Today In NHL History - Turco Bets Canadiens Fan

On April 5th in 2011, Chicago Blackhawks benched backup goaltender Marty Turco allegedly wagered with a Montreal Canadiens season ticket holder named Robert during a match at the Bell Center after a second period goal by forward Michael Cammalleri put Montreal ahead 1-0.

According to Robert's retelling on the sports radio station Team 990, the bet began with a friendly $5 wager that Chicago wouldn't score. When Patrick Kane tied the game three minutes later, Robert slid a $5 bill between the glass to Turco with the note "Habs Rule" written on its face.

Double or nothing escalated into triple or nothing and eventually 5 to 1 odds that the Canadiens would win in overtime, which they did when defenseman P.K. Subban scored a powerplay goal 79 seconds into the extra frame giving Montreal a 2-1 victory over Chicago, and prompting Turco to pass a wad of $5 bills to the fan, including the original $5 bill which had been revised from "Habs Rule" to "Turco Rules!".

Despite Exhibit 14.2 of NHL CBA explicitly stating "Gambling on any NHL Game is prohibited", Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly confirmed there would be "no investigation and no action", to which Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville added, "it's something that happened, we're handling it internally". For the record, Turco owned up to passing the $5 bill back and forth with the fan, but did not admit to accepting any wagers.

That's today in NHL history.