1956-57
OFFSEASON
The big news this off-season is the entrance of Bobby Hull into the game. The 17 year old Golden Jet joins Chicago along with 16 year old Chico Maki. Other newcomers of note include Barry Ashbee to Boston, Gilles Tremblay in Montreal and Bill White to Toronto.
Johnny Bower's travels continue as his nickname in this sim clearly should be 'Suitcase'. Bower was dealt from the Rangers to Detroit in exchange for tough guy Lou Fontinato. It is the 4th time in the past 3 years that Bower has been dealt and the second time he went from New York to Detroit. Bower broke in with the Rangers and played 6 games for them in 1953-54 at the age of 29. He was dealt to Detroit prior to the 54-55 campaign and played 27 games for the Wings before being moved to Chicago at the trade deadline. Last season he played 50 games for the Hawks but was dealt back to the Rangers and the trade dealine. Now 31 years old, Bower is 31-38-8 in 83 NHL appearances with a 2.80 GAA.
Only two retirements of much significance. Joe Klukay calls it a career after 569 games in a Leafs uniform. The 33 year old had 283 career points and won 5 Stanley Cups in Toronto. George Gee also retires from Toronto after 870 career games and 480 points. The 34 year old spent seven seasons in Chicago before being dealt to the Leafs in the summer of 1948. He was on 4 Cup winning Leaf teams. Neither played a big role with the Leafs last season.
REGULAR SEASON
Montreal's Dickie Moore made NHL history on March 19th when he scored all 7 goals in the Habs 7-2 victory over Toronto. He becomes the first player to score 7 in a game, breaking the record of 6 establish by Detroit's Carl Liscombe. The 7th goal was Moore's 50th of the season and he would finish the year with 51 goals. Moore is the only player to score 50 or more in a season. He got 56 goals two years ago.
Another dominant regular season for the Montreal Canadiens as they tied the team record for wins in a season they set in 1951-52 with 57 and finished 2 points shy of the record 118 the Habs recorded in 1954-55. Led by Jean Beliveau (31-76-107) Canadiens players held down the top 4 spots in the scoring race and Jacques Plante's 1.41 goals against average was the lowest in the history of this sim.
Maurice Richard moved into first place all time in points with 45 points this season giving the Rocket a total of 1076 points in 887 career games. Included in the 35 year old Richard's total are an NHL record 553 goals. Richard passed teammate Elmer Lach after Lach had just 6 points in 26 games this season giving him 1050 for his 912 game career.
Code:
GP W L T PTS
Montreal Canadiens 70 57 11 2 116
Toronto Maple Leafs 70 37 23 10 84
Detroit Red Wings 70 30 30 10 70
Boston Bruins 70 26 35 9 61
Chicago Black Hawks 70 24 38 8 56
New York Rangers 70 12 49 9 33
SCORING LEADERS TEAM GP G A PTS
Jean Beliveau MON 70 31 76 107
Dickie Moore MON 70 51 38 89
Bernie Geoffrion MON 70 47 40 87
Doug Harvey MON 70 17 43 60
Tod Sloan TOR 69 39 20 59
Alex Delvecchio DET 70 29 29 58
Fleming Mackell TOR 70 26 30 56
Ron Stewart TOR 70 16 39 55
Red Kelly TOR 63 8 46 54
Red Sullivan DET 63 15 38 53
PLAYOFFS
The Stanley Cup finals will feature Montreal vs Detroit for the second straight year. The Canadiens again eliminated second place Toronto 4 straight in one semi-final while Detroit needed 5 games to oust Boston.
Montreal outshot Detroit 69-19 in Game One as the Habs hammered the Wings 5-0. The score could have been much worse had it not been for outstanding goaltending from Gump Worsley, who faced 31 shots in the first period alone. Maurice Richard had a goal and an assist for the winners while his little brother Henri picked up 3 assists in the contest.
Henri Richard had 2 goals and an assist in Game Two while Dickie Moore also had 3 points as Montreal won 5-2.
Game Three was another Montreal rout as the Habs won 8-1 behind 3 goals and an assist from Bernie Geoffrion. Don Marshall had 4 assists in the win while Jean Beliveau scored twice and Henri Richard picked up 3 helpers.
The Wings avoided the sweep with a 1-0 victory in Game Four as Worsley made 31 saves for the shutout. Ted Lindsay set up rookie Gord Straite for the only goal 11 minutes into the first period.
Despite another great effort from Worsley the Wings lost game five by a 2-1 score giving the Canadiens their third straight Stanley Cup. Worsley made 44 saves in the loss as Tom Johnson set up both Montreal goals, which each came in the third period. Ed Litzenberger had the first one with Dickie Moore getting the Cup winner at 16:21 of the third period.
Montreal defenseman Tom Johnson was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner. He had 1 goal and 6 assists in 9 playoff games. Henri Richard led all playoff scorers with 11 points, one more than Dickie Moore. If I was presenting the Conn Smythe it would have gone to Detroit's Gump Worsley, who had a .931 save percentage despite being peppered every night by the Habs.
Other Award winners:
HART TROPHY: Jean Beliveau Montreal (70GP 31-76-107)
VEZINA TROPHY: Jacques Plante Montreal (53-9-2, 1.41)
NORRIS TROPHY: Doug Harvey Montreal (70GP 17-43-60)
ART ROSS TROPHY: Jean Beliveau Montreal (70GP 31-76-107)
CALDER TROPHY: Bob Turner Montreal (61 GP 5-15-20)
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 Jacques Plante Montreal Gump Worsley Detroit
D Doug Harvey Montreal Tom Johnson Montreal
D Red Kelly Toronto Pierre Pilote Chicago
C Jean Beliveau Montreal Fleming Mackell Toronto
LW Dickie Moore Montreal Dick Duff Toronto
RW Bernie Geoffrion Montreal Alex Delvecchio Detroit