jaw was broken by a Shore clearing pass; he stayed in the match, playing the rest of the game without relief. He would become one of the first hockey players to wear a helmet, donning a leather helmet designed by Bruins' coach Art Ross to protect the jaw after sitting out for two weeks to recover. The helmet was credited with saving Hitchman from serious injury when he was slashed in the head by Montreal Maroons forward Hooley Smith in a subsequent match. Hitchman resigned the captaincy in George Owen's favor in 1932, but remained well-regarded enough as a leader to substitute for Ross as player-coach when Ross took ill in January 1933. Hitchman's interim stint was marred by a January 24 match against the Canadiens which included stick battles and the referee being knocked unconscious. The match provoked a league investigation and a furor played out in the press, ultimately leading to the resignation of Bruins' owner Charles Adams as a league governor. This was the last season in which Hitchman served as Shore's defence partner. The 1934 season proved his last, and slowed by injuries, he retired mid-season. His last match was February 22 against Hitchman's old Senators team, after which the Bruins announced that his #3 jersey would be permanently retired, the second professional sports team to do so, after the Maple Leafs retired Ace Bailey's #6. He played a handful of games at the end of the 1934 season for the minor league Boston Cubs, after which he hung up his skates for good. Retirement Hitchman retired with 28 goals and 34 assists in 417 career NHL games, adding 534 penalty minutes. Although often overlooked by contemporaries in favor of defencemen with gaudier offensive numbers, Hitchman was regarded as the premier defensive defencemen of his day. Despite reports that he would succeed Ross as Bruins' coach and would not be asked to serve in the minor leagues, Hitchman went on to coach the Bruins' Boston Cubs farm for two seasons; the Cubs folded thereafter, and he was named Ross' assistant coach for the Bruins the following year. Hitchman went on to coach the Springfield Indians in 1939, although he missed half the season with a leg injury that kept him off the bench. After retirement from hockey, he continued to serve with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a sergeant, a post he had been filling