George Vincent "Skinner" Poulin (September 17, 1887 – May 3, 1971) was a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player who played for the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

in the

National Hockey Association The National Hockey Association (NHA), initially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey Leagu ...

and the

Victoria Aristocrats The Victoria Cougars were a Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, major league professional ice hockey team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) from 1911 to 1924 under various names, and (after ...

in the

Pacific Coast Hockey Association The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was a professional ice hockey league in Western Canada and the Western United States, which operated from 1911 to 1924 when it then merged with the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The PCHA was cons ...

. He was part of the original Montreal Canadiens team in the 1909–10 season and played in the team's first game on January 5, 1910. Poulin won a

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

with the Canadiens in

1916 Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...

. During the tail-end of his playing career, while playing in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

, Poulin became engaged as a referee, and for the

1922–23 WCHL season The 1922–23 WCHL season was the second season for the Western Canada Hockey League. Four teams played 30 games each. Teams Map of teams Regular season Final standings Note GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goa ...

he was appointed referee-in-chief for the league.

Playing style

Poulin, standing at five feet and six inches, was a fairly small forward among his contemporaries, but he deployed a physically engaging style of play to compensate for his lack of height and weight. In the local

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

newspapers, while playing for the Victoria Aristocrats in the PCHA, he was often referred to as the "pepper box", in reference to his aggressive and peppery playing style. When the PCHA, prior to the 1914–15 season, lay forward a rule change that would prevent body-checking from within ten feet of the fence, Poulin voiced his displeasure and claimed that ice hockey was the only sport where a light man like himself could use his body to his advantage. Poulin claimed that hard checking and Victoria's "get the man" tactics had played a large part in the club winning two consecutive PCHA championships in

1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...

and

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...

. Despite Poulin's fears of a less hard-hitting league in 1914–15 he continued to deploy a physically engaging style of hockey which led to him leading the PCHA in penalty minutes that season, something he had also done the season prior, earning him the "bad man" moniker of Pacific coast hockey for a second consecutive year.

Career statistics

Sources: Skinner Poulin's Just Sports Stats
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References

Notes

General

External links

*
Official Montreal Canadiens biography
(ourhistory.canadiens.com) * (slam.canoe.ca) {{DEFAULTSORT:Poulin, Skinner 1887 births 1971 deaths Canadian ice hockey centres Franco-Ontarian people Ice hockey people from Ontario Montreal Canadiens (NHA) players Montreal Wanderers (NHA) players Saskatoon Sheiks players Stanley Cup champions Victoria Aristocrats players Winnipeg Maple Leafs players 20th-century Canadian sportsmen