ATD2011 Bio Thread

[seventieslord]

With the 294th pick in ATD2011, The Regina Pats are pleased to select:

Jim Neilson, D

- 6'2", 205 lbs
- Stanley Cup Finalist (1973)
- NHL 2nd All-Star Team (1968)
- Also placed 6th, 6th, 9th in All-Star Voting
- NHL All-Star Game Participant (1967, 1971)
- Top-12 in Defense Scoring 6 Times (4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th)
- averaged an estiamted 24.73 minutes per game post-expansion (age 27-37)
- Ranked 1st, 1st, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 5th in icetime on strong post-expansion NYR blueline
- Ranked 1st in ice time for Cleveland at age 36 in 1977

Defenceman Jim Neilson played the body well and moved the puck up ice to his forwards with consistency. He played over 1,000 games and was an underrated member of the fine New York Rangers teams of the early 1970s.

Born in Big River, Saskatchewan, Neilson was a mix of Danish and Cree and grew up in an orphanage where he was educated and played hockey. He excelled for three years with the Prince Albert Mintos of the SJHL where he registered consecutive 20-goal seasons in 1960 and 1961. The New York Rangers prospect enjoyed a solid first pro season in the EPHL with the Kitchener-Waterloo Beavers in 1961-62.

Neilson looked solid as a rookie paired with Doug Harvey in 1962-63 and became a fixture on the New York defence for a dozen seasons. In 1967-68 he played superior defence and scored 35 points, which earned him selection to the NHL second all-star team. "Chief" scored a career-high ten goals and 44 points the next year then helped the Blueshirts become one of the league's elite clubs. In 1968-69, he was paired with rookie Brad Park and was credited with making a huge difference in the youngster's game.

The only down side for Neilson during this period was a serious knee injury in February 1970, which prevented him from making sharp turns the rest of his career. Beginning in 1970-71 the Rangers recorded three straight 100-point seasons and reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1972. They also reached the semi-finals in 1973 before rebuilding in mid-decade.

In June 1974, the Rangers left the veteran blueliner unprotected at the Intra-League Draft. Neilson was claimed by the weak California Golden Seals and he became a stabilizing influence on the club playing mostly with youngster Rick Hampton. He played two years on the West Coast and remained with the franchise during its two-year stay in Cleveland. Neilson retired in 1979 after playing a year in the WHA with Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers. By this time chronic back problems had taken their toll and Neilson was not interested in the required surgery and rehabilitation at his age.

Jim Neilson was a crunching body checker who played hard but fair. Though his physical presence was feared, he was considered a true gentleman of the ice.

Despite his tough play he never recorded more than 95 PIMs in one season and rarely engaged in fights. A very good positional defenseman he patrolled the blue line in the NHL for over 1000 NHL games. During his 17-year pro career he never was sent down to the minors which further underlines his steady play.

An extremely strong skater, Neilson was a big guy on skates, standing 6-2 and weighing 205 pounds. He was very agile, however, and had a great poke-check. He also had a solid understanding of the offensive game and created considerable offensive opportunities in the pre-Bobby Orr era of rushing defenseman. In fact, Neilson's size, skating and offensive knack occasionally landed him on left wing. In fact, his first NHL goal was scored as a forward.

However it was his solid though not flashy defensive ability that he will forever be remembered for. He would play 12 very solid seasons for the Rangers that included one trip to the Stanley Cup finals and two All-Star games. He broke into the league under the watchful guidance of Doug Harvey and later teamed with Brad Park, two of the NHL's all time great defenders. He was mostly remembered as one half of a long standing New York tandem with Rod Seiling.

Neilson suffered a serious knee injury in a game on February 13, 1970 against Oakland. He got a special brace for the knee that was constructed by the famous orthopedist Dr. James A. Nicholas who earlier on had operated Joe Namath's knees. Neilson got that special brace that only one other athlete had tried before - Namath. Jim wore the metal contraption for a while but discarded it for an elastic brace.

"I found I couldn't make sharp turns with it. If I took the puck behind the net, I'd have to make a wide circle before bringing the puck out. And it hurt. After a while my knee would become numb."

Jim was a fast healer and was skating after only a month. Neilson continued patrolling the blue line in New York until 1974 when he was left unprotected by the Rangers and was claimed by California in the intra-league draft. The California Golden Seals was looking for an experienced defenseman to anchor their thin defense core and Jim was their man. He got a lot of ice time for the dreadful Seals in his first year. Together with the young defenseman Rick Hampton they had the most ice time of all Seals players. This was evident in the +/- rating. Rick Hampton finished with a - 40 rating and Jim with - 46.

In his second year with the Seals, Jim tore his knee ligaments and missed most of the 1975-76 season. The Seals franchise then relocated to Cleveland and became the Cleveland Barons. He played two more years in Cleveland. When Minnesota and Cleveland merged in 1978 he was put on their reserve list. WHA's Edmonton Oilers signed the almost 38-year old Jim as a free agent. Jim went on to finish his career in Edmonton by playing 35 games for them in 1978-79. It was an Edmonton team that just had got a barely 18-year old Wayne Gretzky.

His NHL totals would show 1,023 games played (810 of which were with the Rangers), along with 69 goals, 299 assists, 368 points and 904 penalty minutes in 16 seasons.

Jim summed it up best when he described himself.

"I'm not flamboyant. Some guys, well, you know when they're around, even on the ice. You know me, I don't make a big deal out of things. I just take them as they come. "

He indeed did that and ended up playing 17-years in the pro leagues.

Neilson was blessed with skill and an inner fight, and that's what got him into junior hockey with Prince Albert and then into the Rangers system… He was a perfect blend of offensive ability and defensive grit.

big Jim Neilson, a husky, half Cree Indian, patrolled bluelines for the New York Rangers for 12 seasons before falling victim to the 1974 blue shirt purge… Always a gentlemanly defenseman, despite his imposing 6'2", 200 pound frame, Neilson's finesse with his stick was often overlooked by the more collision conscious New York fans. When the New Yorkers fell victim to the Philadelphia Flyers only boy tactics in the 1974 playoffs, it was Nielson who unfairly received a major brunt of the blame… An unselfish hockey player who often skated with painful injuries that would have kept lesser man on the sidelines…

although tough and a hefty at 6 foot two and 205 pounds, he brought a dignified, respectful presence to the game. "When I came up with the Rangers, or weren't one or two things I was weak on," said Neilson. "I would be making six or seven different mistakes again." Partnered with Doug Harvey for most of his 1963 rookie campaign, Neilson exhibited good potential. Dedicated to the defensive side of the game, he played regularly until being benched train the 1967 playoffs. He rebounded strongly the following season, however, finally fulfilling all of the promise he had shown. "Since December 1, Neilson has been the best blue shirt defenseman, a rusher par excellence and a blocker supreme," reported the hockey news in 1968. "We now call Neilson the super chief," said coach and general manager Emile Francis. "And you will notice that I am using him as a point man on the power play." Neilson made the second All-Star team that season, finished behind only Bruin defense partners Bobby Orr and Dallas Smith in plus minus and helped the Rangers to second place in the regular season.

...He became a goldenseal after being left unprotected during the 1974 intra-league draft. "Just watching him in different situations was a real education," said California rookie Rick Hampton. "A lot of times, things got a little hairy, and I would look for Jim. I think a lot of the players did." Named Captain, Neilson was voted the team's most valuable player for 1975. "I certainly didn't come prepared to say anything," confessed a surprise Neilson to a packed hall. "In 12 years with the Rangers, it was never necessary."

in 1962, before his 21st birthday, he reported to the New York Rangers in the NHL. 12 years later he was still providing them with top defensive hockey.

When he arrived in New York, Neilson was still a clumsy performer, but he was good enough and tough enough to be a regular right from the start… Years later, when Brad Park came up, Neilson had a chance to teach another newcomer. Park said: "I kid makes a lot of mistakes in the majors because he doesn't have all the right moves grooved yet. The major leaguers surprise him by how fast they make their moves, and he's under a lot of pressure trying to prove himself. Every mistake seems to cost him a goal and shakes his confidence. He needs a player like Neilson who's been around, who can point out the proper positions for him to take, who can cover for him, give him advice, encourage him and study him down. The Chief did it for me."

Neilson said: "what Doug Harvey passed on to me when I was breaking in, I passed on to Brad Park when he was breaking in. Brad has so much natural talent that he didn't need much, but every new player needs help. Especially the kids who come up today playing like Bobby Orr. A lot of them are natural forward to play defense like forwards. But defenseman still has to think defense first a lot of young defensemen need help on their defensive play or else the great forwards appear will burn them again and again. Unless you have Orr's quickness, you can't get away with what Orr can. You have to player position properly and always be in the right place at the right time. It takes time to learn this and sometimes a tip or two from a veteran will straighten you out." Jim was a big 6 foot two, 200 pounder, and over the years he had learned all the tricks of defensive hockey. He was not a big hitter, but he knew how to maneuver attackers out of play. He used his stick well, stealing the puck often other players stick with almost a pickpocket's skill. He could force an opponent into the boards with his stick or his body, take the puck, and skated out of the zone if a forward was not free to take a pass.

Jim averaged around five goals and 20 assists a season, totals that could not be compared to the totals of Bobby Orr and other modern sharpshooting defenseman. But until recent years, playing defense was the first job of defenseman, and Neilson was there doing that job even when the sharpshooters fell down, allowing enemy goals that should never have been made. Neilson and other defensive defenseman were once the mainstay of the successful hockey team. And even today, when the spotlight has shifted to high-scoring defenseman, the contribution of sound defensive players – Neilson, Terry Harper, Bill White and others – is badly underrated. Neilson observed wryly that he got attention when he scored a few goals, but scoring had little to do with whether he had a good season.

In 1967, the year Bobby Orr came up to the Boston Bruins, Neilson had such an inconsistent season that he was benched in the playoffs. He was trying to skate with the puck and score goals, but for him it didn't work. He was trying to do things he could not do well. Being benched shook him up, however, and he took a long look at his talents. Once he began to concentrate on playing defense first and offense second, once he began to try to make a good play all the time instead of the game breaking great play from time to time, he found himself. He bounced back in 1968 and made the All-Star team.

He probably hit his peak in the 1971 playoffs. Midway in the first game of the opening round against Toronto, the Rangers were behind 3-1 when Neilson fed Rod Gilbert a pass that produced a goal. The Rangers got rolling, finally winning 5-4. Toronto won the next two games to lead the series, but in the fourth game Neilson fed Bob Nevin for the score that started the Rangers toward a 3-1 triumph that tied the series. Those were the accomplishments that showed in the box scores, but what didn't show was Neilson's determined defensive play. He stood up to enemy rushes, took the puck off the stick of Dave Keon on one breakaway, stole it from Norm Ullman three times deep in New York territory, and hammered Paul Henderson and George Armstrong into the boards to break up other big plays. In the fifth game in New York, Neilson and Bruce McGregor collaborated getting the puck to Ted Irvine, who scored to put the Rangers in front and Neilson was tremendous and cracking Toronto rushes throughout the rest of a 3-1 victory... Chicago one the semifinals from New York, but the series went the full seven games. There were times when Nielson seemed to carry the Rangers. In the third game he terrorized the Hawks with a hitting spree from the first that led his club to critical triumph and put them in front in the series. He deftly lifted the puck from Bobby Hull, whose blazing in on a breakaway. The Madison Square Garden crowd cheered his beautiful play. In the seventh game, he blocked shots by Bobby and brother Dennis bravely and had a key steal on Cliff Koroll. Chicago scored four goals only twice in seven games and later goalie Ed Giacomin said, "guys like Jimmy Neilson made it easy for me." Capt. Vic Hadfield added, "Jim is a defensive player and playoffs are defensive games. That's why Jim means the most to us when the games mean the most – in the playoffs. He instills a sense of confidence in the rest of the team. It's a bum rap that he doesn't hit enough. He hits when it matters. He doesn't score a ton so he's not a big hero to the fans, but he makes the offensive plays when we need them. What counts is a you know in a tight situation Jimmy's going to control the puck and make the right play with. He's poised and doesn't panic."

Jim said, "I get tired of hearing I don't hit enough. My temperament is such that I don't fly off the handle and try to take people apart. You make mistakes doing it. When I was younger I would get over excited and try for foolish plays and make mistakes. Now I try to play it cool and control myself and my teammates and the game."

In the 1970s Nielson was the senior citizen of the Rangers strong rearguard and expected to stay at the top among defensive defenseman for some time to come. Despite an injury he was superb in the 1972 playoffs. He got to assist in the fourth game at the Montréal forum and he stole the puck from Yvan Cournoyer and Jacques Lemaire twice each on breakaways as the Canadiens were removed in a surprising six games. He assisted on New York's only goal in the second game of the finals against Boston and was a model of consistency throughout, although the Bruins won the cup in six games.

During his career, Neilson had been sidelined by a shoulder separation, stretch knee ligaments, a broken finger and a broken foot. He had elbow surgery and recurring knee problems. Still, he insisted, "I've had no serious injuries. It's a tough game, but I've survived so far and feel fine, like a young man, and love to play."

in less politically correct times, James Neilson was known as "the chief" because of his Danish – Cree ancestry. And that nickname was a sign of respect for sturdy defenseman who spent 12 seasons in New York and was an underrated member of the great Rangers teams of the early 1970s.… It was the two-time All-Star's defensive ability, steady but not flashy, that would ultimately define his Ranger legacy… Neilson was a big and muscular specimen who could hit but preferred to use his broad frame to maneuver attackers out of the play… As workmanlike and passive as he was on the ice, Neilson was just the opposite, a blithe spirit, in his leisure time… He was eventually paired with Rod Seiling, and the two soon became one of the most dependable defensive duets in Rangers history.

Bryan Lewis: "one of the worst games I ever had was a night when Philadelphia was in Oakland. A few nights earlier in Philadelphia a player named Mike Christie had cut Bobby Clarke badly and the Flyers had gone after him pretty good. They went after him again in Oakland and he tried to annihilate him. Jim Neilson was the only Oakland player who came to Christie's aid.

When Carleton tried to snowploe the goalie into the net, he was flattened by Jim Neilson...

Gunboats Fleming, Kurtenbach, Neilson and Hadfield patrolled the corners with murderous aplomb...

that's one thing some people say the Rangers were missing, they didn't have that policeman or enforcer. Don Awrey: "well, you had Ron Harris. And you had, let me try to think… Ted Irvine. A kid. Who else? Jimmy Neilson, he could but he didn't. He could've been the toughness that you needed but he didn't. Just played the game the best he could. "

Arnie Brown: "… If you had a good chance to block puck, you went down most of the time and blocked. With the exception of Jimmy Neilson, he was so tall he just reached down with his arms and held his arms out by the side and blocked it."

Gerald Eskenazi: "I remember interviewing Jim Neilson about fighting because there was some criticism about him. He was a big guy, he was just very matter-of-fact about it, that he didn't feel that fighting or playing dirty was part of the game. It's almost as if they make a conscious decision not to do that. Other guys like Reggie Fleming, it was part of their whole persona, you know?"

Rick Smith: "I was coming in over the blueline with the Rangers and I didn't have any particular history with anybody but Jimmy Neilson speared me, like skewered me. I went down like a ton of bricks sort of thing and he come up to me and said you know, I'm sorry, I don't do that. I have no idea why I did. In an exhibition game. I'm lying there almost dead and thinking that was pretty nice of him, at least admit it wasn't, he really didn't try to hurt me. And that was my feeling for him too (that he was a quiet, solid, stay back player who didn't cause much trouble), so I think both of us were surprised, maybe me more than him, but to have somebody admit that on the ice is a funny feeling. I'll always remember that, looking up at him and I'm well, thanks for telling me that."

Rod Seiling: "we complemented each other but Jim was a big guy, he would block some shots, and we just seemed to play very well together. We complemented one another and we just hit it off, we knew where each other was all time on the ice and so was very easy to play with him. It was just a natural fit… There was some communication but it was one of those things that we just fit in so that we came to know where each other was pretty well all the time. And if he was going somewhere, he knew where I was going to be said that if he needed an outlet pass or if conversely if I was carrying the puck and I was drawing someone off to open up, for open ice, I could just dump it over, I knew he'd be there. If I was getting chased by another player to get the puck, I knew exactly where I could dump it off to get it to him."

he could carry the puck and make good passes, but as his career progressed, Neilson became known more for his steady defensive play. While he was not afraid of playing physically, Neilson was known to play smart defensive game and play the puck more than he played the body… Neilson was a key component of the Ranger success. The club made the Stanley Cup semifinals in each of Neilson's final four years in New York…

"(Going to the Seals) wasn't bad at all. I talked to Emile Francis. He let me know I was going to somebody and then said it would be the Seals. I had no trouble with it. I enjoyed it. Heck, better California and in Pittsburgh. It was fun. It's all part of business. "

California acquired Neilson to the badly needed veteran presence to their defense corps. "He brings the experience we need on the club," Seals general manager Bill McCreary said at the time Neilson was acquired. "He stabilizes our defense corps. He plays hard and he practices hard and he plays hurt." Assistant coach Marv Edwards added," Jim means a lot to club. He's a leader. He talks to the players on the ice during a game and he settled down our young defense. He's not spectacular, but he is consistent."

Neilson admitted there was an adjustment going from a team that was one game away from the Stanley Cup finals to a team that had won 13 games the year before. "I was going from a team that was a pretty good team to team that was a little shaky. You try to bring something with you, how to win. We weren't a great team but we weren't a bad team either. We just only have so much to work with. You do the best you can with what you've got. The guys were playing in the NHL and he did the best they could."

According to his teammates, Neilson also handled the situation well. "He impressed me," John Stewart said. "He came into a situation not near where he was raised with in the NHL. He took it seriously and handled being with the Seals better than I did."

Many of Neilson's young teammates were clearly in awe of the veteran defenseman. Rookie Fred Ahearn said, "I couldn't believe I was on the same ice with him. He was my first roommate on the road, this All-Star defenseman. I was almost too nervous to sleep in the same room with him". Goalie Gilles Meloche added: "Jim was so good defensively it was a dream to have him play in front of you." Larry Patey, who was also a rookie in 1975 said, "Jim was a leader. It was neat to see him on my team because I looked up to him as a kid. He was a role model. Seals Captain Joey Johnston was also highly respectful of The Chief. "He was a hell of a hockey player. He could play hockey. He was still our best defensemen and I don't know how old he was. He did things automatically. For example, he would take a hit to make a pass. The young kids we had didn't do that."

While Neilson was highly respected by his teammates on and off the ice, most of his former teammates also remembered his problems with alcohol. We all looked up to him," Gary Simmons said of Neilson. "He played all those years. When he was seeing things straight, he was a big help but he was not always seeing things straight." Defenseman Len Frig called Neilson, "an amazing man. He would drink very hard at night and still play well the next day. When he went to New York, you knew not to skate near him in the morning skate. He would stink. He ate snails and he drank." Despite his problems with alcohol, Neilson was respected and admired by his teammates not only as a hockey player, but as a person as well. "He never said a bad word about anyone," Morris Mott recalled. Dave Gardner added, "he was terrific. He was like a father and an associate with me. He went through a lot of problems but always looked after people."

On the ice, his teammates remembered how well he knew the game of hockey. Bob Stewart recalled: "he was steady. He was like a grandfather. He could pass the puck up and left the forwards do their jobs. He was a smart player who used his head." Ralph Klassen recalled that Neilson was, "very intelligent. He didn't have to work up a sweat because he was so intelligent on the ice."

In 1975, Neilson was named captain of the Seals. Although he was never a vocal player in the locker room, Neilson tried to lead by example. "They know if you're working hard. As long as I'm hustling, a younger player might think, if the old guy can do it, so can I." Apparently, Nielsen was successful. Jim Moxie recalled, "I learned a lot from Jimmy. He didn't say much but he led by example. He played hard."

Part of Neilson's leadership was natural. He knew what to do on the ice. For example, during the 1974 incident in which three Flyers jumped into the penalty box to gang up on Mike Christie, Neilson was the first man who came to Kristi's rescue. "I got to him first. It had to be done."

Wayne Merrick summed up with Jim Neilson meant the California Golden Seals during his two-year tenure in Oakland. "He was a wonderful man and a great player. He did things on the ice that he didn't think somebody could do. He was real crafty and could do different things. He was a real pro."

relies more on his brawn, but is also a dangerous marksmen firing from the point… Big and tough… Likes to carry the puck and has been used up front on certain occasions… "When we get in trouble, he's the man I depend on to get us out", says Emile Francis.

a crunching body checker, he also carries the puck well. A good skater, he started out as a left winger and scored his first NHL goal from that position… but his size made him the bigger asset on defense and he's been a regular there ever since coming into the league

GM Gary Young says, "we think Jim will be our leader"… Big, strong reliable rearguard who is adept at blocking shots… Bothered by injuries last couple of seasons…

did the job he was expected to do for young Seals by steadying their defense… Contributions to New York were often overlooked… Biggest criticism was that he lacked the meanness to clear out opposing forwards from the slot… Excellent passer.

a defensive defenseman who has helped tutor Seals young blue liners… Takes captain's job seriously: "you don't get anywhere arguing. Use a gentlemanly manner and the next time the ref might give you a break."

 

[Leafs Forever]

Juneau was traded to Buffalo late in 1998-99 and scored eleven points in 20 playoff games to help team reach the finals for the first time in 24 years. He was a solid two-way player for the defensively oriented Ottawa Senators in 1999-00 and helped the club register 95 points in the regular season. In the off-season he was temporarily selected by the expansion Minnesota Wild then shipped to the Phoenix Coyotes. Prior to the 2001-02 season he returned to his roots and signed with the Montreal Canadiens. Juneau went on to play three seasons in Montreal registering 73 points (19-54-73) before announcing his retirement following Montreal's playoff exit to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004- Legends of Hockey

Juneau was the beneficiary of some great line mates in Boston, namely Adam Oates and, when healthy, Cam Neely. When the Bruins traded Juneau to Washington in 1993-94, he was never able to duplicate the same lofty scoring totals. He remained a good playmaker that was a strong presence in back to back Stanley Cup finals, 1998 with Washington and 1999 with Buffalo, despite falling short both times.

Juneau would spend 6 seasons in the U.S. capital. His offensive production would never challenge his previous numbers, but he earned great acclaim for rounding out his game and becoming a very versatile player. His offense slowly dried up, but he became a key penalty killer and checker. He underwent an interesting transformation from scoring star to a jack-of-all-trades utility player noted for his work ethic and strong defensive play. While his scoring totals diminished, his hockey sense remained as strong as always. It was just used in different fashion and, to his credit, he never complained about his role.- Joe Pelletier

Joey is the type of player that makes everybody on the ice better, not only because he can score goals, but because of his great playmaking ability.- Jim Schoenfeld, Capitals Coach

When he came to Montreal he wasn't the Joe Juneau who had scored all those points. A good solid hockey player and I think he was a very honest hockey player. He earned his money. He gaves his employer, from what I could see in the game he played in Montreal, good value for the dollar."- Dick Irvin

Juneau was drafted by the Boston Bruins in 1988 and wound up playing for Washington, Buffalo, Ottawa, Phoenix, and Montreal before retiring in 2004. He was generally regarded as a good, solid-two-way player.- By The Numbers

Joe is an outstanding player with the speed, smarts, and competitive drive to make it big in the NHL. -Back of 92/93 Card

Juneau is a crafty, offensively creative player who added spark to the Bruins after coming aboard after the Olympics...He's an elusive player with a knack for making the big play.- Back of another 92/93 Card

Excellent speed, soft hands, and GREAT vision...Back of 92/93 Upper Deck Card

One of the game's most gifted lateral skaters, Juneau is a magician while patrolling offensive circles.- back of 94/95 Fleer Franchise Future Cards

Few players can match joe Juneau for pure passing ability. His stick moves leave opposing defensemen wondering what hit them.- Back of 94/95 Fire On Ice Card

The Toronto St. Pats are pleased to select a versatile, two-way player who can play both centre and left wing...



JOE JUNEAU!

Awards and Achievements
2 x Stanley Cup Fianlist (1998, 1999)
LW AST Voting: 4th(1992/93)

Scoring
Rankings
Assists: 7th(1995), 9th(1994), 12th(1993), 31st(1996),
Points: 18th(1993), 26th(1994), 27th(1995), 62nd(1996),

Percentages of #2 Scorer(Removing Gretzky/Lemieux)
Assists: 86%, 82%, 74%, 57% Total: 299
Points: 76%, 72%, 61%( of a two-way tie for 1st), 53% Total: 262

Playoffs
Playoff Goals: Mass T-3rd (1998),
Playoff Assists: 7th(1998), 16th(1999), 18th(1992),
Playoff Points: 5th(1998), 20th(1992)

Percentages of #2 scorer:
Goals: 78%
Assists: 77%, 50%
Points: 85%

 

[seventieslord]

With the 347th pick in ATD2011, The Regina Pats are pleased to select:

Leo "Radar" Reise, Jr, D

Reise is one of the most underrated players in the entire ATD. To get a two-time NHL all-star in the mid-300s is enough of a steal, but for the guy to have those two years supplemented by two more seasons of all-star recognition is just gravy. And Reise truly is underappreciated by history. Finding information of great substance in books was very difficult. But those who saw him knew he was a star, as evidenced by all-star teams and the newspaper reports.

Reise was one of the NHL's biggest player, and was tough and a good bodychecker, but went about his business cleanly. He was not a policeman type; he tried to be, but it wasn't his thing. He was a solid positional player and heavily relied on by the powerhouse Wings.

- 6'0", 205 lbs
- Stanley Cup (1950, 1952)
- Stanley Cup Finalist (1948, 1949)
- NHL 2nd All-Star Team (1950, 1951)
- Played in NHL All-Star Game on Merit (1952, 1953)
- Top-10 in Defense scoring three times (6th, 6th, 9th)
- Top-3 in Playoff Defense Scoring Twice (1st, 3rd)

When Leo Reise Jr. entered the NHL in 1945, it marked the first time in league history that a father and son had both made it to the top. The elder Reise had put in parts of eight seasons with the Tigers, Americans, and Rangers between 1920 and 1930.

The younger Reise got his start in the updraft of his father's coaching exploits. During his bantam days, young Reise would sneak out onto the ice while his father was coaching intermediate hockey in Guelph and senior hockey in Chatham. It was there that he began his climb to the NHL.

After playing junior hockey in Brantford and Guelph, Reise joined the navy where he laced up for the naval teams in Victoria, Halifax and Winnipeg. At the close of World War II, he turned pro with the Blackhawks. In Chicago, he played parts of two seasons with frequent visits to the minors. He was then traded to Detroit in 1946, an event that marked the real beginning of his NHL career.

With the Wings, Reise played his best hockey, pumping home two overtime goals during a bitterly fought semi-finals series against the Leafs in 1950. The Wings went on the claim the Cup that year and again in 1952. During those years, Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Red Kelly enjoyed the headlines while Reise worked in the background, performing a great deal of the spadework that kept the Wings at the top of the standings.

In 1952, he was traded to the New York Rangers where he lasted for two more seasons before heading to the minors to round out his hockey life with the Owen Sound Mercurys in 1955.

The big defenseman had a terrific year in 1949-50, being selected for the NHL's Second All-Star Team. That season also brought Reise his first of two Stanley Cup championships.

Detroit blew past all competitors to finish the regular season in first place, but faced the reigning Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs in the semi-final. Leo played well, and not only took a regular shift but played the blueline when the Wings were shorthanded. Game 1 saw Leo take a lot of abuse — Ted Kennedy was fingered for elbowing Leo early in the period and Gus Mortson tangled with Reise later that same period. Midway through the third, Gordie Howe was carried off the ice on a stretcher, and his mates vowed revenge. It didn't come in Game 1, a 5-0 loss for Detroit, but Game 2 was a different matter.

Leo scrapped with Toronto toughie Jim Thomson in the second period, cutting Jeems for five stitches and earning a major. Leo later highsticked Teeder Kennedy, the purported culprit who caused Howe's injury, and drew a minor. Detroit exacted revenge on the ice and on the scoreboard, dumping Toronto 3-1.

The Maple Leafs took Game 3 by a score of 2-0 but Game 4 was a fiercely close contest. At the end of regulation time, the rivals were even at a goal apiece. That score held after one full overtime period. Then, just 38 seconds into a second overtime, Leo flipped the puck towards Turk Broda in the Leaf net. The puck struck defenseman Gus Mortson and ricocheted in! Leo, a 4-goal scorer during the regular season, had won the crucial contest with his double overtime marker.

Toronto won Game 5 2-0 but Game 6 was a 4-0 Red Wing win. It all came down to Game 7 for the two closely matched teams. Neither team could put the puck past the opponent's goalkeeper — Broda for the Leafs and Lumley for Detroit. One period. Two periods. Three periods. No score. Then, at 8:39 of the first overtime frame, clutch overtime hero Leo Reise came through again, scoring the only goal of the game — the winner that moved Detroit into the final against the New York Rangers!

In the final, Leo continued to play a strong, dependable game back on the blueline with 'Black Jack' Stewart. Although Leo didn't score again in that final series, he had established himself as one of the post-season heroes for the Red Wings.

After splitting his first two seasons between the Chicago Blackhawks and the minors, Leo Jr. joined the Detroit Red Wings in 1946-47. He played six seasons with the Wings where he worked as a fiercely proud journeyman in the shadows of the likes of Gordie Howe. Reise Jr. never really minded, as was part of two Stanley Cups championships.

Reise Jr.'s fellow defensemen included Black Jack Stewart, Marcel Pronovost, Red Kelly and Bill Quackenbush. Talk about a great blue line! But don't dismiss Reise Jr. as a spare part.

His third-period shorthanded goal in Game 7 of the 1949 semifinal against Montreal snapped a 1-1 tie and propelled the Wings to a 3-1 victory. That goal was reputed to be Reise vs the Canadiens, as Reise gathered the puck in his own zone and battled along the boards past all five Montreal skaters before driving a 40-foot shot past Canadiens goalie Bill Durnan.

"Leo Reise scored that goal that broke the tie because he absolutely refused to give up," Wings coach Tommy Ivan said. "He lost the puck twice and got it back because he kept fighting for it."

Then against Toronto in the 1950 semifinals, Reise whipped a backhand off the leg of Leafs defenseman Gus Mortson and behind goalie Turk Broda after 20:38 of overtime for a 2-1 victory. With the seventh game of the series scoreless and into the second OT session, Reise lifted a 35-foot backhander through a crowd past Broda and the Wings moved on to meet and beatt the New York Rangers in the final.

The first Stanley Cup championship in 1950 ranks as Reise Jr.'s career highlight.

"Well I think it has to be the year we won the Stanley Cup in '49-50 when I scored the two overtime goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs to eliminate them out of the semi-finals. It was a pretty rough series. I think those goals I scored in overtime were probably the highlights."

Reise definitely knew how to pick up his game in the playoffs. During his career, he averaged a goal every 18 games during regular-season play, but tallied once every six games in Stanley Cup competition.

Reise Jr. also counts playing in the six-team era as a true highlight. The rivalries were intense, even if Detroit often came out on top in those days.

"Well, we just had rivalries against … a couple years we only lost 11 hockey games. Eleven games one year and only 13 games the next year so we didn't mind playing against anybody. The toughest of all our games were against Toronto and the Canadiens. Richard was a fantastic hockey player. Very great competitor and he was tough to play against. We didn't have any particular team we were afraid of or anything like that. We could beat anybody at any given time. The last few series we only won in eight games. In '51-52 we won the series in eight games, so we were powers."

Reise Jr. mentioned a couple of other players he had great admiration for.

"From the standpoint of great hockey players, Jack Stewart was a fine, great defenceman. Guys like Milt Schmidt were great competitors that played with Boston. But these were great hockey players. You don't idolize them but you want to make sure you can emulate them really."

Reise then finished his career off by playing two more seasons with the New York Rangers. Over his nine NHL seasons, Leo Jr. scored 28 goals, 81 assists, and 109 points in 494 regular season games while adding eight goals and 13 points in 52 playoff contests.

Jimmy Skinner: "Leo Reise was a big, tough defenseman."

Leo Reise: "the New York Rangers tried to buy a team just a few years ago. They got a whole bunch of stars – paid a whole bunch of money to them, and all of a sudden everybody gets a big head. Then he didn't make the playoffs; four years in a row. So where are the stars? What happened to the stars? What happens? It's the thing that's beating in my chest; right here. It's the heart. Some of them today say, "why bother? I'm thinking $8 million. I don't think I'll go into the corner and get hit. Why should I take a body check when I don't have to?" It makes you laugh.

That never happened to us. We weren't making that much. But that was our characteristic: character, character. That's what makes the team! The character; the people! You see? When you've got the talent along with the character, you've got a good team. You stepped out confident in your ability and in the team and in what you're going to do. It's not a thrill. It's a job you have. You step on the ice because you have a job to do.

When you won it there are no halos running around or streaks from heaven and whatnot. It was just you and the cup. You finally got what you are after. Euphoria sets in: "great! We've done what we intended to do. We won, we beat them all. We are better than everybody else. Thank you very much." And that's about all it is as far as I was concerned. That was the name of the game. That's all you're there for.

They always say you build a hockey team from the goal out, and in that sense; certainly we had a solid foundation. This is one thing that gets me sometimes my talk about the great goaltenders. We had a good goaltender in Terry Sawchuk, but he had the best defensemen in front of him. So he'd better be a good goaltender! Sawchuk had Hall of Fame guys playing defense in front of him the time he played in Detroit. He had Marcel Pronovost and red Kelly and Black Jack Stewart; all in the Hall of Fame, and then me. I'm not in the Hall of Fame, but I was a second team all-star in both 1950 and 1951. In those days in Detroit I was always on the ice at the start of the period. And the end of the period. Tommy Ivan always said, "you don't want any goals scored early on, and you don't want any goals late. Late goals, they kill you at the end of a period." So, I always started the periods and ended the periods.

I always say, you should remember – when you start talking about how great these individuals were – to look at the team. It's a team! Yes, you have to have a good goaltender, but you also have to have a good team to win the Stanley Cup. You can be degrees goaltender in the world and end up in the bottom of the league. We had good defense in front of the goaltender. And we had good back checkers for in front of the defenseman. As I said, your team! It was just a solid, sound hockey club.

I was bigger than most players. Most of them are in the five-nine to six-foot range, but you got a few that were bigger. Like Howe's over 6 feet. Harry Watson was 6 feet. Bouchard was 6 foot something. Size is always an advantage for a defenseman. It helps if you are big and strong and powerful skater. But, you know, the little guys, the little stick handlers, like Edgar Laprade, Billy Taylor - that type of person, you had to be very careful with those guys. You are very cautious and wary of those people.

I was a hitter. I used to look for people with their head down so I could mail them. So, when they were on the ice, they were looking for me, "is Reise on the ice?" That was a big part of my game, to make sure they remember I'm on the ice.

The only thing I can't understand today is the boarding. They drive guys straight into the boards now. We got a boarding penalty for that. You can't hit straight into the boards. What I can't understand his players getting their elbows up and smashing the guys head into the glass. Right now I think you see some fishes hockey. I don't think any of our guys went out to specifically hurt a guy. We don't play that way! That's not the way it was done!

