Joe Crozier, the coach who put together the French Connection and led the "Thank You Sabres" team that earned the franchise's first playoff berth in 1973, died Tuesday. He was 93.
The team announced the death of Crozier, who took over as coach from Punch Imlach in 1972 and was behind the Buffalo bench for parts of three seasons. Crozier had been in declining health for several years while living in Amherst with his wife, Bonnie, whom he married in 1974.
Nicknamed "The Crow", Crozier was inducted into the Sabres Hall of Fame in 2010 and the AHL Hall of Fame in 2012. Crozier coached the Rochester Amerks to five Calder Cup Finals appearances and won championships with them in 1965, 1966 and 1968. In 1986, he was named a charter member of the Amerks Hall of Fame. His '64-65 Rochester team won 48 of 72 games, setting a franchise victory record that stood until 1999.
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Crozier, who was born in Winnipeg, played five games in the NHL as a defenseman for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1959-60 season and collected three assists. He was believed to be the oldest surviving member of the Leafs at the time of his death. Crozier coached the Leafs for 40 games in the 1980-81 season, getting fired after posting a 13-22-5 record.
The Sabres were in their third season, at a time when expansion clubs were historically awful, when Crozier helped the team reach the
Crozier's record in Buffalo was just 77-80-35 but he was the engineer of the franchise's first great season. The seeds for the '72-73 campaign were planted when the Sabres acquired unknown winger Rene Robert from Pittburgh for popular veteran Eddie Shack in a trade on March 4, 1972.
The Sabres needed a right winger to play alongside of Gilbert Perreault and Richard Martin and Crozier immediately tapped Robert to fill the role. The trio stayed together, forming one of the great forward lines in NHL history, until Robert was traded to Colorado in 1979 and all three men had their jerseys retired while the team was still playing in Memorial Auditorium. A statue in their honor was unveiled outside KeyBank Center in 2012.
The Sabres had not come close to the playoffs in their first two seasons but finally earned a bid to the postseason in year three. Crozier became coach in '72 after Imlach suffered a heart attack and the Buffalo GM opted to stay in the front office and leave the coaching in Crozier's hands.
The Sabres started the season hot, going 6-0-4 in the first 10 games and later setting a then-franchise record with an eight-game winning streak. But it took wins in the last three games, capped by a 3-1 victory over St. Louis in the Aud on April 1, 1973, for the Sabres to squeeze into the last playoff spot by two points over Detroit.
"It's the little bald guy upstairs that the tribute should be given to," Crozier famously said of Imlach after that game. "Punch gave us the material to work with and it was just a matter of smoothing out the rough edges."
An RJ gem that appeared today in @TBNSports: Charles Hahn (@cwhahn07), then 15, shot this photo of Jeanneret with Punch Imlach and Joe Crozier at Cincinnati Swords playoff game in the Aud on May 15, 1973. He wanted #Sabres fans to see it. His work is at https://t.co/ta3nRTeQgD pic.twitter.com/bieB4JIpCW
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) April 1, 2022
As the fourth-place team in the East Division, the Sabres played heavily favored Montreal in the first round of the playoffs and quickly lost the first three games. But Buffalo rallied to win Game 4 at the Aud, 5-1, and the series shifted back to the Montreal Forum for Game Five.
With the score tied at 2-2 late in regulation, Crozier employed some gamesmanship when he requested a measurement of the leg pads of Montreal goalie Ken Dryden. The pads were deemed too wide and Buffalo was given a power play that stretched into overtime. The Sabres didn't score on it but gained momentum and finally won the game, 3-2, on Robert's breakway at 9:18 of OT.
The teams headed back to Buffalo for Game 6 and the Habs ended the Sabres' season with a 4-2 win. But Buffalo scored both of its goals late in the game as fans in the Aud started a memorable chant of "Thank You, Sabres" in salute of their team.
"Oh, it was the greatest thing going, the greatest thing ever," Crozier said of the chant during a 2018 interview with Buffalo News columnist Sean Kirst. "They would not stop."
Crozier left the Sabres in 1974 after the team failed to make the playoffs, coaching the Vancouver Blazers of the World Hockey Association. He returned to Buffalo 10 years later to serve as an assistant coach under Scotty Bowman during the 1984-85 season. When Bowman was fired in 1986, Crozier left coaching and worked in scouting and then as a team ambassador in alumni functions and ticket sales for many years.
Crozier played 12 professional seasons as a defenseman, including a stint in Rochester where he helped the Amerks make a Calder Cup final in 1960. His coaching career also included a Western Hockey League championship at Vancouver in 1969 and an Ontario Hockey League title for Kitchener in 1982.
Crozier was married twice and had five children. His two sons with Bonnie Crozier both had careers in hockey. Greg Crozier won two national championships as a player for the University of Michigan, where his teammates included former Sabres General Manager Jason Botterill. He played one NHL game for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2000 and 322 games in the AHL for five teams.
Rich Crozier is the principal of Smallwood Elementary School in Amherst and is the longtime hockey coach at St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute, winning multiple state titles.
Rich Crozier gave his father the game puck from his 250th win at St. Joe's in 2020 and then tweeted a picture of the pair with a notation, "No matter what I do, I will always be the second best coach in my family and I am more than OK with that!"
Early Wednesday morning, the St. Joe's hockey Twitter account tweeted pictures of Crozier and his son behind their respective benches with the notation, "My Hero! #LikeFatherLikeSon"
Happiness is handing your Dad the game puck from win 250! No matter what I do, I will always be the second best coach in my family & I am more than ok with that! I love this man & am so fortunate to be his son! God bless you Dad, I will continue to do all I can to make you proud pic.twitter.com/Ft8KTJ4DlL
— St. Joe's Fed Hockey (@SJCIHockey) February 1, 2020
My Hero!#LikeFatherLikeSon pic.twitter.com/a2lBe5EfQZ
— St. Joe's Fed Hockey (@SJCIHockey) October 12, 2022
