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FHM 3 - Dynasty Reports Talk about your FHM dynasties here!

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Old 01-03-2017, 07:33 AM   #41
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CONN CHRIS View Post
The Howe trajectory has been strange and now he misses time with an injury as he is finally taking off. Enjoying this greatly.
Thank you for following along.

In real life Howe played right wing and by 49-50 from what I understand was on the Wings top line with Lindsay on the left side and Sid Abel (later Delvecchio) in the middle so he had solid point totals from the age of 21 or so.

In the sim Howe is listed as being capable of playing all 3 positions and the game put him at left wing. As a result he spent a lot of time in his early 20's behind Lindsay and 1 or two others on the third or fourth line instead of on the top line with Lindsay and Abel so his point totals suffered.

Once he was shifted to center as Abel began to decline Howe started to receive first line minutes and his point totals increased. Howe basically stepped into the role Delvecchio had in real life as the game made Delvecchio a right winger on the line with Howe and Lindsay.

The result is he did not become a prolific point producer in the sim until age 30 while in real life he was putting up top 10 scoring numbers from the age of 22 but it is the desire for this unpredictability that made me choose to enable the FHM development engine so some deviation for players is both to be expected and desired.

The question going forward will be how long will Howe be productive?

With just 288 goals and 628 points after nearly 1000 games I would think he would be hard pressed to finish with even 500 goals and 1000 points in his career.
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Last edited by Tiger Fan; 01-03-2017 at 07:34 AM.
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Old 01-03-2017, 11:02 PM   #42
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Another interesting one to watch is Chicago over the next few years. Right now they have Mikita at center with Bobby Hull and Floyd Smith on the wings as the top line. With veteran Bronco Horvath along with Forbes Kennedy as other centers behind Mikita that leaves a still very young Phil Esposito on the fourth line.

Does Esposito move to the second line eventually or perhaps even replace Mikita on the top line with Hull. With Fred Stanfield also as a center maybe Espo moves to the wing with Mikita and Hull on the top line?

Chicago still has a lot of talent up front as we also have Ken Hodge, Vic Hadfield, Dennis Hull, Chico Maki, Floyd Smith and Eddie Shack on their depth chart.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Esposito's numbers and also how will the absence of the big offensive stars affect Bobby Orr's stats when he gets to Boston.
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Old 01-04-2017, 01:51 AM   #43
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1963-64

1963-64

OFF-SEASON
This is the year the NHL introduces the amateur draft so we have a large number of new players entering the game this season. Note I elected to assign players to the organization they began with instead of having a draft.

Boston gets Bernie Parent, Derek Sanderson, Ted Irvine and Jean Pronovost. Montreal adds Rogie Vachon, Serge Savard, Carol Vadnais and Jacques Lemaire. Jim McKenney and Gerry Meehan join Toronto while Pete Mahovlich becomes a Red Wing.

Allan Stanley highlights the retirements this off-season. The 37 year old played 990 career NHL games, all with the New York Rangers. He had 87 goals and 373 points in his 15 year career including 31 points last season. Because he spent his entire career with New York, Stanley appeared in just 5 playoff games.

Long-time Chicago defenseman Bob Armstrong has retired at the age of 32. He played two seasons with Boston before joining the Black Hawks in 1951-52. Armstrong played 807 NHL games and had 63 goals and 109 assists in his 14 year career. He had 6 points in 51 games last season.

Don Cherry also retired. The future CBC icon had a much better pro career in the sim then his real life NHL career that consisted of 1 playoff game, being traded to Detroit from the Bruins and he appeared in 251 games for the Red Wings over 4 seasons, scoring 12 times and earning 53 points.

REGULAR SEASON
The big news this season was Ted Lindsay overtook Maurice Richard as the NHL's all-time scoring leader. Lindsay finished the season with 1,212 career points after earning 49 this year. Richard had held the record with 1,173. Lindsay also increased his assist total to 728 and is closing in on former Canadien Elmer Lach's record 750 helpers. Lindsay is also second in career goals with 484. Richard leads with 595.
Lindsay also extended his own record for career games played and he now sits at 1281.

Gordie Howe of Detroit, Doug Harvey of Montreal and Toronto's Red Kelly, Fleming Mackell and goaltender Terry Sawchuk all reached the 1000 game mark. Sawchuk becomes the first goaltender to play in 1000 games and ended the season with 1055 appearances.

The season went very similiar to last year as all four playoff teams finished in the same order as they did in 1963-64. Montreal's Jean Beliveau regained the Art Ross Trophy from Detroit's Alex Delvecchio, who dropped to 4th in scoring this year. Jacques Plante earned another 46 wins this season to increase his record career total to 629 victories. The 35 year old, who won his 12th Vezina Trophy this season, is 629-152-96 in his 885 career regular season games.

The New York Rangers haven't made the playoffs since 1950 but they did manage to escape the basement and finish ahead of Boston. It ended a 4 year run of last place finishes for the Rangers. Big things have been expected of Rod Gilbert and Jean Ratelle but the two youngsters have yet to put it all together. The 23 year old Ratelle played just 38 games this year and had 11 points while the 22 year old Gilbert did manage to score 17 goals and 36 points and play the full 70 games.


Code:
   
		    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Montreal Canadiens	70 46 13 11  103
Toronto	Maple Leafs	70 41 17 12   94
Detroit Red Wings 	70 26 28 16   68
Chicago Black Hawks	70 27 32 11   65
New York Rangers	70 23 34 13   59
Boston Bruins		70 12 51  7   31

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G  A  PTS
Jean Beliveau		MON  70 38 48   86
Bobby Hull		CHI  69 34 47   81
Henri Richard		MON  70 32 38   70
Alex Delvecchio		DET  70 31 38   69
Frank Mahovlich		TOR  70 35 33   68
Gilles Tremblay		MON  70 23 43   66
Norm Ullman		NYR  70 23 41   64
Stan Mikita		CHI  58 18 45   63
Gordie Howe		DET  67 27 35   62
Johnny Bucyk		DET  70 23 39   62
PLAYOFFS
Toronto's big line of Ron Stewart (3-4-7), Frank Mahovlich (3-4-7) and George Armstrong (2-5-7) proved too much for Montreal as the Leafs upset the Canadiens in six games in their semi-final series. Terry Sawchuk was strong in the Toronto net but Jacques Plante had a couple of tough outings for Montreal.

An injury to Bobby Hull proved the difference in the other semi-final. With Hull in the lineup the Black Hawks won the first two games of their series on the road in Detroit but after he went down the Red Wings took four of the next five games despite 6 goals and 9 points in the series from Chicago's Stan Mikita. Game Seven was a 2-1 Detroit victory with Paul Henderson getting the winner with less than 5 minutes remaining in regulation.

The finals would mark the 6th time Toronto and Detroit would meet with the Leafs winning each of the previous five including a series two years ago.

Overtime was needed to decide Game One of the finals and the hometown Leafs prevailed 4-3 thanks to a Parker MacDonald goal. Defenseman Red Kelly scored twice for Toronto in the win.

Game Two saw the Wings overcome a 3-0 second period deficit and win 4-3 in overtime on a Gordie Howe goal. It was probably the worst 20 minutes of playoff hockey goaltender Terry Sawchuk ever played as the Leafs netminder allowed 3 goals on 8 Detroit shots in the third period.

The Wings carried that momentum into Game Three and had another 3 goal outburst in the third period as they beat Toronto 5-2 at The Olympia. Howe had another goal in this game and Ted Lindsay chipped in with 2 assists but it was former New York Ranger Tom McCarthy who led the way with 2 third period goals and an assist for Detroit.

Detroit moves to within one victory of the Stanley Cup with a 3-2 win in Game Four. Defenseman Harry Howell got what proved to be the game winner midway through the second period on a setup from Howe and Delvecchio, who each had 2 assists in the win.

It is the Leafs turn for a comeback win as Tim Horton scores to tie the game at 2 with 2:21 remaining in regulation and then Earl Ingerfield scores in overtime to give Toronto a 3-2 victory and make the series 3-2 in Detroit's favour.

Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe each have a goal and an assist while Gump Worsley makes 27 saves as Detroit wins the Stanley Cup at home with a 3-0 victory in Game Six. With a 2.28 GAA and a .916 save percentage in 13 playoff games, Worsley is named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

It was a Montreal sweep for the other Award winners:

HART TROPHY: Jean Beliveau Montreal (70GP 38-48-86)

VEZINA TROPHY: Jacques Plante Montreal (46-13-10, 1.76)

NORRIS TROPHY: Jacques Laperriere Montreal (70GP 16-41-57)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Jean Beliveau Montreal (70GP 38-48-86)

CALDER TROPHY: Barclay Plager Montreal (58GP 6-12-18)


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	Terry Sawchuk    Toronto		      
D   Pierre Pilote    Chicago	Red Kelly	 Toronto
D   J Laperriere     Montreal   Doug Harvey      Montreal 		
C   Jean Beliveau    Montreal	Stan Mikita      Chicago	
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Gilles Tremblay  Montreal      	
RW  Frank Mahovlich  Toronto    Alex Delvecchio  Detroit
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Old 01-04-2017, 01:53 AM   #44
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1964-65

1964-65

OFF-SEASON
Ken Dryden highlights the list of new players entering the league. Joining the 16 year old goaltender in Montreal will be fellow 16 year old Mickey Redmond. Other players of note include Walt Tkaczuk and Syl Apps Jr in New York, Don Marcotte in Boston along with Jim Dorey and Brian Glennie with Toronto.

Goaltending great Harry Lumley retired after 911 career NHL games, although he had not played a game in either of the past two seasons. He retires second to only Terry Sawchuk in games played by a goaltender. Lumley spent two seasons as a backup in Detroit before getting a chance to play every day in Boston. His lifetime record on some bad Bruins teams was 297-472-118 with a 2.96 GAA. Lumley also played 71 postseason games, going 25-38-7. He appeared in three Stanley Cup finals - once with Detroit and twice for Boston - but was on the losing side each time.

Toronto's Bill Barilko has hung up his skates after 18 seasons and 6 Stanley Cups. The Conn Smythe Trophy winner in the 1956 playoffs, Barilko played 958 regular season games, scoring 113 goals and 519 points. Injuries limited him to 18 games with the Leafs last year.

Defenseman Jack 'Tex' Evans retired after 983 career NHL games with all but 52 of them for the Rangers. He had 186 points including 8 points last year when he suited up for Boston after 15 seasons with the Blueshirts.

REGULAR SEASON
This was a breakout year for the Chicago Black Hawks as they set a team record for points with 89 and finished in second place for the first time in the original six era. The Hawks excitement was severely tempered when Bobby Hull suffered a season-ending injury with 2 weeks remaining in the season, something that makes their chances of knocking off first place Montreal in the semi-finals even tougher.

The Hawks had steady goaltending from veteran netminder Eddie Johnston and a strong defense anchored by all-stars Bill Gadsby and Pierre Pilote but the real key to the Hawks was the league's best offense which really started to gel when second line centre Phil Esposito was shifted to right wing and placed on the top line alongside league scoring champ Stan Mikita and goal leader Bobby Hull.

A year after winning the Cup the Detroit Red Wings slumped to fifth and missed the playoffs altogether. The benefactor of the Wings troubles was the New York Rangers, who made the playoffs for the first time since 1950.

Despite the fact he lost the scoring race to Chicago's Mikita it was a big year for Montreal Canadiens legend Jean Beliveau. His 91 points this season allowed Beliveau to pull ahead of veteran Detroit winger Ted Lindsay and become the NHL's all-time scoring leader with 1,245 career regular season points. Beliveau and Detroit's Alex Delvecchio both joined the 1000 game club, boosting it's ranks to 13 skaters plus goaltender Terry Sawchuk.

Beliveau also had a 20 game point streak, passing his old mark of 19 set in 1960-61 as the second longest of all-time. The record which may never be broken is 44 set by Maurice Richard in 1943-44. Beliveau also tied the record for most assists in a game with 6 in Montreal's 6-1 win over Detroit on January 5th. The mark was originally set by Toronto's Bob Pulford in 1960, also in a game against Detroit.

In the same game Beliveau picked up 6 assists his linemate Claude Provost had 5 goals and an assist. The record for goals in a game is 7 set by Montreal's Dickie Moore 1957.

Code:
   
		    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Montreal Canadiens	70 44 17  9   97
Chicago Black Hawks	70 39 20 11   89
Toronto	Maple Leafs	70 37 28  5   79
New York Rangers	70 25 29 16   66
Detroit Red Wings 	70 22 35 13   57
Boston Bruins		70 13 51  6   32

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G  A  PTS
Stan Mikita		CHI  70 33 71  104
Bobby Hull		CHI  65 43 48   91
Jean Beliveau		MON  70 36 55   91
Gilles Tremblay		MON  63 28 53   81
Norm Ullman		NYR  64 28 43   71
Frank Mahovlich		TOR  69 39 29   68
Claude Provost		MON  70 28 40   68
Alex Delvecchio		DET  70 29 36   65
Ron Stewart		TOR  69 27 37   64
Gordie Howe		DET  70 26 37   63
Phil Esposito		CHI  70 27 34   61
PLAYOFFS
The Chicago Black Hawks will be without league goal scoring leader Bobby Hull for their semi-final series with Montreal but the Canadiens will also be missing a key cog as veteran defenseman Doug Harvey was limited to just 11 games this season due to injury.

The series went back and forth with the team's alternating victories until Chicago broke that trend. After the Hawks evened things at 3 wins apiece with a 4-1 win on home ice in Game Six, Chicago earned a berth in the finals for the second time in 3 years with a 2-1 win in Game Seven. The hero was 29 year old Willie O'Ree, who was playing his first full season in the NHL at age 29 after a decade spent mostly in the minors. O'Ree scored on a pass from Pierre Pilote with 1:47 remaining in regulation to break the tie and give Chicago a 2-1 victory.

New York's first visit to the playoffs in well over a decade was a very short stay as the Rangers were swept in 4 straight by Toronto. Bob Nevin had 4 goals and 8 points in the four games while Frank Mahovlich, Parker MacDonald and Dave Keon also scored 4 times in a series that saw Toronto pump 21 goals past Rangers goaltender Glenn Hall.

Toronto took the Cup opener 3-1 before 18,472 hostile fans at the Chicago Stadium. Frank Mahovlich, Parker MacDonald and Eric Nesterenko were the Leaf goal scorers.

Chicago rebounded with a 3-1 win of their own in Game Two as Stan Mikita and Phil Esposito scored third period powerplay goals while Pierre Pilote and Floyd Smith each had 2 assists.

A trend was developing with another 3-1 score in Game Three, this time in favour of the hometown Maple Leafs. Bob Nevin, Dick Duff and Bob Pulford scored for Toronto while Phil Esposito had the lone Chicago goal.

Another Leaf victory but by a 3-0 score this time made the series 3 games to one in Toronto's favour. Terry Sawchuk was the story on this night as the Leafs netminder turned aside all 36 Black Hawks shots he faced. Toronto managed 28 on Eddie Johnston with Bobby Baun, Bob Nevin and Bob Pulford scoring.

The Leafs wrap up another Stanley Cup title with a 4-3 victory on the road in Game Five. Defenseman Tim Horton led the Leafs attack with a goal and 2 assists. Mahovlich, Pulford and Parker MacDonald also scored for Toronto with MacDonald snapping a 3-3 tie with the winner midway through the third period. Chico Maki, Fred Stanfield and Esposito responded for Chicago.