I never had a problem with Jack Adams; none at all. I didn't have to haggle with Jack over money. He knew what I could do. I got, as far as I was concerned, paid pretty well for it.

Red Kelly came up in 1947. We paired together. Once, when we played Toronto in the playoffs in 1950, even Conn Smythe, Maple leafs manager, said we were the best defensive pair in the NHL, red Kelly and I. That was a brutal series, you know, 1950. That was the semifinal series against Toronto. That was a real tough, tough series. There was a lot of bodychecking; a lot of hits and whatnot.

Detroit had that farm club in Brantford, as I mentioned, and I was on their negotiation list – the players Detroit owned – off and on all the time. I went to Detroit's training camps as a junior. When Detroit find out I could play in the NHL, they said, "we want you back." So in December, I got traded to Detroit. I got a letter from Tobin saying they were sorry to let me go, but that Detroit wanted me back.

Good memories, good memories. I had a good run of it. Was a good career. I've never been back. I have no regrets.

The younger Reise was a defenseman, and a much-feared one at that... his most memorable play was a sudden death OT goal in the seventh game of a bitter 1950 semifinal with Toronto.

...still a borderline major-leaguer, he was dealt to Detroit in 1946. When Reise was paired with Veteran Jack Stewart in 1947-48, his career took off... He never scored more than 5 goals and 21 points, but he made the Second All-Star Team twice with clean, hard-hitting defense. "A rough, tough customer who packs 211 pounds onto a rangy, six-foot frame, Reise has forcibly left the stamp of his improvement all around the NHL,: Reported The Hockey News in 1950.

"With experience, I've learned to pick my spots for a real hard check and then hand it out," said Reise. "Scoring goals is a thrill, but a defenseman can get a lot of satisfaction out of hitting a player squarely and seeing him rolling on the ice afterwards. You know that man isn't about to score goals, and after all, that's a defenseman's job - to prevent scoring."

Reise emerged as a thudding bodychecker who played his position like a general operating on the battlefield. His lack of speed was rarely a problem because of that excellent positioning. As the Red Wings rolled to juggernaut status in the late 1940s, Reise was the acclaimed linchpin of the splendid Motor City defense, And he could fight. Ironically, though, it was as a clutch goal scorer that Reise would go down in the annals of the Red Wings...

when asked to recall the most unforgettable games of his NHL career, Reise says:

"Well, I guess maybe the one game we played in Montréal and I remember Tommy Ivan kept pushing me out on the ice and I kept skating and skating. In fact, I think we lost the game. But it got so they had to lift me off the ice. They had to pull me into the box and even the Montréal fans applauded when I came off the ice. It was probably one of those things I remember, one of the great things to remember. Another one I played in Chicago, when they finally decided they were going to send me down to Kansas City, where he played the first part of the year at their farm club. I played six games for Chicago. There were 18,000 people in the Chicago Stadium and I had made quite an impression with the fans, and they started to chant, we want Reise. The whole place said, we want Reise. They weren't playing in that game because the regulars were back, so I was sitting on the end of the bench and wasn't playing and then the fans started to chant. So finally Johnny Gottselig put me on the ice. It is one of the more memorable things.

"I was one of the top defenseman in the league for six or seven years," says Reise. "That's where I rated myself, anyhow. I played in every All-Star game then when I was in the league, so I was rated as a pretty good defenseman. I loved bodychecking. I used to hunt for them to hit. That's what I was as good at as anybody, and better off than most, frankly, bodychecking... I don't know. I just applied myself. I made sure I didn't make the same mistake twice. I just worked hard and made an honest effort."

Leo Reise: "Why did I seem to score more in the playoffs than I did in the Regular season? In the months prior to the playoffs I would say, OK, I have to make sure I'm in real good shape. I made an effort in the last couple of weeks of the season to push myself harder. When the playoffs came, I was flying.

When you reached a certain salary level, they didn't want to keep you around too long if they could find a substitute. I believe I was moved out because I was among the team's highest-paid players. In 1951-52, Mrcel Pronovost and Red Kelly were carrying the puck a lot, and I let them go ahead. I played back. I wasn't too effective from the scoring end. Maybe that was one of the reasons why they traded me. But at the time, I was one of the best defensemen in the country, so it was a bit of a shock to be traded.

An all-star defenseman who played capably in the shadows of hall of famers Jack Stewart, Red Kelly, BilL Quackenbush and Marcel Pronovost, Leo Reise played a quietly effective game and owned a reputation for scoring clutch goals, especially during the playoffs. Without Reise's scoring abilities, the Wings wouldn't have reached the Finals in 1949 or 1950.

A stay-at-home defenseman known for his fierce bodychecks, Reise was named to the NHL's second all-star team in 1950 and 1951... "He was very businesslike and played his position very well," teammate Marty Pavelich said of the 6-foot, 205-pound Reise.

"They weren't very well executed," the unlikely hero later said of his two clutch goals. "One bounced off another player. One went straight in."

Percival's results showed the Red Wings to be the league's most physically imposing club - although Percival's estimates of the competition were by necessity made from afar. Ted Lindsay worked harder during his time on the ice than any other Detroit player, skating a total of three miles in 19 minutes of play; Leo Reise expended more energy than any other NHL defenseman; Gaye Stewart was the league's fastest skater.

"Sawchuk only got half the number of tough chances that other goalies did," remembered Leo Reise with pride. "We felt we hadn't done our jobs if the other team was able to break in for more than four or five good scoring opportunities in a night."

... Gone were captain Sid Abel and hardrock defenseman Leo Reise...

Richard, cut, complained to McLean, who allegedly laughed in his face. As Rocket skated away, he told the ref, "This is the damnedest thing I ever saw," which quickly got him a misconduct. While he was in the box, Leo Reise's jibes aroused his Gallic temper to the point where he punched the big defenseman and pushed linesman Jim Primeau. For his trouble he was assessed a match penalty and an automatic $50 fine.

Adams tolerated Kelly because there were heavy-handed hewers of wood backing Red up, tough nuts such as Benny Woit, Tony Leswick, Marty Pavelich, Vic Stasiuk, Leo Reise and Marcel Pronovost.

Harry Howell: " I went to Toronto and played with Leo Reise, who was a big help to me. Leo was a great veteran and taught me an awful lot. During the first game, we played every second shift."

The idea really went over the top in 1966, when we were able to arrange for the Detroit old-timers to play us at the Forum in Montreal... I'd told all the players the rules - no slapshots, no bocychecking. I dropped the puck, The Rocket got it, and Leo Reise knocked him on his ass with the best check any Red Wing, past or present, threw that season. I said to Leo: "I just told you there was no bodychecking. What the hell do you think you're doing?" Leo said: "Red, that was The Rocket. He was just sitting there and I couldn't resist." Try as we might, we couldn't keep that stuff under control. The guys were just so competitive, even if these were supposed to be friendly games.

NEWSPAPERS

the New mainspar in the Rearguard Is 24-year-old Leo Reise Jr, a six footer who plays in the same heavy-hipped style for which his father won fame with the old Saskatoon sheiks.

the bruising work of rearguards Leo Reise and Al Dewsbury won commendation from manager Jack

the crowd of 13,474 fans saw Leo Reise, rugged Detroit defenseman, play a key role in the Red Wings triumph although he was hampered by painful leg Suffered earlier in the week in a game in New York. Reise took a hand in all of Detroit's first three goals…

Kennedy will be in hospital at least 10 days with torn knee ligaments, suffered when he was checked by Detroit's Leo Reise Thursday

mulling over the league's defenseman, Abel told Carroll that Detroit's Leo Reise is the most underrated. "He's the best in the league," Abel thinks. "Who's better? Don't tell me Reardon." Ken Reardon of Canadiens, apparently one of Abel's pet peeves, "makes more mistakes in a single game than Reise will make all season."

lone casualty of the contest was Leo Reise, who was cut on top of the head for five stitches midway through the third. While Lee Fogolin was serving his fourth penalty of the game, he retired to the first of the four repairs and it could've been the 10 min. rest he had was the deciding factor of the game. Certainly his play all through the overtime and right up to the finish was tremendous.

defenseman Leo Reise who picked up two goals and 12 stitches in the semifinal Stanley Cup round, stood up today as one of Detroit's brightest hopes in championship series with the New York Rangers opening here tonight… In pinning a lot of their hopes on Reise, Detroit's Red Wings were centering attention on the 27-year-old who nearly gave up hockey 1946 because he was convinced he could not make the grade. Reise's performance reached a peak in the semifinals against Toronto, however. He became the chief spoiler of Toronto plays and banged into goals, each of which proved the margin of victory... Reise's 12 stitches were for face and head cuts.

that trade with the Chicago Blackhawks has weakened their defense. They're going to miss Jack Stewart. They haven't got anybody to take over his policeman's role, though Leo Reise is making the attempt. He can't quite make it, and now I hear Reise has bone chips in his elbow. If he has to submit to surgery he'll be out for six weeks and the Red Wings can spare him. As it is, he isn't going to be as effective as he would be if his elbow was okay. The Red Wings are working Reise and Red Kelly to death. They have one of them on the ice all the time and sometimes both, so they can't have too much confidence in their other defensemen.

about the only excitement came in late in the final period when a full-scale brawl broke out with Boston's Fernie Flaman tangling with Steve Black and Leo Reise. The Flaman-Reise bout was the best seen in Olympic in some time.

Lynn Patrick: "… They said that as soon as Bill Quackenbush got away from Stewart he was just another defenseman. That isn't true at all. He's playing great hockey right now without Stewart and he never did team with him in Detroit. They would start again as a defense pair, but Tommy Ivan would split them up for the rest of the game. He always wanted one of them on the ice, just as he wants Reise or Kelly on the ice today."

...Prystai's came a minute and 30 seconds after Leo Reise had bulled his way in to give the Detroit club a 1-0 lead midway through the first period... Reise, who has been a standout in every game of the series to date, registered his marker at 8:40...

Reise, 30-year-old veteran of five campaigns as a red wing, was named to the second All-Star team in 1950 1951. A native of stony Creek, Ontario, he is one of the biggest man in the circuit, and one of the most rugged.

Leo Reise has slowed up a little, but he is a rugged gent and will be a decided asset to the Rangers on the small ice surface at Madison Square Garden… The Rangers may miss Sinclair but you have to give up something to get something. Bill Cook is aiming to bolster his weak defense and he got a solid man in Reise.

the New Yorkers defense is improved this year with the addition of Leo Reise, formerly of the Detroit Red Wings.

according to an NHL release, Canadiens are the lightest team in the league, averaging 171 pounds per player. This may be a reflection of Dick Irvin's preoccupation with weight charts… The lightest player in the league is the Rangers' Don Raleigh, who scales 150. The heaviest is another Ranger, Leo Reise, who weighs 210.

"remember," Boucher said, this is the fifth year in a row that the Red Wings figure to take the pennant, and in that space of time they traded away two outstanding defensemen in Bill Quackenbush to Boston and Leo Reise to us. "

Leo Reise, former Detroit Red Wings defenseman and NHL great for many years…

 

[seventieslord]

With the 373rd pick in ATD2011, The Regina Pats are proud to select:

Fred "The Fog" Shero, Coach

NHL:

- Stanley Cup (1974, 1975)
- Stanley Cup Finalist (1976, 1979)
- Jack Adams Award (1974)
- Jack Adams Award Runner-up (1979)
- Lester Patrick Trophy (1980)
- 390-225-119 in the (.612), 63-47 (.573) in the playoffs

OTHER:

- AHL Coach of the Year (1970)
- CHL Coach of the Year (1971)
- QHL Championship (1958)
- IHL Turner Cup Championship (1960, 1961)
- CPHL Championship (1965)
- AHL Calder Cup Championship (1970)
- CHL Championship (1971)
- Lost in IHL & CPHL Final Three Times (1962, 1964, 1967)
- 501-357-104 at other levels (.578), 74-53 (.583) in the playoffs

...Shero retired as a player in 1958 and took up the coaching reigns of the Moose Jaw Canucks of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. This was the beginning of a very successful second career in hockey.

Shero worked his way back to the National Hockey League in 1971 when he was named head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. In the seven seasons Shero served as the team's coach he guided them to four consecutive seasons with a .700 or better winning percentage. Only his first year behind the Flyers bench was he unable to coach them to a .500 record. Shero won the Jack Adams Trophy as the league's best coach in 1974, a season the Flyers won their first ever Stanley Cup. Shero would guide the "Broad Street Bullies" to another Championship the following year. Disappointed with the results of the 1978-79 campaign, Shero resigned as the Flyers coach. Two weeks later he resurfaced in the NHL, returning to his roots in Manhattan as the team's coach and General Manager.

In his first year on Broadway Shero led the Rangers to a surprise berth in the Stanley Cup finals, which they lost the juggernaut Montreal Canadiens squad.

Despite what you may read elsewhere (including even the Flyers official website!) Shero did NOT earn his nickname from often getting lost in thought or by his tendency to slip in and out of rooms without being noticed. During a 1947-48 United States Hockey League game in St.Paul, the fog was so bad during the game it was postponed. The only player who claimed he could still see the puck was Freddy.

...Shero while still a player came up with the system to carry the puck over the blue line rather than dumping it in. Then in 1945 while playing for Fred Metcalfe with the New York Rovers, Shero worked with Metcalfe to devise the "box formation" while killing penalties - this is still used today.

Before coaching the Flyers Shero would coach minor league teams in St. Paul, Omaha and Buffalo in the Rangers' system. While in St.Paul Shero had several colourful episodes. During one game he saw fans leaving with his team leading 7-1, so he pulled his goalie midway in the 3rd period (the game ended 7-3). He did the same stunt again in a 5-0 game that he won 7-5. Shero would end up coaching for 13 years in the minors, taking one year off to operate a leather goods factory. His teams finished first place 6 times (5 of those first place finishes where in his last 7 years of coaching) and championships with Omaha and Buffalo. Coaching in the Ranger's system, Shero thought he'd never get a chance to coach in the NHL with ***** ******* as their longtime coach. He was about to forget about pro hockey and take a job coaching in college when the Flyers offered him the job.

When Shero started to coach the Flyers' he immediately implemented a system. "Other teams have each line playing a different system depending on if they are a scoring or checking line. On the Flyers every line and player plays the same system, whether the player is a superstar or one the forth line", Shero explained. Shero was one of the first coaches ever to implement a team-wide system. When the Flyers ended up losing a playoff spot on the last day of the season in Shero's first year with the Flyers, he claimed "I felt like dying - or like I had actually done so"... Shero was a defensive specialist and now that the offense was repaired it was time to work on defense. Bernie Parent coupled with Shero's teaching made the Flyers had become the league best defensive team, without sacrificing much offense. With their hard play, the Flyers became scorned throughout the NHL and opposition fans. After the third game of a playoff series against the Atlanta Flames, Shero was mugged outside the Flames arena (the Omni). Shero would come back and later coach the underdog Flyers to the finals against the more highly skilled Bruins. To deflect attention of his players Shero claimed he was going to quit coaching after the finals "I want to go back to school, and if we win the cup I'll have enough money to do so". Shero had little intention of doing that but it helped the Flyers build a 3-1 games lead against Boston.

Shero's blackboard messages became a staple in the Flyers lockerroom. They tended to be philosophical in nature, and as *** ****** once said, sometimes it would be weeks before the players understood what Shero meant. One May 19th 1974 with the Flyers just one win away from a championship title, Shero had what would become a famous saying on the blackboard whose meaning was unmistakable:

"Win together today !!! and we walk together forever !!!"

The Flyers would win that game, becoming Stanley Cup champions. As Shero would later say, "It isn't always the more highly skilled team that wins - that's why you have coaches". Shero would win the first ever Jack Adams award as coach of the year for his performance. Not sitting on his laurels, days after winning the Cup, Shero would visit the Soviet Union. Fred initially met Antoli Tarasov in 1961 and wanted to meet him again to study the Russian's training techniques. He became the first to advocate adopting Russian techniques in the NHL. "They play a five man attack system where every player goes off and a fresh 5 man unit goes on. I've done this with the Flyers, but there are cases where I'll go with Clarke in critical situations" Shero's team improved and defeated the Buffalo Sabres for their second straight Stanley Cup that season. Before the win, Shero had another slogan on his blackboard.

"A man with a dream of pleasure can go forth and conquer a crowd and three. With a new song's measure can trample a kingdom down"

Shero, the man, remained a mystery to his team. But his players did know that he dedicated his life to the team and to winning. For that his players committed themselves to him. Under Shero the players developed an attitude that when an opposing player challenged one, he challenged all. Shero preached hard work and courage. "Nobody on our team missed practice in two years, not even the ones injured", Shero claimed in 1975. "they don't want to miss the laughs. I don't think that you can instruct anyone unless you amuse them first." Shero realized that with professional athletes you had to keep them interested to keep them practicing. To vary things Shero would have the Flyers practice with tennis balls instead of pucks. At other times he would have them undergoing the same training exercises that NASA used to train astronauts. Not only were these techniques unique, they worked. [/B]"I've learned more in Philadelphia in three years then I would have learned anywhere else in eight, and it's all because of Fred", Bill Barber claimed. Along the way, Shero became the first coach to start a morning skate - something every NHL team now does.

There were many aspects to Shero's philosophies. "there are 4 corners to a rink and a pit in front of the net. You have to hold your ground. There isn't a man on the team who is afraid to go into a corner and hit someone". Every player on his team would receive 2 copies of Shero's commandments - one for his locker the other for his wallet. His "bible" was his formula to winning :

1) Never go offside on a three on two or two on one
2) Never go backwards in your own end except on a powerplay
3) Never throw a puck out blindly from behind your opponent's net
4) Never pass diagonally across ice in your own end unless 100% certain
5) Wings on wings in neutral zone - unless intercepting a pass
6) Second man go all the way in for a rebound
7) Defense with puck at opponents' blue line -
look at each teammate before shooting
8) Wing in front of opponents' net must face puck and lean on stick
9) Puck carrier over center with no room and no one to pass to must shoot puck in
10) No forward must ever turn his back on the puck
11) No player must be more than two zones away from puck
12) Never be outnumbered in defensive zone
13) On delayed penalty puck carrier must look for extra man
14) Be alert to time left on opponent's penalty

...When looking back at all his accomplishments and innovations, it is truly a crime that Shero is not in the Hall of Fame. Shero holds most major team coaching records : wins (308), winning % (.642), seasons (7) and playoff wins (48). Coupled with all the innovations mentioned above Shero is truly deserving of Hall Of Fame status.

His achievements, well, they not only outlasted Fred Shero, they’ll stand forever: Four Stanley Cup Final appearances; two Cups; first coach to employ systems; first to hire assistant coaches; first to employ in-season strength training; first to break down film; first to travel abroad to study Soviet influences; among the first to adopt morning skates. Incredibly, for all of Shero’s accomplishments, the greatest hockey coach in Flyers history still is not in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“The Hall of Fame is for people who have done things for the sport of hockey,” said Bob Clarke, the greatest player Shero coached. “Freddy did that. He was ahead of ***** ******* for using video. He was ahead of other coaches for using system hockey. He won at the minor league and NHL level and he was way ahead of his time. Sometimes we forget it’s not the National Hockey League Hall of Fame. It’s the Hockey Hall of Fame. That’s why Europeans are getting in and it’s why lots of outstanding minor leaguers from different eras never were thought about as being Hall of Famers, but probably should have been. Freddy’s NHL record is good enough to get in and put on his minor league record and he’s Hall-of-Fame material.”

So why isn’t Freddy in the Hall? “People are talking about him now; there is a push for him now,” said Flyers founder Ed Snider. “It definitely is a bad oversight.” Keith Allen rescued Shero from minor league obscurity, where he won at every level but was buried behind others in the Rangers’ organization. “There’s a hell of a lot of people in the Hall who never had the record Freddy had,” Allen said. “I don’t know why he was overlooked. Maybe we are all at fault because he deserves to be there. And maybe we didn’t push hard enough as an organization. I’m kind of surprised he’s not there.”

...Fred Shero was a teacher and student of the game. He was an innovator. That qualifies him to be recognized through the “builders' category” in the Hall. Colin Campbell sits on the selection committee... “Fred Shero had a long career, when you look at his minor league career,” Campbell said. “I hear a lot of players talk about what they learned from Fred Shero, guys from my era and the impact he had on them. He had an impact on a lot of coaches, too.”

Fred Shero the student

“Some of the things he did at the time, players thought he was off-the-wall,” recalled Lou Lamoriello, general manager of the New Jersey Devils. “But I believe, too, he was somewhat of a disciple of Lloyd Percival’s hockey handbook and I remember Fred talking about that on different occasions.” Percival’s The Hockey Handbook was published in 1951, six years before Shero began his minor league coaching career. Shero reportedly memorized the book and used it as tool for future study. It was one of many books that influenced his life behind the bench. And not every book was on hockey, either.

“He was really big on John Wooden and had a lot of Wooden stuff around the house and books,” said Ray Shero, who’s known as “Son of Fred,” the GM of the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. “Dad saw how [Wooden] used his psychology of reading people at UCLA as applicable to hockey. My dad was pretty quiet, but if he trusted you, he would engage you and talk for hours about things. “He was a big, big reader and even on Russian history. After the first Cup, he went to Russia and brought my mom for three weeks. He met with Boris Mikhailov and took Lou Vairo over there. It was a hockey seminar. He must have met with ****** ********, too. He really loved it.”

In 1971, Allen, the Flyers' GM at the time, didn’t know Fred Shero, other than by reputation. Allen knew Shero was successful, and had a gut feeling he’d be the right coach for the team Allen was building. “He was a guy who was very successful in the minors,” Allen said. “I thought, ‘let’s have him in, look at him and see.’ I never knew him personally. I was a little older than he was. He was just so successful.” Snider took a chance on Shero because he trusted Allen. “Keith came to me and said, ‘there is this guy Shero in the Ranger organization,’” Snider said. “’Do you know him?’ ‘No, I don’t know him, but he always has a winning record and I think he would be great.’ Keith brought him in. Keith the Thief got him.”

Fred Shero the teacher and innovator

“He had this contraption called The Apollo with ropes all over it,” Ray Shero recalled. “Guys would use it off ice. It was a tube with ropes, similar to bands we have now.” Said Clarke, “We were the first team that had off-ice training with the Apollo machine, which was weight training. No one else was doing that.” That was innovative. So was sending messages without saying a word. Or even looking at a player.

Former Rangers goalie John Davidson, who sits on the Hall’s selection committee and is president of hockey operations in St. Louis, recalls that Shero had a unique way of motivating players simply by a touch. “He was innovative in how he tried to motivate people,” Davidson said. “He could do things even through his hands. He would find ways to touch you on the bench [to send a message]. He was a man of few words.”

Clarke said Shero’s bench strategy was simply to keep players’ minds in the game. “He’d walk up and down the bench [asking], ‘how much time left in the period?’” Clarke said. “’Bleep, Freddy, look it up yourself.’ But his game plan was, if there were five minutes left to play, this is how he wanted us to play. He wanted everyone to know how much time was left on the clock. None of us had ever seen this approach.”

Or his approach after losses. “He would have 8 a.m. practices,” Clarke said. “If you lost a game, the next day practice was low key, almost lackadaisical. But if you won, he would work the hell out of you. He always felt if you were winning, you could get more work out of a man. If you were losing, your energy was low, and [it was like] let’s get it back and not waste it in practice. But when we won, and we won a lot, we practiced. It’s the exact opposite philosophy of coaches today, where if a team plays bad, they skate the hell out of you. He never did that. His practices were always for the purpose to get better.”

Shero studied video, broke it down, and would then disseminate information to his players. “Freddy would break down a team off tapes and he’d always say, ‘this is the way we’re going to win the game,’” said Joe Watson, who played for Shero's Cup-winning squads. “Not the way we’re going to play, but win. Whenever he said ‘win,’ players thought, ‘well, if we do [as] Freddy says, we can win.’ Most times he was right. We believed in that and it held true in a lot of instances. “We broke down games thoroughly. We would run it on the ice at practices with the two assistants. That was before his time.”

Shero felt that repetition of systems and drills was important for success in games. “Dad had his 'Ten Commandments,'” Ray Shero said. “I’d say nine of 10 are still applicable to today’s game. So much was repetition. He felt repetition was the key. Someone asked my dad once why he never closed practices. He answered that it was execution that won hockey games and not surprises. So why hide? Execution and repetition was the big part of his systems. Where players should go without the puck.”

Fred Shero also broke down games off the radio. “I remember there was a Chicago-Boston game on TV and he would sit in our living room in Cherry Hill, and this [in] 1973 or 74,” Ray Shero said. “He’d have his pad, from the desk of Fred Shero, and be sitting there in the living room. I’d come home from playing and my mom [Mariette] would go, ‘shhh, dad is listening to the game.’ He had this stereo and it’s got static and he’s listening to an Islander-Boston game. I was thinking, ‘what could you possibly get off the radio?’ But he did it.”

He also demonstrated what opponents were doing on the ice and how to defend against it. He took what others did and refined it to suit his own game. “A lot of people can be provincial,” Davidson said. “Our way is the only way to do it, the best way, and that’s that. Freddy was open-minded to the world. A lot of people in the world, if you are open-minded, you can grasp things from other cultures. You can be a better person. A better innovator. You not only become a sponge to learn, but a better teacher. You can take all the good things and apply them.”

Toronto general manager Brian Burke won the Stanley Cup in Anaheim as a GM, though as a player he spent time in the Flyers’ system in Maine. Burke, too, saw Shero’s tactics as groundbreaking for the sport. “His use of film back then was radical,” Burke said. “He was an innovator. People remember those teams and say, Broad Street Bullies. Those Flyers were the prototype of the Islanders’ four Cup teams. They were the first team where, no matter what style you would play, we’re going to be able to match you. If you want to play hard, we’ll play hard. If you want to play skill, we can do that. Look at the guys they had on that team. [Reggie] Leach, [Rick] MacLeish. He was an innovator and his practices were much better than what most teams were doing at the time. Most practices were very simple back then, but Freddy’s were more complex.”

Shero took the 1979 Rangers to the Stanley Cup final against Montreal. No one expected that team to upset the Islanders, let alone have a chance against the Canadiens, who won the series in five games. “He would sit and take notes himself and then come out and use them,” John Davidson said of that playoff run. “There was no two-hour dissertation. He’d make his few points and that was it. Freddy wouldn’t say a whole lot. But he would exercise his thoughts. He had people who would do a lot of work with him, like Mike Nykoluk. He used people the right way.”

Bob Clarke said the single most noble attribute of Shero as a coach was that he never abused his players. “You absorb so much playing for a guy as long as I did, and I never realized it until later, he never, ever gave players’ [grief],” Clarke said. “He didn’t raise his voice at players. My feeling is that when coaches do that, they’re doing it for their own sake. The coach’s job is to make his players and his team better. Yelling and cursing at the guy doesn’t make him better. Freddy was the epitome of what a coach should be. He helped you get better. He never abused you in any form. That is what coaching is.”

In the offseason, Shero conducted coaching seminars in Canada. “I remember in 1976, Freddy did a clinic at my hometown in Smithers, British Columbia,” ****** said. “We had coaches from every part of Canada. It wasn’t cheap, either – I think $150. And people came a long way for three days to hear Freddy talk. They loved him.”

Freddy Shero and the Soviet Red Army

When the Flyers defeated the Soviet Red Army in January of 1976, it was no mere coincidence. Fred Shero had not only studied how the Red Army played, but he had dissected the very essence of their attack – how they passed the puck. “He said they would win the faceoffs and then make 20 passes,” ****** recalled of the Flyers’ strategy. “He told us, let them make their passes. We stood back and let them pass. They got confused because we didn’t go after them. We made them come to us. The Russians never shot the puck in or chased it. They carried it. By end of the second period they were shooting it in because they could not penetrate our blue line.”

It wasn’t the first time that Shero had done the unconventional. In 1974, when the Flyers won their first Cup by defeating Boston, Shero told his players to allow Bobby Orr to have the puck in his own end. It was risky. “No one had ever used that approach before,” Clarke recalled. “It wasn’t so much let Orr have the puck, as every time you had it, throw it into his corner and make Orr skate back hard for it. Freddy knew it was going to be a long series and Orr would play 30-35 minutes a game. Every time we got it, we throw it into his corner, make him skate back hard, and if you got there in time, hit him. I don’t know if it took a toll on him. The fifth game, they beat us and he was by far the best player on the ice. But the sixth game here, he wasn’t quite the factor he was in some other games. And we had Bernie [Parent], too.”

Naturally, two years later, when it came time for playing the Soviet Red Army, Clarke wasn’t surprised that Shero again used a puck strategy. “We knew how they played,” Clarke said. “They wanted to pass the puck. As soon as you left a spot, they’d pass it where you used to be. If you weren’t prepared for that, they would make you look pretty bad. Freddy said, ‘just hold your positions.’ Let them pass it around all they want. They tried that the first eight minutes of the game and we never chased them. They broke down. As long as we held our positions, they had nowhere to go with the puck. When you have to pass through a guy, it’s different, and they weren’t that good. I think that game may have changed the Russian game of hockey. After that, they started shooting the puck in. Doing things that North Americans did.” Added Burke, “Freddy was ahead of his time.”

Freddy the Philosopher

Of course, Shero is best remembered as a bit of a philosopher. He liked to read. He would pick up things, mull them over, then flush them out on the chalkboard as sayings. Or simply make them up himself. One saying, before the Flyers won their first Cup against Boston, led to hockey immortality: Win today and we walk together forever.

“He did it on occasion,” Clarke recalled. “It wasn’t infrequent. Once every couple weeks, there would be a new one. You got used to it after awhile and [started] looking forward to them and trying to figure them out. He wanted us to think.”

****** enjoyed the scribblings, yet couldn’t figure them out. “Being hockey players, it took a month to figure it out,” he said. “But we understood ‘win today and we walk together forever.’”

Shero’s many inspirational sayings became legend. “In his own sort of quiet, reserved way, Freddy was brilliant,” Snider said. Even today, coaches borrow from Shero – albeit, without crediting him. Last month at the Cup final in Detroit, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock, who can be both charming and obnoxious at the same time, was asked during the morning before Game 7 what it would mean if the Wings beat the Penguins that evening. “You win together today, you walk together forever. I'm a big believer in that,” Babcock said. No attribution to Shero. None necessary. Everyone at the presser knew who said it first.

...“He should be in the Hall of Fame because he took an expansion team and won a Stanley Cup in our seventh year of existence, No. 1,” Snider said. “No. 2, he was very innovative, particularly in studying other methods of play, like he did with the Russians and then used their system to dominate them in ’76. He was full of innovations. Players still revere him.”

Ray Shero says his father “made a difference” in hockey. “He was an innovator and winner and he won at all levels,” he said. “He had an impact on people’s lives. He made the game of hockey better. ... There were a lot of big moments under him. … I believe he belongs there. I know the contributions he made.”

It’s long overdue for the Hockey Hall of Fame to acknowledge those contributions, as well.

Coaches use an array of techniques to motivate their players. Some make fire and brimstone speeches, others use a reserved corporate executive style of communication. Fred Shero took the road less traveled. He scribbled messages on the locker room blackboard to inspire his troops... Using an eccentric, entertaining style, he began to mold the Flyers into the "Broad Street Bullies," writing on his famed blackboard, "Take the shortest route to the puck carrier, and arrive in ill humor." He stressed the importance of commitment by saying, "When you have bacon and eggs for breakfast, the chicken makes a contribution, but the pig makes a commitment."

Practices under Shero could make an outsider shake his head in disbelief. To improve stick handling, tennis balls would replace hockey pucks. To increase leg strength, skaters would push a goalie seated in a folded chair around the ice. Forwards would practice breakaways while being slashed from behind. "Nobody ever lets you score an easy goal in a game," Shero said. "Why practice that way?"

"The Fog," as Shero was called, didn’t rest on his laurels. Three days after winning his first Cup, he spent three weeks in the Soviet Union to study Russian techniques. Even with all his success, this brilliant hockey mind never took himself too seriously. "Coaches are a dime a dozen," Shero said.

]"Coaches in our country are not considered masters of anything"

, Shero told the Russians. "In fact, they're considered dummies in a lot of cases." Shero gave a lengthy presentation, dispensing whatever knowledge he had, and lapped up what the Russians had to say. Other Canadians felt they weren't getting enough out of the symposium and wanted to go home, leaving Shero to conclude the lectures were too deep for them. The irony was that the Philadelphia coach, the same man who was being harpooned at home as the father of goon hockey, a type of hockey the soviets despised, was the star of the show.

Watching the Russians, Shero decided it was useless to start attacking an opponent by taking the puck behind your own net. It allowed opponents time to get set up. From then on the Flters would counter-attack like the Russians - from the second they got control of the puck.

Another puzzle to Shero was the tight rein the Russians kept on their superstars. "A team's superstars should be able to stray from the pack," said Shero. "They made theirs conform to the system. Coaches have too much power over there."

If there could possibly be as few as three words to describe Fred Shero and his coaching ability, perhaps "eccentric, but effective" would be appropriate.

The Flyers were sometimes put through nonsensical drills until somebody, usually Clarke, would challenge their worth. "now we're getting somewhere," Shero would say. "I wanted to see who was thinking."

Shero would gather the Flyers in his hotel room at mid evening for beers. The real purpose of these meetings was to disrupt the players' barhopping and keep consumption at moderate levels, but the sessions were far less resented than any strict curfews.

The Flyers felt Shero treated them like adults. he never embarrassed them before their peers, and would sometimes go to ridiculous lengths to publicly defend them.

My teammates respected Freddie, but I should point out that when I played for him, I adored him... The players never felt alone. We always had the sense that Freddie, in his inimitable fashion, would protect us and provide us with feelings of security at the appropriate times... Freddie's dedication to the game neutralized all our doubts and misgivings, so that we rarely if ever questioned either his strategies or his style of behaviour... Freddie was adjudged a born winner by all those around him...

Freddie did more with less than anyone else in NHL history. Look at the lineup we had when the Flyers won the Stanley Cup - there were only four players on the whole team who could legimately be called special talents - Parent, Clarke, Barber, and MacLeish... He brought us together as no other coach could have... He made it clear that everyone contributed no matter how little or how much a guy was on the ice. It made everyone, especially me, put out just a little bit more for him...

In terms of his critics, and also his supporters, Freddie paid a very heavy price that, to this time is not very clearly understood. The bottom line is that Freddie won two Stanley Cups with a team that shouldn't have won it either time, if you judge by talent alone. But, thanks to Freddie, we had something going for us that others sisn't; we worked harder than any team in the league. We were the most disciplined and the most aggressive. We had developed a reputation.

Freddie is easy to get along with. He can joke with the players, even kid us about the amount of money we get. He sincerely wants to make his players better men, but he only goes so far. He opens the doors, but it's up to us to walk through them.

At first, I thought the exercises he had us doing were the kind you give to a peewee or bantam player... But then I realized they all had a purpose... Freddie is always looking to be one step ahead of the times...

There s only one Freddie Shero. that's one reason I gave him the Javelin car I won from Sport Magazine after the 1974 playoffs. When I gave Freddie the keys, he said "I've always said you have to be a little goofy to be a coach. But now I think my players are a little crazy too." I just thought Freddie deserved a gift like that. he took us to the cup. Sure, we had a good team, but he's the one who harnessed us and kept us going.

