Sports loses good man in NHL’s Max McNab

Losing good people never gets easier. If anything, their value in a world of turmoil and narcissism makes their going more difficult to face.

Max McNab died last week. A really good person is gone.

Max spent his entire life in the game of hockey. As a player, he won the Stanley Cup with the Red Wings in 1950. He was a GM at the minor league and NHL levels.

“My big secret to success as a GM was learning early that it’s the wives and girlfriends that bring the men to the games, not the other way around,” he once told me with a big smile on his face.

He was right.

Max was a loved man in the hockey world. You couldn’t wait to talk with him, to listen to the stories told with such humility.

He understood the game on the ice and the business of hockey from the front office. Most of all, he understood the game from the perspective of a fan – he never stopped being one.

His son Peter played for the Bruins during his NHL career, and Max could not have been prouder.

His other son David played and moved into the front offices of the NHL. He is now the assistant GM of the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks.

Someone was watching and planning way ahead on this one.

His son Peter told me this week, “The last time I saw my father was at David’s house. Max was sitting next to the Stanley Cup. I said to him as I left, ‘Do you think at some point you will give that thing back to David?'”

“Max couldn’t stop talking about how proud he was of David and his role in putting together the team that won the Cup,” said Peter.

The hockey gods were smiling. Imagine this hockey family will get to remember Dad sitting next to the Cup at this son’s home, a Cup that bears the inscription of his name from 1950 and his son’s name from 2007.

I will remember Max sitting at empty hockey rinks during morning skates of games, pointing out to me the intricate details of why that player is such a greater skater, why that player finds a way to the puck and why that goalie’s lateral moves are so sharp and crisp.

Let me tell you just how good a person Max was.

Those of us lucky to know him, including his family, did not have to wait for his leaving for a bigger rink to know we were in the presence of one solid human being.

You treasured every minute with him, hung on every word and knew that deep bass harrumph laugh was as good as it was ever going to get.

McNab shoots! He scores! Max did – every single time.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.