JUNE 2, 1947
NAHC TEAM RECAPS: TORONTO DUKES
13-26-9 35 pts: 7th place - Missed Playoffs
It is hard to imagine a team in any professional sports league ever having a worse one-year drop off than what the Toronto Dukes endured last season. After leading the NAHC with 70 points in a season that saw them win 31 games a year ago, the Dukes point total cut in half in 1946-47, as the club finished dead last with just 35 points and won only 13 of its 48 games.
The collapse has already cost long-time Dukes head coach Norb Hickey his job as he was replaced by former Detroit coach and Dukes skating star of the early twenties Jack Barrell in an announcement made official last month. It looks like wholesale changes may be coming on the ice as well with possibly only their captain and top scorer, 32-year-old center Bobbie Sauer, immune from trade speculation.
Toronto made just one move during the season -sending disgruntled veteran center Laurel Albers to New York in December for rookie defenseman Philippe Dubois in a move designed to end the infighting in the locker room as much as it was to try and upgrade what had suddenly become the most porous defense in the game. It only half succeeded as the players did bond as a team without the disruptive force that is Albers, but their work in the own zone never did improve with Toronto surrendering a league high 175 goals against.
Those defensive numbers have led to some speculation that the Dukes might be willing to part with one of the best goaltenders the league has ever seen in Gordie Broadway. Broadway was celebrating a Juneau Trophy win about this time last year, but he quickly went from the best goaltender in the league to the one with the worst goals against average.
Broadway should not shoulder all the blame, as it became clear very quickly the Dukes had made a serious miscue in allowing their top two defensemen in Bryant Williams and Joe Todd to leave for Detroit over the summer. They did bring in J.C. Martel from Montreal and he was arguably Toronto's best rearguard this past season but did not fill the skates of either of the departees to Detroit.
A lack of offensive production also hurt as Toronto struggled to find production beyond that of Sauer (24-22-46). The cause can be traced to the departure of Albers and reduced scoring compared to a year ago from many Dukes with Les Carlson, Dick Klein and Syl Beam having the most dramatic drop-offs.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall when the Dukes were unceremoniously swept in the semi-finals last season by the 4th place Montreal Valiants. Even with that wake-up call, the nightmare season that followed for the Dukes was a shock in its sudden arrival after 2 Challenge Cup titles and 3 straight seasons of finishing either first or second in the regular season. The debacle of a season ended a stretch that had seen the Dukes make the playoffs for 8 straight years and is likely the dawn of a new era in Dukes hockey as owner David Welcombe has promised changes will come.
It is an interesting time in Toronto sports as the Dukes, just like baseball's Toronto Wolves, have endured an awful campaign at a most unexpected time and it appears for both changes are needed. The Wolves made some moves during their off-season and hope they are heading back in the right direction. Now it is up to Welcombe and his staff to chart the future course for the Dukes.
MONTHLY RECORD
NOV: 2-6-2 6 points
DEC: 4-6-1 9 points
JAN: 4-5-1 9 points
FEB: 2-6-2 6 points
MAR: 1-3-3 5 points
OVERAL 13-26-9 35 points
OTHER HEADLINES THIS WEEK
- FABL leaders St Louis and Cincinnati are starting to feel the heat as the Eagles, Keystones, Stars and Cougars -all preseason choices as pennant contenders- each get hot.
- The Senate approved a $4 billion income tax cut bill by a thumping majority, bolstering Republican chances of overriding a possible presidential veto.
- The United States termed the young Hungarian democracy as "dead" and are claiming the Russian takeover in the country has given birth to another Communist police state patterned after other Soviet satellite governments in eastern Europe.
Full national sports coverage is available in this week's edition of
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