Of all the characters I've known in sports, my most unforgettable character would have to be Fred Shero... If I had to summarize Freddy's philosophy in as few words as possible, I would give you this quote by Freddy Himself. "Hockey is a children's game played by men; since it is a children's game, they ought to have fun." And Freddy's players had fun! Oh my, did all of us ever have fun!

Freddy's intent was that he wanted the players to know that in his mind, above all else, the players came first. All of his subtle little trivialities showed only one thing: It was the players alone that mattered to him.

Whether they knew it or not, Freddy understood the character of his players better than anyone else. As he put it, "In the first year, I want to know more about my players than their wives do. And what's more important, I know who's willing to do what it takes to win."

Even after his most magnificent triumph, winning the Stanley Cup for the first time, Freddy was off to Russia three days later. When asked why he didn't stay around a while to savour the success, Freddy answered succinctly, "I've already taught them everything I know. The only way they're going to get better is if I get smarter."

Everyone had a role on the team and everyone played... With that philosophy in force, all of Freddy's players felt as though they belonged and were wanted, and perhaps even more important, when crunch time came in the third period, the key players were not worn to a frazzle; they were warmed up and ready to dominate the last part of the game. Under Freddy, the Flyers became known as a team that "owned the 3rd period".

To his players, Freddy was like a good father. They didn't always understand him, but they always knew that he cared. And they trusted him.

Some critics label the Flyers a violent team. Yet, these critics will applaud if Clarke or MacLeish or Schultz is dealt a stiff bodycheck. The flyers are an aggressive team, no doubtm and they are going to stay aggressive. But aggression alone doesn't win games and a championship. It takes discipline, teamwork, conditioning, and a system.

...In the last 30 years, since the beginning of the red line, we have done nothing in center ice. Every other team does the same thing: if they get the puck over to the center; if the wings are covered, they shoot it in. The Russians have advanced beyond that stage already. Instead of shooting the puck in, they will create openings. I picked up this technique from the Russians, and ours is the only team in the NHL that has been using this method of play... The Russians are creating openings even in their own zone. They will weave and cut to get away from the wings and create openings.

...the Russians believe in five-man units and all working together. Every man knows exactly what the other man is going to do in every situation. When I played defense and our center had the puck, I had no idea what he was going to do. In a typical game, the wings may have had some idea of what the center was going to do, but generally, we never worked as a five-man unit.

For instance, the left winger would have the puck deep in the corner, and I could stand free all night and never get the puck. He was going to do what he wanted, and nobody knew what he was going to , not even the coach. But the Russians don't play that way and neither do the Flyers.

...Take the Flyers, for instance. We had no reason, if reason is to be culled from statistics and scouting reports, to win the 1974 Stanley Cup. There were other teams in the NHL with superior personnel. Some of the players are even considered by pundits today as the best in hockey history. But the Flyers won the championship. The explanation goes beyond statistics and averages. There is no mathematical formula that can explain courage and confidence, and I doubt one will be forthcoming.

...My system demands economy of motion. We don't have to beat anyone to pass the puck. We don't believe in carrying the puck. To us, the name of the game is passing.

...Motivation takes many forms, but regardless of the specifics it has to be positive... I try to harp on the positive aspects of the game as much as possible. I will hit the negative aspect lightly, but I know it will register.

...I know my personnel. I know who to humour and who will not be humoured. The players are all individuals; they have the right to be different. Therefore, they can't all be treated the same. Some are more sensitive than others, some are more intelligent and some are more hardworking than others. The coach who tries to handle all his players the same way is not successful for long.

"A typical hockey fan would probably tell you Frank Mahovlich is a great player because he scored 49 goals one year. But if I put Frank Mahovlich in a corner and send someone in to check him, he'll throw a blind pass into the slot every time. just to keep from getting hit. That kind of careless pass can send the other team on a three-on-two if it's intercepted. The mark of a great player? Hardly. You won't see one of our players throw the puck away like that. It takes courage to take a hit in the corer but our players will accept that to make a good pass.

Talent-wise, this team doesn't compare to Montreal. Aside from Clarke and Parent, we don't have a man who could make their squad, but when we have to beat them, we do. Why? Because Montreal relies on one individual to have a super game or make the super play. With them, everything is one on one. To win against good competition, you have to set up two-on-ones and three-on-ones which is what our team does. It takes discipline and self-secrifice. It probably wouldn't work in Montreal because the players want to put the puck in the net themselves. I'm lucky. There isn't a selfish man on the team.

So I can't be worried about the so-called experts. They are so busy trying to explain why the great New York Rangers and Boston Bruins keep losing, they don't take time to consider why a team like ours keeps winning. it's no secret, the answer is plain enough to see, if only they'd bother to look."

The Flyers haven't lost a game in two months. Why? It's The System, say the players.

The Flyers are undefeated over their last 20 games. Why? It's The System, say the coaches.

The Flyers haven't lost a playoff game yet this year. Why? It's The System.

The Flyers lost four regulars to injuries during the playoffs last year and still won the Stanley Cup. Why? It's The System.

the Flyers lost the NHL's best goaltender and they're still 2-0 in the semifinals. Why? It's The System.

The way the Flyers speak to reverently about The System, yo'd swear the diagrams had been etched into stone atop Mt. Sinai.

"Under Freddy's system, everyone has got a definite place to be under every circumstance," says ***** ******. "After a while, you know, you just know, where everybody on your team is gonna be. Hell, you can pass the puck without even looking."

"There's no way to beat The System. I mean, the only way you can beat it is if someone isn't where he's supposed to be, or if the other team just plain has more talent all the way around than you and they play to their potential all night."

Fred Shero's system is a distillation, a borrowing, a little from here, a little from there, of other teams' systems, with, of course, his own modifications and alterations. And he is always tinkering.

Shero also planned to distribute a 300-word essay on the basics of skating, emphasizing the proper stance, stride, arch of the back and bend of the knees. "Nobody is ever too smart to improve," Shero said. "These basic rules also apply to pros. If they take them home and read them, they might register. I could stand at center ice and read them but the players would laugh at me or not listen. They don't have time for lectures. So they get them in writing. If just one man improves his speed or does more helpful exercises, it's worth it."

Win or Lose, Freddie Shero is Freddie Shero. he'll talk away the night, He'll think up new answers to old questions... As a coach who excels in motivating athletes, he knew it was his job to dispel some of those negative thoughts (after losing three straight games to NYI to tie the semifinals)... If they stave off embarrassment tonight, Freddie Shero will deserve much of the credit.

And like all geniuses he has his own ways of creating. The methods are different from those long accepted ones not understood by the masses. Once, during this series with Buffalo, he wanted his team to clear the puck in a manner not used during the season. His players doubted the change, so he allowed them to use the old way through a whole period, demonstrating its futility.

"Guys like Esposito and Orr are going to play a lot for themselves", Shero said. "If Boston loses they're not going to blame Esposito and Orr. Of course not. They'll look at the statistics; they'll see all the goals they scored; they'll say the rest of the team let them down. That is why we'll prevail in the end. What a coach has to realize, a team's like a family. You've got to find a way to work together, live together, laugh together. Build that togetherness or they're going to die. You don't have togetherness if they're sitting on the bench and you don't tell them why. If I don't play them, that's a crime, i think. You run into injuries, what then? it's hard to do anything when you've been sitting on your tail for a month." Total dedication to the team. That is what Shero has built on a foundation so strong that even success couldn't destroy it.

They have downgraded individualism to a crime and uplifted teamwork to an art and a virtue. The Flyers almost magically converted the work ethic into the WORK ETHIC. "A lot of times," said bernie Parent, "we do not understand Freddie, but we believe in him."

Let's face it, Shero is the NHL's answer to Rumplestiltskin, weaving gold from straw. He has taken blah players such as *** ******, **** **********, ***** ********** - so average you can't tell them from mediocre - and made them big winners. Shero simply wrote a hockey symphony and taught his men how to play it.

Apart from Clarke, the supreme digger, there are two virtuosos on the team - Rick MacLeish and Bernie Parent. Shero is absolutely right when he said that most of his guys aren't good enough to make the Canadiens' lineup.

Mysterious, off-beat personality... Deep-thinking, imaginative, innovative coach and strategist... Likes to diagram plays with Xs and Os in football fashion... Always developing new methods of doing things... "None of us can figure him out or understand him, but he's a great coach to play for," says team captain Bobby Clarke... has tremendous rapport with players... A great motivator... Other coaches have adopted many of his ideas...

A try-anything strategist... Has interrupted practice sessions by tossing volleyball on ice and telling players to have some fun...Collects quotes and scrawls inspirational messages on loceker room blackboard...

Still "The Fog", but made things clearer for the Rangers... Credited with developing defensive system that pulled team past preliminary for the first time in five years and into the final... Pieced together team that challenged for second place... remained patient with young defense...

BEST COACH - Fred Shero, ***** **** tie

BEST COACH - Al Arbour (Fred Shero, Billy Reay, Scotty Bowman)

BEST COACH - 1 Scotty Bowman 2 Al Arbour 3 Fred Shero

“Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must first set yourself on fire.”

Eighteen choirboys never won the Stanley Cup, and they never will.

 

[seventieslord]

With the 374th pick in ATD2011, The Regina Pats are pleased to select:

Pierre Turgeon, C

- 6'1", 199 lbs
- 5th in Hart Voting (1993)
- 6th in Center All-Star Voting (1990)
- Top-25 in Goals 7 Times (6th, 12th, 14th, 17th, 21st, 21st, 24th)
- Top-25 in Assists 9 Times (8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 11th, 19th, 20th, 20th, 21st)
- Top-25 in Points 10 Times (5th, 7th, 13th, 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 22nd, 24th)
- Top-15 in Playoff Points Twice (12th, 13th)
- 97 points in 109 career playoff games
- Had 13 consecutive seasons with at least 0.96 PPG
- Led his team in scoring by margins of 45, 24, 19, 18, and 15 points.
- Had three injury-shortened seasons with PPG average that would have placed him much higher in the league scoring race:
- 1994: 14th (would be 3rd)
- 1998: 24th (would be 2nd)
- 1999: 27th (would be 14th)
- 2000: 35th (would be 1st)

ONLINE SOURCES

An immensely talented offensive centre, Pierre Turgeon entered the NHL in 1987-88, and has been one of the most skilled players in the NHL.

As a rookie he scored the first overall pick in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft had a respectable 42 points on an improved Sabres squad that made the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. Turgeon broke through as a bonafide NHL star with 88 points as a sophomore and 106 points in 1989-90.

Early in 1991-92 Turgeon was the key to the package sent by the Sabres to the New York Islanders to acquire Pat Lafontaine. In his first season with the Islanders, Turgeon registered 87 points in 67 games.

The next year Turgeon experienced the highs and lows of his career. During the regular season he established personal standards with 58 goals and 132 points while capturing the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. Turgeon continued to excel in the post-season and led the Islanders to a first round upset over the Washington Capitals. Unfortunately, the young star suffered a shoulder injury late in the series-clinching game against Washington. Even though New York went all the way to the semifinals, Turgeon was clearly hampered by this injury when he returned to the lineup.

Turgeon continued to produce for the Islanders but the team never built on its success of 1992-93. In 1994-95 he lived out a childhood fantasy when a trade brought him to the Montreal Canadiens. The highlight of his time with the Habs came in 1995-96 when he recorded 96 points and was the team's captain for the last game at the Montreal Forum.

Early in the 1996-97 season, Turgeon was traded to the St. Louis Blues where he functioned as a solid point-per-game forward. In 1999-00, Turgeon began playing his most inspired hockey since the shoulder injury in the 1993 playoffs. Through most of the regular season he was among the NHL's leading scorers before he was felled by injuries. In the end he scored 66 points in 52 games and helped the Blues set a franchise record with 115 points and earn the President's trophy for finishing at the top of the NHL's standings. Turgeon went on to play one more season with the Blues before signing as a free agent with Dallas Stars in the summer of 2001.

An outstanding passer and playmaker, center Pierre Turgeon delivered the goods everywhere he plied his trade in the National Hockey League. Shortly after joining Montreal in 1995, he succeeded Mike Keane as the Canadiens’ captain and was the last Montreal player to wear the “C” at the Forum.

After eight remarkable seasons with the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders, the first overall pick in the 1987 entry draft was traded to Montreal along with Vladimir Malakhov in exchange for Kirk Muller, Mathieu Schneider and Craig Darby.

As a result, he followed in the footsteps of his older brother Sylvain, who spent two seasons with the Canadiens during his 10-year NHL career.

Despite contributing 20 points in 15 games with his new team, Turgeon was unable to right the Canadiens’ ship in time and the team fell short of the playoffs at the end of the lockout-shortened 48-game season in 1994-95.

In his first full season with the Habs in 1995-96, the Rouyn native had 38 goals and 58 assists for a team-leading 96 points in 80 games, two points ahead of Vincent Damphousse. He also added six points in six playoff games.

Nine games into the following season, Turgeon was traded to the St. Louis Blues along with Rory Fitzpatrick and Craig Conroy in exchange for Murray Baron and Shayne Corson.

In 104 games with Montreal, he scored 50 goals and added 77 assists for 127 points. He also won the Molson Cup in 1995-96 as the Canadiens’ player of the year.

A gifted natural athlete, Turgeon excelled at the finesse game. The strength of his game was his hockey sense and play making ability. Though he had an excellent shot with a quick release, he was always a playmaker first, then a goal scorer. His vision and creativity combined to make him a lethal setup man and tough to defend.

I would go as far as to say Turgeon was beyond amazing when he had the puck. He never looked at the puck, but he always had it in perfect control. Without the puck, in typical quiet Pierre Turgeon form, he was so elusive, appearing out of nowhere and disappearing from checks.

Turgeon was very efficient on the ice, which led to some detractors. He was uncanny with his positioning, which he undoubtedly learned in order to make up for a lack of foot speed. Since he was usually in the right spot at the right time, Turgeon never had to scramble to get into the play. Critics called him lazy, when in fact he was extremely economical.

Many critics also pointed to his lack of a physical game, and with merit. Turgeon was a big pivot at 6'1" and 205 lbs, but he never really imposed himself on the opposition. He was never afraid to go into traffic areas to score goals, and he took checks while making plays with the pucks, but he really needed to initiate more of a physical game for him to have reached his full potential. Had he been able to, he would be remembered as one of the best of his generation.

I think what his critics don't point out enough though is rarely did Turgeon have a strong supporting cast. There's no doubting he had the ability, and make no mistake he had the desire to be a dominating NHL figure. He just didn't have the temperament to be a dominating solitary force. Too often in his career, especially in Buffalo and Long Island, and even to some degree in Montreal, he was asked to turn an average team into a Stanley Cup contender. He just wasn't that lone-warrior type of player.

Unable to win in the post season, the Sabres moved Turgeon in 1991 in a 7 player trade that also headlined Pat Lafontaine. Playing with Derek King and Steve Thomas on his wings, Turgeon erupted for his best season in 1992-93 when he recorded a career-best 58 goals and 132 points in his first full season on Long Island. The NHL awarded him the Lady Byng Trophy as he only picked up 13 minor penalties. More importantly, Turgeon was enjoying his first taste of post season success and leading the Islanders to the Conference Finals. En route, however, Turgeon the recipient of one of the ugliest muggings in hockey history. As Turgeon celebrated a goal in a blowout playoff win against the Washington Capitals, Dale Hunter came up behind him and flung him into the boards. Turgeon injured his shoulder and Hunter received a 21-game suspension. The Islanders, and particularly Turgeon, were never the same.

Hunter's mugging may have altered hockey history, suggested New York Daily News writer Frank Brown. He wrote:

"Pierre Turgeon had been a dynamic, involved personality. He was becoming the emblem of the Islanders and the Club was saying 'This is our symbol of future greatness to come. This is the offensive superstar we haven't had since Mike Bossy and this is the hope for a bring new arena on Long Island and million dollar visibility in the marketplace.

"Everything changed by one mean-spirited little *****. When Pierre Turgeon got up, he left some piece of himself on the Nassau pond. From the minute he returned, he was hesitant; he was a perimeter guy; he was a guy who was not activating the energy level of his team the way he had been. He didn't have that drive to the front of the net."

That year turned out to be more of the exception to the new rule as opposed to his arrival as a superstar. He returned to the 90 point level and below. Much like the Sabres, the Islanders must have felt Turgeon was not going to live up to that franchise player designation and moved him to Montreal for Kirk Muller and Mathieu Schneider.

Montreal was an odd destination for a French Canadian player with a reputation for shunning the spotlight. But Montreal, and more importantly Montreal fans, wanted a French Canadian scoring star to lead them back to glory. To make matters worse, Turgeon was burdened with the team's captaincy.

Though his stay was brief, Turgeon put up some good numbers in Montreal. He only played one full season, leading the team in scoring in 1995-96 with 38 goals and 96 points. He teamed well with fellow Frenchman Vincent Damphousse. But the captain's spotlight, especially in media-crazy Montreal, never sat well with Turgeon's quiet and reserved temperament. He handled it all gracefully, especially during the closing of the Montreal Forum, but there was always a hit of reluctance as well.

As brilliant as he could be, he just never had the personality to take his image and his game to the highest level. Unappreciative and unfair Montreal fans quickly turned on their captain, booing him out of town.

Turgeon went to St. Louis, where he could play in some anonymity. Playoff success was easier to find, three times playing 10 or more games. Injuries capped Turgeon around the 60 game mark in St. Louis, therefore making the likes of Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis, Pavol Dimetra and Brett Hull as the go-to guys. It was quite unfortunate that Turgeon couldn't have enjoyed his previous injury free seasons in St. Louis, though ultimately, for all their money spending ways, the Blues were never a true Stanley Cup contender.

ASSETS: Had uncanny hand/eye coordination. Was a very good playmaker, an even better goal-scorer and premier player when deflecting point shots. His hockey sense was terrific.

FLAWS: Had to battle a reputation for soft play his entire career. Was never the best skater, either. His intensity wasn't always present; neither was his two-way game.

CAREER POTENTIAL: Great scoring center.

Pierre Turgeon has elicited a range of opinions from observers of the game. Justified or not, many have questioned his fighting spirit, but there has been no denial of his pure talent. Since entering the NHL in 1987, he has been one of the most skilled and feared players in the NHL… As a rookie, he scored a respectable 42 points on an improved Sabres squad that made the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. Coach Ted Sator remarked: "the talent just jumps out at you. Players that dominate the junior ranks, they don't do that because they're lucky." For his part, the young rookie commented on the adjustments to the fast pace of the NHL: "it's so hard because you have to think a little bit faster and make your play a little bit faster. Sometimes you don't have enough time because the go write to you. Every player develops improvised nation, and here the improvised before you make your play, so you have to be careful. The defense sometimes will see if you pass to the left wing on a regular basis and before you even passed the defenseman will forecheck the way."

THE COMPENDIUM OF WHAT WAS SAID OF TURGEON DURING HIS CAREER

Turgeon is not a flashy or fancy finesse player. He does have great speed and acceleration because of his very strong stride, but strength of his game is in his stickhandling and anticipation skills – the playmaking game. He has great vision and hockey sense, and he uses those abilities to put him in the clear four shots himself or to lead teammates to the openings with excellent passes. Pierre easily finds the open man passes to him well. Turgeon shoots the puck very well and he has excellent shot selection to choose from. He uses his sense to get into scoring position, and all his skills improve on the open ice of the power play.

Opponents have to respect Turgeon's size, and he has good strength to match it. He's not a banger or power forward, but he goes to the traffic areas to score. He takes checks to make his plays and he uses his body very well to protect the puck. He controls the puck very well with his feet, and his good hand and arm strength makes him good on the face-off.

It is still way too early to declare what kind of player Turgeon will be, and this season will go a long way toward determining that fact, but he's given good indications of his talent and ability to play in difficult situations.

Turgeon recognizes – and is beginning to exploit – the openings he sees. He has excellent hands in all categories – passing, puck handling and shooting – and he'll excel at getting the puck to his teammates anywhere, anytime. Turgeon will use his puck handling ability in conjunction with his skating to be very creative with the puck – to open up space to his teammates can skate into, or that he can pass to. Turgeon shoots the puck extremely well, and because his sense gets him into scoring position his scoring opportunities are many. He has quick release necessary to score from in close, the ability to put the puck anywhere he wants, and the strength to score from a distance. Better even strength scoring is a must, however, as just 15 of his goals came at full strength.

Skating is currently the least of Turgeon's skills, but he is very strong stride provides him with speed and acceleration ability. He also has exceptional balance, and that allows them to maintain body position while being checked. His skills make him a specialty teams natural. Defensively, he tends to coast back to the Sabres zone instead of keeping his feet moving.

If Pierre ever gets the urge to really impose himself on the opposition, and he must if he is to achieve his full potential, watch out. He's already got good size and strength, despite the fact that he's only 20 years old and still several years away from physical maturity. Right now, Turgeon is neither a banger nor power forward, but he goes to the traffic areas to score. His balance is the key here.… His potential is still largely untapped… Turgeon could grow into one of the NHL's dominant players, but he's going to see more determined checking this year than ever before. How he responds to that will go a long way toward determining just how high it will go.

Turgeon's finesse skills? Wow. There is almost nothing he can't already do excellently at the NHL level in terms of finesse, and all his abilities will grow as he matures. He's not an excellent skater in the conventional sense in that he lacks overall rink speed (and we are certainly not saying he'll be caught from behind on a breakaway), but Turgeon is incredibly shifty for a man his size. He has exceptional – superior – balance and foot speed, and his change of direction and pace ability is very high. Those quick feet combined with his balance to make him almost unbeatable in one step situations at any speed. His hand skills are better than his overall foot skills. He can finesse the puck into any opening regardless of size. His hands are just as good in tight quarters in front of the net, and his quick release, combined with his balance and ability to shoot while checked, means he'll torture goalies to the tune of 50 goals a season. He carries the puck as well as he passes it – maybe better – and he'll make defenses look stupid unless they play the body. His hockey sense, vision and anticipation are all excellent, nowhere more so than in specialty team situations. He sets up behind the net on the power play and distributes the puck from there, and is always a threat for shorthanded goal while penalty killing. He always gets into scoring position, and more and more is putting his teammates there too.

Turgeon will take hits to make plays, and clearly could get by just as he is, but he still prefers open ice to traffic areas. Now we're not saying he should pretend to be Cam Neely, but Turgeon has excellent size and balance – strength can be added – and those assets can amplify his finesse game. He could easily increase point success by a third he added a more robust physical element to his game. One can only imagine what would happen if he threw checks to make plays too… Turgeon responded very positively to the mantle of top gun for Buffalo, producing consistently throughout the season. He is already a dominant player in the Adams division and will soon grow into the dominating player. He is the cornerstone of future success, and his presence almost automatically makes them the future Stanley Cup contender. And the best is still ahead of him.

Turgeon has thick legs, which he uses for good drive, strength of strident speed that may not be exceptional but certainly gets him where he wants to go – when he wants to get there. Skating, however, is one weapon Turgeon rarely uses to his advantage and that often gets in the way of deploying his other wondrous skills. Turgeon has fine one-on-one moves, soft hands for passing and good vision of the ice. He can make a lead pass, thread a needle or carry the puck into the zone and feed a teammate heading to the net. One of his favorite offense of places to hide behind the net, then materialize at the side of the cage to goalies left. On his off wing that way, Turgeon is available for stuff play on a pass across the crease. An advocate of the snapshot – one of his real strengths – Turgeon's primary targets are the sweet spot between the goalie shins or low rockets to the stick side. The shots come right to the net, as Turgeon rarely fakes a shot and does something else, but it is more accurate than overpowering.

Turgeon is strong on his stick and strong on his skates, which makes it difficult to move him off the puck. But he hates the physical stuff. He does not take the puck into traffic and he will not go in there to get it, unless it is on his terms. He will turn away from any check possible. The mere chance of a collision will stop his legs from moving, which is especially damaging when he has the puck on the attacking zone boards; he fails to get the puck deep, it turns over and he's behind on the transition.… He struggled further against the added physical/checking attention 106 point scorers receive. Turgeon plays the game at an extremely high level, but would reach an even higher one – and receive more respect – with a little more speed, a little more muscle, a little more anger, a little more nerve.

Turgeon has great offensive skills and the right package to go with them. He has size and strength, along with speed and quickness, and can pass or shoot with equal ability. Wingers have to be alert because his pass can get through a tangle of legs and sticks to find their tape, or his shot will set up a rebound scramble. He has excellent hands, capable of feathering pass through the crowd to teammate or hitting a streaking winger in full flight. That touch also allows him to cradle a pass when he is on the receiving end. A powerful skater, Turgeon has very strong legs of fluid stride and first step quickness. He is agile and well-balanced. He needs to put his power to work more often in the high-traffic areas, where his skills give him a tremendous edge over the competition, but he prefers open ice play. Turgeon has superb peripheral vision and good hockey sense. He likes to work from behind the net, where he draws the attention of the defense and opens up ice for his wingers, who trail into the play for one of his radar like passes. His neutral zone play improved, but his work in his own end of the ice still needs help.

Turgeon has never shown much mental toughness. While he has the skills to move into the NHL's elite center men, he won't do so without earning more respect with his work ethic and desire. He does not relish physical play and can be taken out of the game by a team that does a good job of harassing him that way. He's coming into his own and could stand himself this season as one of the game's stars.

although Turgeon will never likely develop into Lafontaine, he is four years younger and has the ability to net 100 point season. We said in our last edition Turgeon wouldn't respond to the Sabres coach Rick Dudley and Turgeon was traded while Dudley still held the reins in Buffalo. In Buffalo, Turgeon was hailed as the next Gilbert Perreault, a leader and an emotional driving force to motivate his teammates. The expectations were largely unfounded. Turgeon is not a leader and hasn't yet developed the ability to play through unskilled coaches and media criticism. He often lacked intensity in Buffalo and, as a result, his totals fluctuated. Turgeon picked up the pace in New York and found a capable winger in Derek King. When Turgeon plays with intensity he's one of the league's top skilled centers. There's no reason to suspect coaching will have a negative impact on his play in the less defensive Patrick division is more suited to his scoring prowess.

Turgeon is a marvel. He never seems to be looking at the puck, yet he was always in perfect control of it. He has a style unlike just about anyone else in the NHL. He's not a faster skater, but he can deke a defender or make a sneaky surprise pass. He is tough to defend, because if you aren't aware of where he is on the ice don't deny him the pass, he can kill a team with several moves. He can slow or speed up the tempo of the game. He lacks the breakout speed of, say, Pat Lafontaine, but because he is slippery and can change speeds. The, he is deceptive. His control with the puck down low is remarkable. He protects the puck well with the body. While best known for his playmaking, Turgeon has an excellent shot. He will curl up from behind the net with a wrist shot, shoot off the fly from the right wing, or stand just off to the side of the net on the power play and reach for a tip or redirect of the point shot. He doesn't have a bazooka shot, but he uses quick, accurate wrist and snapshots. The only thing that keeps him from joining the elite centers is his defensive play, but he's getting closer.

Turgeon has to decide if he wants to be a good statistical player or a winter, and to be the latter he will have to add a more physical element to his game. He is strong but clearly does not like to contact part of the game, and he can be taken out of the play by a team that hounds him. Turgeon must play through it… Turgeon was, outside of Mario Lemieux, the top performer in the Patrick division last season, and he excelled with aless talented cast than Lemieux had in Pittsburgh. Turgeon elevates the play of those around him. The only question about him concerned his ability to lead a team in the playoffs. He performed well in the first round against Washington but was sidelined throughout the Pittsburgh upset thanks to Dale Hunter's cheap shot, so the question remains only half answered. He is an immense talent, a franchise player, and he's only getting better. He hasn't peaked yet.

he has been the cornerstone of the rebuilding Islanders since the 1991 blockbuster trade… Turgeon can do it all. He's a dynamic playmaker, covering the ice with great strides in finding his wingers with deft passes. He can skate the puck the length of the ice, or dump and chase. He shoots hard and accurately, and he has a knack for tipping in clutch goals. Last year he led the team in game-winning goals through most of the season.… Last year, Turgeon won the Lady Byng Trophy to celebrate his gentlemanly approach. Unfortunately, his coaches would probably prefer him to take a more aggressive attitude, if only to discourage attacks against – like the one Dale Hunter launched on Turgeon in last year's playoffs. He is the star of the show, and must be preserved… Turgeon is the ultimate finesse player, smooth as silk, the kind of pivot turns ordinary wingers into big-time goal scorers.

WILL - Be a leader
CAN'T - play ruggedly
EXPECT - 100 points
DON'T EXPECT - a tough guy

#19 - Pierre Turgeon: play a series of All-Star games with the NHL's best players, and you will come away marveling at the puck skills of the New York Islanders center.

Turgeon fell to earth last season. Sure, he scored nearly 100 points, but they were some of the quietest points ever recorded... Turgeon has to create odd man rushes. That is when he is at his finest… The Islanders quickly found out that Turgeon is not the Wayne Gretzky or Doug Gilmour type. He isn't outgoing, doesn't handle publicity well and goes into a shell when the going on the ice gets tough. Being labeled a franchise player can bring a player to his knees. So far, Turgeon is still on his feet, but he has to show more.

#40 - Pierre Turgeon: how the mighty has fallen. From number one pick in 1987 to THN's number 19 last year to number 40 this season. Watch him make us look bad.

Turgeon is a masterful puck handler and a graceful skater. He uses his size and strength in the same way Hall of Famers Jean Beliveau and Jean Ratelle did in their brilliant careers. He has a great shot, a quick release, and a very good eyes, finding small openings – either for passes or shots – and threading the needle with great accuracy… Turgeon's always going to be a good scorer. He's a born offensive weapon with great natural ability and a winning attitude. In the last couple of years he has struggled somewhat to make the Islanders a better team.

WILL - lead Islanders in scoring
CAN'T - afford more injuries
EXPECT - pure finesse player
DON'T EXPECT - many PIM

money player. Another stellar year. 94 points in only 69 games. The 1991 trade from Buffalo was really a career boost for Turgeon. Had four shorthanded goals and six on the power play. He's the Islanders best player by far.

he will create a certain amount of brilliance Рand it is considerable Рbut never take his game to the next level, and he won't bring the team along with. Turgeon has shied from publicity and cities were only one or two reporters routinely travel with the team. How would he handle the swell of media attention in Montr̩al? So far, he swears he loves it and that playing for Montr̩al is a dream come true.

Turgeon was born to play in Montréal, don't you think? He had 27 points in 34 games before the trade, and 20 in 15 games in Montréal. He did all he could to get the Canadiens into the playoffs, but he had very little help from his teammates.

the Canadiens traded for him mostly to receive his instant offense – something they have been lacking of late. He can make his wingers better players just by the sheer magic of his playmaking ability.

WILL - have to lead in scoring
CAN'T - afford slumps
EXPECT - all finesse
DON'T EXPECT - a banger

despite Turgeon's lack of leadership credentials, he was given the captains "C"… Is probably wishful thinking on the part of Montréal's management, which hopes Turgeon will grow into the role. It won't be a snug fit, since he doesn't have the right personality for the job, and he will really feel the pressure this season.

a smooth skater with eye-catching movements, but he doesn't like to venture in front of the net very often. Capt. Turgeon led the Canadiens in points, assists, power-play goals, and carrying torches off the Forum ice. He also tied for the team lead in goals with 38. So why are so many Canadiens fans down on him? Because they expect so much more. At times, Turgeon, blessed with an inordinate amount of natural talent, seems wishy-washy out there. If Mario Tremblay can raise his captains intensity level night after night, watch out! If not, Turgeon will schlep through another 90 to 100 point season. In

a disappointment since arriving from the Islanders, Habs' newly appointed captain has been unable to rekindle his 58 goal, 132 point form of 1993. A gifted skater and deft puck handler, his fishing skills seem to have lost their sting and his lack of grit was blatant in the playoffs.

#37: Pierre Turgeon: we don't usually look at style points for this honor, but the puck slickness the Montréal Canadiens captain possesses in heavy traffic is a valuable asset.

there aren't many players in the NHL who can match Turgeon for pure grace and artistry with the puck. He's a gifted playmaker who can find openings that nobody else seems to see. He lofts easy wrist shots that turn into deflection goals, and he can fire away with the best. He is one of the most gentlemanly players in the league and rarely gets involved in rough stuff… In recent years, Turgeon has been called "Tin Man" because he appears to play without heart. After a difficult first few months in Montréal, he began to emerge as the Turgeon on hold during the 1996 season. He began racking up excellent, but not superstar, numbers... He still has the ability to make players around him better. He can be a leader - he wears the C - but he has to do it every night.

WILL - lead the attack
CAN'T - shake "Tin Man" rap
EXPECT - finesse, not brawn
DON'T EXPECT - superstar numbers

it's a mystery why this guy has played for three teams in as many years, because he is a marvelous playmaker. Without a high-scoring winger in Montréal, Turgeon still put up great numbers.

the move out of Montréal was a positive one for the sensitive Turgeon, who ended up in a good spot in St. Louis… It is a nice fit for him because veterans like Hull and Al MacInnis bear the brunt of the leadership role and Turgeon can do his finesse thing.

acquired last fall from the Canadiens, Turgeon is on a cruise control pace. Won't slump for long stretches but don't expect him to overachieve either. Great talent, but has earned the moniker "Tin Man" for good reason… An artist with the puck, Turgeon is a great playmaker and is a force on the power play. Not fast but very elusive. Has an underrated shot that he releases quickly. He's like a surgeon on the ice, preferring to use skill and brain instead of brawn. Has never relished a leadership role. His lack of physical play has been mistaken for a lack of heart.

St. Louis' best faceoff man, stickhandler, and backhand

of all the centers in the league, Turgeon may have the best wrist shot of them all. He can shoot in stride and through traffic, whistling the puck about a foot off the ice with pinpoint accuracy. He skates with mesmerizing grace and dishes the puck well to his wingers. With Brett Hull off to Dallas, Turgeon should step up.

protects the puck well with the body and has good anticipation, reads plays and is patient with the puck… He doesn't want to be the go-to guy...

Turgeon answered some questions that have dogged him throughout his career when he stepped up big-time in the playoffs and showed he wants to be a winner, not just a player with pretty stats. He fought through checks and made to contact he usually avoids. Turgeon didn't miss Brett Hull the way we thought he would…

missed 14 games but returned with a frenzy after midseason and was sensational in the playoffs highlighted by a memorable overtime winner in game seven against Phoenix. Creative playmaking pivot with outstanding hands and deceptive quickness, he proved that with the right passion he is still one of the premier centers in the league.

Turgeon battles hard. He isn't very aggressive or big, but he doesn't play a perimeter game and he gets hurt because of it… Turgeon struggled in the playoffs, due to the loss of Pavol Demitra, which left opponents free to key on him, and because of torn ligaments in his thumb.

#34: Pierre Turgeon: the St. Louis centers points per game average of 1.27 was fourth best in the entire league last season and his offensive consistency is rivaled by few.

was playing his best hockey season when he tore thumb ligaments at the end of January and missed two months down the stretch which hampered him early in the playoffs before rebounding with some inspiring performances late in the San Jose series … He can slice open defenses with his exceptional vision and passing abilities, and has shown much better grit and determination since the 99 playoffs after earning a label as a soft player early in his career… Future Hall of Famer might have won the scoring crown last year had he been able to stay healthy and will now be motivated more than ever to capture that elusive first Stanley Cup.