Tim Horton was presented the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP after finishing the postseason with 1 goal and 11 points in 9 games. Leaf winger Bob Nevin led the playoffs in points with 13 and tied for the goal scoring lead at 6 with teammates Bob Pulford, Frank Mahovlich and Parker MacDonald.

Other Award winners:

HART TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (70GP 33-71-104)

VEZINA TROPHY: Jacques Plante Montreal (44-17-9, 2.25)

NORRIS TROPHY: Pierre Pilote Chicago (69GP 12-49-61)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (70GP 33-71-104)

CALDER TROPHY: Fred Stanfield Chicago (68GP 14-17-31)


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   Pierre Pilote    Chicago	Red Kelly	 Toronto
D   J Laperriere     Montreal   Bill Gadsby	 Chicago 		
C   Stan Mikita      Chicago    Jean Beliveau    Montreal		
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Gilles Tremblay  Montreal      	
RW  Frank Mahovlich  Toronto    Claude Provost   Montreal
Code:

CUP WINS BY TEAM ALL-TIME (sim plus pre-1931)
TEAM			SIM       ALLTIME
Toronto	Maple Leafs	16		18
Montreal Canadiens	12		16
Boston Bruins		 3		 4
Detroit Red Wings	 3		 3
Ottawa Senators		 0		 3
New York Rangers	 0		 1
Montreal Maroons	 0               1
Chicago Black Hawks	 0		 0
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Old 01-04-2017, 12:29 PM   #45
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Hi Tiger,
thanks for your History! I also enjoy reading your posts so keep em coming

Cheers
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Old 01-04-2017, 08:33 PM   #46
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1965-66

1965-66

OFF-SEASON
The NHL changes it's minimum draft age to 17 which means this will be a year with very few new prospects entering the league but the biggest name on the list more than makes up for the lack of size of the class. Bobby Orr is a 17 year old and may see some action this season with the Boston Bruins. The only other player of note is big defenseman Pierre Bouchard with Montreal. Pierre's dad Butch played 845 games with Montreal and won 2 Norris Trophy's.

The biggest retirement is long-time Montreal defenseman Doug Harvey ending his career following an injury at the age of 40. Harvey was limited to 11 games this season but still earned 7 points to give him 757 points in a career that spanned 18 seasons and 1032 games. Harvey won 6 Norris Trophy's and a Hart Trophy as NHL MVP as well as 9 Stanley Cups.

No trades of note prior to the season but their were a couple of injuries in exhibition play including Montreal losing centre Jean Beliveau for the first 3 weeks of the season with a hamstring injury.


REGULAR SEASON
The Montreal Canadiens reign at the top of the regular season standings came to an end as the Habs finished in third place - the first time they had ended up that low since 1941-42. The reasons for the drop-off were numerous. Jean Beliveau did record his league leading 1,300th career point on the final day of the season but Beliveau was limited to 53 games and finished with 55 points. Jacques Plante still had a decent season but at 37 he is starting to show his age and was not the dominant goalie of season's past. Defense was also a concern as the Habs are going through a transition with Doug Harvey now retired and Tom Johnson a shell of his former self at age 38. 20 year olds Carol Vadnais and Serge Savard should have great futures but both were called on too often in a season when neither is ready for big minutes on an NHL blueline.

The other big reason for the Habs decline is simply that Chicago is getting so good offensively. Habs players used to dominant the scoring leaders but the top ten now is heavily populated with Black Hawks led by Bobby Hull who, at the age of 27, led the NHL in goals with 46 and points with 104. 25 year old centre Stan Mikita is in his prime and 24 year old Phil Esposito is improving every year. With youngsters like Fred Stanfield and Ken Hodge plus dependable veterans Floyd Smith and Eddie Shack up front it is easy to see why Chicago has the most dangerous offense in the league. The key remains Bobby Hull, who had a 19 game point streak this season and has scored 89 goals over the past two seasons.

The only concern about the Hawks becoming a dynasty is on the backend where their top two players Bill Gadsby and Pierre Pilote are starting to age. Doug Jarrett looks like he is almost ready to step in to a top two D role but beyond that the cupboard is relatively bare.

The second place Leafs continue to ride the outstanding goaltending of now 36 year old Terry Sawchuk. Toronto has a balanced offense led by Ron Stewart and Frank Mahovlich, who combined for 73 goals between them. The Leafs did lead the league with 11 players scoring at least 10 goals this year.

Code:
   
		    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Black Hawks	70 44 16 10   98
Toronto	Maple Leafs	70 39 15 16   94
Montreal Canadiens	70 31 28 11   73
Detroit Red Wings 	70 30 28 12   72
New York Rangers	70 19 41 10   48
Boston Bruins		70 13 48  9   35

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G  A  PTS
Bobby Hull		CHI  70 46 58  104
Stan Mikita		CHI  69 27 73  100
Alex Delvecchio		DET  70 39 57   96
Gordie Howe		DET  70 28 52   80
Ron Stewart		TOR  69 34 45   79
Frank Mahovlich		TOR  70 39 34   73
Paul Henderson		DET  70 27 43   70
Gilles Tremblay		MON  68 35 27   62
Phil Esposito		CHI  70 27 35   62
Pierre Pilote		CHI  70 18 42   60
PLAYOFFS
Chicago got revenge for their loss in the Finals last season by sweeping Toronto in 4 straight games led by Bobby Hull's 3 goal, 2 assist performance in a 6-1 victory in Game Two. In the other semi-final Jean Beliveau almost single-handedly willed the Canadiens to victory. Beliveau had 6 goals and 9 points as Montreal beat Detroit in 6 games. Detroit's Gordie Howe, on the other hand, was limited to a goal and 2 assists in the series.

The Chicago-Montreal final was a rematch of the 1962-63 Stanley Cup and the Hawks are still looking for their first ever parade. Game One started well for the hometown Black Hawks as Stan Mikita scored twice and added an assist in a 5-3 Chicago victory.

Game Two also ended 5-3 in Chicago's favour as the Hawks put 4 pucks past Montreal netminder Jacques Plante in the first 11 minutes and then hung on for the win. Mikita would score again with Hull adding 2 goals and defenseman Pierre Pilote notching 3 assists.

Defenseman J.C. Tremblay gives Montreal life with an overtime goal in a 2-1 victory. Tremblay also assisted on Kenny Wharram's second period goal that opened the scoring. Floyd Smith got the Chicago tally early in the third period. It was a loss in more ways than one for the Black Hawks who learned their promising young defenseman Doug Jarrett would be sidelined for 10 months after suffering an arm injury in the game.

Stan Mikita dominates Game Four with a goal and 3 assists as Chicago moves to within 1 win of the Stanley Cup after earning a 5-3 victory.

No celebration for the Chicago Stadium fans in Game Five as John Ferguson and Kenny Wharram are the unlikely heroes for Montreal. Each has a goal and an assist in a 6-5 Canadiens victory.

Huge drama in Game Six. Tied at 2, Henri Richard gets a powerplay goal with 1:44 remaining in regulation to put Montreal up 3-2. However, moments later Tom Johnson gets whistled for tripping and on the power play with the goaltender pulled for an extra attacker the Hawks tie the game on a Stan Mikita goal assisted by Bobby Hull with just 37 seconds remaining in regulation. The hero in overtime is Montreal's 22 year old rookie Yvan Cournoyer, playing in just his second playoff game after going scoreless in 7 regular season games. Cournoyer scores his first ever National Hockey League goal in dramatic fashion, just over 8 minutes into overtime to give Montreal a 4-3 victory and knot the series at 3 wins apiece.

Game Seven at the Chicago Stadium. Fred Stanfield stakes Chicago to an early lead but before the first period is over Donnie Marshall ties the contest with an assist to Cournoyer. Kenny Wharram puts the Habs up 2-1 midway through the second period but goals from Phil Esposito and Floyd Smith, just over a minute apart, late in the second give the Hawks a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes.

The Canadiens get 3 powerplays in the third period including a 5 minute one after Pierre Pilote is assessed a major for high sticking with 5:02 remaining in regulation. Montreal fires 13 shots on the Chicago net in the third period but Eddie Johnston stops them all to preserve the 3-2 win and give Chicago it's first Stanley Cup title.

With a playoff leading 21 points in 11 games (possibly a record for a post-season) Stan Mikita is named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy over linemate Bobby Hull, who contributed a playoff high 9 goals and 18 points.

Other Award winners:

HART TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (69GP 27-73-100)

VEZINA TROPHY: Jacques Plante Montreal (28-21-8, 2.30)

NORRIS TROPHY: Pierre Pilote Chicago (70GP 18-42-60)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Bobby Hull Chicago (70GP 46-58-104)

CALDER TROPHY: Derek Sanderson Boston (70GP 6-10-16)


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   Eddie Johnston   Chicago    Jacques Plante   Montreal			      
D   Pierre Pilote    Chicago	Harry Howell	 Detroit
D   Red Kelly	     Toronto	J Laperriere     Montreal    		
C   Stan Mikita      Chicago    Gordie Howe 	 Detroit		
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Gilles Tremblay  Montreal      	
RW  Alex Delvecchio  Detroit    Frank Mahovlich  Toronto
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Old 01-04-2017, 08:34 PM   #47
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1966-67

1966-67

OFF-SEASON
Two legendary defensemen elect to retire this off-season. 38 year old Bill Gadsby went out a champion as his final game was the night he won his first Stanley Cup. He endured some trying seasons during his 20 year career in Chicago but was a 3-time first team all-star. Gadsby played 1196 carer games and had 232 goals and 743 points in his career.

Red Kelly also retires at the age of 38 after a 20 year career that saw him play 1131 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kelly had 192 goals and 885 points in his career. He won 2 Conn Smythe Trophy's as playoff MVP and hoisted the Stanley Cup on 7 occasions. Kelly was an 8-time first team all-star including this past season when he had 53 points in 67 games.

Newcomers joining the league this year include Brad Park, Dennis Hextall and Don Luce with the New York Rangers, Garry Unger and Rick Ley in Toronto along with Boston Bruins Gregg Sheppard and Tom Webster.

Chicago will be challenged right away in their Cup defense. The Hawks defense has lost it's top three from last year with the retirement of Bill Gadsby and now word that Pierre Pilote will miss the first month of the season with a knee injury. Doug Jarrett is also sidelined for most of the year due to an injury suffered in the playoffs.

REGULAR SEASON
Despite a number of injuries to their blueline the Chicago Black Hawks finished with the best regular season record for the second straight season. In addition to Pilote and Jarrett, the Hawks also lost rearguards Pat Stapleton and Wayne Hillman for an extended period. Chicago's offense, led by Bobby Hull's second straight Art Ross Trophy, was more than strong enough to make up for the injuries.

Montreal just managed to wrestle second place away from the Toronto Maple Leafs but it was a much different Canadiens team than fans were used to. No more Flying Frenchmen as the team that normally boasts a number of the league's top forwards actually had a defenseman- Jacques Laperriere (15-39-54) lead the team in scoring.

Jean Beliveau reached the 500 career goal plateau in a 4-2 Montreal win over Toronto on November 16th. It was one of just 16 goals Beliveau would score as his 53 points was his lowest total since he recorded 10 points in 1949-50 as an 18 year old rookie. Donnie Marshall, Gilles Tremblay, Henri Richard and Claude Provost also saw their production drop, and substantially so in some cases, while the next wave of young forwards like Bobby Rousseau (15-34-49) and Yvan Cournoyer (8-13-21) have not stepped up to fill the gap.

Boston's 18 year old rookie defenseman Bobby Orr played in 69 games this season and had 10 goals and 39 points. The highlight to Orr's campaign was a 4 assist, 5 point night in a 5-3 win over Chicago on March 7th.

Veteran Montreal blueliner Tom Johnson and Detroit's Gordie Howe each surpassed the 1250 game mark while Leafs netminder Terry Sawchuk became the first goalie to appear in 1200 regular season games.

Code:
   
		    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Black Hawks	70 39 17 14   92
Montreal Canadiens	70 34 23 13   81
Toronto	Maple Leafs	70 33 23 14   80
Detroit Red Wings 	70 27 29 14   68
New York Rangers	70 19 37 14   52
Boston Bruins		70 20 43  7   47

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G  A  PTS
Bobby Hull		CHI  70 36 54   90
Stan Mikita		CHI  63 21 64   85
Alex Delvecchio		DET  70 21 58   79
Phil Esposito		CHI  70 38 39   77
Frank Mahovlich		TOR  70 36 38   74
Johnny Bucyk		DET  70 27 45   72
Gordie Howe		DET  70 25 46   71
Paul Henderson		DET  67 42 26   68
Ron Stewart		TOR  66 22 44   66
Norm Ullman		NYR  70 28 36   64
PLAYOFFS
The Chicago Black Hawks, led by 12 points from Stan Mikita, beat the Montreal Canadiens in 5 games in their semi-final series. In the other series Detroit beat Toronto in 6 games with Johnny Bucyk emerging as the offensive hero for the Red Wings. The 31 year old had 12 points, including 11 assists, in the 6 games. Five of those assists came on goals from his linemate Gordie Howe, who at 39 years of age is playing the best hockey of his career.

For the first time since Boston and Detroit met in 1939-40 the Stanley Cup Finals would not involve a Canadian team.

First place Chicago would host the opening two games of the finals and the Hawks won them both, taking the opener 3-1 before winning 7-2 in Game Two. Bobby Hull scored twice and assisted on Phil Esposito's goal to account for the Chicago scoring in the opener while the third member of that line - Stan Mikita - assisted on all 3 goals. In Game Two the second line led the way as Ken Hodge and Eddie Shack each had 2 goals and 2 assists. The Game Two win came at a price as second line center Fred Stanfield suffered an injury in the second period that ended his season.

Back on friendly ice at The Olympia for Game Three, the Red Wings rebounded with a 5-1 victory. Bucyk, Alex Delvecchio and Gordie Howe each earned 2 points in the win while veteran goaltender Gump Worsley was outstanding for Detroit.

Gump Worsley was the difference in Game Four as he stopped all 29 shots he faced allowing Detroit to even the series with a 3-0 victory. Despite getting only 16 shots on Chicago's Eddie Johnston, the Wings got goals from Delvecchio, John Miszuk and Nick Libett.

Home ice would again be the charm as the Hawks took a 3 games to two lead after winning Game Five 5-2. Mikita had a goal and 2 assists to pace the Chicago offense with Esposito, Hull, Ted Hampson and Chico Maki also scoring for the Black Hawks.

Chicago hoisted the Stanley Cup for the second straight year as the Hawks earned a 5-3 victory on Detroit ice in Game Six to clinch the series. Bobby Hull had 2 goals and an assist in the final game as Chicago scored 4 times in the 3rd period to earn the win.

Stan Mikita had 2 more assists in the final game to finish the playoffs with 23 points on 6 goals and 17 helpers in 11 games. Detroit's Johnny Bucyk finished second with 17 points while Phil Esposito led all playoff performers with 8 goals.

It was the impressive work of Mikita that caused him to recognized with the Conn Smythe Trophy for the second straight year. In 22 playoff games the past two seasons Mikita has 44 points and has 90 points in 65 career postseason contests.

Other Award winners:

HART TROPHY: Bobby Hull Chicago (70GP 36-54-90)

VEZINA TROPHY: Eddie Johnston Chicago (30-12-11, 2.06)
Ends an amazing 14 year run by Jacques Plante.

