SEASON in REVIEW: 1967-68

[The Panther]

So, I had the idea of starting an ongoing series of threads where we just talk about each individual NHL season of the post-expansion era. Starting here with 1967-68. I'll post some random stuff about each season, and everyone pile on with anything you know or find interesting. Stats, individual games, narratives, video, box-scores... just anything you about or want to discuss.

I'm just doing post-expansion because I doubt there are many here who can remember much before that, and also there are more stats / teams / video to look at from 1967 onward. Personally, anything before about 1986 I can't remember, so it's especially nice for these late-60s/70s' seasons if the posters whose memories go back further can tell us anything they recall from real-time, as it were.

(Assuming people find this interesting, I'll continue with each successive season every few days or whatever.)

So, let's do it.

The 1967-68 NHL Season

So, obviously, this was the 1st season since 1941-42 not to have six clubs. The NHL doubled in size, adding
Los Angeles Kings
Minnesota North Stars
Oakland Seals
Pittsburgh Penguins
Philadelphia Flyers
St. Louis Blues
It was a 74-game season, too (previously 70).

Regular Season:
Summary: 1967-68 NHL Summary | Hockey-Reference.com
Summary of team stats: NHL Stats
Summary of skaters' stats: NHL Stats
Summary of goalies' stats: NHL Stats

Playoffs:
Summary of teams: NHL Stats
Summary of skaters: NHL Stats
(I bet you could stump a lot of people with trivia that the top-two scorers of the '68 playoffs were Minnesota North Stars!)

The Stanley Cup was won by the Montreal Canadiens, which defeated Boston 4-0, Chicago 4-1 (most would consider this the real Finals), and first-year expansion St. Louis 4-0, for a rather spectacular 12-1 overall record. And the Canadiens' only loss to Chicago was by a modest 2-1 score.

The Conn Smythe, however, went to goaltender Glenn Hall of St. Louis.

Click to read more...

 

[The Panther]

One of the interesting points about this first mass-expansion season is that scoring did not increase. It actually decreased, overall. In the last of the six-team seasons (1966-67), clubs averaged 2.99 goals per game, and in 1967-68 clubs averaged 2.78 goals per game.

Presumably, the scoring by the previous six (I refuse to call them "original") did increase when they faced the expansion clubs, but it can't have gone up too much for the League average to be lower. It's only in the following season when scoring starts to shoot up... Does anyone know why that was?

_____________

As everyone can see (above link), the scoring leaders in 1967-68 were:
1. Stan Mikita - 87
2. Phil Esposito - 84
3. Gordie Howe - 82
4. Jean Ratelle - 78
5. Ron Gilbert - 77
6. Bobby Hull - 75
7. Norm Ullman - 72
8. Alex Delvecchio - 70
9. John Bucyk - 69
10. Kenny Wharram - 69

Every top-16 scorer, in fact, was from an established franchise (Norm Ullman was traded late in the season, but in any case he played for Detroit and Toronto). The 17th leading scorer was veteran Andy Bathgate, who spent the season with expansion Pittsburgh (and then went to the WHL -- Vancouver -- for a couple of years, before coming back to Pittsburgh in 1970-71).

The points-per-game leaders were a little different:
1. Stan Mikita - 1.21
2. Jean Beliveau - 1.15 (due to missed games, fell to 11th in scoring)
3. Phil Esposito - 1.14
4. Gordie Howe - 1.11
5. Bobby Hull - 1.06 (missed three games)

These were the scoring leaders, month-by-month:

October 1967
13 - Hull
13 - Cournoyer
12 - Beliveau
12 - Stanfield
12 - Ratelle
November 1967
17 - Bucyk
16 - Mikita
15 - M. Walton
15 - Hull
15 - McKenzie
December 1967
26 - Mikita (this was in 15 games)
19 - R. Cullen
16 - D. Mohns
16 - Wharram
16 - Esposito
January 1968
17 - Berenson
15 - R. Cullen
15 - Esposito
15 - Delvecchio
15 - Gilbert
15 - Howe
February 1968
24 - Gilbert (this was in 13 games)
22 - Ratelle
17 - Hull
16 - Howe
16 - Mikita
16 - Beliveau
March 1968
20 - Ullman
19 - Howe
19 - Esposito
17 - B. Rousseau
16 - Mahovlich
16 - Mikita


The scoring leaders from October through December were:
1. Hull - 43
2. Mikita - 43
3. Buckyk - 39
4. Stanfield - 39
5. McKenzie - 38
(Esposito was 6th and Howe was 9th.)