#24: Pierre Turgeon: fine, so he was credited for all of nine hits last season with the blues. But unlike earlier in his career, Turgeon does go into traffic to make plays, and man, are they beauties.

once again, the immensely talented center earned praise for – some prize, surprise – his gritty play in the playoffs. He has battled a reputation as a soft player throughout his career, perhaps because he plays smaller than his 200 pounds. Turgeon possesses excellent hand eye coordination and a fine wrist shot.

proved a misfit in Ken Hitchcock's demanding system, crashing to the lowest full-year totals since his rookie campaign and ending his string of 13 20-goal seasons… A slick center with soft hands and deceptive speed, Turgeon can be an offensive force when his grit and determination match his prodigious talents, however he has been branded a soft, one-dimensional player at various times in his career and showed in Dallas that he needs quality wingers to maximize his effectiveness…

what looked like a no-brainer free-agent move by Dallas in 2001 was a disaster on the ice. Maybe there were just too many centers. Turgeon never made a case to get more ice time. He is a better player than we saw last season. His skills are amazing… He is fairly good on draws...

The 2002 Season Was an off Year for "Sneaky Pete"… Like other stars free-agent signings, Turgeon struggled to find his game under former coach Ken Hitchcock… For only the fourth time in his 15 year career, the veteran pivot failed to register a point per game. He may have the best hand eye coordination in the league. He's very creative with the puck and usually slows down the game to his pace.

the stars made it clear in the off-season the Turgeon was no longer welcome in Dallas. Team management quickly soured on his soft play, injury woes and unwieldy contract, and placed him on waivers less than halfway into his five-year contract. When healthy, Turgeon is a premier playmaker. He's patient with the puck and is equally effective dishing off to teammates were picking an open corner. Last year, he spent most of the time at left wing.

flourished over the second half of the 2004 season and also led the stars in playoff scoring after passing unclaimed through waivers the previous may… Former first overall pick continued to persevere and was finally rewarded with a switch back to his natural center spot, which sparked the revival… center with soft hands and deceptive speed… No longer boasts that explosive change of pace, however he has shown a greater willingness to operate in high-traffic zones during his last NHL stint and is still a dangerous proposition behind the net on the power play… His dedication has silenced some of the critics and resurrected his NHL career.

STATISTICAL FUN

ATD North American 2nd line centers by number of x% seasons

- this excludes Larionov, Novy, Nilsson, Shadrin and Maltsev
- outliers and outlier creations removed
- pre-merger compared to #1 scorer, 1922-1924 compared to #1*1.2, or just to #1 if most dominant of the three league leaders
- dirty WW2 adjustments made for 1944 and 1945 seasons only, so as to avoid completely excluding them. 99 and 90 used as #2 benchmarks
- points only, not PPG, and no assist adjustments made
- credited Frank McGee for PPG in 1904, not his fault Ottawa played fewer games than other teams

Name | 100+ | 90+ | 80+ | 70+ | 60+
Bowie | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 9
Hawerchuk | 2 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 13
Thornton | 2 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 11
Turgeon | 0 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 13
Forsberg | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 9
Savard | 2 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 10
Gilmour | 1 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 11
Modano | 0 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 12
Cowley | 2 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8
Lindros | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 8
Roenick | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 10
Federko | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 11
Lafontaine | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 9
Fredrickson | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7
Schmidt | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8
Weight | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 8
Dunderdale | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6
Morris | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6
Brind'Amour | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 9
Richards | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8
Sedin | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 6
B.Smith | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 9
Keon | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 10
Malkin | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4
Nieuwendyk | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 8
C.Smith | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6
Colville | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6
Walsh | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3
Goyette | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5
MacLeish | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4
McGee | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4
Staal | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6
Sloan | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5
Ronty | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5
O'Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2

As you can see, Turgeon never posted a "best" or "next-best" season quite as good as some of the strongest players here (yet, 15 players have just one 90% season like Turgeon, or none at all, so he's far from alone) - but look at the 80% column - Turgeon actually leads with 8 of these. These are not "Fluff" seasons. These are legitimate offensively dominant seasons, with at least 80% as many points as the NHL's top scorer. You write these off, and along with them you're writing off about 90% of the seasons all these players have ever played. Turgeon's alone on top in this column with 8, and just 8 others even have more than half that many.

His figures don't even really look that bad compared to a lot of #1 centers:

Name | 100+ | 90+ | 80+ | 70+ | 60+
Gretzky | 14 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 19
Dionne | 6 | 8 | 11 | 15 | 16
Mikita | 6 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 14
Sakic | 3 | 5 | 12 | 15 | 16
Lemieux | 8 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 12
Esposito | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 16
Beliveau | 3 | 8 | 11 | 13 | 14
Yzerman | 2 | 5 | 10 | 14 | 15
Messier | 3 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 16
Francis | 1 | 3 | 8 | 14 | 18
Oates | 3 | 4 | 10 | 13 | 13
Lalonde | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 13
Ullman | 2 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 16
Boucher | 1 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 11
Sundin | 0 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 16
Trottier | 2 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 11
Morenz | 2 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 11
Stastny | 4 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 9
Delvecchio | 0 | 0 | 6 | 10 | 17
Ratelle | 1 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 12
Apps | 3 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 9
Clarke | 3 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 9
Fedorov | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 12
Perreault | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 12
Taylor | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6
Barry | 1 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 8
Malone | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 8
Richard | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 12
Lach | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8
S.Howe | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9
Bentley | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6
Sittler | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 10
Crosby | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6
Keats | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7
Nighbor | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8
Primeau | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Lemaire | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8
Kennedy | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7
Zetterberg | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6

Turgeon takes some flak, a lot of it deserved, for being pretty negligible in the intangibles department. But his offensive dominance and consistency have simply not been given the level of respect they deserve.

And lastly, a few posts from an HOH poster I respect greatly. Note the comparisons to guys like Oates and Ratelle.

This pretty much falls in line with my perception of Oates.

My perception of him is of a guy who was very soft and very poor defensively through the first half of his career, and then improved in his later years to being 'average'. Got some Selke recognition primarily because he was the best player in the league on faceoffs.

___________

Again, I'll mention what I find to be such a strange gap in perception between Oates and Pierre Turgeon.

Very similar career totals.
Peak years that pretty much overlap.
Similar playoff points/game.

Nearly identical softish skill centers. But one is absolutely raked over the coals for it and considered to have no chance for the HHOF as a result, and the other is a HHOF lock.

Both were total creampuffs before about 1996 or so. Both also improved greatly in terms of grit/defensive play in the final 5-8 years of their careers. But in Oates' case, we seem to apply his improvements in Washington back over the rest of his career, while Turgeon's late-career improvement seems to be, again, ignored.

In terms of peak value, Turgeon's 1992-93 = Oates' 1992-93.

Turgeon never had an Oates or Neely to pass the puck to. But he did turn scrubs into near All-Star level players. Derek King never scored more than 23 goals without Turgeon, but had 40 and 38 playing with him. Benoit Hogue never scored more than 19 goals without Turgeon, but had 36, 33, and 30 playing with him.

I know people will immediately point to the disparity in top-10 finishes between Oates and Turgeon, but this is to me misleading - Turgeon was very unfortunate in terms of injuries in his best seasons, and probably lost 4 top-10s and 3 top-5s (including a potential Art Ross season in 1999-00) as a result.

The problem for Turgeon is that he got injured and missed 15+ games in 4 of his 6 best seasons, and in each of those seasons he would have cakewalked to a top-5 finish in league scoring if he didn't get hurt. Take 1999-00, where Turgeon scores 66 points in 52 games. If he scores 30 points in the other 30 games, he wins the Art Ross that year.

Now, full credit to Oates for staying healthy and of course Turgeon doesn't get full credit for injured seasons, but the difference there isn't huge. In fact, Turgeon was probably a more dominant offensive player when he was healthy, but that isn't reflected in the top-10 finishes.

When I look at those two players, I see one guy who's been ridiculously over-criticized for being a softish skill player who didn't win anything (especially when you look at his playoff scoring record, which is actually pretty good) and another player who seems to get a total free pass for the exact same thing.

Turgeon is a guy who was really bitten by injuries at bad times - missed substantial time in 3 of his best 4 seasons when he was going to finish way up the scoring ladder :

1993-94 - 94 points in 69 games ... pro-rated is 114 points, which would have placed 3rd in NHL scoring.

1997-98 - 68 points in 60 games ... pro-rated is 92 points, which would have finised 2nd in NHL scoring.

1999-00 - 66 points in 52 games ... pro-rated is 104 points, which would have won the Art Ross Trophy.

Now, obviously being durable is a skill, and full marks to Ratelle for rarely missing games. But Turgeon was every bit as good offensively when he was playing, and maybe better. If he would have been playing 75-80 games every year, he would have had 4 other seasons good enough to put him top-10 in scoring, and in the seasons above would have cruised to top-5 finishes.

Defensively, yeah, maybe Ratelle has an edge, but he wasn't superb in that regard either. And Turgeon was actually better in the playoffs than Ratelle.

Ratelle's playoff record in New York really, really, *really* bugs me. It's frankly shocking how terrible he was for that club, and makes it impossible for me not to view him as a really soft player. And his performance in the '72 Summit Series doesn't help in that regard, either.

Yup. Turgeon was crucified for playing an 'emotionless' game but he was actually a quite good playoff performer when you look at the numbers. His 2001 playoffs in particular were near-brilliant .... he was pretty much the entire St. Louis offense in leading them to the Conference Finals.

__________

I've made the point before that it's funny how the blame was apportioned for Buffalo's playoff failures in the 1980s/early 1990s. Guys like Turgeon and Housley were actually not that bad, but their second-line/support players were absolutely terrible.

Turgeon scored 25 points in 23 playoff games as a Sabre but became the 'Tin Man' for doing so while his #2 center Christian Ruutuu was one of the worst playoff performers ever - 4 goals, 13 points in 42 games. Buffalo lost because of guys like Ruutuu, not guys like Turgeon.

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Fleming MacKell, C/LW

Points finishes: 7th, 8th, 10th
Goals finishes: 5th
Assist finishes: 5th, 8th

1st Team All Star in 1952-53

Stanley Cups in 1949, 1951
Stanley Cup finalist in 1957, 1958
19 points in 12 playoff games in 1958

See EB's profile for more:
http://hfboards.com/showpost.php?p=24624663&postcount=115

Prolific Penalty Killer

Also, I posted shorthanded scoring stats for the Original 6 years from 1952-53 on. Those were missing the 1957-58 numbers. Here's an updated list.

Player | GP | SHG | SHA | SHP
Gordie Howe | 1030 | 19 | 15 | 34
Eric Nesterenko | 894 | 22 | 10 | 32
Jerry Toppazzini | 783 | 19 | 13 | 32
Don Marshall | 862 | 16 | 13 | 29
Bob Pulford | 727 | 23 | 5 | 28
Ron Stewart | 964 | 14 | 12 | 26
Alex Delvecchio | 1024 | 16 | 9 | 25
Red Kelly | 990 | 12 | 10 | 22
Fleming Mackell | 483 | 10 | 8 | 18
Allan Stanley | 901 | 2 | 14 | 16
George Armstrong | 942 | 7 | 9 | 16
Bobby Hull | 674 | 10 | 5 | 15
Norm Ullman | 817 | 6 | 9 | 15
Dave Keon | 472 | 9 | 5 | 14
Tim Horton | 978 | 3 | 11 | 14

Fleming Mackell joins the list. He and Toppazzini were a very dangerous duo while shorthanded in 1957-58, as Mackell led the league with 8 SHP and Toppazzini led with 6 SHG.

When he was called upon by the Leafs he was expected to be a defensive-minded winger with rugged intentions. He was considered by many to be the fastest skater in the league when he played, despite a bowlegged stance.
...
In the 1951-52 season MacKell was traded to Boston where he found a home for nearly a decade. He became an important part of the Bruins attack, as well as a specialty teams specialist. He was a regular on both the power play and penalty kill units, thanks to his speed. He was also noted for scoring goals from the side of the net.

Newspapers

(Coach)Milt feels better about his team's chances because Fleming MacKell is ready to go back to his job of penalty killing. Last year, Flaming Flem teamed with Jerry Toppazzini and bagged 10 goals when the team was shorthanded.

Montreal Gazette, Feb 28, 1959

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...5247964&dq=fleming+mackell+penalty+kill&hl=en

(Goalie Don)Simmons credited the goaling of Harry Lumley, his replacement for much of the season while he recovered from a shoulder separation, with carrying the Bruins through to the playoffs. Both (Bruins broadcaster) Libby and Simmons piled praise on MacKell, openly rating as the league's foremost penalty killing team.

-Lewiston Daily Sun, June 7, 1958

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...3917381&dq=fleming+mackell+penalty+kill&hl=en

Speaking of penalty killers, ex-Bruin FLEMING MACKELL, one of the best in the ' 50s and '60s, made a rare visit yesterday to the Garden from Montreal...

-Providence Journal, Feb 12, 1990 (behind pay wall)

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/projo/a...off+clinching+as+excuse+for+loss&pqatl=google

MacKell was a plus player defensively at even strength:

Beliveau looked tired and his check, Fleming MacKell, came up with a fine game and had the big guy well covered.

-Montreal Gazette, Dec 22, 1952

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...3948572&dq=fleming+mackell+best+penalty&hl=en

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

"Sugar" Jim Henry

-Led the NHL in wins in 1942
-Lost his starting job after serving his country in World War 2. After coming back, he was stuck behind Rayner, Brimsek, and then Sawchuk, before finding a home with the Bruins.

-Started every game for the Boston Bruins between 1951-52 and 1953-54
-2nd Team All-Star in 1952
-Stanley Cup finalist in 1953

After Dave Kerr, one of the true Rangers greats, retired after the 1940-41 season, the Rangers needed a new goaler. They signed the acrobatic Jim Henry out of Western Canada. Universally known as "Sugar Jim" because of his childhood love of brown sugar, The proud Winnipeger was a star with the junior Brandon Elks and then the Allan Cup winning senior Regina Rangers.

Jim Henry has the right attitude to be a backup:

Henry returned to the Rangers for 1945-46, but found the Rangers had secured the great Chuck Rayner while he was away. But coach Frank Boucher knew Henry was a good goalie too and kept Henry around. Boucher, years ahead of his time, formed the first two-goalie rotation in NHL history. Rayner and Henry, who quickly became best friends and later business partners, would alternate games and even periods, and reportedly would even alternate shift to shift on a few occasions.[/B]

 

[TheDevilMadeMe]

Gregg Sheppard, C/LW

-498 points in 657 career regular season games.
-72 points in 82 career playoff games.

-played in 1976 All Star game

This is Gregg Sheppard, defensive forward with the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins back in the 1970s.

Joining the defending Stanley Cup champion Bruins in 1972 as a result of the parent club losing players to expansion and the new World Hockey Association, Sheppard - showing both scoring prowess and exemplary defensive and penalty killing skills - had a fine rookie season, finishing second in balloting for rookie of the year honors. The following season Sheppard made his true mark in the playoffs, scoring eleven goals in sixteen playoff games as the Bruins went to the Cup finals.

He was a mainstay in Boston for six seasons in all, scoring thirty or more goals three straight years -- and only a serious injury costing him much of the 1978 season cost him a fourth -- as well as proving himself as one of the league's premier faceoff men and penalty killers. He was named to play in the All-Star Game in 1976, during which he won the Bruins' Seventh Player Award as the team's unsung hero and the Elizabeth C. Dufresne Trophy for the player judged best in home games. His best statistical season was 1975, in which he scored 78 points and finished with a plus/minus rating of +45.

Before the 1978-79 season began, Sheppard was dealt from his beloved Bruins in a three-team trade that had him going to the Atlanta Flames, who then traded him to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sheppard was not happy about the deal and didn't show up for the Penguins training camp. He eventually joined his new club and become a team player as always. The Pens were expecting Sheppard to be a goal scorer, but the days of scoring 30 a season were over and he became more of a fore checker.

 

[seventieslord]

With the 427th Pick in ATD2011, The Regina Pats are pleased to select:

C/LW Jack Adams

- 5'9", 175 lbs
- Member of the HHOF
- Stanley Cup (1918, 1927)
- Stanley Cup Finalist (1921, 1922)
- PCHA 1st All-Star Team (1921, 1922)
- Top-10 in his league in goals seven times (10th-1920-PCHA, 5th-1921-PCHA, 1st-1922-PCHA, 4th-1923-NHL, 6th-1924-NHL, 5th-1925-NHL, 7th-1926-NHL)
- Top-10 in his league in assists five times (9th-1920-PCHA, 2nd-1921-PCHA, 6th-1922-PCHA, 7th-1923-NHL, 9th-1925-NHL)
- Top-10 in his league in points seven times (10th-PCHA-1920, 3rd-PCHA-1921, 1st-PCHA-1922, 4th-NHL-1923, 7th-NHL-1924, 6th-NHL-1925, 5th-NHL-1926)
- In 1922, his 26 goals in the PCHA were considerably more than any one else, the next best were HHOFers Foyston, Fredrickson and MacKay, who had 16, 15, & 14.
- Top-3 in playoff scoring twice: 3rd in 1921 with 5-1-6, and 2nd in 1922 with 6-1-7.
- 135 goals & 189 points, 468 PIMs in 243 games
- 14 goals & 16 points, 37 PIMs in 26 playoff games

...The next year, he won the scoring title in the PCHL.

Adams returned East for the 1922-23 season, joining the Toronto St. Pats for four years before finishing his skating days with Ottawa in 1926-27 where he ended as he had begun, winning a Stanley Cup... loud, brash, and pugnacious, first as a player and then an executive.

...He played in two Stanley Cup series for Vancouver and in that against Toronto in 1922, he was the star, scoring 6 goals in 5 games...

...in his first two years with the St. Pats he had Babe Dye and Reg Noble on his wings...he did not rate with Dye as a scorer but he set up a lot of goals for this right winger...

As a player, Jack was a nuisance to opposing teams and was very crafty in the way he wove through their defenses. He was tough and he got into fights on a regular basis.

A raw, talented center who played top-level hockey in Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa over 10 years. He was known as a great digger and a fiery leader.

One game in 1919 speaks volumes about his burning desire to win. In the late stages of the tilt, many oaks like harry Mummery, *** *******, and Rusty Crawford were in particularly rough shape. Mummery was the first one sent hobbling off the ice, followed quickly by *******, who was taken away on a stretcher. As for big Crawford, he was whacked across the forehead by Newsy Lalonde. Goalie Hap Holmes lost a handful of teeth. Adams' head was cut up in a flurry of bodychecks, crosschecks, and high sticks. despite it all, the pudgy pivot played till the end, dashing up and down the boards with blood dripping over his eyes and ears.

...his last year in the NHL as a player was 1926-27, and although he wasn't used on the top line, he was lauded for his guts, brains, and leadership skills. The Senators took the cup and Adams took early retirement.

he's the only man to have his name on the Stanley Cup as a player, general manager and coach. "Maybe I was wrong," he said later in life as if to apologize, "but I wanted to win, and if that's wrong, then I made a mistake."

As a skater, his fame was established during the war when he played in Peterborough with the 247th Battalion team. In each of the 12 games, Adams routinely scored five or six goals. Both fans and scouts saw his immense talents emerge, as this account confirms: "Adams, the Petes' right winger, looks good enough to catch a place of any team. He's a husky gent with plenty of speed and packs a healthy shot."

Adams was the product of a time when hockey was a crude and well-nigh barbarous pursuit, and he rarely forgot. When he was a player salaries were so low that no one could make the game a year-round endeavor. He signed in 1918 with Charlie Querrie who owned and ran the Toronto Arenas who later became the St. Pat's and in turn became the Maple leafs.… When he broke in, most of the players were easy-going undisciplined men who like the bodily contact. Mostly, they were a hard drinking crowd, and it wasn't unusual for Querrie to make the rounds of the better-known bootleggers on the afternoon of the game to round up his players. They didn't have to be in shape; they'd only play 18 or 20 games a winter. Preseason training was a matter of three or four days of skating in mid-December and they were ready to go. Drinks were small and dingy, and the ice through heavy with snow as the games wore on.… A team would keep the pale of cold water and a sponge on its bench; one a player was cut he skated to the boards were the trainer sloshed off the blood, put some sticking plaster over the cuts, patted him on the shoulder, and sent him out for more lumps.

Once, in a game between the Arenas and the Canadiens in that old Jubilee Rink, Adams was cut over the eye, down the cheek, and under the chin. He was water sloshed and plaster stuck from his hairline to his Adam's apple. When the game ended, a couple of his teammates accompanied him on the tram to the Montr̩al General Hospital for stitching. The cuts were dripping blood when he was led onto the emergency ward. His sister Alma was nursing there then, and by coincidence was on duty when he arrived. He was so beat up his sister didn't recognize him until he was registered and she heard his name. Of the game, the Toronto Mail reported: "the Arenas refused to quit and that tells the whole story. For the entire first period, the Canadiens hammered and battered these game youngsters. They put Ken Randall out of the game for keeps, cut Jack Adams' head to ribbons, battered Rusty Crawford from head to foot, sent Harry Mummery hobbling off halfway through the period With one leg limp from a sweeping slash, broke the teeth of goaltender Harry Holmes, knocked out Harry Meeking and Alf Skinner, and bumped every other opposing player on the ice Рbut the Arenas didn't quit. It was the most punishing game ever played in an NHL final, and the Canadiens made punishing play the main issue. An unforgettable picture was chunky Jack Adams dashing up and down the boards with blood streaming from cuts over his eyes and ears.

Adams became so proficient at keeping the puck to himself that he became a Pro player, a forward, for the Toronto Arenas, Toronto St. Pat's, and Ottawa Senators, winning the Stanley Cup in Ottawa. He was tough and he could skate and took no guff from any player on or off the ice. In those early years he learned philosophy about hockey that he taught the rest of his life: "knock the puck away from the man or knock the man away from the puck."

Adams had an excellent 1921 playoff, starting with a convincing two-game win over Seattle:

The Millionaires rubbed it in by also taking the second game played in Seattle 6-2, winnng the round 13-2. ******, Adams, and ******* were the stars.

He followed this up with two goals in the five-game final against Ottawa.

He was even better in 1922. Adams scored the insurance goal to take the PCHA championship:

After Jack Adams scored to give Vancouver a two-goal margin on the round, the Millionaires lay back and set up a defense that Seattle could not penetrate.

...then had a huge part in games 1, 2, and 3 of the cup final:

Adams got three goals as the downed the St. Pats 4-3.

Adams scored the only Vancouver goal in a 2-1 OT loss, then in game 3:

Adams and Hugh Lehman were the stars for the Millionaires as they shut out the St. Pats 3-0.

Toronto laid an egg in game 4, then in game 5:

Although Jack Adams played a great game and scored his sixth goal of the series, Dye improved on this by scoring four goals to bring his total to nine.

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS

Newspapers are really the primary source of info on Jack Adams, as there are really no books written about the pre-Leafs toronto franchise, the PCHA, and he was a support player in Ottawa.

the chances are that Jack Adams and Rusty Crawford will be allowed to play, though they were signed after February 1. They were signed legitimately, and the Western champions feel disposed to let them go ahead and play. With Crawford and Adams, the blue shirts are a strong team and will take a lot of beating.

Jack Adams, of the Toronto's, who starred in the playoffs (vs.) the Canadiens…

when 19 min. of the third period had elapsed, Dunderdale and Jack Adams in their superhuman efforts to gain possession of the puck ran foul of each other, Dunderdale challenging Adams, who promptly replied with a rap on the jaw. It was the signal for a general mixup and in a flash a guerilla like party was in session.

brother Jack has been doing a lot of conditioning in his hometown, Toronto, of late, and is anxious to get into shape for the opening of the season. Last year, when he first came here, Jack was slightly overweight. This little difficulty kept him out of the lineup for a few weeks, but when he did get into shape, how did he go! His clean, all around playing in the later stages of the season, made him solid with local fans. It is likely that he will hold down the center ice position, working with Skinner on the right and Harris on the left boards.

Jack Adams was the find of the Pacific Coast league last season. He started out very fair but before the season was half through was going big and what is more, he got bigger each game, especially for the opposition. There are few players on the circuit who enjoyed more favor from the fans in this chubby "Jawn", and the hockey nuts will be unanimous in extending the glad hand upon his return.

Jack Adams scored the final goal when he evaded all attempts to impede his progress and duped Fowler for the count.

Jack Adams was a champion every minute he was in action last night and he and Duncan have the Ottawa defense at sea on so many occasions that it is doubtful if old man Burroughs himself could've checked the times they battled up to Benedict… Jack Adams staged the most spectacular rush of the night when he battered his way right into Benedict, who saved only by sliding feetfirst into Jack, leaving the puck at the goalmouth, from where it was batted by Gerard…

there was a little touch to the goal that Jack Adams scored on Benedict last Thursday night that the fans didn't get. According to Jack, when he was a recruit with the Toronto club he met this same Benedict a couple of times in his games against Ottawa. Every time that Jack essayed to score, Benedict would nonchalantly flick the rubber aside and then give the kid and affectionate twit on his failure to score. Being a rookie Jack took the thing more or less to heart, and it was not until the present series broke that he recalled the incidents, but it then loomed in a different light, Jack, too, saw the joke.

In the first game Jack was particularly anxious to score on Benedict so he could hand it back. He didn't make it in that encounter, but he did in the second. When Jack scored on Thursday night, he shot a sly glance at the troubled custodian and in one short, sweet raspberry, settled the old account. Clint and Jack are on very friendly terms, but, being on opposing squads in the World Series contest, of course cannot take such privileges as getting together to fan together – but they both got it, just the same.

at the face-off, Ottawa secured the puck but lost it to Jack Adams. The millionaire began one of his dashing rushes but finding himself cornered, passed to Desireau...

perhaps the brightest feature of the game, apart from the Seattle win, was the performance of Jack Adams, the Vancouver center, who scored all three goals for his team. Consequently, Adams is out in front in the race for individual scoring honors…

Vancouver evened the count shortly after the second period opened, Jack Adams and Harris getting through and the pudgy center man flipping a pretty backend shot past Holmes. It reminded one of the days when cyclone Taylor was whanging them in from his real right and left.

Jack Adams turned in a good game, back checking effectively…

Two PCHA stars present their personal all-star teams:

Si Griffis: Adams and Fredrickson play the same position in both must be admitted to an All-Star selection. "Freddie" covers the most ice and is more sensational, while Adams is of the bulldog type, coolheaded and the surer shot in close quarters. On this account I would admit Fredrickson and switch him to the wing position.

Cyclone Taylor: Jack Adams and Frank Fredrickson are both center men and have performed brilliantly all year. Both possess the ability and class to give them a place. To get over this obstacle, however, I would give "Freddie" the left-wing berth and leave Adams in center.

http://news.google.ca/newspapers?id...renas+|+pats+|+stanley+|+vancouver+-gum&hl=en

about that fight between Moran and Jack Adams, which had a sequel in a war in which Poulin and Moran were the interested parties – something must be said. Moran and Adams crashed together on the ice, Amby maintaining that Adams had been after little Ernie Anderson and to protect the youngster the big fellow took after Jack.

... The Vancouver team were packing their goal, and the Regina boys found a stone wall defense every time they essayed a rush. The crowd hissed Adams when he lifted the puck the length of the rink, endeavoring to stall.

the speedy rushes of McKay and the uncanny stickhandling and marksmanship of Jack Adams added thrills galore. The latter was the most effective on either team.

local writers while claiming that the Vancouvers had a slight edge on the luck last night, also for the most part they agreed that they had the edge on the play for the greater part of the time. The wonderful speed of the men from the coast is commented upon, particularly Mickey McKay and Jack Adams.

MacKay and Adams were good, although the latter had a tendency to hand out the punishment to his opponents. He scored the only goal for his team by crashing through for closing shot on Roach.

With the locals paying attention to MacKay and Adams, Parkes had many chances to display his wares.

Adams and Skinner were as good as they have been in the series but missed several good chances when through the defense.

Adams was checked closer than he has been previously and he could not get away with anything like the frequency he has been other struggles.

Jack Adams, the clever center player of last year's Vancouver team, champions of the PCHL, may be found wearing Saint Patrick uniform this winter… Is possible that the Patrick's may take Corbett Denneny in exchange for Adams. Adams is a plunger and a great goal getter, though he had nothing on Denneny in goalscoring ability.

as a goal getter, Jack Adams showed that he had no superior. The chunky ex-PCHLer plainly lacks condition, but nevertheless, he scored four goals and earned them all. He was continually outguessing Forbes , shooting a low ones when the latter expected high drives, and vice versa on the other occasions. Once he found himself bottled up in front of the defense, but he drifted a low shot between the defense, and Forbes never saw it.

Dye was left unchecked on the left-wing, and Adams gave the sharpshooter a perfect pass, and the latter lifted the rubber into the net before Benedict could get his eye on.

there was a great difference in the St. Patrick's from their first appearance here. They checked very close and used some heady combination plays... Comparing their first appearance here with their Saturday night performance, it is easily seen that Jack Adams has instilled a good deal of pep and combination into the St. Patrick's line.

with Jack Adams playing in his best form, the St. Patrick's are going to be a tough team to beat tomorrow night. Adams can and will go better than he did in the game against Ottawa. He did not strike his stride, but he did a lot of hard work in the checking line.

Jack does not know whether he will play hockey again this year. He has put on quite a bit of weight in the last few years, and although he is not now as heavy as he wants, he is quite indifferent as to his future in professional hockey. "You've got to quit some time, you know," is his logic.

"pudgy Jawn" Adams - but not pudgy anymore – has reported to St. Patrick's hockey club, having arrived from Vancouver, where he spent the summer playing "mine host to the traveling public. St. Pats veteran player, but still a star, never looked better than he does this fall. He played handball all summer, says he is the best the strenuous game knows on the coast and does not carry the extra large waistline so noticeable when he got down to training last season that he was forced to pull on the rubber shirt to help him take off the surplus weight.

Adams, who plays hockey more for the love of the sport, then for the money he drives down for making the opposing defense players look foolish, is confident that he is heading into one of the best seasons of his long and brilliant career.

Adams, Center for the St. Patrick's, opened the scoring in the first period when he put a fitting climax to the brilliant exhibition of tricky stickhandling he had displayed in the first few minutes of the game by outwitting the pirate defense and drilling a shot past Worters to give the locals the lead.

Adams was the star for the visitors and it was his uncanny play which kept the score close for the Irish.

it was reported here on good authority today that Jack Adams, who has been starring the center ice position for a number of seasons with the St. Patrick's, representatives of this city in the NHL, has been sold to the Ottawa Senators in a strictly cash deal between the two clubs.

Pete Green, former coach of the Senators, who knows real hockey players when he sees them, is confident Jack Adams will fit in perfectly with the Senator machine, and he's equally confident that the former St. Pats star will give the necessary added strength to make the locals the team to beat for the NHL honors this season.

the marksmanship of "Hooley" Smith is beginning to show the effects of Jack Adams' tutoring. Jack has been spending about an hour each afternoon showing Hooley just how it should be done and last night, the boy from Balmy Beach was knocking 'em dead.

Adams and Denneny played sound hockey while they were on the ice and each came very close to scoring… Adams worked hard. About the middle of the second session he weaved his way through the entire maroon team only to have his effort nullified at the goalmouth when Benedict made a miraculous save.

Quick note about Jack Adams playing multiple positions:

Adams actually played all over the place. When you look at the playoff games in The Trail in which he was not listed as a "sub" (1920-1925), it seems he could never stay at the same position: Rover, Rover, W (most likely LW based on the other W, the other team, and the order they are usually listed), W (most likely LW), RW, C, C, C, C, W (most likely LW), W (most likely LW), C, C, C, C, C, Rover, W (most likely LW), C, C.

 

[seventieslord]

With the 454th pick in ATD2011, The Regina Pats are pleased to select:

Bob Nevin, RW

- 6'0", 185 lbs
- Stanley Cup (1962, 1963)
- Placed 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th in RW All-Star Voting
- Top-20 in Goals 4 Times (7th, 12th, 14th, 14th)
- Top-20 in Assists Twice (10th, 13th)
- Top-20 in Points 3 Times (8th, 12th, 19th)
- Top-20 in ESP 4 Times (9th, 11th, 11th, 16th)
- Killed 45% of his team's penalties post-expansion
- NY Rangers' Captain for 6 seasons (1965-1971)

Right-winger Bob Nevin played over 1,100 NHL games for four different NHL teams. He was a fine playmaker and goals scorer who could also check and lead by example on the ice.

Nevin scored 21 goals as a rookie in 1960-61 and finished runner-up in the Calder trophy voting to teammate Dave Keon. The hard working forward played solid two-way hockey for the Leafs playing with Red Kelly and Frank Mahovlich and helped them win the Stanley Cup in 1962 and 1963. In February 1964 he was part of the package assembled to acquire star forward Andy Bathgate from the New York Rangers.

Nevin played over seven years in New York and topped the 20-goal mark five times. He helped the Blueshirts become one of the top outfits in the NHL and registered 107 points in 1970-71. A respected leader on the ice and in the dressing room, Nevin began a six-year run as team captain in 1965-66. His finest season for New York came in 1968-69 when he scored 31 goals playing on a line with Dave Balon and Walt Tkaczuk.

In May 1971, Nevin was sent to the Minnesota North Stars for Bobby Rousseau and provided leadership and sound two-way play for his new club. On June 13, 1973, he was claimed by the Los Angeles Kings in the Reverse Draft and hit the 20-goal mark for the first time in three years. The next year he registered a personal best 72 points as the Kings set a franchise record with 105 points. Nevin scored 55 points the next season before jumping to the WHA.

Bob Nevin was a long time NHL right winger, playing in over 1100 career games. He was a fine two way forward who was noted for his gentlemanly play, picking up just 211 penalty minutes in his lengthy career.

...Nevin's childhood dream of playing for the Leafs came true at the conclusion of the 1957-58 season when he was called up for a 4 game stint. However the next two seasons Nevin would spend apprenticing in the minor leagues with AHL Rochester.

Nevin's first full NHL season was in 1960-61. He had a strong year, scoring 21 goals and 58 points. However his sophomore season would be one not to forget. Though his scoring totals dipped to 15 goals and 45 points, Nevin helped the Leafs capture the Stanley Cup!

"We beat New York in the semi-finals and then we were in a really tough series with Chicago, who had won the Cup the previous year. And we managed to beat them in Game Six at Chicago Stadium, which was a tough feat considering all the noise and atmosphere in that building. So in terms of winning the Stanley Cup and doing it right in Chicago, that was a real big thrill because that was probably the hardest place at that time to win an away game.”

Any Stanley Cup championship team will tell you the only thing harder than winning the Cup is defending it. But the Leafs did that successfully in 1962-63. Nevin actually thought it was easier though.

“The second one was relatively easier, not that any of them are easy. But the second one, I think we beat Montreal in five games in the semi-finals and we beat Detroit in five games in the Finals. So in 10 playoff games, we only lost two so we had a pretty dynamite team that year. We had a pretty strong team and we figured if we kept the team together we could win a number of Cups in the early ‘60s.”