NORRIS TROPHY: Pierre Pilote Chicago (58GP 15-36-51)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Bobby Hull Chicago (70GP 36-54-90)

CALDER TROPHY: Bobby Orr Boston (69GP 10-29-39)


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   Eddie Johnston   Chicago    Terry Sawchuk	 Toronto			      
D   Pierre Pilote    Chicago	Harry Howell	 Detroit
D   J Laperriere     Montreal   Pat Stapleton    Chicago	  		
C   Stan Mikita      Chicago    Gordie Howe 	 Detroit		
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Johnny Bucyk     Detroit      	
RW  Alex Delvecchio  Detroit    Phil Esposito    Chicago
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Old 01-04-2017, 08:37 PM   #48
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With that the Original Six era comes to an end as we prepare for the 1967 expansion draft.
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Old 01-04-2017, 08:49 PM   #49
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Here are the career and single season leaders in goals, assists and points as of the end of the 1966-67 campaign.
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Old 01-07-2017, 01:30 PM   #50
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1967-68

1967-68

OFF-SEASON
After 15 seasons and 940 games longtime Toronto Maple Leaf forward George Armstrong announced his retirement this off-season. He had 256 goals and 593 points in a career that included 4 Stanley Cups.

The big news though is the upcoming expansion draft as the NHL doubles in size from 6 to 12 teams. Notable newcomers joining the NHL this season include goaltender Tony Esposito and defenseman Guy Lapointe with the Montreal Canadiens. The league also will increase the schedule from 70 to 74 games.

Prior to the expansion draft the six new teams were able to sign some free agents. Here are the key signings for each club.

LOS ANGELES KINGS: Forwards Red Berenson and Johnny McKenzie. Berenson is 27 years old and has yet to play in the NHL while the 29 year old McKenzie has played 27 NHL games for Chicago.

MINNESOTA NORTH STARS: 26 year old defenseman Lou Nanne is the Stars only signing of note. He has yet to play an NHL game.

OAKLAND SEALS: The Seals signed 6 players but none are expected to have any impact in the NHL.

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS: 3 good minor league forwards were inked by the Flyers in 20 year old Serge Bernier, 22 year old Andre Lacroix and 25 year old Simon Nolet.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS: The Pens signed 5 players with 25 year old defenseman Bill Speer being the closest to possibly reaching the NHL.

ST LOUIS BLUES: The Blues get longtime minor league forward Frank St. Marseille, who may end up being one of their offensive leaders.

EXPANSION DRAFT

LOS ANGELES KINGS- The Kings made out pretty good in the expansion draft adding 25 year old goaltender Roger Crozier, who had been Eddie Johnston's backup in Chicago the past couple of seasons. They also drafted forwards Floyd Smith and Eric Nesterenko from the defending Cup champions. Other picks include defensemen Bert Marshall and John Miszuk from Detroit along with tough guy John Ferguson from Montreal.

MINNESOTA NORTH STARS - The Stars grabbed 38 year old goaltender Gump Worsley after he was left unprotected by Detroit. Worsley is a veteran of 855 games including 56 appearances for the Wings last year. The move leaves Detroit dangerously thin in net with the starting job likely going to Les Binkley, who played just 3 games last year. Other Minnesota selections including defenseman Bobby Baun from Toronto, a veteran of 790 NHL games and center Ted Hampson who played for the Cup winning Black Hawks last season.

OAKLAND SEALS - The Seals got good young goaltender Rogie Vachon from Montreal as well as veteran ex-Habs Henri Richard and Kenny Wharram.

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS - The Flyers also got veterans Claude Provost from Montreal, Don McKenney from Boston and former Maple Leaf Bob Pulford. In net the Flyers went with former Bruin Charlie Hodge, a 33 year old who lost his starting job in Boston to Bernie Parent.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS - The purge of veterans from Montreal continues as Pittsburgh selects 38 year old defenseman Tom Johnson, a future hall of famer. The Pens also get veteran forwards Parker MacDonald from Toronto, Jerry Toppazzini from Boston and Murray Oliver from Detroit. In net they will need to count on former Ranger farmhand Wayne Rutledge.

ST LOUIS BLUES- Toronto winger Jim Pappin and ex-Montreal center Ralph Backstrom are the best of a weak crop of picks for the Blues.



SUMMER MOVES
The expansion teams continued to fill out their rosters over the summer and some of the bigger signings are listed below.

The Los Angeles Kings signed highly touted free agent goaltender Gerry Cheevers, who could never crack the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup. Philadelphia added Cesare Maniago as a free agent pickup and named former Habs star Claude Provost their captain. Pittsburgh signed Ed Giacomin out of the Rangers system after the 28 year old spent most of the past decade in the minors.

If I was making pre-season predictions I would expect Los Angeles to be the class of the new clubs while St Louis could set an all-time mark for futility as the Blues roster looks very bare.

REGULAR SEASON
With expansion there was a huge disparity between the established clubs and new teams with many lob-sided games and as a result a slew of new records were set. The Chicago Black Hawks lost just 6 times all year and their 128 points smashed the previous single season record of 118 points set by the 1954-55 Montreal Canadiens.

Individual marks also fell as Stan Mikita of the Black Hawks won the NHL scoring title with a record 134 points, 17 more than the previous mark established by Montreal's Dickie Moore in 1954-55. Mikita also set the single season record for assists with 94, beating Jean Beliveau's 54-55 total of 77.

Meanwhile, Mikita's linemate Bobby Hull set a new record for goals in a season with 57, one more than Dickie Moore's 1954-55 total. During the season Mikita had a 21 game point streak while teammate Bobby Hull had a 19 gamer at the same time. They were both well shy of Maurice Richard's record 44 game point streak established in 1943-44.

Boston's Derek Sanderson also broke the single season penalty minute record by picking 386 minutes in the sin bin. The old mark of 338 was set by Ted Green of the Bruins in 1965-66.

Yvan Cournoyer of the Montreal Canadiens tied a record for most points in a game when scored 6 goals and added 3 assists in the Habs 14-1 pounding of the Oakland Seals on March 5th. Veteran Jean Beliveau reminded fans of his early days when the 36 year old had a 7 point night (3G 4A) in the same game. Cournoyer's point total ties the mark set by Carl Liscombe of Detroit in a playoff in 1943. His 6 goals equal Liscombe's total and are 1 shy of the record 7 scored by Dickie Moore of Montreal in a 1957 game.

The expansion teams also had some big performances led by ex-Canadien Kenny Wharram. The Oakland Seal scored 5 goals in the Seals 9-1 win over Los Angeles on November 21. Wharram, who also had an assist in that game, would later have a 5 point game in a win over Minnesota.

FRANCHISE FIRST GOALS
Here are the first goal scorer and results for each of the expansion teams in their debut.

LOS ANGELES - Larry Johnston got the first goal in Kings history assisted by Keith McCreary and John Miszuk. It came 5:22 in to the first period of a 4-3 loss to Philadelphia on October 13th. The Kings would blank Minnesota 4-0 behind a 23 save effort from Gerry Cheevers the next night for their first franchise victory.

MINNESOTA - Ted Hampson got the first North Stars goal 4:55 into the first period of a 4-3 loss to St Louis. Willie O'Ree and Bryan Hextall drew the assists. Minnesota would tie Oakland on Oct 13 and loss to Los Angeles on Oct 14 before winning their first game October 17th by a 3-1 score over Pittsburgh with Hampson assisting on all 3 goals.

OAKLAND - The Seals won their first ever game 6-2 on October 10th in Philadelphia over the Flyers. Veteran Kenny Wharram, who would score a career best 31 goals, got 2 in the opener including the Seals first ever goal at 7:07 of the opening period with Dick Meissner and Kevin Smith assisting.

PHILADELPHIA - The Flyers lost their opener 6-2 to Oakland at the Spectrum on October 10th with Cec Hoekstra's first career NHL goal also being the first in Flyers history. Don McKenney and Art Hampson drew the assists. Philadelphia's first win would come 3 nights later when they beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 at home.

PITTSBURGH - The Penguins made NHL history by becoming the first expansion team to beat an original six club when they downed Montreal 3-2 at The Forum on opening day October 10th. Larry Jeffrey had the Pens first goal with an assist from Sandy McGregor at 19:36 of the first period. Bert Marshall and Murray Oliver also beat Montreal's Jacques Plante in that game with ex-Hab Tom Johnson assisting on the game winner.

ST LOUIS - The Blues opened the regular season on a high note with a 4-3 victory over Minnesota on the road on October 10th. Wayne Rivers would get the first goal in franchise history with Murray Balfour and Ralph Backstrom earning the assists at 6:08 of the first period. Jim Pappin would be the star of the game with 2 goals and an assist. It was downhill from there for the Blues, who would win just 14 more games and finish dead last in the league.


ORIGINAL SIX DOMINATION
While the Penguins did shock Montreal in their season opener it would be mid-December before an expansion team would beat an original six squad again. The original six were so dominant that Boston finished last with 70 points in the East Division, a total that would have allowed the Bruins to finish first in the West with an 8 point cushion on Los Angeles.



Code:
   
EAST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Black Hawks	74 60  6  8  128
Toronto	Maple Leafs	74 44 18 12  100
Detroit Red Wings 	74 42 21 11   95
Montreal Canadiens	74 37 22 15   89
New York Rangers	74 39 26  9   87
Boston Bruins		74 31 35  8   70
   
WEST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Los Angeles Kings	74 28 40  6   62
Pittsburgh Penguins	74 27 42  5   59
Philadelphia Flyers	74 22 41 11   55
Oakland Seals		74 20 40 14   54
Minnesota North Stars   74 19 46  9   47
St Louis Blues		74 15 47 12   42

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G  A  PTS
Stan Mikita		CHI  74 40 94  134
Bobby Hull		CHI  71 57 55  112
Alex Delvecchio		DET  74 35 63   98
Phil Esposito		CHI  74 42 44   86
Gordie Howe		DET  74 28 56   84
Frank Mahovlich		TOR  72 45 38   83
Norm Ullman		NYR  72 22 58   80
Yvan Cournoyer		MON  74 46 33   79
Floyd Smith		LA   74 38 40   78
Bob Pulford		PHI  74 34 41   75
Johnny Bucyk		DET  71 33 42   75
PLAYOFFS
The new game playoff format has 1st playing 4th and second vs third in each division in the opening round with round two being a cross-over so East will play West in the second round unlike in real life when play stayed within the division until the Cup Finals.

QUARTERFINALS
The Chicago Black Hawks faced the fourth place Montreal Canadiens with the Hawks winning the series in 6 games. Regular season scoring champ Stan Mikita continued his offensive production with 8 points in the 6 games while goaltenders Eddie Johnston and Peter McDuffe split the 6 games in the Chicago crease, with each going 2-and-1.

The Hawks would meet the winner of Pittsburgh-Philadelphia in the second round. The Keystone State battle would be the only series to go the full seven games with the Penguins earning a 4-2 victory in the deciding contest thanks to a hat trick from Parker MacDonald.

On the other side of the bracket the Oakland Seals, led by 10 points from Ron Murphy and 9 from Henri Richard, knocked off the first place Los Angeles Kings in 6 games while Toronto needed just 5 games to eliminate Detroit in the other quarterfinal. Veteran goaltender Terry Sawchuk made 4 starts for the Leafs in the series and posted a .944 save percentage. He also earned his 7th career playoff shutout.

The semi-finals had very little drama as the Original Six teams dominated. Chicago swept the Pittsburgh Penguins in 4 straight games, outscoring the Pens 23-2 in the process. Mikita added 11 more points in the series and Bobby Hull scored 6 goals.

Oakland did manage to surprise Toronto with a 4-3 victory in their series opener but the Leafs roared back with 4 straight easy victories.

STANLEY CUP FINALS
The finals would be a rematch of 1964-65 when the Leafs beat Chicago for their record 18th Cup. Since then Chicago has won each of the last two Cups and the Hawks enter the series as favourites to make it 3 straight titles.

Chicago shows it's dominant offense in Game One as Bobby Hull scores twice and adds 4 assists while Phil Esposito gets a hat trick in the Hawks 7-1 victory on home ice. The third member of that line - Stan Mikita- has a goal and 3 helpers in the win. Chicago outshot the Leafs 44-8 in the contest.

The Leafs look like a different squad in Game Two as they score 4 times in the first 12 minutes to chase Chicago goaltender Eddie Johnston from the game. Toronto wins 6-4 behind 2 goals from Frank Mahovlich and a goal and 2 assists from Gary Jarrett. Bobby Hull had 2 third period goals as Chicago's comeback bid falls short.

Chicago gives 20 year old Peter McDuffe the start in place of Johnston and it nearly pays off. McDuffe made 23 saves but the Leafs win 2-1 thanks to first period goals from Mahovlich and Bruce MacGregor. The Leafs went with a young goaltender of their own as rookie Gary Smith filled in for the aging Sawchuk and stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced. Bobby Hull, with his 11th goal in 13 playoff games, was the lone Chicago marksman.

Johnston and Sawchuk both return to the nets for Game Four and the Black Hawks even the series with a 5-3 victory. Stan Mikita has 2 goals and an assist to lead the Hawks, who also get goals from Bobby Hull, his brother Dennis and Chico Maki.

Sawchuk makes 37 saves but it is not quite enough in Game Five as the Leafs fall 2-1 in Chicago and trail the Hawks 3 games to two in the series. Phil Esposito scored the first Chicago goal and assisted on Bobby Hull's game winner early in the third period. Mikita drew two helpers in the contest. Ron Ellis was the only Leaf to beat Johnston, who faced 20 shots.

The line of Mikita, Hull and Esposito does all the damage as Chicago rallies from a 2-1 deficit after 40 minutes to beat Toronto 4-2 and claim their third straight Stanley Cup title. Esposito had a goal and 3 assists, Mikita 2 goals and an assist while Bobby Hull had a 1 goal and 1 assist in the deciding game.

Stan Mikita finished with a playoff record 32 points (11G 21A) in 16 games while Bobby Hull set a record for goals with 14 and finished with 29 points. The third member of the line - Phil Esposito- had 9 goals and 14 assists as they finished 1-2-3 in playoff scoring. Despite the heroics from Mikita the Conn Smythe was awarded to Chicago defenseman Doug Jarrett, who had a strong playoff also with 2 goals and 17 assists for 19 points.


Other Award winners:

HART TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (74GP 40-94-134)

VEZINA TROPHY: Eddie Johnston Chicago (49-5-6, 1.53)

NORRIS TROPHY: Pierre Pilote Chicago (69GP 9-60-69)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (74GP 40-94-134)

CALDER TROPHY: Gary Unger Toronto (74GP 21-29-50)


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   Eddie Johnston   Chicago    Glenn Hall	 New York Rangers			      
D   Pierre Pilote    Chicago	J Laperriere     Montreal
D   Bobby Orr        Boston     Doug Jarrett     Chicago	  		
C   Stan Mikita      Chicago    Norm Ullman      New York Rangers		
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Floyd Smith	 Los Angeles     	
RW  Alex Delvecchio  Detroit    Phil Esposito    Chicago

Last edited by Tiger Fan; 01-07-2017 at 04:53 PM.
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Old 01-07-2017, 04:13 PM   #51
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1968-69

1968-69

OFF-SEASON
Extremely quiet off-season especially compared to last season. No major retirements or trades. New players joining the league are few with Curt Bennett in St Louis, Guy Charron in Montreal and Gerry Hart with the Detroit Red Wings being the biggest names.

Just before the season started Minnesota and Los Angeles made a small deal. The North Stars add veteran forward John Ferguson who had 16 points and 90 penalty minutes in 67 games with Los Angeles last season. In return the Kings acquire goaltender Charlie Hodge, who was in the minors last year. Hodge is a veteran of 295 NHL games mainly with Boston and is 66-190-25 in his career. He likely won't see much action in LA as he will sit third on the Kings goaltending depth chart behind Gerry Cheevers and Roger Crozier.

