Those early 60s teams were simply terrible. We generally played on Saturday nights in either Montreal or Toronto and got beaten pretty badly. The Habs and Leafs were at the height of their powers. Then, we would play the same team on Sunday night at the old Garden. Sometimes, we'd even manage a tie! I imagined the teams took the train from Canada into NYC. sleeping on the train, and the teams might have gone directly to the Garden. A different world, for sure.
The last year of the Original Six before expansion, when we finally emerged as an up and coming team, was one of my most exciting, To finally make the playoffs after years of horror was incredibly exciting. Many core players from 65-65 were still there: Ratelle, Gilbert, Hadfield, Goyette, Marshall, Nevin, Howell, Neilson, Brown.
One of the strange things about that year, and one that will sound familiar to today's team, was that there was a real attempt to get "tougher" and harder to play against. We had acquired Reggie Fleming I think the year before. Orland Kurtenbach, a really hard-nosed center, was acquired. Bob Plager, then a "tough tough" D prospect was slated for a regular role. And, to make us a more "emotional" team, Boom Boom Geoffrion came out of retirement. In those crazy days, it was thought that if you wanted to become a more emotional team, you brought in French-Canadians, who were thought to bring intensity as well as emotion.
I have a distinct memory of standing on the platform of the #7 train at Grand Central waiting to go to Shea Stadium to see one of my other pathetic teams (yeah, the Mets). It must have been September. I recall reading a hockey magazine with the headline "Boomer and the Shock Troops are Coming!"
Yeah, the current team in certainly exciting, with many parallels to 66-67. We are an "emerging team," and there is few things as rewarding as becoming "good" after years of frustration.