The Leafs did go on to win their share of Cups throughout the sixties, but the team was not kept in tact. Halfway during the 1963-64 season Nevin was traded with Rod Seiling, Dick Duff, Arnie Brown and Bill Collins to the New York Rangers. In return the Leafs got Don McKenney and superstar Andy Bathgate.

Nevin, who was one of the earliest players to wear contacts while playing, enjoyed 7 1/2 seasons in New York. He got more ice time and an increased role than he did on the veteran Maple Leafs team. He scored 20 goals in all but one season, and tapped in a career high 31 in 1968-69.

Nevin looked back on his Rangers days with a special fondness.

“Well, initially it was a big shock (to be traded) because I had grown up in Toronto and a lot of the guys on the Leafs I had played junior with and we had a pretty special relationship with all the guys on that Toronto team. And initially when I got the phone call that I had been traded it was a pretty big blow. It took me a while to adjust from living in Toronto to New York. But I got traded in late ’64 and the fall of ’64, the next year, they made me the team captain. So that obviously was a great thrill to be captain of a team in a six-team league. That was a pretty special time for me in my career.”

The Rangers traded Nevin to Minnesota for Bobby Rousseau for the 1971-72 season. Nevin didn't have his best years in Minnesota. Over 2 seasons he scored just 20 goals and 52 points. In his final year he had just 5 goals and was a -12. Many expected Nevin's career was over.

However the Los Angeles Kings thought Nevin could offer something to their team, and took a chance by selecting Nevin in the annual Reversal Draft. Nevin responded by posting three great seasons, including a career high 72 points in 1974-75 at the age of 36.

“I loved my time in L.A. I had my old teammate from junior and with the Leafs, Bob Pulford, who was the coach and he was doing a real good job. In Fact, the one year, we finished with 105 points. We had a really good team. We had Butch Goring, Danny Maloney, Rogie Vachon, and Terry Harper and Bob Murdoch were on defence. Mike Murphy was also playing then. Actually, I really enjoyed my time in L.A. I’m an enthusiastic golfer and, as someone who likes to drive convertibles, it worked out pretty good out there!”

Nevin was a cagey specialist who lulled you to sleep and then made you pay for your attention to flashier players... The man is unflappable, which is probably the reason he's considered a consummate pro. By other Pros.… That's the way he played the game, not showy or presumptuous, nothing flashy or head turning, only a player very much aware of his place, very much concerned with the details of his assignment. After Alex Delvecchio, he may have been the most underrated forward in the game. His hockey career is a study of making the most of the hand dealt.

The first thing you notice about his stat sheet is the decided lack of asterisks and ABCs, which is the NHL's way of indicating All-Star selections trophies, and awards. The figures are steady and consistent, but the story isn't in the numbers until you get near the end of his NHL career, and even then it's up to the reader to discern the true value of the player. At 6 feet and 190 pounds, he was also a contradiction in appearance, both on and off the ice, in that he look taller but not as heavy. Lanky was the descriptive word. Yet over his career he average 70 games a season. He played in every regular-season game in three years, and all of those after he was 30. Given the nature of the game, he was durable by anyone's standards.

His considerable ability, and his attitude, allowed him to change with the needs of the team and lead younger players by example. As I got to know him better, I came to understand that even as a young player in his 20s, Nevin was considered by teammates, including some with a few years on them, to be a veteran, the prototype of a professional player. Though not possessing a great gun as a shooter, he relied on the accuracy of an adequate wrist shot, a great pair of deft hands, and the puck sense that not only made him a dangerous player around the net, but a gifted defensive skater who could position himself quickly. In a word, he was reliable. In any situation.

... Nevin stepped onto New York Ranger team that had only mouthed occasional burps of playoff aspirations for years, and the situation would not turn around overnight. The Rangers finished fifth in his first full season. Still, his unassuming leadership quality saw him made captain of the Rangers derelict ship almost from the day he arrived.

.. In Los Angeles, Nevin contributed a workmanlike 20 goals and 30 assists the first time around. In 1974 he was lined up with Butch Goring and Dan Maloney and things began to happen. The Kings finished second in the division, fourth overall, with their first and only century mark, 105 points. The team set club records for most points, most ties, fewest losses, fewest goals-against, most shutouts, longest road winning streak, and longest undefeated streak. At the age of 37, Nevin had a career year. If anything, the recollection of that season showed the priorities of the man. He never mentioned that it was his best personal Mark.

"Pulford put us together at training camp, and we just went from there. We were out against the best in the league: the French connection in Buffalo, Bucyk's line in Boston, Lafleur in Montréal. That was our job, to shut down the big lines, and we had a lot of success. The Kings had the second lowest goals-against in the NHL. Only Philadelphia was better, but while we were checking them, they forgot about us... Our line was a +38 against the toughest guys in the league. That was the most satisfying thing about the whole season... Butch was the wheels, Danny was the brawn… That's right, and I was the brains. "

... The following year, the goal production dropped to 13, although his assists were on the money at 42… He was the same 6 foot, 190 pounder he had been when he came into the league, and over three seasons had only missed eight games out of 240 played by the Kings, and he was still checking the best left-wingers in the league.

even more of a clue to where he's at came with the answer to my question about what personal memorable incidents recalled about the two Stanley Cup victories in Toronto. "The first one we played against the Hawks. " I sat back smugly, thinking I was going to hear a tale about a big goal, maybe a winner... The two teams have battled back-and-forth, the wide-open play of 15 a thing of the past, and in an anxious and tense affair until Dick Duff, trying to get out of his own end, lost the puck and Bobby Hull slammed the miscue into the first goal near the 5 min. mark of the third. Police were forced to stand around for at least 10 min. as the raucous, celebrating Chicago fans littered the ice with programs and debris… When play resumed Nevin took the wind out of the Windy City with the goal to tie it up moments later. Then Duff, making up for his mistake, to the fans of the game entirely with the goal that would add to his growing legend as a clutch player, and proved to be the winner. But the drama was far from over. Toronto took a penalty with 1 min. and 30 seconds to go in the third period... In typical Imlach fashion, he called Two Players to Kill the Penalty. "I Heard Punch Call out Dave Keon's Name , then mine. We went out for the face-off with Carl Brewer and Bobby Baun. I recall looking up at the clock. I can still see the numbers – 2-1 - and the time left against the blackhawk power-play... Anyway, we won the cup." Plain and simple. No qualifier, no Toronto window dressing. I sat there waiting for the punchline, at least some explanation other than the obvious victory, as to why this was a moment to remember. "It was the single most important memory of my career. Dave and I – second-year players, rookie he, being trusted out there in that situation. I've never forgotten the moment and what it meant to me."

Lynn Patrick, in the New York Times, said, "we got two established hard checking forwards in Nevin and Duff, +3 of the greatest prospect in Canada. We still think we can make the playoffs…"

Emile Francis: "I'll tell you about Bob Nevin. He was the best two-way player that ever played for me. We got him from Toronto and I mean, here we are, the Rangers had missed the playoffs 9/10 years and I played the **** out of Bob Nevin, Don Marshall, and Phil Goyette. Bob Nevin, Don Marshall killed all the penalties, they were always the three guys I had on the power play and I mean, I just wore them out… I wore the **** out of these guys because I knew I had to turn the team around but we had to get into the playoffs to turn the team around. And when you put Don Marshall and Bob Nevin out there to kill a penalty, I tell you they did a job. But then, usually like, you know, you may be just killed a penalty and the next thing you know the other team gets a penalty and you had to put those guys right back out on the power play.… Marshall and Nevin were the two best penalty killers.

Don Marshall: "Bobby Nevin, around the other side, same thing, up-and-down player, could check and could score goals."

Mike Murphy: "...Bob Nevin, who I played with for three or four years in Los Angeles, really helped me with my game, teaching me the art of defense, you know, locking the middle, putting your stick in the right place, using your brain not your body all the time. So I would attribute a lot of my success to them."

Nevin had impressed Tim as the most dependable right-winger he had played behind.

[quote='67 - The Maple Leafs, Their Sensational Victory, and the End of an Empire] Armstrong, the captain of the leafs, said the Bathgate trade was a telling mistake even though they won the 1964 cup. "At the time, we were disappointed to see Duff and Nevin go, but in Bathgate we thought we were getting the next Gordie Howe. We were wrong. We discovered that both Duff and Nevin were better team guys been Bathgate. In New York, their system was set up to feed Bathgate, but the leafs played as a team. We all liked and he and he is a Hall of Famer, but we won in spite of that trade. He didn't fit in with the leafs system like he had with the Ranger system." [/quote]

it was the practices that Brewer found particularly the moralizing and exhausting – physically as well as emotionally. Many of the leafs, who found themselves needing to rest up to prepare for games, shared this viewpoint. Bob Nevin, another teammate and longtime friend, looks back on the practices and calls them stupid – "stupid because they were so tough." Bob felt the practices were physically draining, and he remembers that it hindered his play in games. "There were a lot of times when, during the games, I had openings to make a bigger plate, but I had to move back because I knew I didn't have the stamina to carry it out." Nevin believes that he, too, would have been a much better hockey player had it not been for the grueling workouts – especially the ones held on game days. On one occasion, Bob remembers punch ordering him to stay behind after practice and skate 200 laps around the ice. "To this day, I have no idea what I did to incur such wrath from punch, nor have I any idea why or how this exercise was supposed to make me a better hockey player!"

... Brewer's hero in his hockey playing days was his old friend and teammate, Bob Nevin. He admired Nevin's laid-back approach to hockey – and life in general – and he used to joke to Bob, "if I'd have been more like you and you'd been more like me, we both would've been great!"

Both Toronto and Chicago shadowed their opponent's top gun, Toronto used Eddie Shack and Bob Nevin to blanket Bobby Hull...

Duff and Nevin had been part of the Leafs' organization for years, and were extremely popular with their teammates. Bob Pulford admitted, "I thought it was a bad trade. Duff and Nevin were great players and when the playoffs came, you knew that they were going to be there."

On the forward lines, behind Armstrong on RW we had Ron Stewart and Bob Nevin. Stewie was a great skater and backchecker. Nevin wasn't quite as quick, but he thought each play through. Each were excellent checkers, and both were capable of 20 goals.

...Imlach sure shook up the team, and we were not one bit pleased. I think everyone on that team would agree that Duff and Nevin should never have been let go... when it came to checking, Nevvie was the number one RW in the league. I didn't care what Andy could do, and Don McKenney was a nice guy, but he was nowhere near the calibre of the two guys we lost.

the Rangers meanwhile had just gotten by the leafs in six games, winning the last on an overtime goal by Bob Nevin, their veteran "mountain goat," who would turn his shoulder into body checking defenseman and rarely lose his balance or his feet.

Bob Nevin once objected when a reporter described his skating style as "comatose" Nevin was an efficient checking forward who played online with Frank Mahovlich and red Kelly for the Maple leafs starting in the 1961 season…

another successful checking line was dubbed "The Old Smoothies". This was a Ranger trio of Phil Goyette, Bob Nevin, and Don Marshall. They were together four years. Unlike Sanderson's line, which had more enthusiasm than experience, the smoothies did their job matter-of-factly, rarely rattled. They made few mistakes. Each of the players was accomplished defensively, and each plate is positioned perfectly. It wasn't an exciting line to watch, but it got the job done.

it was the play of Toronto's Frank Mahovlich that delightedly fans during the 1961 season. With Kelly delivering perfect passes and Nevin digging the puck out of corners, Toronto's lanky left-winger was well on his way to 50 goals…

Nevin was an efficient checking forward who earned regular duty with the Maple leafs in 1961. Playing right wing on a line with Frank Mahovlich and red Kelly, Nevin's hard work in the corners helped Mahovlich set a league record with 48 goals that season… Most experts thought his career was over when he followed this up with a pair of poor seasons after 1971 trade to Minnesota, but Nevin regained his form with the Los Angeles Kings. He scored 31 goals again in 1975 and established a career-high 72 points in his 17th NHL season.

it was said that Bob Nevin was the man who made Frank Mahovlich click. Playing on a line with Frank and red Kelly, Nevin and 37 assists in his first full season with Toronto the same year that Mahovlich scored his 48 goals. When you consider that Nevin scored 21 goals that year, it becomes obvious Mahovlich and Nevin went a long way towards helping each other… Bob Nevin was a remarkable and modest man, a player that could always be counted on to work to the best of his ability. According to Scott young, "if anyone had to raise his son to be a hockey player, Nevin is one he could use as a pattern and never regret."

in game six of the 1962 finals, it was Bob Nevin's inspirational played that ignited leafs to victory. With the team down 1-0, he converted a Mahovlich pass to tie the game and then drew a penalty that led to a Dick Duff goal that won the cup in the third period.

Red Kelly gave Bob Nevin much credit for their success with linemate Frank Mahovlich: "he's much more important to the team than people realize. Without him, Frank and I wouldn't get so many goals."

" Nevin was the guy we had to get in the Bathgate deal," said Francis, the Rangers assistant GM when the deal was made. Nevin became team captain within a year of arriving on Broadway, and was lauded by then coach Red Sullivan as, "the best captain I've ever played with or coached." Nevins offensive skills had taken a backseat in Toronto, where he spent much of his time as the defensive forward on a unit that included Frank Mahovlich and red Kelly…

Bob Nevin was captain of the New York Rangers when I got to the NHL on a full-time basis. The fans didn't always appreciate Bobby and they booed him a lot. But what a hockey player. He had hockey sense. Nevin never said anything, but I appreciated him. Every time I had the puck, I used to shoot the puck around the boards. I had two good guys for me – Billy Fairbairn and Bob Nevin. I didn't have to look; they were there. I've got the puck, guys are coming in, I shoot the puck around the boards to my right, and both those leaders would be there for me every time! On the outside, I was covered. I didn't have to worry about anything. Ever. Nevin could score – but he didn't have a big shot. He was skilled. The Rangers got him from Toronto in that big trade in 1964… You have to wonder if New York fans resented Nevin for replacing a popular guy like Bathgate, but Bob Nevin had a good career in New York and never let the fans bother him.

the leafs also had Bob Nevin, an unobtrusive right wing, but one who excelled at all of a forward's basic skills.

add to that the fact that Bob Nevin on right wing was a good playmaker himself, and excellent checker, and could score goals, and you had quite a line.

the right winger had good size at 6 feet and 190 pounds, and he knew how to use it well, although not in an aggressive manner… Nevin was a nice complement to center red Kelly and left-winger Frank Mahovlich, and the line was one of the best in the league during 1961…

in Nevin's second and third year with the leafs, it captured two consecutive Stanley Cup's. He played a major checking role in both victories. Nevin developed into a tireless skater and one of the top defensive wingers in the league. His nose for the net made him a valuable and consistent two-way forward.

Bobby Hull himself cites Eddie Westfall of the Boston Bruins, Bob Nevin of Toronto and the Rangers, and Montréal's Claude Provost as perhaps his three most effective, and respected shadows.

Any time a list of the "complete" players in the National Hockey League is compiled, New York Ranger right winger Bob Nevin is at or near the top.

a consistent 20 goal man, he missed that plateau only twice after going to the New York Rangers from Toronto in 1964… Was captain of the Rangers… Soft-spoken but efficient and one of the best checking forwards in NHL… Also frequently used as a penalty killer because of his outstanding defensive work… Although noted primarily for his defense, he is only three points shy of a career total of 500… Not appreciated as much by the fans as he is by his teammates and other hockey players… New York coach Emile Francis calls him the best two-way player in the league.

efficient two-way performer who plays the game at both ends of the ice… Spent seven seasons as Capt. of the Rangers after coming over from Toronto… Excellent penalty killer… Only 12 goals short of 254 his career, a remarkable accomplishment considering that he has always been primarily a defensive minded player… Always assigned to opposition's most dangerous score… An honest, two-way performer whose plus minus ratio is usually among the best in the league…

he gets older, and better… Lead Kings in goals, assists and points last season… Only two years ago he wasn't considered good enough to play for Minnesota… GM Jake Milford told coach Bob Pulford at training camp, "if Nevin makes our club, we won't be very good."… Nevin wound up scoring 50 points and pairing with Butch Goring as a slick penalty killing unit.

skeptics have given up predicting the end of this veterans usefulness… Northstars abandoned him and since then he's had three solid seasons with the Kings… Was voted most inspirational LA player in 1975… Played on same line as Bob Pulford with Toronto's 1962 and 63 Stanley Cup champions.

10 best defensive forwards:
#6: Bob Nevin – during the Toronto Maple Leafs playoff winning reign of the early 1960s, Nevin's work on right wing went unheralded by the masses, but not by general manager – coach punch Imlach.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

John MacLean

Shoots: Right
Height: 6’0â€
Weight: 200lbs
Born: 11/20/1964

NHL 1983-2002
Regular Season
1194GP – 413G – 429A – 842Pts

NHL Playoffs
104GP – 35G – 48A – 83Pts

Stanley Cup: 1995




Joe Pelletier

John MacLean was a very good player in many aspects of the game. But first and foremost he was a goal scorer.

Through nineteen NHL seasons, fourteen of which were spent in New Jersey where he is best remembered, MacLean played 1,194 games, scoring 413 goals and adding 429 assists for 842 career points. He was incredibly consistent, reaching the twenty-goal mark eleven times through his illustrious career. He once held New Jersey team records for goals in a season (45) and career goals (347). He would shoot anywhere and anytime, getting away exceptionally heavy and accurate wrist and slapshots with an amazingly quick release. He was especially deadly on the power play, preferring to set up on the right side of the slot.

MacLean also was known for his good size and his willingness to initiate physical play. He never had much speed or agility in his skating (especially after losing a season to reconstructive knee surgery in 1991-92), but he had amazing balance, allowing him to win his share of loose pucks in the corners. He was an intensely determined competitor, never betraying the necessary style of play that brought him so much success: shoot and hit.

He was not very creative nor exceptionally spectacular. But he scored some big goals, leaving the Devils owning or sharing franchise records for most career points (701), most career goals (347), most career assists (354), most career power-play goals (92), most career playoff points (75), most career power-play points (197), most career game-winning goals (55), most career hat tricks (6), most goals in a season (45) and most career playoff goals (36)

He will forever be one of the great players in New Jersey Devils history. He had the heart of the lion, and was the soul of Devils.

Legends of Hockey

MacLean was a tireless foot soldier as the club struggled to rise above also-ran status in the mid-80s. On the last night of the 1987-88 regular season he scored an overtime goal in Chicago which propelled the Devils into the post-season. He went on to record 18 points in 20 games at the club came within a game of reaching the finals. Following this breakthrough year, MacLean notched three straight 40-goal seasons before he was forced to miss the 1991-92 season due to a serious knee injury.

The feisty veteran returned to score 24 goals and play a solid defensive game on the club in 1992-93. He jumped up to 37 goals the next season and helped the club come within a game of the finals once again before they lost to the New York Rangers. Following a lockout, New Jersey jelled at the right time and the veteran winger counted 18 points in 20 post-season games when the Devils won their first Stanley Cup.

The New York Times – Dec. 19, 1999

“Everybody knows about old dogs and new tricks. But apparently veteran hockey players can learn new positions after 17 seasons in the pros.
Just ask John MacLean, who, at the age of 35, has moved from right wing to left wing for the first time in his career and flourished there for the Rangers.
Who would have guessed, though, that MacLean would rejuvenate himself skating as the off wing on a checking line? That is exactly what he has done.
“Putting John on the left side has helped,'' Muckler said. ''MacLean and Taylor have contributed to making Daigle more conscious of his defensive play.''

NY Daily News – Dec. 03, 1997

Comments by Jacques Lemaire about John MacLean’s play after MacLean had requested a trade…

Lemaire made a point of saying he was not unhappy with MacLean's effort. In fact, the veteran right winger played energetically and extensively on the checking line against the Geoff Courtnall-Pierre Turgeon-Brett Hull line and had six shots on goal (Bobby Carpenter had a team-leading seven).

"He worked hard," Lemaire said. "He tried. He was on the power play and penalty killing. Look at our checking line. They had the best chances to score, they had the most shots just by playing defense, by the way."

NY Daily News – June 14, 1995

Afterward, Lindros quietly acknowledged the dogged checking of the Lemieux-Bob Carpenter-Stephane Richer and Tom Chorske-Neal Broten-MacLean lines. "It does wear on you," he said. "It wears on you mentally. You can go a whole shift without touching the puck, and it eats at you."

The New York Times – Oct. 2, 1997

MacLean, the consummate team player, echoed the opinion of the majority of the players that having center Doug Gilmour from the start of the season should help increase the team's offensive output.
A three-time 40-goal scorer, MacLean is the Devils' career-leading scorer with 344 goals in 908 games, but Lemaire has converted MacLean as he has so many others -- into a defensive specialist.

NY Daily News – Jan. 25, 1998

Before trading John MacLean to San Jose, the Devils had allowed two power-play goals in a game only once in 26 games this season. Since then, they have allowed two or more four times in 23 games. Either opponents have done a lot of homework on the Devils' penalty-killing system or MacLean is not as replaceable as the Devils thought.

The New York Times – Jan 24, 1996

The 22-year-old Rolston scored his goal while the Devils were killing a minor penalty to Scott Stevens. He broke away with MacLean to his left and John Slaney the only defenseman back for the Kings and beat Hrudey to the short side from the right circle.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Feb. 27, 1991

“I do score, but that’s not all I do,†said MacLean. “I kill penalties and that type of thing.â€
However, scoring is what MacLean does best and he knows it. He has had 40 goals in each of the past two seasons and is four shy of that mark this season.
“I like the responsibility,†MacLean said. “I put enough pressure on myself to do it. I know I have to do it. No one has to tell me. I kind of know it.â€
So do the Devils’ opponents and they have made MacLean a marked man. He is drawing more shadow coverage and that’s having a two-fold effect. It makes him work harder and gives him less open space to work.
Capitals goalie Mike Liut said MacLean is not like typical scorers. “He’s not a finesse player, one who will deke you, skate by you and make the nice move,†Liut said. “He’s sort of a power player. He plays a physical game and when he is on, the puck just seems to come to him.†Liut said MacLean has a strong shot and sets himself in position very well to take it.

“He is one of the better snipers in the league,†Capitals center Dale Hunter said. “He’s a lot like Dino (Ciccarell), a good sniper. He’s also not afraid to get his nose dirty. He goes to the net and that makes him hard to stop.â€

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Ross Lonsberry

Shoots: Left
Height: 5’11â€
Weight: 195lbs
Born: 2/7/1947
Mustache: 1


NHL 1966-1981
Regular Season
968GP – 256G – 310A – 566Pts

Playoffs
100GP – 21G – 25A – 46Pts

Stanley Cup: 1974, 1975


Joe Pelletier

When the Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup in 1974, guess who head coach Fred Shero declared was the Flyers most valuable player of the championship season? Bobby Clarke? Reggie Leach? Bernie Parent? Try Ross Lonsberry, a long forgotten 5'11" 195lb left winger who scored 32 goals that season and another 4 in 17 playoff games.

"I knew Lonsberry would be good because I've seen him play for ten years," said Shero. "But he's been unbelievable this year. He has more stamina than Bobby Clarke, and he's been the key man in a lot of games. He's done everything for us."

"Roscoe" joined the Flyers late in the 1972 season, part of a big eight player trade with the Los Angeles Kings. He quickly endeared himself to coach Shero in a role as a top defensive forward, while still being able to score big goals.

Ever the team player, Lonsberry dismissed coach Shero's high praise of him.

Lonsberry often played on a line with Rick MacLeish and Gary Dornhoefer. His job was often to shut down the league's top right wingers like Yvan Cournoyer and Rod Gilbert. Lonsberry never considered himself to be a true defensive forward. "Anybody can be a defensive forward. You can just skate beside your man and look at him all night. You're not using your brain. If he makes you adjust to his style, he's playing a good game. I want my man thinking that he has to guard me, too. The trick is to make the other team adjust to you."

Legends of Hockey

As a professional, Lonsberry would adopt a more low-profile style of play where he poured all of his energies into playing a two-way style game, moving up and down his wing. His first stab at the pro ranks was mostly of a minor-league nature. He picked up a handful of games with the Boston Bruins over a three year span but spent most of his time sharpening his game in the AHL and the CHL.
In 1969, the well-stocked Bruins traded the winger to the L.A. Kings where a large vista of ice time opened before his eyes. Lonsberry would never look back to the minors again. With the Kings, he became a solid, 20-goal plus man. But in spite of his offensive success, he found the team's system of play to be disorganized.

Help came in the form of a trade to the Philadelphia Flyers in 1972. Under coach Fred Shero and his well-organized, simple system, Lonsberry's style of play fit like a glove. He brought his strong playmaking skills to a line with Rick MacLeish and Gary Dornhoefer. He also developed excellent checking skills and efficient ability to work the corners. During the club's Stanley Cup success in 1974 and 1975, he was considered to have been the great, unsung hero of their championship days. It has been said that although Bobby Clarke led the team, Lonsberry typified it.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Don McKenney

Shoots: Left
Height: 5’11â€
Weight: 160lbs
Born: 4/30/1934

NHL 1954-1968
Regular Season
798GP – 237G – 345A – 582Pts

Playoffs
58GP – 18G – 29A – 47Pts

Stanley Cup: 1964

Lady Byng: 1959-60

Top 10 Points: 7, 8, 8, 10
Top 10 Goals: 6, 7, 10, 10
Top 10 Assists: 1, 6


Joe Pelletier

For much of the 1950s and early 1960s, Don McKenney was a Dave Keon-like star with the Boston Bruins. Old time Boston fans compared him to Cowboy Bill Cowley, a Bruins star from the 1940s.

Tall and rangy, he was a clean and elegant center, winner of the 1960 Lady Byng Memorial trophy as the NHL's most gentlemanly player. He was noted for his excellence at both ends of the ice. He was a polished offensive talent, known for good speed and play-making ability. He was equally as brainy while defending, relying on great anticipation skills and strong positioning.

After just a single season in the minor leagues (an incredibly brief apprenticeship in that era), McKenney graduated to the Boston Bruins in 1954-55. Over the next 8 years he would lead the Bruins offensively, scoring 20 goals each year except one. Seven times he would finish amongst the top 20 NHL scorers. And in 1959-60 he led all NHLers in assists.

McKenney's game improved come playoff time. Three times he was in the top 10 in Stanley Cup scoring, twice for goals scored. With the Bruins he was never more prolific than in 1958 when he and Fleming MacKell led the offensive charge in the memorably epic Stanley Cup final against Montreal, a championship series narrowly won by the mighty Montreal Canadiens.

By 1961 McKenney was named team captain of the Bruins, but midway through the 1962-63 season he was moved to New York in exchange for Dean Prentice. About a year later he was part of the big Andy Bathgate trade to Toronto. McKenney played a nice support role in helping the Leafs win their 3rd Stanley Cup in a row. For McKenney, it would be his only Stanley Cup of his career.

Legends of Hockey

A season later, he was summoned to play for the Boston Bruins where he quickly established himself as a smooth skater and slick playmaker. During his nine seasons in Boston, he topped the 20-goal level seven times.

In 1960, McKenney enjoyed his best season, netting 69 points in 70 games while taking home the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play.

After a brief stint with the Rangers, McKenney was thrown in as part of a blockbuster trade that sent him along with Andy Bathgate to the Leafs in exchange for Arnie Brown, Bob Nevin, Rod Seiling, Dick Duff and Bill Collins. Both Bathgate and McKenney played important roles in the Leafs' 1964 Stanley Cup victory.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Frank Patrick, Assistant Coach

Coaching Experience: Vancouver Millionaires, 1912-1922; Vancouver Maroons, 1922-1926; Boston Bruins, 1934-1936

PCHA Regular Season W-L-T: 143-127-2; PCHA Playoff W-L-T: 11-9-1

WHL Regular Season W-L-T: 22-34-2

NHL Regular Season W-L-T: 48-36-12; NHL Playoff W-L: 2-4

PCHA League Championships: 1914-15, 1917-18, 1920-1924

Playoff Appearances: 1915, 1918-1924, 1935-36
Stanley Cup Finals Appearances: 1915, 1918, 1921-22
Stanley Cup Victory: 1915

Hockey Hall of Fame: 1958


InsideHockey.com

rank Patrick was the younger brother of Lester Patrick but differed from his more illustrious brother in subtle ways. Lester was charming and convivial in manner; Frank was somber and introspective.

However both brothers shared the same intellectual, cultural, and athletic versatility; and both brothers shared the same genius, passion, and inventiveness for the playing, promoting, coaching, and administration of professional hockey.

Frank Patrick was the winningest coach in the fourteen year existence of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) and the third most successful head coach behind Pete Green and Pete Muldoon during the early years of professional hockey (1917-1926).

Frank and Lester brought Canadian hockey to the Pacific Northwest; expanded the wage potential for hockey’s best players at that time; rewrote the hockey rule book and in the process developed a style of hockey that competed and eventually won over the more conservative Eastern style of Canadian hockey; all the while becoming one of the finest coaches of offensive hockey of his era.

Frank is credited with 22 rule changes which are still in effect today. He invented the blue-line; the penalty shot; forward passing; the playoff system; the boarding penalty; and even the gesture of raising one’s stick after scoring a goal. Not only was he innovative he was also prescient. He predicted that one day teams would dress two goalies for games and he even proposed the formation of women’s hockey leagues.

Frank (like his brother) was a defenseman during his playing days and (like his brother) revolutionized the position; making bold rushes with the puck; expanding the envelope of what a defenseman could do on the ice.

When the PCHA began operation in 1912 Frank Patrick’s Vancouver Millionaires franchise swiftly became the powerhouse of the fledgling league; winning the league title eight times in fourteen seasons. His greatest moment came in 1915 when the Millionaires took on the Original Ottawa Senators (one of the finest franchises in hockey history) for the Stanley Cup.

In an awesome display of offensive hockey, Patrick’s Millionaires beat the Senators. It was a landmark moment: it was the first time the upstart PCHA had won the Stanley Cup—and they had beaten one of the most powerful franchises at that time to do so.

Indeed the 1915 win still remains in the hockey record books as the best offensive performance during the Challenge Cup era in Stanley Cup history (1893-1917). It’s also the only time a Vancouver hockey franchise has ever won the Stanley Cup.

For the remainder of his coaching career Frank Patrick tried but always failed to repeat that magical moment. He had three more chances to win the Cup in 1918, 1921 and 1922 but fell short each time. He won the PCHA league championship in 1923 and 1924 but lost in the preliminary rounds to the WCHL winner both times.

Frank Patrick was the Glen Sather of his era. Twelve times his teams led the PCHA in offense. Patrick got great output from the greatest scorers of his time. Players like Newsy Lalonde, Gordon Roberts, Cyclone Taylor, Jack Adams, and Art Duncan flourished under his tutelage. All of these men enjoyed hall-of-fame careers as did goalie Hugh Lehman. Conversely his teams only led the league in defense four times and finished last five times. This imbalance is one reason why Patrick failed to win the Stanley Cup when competing against the NHL from 1917-1926.

But one area that Patrick dominated (and quite possibly innovated) was in on-ice discipline.

Patrick’s Vancouver teams were notable in that they didn’t accumulate a lot of penalty minutes whereas the other two main teams in the PCHA (Victoria and Seattle) did. We don’t have team penalty minute totals for most of the PCHA’s existence but during a five year time period (1921-1926) Vancouver finished last four times in team penalty minutes. Frank Patrick’s and Art Ross’ teams were equal to one another in on-ice discipline during 1917-1926.

It’s a toss-up as to whether it was Patrick or Ross who first established the principle of on-ice discipline as a practicable theory to playing hockey. It’s interesting to note however that other coaches who practiced on-ice discipline like Newsy Lalonde and Jack Adams both played for Patrick at times during their playing careers.

For 14 years the Patrick brothers shared in the glories and tribulations of running the PCHA together but after 1924 there began an imperceptible parting of the ways. After 1924 Frank’s star began to dim while Lester’s gained in radiance.

The collapse of the PCHA and the merger with the WCHL went badly for Frank. His teams finished poorly in 1925 and 1926. When the Western league collapsed, Frank did not join his brother in establishing himself in the NHL. There were standing offers from the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings for Frank to coach and/or manage their teams, but he ignored the offers and remained in the Pacific Northwest while trying to run and maintain the Patrick Family’s arena in Vancouver and various mining and business interests—with precious little success.

Frank Patrick went back to work in the NHL in 1934 for the Boston Bruins. Long-time Bruins coach Art Ross left the bench to work solely as general manager—yielding the position to Frank.

Eight years away from coaching hockey had not diminished his ability. He led the Bruins to two winning seasons, one divisional title, and two playoff appearances but failed to reach the Stanley Cup finals both times.

Patrick was popular with his players; getting MVP-work from the legendary Eddie Shore both seasons. His Bruins had the best defense in the NHL in the 1935-1936 Season. Patrick was still innovative. His conversion of Earl Siebert from forward to defense was a stroke of genius. Siebert (an NHL All-Star at forward) earned All-Star honors as a blue-liner.

He only coached two years in Boston. The reasons why varied. Art Ross (who made the Boston Bruins in his own image) could not remain in the shadows quietly. Ross was a formidable figure. Patrick family chronicler Eric Whitehead records this tense exchange between Art Ross and Lester Patrick about Frank.

“Do you let him do the job, Art?â€

“You’re talking like a coach, Lester. I’m the boss and this is my hockey club. I like to keep close to things. That’s my job. It’s my obligation to Mr. [Weston] Adams.â€

“What about your obligation to your coach?â€

“For chrissake, Lester, there you go again. Thinking like a ******* coach. I’m looking at it like a general manager, and I think Frank is too ******* soft. He’s too chummy with the players, and he thinks every referee is his best friend. He protects everybody. He’s too ******* nice.

 

[seventieslord]

With the 534th pick in ATD2011, The Regina Pats are pleased to select:

Murray Oliver, C/LW

- 5'10", 170 lbs
- Top-20 in Goals 4 Times (9th, 15th, 17th, 19th)
- Top-20 in Assists 3 Times (6th, 6th, 8th)
- Top-20 in Points 3 Times (7th, 9th, 10th)
- Top-20 in ESP 5 Times (3rd, 7th, 7th, 18th, 19th)
- 8th in Playoff Goals (1971)
- Killed 41% of his team's penalties post-expansion
- Played in NHL All-Star Game (1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968)
- Retired 21st all-time in career points

Murray Oliver was a slick playmaking centre who could kill penalties and create chances on the power play. He was blessed with excellent hockey sense and scored over 700 career points on four different teams. The tricky forward was considered one of the best in the league at pulling off the fake pass.

...Oliver recorded three straight 20-goal seasons for the Bruins playing with such wingers as Johnny Bucyk and Tommy Williams. He was a fine playmaker and defensive forward on the improved team that was being built around sensational youngster Bobby Orr. On May, 15, 1967 Oliver was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Eddie Shack. The veteran pivot was solid for three years and worked well on the same line with Bob Pulford and Ron Ellis.

After he was traded to the Minnesota North Stars in 1970, Oliver played five years with the young club before retiring. A highlight for him was scoring seven playoff goals in 1971 when the spunky North Stars extended the Montreal Canadiens to six games in the semi-finals. Oliver also scored a career-high 27 goals in 1971-72 centring Dean Prentice and Lou Nanne.