Some free agent signings including:
Los Angeles signed Vic Hadfield as a free agent. The 27 year old has been stuck in the Chicago farm system his entire career and has yet to play an NHL game. Philadelphia signed 25 year old Bill 'Cowboy" Flett who who was in the same boot as Hadfield, having spent the previous 5 years in Toronto's farm system.

2 more games were added to the schedule so each team now plays 76.

REGULAR SEASON
In the second year the gap between the Original Six and the expansion clubs was even wider as for the first time ever 4 teams finished with over 100 points and the last place team in the East had 91. Meanwhile no one in the West had a even a sniff at winning record and the first place Penguins, with 63 points in 76 games, were the only team in the division to win more than 20 games on the season.

Chicago's big guns had another record setting year as Stan Mikita smashed the marks he set last year for points with 169 and assists with an amazing 116. Bobby Hull scored a record 66 goals, 9 more than he had in a record-breaking season a year ago. The 50 goal club - a mark previously reached only once by Hull and twice by Dickie Moore - added 4 members this year alone as, in addition to Hull's 66, Mikita had 53, Chicago's Phil Esposito had 52 and the Habs Yvan Cournoyer tallied 50.

At the age of 41 Gordie Howe keeps on rolling. The Red Wing great had a career high 119 points including two 6 point game in a pair of wins over St Louis in January. In 1,414 career games Howe has 1,107 points, good for 5th all-time.

Jean Beliveau became the first player to earn 1,500 points in NHL play. The Montreal centre established the milestone on March 2nd with a goal the Habs 4-2 win over Detroit. The 37 year old Beliveau finished the season with 1506 points including 560 goals in 1280 games. Detroit's Alex Delvecchio is second all-time with 1,274 points. The 36 year old Delvecchio had 41 goals and 107 points this season.

Beliveau is also closing in on Maurice Richard's record 595 goals. However, the player to watch in that category is clearly Chicago's Golden Jet, Bobby Hull. Hull moved past the 400 goal mark this season and now has 424 goals in just 788 games. With 123 goals in the last two seasons alone, it is quite possible the 30 year old Hull could pass Richard in just 3 years.

Here is a Bobby Orr update. Now just turning 21 Orr is a veteran of 3 NHL seasons and has increased his point total each year, finishing with 22 goals and 52 assists for 74 points this season. His Bruins finished 5th this year and are getting decent goaltending from young Bernie Parent but a lack of offense has been their undoing. Derek Sanderson led the team with 88 points followed by J.P. Parise with 76 and then Orr's 74. Don Marcotte with 61 and Bill Goldsworthy at 53 are the only other Bruins with over 45 points on the year. By comparison the Chicago Black Hawks had 10 players with at least 45 points and six over 80 points. Unless Boston can add some goal scorers I can't see Orr challenging for an Art Ross Trophy at any point in his career.

Code:
   
EAST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Black Hawks	76 59 10  7  125
Montreal Canadiens	76 56 15  5  117
Detroit Red Wings 	76 54 14  8  116
Toronto	Maple Leafs	76 52 19  5  109
Boston Bruins		76 40 24 12   92
New York Rangers	76 41 26  9   91
   
WEST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Pittsburgh Penguins	76 28 41  7   63
Minnesota North Stars   76 20 50  6   46
Philadelphia Flyers	76 18 51  7   43
St Louis Blues		76 18 54  4   40
Los Angeles Kings	76 15 51 10   40
Oakland Seals		76 11 57  8   30

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G   A PTS
Stan Mikita		CHI  76 53 116 169
Bobby Hull		CHI  70 66  75 141
Johnny Bucyk		DET  76 40  81 121
Gordie Howe		DET  76 41  78 119
Phil Esposito		CHI  76 52  57 109
Alex Delvecchio		DET  76 41  66 107
Yvan Cournoyer		MON  76 50  48  98
Norm Ullman		NYR  76 31  66  97
Fred Stanfield		CHI  76 41  54  95
Garry Unger		TOR  76 39  56  95
Rod Gilbert		NYR  75 38  57  95
PLAYOFFS
While each of the West Division matchups in the opening round ended in 6 games both East Division battles went the full seven games. In the 2-3 matchup Minnesota knocked out Philadelphia while first place Pittsburgh took care of 4th seed St Louis.

In the East Toronto surprised the 3-time defending Stanley Cup champion Black Hawks with wins in Chicago in both Games One and Two but Chicago evened the series with road wins in Games Three and Four. The road team prevailed in each of the next two games setting the stage for the winner take all Game Seven at the Chicago Stadium. Chicago struck quickly when Fred Stanfield scored 45 seconds into the game and by the end of the first period it was 3-0 as the Black Hawks advanced with a 4-2 victory. The Hawks suffered a serious loss early in the series when Stan Mikita suffered a broken kneecap, ending his playoffs.

Montreal and Detroit alternated victories in their series with the third place Wings striking first. The Habs broke that trend on home ice in Game Seven as they followed up a Game Six win in Detroit with a 5-4 victory in the deciding game. Gilles Tremblay and 21 year old rookie Mickey Redmond led the way for Montreal with 2 goals and an assist each in the final game.

In the semi-finals Montreal swept Pittsburgh in 4 straight games while Chicago dropped the first game to Minnesota before winning the next 4 in a row. Jean Beliveau had an 8 point game (4G 4A) in Montreal's 10-2 win over Pittsburgh in Game Two. The 8 points is one shy of the playoff record of 9 set by Detroit's Carl Liscombe. Pittsburgh was outscored 30-4 in the 4 games.

STANLEY CUP FINALS
Chicago would be looking for a 4th straight Stanley Cup championship as the Hawks face Montreal in the finals. The teams have met 3 times before with the Cup on the line. Montreal won in 1961 and 1963 while Chicago prevailed in 1966, which was the first Cup win in franchise history.

Fred Stanfield, inserted on the Hawks big line with Phil Esposito and Bobby Hull in place of the injured Stan Mikita, came up big in Game One. The 24 year old had 4 assists while Hull had 2 goals and 2 helpers as the Hawks took the series opener at home by a 5-4 score. The Habs lost Mickey Redmond for the series with a shoulder injury in the game. The 21 year old had 10 points in 10 playoff contests.

Game Two was all about Jacques Plante as the 40 year old veteran made 46 saves to earn his 16th career playoff shutout in a 2-0 Montreal win. The game was scoreless until Donnie Marshall got the Habs on the board 2 minutes into the third period. Gilles Tremblay would add an insurance goal 11 minutes later.

Young Montreal winger Danny Grant was the hero in Game Three as the 23 year old scored 3 times including a pair in the final 10 minutes to snap a tie and help Montreal to a 6-3 victory. Yvan Cournoyer and Jacques Laperriere also played a big role, garning a goal and 3 assists each.

Montreal moves to within one victory of the Stanley Cup with a 4-3 win in Game Four. Grant scored again but the big story was another 23 year old Canadiens forward as Jacques Lemaire continued his amazing playoff run with 2 goals and an assist. In 15 games so far this post-season, Lemaire has 12 goals and 22 points after getting just 22 goals and 50 points in 70 regular season games.

The Hawks reign comes to an end as Montreal wins the Stanley Cup with a 4-3 victory in Game Five. Yvan Cournoyer led the Montreal offense with 2 goals in the game, giving him a playoff high 18 goals and 33 points and was an obvious choice for the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Veteran Jean Beliveau finished second in playoff scoring with 27 points while Jacques Lemaire was third with 23.

Other Award winners:

HART TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (76GP 53-116-169)

VEZINA TROPHY: Eddie Johnston Chicago (47-8-4, 1.79)

NORRIS TROPHY: Pierre Pilote Chicago (71GP 23-67-90)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (76GP 53-116-169)

CALDER TROPHY: Bill Flett Philadelphia (69GP 22-20-42)


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   Eddie Johnston   Chicago			      
D   Pierre Pilote    Chicago	Bill White	 Toronto
D   J Laperriere     Montreal	Bobby Orr        Boston       		
C   Stan Mikita      Chicago    Gordie Howe	 Detroit		
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Johnny Bucyk	 Detroit   	
RW  Phil Esposito    Chicago    Yvan Cournoyer   Montreal

Chicago is a dominant team that might win a few more Cups. 3 or 4 years from now had Mikita stayed healthy in the playoffs this year we might have been looking at Chicago challenging the Leafs run in the 1930's of 8 straight Cups.
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Old 01-08-2017, 02:31 AM   #52
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1969-70

1969-70

OFF-SEASON
In what came as a shock to the hockey community 41 year old Gordie Howe has decided to retire. The Red Wing great was coming off a fantastic season that saw him score a career high 119 points. The past decade has been outstanding for Howe but a slow start that saw him languish on the Wings third or fourth line through most of his twenties means Howe will come no where near his real life accomplishments.

Howe leaves the game having played 1,414 career regular season contests, scoring 463 goals and 1,107 points. Howe failed to win a major award although he did lead the league in goals once in his career. He was a first team all-star at centre twice in his career and named to the second team behind Jean Beliveau on numerous ocassions. He was a part of 3 Stanley Cup winning teams in Detroit and had 111 points in 176 playoff games.

Jacques Plante also decided to go out as a Stanley Cup winner as the 40 year old goaltender announced his retirement over the off-season. Plante won 9 Stanley Cups and an amazing 14 straight Vezina Trophy's. He played 1,195 career games and is the all time leader in wins with an 804-237-140 record. He is also the career leader with 194 shutouts and has a lifetime GAA of 1.90.

Legendary defenseman Tom Johnson also retired at the age of 41. A 4-time Norris Trophy winner and 2 time Conn Smythe winner Johnson spent most of his career with Montreal, helping the Habs to 9 Stanley Cups, before moving to the expansion Pittsburgh Penguins two years ago. He played 1,455 regular season games and collected 802 points in his career.

There are a few big names coming in to replace them this year. The top one is Bobby Clark as a 19 year old to Philadelphia while the Los Angeles Kings get 19 year old Butch Goring. Other newcomers include Marc Tardiff and Bob Murdoch to Montreal, Ivan Boldirev to Boston, Andre Dupont to the Rangers and Ron Stackhouse to Oakland. While they don't get Moose Dupont the Flyers do get a pair of key pieces for their Broadsteet Bullies era as Dave Schultz and Don Saleski enter the game.

REGULAR SEASON
Another dominant year for the East Division in general and the Chicago Black Hawks in particular. Stan Mikita fully recovered from the knee injury that derailed the Hawks bid for a fourth straight Stanley Cup title and that allowed him to lead the league in scoring for the 3rd year in a row. Mikita's 141 points were a drop off from last year's record setting total but he and linemate Bobby Hull, with 136 points, dominated the league.

The breakout player for Chicago this year was defenseman Doug Jarrett, who led all rearguards with 98 points despite missing 13 games. The 25 year old won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP 2 years ago and his confidence has soared since then.

The Montreal Canadiens had a terrible slide, going from Cup winners a year ago to missing the playoffs altogether and finishing last in the East Division. Injuries to defensemen Jacques Laperriere and Serge Savard hurt but the absence of the now-retired Jacques Plante was a key loss. Youngsters Tony Esposito and Ken Dryden split the goaltending duties but while both have great potential, they are each still young and have room to improve.

Boston was the benefactor of Montreal's slump as the Bruins made the playoffs for the first time since 1961-62. 23 year old Derek Sanderson led the Bruins in points with 90 while linemates Bill Goldsworthy and Don Marcotte also had strong years. Defenseman Bobby Orr (26-48-74) teamed with veteran Doug Mohns to give Boston one of the best D-pairings in the league.

Code:
   
EAST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Black Hawks	76 57  7 12  126
Detroit Red Wings 	76 51 16  9  111
Toronto	Maple Leafs	76 48 17 11  107
Boston Bruins		76 48 22  6  102
New York Rangers	76 46 21  9  101
Montreal Canadiens	76 44 25  7   95
   
WEST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Los Angeles Kings	76 24 42 10   58
Pittsburgh Penguins	76 21 43 12   54
Minnesota North Stars   76 18 47 11   47
St Louis Blues		76 15 50 11   41
Philadelphia Flyers	76 15 52  9   39
Oakland Seals		76 10 55 11   31

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G  A  PTS
Stan Mikita		CHI  76 45 96  141
Bobby Hull		CHI  75 49 87  136
Alex Delvecchio		DET  76 48 54  102
Frank Mahovlich		TOR  76 47 54  101
Phil Esposito		CHI  71 47 51   98
Doug Jarrett		CHI  63 24 74   98
Derek Sanderson		BOS  70 34 56   90
Fred Stanfield		CHI  76 31 59   90
Yvan Cournoyer		MON  76 45 41   86
Johnny Bucyk		DET  72 28 58   86
PLAYOFFS
The Chicago Black Hawks made Boston's first playoff appearance in 8 years a short stay as the Hawks swept the Bruins in 4 straight games. The series was closer than it sounds as each game was decided by just 1 goal including 2 of them in overtime. Bobby Orr had 3 assists in his first taste of playoff action for the Bruins. Meanwhile, Phil Esposito scored 4 goals including 2 game winners in the series for Chicago.

The Hawks will face Minnesota in the semi-finals after the North Stars swept Pittsburgh 4 straight in the opening round. 32 year old centre Ed Hoekstra and 28 year old defenseman Lou Nanne each had 7 points in the series for the Stars.

The Detroit Red Wings knocked off Toronto in 6 games despite a first round leading 8 points from Leafs winger Bob Nevin. Alex Delvecchio, playing Pete Mahovlich as his centre instead of the now-retired Gordie Howe, led the way in goals in the opening round with 5.

Detroit's opponent in the semi-finals will be the Los Angeles Kings, who beat St Louis in 5 games. Kings goaltender Gerry Cheevers was the difference in the series, allowing just 6 goals against in the 5 games and posting a .953 save percentage.

As expected Chicago and Detroit easily won their semi-final series as both teams swept their West Division opponents. Detroit's Johnny Bucyk would head into the finals as the playoff scoring leader with 14 points including 5 goals. Linemate Alex Delvecchio was next with 12 points and a playoff high 9 goals.

STANLEY CUP FINALS
The playoffs are a rematch of the final year of the original six when Chicago beat Detroit to win it's second straight Cup in 1966-67. This is only the third time in sim history that the finals featured two American teams. 1967 featuring Chicago-Detroit and 1940 when Boston beat the Red Wings are the other two.

Game One featured plenty of offense as Chicago outscored the Red Wings 7-4. Hawks defenseman Gary Bergman had two goals while Phil Esposito had a goal and 3 assists. Stan Mikita and Ken Hodge each had a goal and 2 helpers for the winners. Johnny Bucyk led Detroit with 2 goals.

Detroit evened the series with a 3-1 win in Game Two as Red Wings netminder Jack Norris made 30 saves while defenseman Noel Price assisted on all 3 Detroit goals. Norris is an interesting story as the 27 year old took the starting job away from Don McLeod, who had been the Wings number one goaltender the past two seasons. McLeod also lost the backup role as Detroit brought back 40 year old Gump Worsley from Minnesota in the off-season. Norris was the real surprise as he bounced around the minors with several organizations for most of the decade before getting 2 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers last year. The Flyers released him and he signed with Detroit and won the starting job - posting a 1.96 GAA in 59 appearances while posting a 39-13-6 regular season record.

Keith Magnuson's second goal of the game came shorthanded 4 minutes into overtime and lifted Chicago to a 3-2 win in Game Three. The Black Hawks outshot Detroit 39-23 in the contest and now lead the series two games to one.

