington, Jarvis played three and a half years with the Capitals, suiting up for every game with the team. In 1984, he was awarded the Frank Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward, and finished his career with the Hartford Whalers as the 1988 recipient of the Bill Masterton Trophy.
Jarvis set the NHL Iron Man standard by playing in 964 consecutive regular-season games from Oct. 8, 1975, to Oct. 10, 1987. He played in every game for 12 straight seasons, plus two games to start the 1987-88 season. The streak ended on Oct. 11, 1987, when Hartford coach Jack Evans chose to scratch Jarvis for a game in Boston. Oddly, Jarvis would never play in the NHL again. He became a permanent scratch and just before Christmas he was demoted to the minor leagues. He finished his career playing 24 games with Binghamton of the AHL.

My brother was attending a wedding that Doug was going to be at. I had him get some cards signed (the ones in blue ink with two personalised).

Later sent him some other cards plus newspaper clipping marking him passing Garry Unger as the "Iron Man". The cards signed in black plus the newspaper clippings and also sent a team issued postcard. I'm starting to wonder if I have autographed items from some player for every day of the year.