The scoring leaders from January through March were:
1. Howe - 50
2. Esposito - 49
3. Ratelle - 46
4. Gilbert - 46
5. Mikita - 44

Did Gordie Howe find some fountain of youth at New Year's 1968 to dominate scoring in the latter half, and then have his huge 1968-69 season??

 

[alko]

Were there any new rules implemented?

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

One of the interesting points about this first mass-expansion season is that scoring did not increase. It actually decreased, overall. In the last of the six-team seasons (1966-67), clubs averaged 2.99 goals per game, and in 1967-68 clubs averaged 2.78 goals per game.

Presumably, the scoring by the previous six (I refuse to call them "original") did increase when they faced the expansion clubs, but it can't have gone up too much for the League average to be lower. It's only in the following season when scoring starts to shoot up... Does anyone know why that was?

_____________

As everyone can see (above link), the scoring leaders in 1967-68 were:
1. Stan Mikita - 87
2. Phil Esposito - 84
3. Gordie Howe - 82
4. Jean Ratelle - 78
5. Ron Gilbert - 77
6. Bobby Hull - 75
7. Norm Ullman - 72
8. Alex Delvecchio - 70
9. John Bucyk - 69
10. Kenny Wharram - 69

Every top-16 scorer, in fact, was from an established franchise (Norm Ullman was traded late in the season, but in any case he played for Detroit and Toronto). The 17th leading scorer was veteran Andy Bathgate, who spent the season with expansion Pittsburgh (and then went to the WHL -- Vancouver -- for a couple of years, before coming back to Pittsburgh in 1970-71).

The points-per-game leaders were a little different:
1. Stan Mikita - 1.21
2. Jean Beliveau - 1.15 (due to missed games, fell to 11th in scoring)
3. Phil Esposito - 1.14
4. Gordie Howe - 1.11
5. Bobby Hull - 1.06 (missed three games)

These were the scoring leaders, month-by-month:

October 1967
13 - Hull
13 - Cournoyer
12 - Beliveau
12 - Stanfield
12 - Ratelle
November 1967
17 - Bucyk
16 - Mikita
15 - M. Walton
15 - Hull
15 - McKenzie
December 1967
26 - Mikita (this was in 15 games)
19 - R. Cullen
16 - D. Mohns
16 - Wharram
16 - Esposito
January 1968
17 - Berenson
15 - R. Cullen
15 - Esposito
15 - Delvecchio
15 - Gilbert
15 - Howe
February 1968
24 - Gilbert (this was in 13 games)
22 - Ratelle
17 - Hull
16 - Howe
16 - Mikita
16 - Beliveau
March 1968
20 - Ullman
19 - Howe
19 - Esposito
17 - B. Rousseau
16 - Mahovlich
16 - Mikita


The scoring leaders from October through December were:
1. Hull - 43
2. Mikita - 43
3. Buckyk - 39
4. Stanfield - 39
5. McKenzie - 38
(Esposito was 6th and Howe was 9th.)

The scoring leaders from January through March were:
1. Howe - 50
2. Esposito - 49
3. Ratelle - 46
4. Gilbert - 46
5. Mikita - 44

Did Gordie Howe find some fountain of youth at New Year's 1968 to dominate scoring in the latter half, and then have his huge 1968-69 season??

If you swap out Kenny Wharram for Beliveau then that top 10 are all Hall of Famers.

Esposito was the youngest of that top 10 at age 25.

As for Howe's big second half, more than likely he simply got healthier.

 

[The Panther]

As I mentioned in another thread, I thought I might 'bump' two threads I had done a few years ago, where I planned to discuss each post-expansion season in NHL history. So, here it is.

By the way, @Davenport detailed Boston's season in 1967-68 in this fine thread: 1967-68: Birth of the Big Bad Bruins

Great short video here (narrator: Mike Emerick) on the 1968 Cup Final:

 

[Davenport]

Love stats like you provided here. Speaking of Rod Gilbert - who got hot in the second half of the 1967-68 season - I seem to recall that the opposite occurred the season before. In 1966-67 - returning to the NHL after losing the second half of the 1965-66 season to back problems and an operation - Gilbert was hot out of the gate, and hit the 20-goal mark on January 1, 1967, in MSG against the Leafs. That was the Rangers' 34th game of the 70-game season. If I remember correctly, Rod was the first NHLer to reach the 20-goal mark that season. His production had a lot to do with New York being 17-11-6 after 34 games. As a result, #7 found himself on the cover of the January 30, 1967, edition of Sports Illustrated. Unfortunately, Gilbert really cooled off in the second half, and finished the season with 28 goals.

Thanks to that edition of Sports Illustrated - which I found among the reading material at my barber's shop - I instantly became a fan of Rod Gilbert and his team.