After being kept fairly quiet the past two games, Chicago's big line explodes in a 7-2 Black Hawks victory in Game Four. Phil Esposito gets 3 goals, Stan Mikita a goal and 3 assists while Bobby Hull scored once and assisted on two others. After 6 goals and 41 Chicago shots Detroit netminder Norris was pulled from the game early in the third period.

Game Five was much tighter but the result was another Chicago Stanley Cup as the Hawks won 3-2 to take the series in 5 games. Bill Hicke got the game winner with 3 minutes remaining in regulation just over a minute after Paul Henderson had tied the series for Detroit. All-World Chicago defenseman Doug Jarrett assisted on all 3 Hawks goals giving the 26 year old 13 points in 11 playoff games.

For his efforts Jarrett was named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy for the second time in 3 years. An argument could be made that Phil Esposito, with a playoff high 10 goals and 18 points should receive the award. Alex Delvecchio of Detroit tied Esposito for the goal lead with 10 of his own but Detroit did play two more games than Esposito's Black Hawks.

Other Award winners:

HART TROPHY:
Stan Mikita Chicago (76GP 45-96-141)

VEZINA TROPHY: Eddie Johnston Chicago (49-6-11, 1.62)

NORRIS TROPHY: Doug Jarrett Chicago (63GP 24-74-98)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (76GP 45-96-141)

CALDER TROPHY: Bobby Clarke Philadelphia (76GP 6-44-50)
I would have given it to Jack Norris of Detroit, as the Red Wings goalie went 39-13-6 with a 1.96 GAA, a performance good enough to make my second all-star team.


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   Eddie Johnston   Chicago	Jack Norris	 Detroit			      
D   Doug Jarrett     Chicago	Bill White	 Toronto
D   Bobby Orr        Boston     Brad Park	 NY Rangers  		
C   Stan Mikita      Chicago    Derek Sanderson  Boston		
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Johnny Bucyk	 Detroit   	
RW  Frank Mahovlich  Toronto    Phil Esposito    Chicago
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Old 01-09-2017, 06:57 PM   #53
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A superb read so far. Gonna get very interesting with the WHA era just around the corner and the dawn of the Great One - perhaps in this timeline Skalbania's wager is accepted and Gretz plays for my beloved Winnipeg Jets!
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Old 01-09-2017, 08:23 PM   #54
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1970-71

1970-71

OFF-SEASON
A busy off-season as the league expands and adjusts the divisions.

First the retirements which are led by legendary goaltender Terry Sawchuk. Sawchuk broke in to the NHL with Detroit in 1948-49 as a 19 year old and appeared in 5 games for the Red Wings that season. He was dealt to Toronto that summer for forward Bud Poile and spent the next two decades as the Leafs number one goaltender. He played in a record 1,413 games going 808-411-180 with a 2.20 GAA. He won 1 Vezina Trophy and the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in 1962. Overshadowed by Jacques Plante much of his career, Sawchuk did earn First All-Star team honours 4 times in his career and won 5 Stanley Cups with the Leafs.

Tim Horton calls it quits after 1,232 games on the Toronto blueline. Horton had 536 points in a career that included 4 Stanley Cups and a Conn Smythe Trophy.

Winger Claude Provost retired after 1,025 NHL games with Montreal and Philadelphia. The 36 year old had 292 goals and 731 points in his 18 year career and was a member of 7 Cup winning Canadiens teams.

Ron Murphy played 1,109 games mainly with the New York Rangers but he finished his career with 3 seasons with expansion Oakland. Murphy had 272 goals and 571 points in his career.

The Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks join the league as expansion teams while the Oakland Seals change their name to the California Golden Seals. Both new teams are placed in the East Division while the defending Cup champion Black Hawks are moved to the West. The scheduled was also expanded by 2 more games to 78 for each club.

A number of talented newcomers enter the league including Gilbert Perrealt with Buffalo, Darryl Sittler and Errol Thompson to Toronto, Reggie Leach and Rick MacLeish to Boston, Dale Tallon in Vancouver, Yvon Lambert to Detroit and goaltender Gilles Meloche with Chicago.

EXPANSION DRAFT
The Buffalo Sabres add goaltender Wayne Rutledge, winger Claude Larose and a pair of Plager brothers in Bill and Bob. Vancouver's key pickups include veteran Toronto winger Dick Duff, along with forwards Terry Crisp, Bill Hicke and Gary Jarrett. The Canucks also add goaltender Ernie Wakely from Montreal's system.

REGULAR SEASON
The Chicago Black Hawks easily dominated the West Division even without superstar Stan Mikita, who was limited to 46 games because of a broken hand but still managed to accumulate 74 points. His teammate Bobby Hull led the NHL in scoring with 123 points while the third member of the line, Phil Esposito led the league in goals with 61.

Speaking of goals a milestone was hit on February 20, 1971 when Montreal's Jean Beliveau scored his 596th career goal, breaking the record held by Rocket Richard. Beliveau, now 39 would finish the season with 17 goals in 53 games giving him 598 in his career. Beliveau's milestone goal came against Eddie Johnston of the Black Hawks in a 5-4 Chicago win.

It was one of just 11 losses on the season for the Habs, who established a new record for points in a season with 129 (although the old mark of 128 was set by Chicago in 1967-68 playing 4 less games). It was a huge turnaround for the Canadiens, who missed the playoffs last year and finished last in the East Division. Yvan Cournoyer, with 60 goals and 120 points, was a major reason for the Habs resurgence although a healthy Jacques Laperriere (18-63-81) certainly helped. Goaltender Tony Esposito (56-9-4, 1.87) also played a key role as he outplayed Ken Dryden for the starting job.


Code:
   
EAST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Montreal Canadiens	78 62 11  5  129
New York Rangers	78 53 14 11  117
Toronto	Maple Leafs	78 53 16  9  115
Detroit Red Wings 	78 49 17 12  110
Boston Bruins		78 49 19 10  108
Vancouver Canucks	78 23 51  4   50
Buffalo Sabres		78 15 55  8   38
   
WEST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Black Hawks	78 59 14  5  123
Los Angeles Kings	78 30 42  6   66
Minnesota North Stars   78 27 45  6   60
Philadelphia Flyers	78 24 46  8   56
St Louis Blues		78 15 49 14   44
Pittsburgh Penguins	78 18 54  6   42
California Golden Seals	78 15 59  4   34

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G  A  PTS
Bobby Hull		CHI  78 51 72  123
Yvan Cournoyer		MON  78 60 60  120
Phil Esposito		CHI  78 61 47  108
Pete Mahovlich		DET  76 39 69  108
Alex Delvecchio		DET  78 44 63  107
Nick Libett		DET  78 37 60   97
Derek Sanderson		BOS  78 55 41   96
Rod Gilbert		NYR  78 43 50   93
Dave Balon		NYR  78 31 56   87
Garry Unger		TOR  78 44 42   86
Brad Park		NYR  78 30 55   85

PLAYOFFS
Only one of the four quarterfinal playoff series was close, and that series between Toronto and New York needed overtime in the seventh game to declare a winner. The Leafs eventually prevailed thanks to an overtime tally from young defenseman Rick Ley. Despite 9 points in the 7 games from Rod Gilbert, the Rangers failed to win a playoff series - a feat they have not accomplished since 1937.

The Montreal Canadiens knocked off Detroit in 5 games led by 5 goals from defenseman Jacques Laperriere and 7 points from Jacques Lemaire in the series. The Los Angeles Kings eliminated Minnesota in 5 games thanks to Red Berenson's 8 points. The Kings will meet Montreal in the semi-finals.

The other semi-final will have the Leafs facing defending Cup champion Chicago. The Black Hawks outscored Philadelphia 25-5 in their 4 game sweep of the Flyers. Stan Mikita had 10 points in the 4 games while Bobby Hull and Fred Stanfield each scored 4 goals.

Montreal easily handled the Los Angeles Kings, winning in 4 straight. The Leafs gave Chicago all they could handle and the series went the full seven games and like the Leafs-Rangers series needed overtime in the deciding game. The Black Hawks prevailed this time as Bobby Hull got the overtime winner with assists to his linemates Phil Esposito and Stan Mikita in a 3-2 game. In 11 playoff games Mikita already has 21 points.

STANLEY CUP FINALS
For the fourth time in the last decade the Stanley Cup Finals will feature Chicago and Montreal. The Habs have won 3 of those meetings including 2 years ago. Chicago won last season and has 4 Cups in the past 5 years.

Montreal won Game One by a 5-4 score but the Habs nearly blew a 4-1 lead in the third period. Chicago got goals from Ken Hodge, Gary Bergman and Stan Mikita less than two minutes apart midway through the third but Montreal bounced back with Danny Grant goal with 3:47 remaining to lift the Habs to victory.

Game Two also goes to Montreal, this time by a 2-1 score but the Hawks get bad news when Stan Mikita is injured midway through the game and may miss the next couple of games. Mickey Redmond and Yvan Cournoyer scored for the Canadiens in the second period after Mikita set up Doug Jarrett for the games opening goal.

Despite a broken finger Stan Mikita dressed for Game Three and he scored a goal in Chicago's 7-4 victory. Fred Stanfield led the Chicago attack with 2 goals and an assist.

Chicago evens the series with a 4-3 overtime win on home ice in Game Four. Doug Jarrett gets the winner on a point shot with Mikita and Bobby Hull earning the assists. Hull would also score a pair of goals while Cournoyer had 2 for the Canadiens.

Back to Montreal for Game Five with the series tied at 2. Tony Esposito stopped all 18 shots he faced and first period goals from Danny Grant and Mickey Redmond were the difference as Montreal won 2-0 to move to within 1 game of the Cup.

The Black Hawks would force a 7th game with a 5-1 victory on home ice in Game Six. Pierre Pilote and Fred Stanfield would each score twice for the Hawks, who limited Montreal to just 14 shots in the contest.

Montreal would strike first in Game Seven as defenseman Pierre Bouchard beat Chicago's Eddie Johnston with 2 minutes remaining in the first period. The game would remain 1-0 until Jacques Lemaire gave the Canadiens a 2-0 lead 3 minutes into the third period. The insurance goal would prove to be very important as Dennis Hull pulled Chicago to within 1 with a goal at 16:13 of the third period. The Hawks pulled their goalie and buzzed the Montreal net but were unable to get the equalizer past Ken Dryden, who was spliting goaltending duties with Tony Esposito, and Montreal claimed the Cup with a 2-1 victory.

Stan Mikita led all playoff scorers with 26 points while Fred Stanfield was the goal leader with 10 but the Conn Smythe went to a member of the Cup champion Canadiens as defenseman Jacques Laperriere, who had 5 goals and 17 points in 13 playoff games.

Other Award winners:

HART TROPHY: Bobby Hull Chicago (78GP 51-72-123)

VEZINA TROPHY: Jack Norris Detroit (41-13-11, 1.87)

NORRIS TROPHY: Jacques Laperriere Montreal (78GP 18-63-81)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Bobby Hull Chicago (78GP 51-72-123)

CALDER TROPHY: Dale Tallon Vancouver (78GP 19-36-55)


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   Tony Esposito    Montreal	Jack Norris	 Detroit			      
D   J Laperriere     Montreal   Doug Jarrett     Chicago	
D   Brad Park	   NY Rangers  	Carol Vadnais	 Montreal	
C   Pete Mahovlich   Detroit    Derek Sanderson  Boston		
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Nick Libett	 Detroit  	
RW  Yvan Cournoyer   Montreal   Phil Esposito    Chicago
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Old 01-09-2017, 08:27 PM   #55
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Originally Posted by GMR91 View Post
A superb read so far. Gonna get very interesting with the WHA era just around the corner and the dawn of the Great One - perhaps in this timeline Skalbania's wager is accepted and Gretz plays for my beloved Winnipeg Jets!
Thank you for following along. I, too, wonder where Gretzky will end up as since I selected assign players to their original teams he should begin with the Indianapolis Racers.

As for the WHA, my guess is Bobby Hull will not be allowed to leave Chicago this time around and the WHA itself might be very weak in it's early years as I don't think the game will allow any of the better players to leave their NHL clubs.
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Old 01-09-2017, 11:16 PM   #56
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1971-72

1971-72

OFF-SEASON
Some big names join the league this season led by Guy Lafleur and Larry Robinson in Montreal. Others include Detroit adding Marcel Dionne, Rick Martin and Craig Ramsay join Buffalo while Terry O'Reilly debuts in the Boston system.

After 1094 career games defenseman Bobby Baun has decided to retire at the age of 34. Baun played 78 games for Minnesota last season, his 4th with the Stars, and had 5 goals and 20 points. He joined Minnesota in the expansion draft after 12 years with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Baun had 83 goals and 280 points in a career that included two Stanley Cup titles.

Another long-time Leaf in winger Dick Duff has also retired. The 35 year old Duff had 40 points for expansion Vancouver this year after playing 15 years with the Leafs. In 841 games the often-injured Duff had 191 goals and 617 points. He won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 1955-56 and was on a pair of Cup winning Toronto teams.

After a disappointing carere Vic Hadfield also retired. Just 30 years old Hadfield was stuck in the Chicago minor league system until expansion when he joined the Los Angeles Kings. Last year he had a career high 22 goals and 43 points. In three season spanning 224 games, Hadfield had 48 goals and 91 points.

The only off-season trade of note saw Philadelphia deal 21 year old Dave Schultz to Vancouver for 2 other minor leaguers.

REGULAR SEASON
The Chicago Black Hawks established a new regular season record with an amazing 135 points. Chicago also set the mark for wins in a season with 65. The Hawks were again led by a healthy Stan Mikita, who led the league with 149 points after missing half of the previous season with an injury. The big line did miss Phil Esposito for 5 weeks but he still managed to score 39 goals in 62 games. Bobby Hull played all 78 regular season games and his 63 goals were 3 shy of the record he set in 1968-69. Hull did suffer an injury in the final game of the season and is expected to miss the first round of the playoffs.

While the West Division was all Chicago, the East featured a tremendous playoff race that ended with just 2 points seperating first from fourth place. The Boston Bruins finished in first place for the first time since 1942-43 and they did so without Bobby Orr for the last two months of the season. Orr, who had 54 points in 55 games before suffering a shoulder injury, is expected to miss the entire post-season.

Alex Delvecchio became the first player in history to surpass the 1500 game mark. With 33 goals and 104 points in 78 games this year, the 39 year old ends the season with 1560 career games and he also leads in career goals with 606 having surpassed Jean Beliveau's total of 598. Beliveau had 40 points including 17 goals this season at the age of 40. Beliveau continues to lead in career points with 1,598 while Delvecchio is second at 1,587.

Montreal defenseman Carol Vadnais established a record for penalty minutes after picking up 465 this season. , breaking Pat Quinn's mark of 443. Vancouver's Dave 'The Hammer' Schultz had a huge year for penalty minutes as well, earning 441 minutes in the sin bin.

Chicago's Eddie Johnston had another dominant season between the pipes, winning a league high 53 games while also leading the league in save percentage and goals against average.

Code:
   
EAST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Boston Bruins		78 56 16  6  118
Montreal Canadiens	78 56 17  5  117
Toronto	Maple Leafs	78 54 16  8  116
New York Rangers	78 52 14 12  116
Detroit Red Wings 	78 49 23  6  104
Buffalo Sabres		78 19 43 16   54
Vancouver Canucks	78 19 48 11   49
   
WEST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Black Hawks	78 65  8  5  135
Philadelphia Flyers	78 29 41  8   66
Los Angeles Kings	78 22 49  7   51
Minnesota North Stars   78 20 47 11   51
California Golden Seals	78 15 51 12   42
St Louis Blues		78 15 55  8   38
Pittsburgh Penguins	78 13 56  9   35

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G   A  PTS
Stan Mikita		CHI  75 47 102  149
Bobby Hull		CHI  78 63  64  127
Yvan Cournoyer		MON  78 54  65  119
Alex Delvecchio		DET  78 33  71  104
Pete Mahovlich		DET  78 42  61  103
Brad Park		NYR  78 31  71  102
Don Marcotte		BOS  78 37  64  101
Carol Vadnais		MON  78 23  76   99
Derek Sanderson		BOS  78 46  45   91
Nick Libett		DET  78 35  55   90
PLAYOFFS
Even without Bobby Hull the Chicago Black Hawks had little trouble with Minnesota in the opening round of the playoffs as the Hawks won 4 straight. Phil Esposito (3G 4A) and Ken Hodge (2G 3A) picked up the slack offensively for Chicago in the Golden Jet's absence.

The other West Division quarterfinal series was an outstanding battle between Los Angeles and Philadelphia with the Kings needing an overtime goal from Red Berenson in Game Seven to advance. Berenson had a tremendous series, earning 10 points to lead the Kings.

The Boston Bruins knocked off the New York Rangers in 5 games despite missing Bobby Orr. Bernie Parent was the difference in the series as the Bruins netminder had a pair of shutouts and a 1.60 GAA in the series.

Goaltending was also the difference for Montreal as Tony Esposito backstopped the defending Cup champion Canadiens to a 6 game win over Toronto. 23 year old Jude Drouin had 4 goals for the Habs in the series including a pair of game winners.

The playoff format was changed slightly this year so the division's would cross-over for the semi-finals meaning Boston would play Los Angeles while Montreal and Chicago would stage a rematch of last year's finals a round early.

Bernie Parent had another shutout and continued his strong play as the Bruins swept the Kings 4 straight. Chicago beat Montreal in 5 games in the other series as Bobby Hull made a dramatic return, getting a goal and an assist in Game Four before earning 4 assists in a 5-3 series clinching victory in Game Five. Phil Esposito scored 3 times in that game while Stan Mikita continues to lead the league in playoff scoring with 14 points after 9 games.

STANLEY CUP FINALS
This marks the first time Boston and Chicago have ever met in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Bruins, who won 3 Cups (1940,42,45) are in the finals for the first time since 1959-60. Chicago makes it's 8th straight finals appearance with 4 wins in the previous 7 years.

Game One at the Boston Garden needs overtime to determine a winner and it is Bobby Hull who provides the heroics for the visiting Black Hawks. Hull had 2 goals and an assist in the game. Boston's Jean Pronovost also had a 3-point night.

The Hawks beat Bernie Parent 3 times in the first period as Doug Jarrett, Terry Harper and Ken Hodge light the lamp. That is all Eddie Johnston and the Chicago defense need as they outshoot the Bruins 33-23 and win the game 3-1. Bill Goldsworthy broke the shutout with Boston's only goal late in the third period.

Boston rebounds on the road with a 3-1 victory of their own. Parent makes 31 saves while the Bruins get goals from Derek Sanderson, Dallas Smith and Don Marcotte. Phil Esposito scores the only Chicago goal.

Eddie Johnston fails to survive the first period as Boston pumps 5 goals past the Hawks netminder in the first 12 minutes of the game and then coasts to a 7-2 victory knotting the series at two wins apiece. The Bruins get goals from 7 different players with Rick Smith and Don Marcotte leading the way with 3 points each.

Boston wins it's third game in a row to go up 3 games to two in the series. Dallas Smith is the hero with the winner in overtime after Don Marcotte tied the game late in the third. Bobby Hull had both Chicago markers.

Game Six sees the Cup in the building as the Bruins look to clinch their first title since 1945. However, the Hawks have other ideas and ride first period goals from Pat Stapleton and Cliff Koroll to a 2-1 victory. Ross Lonsberry had the lone Bruin goal.

Game Seven winner take all starts in Chicago's favour quickly as rookie Gerry Pinder stakes the Hawks to a 1-0 lead just over 4 minutes into the game. However, before the first period is over the Bruins have a 2-1 lead thanks to goals from JP Parise and Jean Pronovost.

Bobby Hull evens things in the second with his 6th goal in 9 playoff games but the Bruins get third period goals from Bill Goldsworthy and Jim Harrison to win the game 4-2 and claim the Stanley Cup.

With a playoff leading 20 points including 16 assists Chicago defenseman is named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy despite being on the losing side. It is the third time Jarrett is named playoff MVP - a record.

Boston's offense is led by Jean Pronovost with 18 points and Derek Sanderson, who led all playoff performers with 10 goals in 16 games.

Other award winners are:

HART TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (75GP 47-102-149)

VEZINA TROPHY: Eddie Johnston Chicago (53-6-4, 1.41)

NORRIS TROPHY: Brad Park New York Rangers (78GP 31-71-102)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (75GP 47-102-149)

CALDER TROPHY: Rick Martin Buffalo (75GP 36-34-70)


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   Eddie Johnston   Chicago	Bernie Parent    Boston			      
D   Carol Vadnais    Montreal   Doug Jarrett     Chicago	
D   Brad Park	   NY Rangers   Pat Stapleton    Chicago		
C   Stan Mikita	     Chicago    Pete Mahovlich   Detroit   		
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Don Marcotte     Boston 	
RW  Yvan Cournoyer   Montreal   Alex Delvecchio  Detroit
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Old 01-10-2017, 12:30 PM   #57
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1972-73

1972-73

OFF-SEASON
The big news is the addition of two new expansion teams to the NHL and a completely new league with the formation of the World Hockey Association.

New players to take note of include Steve Shutt joining Montreal, Philadelphia adding Bill Barber and Jim Schoenfield to Buffalo.

Jean Beliveau decided to retire rather than accept an offer to play in the WHA. The 41 year old ends his career with 1400 career games and an NHL leading 1598 points. Beliveau won 8 Hart Trophy's as NHL MVP and 6 scoring titles. He also won the Stanley Cup 11 times.

Donnie Marshall also has decided to retire at the age of 40 after 1252 career games with the Montreal Canadiens. Marshall had 50 points last season to bring his career total to 931 including 318 goals. He won 9 Stanley Cups during his time in Montreal.


The Atlanta Flames begin play with a roster that includes Ken Broderick and Dennis DeJordy in net, Wayne Hillman, Paul Shmyr and Ed Van Impe on the blueline along with forwards Rosaire Paiement. 40 year old Ron Stewart and Bobby Rousseau. The top two players will likely be center Jim Harrison, from Boston, and former Maple Leaf Mike Corrigan.

The New York Islanders will rely on goaltender Don McLeod, who is still just 26 years old after having two good seasons in Detroit in 67-68 and 68-69. Keith Magnuson is a nice pick up from Chicago for the blueline where the Isles also have Joe Watson and Carl Brewer. Forwards include ex-Leaf Pete Stemkowski along with Ron Schock and Tim Ecclestone. There is some young talent led by Bob Nystrom, Billy Harris and Gary Howatt.

WORLD HOCKEY ASSOCIATION TEAMS
The WHA rosters are awful as very few players with NHL experience jumped leagues in it's inagural year. The big names, if you can call them that, are:
defensemen Dennis Kearns, Bob Murdoch, Sheldon Kannegiesser and Barry Wilkins - all in Winnipeg.

New England has defenseman Brent Hughes, who didn't play much but did win a couple of Cups in Chicago, as well as Brian Spencer and Pierre Jarry.

Former Bruin Nick Beverley is the leader with the Minnesota Fighting Saints.

The Cleveland Crusaders have the league's top goalie in Gilles Gilbert along with forwards Dennis Dupere and Fran Huck.

The Alberta Oilers have likely the best team in the league led by defensemen Daryl Edestrand and Ab DeMarco along with forwards Ted Taylor, who played a bit for Boston, ex-North Star Bill Collins, Bobby Sheehan and two of the Bordeleau brothers in Christian and J.P. Their goaltender will be Rocky Farr.


REGULAR SEASON
Stan Mikita is closing in on a record that has not been challenged since Maurice Richard set the mark in 1943-44. That year the Rocket had a 44 game point streak and the closest anyone had come since then was the 26 game streak Mikita had in 1969-70. However, Mikita has earned a point in each of Chicago's final 38 games this season and has a chance to catch Richard next year. The streak does not take in to account playoff games. Mikita's teammate Bobby Hull is also on a roll, riding a 28 game streak of his own into the end of the season.

Hull set a new record for goals in a season with 75, smashing the old mark of 66 he established in 1968-69. Had he not been injured Phil Esposito might have scored more than his linemate, as Espo had 60 goals but missed the final 14 games of the season. Mikita set a new mark for assists with 126 but his 164 points were 5 shy of the record he set in 1968-69.

The Black Hawks broke their own record for points established last season by earning 137 points this year. Chicago only lost 4 times in 78 games on the season. Boston followed up it's Cup winning season with another strong year, leading the East Division with 130 points. At the age of 25 defenseman Bobby Orr finally had a breakout season, scoring 122 points - a record for a defenseman. The offensive outburst came after Orr missed the final 23 games of the previous season with an injury. In 493 career games so far, Orr has 135 goals and 506 points.


Bobby Hull scored his milestone 600th goal on November 10th as the Chicago Black Hawks blanked Detroit 4-0. Hull beat Detroit goalie Jack Norris for the milestone marker. He finished the season as the NHL's all-time goal scoring leader with 662, surpassing Alex Delvecchio who ended the year with 627.

Delvecchio earned his 1000th career assist in a 7-1 Detroit victory over Minnesota on December 9th. In February, Chicago's Stan Mikita picked up his 1000th career asssist in a 7-4 win over Buffalo. The milestone assist came 2 weeks before Mikita played his 1000th career game. By season's end Mikita was the all-time assist leader while Delvecchio still leads in career points with 1653.

Frank Mahovlich reached the 500 goal mark with a goal in Toronto's 4-1 win over Los Angeles on February 10th.

Long-time Black Hawks defenseman Pierre Pilote played his 1500th career game on March 3rd.


Darryl Sittler had a huge game in Toronto's 13-0 win over California in October. The Leaf center had 6 goals and one assist in the contest, finishing 1 goal shy of the record 7 scored by Dickie Moore of Montreal in 1957. Teammate Ron Ellis had 4 goals and 2 assists in the same game.

There were some other big single game efforts during the NHL season. Boston's Jean Pronovost had a 3 goal, 5 assist night in October as the Bruins pounded Pittsburgh 11-5. Bobby Hull had a 7 assist night on February 25th when the Black Hawks blanked Atlanta 10-0. Stan Mikita also had 7 points (1G 6A) in the same game while Phil Esposito scored 4 times and added two helpers. The same night Detroit's Johnny Bucyk had 3 goals and 7 points in the Wings 10-2 pounding of St Louis.

On the injury front the big news was a shoulder injury in March that ended the season for Chicago's Phil Esposito. With 60 goals in 64 games Esposito was challenging teammate Bobby Hull for the goal scoring record, which Hull would set with 75 goals in 78 games. The Hawks would also lose defenseman Pat Stapleton (23-48-71) for the playoffs with a late season injury.

Code:
  
     NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE 
EAST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Boston Bruins		78 63 11  4  130
Toronto	Maple Leafs	78 55 14  9  119
Montreal Canadiens	78 52 17  9  113
New York Rangers	78 53 20  5  111
Detroit Red Wings 	78 47 22  9  103
Buffalo Sabres		78 25 43 10   60
New York Islanders	78 21 45 12   54
Vancouver Canucks	78 21 52  5   47
   
WEST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Black Hawks	78 63  4 11  137
Philadelphia Flyers	78 36 35  7   79
Pittsburgh Penguins	78 29 45  4   62
Los Angeles Kings	78 24 45  9   57
St Louis Blues		78 21 46 11   53
Atlanta Flames		78 20 47 11   51
Minnesota North Stars   78 18 40 11   47
California Golden Seals	78  9 62  7   25

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G   A  PTS
Stan Mikita		CHI  78 38 126  164
Bobby Hull		CHI  78 75  84  159
Johnny Bucyk		DET  78 38  85  123
Bobby Orr		BOS  78 29  93  122
Norm Ullman		NYR  78 34  87  121
Doug Jarrett		CHI  76 22  99  121
Derek Sanderson		BOS  77 57  63  120
Gary Unger		TOR  75 52  61  113
Pete Mahovlich		DET  78 34  79  113
Don Marcotte		BOS  78 39  67  106
Gil Perreault		BUF  78 26  80  106
Phil Esposito		CHI  64 60  45  105
Jean Pronovost		PIT  77 37  67  104
Bobby Clarke		PHI  78 32  70  102
WHA REGULAR SEASON
The World Hockey Association had very few marquee names and was by all accounts a minor league. There was huge disparity in this league - even more than in the NHL with it's weak expansion clubs - as the Alberta Oilers lost just 6 games all year while at the other end of the spectrum the Philadelphia Blazers and New York Raiders won just 5 and 4 games respectively. This lack of sucess in the larger markets had to hurt the league's reputation severly.

On the ice Ted Taylor became a household name - well at least in Edmonton - as the 31 year old scored a league leading 162 points in 78 games. In parts of 3 seasons with the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins Tayloer had 0 goals and 6 assists in his NHL career which spanned 33 games.

While Bobby Hull was smashing the single season goal record in the NHL, Alberta's 24 year old rookie Bobby Sheehan was matching Hull almost goal for goal in the outlaw league. Sheehan would finish with 71 goals despite playing just 64 games due to an injury.

Code:
  
     WORLD HOCKEY ASSOCIATION
EASTERN DIVISION    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
New England Whalers	78 63 10  5  131
Cleveland Crusaders	78 49 23  6  104
Ottawa Nationals	78 42 33  3   87
Quebec Nordiques	78 36 38  4   76
Philaldephia Blazers	78  5 71  2   12
New York Raiders	78  4 72  2   10
   
WESTERN DIVISION  	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Alberta Oilers		78 71  6  1  143
Winnipeg Jets		78 49 23  6  104
Minnesota Saints	78 39 30  9   87
Chicago Cougars		78 37 37  4   78
Los Angeles Sharks	78 34 39  5   73
Houston Aeros		78 29 44  5   63

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G  A  PTS
Ted Taylor		ALB  78 67 95  162
Bill Collins		ALB  78 65 68  133
Bobby Sheehan		ALB  64 71 55  126
Brian Spencer		NE   78 58 67  125
Fred Speck		NE   78 35 85  120
Christian Bordeleau	ALB  50 33 85  118
Tom Martin		NE   78 48 68  116
Bob Jones		MIN  78 54 59  113
Terry Jones		QUE  75 51 62  113
JP Bordeleau		ALB  75 37 76  113
Bob Leduc		CHI  77 51 59  110
Cal Swenson		OTT  78 57 50  107
Rene Drolet		QUE  78 40 62  102
Daryl Edestrand		ALB  78 22 80  102

PLAYOFFS
Despite the absence of the injured Phil Esposito there was no slowing down Chicago's top line in the opening round of the playoff. Bobby Hull had 6 goals and 13 points while Stan Mikita had 12 points as the Hawks swept Los Angeles in 4 games. Cliff Koroll replaced Esposito on that line and had 5 points in the series.

Philadelphia swept Pittsburgh in the other West Division series as the Flyers were led by an 8 point series from centre Bobby Clarke.

