The Matchcover Storyteller

Here’s one of those deceptive little matchcovers whose stories we never recognize if we don’t go looking.  It’s not so much a story of the restaurant but, as is often the case, the owner  —  this time, Lloyd Gilmour.

Gilmour was a Nanaimo-born hockey player whose career was cut short after his junior years by a logging mishap.  But when he could skate again, he found officiating as his calling.   Lloyd Gilmour wound up refereeing in the WHL, CPHL, AHL and finally the NHL where he figures he skated more than 1200 games including 314 Stanley Cup games.  In 1975 Sport Illustrated named him the single best ref for his “cool disdain”; the magazine noted “he is a virtually invisible man on the ice.”

Oh, if only that were so.

January 11^th, 1976  —  a talented Soviet Red Army team vs. the Philadelphia Flyers (then still very much “the Broad Street bullies”).   You’d have to read the full description (or see the game) but an on-ice incident that drew no call incensed the Soviets.  They sat on the boards in front of their bench and refused to continue.  That drew a 2-minute Gilmour penalty for delay of game,. And the Red Army headed for their dressing room.   (They did come back after 15 mintues, only to lose 4-1 and complain about the Flyers tactics  —  but in those days, who didn’t, with players nicknamed Bomber, Battleship and The Hammer?))

The Blackhawks also complained about Gilmour in the 1973 NHL playoffs for letting Montreal Canadiens stars unduly harass his players. Hawks coach Billy Reay said “What we could use in this league is one good American referee once in a while.”

Still, Gilmour refereed 21 years.  And when he hung up the stripes, he opened the Nanaimo Harbour Lights Restaurant, with the deliberate acronym “N.H.L   The restaurant near the ferry terminal was hockey-themed, loaded with memorabilia and I believe wait staff wore some form of hockey uniform.   Interestingly, it was the venue for the professional debut of a young 15 year old pianist and singer named Diana Krall.

The matchcover is a 20-strke, rear strike with an “Eddy Match, Vancouver BC” manumark.  There’s a referee whistle and Lloyd signature.  There are at least 3 variations of this cover for this place.

Lloyd Gilmour died in 2010, just before his 83^rd birthday.  A grandson, Aaron Guiel, has been an outfielder for the Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees.