{"id":116805,"date":"2021-08-10T19:17:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T23:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=116805"},"modified":"2021-08-10T19:17:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T23:17:14","slug":"blackhawks-great-tony-esposito-passes-at-age-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/08\/10\/blackhawks-great-tony-esposito-passes-at-age-78\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Blackhawks Great Tony Esposito Passes at Age 78"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Blackhawks announced that Hall of Fame goalie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/e\/esposto01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tony Esposito<\/a> has passed away at the age of 78. Esposito was battling pancreatic cancer, but lost that battle on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are heartbroken to have lost a legend in Tony Esposito, who passed away today after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TonyO?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#TonyO<\/a> \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NHLBlackhawks\/status\/1425220145795014658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 10, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Tony Esposito Passes Away<\/h2>\n<p>Esposito started his career with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/canadiens\/\" target=\"_self\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a>, but was claimed in the intraleague draft in 1969. He was a backup to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/v\/vachoro01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rogie Vachon<\/a> and was left unprotected in the draft. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario native flourished in the Windy City and won the Calder Trophy for the league&#8217;s top rookie. He logged a 2.17 goals-against-average and set a modern league record with 15 shutouts in a season. Esposito finished second in the Hart Trophy voting that season, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/o\/orrbo01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bobby Orr<\/a> won the second of his third straight MVP awards.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Tony O&#8221; as he was called won the first of three Vezina Trophies for the league&#8217;s top goalie. He picked up six All-Star Game selections and was a member of the 1972 Summit Series team that beat the USSR. The all-time great ended his career with 423 wins, 306 losses and 151 ties. He got a career GAA of 2.92 and a .906 save percentage and retired <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/01\/15\/today-in-hockey-history-blackhawks-tony-esposito-gets-final-win\/\" target=\"_self\">after the 1983-84 season<\/a>. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt is a sad day for the Blackhawks and all of hockey,\u201d Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/blackhawks\/news\/release-blackhawks-mourn-passing-of-tony-esposito\/c-325942804\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cBut with his wonderful family, let us celebrate a life well lived. Tony Esposito\u2019s banner will be part of the United Center forever, as will his legacy as a superstar, on and off the ice.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Esposito&#8217;s Legacy<\/h3>\n<p>Tony&#8217;s brother, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/e\/esposph01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Phil Esposito<\/a>, was also one of the greatest players in NHL history. The duo was arguably one on the best brother tandems in the long, storied history of the game.<\/p>\n<p>He left a long-lasting legacy, including his sweater being worn by Dana Carvey&#8217;s character, Garth Algar, in Wayne&#8217;s World. We send our condolences to the friends and family of Esposito.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"3wWIx9zYTDxWcMy_huJCSg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/163657166\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'3wWIx9zYTDxWcMy_huJCSg',sig:'puqKQEVj7z65C46xxPwhl3g4gN0fdpTH3K-r3d3UWr4=',w:'594px',h:'404px',items:'163657166',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Blackhawks announced that Hall of Fame goalie Tony Esposito has passed away at the age of 78. Esposito was battling pancreatic cancer, but lost that battle on Wednesday. We are heartbroken to have lost a legend in Tony Esposito, who passed away today after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.#TonyO \u2764\ufe0f &mdash; Chicago [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":98012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,4547,34,4548],"tags":[2118,955,2115,3789],"class_list":["post-116805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blackhawks","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-bobby-orr","tag-nhl-news","tag-phil-esposito","tag-rocky-wirtz"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}