In the East Montreal, led by the goaltending of Tony Esposito, knocked off Toronto in 5 games while the New York Rangers upset top seed Boston in six games. The Rangers got a tremendous series from defenseman Brad Park, who had 9 points, and centre Norm Ullman with 8 points. Cesare Maniago played a big role for New York with a pair of shutouts in the series. Bernie Parent struggled in the Boston cage and Bobby Orr was limited to just 1 goal and 3 points in the 6 games.

The semi-finals gave us another Montreal vs Chicago matchup, a pairing that seems to come up almost every year and always provide plenty of entertaining hockey. The other matchup looks like it will give the Rangers their first trip to the finals since 1937 as they face the Philadelphia Flyers. An expansion team has never won a series against an original six club.

This would be the year history was made as the Philadelphia Flyers eliminated the Rangers in 5 games. Each game was decided by 1 goal as the gritty Flyers prevailed led by their captain Bobby Clarke and a collection of cast offs including Andre Lacroix, Bill Flett, Lowell MacDonald and Barry Ashbee.

The other series also ended in 5 games as the Chicago offense was just too much for Tony Esposito and the Habs. Bobby Hull ended the series with 9 goals and 20 points in 9 playoff games while Stan Mikita had 17 points.

STANLEY CUP FINALS
The Chicago Black Hawks make their 9th straight appearance in the finals while the Philadelphia Flyers become the first expansion team to get within 4 games of sipping from Lord Stanley's mug. The Hawks enter the series as overwhelming favourites after having finished the regular season with 58 points more than Philadelphia. In the regular season Chicago swept all 6 games from the Flyers by a combined score of 38-11.

Philadelphia puts up a solid effort in Game One and has the scored tied 1-1 after 40 minutes but Chicago gets a 3-1 victory thanks to third period goals from Bobby Hull and Terry Caffery.

An even tighter contest in Game Two but again Chicago prevails, this time by a 2-1 score as Fred Stanfield gets the winner 17 minutes into overtime. Dennis Hull had the other Chicago goal while Don Saleski replied for the Flyers. Al Smith made 44 saves in the Flyers net.

The Hawks go up 3 games with a 5-1 victory in Game Three thanks to Chico Maki's goal and 2 helpers. Bobby Hull, Fred Stanfield, Barry Long and Robin Burns also score for Chicago while Bill Barber gets the lone Flyers goal. Al Smith faced 39 shots this game while Eddie Johnston only had to contend with 17 Flyer shots.

Chicago completes the sweep and hoists the Stanley Cup after a 4-3 victory in Game Four. After the Flyers tied the contest in the third period on goals from Bill Flett and Lowell MacDonald, Fred Stanfield dashed their hopes with the series winner at 19:40 of the third period. It was Stanfield's second goal of the game with Barry Long and Dan Maloney also scoring for Chicago. Bobby Clarke had the other Philadelphia goal.

Bobby Hull had just 1 assist in Game Four but won the Conn Smythe Trophy for his playoff leading 11 goals and 24 points. Stan Mikita was second in scoring with 20 points followed by the Flyers captain Bobby Clarke with 14 points.

Other award winners are:

HART TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (78GP 38-126-164)

VEZINA TROPHY: Eddie Johnston Chicago (53-4-9, 1.66)

NORRIS TROPHY: Doug Jarrett Chicago (76GP 22-99-121)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (78GP 38-126-164)

CALDER TROPHY: Billy Harris New York Islanders (78GP 31-34-65)


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   Eddie Johnston   Chicago	Bernie Parent    Boston			      
D   Doug Jarrett     Chicago	Carol Vadnais    Montreal
D   Bobby Orr 	     Boston     Brad Park	 NY Rangers   
C   Stan Mikita	     Chicago    Derek Sanderson  Boston   		
LW  Bobby Hull       Chicago    Johnny Bucyk     Detroit 	
RW  Phil Esposito    Chicago	Jean Pronovost   Boston
WHA PLAYOFFS
As they did all season the Alberta Oilers cruised through the playoffs, winning 12 straight games without a loss as they swept first Quebec, then New England and finally Winnipeg to claim the first Avco Cup. Christian Bordeleau led the way for the Oilers in the post-season scoring 9 goals and a playoff high 23 points. Winnipeg's Duke Harris was second in scoring with 19 points while Bill Collins of the Oilers led in goals with 11.

Bordeleau was named the playoff MVP with other awards going to Brian Spencer of New England as rookie of the year, Darryl Edestrand of the Oilers as top defenseman and surprisingly Winnipeg rearguard Dennis Kearns was named league MVP over Ted Taylor.
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Old 01-11-2017, 02:01 AM   #58
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1973-74

1973-74

OFF-SEASON
Some movement in the WHA as the Oilers change their name from Alberta to the Edmonton Oilers. The New York Raiders become the New York Golden Blades but look like they will still be awful. The Ottawa Nationals moved to Toronto and are now known as the Toros while the Philadelphia Blazers are packing up their 5 wins in 78 games last year and moving to Vancouver.

This is a big year for the Leafs in terms of new players as Borje Salming, Ian Turnbull and Lanny McDonald all arrive. The Islanders get Denis Potvin. Tom Lysiak goes to Atlanta. Montreal adds Bob Gainey and Blaine Stougthon arrives in Pittsburgh.

A ton of retirements this year with the main ones being goaltender Glenn Hall and defenseman Pierre Pilote. Hall played one year in Chicago before moving to the Rangers and finished with a 501-752-187 record in 1459 NHL appearances. Pilote won a Hart Trophy and 5 Norris Trophy's with the Black Hawks, playing 1513 games and scoring 1005 career points. He won 5 Stanley Cups and was a 6 time first team all-star.

One trade of note as the Black Hawks sent 26 year old winger Cliff Koroll to Los Angeles for 25 year old winger Ernie Hicke. Koroll had 19 goals and 42 points last season in Chicago, his third with the Black Hawks. Hicke played 78 games over 2 seasons with the Kings, scoring 12 times and adding 20 assists.

REGULAR SEASON
It was a tough year for the Chicago Black Hawks as they lost their top two players for much of the season. Stan Mikita, who's 38 game point streak from last season came to an end in the season opener, broke his elbow in November and was limited to 10 games. Mikita did earn 23 points in the 10 games but will not return until next season. Meanwhile, Bobby Hull suffered a concussion that ended his season in early March. Hull had 43 goals in 61 games and passed the 700 career goal mark just 2 weeks prior to his injury. The third member of the line, Phil Esposito, did stay healthy and led the NHL in goals with 56, 6 more than Yvan Cournoyer of Montreal and the Rangers' Jean Ratelle.

The Toronto Maple Leafs led the East Division thanks to another big year from 23 year old centre Darryl Sittler (22-68-90) and the emergence of 22 year old Rick Kehoe (35-44-79) as a goal scoring threat.

At the trading deadline the Vancouver Canucks sent Dale Tallon, who was rookie of the year just 3 seasons ago, to Detroit in exchange for journeyman Rene Leclerc. Tallon had just 29 points in 51 games with the Canucks this season and was sent to the minors by Detroit.

Detroit centre Pete Mahovlich had a huge game against Pittsburgh in December, scoring 4 times and adding 4 asssits as the Red Wings hammered the pitiful Penguins 9-3. The 8 points are one shy of the single game record set by Carl Liscombe and equalled by Yvan Cournoyer. In the same game, Mahovlich's linemate Johnny Bucyk, who would lead the league in scoring this season, had a goal and 6 assists.


Code:
  
     NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE 
EAST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Toronto	Maple Leafs	78 56 12 10  122
New York Rangers	78 53 14 11  117
Montreal Canadiens	78 55 18  5  115
Detroit Red Wings 	78 50 16 12  112
Boston Bruins		78 48 20 10  106
Buffalo Sabres		78 34 36  8   76
Vancouver Canucks	78 23 47  8   54
New York Islanders	78 21 45 12   54
   
WEST DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Black Hawks	78 54 14 10  118
Philadelphia Flyers	78 32 32 14   78
Los Angeles Kings	78 25 44  9   59
California Golden Seals	78 22 45 11   55
St Louis Blues		78 21 47 10   52
Minnesota North Stars   78 19 46 13   51
Atlanta Flames		78 21 52  5   47
Pittsburgh Penguins	78  9 55 14   32

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G   A  PTS
Johnny Bucyk		DET  78 39  84  123
Don Marcotte		BOS  78 46  63  109
Pete Mahovlich		DET  78 41  67  108
Bobby Hull		CHI  61 43  64  107
Phil Esposito		CHI  78 56  49  105
Bobby Orr		BOS  72 28  77  105
Yvan Cournoyer		MON  78 48  56  104
Marcel Dionne		DET  78 43  61  104
Guy Lafleur		MON  76 26  74  100
Jean Ratelle		NYR  78 48  44   92
Jean Pronovost		BOS  69 34  57   91
Darryl Sittler		TOR  77 22  68   90


WHA REGULAR SEASON
The biggest addition to the league this season is 26 year old Guy Lapointe's decision to sign with the Edmonton Oilers. Lapointe spent the past 8 years in the Montreal organization but played in just 12 NHL games during that time.

The Oilers did deal centre Bobby Sheehan, who led the league with 71 goals last year, to Winnipeg. Sheehan responded by winning the league scoring title with 60 goals and 140 points. Even without Sheehan the Oilers still led the league in goals scored by a wide margin and dominated the standings for the second straight year. The rest of the league was fairly close with the exception of three awful teams in Los Angeles, Vancouver and New York, which combined to go 20-210-3 over the course of the season.

Edmonton's Christian Bordeleau set a WHA record with 8 points including 3 goals in the Oilers 16-3 pounding of the Los Angeles Sharks on March 12th. Chicago Cougars forward Steve Cuddie set the single game goal record with 5 on December 1st when the Cougars beat the Sharks 14-1.

Code:
  
     WORLD HOCKEY ASSOCIATION
EASTERN DIVISION    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Cougars		78 58 19  1  117
New England Whalers	78 55 19  4  114
Quebec Nordiques	78 49 27  2  100
Cleveland Crusaders	78 41 34  3   85
Toronto Toros		78 30 47  1   61
New York Golden Blades	78  8 70  0   16
   
WESTERN DIVISION  	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Edmonton Oilers		78 67 10  1  135
Winnipeg Jets		78 60 15  3  123
Houston Aeros		78 38 37  3   79
Minn. Fighting Saints	78 38 38  2   78
Los Angeles Sharks	78  6 70  2   14
Philaldephia Blazers	78  6 70  2   14

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G   A  PTS
Bobby Sheehan		WPG  78 60  80  140
Christian Bordeleau	EDM  67 42  95  137
Bill Collins		EDM  78 68  65  133
Guy Lapointe		EDM  78 24 106  130
Gerry O"Flaherty	QUE  73 49  77  126
J Bob Kelly		EDM  74 60  64  124
Garth Rizzuto		HOU  78 35  82  117
Frank Spring		HOU  78 50  66  116
John French		MIN  78 34  82  116
Terry Jones		QUE  66 52  63  115
Ted Taylor		EDM  78 50  64  114
Mike Byers		QUE  78 43  71  114

PLAYOFFS
Toronto and Los Angeles both advanced to the semi-finals with easy 4 game sweeps in the quarters. The Leafs had no trouble at all with Detroit while Los Angeles swept Philadelphia a year after the Flyers became the first expansion team to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.

With no Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull the Chicago Black Hawks struggled but in the end still had more than enough offense to eliminate the California Golden Seals in 6 games. The other series, between the New York Rangers and Montreal went the full seven games. The Rangers got back to back 3-0 shutout wins in Game Six and Seven thanks to the goaltending of Cesare Maniago.

Like the quarterfinals, the Toronto Maple Leafs had an easy time in semis as they swept the Los Angeles Kings in 4 games. While young Leafs Darryl Sittler and Rick Kehoe were the offensive catalysts in the regular season it was veterans Bob Nevin and Dave Keon who carried the torch in the playoffs. Nevin had a particularily strong start to the playoffs with 12 points thru 8 games.

The New York Rangers won the other semi-final series as the absence of Mikita and Hull was too much for Chicago to overcome. Cesare Maniago continue his outstanding play in the Ranger net while 26 year old forward Syl Apps led all playoff performers through 2 rounds with 13 ppints including 5 goals as New York put an end to Chicago's 9 year run of making the finals.

STANLEY CUP FINALS
Toronto is tied with Montreal for the most Cup wins with 18 but the Leafs have not lifted the Cup since 1965, the longest drought in franchise history. The Rangers won their only Cup back in 1928, before the sim began, and have not even been to the finals since 1937, when they lost for the third time in 4 years to Toronto.

The Leafs suffered a blow early in Game One when they lost Rick Kehoe for the series with an injury. In 9 games Kehoe had 2 goals and 6 assists. The opening game needed overtime to declare a winner and it was the visiting Rangers who won 2-1 thanks to a Jean Ratelle goal. Ratelle also assisted on Norm Ullman's second period goal while Mike Walton had the Leaf marker.

Toronto rebounded with a 3-1 victory in Game Two as Bob Nevin scored once and assisted on the other 2 Leafs goals. Garry Unger and Errol Thompson also scored for Toronto while Rod Gilbert was the Rangers marksman.

On Broadway for Game Three the Rangers impressed the home crowd with a convincing 4-1 victory, outshooting the Leafs 36-14 in the process. Jean Ratelle had 2 goals and assisted on the other 2, both scored by Rod Gilbert.

Third period goals from Nevin and Unger allowed the Leafs to even the series with a 3-2 victory in Game Four. After Darryl Sittler scored to give the Leafs the lead in the first period Ullman and Ratelle each scored with the other drawing the assist in the second stanza.

The most lobsided game of the series so far as the Leafs score a 7-2 victory at Maple Leafs Gardens. Bruce MacGregor had a goal and 3 assists for Toronto while Unger and Nevin each scored once and had a pair of helpers. Cesare Maniago, who has had a pretty good playoff so far, was chased in the second period after allowing 6 goals on 21 shots.

The Rangers force a 7th game with a 4-1 victory in Game Six. Brad Park scored twice for the Blueshirts with Larry Hillman and Don Luce getting the other New York goals. Maniago had a big bounce back game, stopping 20 shots with Mike Walton being the only Leaf to beat him with a goal midway through the third period.

Toronto opens a 3-0 lead after 2 periods on home ice as Unger gets 2 goals and Errol Thompson scores once. However, the Rangers take over in the third as Walt Tkaczuk scores in the opening minute and Bill Fairbairn cuts the Leaf lead to 1 with 11 minutes to play. Rod Gilbert would tie the game 2 minutes later and a minute and a half after that the Rangers would take the lead on Tkaczuk's second of the game. That would end the scoring and the Rangers would win the Cup with a 4-3 victory in Game Seven.

Brad Park assisted on 3 goals in the final game and finish with 18 points in the playoffs, and was rewarded with the Conn Smythe Trophy. Park finished 1 point out of the playoff scoring lead which was a three-way tie between Jean Ratelle and Norm Ullman of the Rangers and Toronto's Bob Nevin.

Other award winners are:

HART TROPHY: Bobby Clarke Philadelphia (78GP 20-56-76)

VEZINA TROPHY: Eddie Johnston Chicago (49-11-8, 1.94)

NORRIS TROPHY: Serge Savard (78GP 19-38-57)

ART ROSS TROPHY: Johnny Bucyk Detroit (78GP 39-84-123)

CALDER TROPHY: Tom Lysiak Atlanta (78GP 25-50-75)

Some real questionable choices this season as I have no idea how Clarke won the Hart and Savard was selected for the Norris. To me, Clarke was about the 5th best centre and Savard did not make either the first or second team as an all-star.