Fed up with a bitter contract dispute with the Stars, he hung up his skates in 1975 after playing over 1,100 NHL contests.

Murray Oliver was a natural athlete. Murray actually turned down an opportunity to play professional baseball in the Cleveland Indians system, instead opting to further his development in the other sport he loved - hockey. Playing with his home-town Hamilton Tiger Cubs of the OHA, Oliver was named the Red Tilson Memorial Trophy winner as the OHA's Most Valuable Player in 1957-58. He later went on to the Edmonton Flyers of the WHL for a year and a half before being promoted to the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings.

Murray's stay in Detroit was relatively brief. He appeared in parts of two seasons, scoring 31 goals and 31 assists for 62 points in 103 games. While it was short it was definitely sweet for Murray as he often got to center a line with his boyhood idol on right wing - Gordie Howe!

In January 1961 Oliver, Gary Aldcorn and Tom McCarthy were sent packing to Boston in exchange for Vic Stasiuk and Leo Labine. It was in Boston that Oliver became a league star. Using his quick feet and smart playmaking skills, the small center was a consistent scorer and hustling worker who fit in nicely in Beantown.

He topped the 20 goal plateau and 40 assist mark on three occasions with the Bruins, who were a weak team in the 1960s until the arrival of Bobby Orr late in the decade. Playing on the B-O-W line with Johnny Bucyk and Tommy Williams, Oliver's 1963-64 season saw him scored 24 goals and a career high 68 points, good enough to finish 7th overall in scoring. "Muzz" was the Bruins leading scorer in the 1965-66 season with 60 points (18 goals, 42 assists) as well.

Oliver's production slipped to just 9 goals and 35 points in 1966-67. The Bruins, who were looking to get bigger and stronger, traded him to Toronto for Eddie Shack. Muzz played 2 years in Toronto before he was traded to the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for Brian Conacher and Terry O'Malley.

Murray played 5 more years with the North Stars before he found himself out of a job. At the time agents negotiating contracts on behalf of players was a pretty primitive and new practice, one that wasn't warmly welcomed by the NHL teams. Having brought in an agent to negotiate a contract for the first time in his career, the Stars balked at Oliver's request for a 2 year contract and upped and left the negotiating table, leaving Oliver looking for a real job.

...A good penalty killer, Murray was one of the few bright spots in Boston immediately prior to the arrival of Bobby Orr. He also was a bright spot in the early days of NHL hockey in Minnesota.

When Murray Oliver was traded from the Boston Bruins to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Eddie Shack, there was speculation that Oliver, a Hamilton native, would have problems replacing the flamboyant Shack.

But as he skated for the Leafs in his ninth full NHL season in 1968, Leaf coach Punch Imlach was pleased with the center’s performance.

“He’s simply performing as we expected,” said the fabled Leaf coach in January of 1968. “He’s playing the way we knew he could play when we traded for him.”

Oliver’s duties with the Leafs were divided with the “POE” (Pulford-Oliver-Ellis) and “POP” (Pulford-Oliver-Pappin) lines, and he was adept at killing penalties. In 10 games teaming with Pulford during that season, they managed to kill nine of 10 penalties without being scored upon.

Murray Oliver made his first appearance in an NHL game with Detroit back in 1958. Since then he has played in over 1000 contests, scored more than 250 goals, and became renowned as a premier penalty killer. Oliver was Minnesota's MVP in the North stars greatest season, 1970 – 71. Oliver's reputation as a clean, gentlemanly performer was punctuated by his 1974 campaign in which he appeared in all 78 games and collected only for penalty minutes.

Murray Oliver was another one of the many teammates I have had with the Bruins. Murray was a good hustler, he had a good shot and we played very well together. The only thing he lacked was size but Tommy Williams made up for that.

during his career, Oliver was a good all-around forward who proved to be an excellent penalty killer as well as a very capable playmaker… As hapless as the Bruins were in the early 1960s, he always proved to be one of the brighter lights on the Boston squads and often put himself in the NHL's top 10 in scoring.

he might not have been big but he was a consistent player who was always hustling on the ice. He had a good shot, a quick stride and worked very hard to develop his playmaking skills.

Milt Schmidt enjoyed having Oliver on that team, but says, "Murray would have been a Hall of fame candidate if he were a bit bigger. He had loads of talent and a sound work ethic, but he wasn't the prototypical Boston Bruins type player. He sure was slick around the net, though.

although he is now 34 and the veteran of 12 NHL seasons, Oliver still ranks as one of the league's fastest skaters… A versatile athlete equally at home at center or left wing…

clever center man who enjoyed his best goalscoring season of his career last year… Good checker who is often used as a penalty killer…

slick but small Murray Oliver...

Murray Oliver, one of the league's finest centers...

Clever Murray Oliver...

 

[seventieslord]

With the 667th pick in ATD2011, The Regina Capitals are proud to select:

Wade Redden, D

- 6'2", 209 lbs
- Stanley Cup Finalist (2007)
- 5th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th in Norris voting
- 6th, 9th, 10th, 11th in All-star voting
- World Cup Champion (2004)
- Played in NHL All-star Game (2002)
- Top-15 in points by defensemen 4 times (11th, 12th, 13th, 13th)
- NHL +/- Leader (2006)
- Career adjusted +143
- 13 Points in 34 Games with Team Canada (WEC, WC, Olympics)
- Top-2 in icetime on his team 9 straight years (2000-2009) - six times 1st, and four times 1st on a top-4 team in the conference

The Loydminster, Saskatchewan native emerged as one of the top all-around defenceman in the NHL, posting a career high 47 points during the 2000-01 season and continues to be a leader on the ice leader with the Sens.

Following the NHL lockout of 2004-05 the Senators re-signed the defenceman. Over the next three seasons, Redden would anchor the club's blueline and contribute offensively. In 2006-07, Redden and the Senators came within three wins of capturing the Stanley Cup.

He proved himself a true young star in the league and a player the Senators would need if they were going to win in the playoffs. Big, tough, and unflappable, Redden led the defense by example. He never panicked and never tried to do too much. The result was that he became a natural team leader.

Plays with ice water in his veins and never gets rattled. Is extremely durable, a good skater and fine passer. Owns an accurate point shot.

McCrimmon describes Redden as unassuming and modest; a player who doesn't impress with flashiness but wows with poise under pressure.

"His panic point is very low," he explained. "He makes the right decisions under pressure, and makes it look easy."

Team captain Daniel Alfredsson describes Redden as a quiet, funny guy who likes his privacy but always shows up with a smile.

"He's not the most vocal guy, but he really leads by example. He's got the respect of all the guys," he said. "He mingles with everyone and goes to dinner with different people. I don't think he's a very good cook, so I don't think he eats at home very much."

Coach ******* ****** says Redden has earned that respect from his teammates with character, values and commitment to the game. He plays smart, is a tremendous passer and understands hockey; but there's maybe room for more aggression.

the Senators were very satisfied with Redden's rookie year… Unspectacular but very solid, two-way player… Redden is dead calm with the puck and wise without it. Pressure? The NHL rookie of the month for April just doesn't know the word and played his best hockey down the stretch, even scoring the goal that catapulted the Senators into the playoffs. Doesn't throw people over the boards but will play the body effectively. Displays good mobility and rink vision.

Redden has tried to pattern his game after Ray Bourque, and the youngster has a few things in common with the Boston great. He is a good skater who can change gears swiftly and smoothly, and his superb rink vision enables him to get involved in his team's attack. He has a high skill level. His shot is hard and accurate and he is a patient and precise passer.

Redden plays older than his years and has a good grasp of the game. As he has been tested at higher and higher levels of competition he has elevated his game. his poise is exceptional.

Redden's work habits and attitude are thoroughly professional. he seems to be a player who is willing to learn in order to improve his game at the NHL level.

Redden is not a big hitter, but he finishes his checks and stands up well. What he lacks in aggressiveness he makes up for with his competitive nature. He can handle a lot of icetime. He plays an economical game without a lot of wasted effort, is durable, and can skate all night long.

Redden was Ottawa's best defenseman down the stretch and into the playoffs. He has such a laid-Back demeanour that perhaps the urgency doesn't hit him until the finish line is in sight. He raises his game when something is on the line.

has quietly but rapidly matured into Ottawa's most reliable blueliner, and was one of the few bright spots during the postseason. A solid mix of poise, intelligence and mobility, he rarely makes mistakes in his own end and has steadily gained confidence in his puck handling and passing abilities.

His ability to move the puck is one of his best assets... He consistently plays against other teams' top lines... has a very long fuse

Ottawa's playoff hopes were dealt a huge blow when their best defensemen fractured his foot in the final game of the season… Smart two-way rearguard with excellent poise and mobility, he is very adept at moving the puck and regularly plays against the opposition's best line, however he logged over 25 min. per game in the first half and started to wear down after midseason… Steadily expanding his offensive repertoire.

Redden took his game to a new level in 2001, establishing himself as one of hockey's elite two-way defenders. However, he crashed and burned in the playoffs. The big Saskatchewan product always stays calm, cool and collected on the ice. He makes a great first pass out of his own end and is great at joining the rush. He has become a real leader on the Senators blueline and is a workhorse. His tremendous shot is also valuable on the power play.

Redden was mature when he broke into the game. He is smart and his level rises with the competition.

Redden has lived up to the expectations associated with being the second overall selection in the 1995 draft. His calm, collective game forces the Senators to use him in all situations. In fact, he was Ottawa's leader in average ice time last season. He possesses great offensive instincts and doesn't shy away from joining the attack. While he could use his size a little better, he uses hockey smarts to get the job done in his own end. A solid playoff performance last spring has only heightened Redden's value. While his offense of totals won't get significantly higher, his excellent all-around game should soon garner some Norris trophy attention.

although he failed to repeat his career totals from 2001, he did deliver a better overall performance last season, leading the club in ice time as part of an effective top duo and making up for past playoff failures with a much grittier showing… A poised, well-rounded blueliner with excellent mobility, Redden isn't flashy or overly physical, and can be outmuscled by stronger opponents as he was at times in the Trenton series, but he moves the puck intelligently and competes hard in his own end.

Redden is on the short list of world-class defensemen. He's unflappable with the puck, whether it's threading a breakout pass, dodging a forechecker or running the power play. Away from the puck, his defensive reads and positioning are as good as you can get, although he could play with more of an edge. Overall, Redden is the backbone of the Senators defense and usually logs over 25 min. per game.

stayed in peak condition over the lockout as he was likely Canada's best defensemen at the world championship in May… Smooth, cerebral blueline or with top-notch mobility and poise… Moves puck safely and boasts a terrific one timer… May lack a natural mean streak, but offsets with solid positioning and competitiveness, and also looks to be getting progressively stronger.

]#32: Wade Redden: dependable at both ends of the ice, Redden has added an edge to his game[/B]…

#16: Wade Redden: excellent two-way performer is dependable in his own zone and has the ability to lead the power play, an important commodity in today's game.

Wade Redden has traveled a long ways from being the second overall pick in the 1995 NHL entry draft and from the heady days of 10 to 16 GVT, which he managed for his first nine NHL seasons, all with the Ottawa Senators. After two lesser seasons with Ottawa in 2007 and 2008, the Rangers took a chance on Redden's return to glory, certainly looking at how they paid. But aside from the sticker shock and the tanking offense – admittedly, to pretty major points – there's actually a decent bit to like about Redden as a defensive defenseman: he's an above-average even strength defender and solid penalty killer who will block a handful of shots and threw a few hits. He even draws more penalties than he takes, which is not too shabby for a defenseman starting to lose his fastball.

the fact that Wade Redden's teammates took up a collection to buy him a gift, is in some ways, even more nonsensical than you think… Redden draws a seven figure salary that starts with a six while playing in a league where the minimum annual stipend is $37,500 this year. That alone makes it more than a bit intriguing that he was on the receiving end of anything in addition to those hefty paychecks… "He's always been a professional, so it was really a non-issue," said Connecticut whale coach Ken Gernander. "He came down, worked hard and did everything that was asked of him. There was no negative response on his part at all."

Jeremy Williams, Redden's whale teammate, agreed with that assessment. "A lot of guys might be bitter in his situation, but he came down and he's really teaching the young players and really helping the young defenseman out. He's a guy you want in your dressing room. He's a fun guy to be around, he cracks jokes, but at the same time, when it's time to get down to it, he's a great leader.

The extra change in their already deep pockets meant Redden and Finger could afford to dole out more than counsel to their young teammates. "He's very generous," said Williams of Redden. I grinning Redden noted being benevolent is all about teaching the young boys some proper manners. "I've treated them to a few meals out. These young guys are just starting their careers, I've got to show them proper etiquette at the dinner table."

Redden's demotion coincided with the birth of a daughter early in the season, so suffice it to say, with a wife and young family, the guy still has had a lot going on this year. The fact he's still managed to connect with his surroundings in Connecticut and drop a few of his dollars on teammates is why Williams and his mates, despite the fact that many of them draw salaries similar to those who patronize minor-league hockey, wanted to pony up and get something in return. "We pooled some money together from the guys and got him a nice watch for everything he's done for us earlier on in the year. We might have to go get him another one soon."

Of course, what every banished NHLer wants is a chance to get back to playing at the highest level… It's hard to say what Redden's chances of an NHL return are, especially with three full years remaining on his deal. Still, Redden isn't interested in making bus trips any longer than they have to be by letting nagging thoughts roll around in his head. "There's no sense looking back on things and wondering where things could have been different," he said. I want to build a good year, have a good season and want to see what happens in the summertime."

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Serge Savard

Shoots: Left
Height: 6’3â€
Weight: 210lbs
Born: 1/22/1946

NHL 1967-1983
Regular Season
1040GP – 106G – 333A – 439Pts

Playoffs
130GP – 19G – 49A – 68Pts

Stanley Cup: 7 (1968, 1969, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979)

2nd Team All-Star: 1

Conn Smythe: 1969

Norris Voting: 4, 5, 5, 5, 6

Hart Voting: 6

Hockey Hall of Fame: 1986

Team Canada
1972 Summit Series
1976 Canada Cup

NHL Coaches Polls
Best Defensive Defenseman: 2nd 1979 and 1981 (Larry Robinson 1st in both)


Joe Pelletier

Serge Savard was a key component of the Montreal Canadiens dynasty in the 1970s. A consummate professional, Savard sacrificed personal awards and statistics for the success of his team and his teammates. Such selflessness allowed the Guy Lafleurs, Steve Shutts and Larry Robinsons achieve great acclaim, although Savard too received much recognition for his fine play.

Savard, nicknamed "The Senator" and the "Minister of Defense," played 16 seasons with the Habs, including being named captain for 2 of those years. With Savard in the line up, the Canadiens won 8 Stanley Cup championships, including 4 successive Cups from 1976 to 1979.

Savard is best known as a member of The Big Three. Along with Larry Robinson and Guy Lapointe, Savard helped to make what many consider to be the best blue line in NHL history. No other team, say many experts, has ever iced three defenseman of the same quality as The Big Three.

Savard was the elder statesman of The Big Three. A native Montrealer, Savard graduated from the Junior Canadiens to turn pro in 1966. By the 1967-68 season he was on his way to a standout career, winning his first Stanley Cup.

In just his second NHL season, Savard progressed nicely during the regular season, but dominated in the playoffs. He played incredibly through the entire post season, and picked up 4 goals and 10 points in 14 games to earn him the Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL's Most Valuable Player in the playoffs. Savard became the first defenseman in history to win the award.

Tragedy struck Savard on January 30, 1971. In a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had already had a history of knee and leg injuries, broke bones in both of his legs. He would be able to participate in only 60 games over the 1970-71 and 1971-72 seasons.

Despite the major set back, Savard was cleared to play for the the 1971-72 season. Before the season got underway Serge was asked to represent Canada against the Soviets in the now-fabled 1972 Summit Series. It is well documented jus how much trouble he Canadians had with their Soviet counterparts, but Savard had a calming influence on the team and made a significant difference when he played. Savard played in only 5 of the 8 games against the Russians, and Team Canada never lost a match, going 4-0-1. Coincidence? Maybe, but there can be no doubt that Savard was a big part of the games that he did play in.

Savard returned to the NHL and continued his steady and spectacular play. However he was never noted as much of an offensive threat until the 1974-75 season. Coming off of a 4 goal, 18 point season the previous year, Serge exploded with a 20 goal, 60 point season. That season proved to be a bit of a fluke, as Serge never returned to those numbers again, although he was a consistent 5-10 goal and 40+ point threat through the rest of the Canadiens dynasty in the late 1970s.

Savard stayed in Montreal until the conclusion of the 1980-81 season. The Habs were looking to bring in some youth and exposed Savard on the preseason waiver draft. The Winnipeg Jets, the worst team in hockey, eagerly claimed the wily veteran. The Jets, who had never made the playoffs and finished the previous season with an awful 32 points, convinced Savard to play for them as opposed to retiring. In Savard's first year with Winnipeg, the Jets made the playoffs and improved by 48 points!

Despite suffering two broken legs early in his career, Savard has an impressive collection of awards. Savard earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1969, and was also awarded the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. He was also named in 1979 to the NHL Second All-Star Team. Serge likely would have been named to more All Star Teams but he was overshadowed by the offensive likes of Bobby Orr, Brad Park, Denis Potvin and teammates Robinson and Lapointe. Nonetheless, Serge is also an enshrined member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Legends of Hockey Profile

Rangy defenseman Serge Savard played 17 seasons in the NHL, 15 (his first season consisted of two games) with his hometown team, the Montreal Canadiens, and two with the Winnipeg Jets, who lured him out of retirement after he'd left Montreal following the 1980-81 season.

A member of the Canadiens "Big Three" defensive stars along with Guy Lapointe and Larry Robinson, Savard was known as "the Senator" by his teammates for his involvement in activities - mostly in politics - outside the game. In the mid-1980s, he served as general manager of the Habs.

By the 1968-69 season, only his second full one in the NHL, he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Habs won the Cup in a four-game sweep over the Blues in the finals.

Although Savard was overshadowed by his better-known teammates, he did win another significant award during his years as a player. In 1979 the NHL presented him with the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to "the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey."

Savard almost didn't make it much further in NHL play, however. In a game during the 1970-71 season against the Rangers, he skated after New York's Rod Gilbert, trying to stop a breakaway. Savard dove for the puck and felt his left leg crumble underneath him. The result was five separate fractures and three operations that took him out of the game for three months.

After a complete recovery, Savard continued to have problems with the leg and further injuries. In the 1971-72 season, he suffered a new fracture to the same leg after being hit. In 1973 he injured his ankle severely as he tried to help firefighters break down a door during a fire at the Canadiens' hotel in St. Louis.

But the injuries failed to stop Savard. Upon his return to the game, he started to blend his patient, hard-working style with the hard-charging, rushing play of Lapointe and Robinson, the skillful scoring of Guy Lafleur and the outstanding play in the net of Ken Dryden. The result was another Cup for the Habs in 1976, when they swept the defending champion Philadelphia Flyers in four straight games, a victory that many relieved fans hailed as a triumph of skilled play over the fight-filled game of the Broad Street Bullies.

Internationally, Savard's attitude was rewarded by his being named to the Canadian team for the 1972 Summit Series. He appeared in five of the eight games, and - as Savard liked to remind people - Canada won four of those games and tied the other.

Legends of Hockey One-On-One

In his second NHL season, Savard was becoming the dominant team player we reflect back upon today. For a second straight season, Montreal not only finished first in the East, but proceeded to capture the Stanley Cup. Savard was outstanding, blocking shots, clearing the zone and collecting ten points in fourteen games. His four goals was one shy of an NHL record for playoff goals by a defenseman in one season and helped earn Serge the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable playoff performer as his Canadiens swept the St. Louis Blues in four games.

But injuries hampered Savard's continued progress. In a March 1970 game against the Rangers, Serge crashed into a goal post and broke his leg in five places. "There was a time when I was afraid I wouldn't play again. My leg was broken in three big places besides the chips and I got scared after the doctor took off the cast for the first time. The break was moving inside," Serge recalls. But to complicate matters, Savard returned to the Canadiens only to break the same leg again in February 1971. Caught by a Bob Baun hipcheck in a game against Toronto, the break put Serge out of action for close to a year. But the break did more than put Savard out of action; it changed his style of play. "When I was younger, I was more of a rusher but after the two bad leg injuries, I didn't have the same speed so I became more of a defensive defenseman," states Serge. Although never afraid to carry the puck, Savard was found to be invaluable in his own end. "Not many guys are hurt stopping shots," Serge explains, describing his skill as a shot blocker. "You could get killed if you get hit in the temple but the average is good. I turn sideways from twenty to twenty-five feet away and let the goalie take it. He can see it better. To me, there's no danger if you time it right. You have to be almost on top of the shooter before falling."

Despite missing substantial portions of two seasons, Serge Savard was chosen to be a member of Team Canada in the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviets. From that celebrated series, sixteen players went on to earn Hall of Fame honours. But it almost ended prematurely for Serge. Prior to the fourth game, a game played in Vancouver, a Red Berenson shot in practice caught Savard on the ankle and he sustained a hairline fracture. It was expected that Savard was done for the series, but because there was gap between Games Four and Five, owing to travel from Canada to Europe and an exhibition tour of Sweden, Savard was able to get ten full days of rest at home before returning to action. Ignoring the advice of Montreal management and his doctors, Savard travelled with Team Canada to Europe. He sat out the two exhibition games in Sweden as well as Game Five in Russia, but dressed and played in Games Six, Seven and Eight. "Lucky for me, it turned out to be just a slight crack and not another fracture," Savard sighs. Team Canada did not lose in any of the five games in which Savard played, winning four and tying one.

Serge Savard played fourteen seasons as a Montreal Canadien, and was part of eight Stanley Cup championships during that time, including four consecutive between 1976 and 1979. Serge was Montreal's captain from 1979 to 1981. But on August 12, 1981, Savard decided that he had had enough…That afternoon, Savard stated, "This is the most difficult decision of my life. As a player, you know this day is coming but you never want to believe it." Toe Blake, the former coach of the Canadiens, added, "It's been said that anyone can be replaced, but that's not the case here."

Winnipeg joined the NHL in 1979-80 and missed the playoffs in its first two seasons of existence. But with the leadership and influence of Savard patrolling the blueline, the Jets added 48 points to their regular season total of 1980-81 and finished in second place in the Norris Division in 1981-82.

Winnipeg's defense corps was very green - twenty-year olds Dave Babych and Moe Mantha, twenty-two year olds Don Spring and Tim Waters, twenty-six year old Bryan Maxwell and Barry Legge, who was the old man at 27, were joined by thirty-five year old Savard, who lent the team the knowledge of what it took to win. Serge Savard spent two seasons with the Jets, guiding the team to the division semifinals both seasons.

But individual awards eluded the wily veteran, even though his considerable presence contributed greatly to the eight Stanley Cup championships won during his prestigious career. "I never pay attention to individual awards and I think that sometimes, too many people place too much value on them."

Chidlovski.com

One of the finest NHL defensemen of all times, Serge Savard had an outstanding career with the glorious Montreal Canadiens dynasty of the 1970’s. He was recognized as a very slick blueliner and an amazing team player who always put team interests above his personal ambitions and results. His slick technique in skating and puck handling, dedication to hockey and sportsmanship brought him numerous individual and team professional hockey awards.

PERFORMANCE IN THE 1972 SUMMIT
Serge Savard played in five games of the 1972 Summit. Needless to say, that none of these five games was lost. By all means, Savard was one of the best Canadian defensemen in the tournament. He arguably earned a lot of respect and appreciation for a very fine performance by the Soviet fans.

 

[Hawkey Town 18]

Paul Thompson

Shoots: Left
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 180lbs
Born: 11/2/1906

NHL 1926-1939
Regular Season
582GP – 153G – 179A – 332Pts

Playoffs
48GP – 11G – 11A – 22Pts

Stanley Cup: 3 (1928, 1934, 1938)

All-Star Award Finishes: 1, 2, 3

Top 5 Hart Voting: 2nd (lost to Eddie Shore 68 to 61)

Top 10 Points: 2, 3, 8, 10, 10
Top 10 Goals: 3, 6, 7, 10
Top 10 Assists: 4, 7, 10

1934 Stanley Cup Playoffs
T-3rd overall in Points (T-2nd on Team)
T-2nd overall in Goals (T-2nd on Team)
T-3rd overall in Assists ((T-2nd on Team)

1938 Stanley Cup Playoffs
T-2nd overall in Points (T-2nd on Team)
T-3rd overall in Goals (3rd on Team)
T-8th overall in Assists (T-4th on Team)


Joe Pelletier

Paul Thompson was one of the top players in the National Hockey League during the tough days of the 1930s. He led the Chicago Blackhawks in scoring six times in his eight seasons in the Windy City.

Often toiling on the second line notably with Murray Murdoch and Butch Keeling and sometimes with Alex Gray and Reg Mackey, Thompson's line always played second fiddle to the Frank Boucher-Bill Cook-Bun Cook trio that dominated the entire league in those days.

It wasn't until Thompson joined the Chicago Blackhawks that his offensive numbers took off. Traded for Art Somers and Vic Desjardins, Thompson slotted in nicely on the Hawks top line with Doc Romnes and Mush March. Thompson would twice top the 20 goal mark. In both of those seasons, 1934 and 1938, he led the Hawks to Stanley Cup championships.

A two time all star, Thompson totaled 153 goals and 179 assists for 332 points in his 582 game career. He would turn to coaching the Hawks in retirement, lasting 6 seasons.

"Paul Thompson was an excellent player," recalled former teammate Cully Dahlstrom. "He was great around the net and shooting the puck.

Legends of Hockey

Paul Thompson was a skillful left-winger during his 13 years in the NHL beginning in 1926-27. He was a well-rounded player who could check as well as contribute on offense in a career that yielded three Stanley Cups. The slick forward was also the younger brother of star netminder Tiny Thompson.

He was a solid role player for five years and helped the club win its first Stanley Cup in 1928. In October 1931, he was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks for Art Somers and Vic Desjardins.

Thompson hit the 20-goal mark twice during his eight years with the Hawks. In 1933-34, he formed an effective line with Doc Romnes and Mush March when Chicago won its first Stanley Cup. Four years later, he scored a personal-best 22 goals and notched four post-season markers to help the club win its second Cup of the decade. He retired during the 1938-39 season to coach the Hawks for the last 27 games of the schedule.

Ottawa Citizen – Jan. 8, 1936

The Hawks made several determined bids thereafter but their only dangerous stickman was Paul Thompson, speedy brother of the Boston goalie, who came here leading the league’s scorers.

 

[seventieslord]

With the 587th pick in ATD2011, The Regina Pats are pleased to select:

Mel Bridgman, C/LW

- 6'0", 190 lbs
- Stanley Cup Finalist (1976, 1980)
- 8th in Playoff Scoring (1976)
- 8th in Selke Voting (1991)
- 701 points, 1625 PIM in 977 NHL games
- 67 points, 298 PIM in 125 NHL games
- Killed 29% of his team's penalties in his career
- 143 NHL fights, with a recorded record of 34-9-21 (.695) (dropyourgloves.com)
- Captain of two NHL franchises for a combined 5 years (PHI, 1979-1981, NJD, 1984-1987)

A scrappy centre who could be effective at both ends of the ice, Mel Bridgman played just under 1,000 games in a solid NHL career. A model of consistency, he reached the 20-goal mark six times and was often at his best in big games or the post-season.

...Bridgman scored 23 goals as a rookie centring Terry Crisp and Bob "Mad Dog" Kelly. He also contributed 14 points as the Flyers reached the Stanley Cup finals where their attempt to "threepeat" fell short against the Montreal Canadiens. Bridgman spent over six years in Philly including the 1979-80 season when they reached the final and set an NHL record by going undefeated in 35 consecutive games. He also succeeded Bobby Clarke as the team's captain that same year.

In November 1981, Bridgman was traded to the Calgary Flames for defenceman Brad Marsh. He scored 75 points in 63 games for his new club but they were upset in the first round of the playoffs by the Vancouver Canucks. The next year Bridgman provided gritty leadership and nine power play goals but the Flames faltered in the first round once again.

Prior to the 1983-84 season, Bridgman joined the New Jersey Devils where he registered three straight 20-goal seasons and added a winning attitude to the young club. He became the club's captain and filled that role until 1987. Late in the 1986-87, he was acquired by the Detroit Red Wings as they prepared for the playoffs. Bridgman was a good fit for Jacques Demers' hard-working club which reached the semi-finals. The next year he played on a checking line with a number of wingers as the Wings reached the last four for the second straight year. Bridgman signed as a free agent with the Vancouver Canucks then retired after playing 15 games in 1988-89.

The honor of being the first overall pick of the National Hockey League Entry Draft also comes with the burden of high expectations. Although he never became a prolific NHL scorer, former Flyers captain Mel Bridgman lived up to his billing in other ways.

Bridgman was one the team's most reliable players during the transitional period of the mid-1970s to early 1980s. A model of consistency, Bridgman played nearly 1,000 games in the NHL, reaching the 20-goal mark six times, mostly as a third-line player. He was especially effective in big games, road tilts and during the playoffs.

Possessing a winning combination of grit, toughness, two-way play, leadership and intelligence, Bridgman was a clear-cut choice to succeed Bobby Clarke as Flyers captain when the Hall of Fame center became a playing assistant coach. The versatile Bridgman switched off readily between center and left wing and could anchor checking or scoring lines without missing a beat.

"He had a special determination. When Mel went after the puck, he was like a bulldog. He had his mind set. If you put a wall between him and his assignment, you would lose that wall," recalled ex-Flyers coach Pat Quinn in The Greatest Players and Moments of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Tough as rawhide on the ice, Bridgman was a bright, articulate gentleman away from the game... Although he wasn't the swiftest of skaters and didn't possess an overpowering shot, Bridgman's physical play, smarts and soft hands in close to the net made up for whatever gifts he may have lacked.

...All along, the Broad Street Bullies champions honed in on a single player – Mel Bridgman. "The only thing he might lack is confidence," Flyers scout Jerry Melnyk said in the Flyers 1975-76 yearbook. "But that will come."

Bridgman became the first British Columbia resident to be selected first overall in the NHL draft, as well as the first Philadelphia Flyer to earn that distinction. "Being picked by the Stanley Cup champions surprised me," he said. "I thought I was going (with the third pick) to the California Seals."

The prestige associated with being the first pick of the 1975 draft means more to Bridgman now than it did as a young player.

"When you are in the middle of a career, you don't think too much about it because you're enjoying the game so much," he reflected to USA Hockey. "But when you consider the number of teams and players we had then, maybe 40 to 50 new players entered the league every year. To be considered one of the best, it just means more to me as the years pass."

The Flyers had competition for Bridgman's services. The Denver Spurs of the rival World Hockey Association selected the Victoria center with the fourth overall pick of the 1975 WHA Draft. Although Spurs owner Ivan Mullenix publicly pledged to make Bridgman an offer he couldn't refuse, the 20-year-old center quickly chose the defending Stanley Cup champions over the fledgling Denver franchise. He signed a five-year contract with the Flyers, worth $500,000.

Bridgman made a wise decision to spurn the Spurs. The first-year team struggled badly at the gate, briefly moved to Ottawa, Ontario (where they were rechristened the Ottawa Civics) and then folded mid-season in their first year after just 41 games played. Meanwhile, Bridgman got acclimated to life in the National Hockey League. Playing for the Flyers, who were loaded with forward talent on the top two lines, the rookie was allowed to learn his craft in the background of stars like Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach and Rick MacLeish.

At first, Bridgman's introverted nature was mistaken for aloofness by some of his Philadelphia teammates. He arrived at training camp feeling homesick and, not wanting to step on any of the veterans' toes, he rarely made eye contact or spoke unless spoken to.

"Mel was very shy and withdrawn. He was pretty nervous and unsure of himself. The veterans on the team really kidded him a lot," former teammate Ross Lonsberry said in Greatest Players and Moments. "Bridgman did a lot of growing up between that rookie training camp and the [1976] playoffs. He came out of his shell and became one of us."

Recognizing that Bridgman needed to feel like he belonged in the NHL, Flyers captain Clarke took the rookie under his wing. For a full week, Clarke asked Bridgman to tag along with him.

"I spent a lot of time with Bobby that week," Bridgman said in the 1975-76 Yearbook. "Everywhere he went, I went along with him. I even went with him when he was attending to some personal business. The way he looked after me made me feel a little more at ease."

While Bridgman's teammates saw that he lacked self-confidence, the news would have come as a surprise to the Flyers opponents. It didn't take Bridgman long to earn his wings as a full-fledged member of the Broad Street Bullies.

On opening night of the 1975-76 season, Bridgman made his NHL debut against the Capitals, playing left wing on a line with Orest Kindrachuk and Don "Big Bird" Saleski. Late in the second period, with the Flyers leading 3-2, Saleski worked the puck back to defenseman Joe Watson.

The elder Watson brother sent the puck at the net, where Bridgman was camped out in front of goaltender Michel Belhumeur. A split second later, Mel Bridgman scored his first NHL goal. He ended up with four shots on goal in a game won by the Flyers.

Two nights later, Bridgman duplicated the feat in a 9-5 road victory against the Minnesota North Stars. This time, in the midst of a four-goal first period by the Flyers, he followed up on a Saleski scoring chance to bang the puck home past North Stars goalie Paul Harrison.

On October 30, 1975, Bridgman and the Flyers traveled to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs. In the first installment of a nasty season series that gave way to a playoff war, the Broad Street Bullies humiliated the Leafs by a 6-2 score in a game marked by 129 penalty minutes whistled by referee Dave Newell and a slew of fights and stick infractions. In the process, the Flyers outshot the Leafs 47 to 21.

The game was tied 1-1 after the first period. Seven minutes into the second period, Bridgman scored a powerplay goal to put the Flyers up 2-1. Barely two minutes later, Barber extended the lead to 3-1.

On the next shift, Toronto defenseman Brian Glennie picked a fight with Bridgman. Dropping the gloves for the first time in the NHL, Bridgman got the better of the solidly built Glennie. Moments later, Bob Kelly scored to make the game 4-1. That ended the night for beleaguered Toronto goaltender Wayne Thomas, who was booed lustily by 17,077 howling Maple Leafs partisans as he skated slowly to the bench.

Early in the third period, Bridgman scored his second goal of the game, once again getting himself into good scoring position in front of the net. Bridgman, who registered five shots on goal, earned third-star honors for the game.

He followed that up with a goal and an assist in the next game, an 8-1 thrashing of the Boston Bruins on Spectrum ice, then scored two more goals plus an assist the following night as the Flyers mercilessly whipped the hapless Kansas City Scouts by a 10-0 score. Bridgman was named the third star of the game for the second time in three nights.

Heading back out on the road, the Flyers faced a tough test against the Chicago Blackhawks, settling for a 4-4 tie after leading 4-1 midway through the third period. Bridgman kept his point streak alive with an assist and once again took third star honors.

Bridgman's hot streak was snapped in the next game, a 1-1 tie with the Los Angeles Kings at the Spectrum. As so often happens with rookies, Bridgman went into an offensive slump as opposing teams realized they couldn't only concentrate on trying to contain the Clarke and MacLeish lines. Over the next eleven games, Bridgman failed to register a point. Flyers coach Fred Shero dropped Bridgman to the fourth line with veterans Terry Crisp and Bob Kelly in order to alleviate some of the pressure the rookie started putting on himself to score. Later, he centered a line with Lonsberry and Gary Dornhoefer, when MacLeish was lost to a frightful neck injury.

