With
Gerry Cheevers on the shelf with a knee injury, and
Gilles Gilbert down with the flu, the Boston Bruins hosted the St. Louis Blues on January 10, 1980, with two rookie goalies in their line-up, whom had a combined total of zero NHL minutes played. The Bruins gave the starting nod to local product,
Jim Stewart, but he only lasted 20mins. Brian Sutter scored 1:08 into the game, as the Blues scored 5 goals on Stewart on 9 shots. He only made four saves,
including one shown here. Stewart was replaced by fellow rookie,
Marco Baron, and the Bruins went on to lose 7-4.
A visibly sick Gilles Gilbert returned for the Bruins' next game, two days later. Neither Baron or Stewart played for the Bruins again that season. In fact, Stewart never again played in the NHL. The following season, Jim Stewart played for four teams in four different minor leagues, amassing a 4.83 GAA.
Stewart retired from professional hockey in 1982. He unofficially holds the NHL record for
worst career save percentage and has the
second worst career Goals Against Average of all-time. Looking back it's a wonder that the Bruins didn't call up veteran Yves Belanger for the game vs the Blues. One must assume he was injured as well. I also wonder if Jim Stewart was really that bad. Perhaps he had a serious bout of stage fright. Regardless of what happened, Jim Stewart, unlike many of us, made it to the NHL.
Like Marco Baron,
whom I covered in a previous Lost Rookies, Stewart never had a NHL card. Below is the Jim Stewart rookie card that could have been.
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| 1980-81 OPC #398 Jim Stewart (RC) |
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| 1980-81 OPC #398 Jim Stewart (RC) |
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