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   Eddie Johnston   Chicago	Doug Favell	 Buffalo			      
D   Brad Park	     NY Rangers	Carol Vadnais    Montreal
D   Bobby Orr 	     Boston     Pat Stapleton    Chicago    
C   Pete Mahovlich   Detroit    Guy Lafleur      Montreal 		
LW  Johnny Bucyk     Detroit 	Don Marcotte     Boston
RW  Phil Esposito    Chicago	Yvan Cournoyer   Montreal
WHA PLAYOFFS
The Oilers win their second straight Avco Cup as the sweep Minnesota, beat the Chicago Cougars in a tight 7 game series and then top New England in 5 games in the finals. The Whalers beat Cleveland in the other semi-final after the Crusaders won a tough 7 game series from favoured Winnipeg and the Whalers took Quebec in 4 straight.

Christian Bordeleau of Edmonton led all playoff scorers with 27 points while teammate Guy Lapointe finished second with 20 points. New England's Pierre Jarry was the top goal scorer with 10. Lapointe was named playoff MVP and also earned the regular season MVP award after scoring 24 goals and 130 points in 78 regular season games. Lapointe rounded out his haul of awards by being named the league's top defenseman.
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Old 01-12-2017, 01:36 PM   #59
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nice job Tiger Fan....fun read!
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Old 01-12-2017, 08:33 PM   #60
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1974-75

1974-75

OFF-SEASON
Alex Delvecchio announces his retirement after 1716 NHL games and 1727 career points which places his number 1 all time in each of those categories as well as career assists with 1082. His 24 year career was highlighted with 2 Stanley Cups, 3 Art Ross Trophy's and 5 first team all-star selections.

New York Ranger Rod Gilbert surprised the hockey world by announcing his retirement at the age of 32. Gilbert won his first Stanley Cup title this past season, picking up 13 points in 19 playoff games after earning 61 points, including 29 goals, during the year. In 981 career games, Gilbert has 332 goals and 761 points.

The NHL expands by two more teams as the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts join the fold. The WHA also has expansion as the Indianapolis Racers and Phoenix Roadrunners join the league. Meanwhile the Los Angeles Sharks move to Detroit and are renamed the Michigan Stags while the New York Golden Blades head west to San Diego where they will be known as the Mariners.

Among the newcomers to pro hockey this year are Mike Palmateer and Tiger Williams with Toronto, Danny Gare to Buffalo, Clark Gillies with the Islanders, Pierre Larouche to Pittsburgh and Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg to Phoenix. Not sure why they debut with Phoenix instead of Winnipeg.

The expansion draft looked to be pretty kind to the Kansas City Scouts as included in their picks are veterans Jacques Laperriere, Frank Mahovlich and Bruce MacGregor plus decent talent in Gregg Sheppard, Ross Lonsberry and Tom Webster. Goaltending might be a concern as the Scouts only get Gary Kurt in the draft. The Capitals go for younger talent and have some offense in Gerry Meehan, Walt McKechnie, Serge Bernier and Chuck Lefley but overall I think the Scouts are in much better shape coming out of the draft.


REGULAR SEASON
With expansion ballooning the league to 18 teams the old East-West Division format was replaced by a new setup with 4 divisions of 4 teams each.

The Chicago Black Hawks once again finished with the best record in the league and tied their own record for points in a season with 135, although the scheduled was extended to 80 games this year so they played two more than the 71-72 club that originally established the mark. Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull continue to be the heart of the Hawks offense. The now 34 year old Mikita won yet another scoring title, his 7th, as he finished with 167 points and tied his career high in goals with 53. Hull scored 46 goals to increase his total as career goal scoring leader to 751, which puts him 106 ahead of the now-retired Alex Delvecchio, who sits second in career goals. Hull also moved to within 10 of Delvecchio's NHL record for career points of 1727. The highlight to Hull's season was an 8 point night, including 3 goals in a 12-3 pounding of Kansas City in January. Hull would also have a 5 goal game against Minnesota in February.


The biggest individual game accomplishment came on February 7th when Philadelphia teammates Bobby Clarke and Bill Barber each had 11 points in the Flyers 13-0 thumping of Minnesota. Barber established a new record for goals in a game with 8 while Clarke set the single game assist mark with 10. The previous record for points in a game was 9 set by Yvan Cournoyer of Montreal in 1968. The old goal record was 7 scored by Dickie Moore of Montreal in a 1957 game.

Detroit's Johnny Bucyk recorded his 1200th career point during the season. The 39 year old ended the season with 1213 points, good for 7th all-time.
Code:

         TOP 10 CAREER POINTS	
NAME		TEAM	 PTS   GP
Alex Delvecchio  Det	1727  1716
Bobby Hull*      CHI	1717  1232
Stan Mikita*     CHI	1648  1112
Jean Beliveau	 MON	1598  1400
Norm Ullman*     NYR	1386  1389
Ted Lindsay	 DET	1243  1418
Johnny Bucyk*    DET	1213  1320
Maurice Richard  MON	1173  1062
Frank Mahovlich* TOR/KC	1117  1138
Gordie Howe	 DET	1107  1414
*indicates active
The expansion clubs had some reasonable success, especially the Washington Capitals who qualified for the playoffs in their initial season. Veteran centre Gerry Meehan led the Caps in goals (26) and points (56) while veteran goaltender Roger Crozier, who was acquired from Los Angeles during the season, had an outstanding campaign, going 21-20-4 with a 2.97 goals against average since the November trade.

Rangers defenseman Brad Park set a record for rearguards with 135 points this season. The 26 year old had 39 goals and 96 assists while playing in all 80 games. The old mark of 122, set by Bobby Orr, lasted just two years. Orr had 107 points in 74 games for Boston this season.

Speaking of the Rangers, centre Jean Ratelle came close to a record for goals in a season. The 34 year old had 69 goals, 6 shy of Bobby Hull's record 75 in 1972-73. Bill Barber of Philadelphia and Chicago's Phil Esposito also reached the 60 goal plateau this season with each ending up with 62 goals on the year.

Code:
  
     NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE 
ADAMS DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Toronto	Maple Leafs	80 53 23  4  110
Boston Bruins		80 51 21  8  110
Buffalo Sabres		80 27 43 10   64
California Golden Seals	80 16 55  9   41

NORRIS DIVISION 	GP  W  L  T  PTS
Montreal Canadiens	80 57 14  9  123
Detroit Red Wings 	80 48 27  5  101
Washington Capitals 	80 29 45  6   64
Pittsburgh Penguins	80 27 47  6   60
Los Angeles Kings	80 23 49  8   54
   
PATRICK DIVISION  	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
New York Rangers	80 56 12 12  124
Philadelphia Flyers	80 53 17 10  116
New York Islanders	80 21 50  9   51
Atlanta Flames		80 17 56  7   41
   
SMYTHE DIVISION	    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Black Hawks	80 61  6 13  135
Vancouver Canucks	80 34 31 15   83
St Louis Blues		80 29 40 11   69
Kansas City Scouts	80 21 48 11   53
Minnesota North Stars   80 16 51  9   41

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G   A  PTS
Stan Mikita		CHI  79 53 114  167
Bobby Clarke		PHI  80 42 104  146
Brad Park		NYR  80 39  96  135
Jean Ratelle		NYR  80 69  62  131
Bobby Hull		CHI  74 46  81  127
Norm Ullman		NYR  71 40  82  122
Bill Barber		PHI  76 62  57  119
Phil Esposito		CHI  80 62  57  119
Guy Lafleur		MON  80 40  75  115
Marcel Dionne		DET  80 41  73  114
Johnny Bucyk		DET  80 39  73  112
Bobby Orr		BOS  74 29  78  107
Garry Unger		TOR  78 48  50   98
Jean Pronovost		BOS  77 33  63   96
Don Marcotte		BOS  70 38  54   92

WHA REGULAR SEASON
The league moved to a 3 division format with the addition of the two expansion teams. One of which, the Phoenix Roadrunners, emerged as the class of the Western Division thanks to their Swedish imports Ulf Nilson (51-90-149) and Anders Hedberg (44-58-102).

The top team in the regular season remained the two-time Avco Cup champion Edmonton Oilers, losers of just 7 games this season. The Oilers were led by a top line of Larry Pleau (50-80-130) between Bill Collins (61-41-102) and J Bob Kelly (60-79-139) but their biggest star was defenseman Guy Lapointe (23-106-129) who set a single season WHA record for assists.

24 year old Duane Wylie (44-102-146) set a WHA record with a 28 game point streak. The Chicago Cougars forward is in his second WHA season. Later in the season Christian Bordeleau (37-71-108) of Edmonton would have a 26 game point streak.

Code:
  
     WORLD HOCKEY ASSOCIATION
EASTERN DIVISION    	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Chicago Cougars		78 59 14  5  123
New England Whalers	78 54 22  2  110
Cleveland Crusaders	78 33 37  8   74
Indianapolis Racers	78 30 44  4   64
   
WESTERN DIVISION  	GP  W  L  T  PTS   
Phoenix Roadrunners	78 55 22  1  111
Minn. Fighting Saints	78 37 31 10   84
Houston Aeros		78 31 43  4   66
San Diego Mariners	78 22 49  7   51
Michigan Stags		78 16 57  5   37

CANADIAN DIVISION       GP  W  L  T  PTS
Edmonton Oilers		78 69  7  2  140
Winnipeg Jets		78 46 27  5   97
Quebec Nordiques	78 44 30  4   92
Toronto Toros		78 31 43  4   66
Vancouver Blazers	78  4 71  3   11

SCORING LEADERS		TEAM GP  G   A  PTS
Dave Hudson		NE   77 66  91  157
Ulf Nilsson		PHX  71 59  90  149
Duane Wylie		CHI  78 44 102  146
J Bob Kelly		EDM  74 60  79  139
Terry Jones		QUE  75 69  61  130
Larry Pleu		EDM  78 50  80  130
Guy Lapointe 		EDM  78 23 106  129
Rob Walton		MIN  78 43  81  124
Pierre Jarry		NE   78 44  79  123
Hugh Harvey		CHI  78 55  60  115
Gerry O'Flaherty	QUE  62 46  69  115

PLAYOFFS
With the increased teams the NHL added an extra round of playoffs in what would be a best of three preliminary round series. The results of that were as follows:

Vancouver 2-0 over St Louis
Philadelphia 2-1 over Pittsburgh
Boston 2-1 over Buffalo
Detroit 2-0 over Washington

Chicago, Toronto, Montreal and the New York Rangers would earn a first round bye and each of those teams would advance through to the semi-finals. The Rangers had the only tough test as they needed the full seven games to beat Detroit. Montreal beat Boston in 6 games as did Toronto over the Flyers. The Black Hawks swept Vancouver 4 straight.

The semi-finals would pit Chicago against Montreal while the Leafs would take on the Rangers in a rematch of last season's Cup finals. Steve Shutt would score a hat trick in game one but after Montreal took the opener the Black Hawks charged back with 4 straight victories. The Rangers would split the first 4 games with Toronto as each team alternated winning before the Rangers closed out the series with wins in Games Five and Six.

STANLEY CUP FINALS
The New York Rangers will attempt to defend their Stanley Cup title against Chicago in the finals - a series that features the top two teams from the regular season. Jean Ratelle is on a roll for New York heading into the finals, leading all playoff performers with 12 goals and 19 points in 13 games. Stan Mikita is second in playoff scoring with 18 points, but Mikita's Hawks have only played 9 games.

The Hawks return to the finals after a one year absence but Chicago is no stranger to Stanley Cup pressure, having been in the final series 9 straight years prior to last season, with 5 titles to show for it.


Chicago wins the opener 5-3 as Chico Maki and rookie Yvon Lambert each have a goal and an assist to lead the Black Hawks offense. Eddie Johnston was not sharp in the Chicago net, but he only had to face 17 Ranger shots which included a pair of goals from defenseman Larry Hillman.

The Rangers are outshot 32-24 in Game Two but even the series with a 3-2 victory. New York gets three goals in the second period from Norm Ullman, Rick Middleton and Steve Durbano. Dan Maloney and Doug Jarrett were the only Chicago players to beat Rangers goaltender Cesare Maniago.

The series shifts to New York for Game Three but it is the visitors that earn the victory as Johnston makes 17 saves in a 3-0 shutout win. Phil Esposito has a goal and an assist for Chicago with Chico Maki and Barry Long also scoring. Mikita had 2 helpers.

The Rangers decide to replace Maniago with backup Jim Rutherford and the 26 year old has a brilliant game, making 37 saves as the Rangers even the series with a 2-1 victory in overtime. Bobby Hull of Chicago and New York's Bill Fairbairn each score within the first 8 minutes of the game and then there is nothing in the way of celebrations until little used Larry Sacharuk, with 5 career regular season goals in 85 games, scores 18 minutes into overtime to lift the Rangers to the win.

Maniago is back in the net for the Rangers and he earns a 25 save shutout as New York wins a laugher 7-0. Eddie Johnston is chased from the Chicago cage midway through the second period after he allowed 5 goals on 20 shots. Bill Fairbairn and Larry Hillman each score twice for New York while Don Luce gets 3 assists.

Fans jan Madison Square Garden looking to see the Stanley Cup and the Rangers do not disappoint them, chasing Johnston for the second straight night and winning 7-5. Jean Ratelle is the hero of the deciding game with 2 goals and 3 assists. Ratelle finishes the post-season with a league leading 14 goals and 26 points in 19 games. Chicago's Stan Mikita finishes second with 21 points.

Ratelle is presented with the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP as the Rangers win the Cup for the second straight season. Other big performers for New York are Norm Ullman (5-13-18), Brad Park (2-15-17), Walt Tkaczuk (6-10-16) and Juha Widing (6-9-15).


Other award winners are:

HART TROPHY: Stan Mikita Chicago (79GP 53 114 167)

VEZINA TROPHY: Eddie Johnston Chicago (49-4-13, 1.97)

NORRIS TROPHY
: Brad Park New York Rangers (80GP 39-96-135)

ART ROSS TROPHY
: Stan Mikita Chicago (79GP 53 114 167)

CALDER TROPHY: Danny Gare Buffalo (75GP 27-28-55)


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   Eddie Johnston   Chicago	   Roy Edwards	    Detroit			      
D   Brad Park	     NY Rangers	   J Guevremont     Vancouver
D   Bobby Orr 	     Boston        Pat Stapleton    Chicago    
C   Stan Mikita	     Chicago       Jean Ratelle	    NY Rangers		
LW  Bobby Hull	     Chicago	   Norm Ullman	    NY Rangers
RW  Bill Barber	     Philadelphia  Marcel Dionne    Detroit
WHA PLAYOFFS
The Oilers win their third straight Avco Cup and they do it without losing a game in the playoffs, sweeping Cleveland, Chicago and then New England in the finals. The Whalers knocked off the surprising Phoenix Roadrunners, led by European imports Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg, in a 5 game semi-final.


Guy Lapointe cleaned up at the awards banquet once again as he captured his second straight playoff MVP and regular season MVP awards as well as being named the league's best defenseman. Lapointe led the league in assists during the season with 106 while tallying 129 points. He had 16 points in 12 playoff games.

Chicago Cougars netminder Wayne Thomas (44-12-3, 2.44) was named the league's top goaltender. It was Thomas' second year with the Cougars after playing 7 NHL games with the New York Islanders. With 149 points in 71 games, Phoenix Roadrunner Ulf Nilsson, 25, was named the rookie of the year in the WHA.
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