Bridgman's willingness to concentrate on the defensive aspects of hockey and play a straightforward, physical style impressed Crisp.

"He was a super kid," Crisp said. "He did everything you could ask of him and it didn't phase him at all."

Despite the absence of superstar goaltender Bernie Parent (lost to a back injury that required surgery) for much of the season, the Flyers defeated Russia's mighty Red Army team in a battle for global club-team hockey supremacy. The Broad Street Bullies then went on to tie the NHL record for the longest unbeaten streak, matching a 23-game streak set by the Boston Bruins in 1940-41. The Flyers easily won first place in the Patrick Division with 118 points. At the Spectrum ice, Philly was virtually unbeatable, posting a phenomenal 36-2-2 record.

All the while, Bridgman learned from the Flyers' leadership group what it takes to be a champion. He finished his rookie season with 23 goals, 50 points, 86 penalty minutes and a plus-20 rating. But personal stats and regular season wins meant little in Philadelphia.

"The focus all along was to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals. To do that, we went out and tried to play a strong 60 minutes of hockey every night. The record takes care of itself when you do that," he said. "I learned a lot about winning and being a winner. That kind of development is just as important as individual development and statistics. Would it have been nice to play on a team where I would have gotten more ice time and more powerplay time? Maybe. But I also know that a big reason for my longevity in the NHL is that I developed in a winning environment."

The Flyers and Maple Leafs met in the 1976 Stanley Cup Quarterfinals. As expected, Philadelphia won the first two games at the Spectrum. Eight minutes into the opening period of Game One, with the Flyers in the middle of a line change, Bridgman picked up an assist on a Reggie Leach goal. In the third period, the rookie earned a powerplay assist on a Gary Dornhoefer goal. Parent took care of the rest, turning aside 23 of 24 shots for a 4-1 win.

In Game Two, Parent stopped 31 of 32 shots to backstop a 3-1 win. Bridgman once again earned an assist, this time setting up Lonsberry on what proved to be the game winning goal. The scene then shifted back to Maple Leaf Gardens.

As with the October meeting, referee Dave Newell was unable to keep control of the game, no matter how often he blew the whistle and ejected players. High sticks, elbows and fists flew on both sides throughout the game, and Toronto ended up with 16 power plays to just three for the Flyers. Bridgman was at the center of a huge controversy.

The fuse was lit when the Maple Leafs' Kurt Walker speared Flyers enforcer Dave Schultz early in the first period, triggering the first of many brawls and earning a gross misconduct penalty.

Throughout the Flyers season series with the Leafs, Philly made a point of trying to hit Toronto's two Swedish imports, winger Inge Hammarstrom and defenseman Borrje Salming, every time they touched the puck. The finesse-oriented Hammarstrom, who is now a Flyers scout, did not respond. Salming did – both with his skill and his fists.

Toronto scored four powerplay goals in the first period and a half of play to take a 4-1 lead. Goals by Dornhoefer and Jimmy Watson just 13 seconds apart quickly trimmed the deficit to 4-3 and triggered a spirited fight seconds after the next faceoff between wildmen Jack McIlhargey of the Flyers and Dave "Tiger" Williams of Toronto.

With the Toronto crowd still in a frenzy, Saleski was whistled off for tripping, barking at Newell on the way to the penalty box. As he stood in the box, a Toronto fan tossed a chunk of ice cubes at him from behind. Furious, Saleski whirled around and confronted the fan. A Toronto police officer raced over and grabbed Saleski's stick, who tried to wrestle it back, as the scene around Saleski continued to escalate.

Sensing his teammate was in danger, the normally non-combative Joe Watson led the charge toward the penalty box. From the ice, Watson swung his stick over the glass, striking policeman Art Malloy in the shoulder.

Order was restored, but only temporarily. The next shift after Toronto's fifth power play goal of the game made the score 5-3, Bridgman nailed Salming behind the Toronto net and then started swinging before Salming could get squared. Bridgman won a lopsided fight as yet another melee broke out on the ice.

Toronto won the game 5-4. The next day, Ontario district attorney Roy McMurtry announced that he was filing criminal charges against Bridgman ("assault with intent to commit bodily harm"), Saleski and Joe Watson. The three players were forced to turn themselves in to police, fingerprinted and then released.

Forty-eight hours after the Game Three debacle, Bridgman answered for the Flyers the best way he knew how. Booed every time he touched the puck, Bridgman scored two goals and threw his weight around with abandon. Unfortunately, a poor second period doomed the Flyers to a 4-3 defeat, sending the series back to Philadelphia.

Philadelphia ran roughshod over the Leafs in Game Five at the Spectrum, capturing a 7-1 victory. Although he failed to register a point in this game, Bridgman had five shots on goal and was a force down low in the zone the entire game, keeping Toronto hemmed in their own zone.

As happened earlier in the series, Toronto played meekly in Philadelphia only to come out roaring at home. In yet another fight-filled tilt that spilled over into the stands, Toronto won a wild 8-5 contest to force a seventh game. Bridgman dropped the gloves with lanky (6-foot-3, 190 pound) Toronto winger Kurt Walker, himself no stranger to fisticuffs.

Earlier in the game, a Toronto fan struck Schultz as he was escorted to the locker room on a misconduct penalty. Once again, the Flyers players raced over to defend their teammate. In the ensuing melee, Bob Kelly threw a glove into the stands, accidentally striking a female usher in the face. The next day, charges were filed against Kelly, too.

NHL commissioner Clarence Campbell, who had a legal background and frequently clashed with the Flyers, spoke out against the series of criminal charges, saying the Philadelphia players had merely acted to protect themselves in each instance and, in Bridgman's case, it was a routine fight. The charges against Bridgman and Saleski were eventually dropped, while Watson paid a $750 fine and Kelly a $250 fine.

The seventh and deciding game was played in Philadelphia on April 25, 1976. Mel Bridgman delivered the final verdict in the Flyers favor. With the Flyers trailing 2-1, the rookie spearheaded a magnificent second period, scoring a pair of goals and winning almost every faceoff he took. Philadelphia stormed back to win the game 7-3 and emerged victorious in one of the most brutal NHL playoff series in history. Bridgman earned first star honors in the deciding tilt.

In the semifinals, the Flyers were stunned on home ice in the opener against the Boston Bruins before winning the next game in overtime. Even so the Flyers seemed to be in trouble, heading back to Boston Gardens, a venue where Philly rarely won. Things looked especially troubling because Parent's deteriorating physical condition forced him back to the sidelines.

In Game Three, Bridgman had a monstrous performance, scoring the game winning goal on a Larry Goodenough rebound early in the third period and adding a pair of helpers to take first-star honors in a virtual must-win game. Two nights later, he did it again, erasing an early 1-0 deficit with a goal and adding an assist on a much-needed insurance goal in the waning minutes of the third period.

Reggie Leach took care of the rest in Game Five, scoring five times to send the Flyers back to the Stanley Cup Finals. Unfortunately, the Canadiens won in four straight games (three of which were decided by a single goal) to dethrone the Flyers as champions.

The 1976-77 to 1978-79 seasons marked a slow transitional period for the Philadelphia Flyers. Slowly but surely, GM Keith Allen dismantled the nucleus of the Broad Street Bullies. The team gradually slipped in the standings and was eliminated by Boston in the semifinals two straight years, followed by a first-round loss to the Rangers in 1978-79.

In his second NHL season, Bridgman continued to shuttle between left wing and center, scoring 19 goals and 57 points on the third line as the Flyers won the Patrick Division with 112 points. He was limited by a severe charley horse late in the season and missed the first two games of the Flyers-Maple Leafs quarterfinals playoff rematch. The Flyers suffered a pair of home losses, before rallying to win the next four games in a row.

In a must-win Game Four, the Flyers trailed 5-2 midway through the third period, when Bridgman stuffed home a Bob Dailey rebound. The Flyers gained new life, going on to win the game in OT. In the clinching sixth game, with the Flyers losing 3-2 in the third period, Bridgman's work in the offensive zone forced Toronto defenseman Mike Pelyk to take a penalty. Rick MacLeish scored on the ensuing powerplay to tie the game, before Jimmy Watson won the game and series late in regulation. In the conference finals, the Flyers fell to the Boston Bruins in a four-game sweep. A hobbled Bridgman dressed in three games.

As a third year player in 1977-78, Bridgman began to emerge as a more vocal leader in the locker room. The player, now sporting a thick mustache on his formerly clean-shaven visage, recognized that the team needed his physical presence more than his scoring. With Dave Schultz traded a year earlier and Paul Holmgren injured for a significant portion of the season, Bridgman stepped up his aggressiveness to post a career-high 203 penalty minutes.

While his offensive output slipped to 16 goals and 48 points, he played strong two-way hockey in a checking role to post a solid plus-26 defensive rating. In what proved to be Fred Shero's final season as Flyers' coach, Philly posted 105 points and finished in second place in the Patrick Division. The club made it to semifinals again in the playoffs, losing to Boston in five games. Bridgman had eight points and 36 penalty minutes in 12 playoff games.

After Shero left to become the coach and general manager of the New York Rangers, he publicly praised Bridgman as one of his favorite players over the latter part of his Flyers coaching tenure. "Mel was worth what the Flyers gave up to get him," said Shero. "He could do so many things well, but best of all, he was big and strong. He wasn't afraid to go after the puck and take a shot to get it, and he could give a shot to knock someone off the puck."

In 1978-79, the Flyers scuffled under new head coach Bob McCammon, who was soon demoted to coach the AHL Maine Mariners while Mariners head coach Pat Quinn became the Flyers bench boss. Now 23 years old, Bridgman finally settled in as a full-time center, after years of playing both center and left wing. With the Flyers scuffling at mid-season, Bridgman was put together on a line with veteran left wing Bob Kelly and rookie right wing Tom Gorence. The so-called KGB Line was arguably the Flyers most effective and consistent line over the balance of the season, as the trio blended their talents of speed (Gorence), digging in the corners and sheer hard work. Bridgman scored 24 goals (the most he tallied during his Flyers' career) and 59 points (good for third on the club) to go along with his 184 penalty minutes and plus-14 rating. The Flyers finished with 95 points before losing to Shero's Rangers in a five-game quarterfinal series.

The 1979-80 season was expected to be a rebuilding year for the Flyers. Hall of Fame goaltender Bernie Parent had been forced to retire after a career-ending eye injury and young players such as rookie winger Brian Propp, goaltender Pete Peeters, second-year center Ken "The Rat" Linseman and defenseman Behn Wilson became important players in coach Pat Quinn's lineup.

There was one other monumental change. Team icon Bobby Clarke voluntarily gave up the captaincy of the Flyers after becoming a playing assistant coach. Clarke's recommended choice for new captain was Mel Bridgman.

Far removed from the shy rookie he had been in 1975, Bridgman's combination of hard-nosed hockey, personal integrity and brains made him a fine choice for captain. The player, who balanced preparations for hockey season with a slate of offseason college classes, had also become one of the team's most articulate spokesmen to the media.

On the surface, Bridgman's 1979-80 numbers (16 goals, 47 points, 136 penalty minutes, plus-13 rating) might look like he took a step backward from his fine offensive campaign of the previous season. But, in actuality, the Flyers had all the offense they needed in Clarke (57 assists), Reggie Leach (50 goals), Bill Barber (40 goals), Linseman (79 points), Propp (34 goals, 74 points), Rick MacLeish (31 goals) and Holmgren (30 goals). More than anything else, the Flyers needed Bridgman to continue setting a physical tone and to help button down leads. He did so in spades.

To the surprise of the entire NHL, the Flyers went an extraordinary 35 straight games without a loss (25-0-10) to set a new North American professional sports record for the longest unbeaten streak. The club recaptured first place in the Patrick Division, finishing with 115 points. In the playoffs, Bridgman was a warrior, scoring 11 hard-earned points in 19 games, to go along with 70 penalty minutes.

He was particularly strong in the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals against the New York Islanders, tallying points in four of six games, while doing battle with the likes of Clark Gillies and Bryan Trottier. The Islanders prevailed in an epic struggle, aided by a pair of extremely controversial first-period goals in Game Six– a borderline high-stick goal by Denis Potvin and a blatant offside missed by linesman Leon Stickle that resulted in a Brent Sutter goal. In overtime, Nystrom scored to win the game and series for the Islanders, who went on to become a Stanley Cup-winning dynasty.

Bridgman, who was on the ice for the fateful Nystrom goal has forever been haunted by the outcome of Game Six, which was as close as he ever got to winning a Stanley Cup.

"After losing the way we did, you stay awake nights thinking of things you might have done as an individual to change the outcome of just one game," he said in Greatest Players and Moments.

In the 1980 offseason, Bridgman sat down to negotiate a new long-term deal with the Flyers. Talks did not go well. Bridgman rejected an offer paying him $148,000 per season, and by his own admission, let his unhappiness with his contract affect his play early in the season. He went on to post 59 points and a plus-27 rating (tops among Flyers forwards) in 1980-81, but scored a then career-low 14 goals for the second-place Flyers. The Flyers lost to the Calgary Flames in a seven-game quarterfinals series. Bridgman had two goals and six points in 12 playoff tilts.

Bridgman and the Flyers were still unable to hammer out a long-term contract in the summer of 1981, and he ended up accepting the same $148,000 he spurned the previous year. Although he pledged to himself not to let the contract situation affect his play on the ice again, Quinn gave the captaincy to veteran Bill Barber. Bridgman was injured in training camp but came out of gates like gangbusters upon his return, scoring seven goals and a dozen points in the first nine games, including his first career hat trick in a 6-4 win over the Penguins.

The Flyers, deep at forward but thin on the blueline, scoured the league looking for help on defense. The Calgary Flames offered their young captain, Brad Marsh, to the Flyers but demanded Bridgman in return. On Veterans Day, 1981, the teams made the trade.

Bridgman was disappointed, but said he had no hard feelings. "My attitude had completely changed," he said to reporters after the trade was announced. "I'm showing that I really want to play and I'm sad I can't continue to do so in Philadelphia."

The move to Calgary meant increased powerplay time for Bridgman, and he responded by posting 26 goals and 75 points for the Flames (bringing his combined season totals to a career-best 33 goals and 87 points in 72 games). In the playoffs, Calgary went out quickly but Bridgman scored two goals in three games.

Bridgman remained in Calgary until the end of the 1982-83 season, when was traded to the New Jersey Devils. He then played three-plus seasons with the Devils, serving as team captain at a time when they were a struggling franchise. He posted 20-plus goals, 60-plus points and 100-plus penalty minutes in each of his three full seasons in New Jersey.

He finished his career with the playoff-bound Detroit Red Wings and Vancouver Canucks, retiring after the 1988-89 season. In all, Bridgman played 977 regular season games (and 125 playoff tilts), posting 252 goals, 701 points and 1,625 penalty minutes.

as a major leaguer, Bridgman became one of the toughest players on a rough Philadelphia team, and captained the Flyers from 1979 until his 1981 arrival in Calgary… The bruising forward never shied away from body contact. "I'm a little aggressive with my gloves, Bridgman admitted. But consistency became his forte. Later on, his leadership qualities shone brightly as Capt. of the New Jersey Devils in their early years, with 68 goals from 1983 through 1986, before twilighting in Detroit and Vancouver. A solid performer and ferocious fighter, he reliably excelled along the boards and in both zones, routinely contributing 50+ points to the offense.

Muller is just as quick to credit Bridgman and veterans like Tim Higgins for helping him adjust to NHL life both on and off the ice. "It helped me to adjust playing with Mel and Tim. I didn't have to go out and be a hero right from the get go because I started off with two older players."

breaking into the lineup of the two-time Stanley Cup winner was difficult enough but Mel continued to help the club in its quest for a third straight title. That the Flyers failed – although they did reach the finals – was not Bridgman's fault. Over 16 playoff games, he produced six goals and eight assists for 14 points… When Philadelphia eliminated Toronto in the quarterfinals that year, Mel delivered a pair of goals and a steady two-way game for the clincher. It was the game that persuaded the pundits that the kid was here to stay.… His linemates would vary over the years but Mel's consistency was unwavering… In the estimation of some critics, Bridgman could have – and, perhaps, should have – in an even better player for the Flyers. Conceivably, he was limited in scope when he came to the two-time cup winners. "In a way, I sometimes wished I had come up with the team that wasn't quite so good. I could have gotten more ice time and maybe move my career I had a little faster. But that's hindsight. The good thing about coming to the Flyers was that I learned about winning and to be a winner. That kind of development is as important as individual development." To those who would quarrel with Bridgman numbers, Mel's defense was simple enough; his role had been altered from score to checking forward. He played against the enemy's best lines and also killed penalties… "In order to be effective, I had to work as hard as I could. I had to go into the corners and not worry… If Mel Bridgman was not the greatest of Flyers, it certainly was not for Lack of trying.

Bridgman was fearless during more than six seasons in Philadelphia and was at his best during playoff hockey. He played a valuable role during the 1981 postseason by helping to neutralize Québec's talented Peter Stastny in a tight series. A trade to Calgary was certainly not the end of Mel Bridgman's hard-working days…

one of the best trades the flames ever made was obtaining Mel Bridgman from Philadelphia as the versatile forward played the best offensive hockey of his career with 87 points.

about as mean as they come…

incredibly persistent center who never walks away from a fight… Would head top 10 dirtiest players list... Good on face-offs, Good on corners… Gets goals on rebounds off skates, sticks and anything else you can think of… Likes to snarl

trade to flames from Philadelphia early in 1982 season changed emphasis in career… With Flyers, he was defensive specialist, assigned to check top centers… Flames allowed him to be offensive player and he had this season with 33 goals, 54 assists… Tough, hard-nosed type who handles the puck well, checks strongly and is a hard hitter... Had six solid years for Flyers.

with Flyers, he was a defensive specialist, shadowing the oppositions the shooter… Tough, aggressive type who can play in all areas of the ice… Served as Philadelphia Captain for a season.

started slowly and finished fast in first season with weak devils… Led low-scoring devils in points… Named Captain January 9, 1984, replacing Don Lever, and responded by providing team leadership… Rugged competitor with fierce pride… Player who hates to lose and have a lot to he last season… Outstanding face-offs center who won 53.5% of his draws... Set up 29 goals with face-off wins… Blocked 12 shots… Led Devils with 10 winning or tying points.

Devils captain and leading scorer last season… Criticized for not supplying leadership on a young, struggling team his first season in New Jersey, responded better last year… Not as physical as in his young Philadelphia days when he was known as one of the NHL's best fighters, but a workmanlike player who supplies toughest gets his share of points… Very strong on face-offs…

center since being drafted first overall in 1975, he made the switch to left wing and finished the season +1, third best on the team… Still effective in corners, and killing penalties… Doesn't provide muscle he once did… Doesn't fight like he once did…

Bridgman is a fair skater, losing a step or two as age creeps in. But he counters that with smarts and good hockey sense. Bridgman is always aware of where he is on the ice and what his play will be after he has the puck. That's what anticipation is all about. He's a good shooter with strong hands and he'll do the dirty work in the crease. Bridgman is not a good puck handler; those strong hands betray him when softness is needed and he doesn't hold or give a pass with much touch. Bridgman is an average goalscorer – in the 25 goal range – but he makes up for that with his defensive play. He uses his anticipation well in the defensive zone and comes back to help the defensemen… Bridgman is aggressive. He uses his size to his advantage all over the ice and he likes to be hit because it wakes him up and keeps them in the game. Bridgman's attitude is terrific. He's the teams number one leader, hard-working veteran who likes to get his nose dirty. He is a quality NHL are trying his hardest to prolong his NHL career.

leads by example… A guy who takes coaching despite his decade plus NHL experience. He gives the wings depth and stability down the middle.

Played left wing exclusively after the 1984-85 season. ...

my TOI file also has him as a LW in the 1981 and 1983 seasons.

 

[Reds4Life]

Feds

Sergei Fedorov

Height: 188cm (6'2'')
Weight: 93kg (206 pounds)
Position: Centre (sometimes winger and defenceman)
Shoots: left
Born: December 13, 1969 in Pskov, USSR (now Russia)

Sergei Fedorov was one of my favorite players as a coach because he can do anything on the ice.

Sergei is the best skater I've ever seen.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS
3x Stanley Cup Champion (1997, 1998, 2002)
3x World Champion (1989, 1990, 2008)
1x NHL First All-Star Team (1994)
1x Hart Memorial Trophy (1994)
1x Lester B. Pearson Award* (1994)
* Ted Lindsay Award now
2x Frank J. Selke Trophy (1994, 1996)
2x top10 scoring
4x top20 scoring
5x top5 Selke trophy voting
3x top10 Hart trophy voting

• Only the 3rd player in NHL history to have four consecutive 20+ Point Stanley Cup Playoffs campaigns (1995–98)
• 3rd overall in Stanley Cup Playoffs scoring in the 1990s - (134) points
• Only player to ever win the Hart and Frank J. Selke Trophy in the same Season (1994)
• Regular season overtime goals (15) (tied with Mats Sundin, Jaromir Jagr and Patrik Elias)
• Most overtime points, career (27)
  

STATS

NHL Totals: Regular season:
1248 GP; 483 goals; 696 assists; 1179 points

NHL Totals: Playoffs:
183 GP; 52 goals, 124 assists, 176 points

PLAYOFFS

Playoffs 1995-2002: (Fedorov's best years)
3rd overall in playoff scoring, only behind Sakic and Forsberg

Peter Forsberg: 135 points, +38 in 115 GP
Sergei Fedorov: 127 points, +35 in 126 GP
Steve Yzerman: 109 points, +12 in 127 GP
Joe Sakic: 142 points, +8 in 129 GP

Four consecutive 20+ Point Stanley Cup Playoffs campaigns (1995–98)


Quotes:

If sports experts were to choose the best hockey players in the world for a specific decade, Sergei Fedorov would have a claim on the title of most versatile player of the 1990s. Equally superb at center or on the wing, and a high scorer with outstanding defensive ability, Fedorov is a pure player who has mastered all facets of the game from A to Z.

Fedorov is one of those players who can single-handedly turn the tide in his club's favor, and he frequently sets an example that motivates his teammates when they are in a slump. He has been a consistent performer in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Winter Olympics in Nagano and Salt Lake City and the Spartak Cup tournaments that involve Russian stars of the NHL.

Fedorov became a true leader of the Red Wings in 1993-94 when injuries forced Steve Yzerman to miss the second half of the season. Sensing that he was expected to rally his teammates, Fedorov turned on the jets, scoring 56 goals and 120 points. The NHL named him to the First All-Star Team and awarded him the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Frank J. Selke Trophy (again in 1996)and the Lester B. Pearson Trophy

Even in the height of his career some people claimed he was an enigma. That always bugged me. While I admit he looked disinterested in Anaheim and Columbus, the truth of the matter was he was an effortless player because he understood the game so well. He was always in such good position that he, unlike so many players in the league, did not have to go all out to make the play. Some fans hate that, I love it. In his prime he was a near perfect hockey player.

Feds is the strongest skater I've seen in 21 years. He's got unbelievable balance, strength and speed. The guy just doesn't get knocked down.

It's going to be quite a challenge to match up against Fedorov. He is a phenomenal player.

Fedorov lazy? Not giving 100%. No way.

No matter what he does, people are going to criticize him that he's not working hard. He's got a different personality. He is not a yell-and-scream guy. He takes too much grief because of that. His main motivation right now is to shut up all the critics.

It is because he is a foreigner and people find it easier to blame things on a foreigner.

 

[seventieslord]

With the 739th pick in ATD2010, The Regina Pats are pleased to select:

Joe Watson, D

- 5'10", 185 lbs
- Stanley Cup (1974, 1975)
- Stanley Cup Finalist (1976)
- NHL All-Star Game Participant (1974, 1977)
- Killed 44% of his team's penalties during his career, his teams were 16% better than average on the PK
- ES icetime leader for cup-winning Flyers (1974, 1975)
- Also led 1968 & 1973 Flyers in icetime, and was 2nd in 1969, 1970 & 1976
- Averaged 21.7 min/GP post-expansion

Joe Watson was a salt-of-the-earth player who had to work harder than most to earn his spot at the top of the hockey world. He was gifted in no aspects of his game, save his sense of team spirit and his commitment to take the sum of his average parts and raise them into a greater whole.

...In 1966-67, Watson's persistence finally earned him a full-time spot as a sixth and seventh defenseman with the gradually strengthening Bruins. But when the Expansion Draft was held at the end of the campaign, the young rearguard was left unprotected. As such, Flyers' GM Bud Poile spotted a solid defensive prospect in young Watson.

In Philly, he found his spiritual centre as a charter member of the Flyers who added stability to his club's new blueline corps. Over the years that followed, he became a defensive workhorse who helped keep his team respectable until their Stanley Cup pieces began to fall into place during the early 1970s.

During those years, Watson became a reliable rearguard who employed a steady positional style of play, highlighted by a daring streak as a fearless shot blocker. He also exhibited a contagiously positive team attitude that won him the favour of his fans. In 1974 and 1975, his foundational contribution to his team came to complete fruition with Stanley Cup victories at the conclusion of both seasons.

Watson continued with the Flyers until 1979. At age 35, he was traded to the youth-riddled Colorado Rockies who where looking to the veteran rearguard to teach their young blueline corps how to play good old-fashioned defense.

Just 16 games into his first campaign, while playing against St. Louis, Watson chased a loose puck near the end of the ice. The Blues' Wayne Babych checked him against the boards, leaving the fallen rearguard with the worst broken leg in NHL history. His thighbone was shattered into 14 pieces and his kneecap was split in two. Watson's career on ice was over. He was lucky to escape with only a permanently disabled leg.

Sometimes in life, things that seem like bad news at first turn out to be blessings in disguise. That was certainly the case when the Flyers selected me from the Boston Bruins in the NHL expansion draft in 1967.

I had just finished my NHL rookie year with the Bruins after spending most of three seasons in minor leagues. In these days, the Bruins were the worst team of the Original Six in the NHL, finishing last almost every year. But it was obvious there was a lot of talent in place and the Bruins were going to get a lot better in the near future.

I expected to be part of that future. I’d established myself as a regular starter during the 1966-67 season, and I was told that I was part of the team’s plans. So I was pretty confident that I’d still be a member of the Bruins come training camp. Instead, the Bruins left me exposed to the expansion draft, and protected several players I’d just beaten out.

Back in those days, there weren’t too many players in the NHL who could afford to make hockey their year-round jobs – only the superstars. Most of us had to work summer jobs to supplement our incomes. In my case, I worked a summer job with the Public Works Department in my hometown of Smithers, British Columbia.

Well, one day I’m at work and one of my co-workers tells me he’d heard on the radio that I’d been selected by the newly created Flyers in the expansion draft. If I had a crystal ball to predict the future, I would have gone out and celebrated.

But at the time, the news felt like I’d just been speared in the gut. Concern isn’t even the right word to describe my emotions at the time – it was more like total depression. Here I was, 24 years old and starting from scratch with an expansion team that I knew nothing about except for the fact that it wasn’t likely to be a very good club.

Besides, I didn’t even know where Philadelphia was.

Harry Sinden, who was the Bruins coach at the time, later called me to explain that he didn’t think the team would lose me if they left me open to the draft. To be honest, I didn’t really view that as a compliment, and it didn’t make me feel any better.

I wasn’t in the best frame of mind when I got to the Flyers’ first training camp in Ontario. The Flyers weren’t offering me as much money as I’d hoped, and there was only one forward on our roster – Lou Angotti – who’d spent the entire 1966-67 season in the NHL. One of the few bright spots was the goaltending. The Flyers had picked Bernie Parent and Doug Favell from the Bruins in the expansion draft, and both guys – especially Bernie – were promising young goalies.

When I got to camp, I met up with another young defenseman who was in the same boat. Ed Van Impe had been chosen from the Chicago Blackhawks, and he was just as surprised and unhappy as I was. So we decided to leave camp together and hold out.

Bud Poile, who was the Flyers’ first general manager, wasn’t the type of guy you normally would want to mess around with. He had a temper and he was used to getting his way when he wanted something. When we told him we were leaving camp, he told us to take a drive and call him when we got to our destination. I’m sure he figured we’d come to our senses along the way, and get our butts back in camp.

Eddie and I drove to Erie, PA. Then I bought a plane ticket and went home to see my girlfriend. As Bud instructed, I called him when I got there. I told him I was back in British Columbia. "You’re where?!†he shouted. Bud proceeded to burn up the phone line screaming at me. There have been very few times in my life where I haven’t been able to get a word in edgewise, but this was one of those times. Holy smokes, was Bud mad!

Eddie and I stuck to our guns, and eventually we settled on new contracts with the Flyers. I got a three-year contract worth a total of $38,500. The only problem was that we missed almost all of training camp and the season was about to start.

Our first regular season game was played in Oakland against another one of the new teams – the Seals. It was miserably hot outside and I wasn’t quite in game shape yet. Neither was Eddie, and we were paired together on defense by coach Keith Allen. We both struggled, and the team as a whole didn’t have a great debut. We lost the game, 5-1.

The next game was two nights later in Los Angeles and we lost that one, too. This time, the score was 4-2. By this point, I was wondering if we’d have enough offensive firepower to beat even the other expansion clubs, much less the Original Six.

There were three days off until our next game, so we flew to Philadelphia. The next day had been proclaimed Philadelphia Flyers day in the City of Philadelphia. We were supposed to meet Mayor James Tate at City Hall and then have a parade down Broad Street to see the Spectrum for the first time. We rode in open convertibles.

But when we had our reception at City Hall, not only did the mayor not show up, we didn’t even get his top assistants or the City Representative. We got some guy who was way down in the pecking order, and had no idea who we were. I doubt he’d ever seen a hockey game in his life.

As for the parade, well, it was pretty humiliating. Maybe two dozen people stood and watched us, and most of them were construction workers on their lunch break. No one applauded or even waved – and a few of the folks already hated us before we’d even played a game at home. There’d been rumors before Philadelphia got an NHL franchise that Baltimore would get a team. So one guy screamed at us as we went past, “You bums will be in Baltimore by December!†Another guy stood there with his kid, giving us the finger. Then the kid flipped us the bird. Like father like son, eh?

The handful of guys from the original team who were around for our first Stanley Cup parade in 1974 – Bernie, Eddie, Dorny (Gary Dornhoefer), and myself – could appreciate just how much things changed in seven years. When we won the Cup, over two million people came out for the parade and each and every one of us was treated like a hero.

Anyway, getting back to that first day, we rode south down Broad Street and arrived at the Spectrum for our first practice. Wish I could say the place looked like a hockey palace, but the truth of the matter is that the place wasn’t even finished yet. There were guys still painting, and the fumes were pretty bad. Oh, and we didn’t have boards yet on the ice. They hadn’t been delivered yet, and there were workers installing seats. Just to keep those guys loose, we flipped a few pucks at ’em. I’ve got to say – they moved quicker than some of our players.

The practice was supposed to be open to the public with fans getting a chance to meet the players afterwards. Only problem is that there were two players to each fan, so it wasn’t much of a meet-and-greet. But at least we were starting to feel more like a team. We flew out to St. Louis and won for the first time, 2-1. Dougie Favell outplayed Hall of Fame goaltender Glenn Hall and Ed Hoekstra broke a 1-1 tie in the third period.

The next day, October 19, we had our first-ever home game at the Spectrum. In those days, there wasn’t yet a third deck at the Spectrum. We drew an okay crowd (7,812) but there were still a lot of empty seats – again, a huge contrast to the full houses we played to every night a few years down the line.

We were introduced to the fans by Gene Hart, who actually started out as our public address announcer at the Spectrum before quickly moving to the broadcast booth. Gene pronounced everyone’s name right, even our guys with French-Canadian names like Rosaire Paiement and Jean Gauthier.

About half the people cheered the introductions. At least no one booed. Then we had a ceremonial first faceoff, with NHL president Clarence Campbell (who later heard plenty of boos whenever he showed up during our Broad Street Bullies days, because we weren’t exactly his favorite club) dropping the puck in between our captain, Lou Angotti and Penguins captain, Ab McDonald.

The game got underway. The game was very defensive in nature, and the crowd was quiet. The loudest sound was Gene talking during stoppages of play to explain things like power plays, icings, and off-side calls. There weren’t a lot of shots on goal for either team (just 14 apiece through the opening 40 minutes), and we had to kill off four of the game’s first five penalties. Favell had no problem with the few shots he saw.

Early in the third period (at the 2:59 mark), the Penguins tried to clear the puck but we held it in the zone. A few seconds later, Bill Sutherland scored a rebound goal past Les Binkley, to give us a 1-0 lead. We held on the rest of the way to christen the Spectrum with our first win and our first shutout.

The rest of the year was filled with ups and downs – including a chunk of the roof blowing off the Spectrum in February 1968 and forcing us to travel around like vagabonds until it was finally repaired and the building reopened. But we gelled as a hockey team. We weren’t big or physical and we still didn’t score a lot of goals. We won by playing strong team defense and getting good goaltending.

We finished the season in first place in the Western Conference, and were the only expansion team to beat each of the Original Six at least once. In the first round of the playoffs, we met the St. Louis Blues, who were already emerging as our club’s first truly hated rival. The Blues, coached by Scotty Bowman, won a hard-fought seven game series. But our team had taken the first steps down the road to success.

I had no idea at the time that the Spectrum would become my home away from home, and I’d make my permanent residence in the Delaware Valley. I never could have imagined in those early days that, 41 years later, I’d still be working for the team. In fact, except for the short period of time I spent with the Colorado Rockies at the end of my NHL career, I’ve been part of the Flyers organization for virtually its entire existence.

When the Spectrum closes after this year, I know I’m going to have mixed feelings. That building holds a lot of special memories for me. All I can say is thank goodness it was the Flyers that took me in the expansion draft, and I wouldn’t have traded those years at the Spectrum for anything.

During the 1965-66 season came his breakthrough. Joe was still playing for the Bruins farm team (Oklahoma) in the CHL and posted a fine season where he was selected to the 1st All-Star team. His fine performance won him a job with the Bruins the following season (1965-66). Joe did very well and appeared in 69 games, scoring 15 points, including 2 goals.

Boston was however stacked with fine defensemen, one of them was of course a rookie named Bobby Orr. Joe was exposed in the expansion draft and got picked by Philadelphia in 1967 and became a fixture on defense for Philadelphia for the next 11 seasons. Joe was an integral part of the two Stanley Cups that Philadelphia won in 1974 and 1975.

He was known for being a hard hitter and a good defensive defenseman. He wasn't nearly as talented as his brother Jim, and was very aware of that fact. Joe never tried to do anything that was beyond his capacity, he always kept it simple and did it successfully. His steady play earned him trips to the 1974 and 1977 All-Star games. Joe's fine defensive play gave him a +191 rating during his Philadelphia career, and +178 overall.

Joe, who loved to fish in the summer times back home in Smithers, actually walked out on the Flyers in 1971 due to a contract dispute. But he quickly returned to camp after receiving a phone call from the best man at his wedding, not to mention the best man in the NHL.

