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Old 01-02-2017, 08:36 PM   #39
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1962-63

1962-63

OFF-SEASON
After surpassing the 1000 game mark and winning his 6th Stanley Cup longtime Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman Gus Mortson announced his retirement. Injuries limited the 37 year old to just 28 games this past season so he finishes his career 1014 career games played and 550 points. He won the Norris Trophy as best defenseman in 1953-54 and was a two-time first team all-star.

After three injury plagued seasons that limited him to just 26 games over the past three years Montreal's Kenny Mosdell has retired. He began his career with the Brooklyn Americans in 1941 but joined the Habs the following season when the Americans franchise folded. In 1050 career NHL games Mosdell scored 305 goals and 750 points. He won 10 Stanley Cups with the Canadiens (11 if you count 1960-61 when he was on the roster but did not play).

Montreal also lost 29 year old Jean-Guy Talbot to retirement. Talbot played 66 games last season on the Habs blueline, scoring 22 points. His career began in 1954-55 and he played 509 games, scoring 41 goals and 143 points. His name is etched on the Stanley Cup five times.

Final retirement of note is 33 year old Johnny Wilson who played 880 games with the Red Wings and Black Hawks. Wilson scored 498 career points including 25 in 67 games last season. Wilson is a veteran of 84 playoff games but he never won a Cup.

New players entering the game this season include Wayne Cashman, Bill Goldsworthy and Gilles Marotte joining the Bruins organization. Ron Ellis, Mike Walton and Pete Stemkowski to Toronto. Nick Libett in Detroit and Bobby Schmautz with Chicago.

Looks like Jean Beliveau is picking up where he left off last season. Beliveau had 7 points including 4 goals in Montreal's 9-1 preseason thrashing of Toronto.

This was supposed to be a breakout year for Detroit's Bruce MacGregor, who had 10 goals and 17 points in 47 games as a rookie last season. Instead MacGregor will spend the year on the mend as he will miss most of the season with a torn rotator cuff suffered in a preseason game.

REGULAR SEASON
Montreal's dominance was no where near as pronounced as it was last season but the Canadiens still surpassed the 100 point mark and finished first for the 9th straight season and 19th time in the past 20 years. The line of Jean Beliveau between Henri Richard and Gilles Tremblay still carried the Montreal offense but Beliveau lost his two year hold on the Art Ross Trophy as Detroit's Alex Delvecchio led the league in scoring for the third time in 5 years.

Delvecchio's accomplishment was more impressive considering a fractured wrist cost his linemate Gordie Howe a good chunk of the season. Howe was limited to 50 games but still managed to pick up 52 points on the year.

Chicago defenseman Bill Gadsby had what might be the longest point streak for a defenseman as he earned points in 15 straight games. The 35 year old finished the season with 56 points including 24 goals while appearing in all 70 games this year after being limited to just 9 games last season due to injury. The Hawks finished in the final playoff spot thanks to Gadsby and forwards Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita along with strong goaltending from Eddie Johnston.

Code:
   
		    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Montreal Canadiens	70 46 14 10  102
Toronto	Maple Leafs	70 41 15 14   96
Detroit Red Wings 	70 30 28 12   72
Chicago Black Hawks	70 22 37 11   55
Boston Bruins		70 19 41 10   48
New York Rangers	70 17 40 13   47

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G  A  PTS
Alex Delvecchio		DET  70 40 47   87
Jean Beliveau		MON  69 37 46   83
Bobby Hull		CHI  70 31 49   80
Stan Mikita		CHI  70 19 54   73
Gilles Tremblay		MON  69 28 44   72
Henri Richard		MON  70 35 34   69
Norm Ullman		NYR  69 15 54   69
Andy Bathgate		NYR  70 30 35   65
Parker MacDonald	TOR  64 25 40   65
Don McKenney		BOS  67 25 37   62
PLAYOFFS
Montreal swept Toronto in one semi-final while the Chicago Black Hawks had little trouble with Detroit, sweeping the Red Wings in the other semi-final to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in three years.

The Finals opened with Montreal hanging on for a 5-4 victory in Game One. The Canadiens, led by 2 goals from Claude Provost, built a 5-1 lead early in the second period before Chicago stormed back with 3 third period goals. The Black Hawks were unable to get the equalizer past Jacques Plante as the Habs hung on for the win.

Chicago did have a successful comeback in Game Two as Montreal built a 2-0 lead on a pair of Jean Beliveau goals before Pierre Pilote got the Hawks on the board late in the second period. Bill Gadsby and Bob Armstrong scored the only goals of the third period and the Hawks won a Stanley Cup final game for the first time in franchise history, beating Montreal 3-2 and evening the series.

Montreal outshot Chicago 49-12 but the Habs needed a late goal from Henri Richard to claim a 3-2 win. Beliveau had 2 assists for Montreal while Bobby Hull assisted on both Chicago goals but the big story was the outstanding job Eddie Johnston did in the Chicago net.

It looked like the Hawks might even the series as Johnston was again outstanding, stopping all 23 shots he faced in the first two periods and Chicago led 1-0 after 40 minutes. However Montreal pulled out the 2-1 victory on powerplay goals from Jean Beliveau and Tom Johnson.

Montreal would wrap up the series at home with a 4-1 victory in Game Five. Phil Goyette had a goal and an assist to pace the Canadiens in the game helping Montreal win it's 12th Stanley Cup in the sim and 7th in the last 9 years.

For the fourth time Montreal captain Jean Beliveau was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Beliveau led all playoff perfomers with 14 points including 6 goals in 9 games. Chicago defenseman Bill Gadsby was second with 13 points while Habs winger Gilles Tremblay led the playoffs in goals with 7.

Other Award winners:

HART TROPHY: Jean Beliveau Montreal (69GP 37-46-83)

VEZINA TROPHY: Jacques Plante Montreal (46-14-10, 1.68)

NORRIS TROPHY: Jacques Laperriere Montreal (70GP 13-37-50)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Alex Delvecchio Detroit (70GP 40-47-87)

CALDER TROPHY: Jean Gauthier Boston (1GP 0-0-0)
Have no idea why Gauthier won the award playing in just one game. There were not a lot of rookies this season but Detroit's Ron Harris had 14 points and played all 70 games on the Red Wings blueline or Paul Henderson with 15 points in 57 games are much better choices.

The game does not select the all-star team but I will start naming first and second team all-stars
Code:

POS      FIRST TEAM		     SECOND TEAM
G   Terry Sawchuk    Toronto	Jacques Plante   Montreal	      
D   Bill Gadsby	     Chicago	Tim Horton	 Toronto
D   J Laperriere     Montreal   Doug Harvey      Montreal 		
C   Jean Beliveau    Montreal	Stan Mikita      Chicago	
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Gilles Tremblay  Montreal      	
RW  Alex Delvecchio  Detroit    Andy Bathgate    New York
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