"Bobby Orr called and really gave me hell. He told me i could still play another five or six years, at least - reminded me I was only twenty-eight and was just reaching my prime. Then he said I had my wife to think about, not just myself."

Obviously, Watson and Orr shared a special friendship. Here's a funny story about their living relationship once upon a time:

"We shared an apartment overlooking the Atlantic Ocean," recalled Watson. "He did the cleaning and cooking and really was a great cook. Bobby had so much energy that he did most of the work. About all I did was wash the dishes and water the plants."

Interestingly, when the Flyers won their first Stanley Cup in 1974, it came at the expense of the Boston Bruins. Orr and Watson met in the back corridor to offer congratulations.

"I offered him some champagne," Joe said, "but he was dejected and said he didn't deserve it. My good gracious, he shouldn't be dejected the way he played. He kept that team together."

Of course for Watson, winning the Stanley Cup was a dream come true.

"I've been dreaming about a Stanley Cup since I was about five or six, and when Orr and I arrived in Boston together (in 1966), I thought I might have a chance. But the next year, I was here with all the rejects."

During Joe's last season in Philadelphia (1977-78) he noticed that his ice time was reduced considerably. Knowing that he was on the end of the line in Philadelphia Joe asked to be traded to a team where he could be of any help. The Flyers obliged and sold Joe to the Colorado Rockies on August 31, 1978.

Joe was thrilled over the opportunity to play for Colorado and be able to contribute with his experience. Unfortunately Joe's career ended abruptly after only 16 games in the Colorado uniform when he crashed into the boards in a November game against St. Louis. The result of the collision was that he cracked his kneecap and fractured the bone below the kneecap in no less than 13 pieces. Immediately after having crashed into the boards linesman John D'Amico saw that it was bad. D'Amico immediately instructed Joe to not move. Before Joe was rushed to a hospital two doctors splinted his leg. The break was so bad that a bone was sticking out just below his kneecap.

Joe wanted to have his knee operated by Flyers orthopedic surgeon Dr. Joseph Torg who he knew from his days in Philadelphia and whom he trusted. He had two operations and regained about 80 % of the leg's strength. It was a sad end to a fine career. After Joe's initial disappointment that his career was over he looked back and was proud of the many achievements during his career. Two Stanley Cups, two All-Star games, scoring a big goal in the famous 1976 game vs CSKA Moscow among other things.

But Joe was most proud over the fact that he had made it to the NHL during the tough six team era.

"I made it with Boston when it was a six-team league and there weren't many openings. I'm most proud of that."

Joe finished his NHL career with 216 points (38 goals and 178 assists) in 835 regular season games as well as 15 pts (3 goals and 12 assists) in 84 playoff games. He gave hockey fans a solid performance for 16 NHL seasons.

the first 11 years of Watson's Philadelphia story were as a player, of course. He was the quintessential defensive defenseman. Every quality team has to have that reliable blue liner that simply takes care of business. Watson filled that role from 1967 through 1978 for the Flyers. He appeared in 746 games in the orange and black, more than any other defensemen in team history. Twice he was selected to play in the NHL All-Star game. Always he was there to secure his own zone.

"He was a great competitor," remembers Watson's former coach and general manager Keith Allen. "Jim was fierce and he took his hard knocks. But he didn't mind giving the other guys on the team a piece of his mind when he felt they weren't pulling their weight, either."

… I was going back into her zone to get the puck. Our goalie left the puck behind the goal line for me to pick up. Just as I reached for, Wayne Babych pushed me in the lower back. I crashed into the boards with my right leg taking the full brunt of the collision. I looked down and the lake was at a 90° angle and the bone was sticking out. I knew right then that my career was over. I never expected to go out that way.… He took bone from my hip and put it in my leg. Then they took some wires and gave me electric shock every four hours so the bone would heal. I was in the huge cast up to my chest for 10 or 11 months. I lost a lot of weight. I think I was down 260 pounds at one point... It was so difficult because I loved to play the game, and all of a sudden it came to an abrupt halt. It was hard to accept. It took me a long time… What bothered me more than anything else, was that Wayne Babych never acknowledged it or even came to visit me in the hospital. Many of his blues teammates including Bernie Federko and Garry Unger were there. He never visited, though, and a couple of months after the incident he wrote me a letter indicating he was surprised some people thought it was a cheap shot that injured me. I wrote back and told him I thought it was a cheap shot! I wrote that the fact he never came to see me seemed to show he felt there was something wrong there. That was it. I never heard anything more from him."

Joe is an original flyer… He played one year with Boston before Philadelphia took him in the expansion draft. He's always been a steady defenseman for us, so I was glad to see him get some recognition like playing in the All-Star game in Chicago and being voted the Flyers top defenseman for the 1975 season.

Joe Watson came about his nickname "Thundermouth" honestly. As a child I think he had been vaccinated with a phonograph needle, because he had the rare ability to chatter on incessantly, no matter where he was. Even when he was in the penalty box, he would deliver a painful play-by-play of everything that went on while he wasn't in the game, punctuated by, "oh, come on, guys! "And "oh, holy geez!". He was always yakking, and some people thought that he sometimes yakked too much, but he was also the vocal conscience of the team. After a win and a sloppily played game, Joe would say, "we won, but we shouldn't have. We stunk tonight." Thundermouth Watson may have been the first overt tell-it-like-it-is player on the Flyers. And as such, he was a very valuable asset.

Joe also had the ability to see the light side of a serious situation. During a playoff series in Toronto, a multitude of fights had provoked the ire of the Ontario authorities. At one point, Joe had swung his stick over the penalty box class and had accidentally clicked a policeman. "Said Joe, "Gee, if I go to jail, I hope I get Harold's old cell!"

At one point early in his career, Joe he came discouraged with his and the team's lack of success, and he actually planned to retire. Fortunately he was talked into staying, and I know he has never regretted it… If the Watsons had gone to Calgary, their names probably wouldn't be on the Stanley Cup. But then, without the Watsons perhaps none of the Flyers names would be on the.

They were a marvelous defensive pair – the Watson brothers, Thundermouth and Chan. And when I say "defensive," I mean in terms of the old-fashioned team oriented defense minded defenseman, to whom goals are something to be prevented at all cost, not something to be scored. It is ironic that the Flyers first goal in their first game in Boston was scored by Joe Watson, who in his two years with the Bruins had scored a grand total of two goals.

We always kidded the Watsons lack of scoring ability, and just for them I created the mythical grizzly cup, to be awarded annually to the player from Smithers who scores the most goals.… To me, the Watsons will always be a memorable pair. Even though they could play together for only five seasons, they were five of the best seasons in Flyers history. And of all the images that depict the pure thrill of victory, there is no greater picture in my mind than the picture of the two Watson brothers probably surrounding their dad in front of the Stanley Cup.

while many players came and went as the Flyers tried to build a winner during the early seasons, Thundermouth stayed. Joe Watson was as vocal as he was likable in Philadelphia and backed up his words with outstanding defensive play year after year. He won the first Barry Ashbee Trophy and later scored a stunning shorthanded goal against the Russians as the Flyers saved face for the NHL by defeating the talented red Army team. He and brother Jimmy were among the finest defensive pairs in Flyers history and contributed greatly to team chemistry during the 1970s. Joe Watson was deservedly inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame in 1996.

were it possible to measure energy generated for hockey club over a ten-year period, Joe Watson would be rated the most galvanic flyer – per minute played – of them all. If his spirit could've been bottled, it would've made an awfully successful tonic because this son of a meat cutter and waitress in Smithers, British Columbia oozed with enthusiasm. It should also be noted that he could play defense. Proof of that is a 15 year long NHL portfolio that began at the Boston Bruins in 1964 and concluded with the Colorado Rockies in 1979. But the years 1967 to 1978 were the most relevant because in that period, Watson helped a brand-new franchise earned respectability and then a pair of championships. Joe's years as a flyer encompassed every facet of the organization's development into a powerhouse as well as one that became a model for others in the NHL. It is to his credit that the Watson image and reputation enhanced the Flyers logo.

"We weren't loaded with a lot of talent," said Watson's defense mate Larry Zeidel. "But there was plenty of heart. And nobody – but nobody – had more heart than Joe." The first-year Flyers team distinguish itself by finishing in first place while winning over skeptical Philadelphians whose view of NHL hockey was not exactly enthusiastic at first. A couple of looks at electric personalities like Watson, Zeidel, and Ed Van Impe changed that. Blue-collar fans appreciated a blue-collar effort.

"I was a hard-working defensemen and I had to be. I wasn't as talented as a lot of players, so I had to work hard for what I achieved. I've always felt that the three biggest words of my life are Desire, Discipline, and Dedication. I followed those words if I wanted to be a success... I wanted to be in the NHL since I was eight years old. Once, I told one of my teachers about it and he just smiled sympathetically. He knew that I wasn't loaded with natural talent. I wasn't a great skater or shooter. I could pass pretty well and I wasn't afraid to hit or be hit. But the game, at every stage, meant hard work for me."

The Flyers plucked him on June 6, 1967 and he easily made the big club. Not for one year, or two but through the next decade. "I was a survivor. And the reason I was a survivor was because I played within my limitations. I always took a lot of pride in preventing someone from scoring goals because I always thought defensemen were the backbone of the team. Hockey, when I broke into the NHL, was all defense. And there was always room for good defensive defenseman. There were lots of good hip checks and open ice checks."

Many were delivered by Watson and his sidekick Ed Van Impe. Later, Joe's kid brother Jimmy became a flyer and the club entered the mid-1970s as the most powerful of the expansion teams. Nobody expected Philadelphia to actually win the Stanley Cup when they defeated Boston in a six-game final in 1974, it marked a huge triumph of spirit over skill. Watson is remembered as the last flyer to touch the puck during the first championship game and it should have qualified him to nab the rubber as a lifetime memento. "Terry crisp didn't play too much during the finals. But he jumped on the ice and grabbed the puck before I could even reach down. I'll never forget that!"

Nothing could top the double Stanley Cup parlay in terms of Watsons personal thrills, but overall, his years as a flyer or total joy. It was one of those rare mutual admiration society situations which ended, in a sense, when he was traded to Colorado in 1978. "The Flyers were very fair about it. They told me I could play maybe 30 or 40 games for Philly. The other option was to play regularly for the Rockies. I preferred full-time, so I went."

Joe "Thundermouth" Watson never scored more than six goals or recorded more than 30 points in any of his 14 NHL seasons, but he broke every existing record for decibels. His style of play was not nearly as loud as his voice. Still, it was never whispered, least of all by Joe, that he was anything but an extremely reliable defensemen. Teammates asked only that Watson keep it down, which he did. The score, that is, not his voice.

... The guy who put Smithers on the map was also appreciated in the big city. "If you want to measure a guy in every way," Pat Quinn once said about Watson, "not just for what he's done today on the ice, but for everything he's done for a franchise and the city, Joe would come out near the top."

Watson was a throwback, not just to year one of the flyers franchise, but to the days where every player would skate all day and then talk about it all night. "If you can't enjoy it, you can't do it," Watson said. He adored being in the NHL and respected the privilege of being a flyer. "A lot of guys mellow out and play out the string," said Keith Allen when he sold Watson to the Colorado Rockies in 1978. "Joe's not that kind. It's amazing how he never lost his enthusiasm."

Woe unto any teammate who did. "I guess you got to know the right thing to say at the right time," Watson once said. "I hope they all realize it's constructive criticism. It all stays in the locker room and these guys know how I am."

His words had all the subtlety of a bludgeon, and on scoring chances his stick wasn't exactly a precision instrument. When Joe scored in the epic 1976 game against the Soviet red Army, Fred Shero said the goal set the Russian hockey program back 15 years. Watson laughed harder than anyone at Freddy's joke. His good humor was interrupted only by the thought of anyone laughing at the Flyers.

"The word I think of is sincere," said Terry Crisp. "He never embellished the truth. It was just there, good and bad. You never got it from him unless you deserved it, and Joe was right there with the right words when you need it."

In Boston, where Watson broke into the NHL a year ahead of the 1967 expansion, he was a roommate and best buddy of Bobby Orr. With the long bedraggled Bruins ready to climb on the revolutionary young defenseman's coattails, Watson's ego was blown to smithereens he was drafted by the new team in Philadelphia. He got over it, and became the relentless worker needed by an expansion team wanting to be competitive. 11 years later, the woebegone Colorado Rockies were looking for that same kind of influence, and Watson was seeking a new challenge.

But one month into the season, Joe was checked from behind by St. Louis is Wayne Babych, fell awkwardly against the end boards, and broke his leg in 13 places. Watson spent six weeks wearing a cast up to his chest and a St. Louis hospital and needed six operations… "The wear and tear is very difficult. Hip replacement is probably down the road. But I'm not complaining. When I turned pro I wanted to play in the NHL and win the Stanley Cup, and I got two of them. Hey, I'm lucky. I know a lot of guys who broke their legs and never got out of Smithers."

doesn't like to rush the puck on attack, preferring to lay back and cover up on defense, which makes him a big favorite with his goalie.

not the rushing type of defenseman… Let's his partner make the plays… He'll hang back and cover up defensively which, after all, is a defenseman's job… Starting his 10th Pro season and his teams have missed playoffs only three times in those years…

The more I looked into it, the more I realized that Joe Watson was incredibly underrated. Philadelphia had a very anonymous D-corps during their heyday, with Jimmy Watson being a pick in the 400s, and then Joe and a couple others being frequent 500-800 picks (Van Impe, Ashbee, Harris, Dupont). But it was Watson who led the team in ES ice time in both of their cup years. He spent three seasons as their #1/2 guy when they were an expansion team, then was less-utilized for two years, but once the team was good, it was he who carried the defensive load. This is where Watson ranked on the Flyers in TOI:

Year | ES | ES+SH | Overall
1973 | 1 | 1 | 1
1974 | 1 | 2 | 4
1975 | 1 | 1 | 1
1976 | 2 | 2 | 2

Leading a cup winner in ES TOI twice is comething that just 9 defensemen have done since expansion:

Lidstrom | 4
Coffey | 4
Potvin | 3
Robinson | 3
Stevens | 3
Laperriere | 2
Lapointe | 2
Lowe | 2
Watson | 2

 

[Leaf Lander]

Toe Blake, Coach

Blakes favorite saying was if the day ever comes when I can swallow defeat I'll die.

Blake coached the Canadiens for 13 years, winning eight Stanley Cups—the most for any coach in the team's history and second in the NHL. He is still the winningest coach in Canadiens' history. He was known for his tough, but fair coaching style; his players always knew he was on their side. He retired at the end of the 1967-68 season, ending 33 consecutive years at ice level with the Habs organization

wikipedia

Stanley Cup champion — 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1968 (Head coach of Montreal Canadiens)

He had a remarkable coaching record in the playoffs of 82-37 and a 18-5 series record his team never missed the playoffs during his coaching tenure.HNIC Best of the Best

Toe Blake was the greatest hockey coach ever. That’s not the same as being the most successful hockey coach. There are two other coaches who rank higher in success points than Blake but no other coach was more successful in getting his players to achieve—and maintain—optimum performance on the ice than Toe Blake.

I base this conclusion on the data I acquired while calculating my ratings. Using my system six points is the best any hockey coach can achieve during a single season. The closer a coach’s score comes to six each season means that the coach in question is doing an excellent job in getting (and maintaining) optimum performance from his players. In Toe Blake’s case he coached thirteen seasons and scored sixty-one points out of a possible seventy-eight. Do the math and Toe Blake’s optimum performance rating is a staggering .782%.

No other hockey coach in the history of major league professional hockey from 1917 to 2010 scored higher than Toe Blake in the optimum performance rating!

His record is stunning to behold: He had a winning season and made the playoffs every year he coached. Nine times his Canadiens were the best team in the NHL. He won eight Stanley Cups in nine appearances (an NHL record until Scotty Bowman broke it in 2002). In his first five seasons of NHL coaching he won five consecutive Stanley Cups—the greatest coaching debut and the greatest dynastic run in hockey history. His record of five consecutive Cup victories will never be matched let alone be broken.

How did he do it?

Toe Blake was no tactician. During the past five years when I interviewed many former Habs players who played for Toe Blake, when asked what Blake’s offensive tactics were, they all recited the same sentence: advance the puck, hit the open man, and converge on the net. Simply put: a mere continuation of the tactics honed by Blake’s predecessor, Dick Irvin Sr.

Blake’s magic came from his leadership style which over the course of time took on a mystical, spiritual patina that would culminate in his apotheosis in the hearts and minds of Montreal Canadiens fans.

Toe led his players with an intricately balanced mixture of strength, subtlety, intensity, silence, anger, passion, and occasional humor. In return his players give him their collective hearts, minds, souls, bodies, blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

Blake forged those primal ingredients into the greatest assemblage of hockey talent in NHL history.

No other hockey coach during Original Six era was as beloved by his players as Toe Blake was. That is not hyperbole. When interviewing his former players, I was struck by the reverence they accorded Toe Blake. Never did I hear a complaint or a harsh word about him. Other coaches were spoken about in terms of fear and respect. Toe Blake was spoken of in the same way a son describes his father.

In 2007 when I asked Habs immortal Henri Richard who was the unsung hero of the Montreal Canadiens dynasty from 1956 to 1960? He said laconically: it was Toe Blake and gave me a stern look to let me know he wasn’t kidding.

When I asked the late Tom Johnson in 2006 how Blake kept his players hungry during their dynastic run he told me that Blake would pose a simple question to his players in training camp: is this the year you’re going to let them take it away from you? No fire and brimstone speeches. No threats or ultimatums; just a quietly expressed question.

No player ever put Toe Blake to the test when it came to discipline. The closest was probably the late Jacques Plante, whose eccentricities exasperated many a coach and teammate alike during his illustrious goaltending career but Blake kept him for seven seasons until he traded him to New York in 1963; even a roguish imp like Bryan “Bugsy†Watson toed the line while playing for Blake. Watson told me in a 2006 interview that Blake influenced his own managerial style when it comes to running his businesses (Watson is a successful restaurateur in Alexandria, Virginia).

Toe Blake’s entire hockey life was dedicated to the Montreal Canadiens. He began his playing career for the Habs in 1937—the late Cecil Hart’s last great gift to hockey. He endured the bad years of the late 1930s and the early 1940s. When Dick Irvin Sr. took over as the Canadiens coach in 1940, he kept Blake and eventually paired him with two future Habs immortals: Elmer Lach and Maurice “Rocket†Richard. The Punch Line was born. Blake played the same role in the Punch Line as Sid Abel did with the Production Line in Detroit. Blake’s experience and intelligence complemented the superb playmaking skills of Lach and the ballistic scoring talent of Maurice Richard. The Habs won the Stanley Cup in 1944 and 1946.

When Toe Blake’s NHL playing career ended in the 1948, he took up coaching in the Canadiens farm system. His big break came in 1955 when the Habs asked Blake to succeed Dick Irvin Sr. as head coach.

The Habs were at a crossroads. Irvin had led the team to nine Stanley Cup finals appearances in fifteen seasons with three Cup wins and six defeats. The talent was definitely there and there was no questioning Dick Irvin Sr.’s coaching genius but there was a problem: the passion of Maurice “Rocket†Richard.

The Rocket had been sailing on winds of fire for thirteen glorious seasons but now the flames were threatening to consume his career and his team’s chances for victory. The Richard-Hal Laycoe stick-fight; the ensuing suspension of Richard for the remainder of the season and the playoffs; and the Richard Riot which followed cost the Canadiens the 1955 Stanley Cup. Dick Irvin Sr. spent thirteen years keying the Rocket up. Now the Habs needed someone to key the Rocket down.

Enter former teammate and line-mate Toe Blake.

Blake removed the burden from Richard that he had to carry the entire team in return he made the Rocket the team captain and paired him with his younger brother Henri. In 1960 the Rocket retired with five more Cup wins; his place in the Hockey-Hall-of-Fame already guaranteed; his apotheosis complete.

1960 to 1964 were lean years for Blake. The Habs still won but always failed to reach the Cup finals; the stalwarts from the dynasty years had either retired or were traded away; the team was in transition. Youngsters like Gilles Tremblay, Yvan Cournoyer, Bryan “Bugsy†Watson, Bobby Rousseau, and the late John Ferguson were slowly being integrated into the team.

Toe believed in bringing rookie players up slowly; using them as role players until they gained maturity and confidence. Bryan Watson told me that he and Red Berenson were used exclusively in penalty-killing situations during his rookie season. Cournoyer was used on the power-play before becoming an offensive mainstay. Still when emergency situations arose, Blake would not hesitate to start a rookie. His use of goalie Rogie Vachon during the 1966-67 Season is a case in point.

The 1964-65 Season marked the beginning of four straight Cup finals appearances and three Cup wins for Toe Blake and the Canadiens. The 1965 Cup win was a record setter for Blake—his sixth victory surpassed Hap Day’s mark of five. The only blot was the loss to Toronto in 1967. By that time Toe had become wearied and drained by the emotional burdens of maintaining Montreal’s dynastic reign. Even victory can become as burdensome and destructive as defeat. If the Habs had won the 1967 Stanley Cup then Toe Blake would have retired right then and there. But the loss to Toronto stung him and his players.

The greatest coach of them all could not bear to end his career in defeat.

Toe steeled himself once more and led the Canadiens to one more glorious season in 1967-1968. They were the best team in the NHL and were 12-1 in the playoffs, sweeping the upstart St. Louis Blues in four games.

Toe Blake went into a furtive retirement. In his final years he was plagued with Alzheimer’s disease. Yet before he died he was given one final gift by the Montreal fans. In 1985, Montreal fans selected the all-time Montreal Canadiens dream team and the man they chose to lead that team was not Scotty Bowman—as one might expect considering it was only six years after his dynastic run…

It was Toe Blake.

The latest in a weekly series of articles which will discuss the greatest coaches in professional hockey from 1917 to 2009 using my variation of a rating system devised by sports historians Bill James and Sean Lahman.

The rating system awards points based on six measures of success. Points are awarded as follows:

1) For coaching a team to a winning season

2) For coaching a team with a team point percentage of .600% or better

3) For all first place finishes

4) For making a playoff appearance

5) For leading a team to the Stanley Cup finals

6) For coaching a Stanley Cup champion.

I have included coaching stats for those who coached in the World Hockey Association. Three coaches on my list (Glen Sather, Jacques Demers, and Bill Dineen) had their coaching performances in the WHA included in their ratings. I have also used a minimum of twenty success points as an arbitrary cut-off point. Out of the 364 men who have coached in the NHL and WHA from 1917 to 2009 only thirty-nine have achieved twenty or more success points. What follows is an examination of each one of those coaches from the bottom of the list to the top. When you compare the number of great coaches on my list with the total number of those who served, one could paraphrase D.H. Lawrence in saying that a good coach is hard to find.

http://insidehockey.com/?p=6812

Seasons 13
Era Mid 50's late 60's
RS:914 500 255 159 .634 WINNING PERCENTAGE
PO:119 82 37 0 .689 WINNING PERCENTAGE
League championships: 1955-1956, 1957-1962, 1963-1964, 1965-1966, 1967-1968
Best Season 1961-62 70 42 14 14 .700%
HOF 1964
Stanley Cups 8

 

[Leaf Lander]

#9 Charlie Conacher RW

One of the first true power forwards Charlie revolutionized the right wing position using his size, skill, physicality and his will to compete till he dominated the play like no one else ever did!.Conacher had a wicked hard shot that was considered the best back in hockey during his days in the NHL .He and his two other siblings are all members of the HOF.

Seasons 12
Era Late 20's Early 40's
RS 459 225 173 398 523
PO 49 17 18 35 49
Adjusted stats 459 393 399 792 323
Art Ross Trophy (1934, 1935)
First All-Star Team (1934, 1935, 1936)
Second All-Star Team (1932, 1933)
Stanley Cups 1
HOF 1961
Top 10 Goals
1930-31 (1)1931-32 (1)1933-34 (1)1934-35 (1)1935-36 (1)
Top 10 Points
1930-31 (3)1931-32 (4)1933-34 (1)1934-35 (1)1935-36 (4)
Top 100 Leafs of all Time book 6
Top 100 The hockey News (Late 1990's) 36th
Role Power Forward

#3 Sylvain Cote D

Cote toiled in hockey obscurity for many years carving out a nice career mostly in hartford then in washington back in the day when neither had the horses up front ot make it past the 1st rnd of the playoffs. He was a underrated player for his entire career. Reliable defender with excellent puck skills, can play in all game situations. Plays it safe defensively whenever possible.Very competitive with good hockey sense.He is a coaches dream player who can do it all at both ends of the rink. Knows how to score when he is on the point during a powerplay. Effortless skater who had the wheels to join the rush to help out on offense.

Seasons 18
Era Mid 80's -mid 2000's
RS 1171 122 313 435 545 +39
PO 102 11 22 33 62
Best Season 1993-94 84 16 35 51 66 +30
Stanley Cup Finals 1
Role Power play specialist 7th d-man

 

[Leaf Lander]

#10 Billy Coutu,D
Height: 5'11''
Weight: 190 lbs
Position: Defense
Shoots: Left
Date of Birth: March 01, 1892
Place of Birth: North Bay, Ontario, Canada
Date of Death: February 25, 1977 (Age: 84)
Stanley Cup Champion (1924)
Stanley Cup Finalist (1917, 1919*, 1925)
Team Captain (1925-1926)
Top-10 Penalty Minutes (3rd, 7th, 8th, 8th)
Top-10 Scoring Among defenseman (7th, 7th, 8th, 8th, 9th, 9th, 10th, 10th)
Top-10 Goalscoring among defenseman (6th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 10th)
Top-10 Assist among defenseman (5th, 6th, 8th, 8th, 10th, 10th)
Top-10 Penalty Minutes among defenseman (2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 5th, 8th, 8th, 9th, 9th)
Top-10 Playoff Goalscoring (8th)
Top-10 Playoff Assist (9th)
Top-10 Playoff Penalty Minutes (1st, 8th)
Top-10 Playoff Scoring Among defenseman (3rd, 6th)
Top-10 Playoff Goalscoring among defenseman (1st)
Top-10 Playoff Assist among defenseman (1st)
Top-10 Playoff Pim among defenseman (1st, 4th, 5th)[/B]


- In 1916, Coutu won the U.S.A. Senior championship with the Michigan Soo Indians
- On November 24th, 1916, Coutu signed as a free agent by Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey Association
- In 1919, Coutu alongside Joe Hall, Edouard Lalonde, Jack McDonald and manager George Kennedy contracted influenza and were hospitalized. Teammate Joe Hall died during Game 5 and the Stanley Cup finals was cancelled.
- On November 27th, 1920, Coutu was loaned to the Hamilton Tigers by the Montreal Canadiens as part of trade of Jack McDonald, Harry Mummery and Dave Ritchie for Jack Coughlin, Goldie Prodgers and Joe Matte
- On January 12nd 1924,Coutu missed seven games due to a broken wrist suffered in a game against the Toronto St. Patricks
- On January 19th 1926, he was suspended one game and fined 100$ by theNHL for tripping referee Jerry Laflamme against the Ottawa Senators
- At the end of Game 4 of the 1927 Stanley Cup, Coutu started a bench-clearing brawl, apparently at the request of coach Art Ross, by assaulting referee Jerry Laflamme and tackling referee Billy Bell. As a result, he was expelled from the NHL for life. On October 8th, 1929, the suspension was lifted so that Coutu could play in the minor leagues. He never played in the NHL again, although he was reinstated in 1932–33 at the insistence of Leo Dandurand
- During the 1933-34 season, Coutu played one game in goal for the Providence Reds in the Canadian American Hockey League, allowing 12 goals
- Coutu was a longtime Minor Pro Coach and referee after his playing days

-Several hockey history books, including The Hockey News "Habs Heroes" by Ken Campbell incorrectly attribute his name to a photograph of teammate Louis Berlinguette. He and his family pronounced their name "Koochee", which was sometimes confused with "Couture".

-Ms. Aird Stuart, the sister of Coutu's wife, Gertrude Aird, was the mother of Mary Morenz and grandmother of Marlene Geoffrion, daughter of Howie Morenz and widow of Bernie Geoffrion.

-Howie Morenz played with Coutu on the Canadiens.-wikipedia

Originally Posted by Habs Heroes Somewhere along the line, Billy Couture became Billy Coutu, but one thing that remained the same was the man's temper and penchant for taking it out on his opponents.

Originally Posted by OurHistory.Canadiens
THE MERE PRESENCE OF BILLY COUTURE DETERRED OPPONENTS FROM TAKING LIBERTIES WITH THE TEAM’S STARS.

In his heyday, Billy Couture was one of the most feared men who laced up the skates in the rough and tumble world of professional hockey. Born in North Bay, Ontario in 1892, the 5-foot-11, 190-pound defenseman spent a decade defending his territory against his opponents using any means necessary.

The NHL set up shop the next fall. With Couture on defense and his well-developed mean streak often coming to the forefront.

With Joe Hall’s death, Couture became the Canadiens’ undisputed enforcer, a most effective deterrent to those who might choose to take liberties with the team’s marquee players. Loaned to the Hamilton Tigers for the 1920-21 season, Couture played against his former Montreal mates with the same ferocity he had shown while wearing their colors.

Returning to Montreal at the beginning of 1921-22, Couture once again began making life miserable for Habs’ opponents. Not allowing himself to be limited by the rules of play, no tactic was too underhanded or brutal as Couture made sure that his opponents worried about more than simply preventing the likes of Morenz, Joliat, and Boucher from scoring.

In the spring of 1924, the Canadiens made their way back into contention for the Stanley Cup. With Georges Vézina in nets and Couture creating mayhem on the blue line, Montreal was almost unimpeded in their efforts.

Originally Posted by Trail of the Stanley Cup, vol.1 One of the roughest defence men in hockey, particularly when paired with Sprague Cleghorn on the Canadiens.

Originally Posted by Ultimate Hockey
In Montreal, Cleghorn was paired with fellow archfiend Billy Coutu to form what was arguably the most frightening defensive duo ever seen.

Originally Posted by fanatique.ca
(Corbeau) will have the distinction to have form the first version of the ''Big Three'' with the Montreal Canadiens with all-star defenseman Sprague Cleghorn and Billy Coutu. Moreover than all three had lightning-like shots, all three of them measured at least 5'10'' et weight more than 190 pounds each.

Originally Posted by Globe and Mail; November 20th 1924 Patrick Offers to Trade Frank Boucher for Coutu
Vancouver, B.C Nov 19- Frank Patrick, owner of he Vancouver Maroons hockey team, has wired Leo Dandurand, offering to trade Frank Boucher for one year only for Billy Coutu, Canadiens defence man. Patrick, it is understood, make the offer owing to Boucher's desire to play hockey in the East.
If Dandurand does not approve, then Boucher will play here or remain out of hockey this season, it is stated.

Originally Posted by Globe and Mail; December 29th 1936 Coutu, a native of Sault Ste. Marie was a turbulant figure in hockey wars for years, and suspensions and fines made no visible impression on him. He was not a great defenseman, but he was better than average, and his reputation was such that attackers were always on the alert when he hove into sight. For several seasons he and Sprague Cleghorn were Canadiens' regular defensemen, and they certainly made the road to George Vezina's net the rockiest one to travel in all the history of hockey.

Originally Posted by Globe and Mail; October 18th 1937 Coutu, for many years a shining in NHL is making his debut as a manager.

Originally Posted by Globe and Mail; December 13th 1938Billy Coutu, one-time firebrand of major league hockey.- ''He might get overlooked because he played with Cleghorn in term of how dirty and nasty of a player he was.''

- Bob Duff, historian

-

''He was a rough, rough dude and I think a lot of people steered clear of him. He was one of those guys people thought 'Gee, you'd better not bother him because there's no telling what's going to happen.' He was a pretty good player, but while the others were doing the rushing, he was staying back and doing the dirty work.''

- Ernie Fitzsimmons, historian


Sites:
http://www.legendsofhockey.net/Legen...p?player=12352
http://www.sihrhockey.org/member_pla..._id=796&mode=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Coutu
http://theryancokeexperience.wordpre...p-100-habs-48/
http://www.habsinsideout.com/main/2068
http://ourhistory.canadiens.com/player/Billy-Couture
http://www.fanatique.ca/lnh/bert-cor...blie+3457.html



#8 Rusty Crawford, LW

Crawford was one of the more dangerous scorers in the league and in one three-year period he tallied 51 times in 61 matches.

He was a two-time Stanley Cup champion, winning the trophy with the Bulldogs in 1913 and the Areans in 1918. Crawford was one of the sport's early stars and appeared in 258 games in the three major leagues, scoring 110 goals. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962.Crawford hung up his skates at the age of 45 in 1930.

Seasons 16
Era Early 1920's late 1920's
RS NHA 99 66 32 98 NHL 38 108 18
PO 2 2 1 3
Best Season
HHOF -1962
Stanley Cup 2
Role Two way warrior

 

[Leaf Lander]

#4 Dave Ellett

Dave Ellett was a very skilled finesse player. Skating was his prime asset. He was an excellent skater, blessed with very good speed and quickness, and fine agility. His mobility allowed him to dictate the play at either blue line. His transition game was great because he could effortlessly turn the play around at the defensive blue line.

His puck ability was also top notch, and that shone through on the power play, which is where Ellett established himself as one of the NHL's top players. He could control the point with great comfort, holding the line and pinching in with great efficiency. He was a key player in establishing the offensive zone. He was an under-rated puck rusher and a good break out playmaker. He also had a very good shot, and the smarts to keep it low and hard to create opportunities for deflections and rebounds.

Joe Pelletier
Seasons:16
Era:Mid 1980's early 2000's
RS 1129 153 415 568 197
PO 116 11 46 57 19
Best Season 1987-88 - 68 13 45 58
All-Star Games 1989 1992
10 seasons 30+ Points
9 Seasons 40+ Points
3 Seasons 50+ Points
Ranked 73rd all time leaf
Role: Offensive defenceman


#8 Ron Ellis, RW

With his team-first approach and consistent game in and game out effort and production, Imlach could only hope all his young players could be as good as the stocky right winger.

Ron was one of the fastest breakaway skaters in the league, Ellis had a fine accurate shot. He was also a very sound player positionally. Joe Pelletier

He was prolific young scorer who when he joiend the leafs immediately became a vital two-way performer playing on a line with stalwarts Dave Keon and Bob Pulford.


Ellis played on his most cohesive forward unit with Paul Henderson and Norm Ullman. This trio was adept at forechecking and opportunistic scoring. Ellis's role was crucial since he usually stayed back to guard against the counter attack while his linemates pushed forward.

Seasons 16
Era mid 60's early 1980's
RS 1034 332 308 640 207
PO 70 18 8 26 20
Lost 2 seasons due to early retirement
Eleven 20+ Goal Seasons
Two 30 + Goal Seasons
Best Season 1974–75 79 32 29 61 25\
* 1966–67 - Stanley Cup Champion
* 1963–64 - NHL All-Star Game
* 1964–65 - NHL All-Star Game
* 1967–68 - NHL All-Star Game
* 1969–70 - NHL All-Star Game
* [(1972)] Team Canada
runner-up to Roger Crozier as the rookie-of-the-year.
Second All-Star Team (1964)
Role 2 way player /sniper