50 years ago in hockey by Rick Cole

In our second rerun, we go back to the NHL meetings of June 1971. Significant happening here are Punch Imlach’s master manipulations of the rules of the NHL Intra-league draft, Scotty Bowman becomes coach of Montreal Canadiens and there is some troubling news about the financial operation of the Vancouver Canucks. 

In this special episode, I guess you could call this one of our summer reruns, we go back to the week of June 8-14, 1970 and report on the NHL 1970 summer meetings. We think you will find this one fairly interesting, this is the point at which the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks entered the NHL and we will have all of that week’s drama - enjoy!

This week’s show is a busy one with all the news from the NHL June meetings in Montreal. We have the Amateur and Expansion drafts and the full genius of Habs GM Sammy Pollock is on display. 

In this week’s show, we have lots of player signing news, Joe Crozier is admonished by a British Columbia Supreme Court judge, and we learn why the World Hockey Association is actually worried about weakening NHL teams by stealing their players!

In our 133rd weekly show, we have lots of WHA signing news, including some instances where players were alleged to have signed with both the WHA and NHL; the NHL governors met to try and decide which two cities will be awarded the next two expansion franchises, and the annual Canadian Amateur Hockey Association meetings produced some controversy, resulting in one province resigning from the organization.

In our first show of the 1972 off-season, we get some WHA news, a few coaches are re-signed and Punch Imlach replaces himself in Buffalo and the bombshell of the week has Bobby Hull confirming he is very seriously considering an offer to sign with the WHA Winnipeg Jets!

In the final show of the 1971-72 NHL season, the Stanley Cup final is decided, lots of rumours of players moving to the new WHA, but no stars are making the jump yet, except for Bernie Parent, who now doesn’t even have a team to play for, and we have some developments in the September challenge series between the Canadian professional players and those from the USSR. 

This week we look at games 2 - 4 of the 1972 Stanley Cup Final between the Bruins and Rangers, we have some interesting WHA news and the NHL awards are announced, not without a bit of controversy!

In this week’s show, we have the details on the Bruins eliminating St. Louis and the first game of the 1972 Stanley Cup Final series between Boston and New York. We also have lots of off-ice news to talk about and two of hockey’s greatest have some words of warning for the NHL players who will face the Russians in September.

In our show this week we have coverage of Round 2 of the 1972 Stanley Cup playoffs where one series was supposed to be close and wasn’t and the other was an embarrassment to the NHL. We also have an historic hockey announcement, and there is some NHL-WHA news as well.

In this week’s show we have the results of the rest of round one’s series, including the Rangers eliminating the defending Stanley Cup champs; lots of WHA news on which to report, and some ideas from some prominent Toronto sports writers on who should take over as coach of the Maple Leafs.

It’s the first week of the 1972 Stanley Cup playoffs and we have all the results from the first 4 games of each quarter-final series. We also have a little bit of surprising WHA news as well. 

This was the final week of the 1971-72 NHL season and some close races for playoff spots were decided. As well, this week we saw the WHA get some clarity for a few of their franchises while others’ futures became more muddled, and we learn who the NHL’s best-dressed players were in 1972!

In this week’s episode, we have a bit of WHA news, Leafs coach John McLellan returns, and Marcel Dionne sets an NHL record for rookies, plus lots more!!

n this week’s show, we get a look at the top prospects for the June NHL Amateur Draft, we find out that the NHL officials are being told to “let ‘em scrap” and we have one of the strangest stories I’ve ever come across involving a hockey game in Massachusetts.

In Episode 121 we take another look at a very weird 1972 NHL trade deadline, we meet a Maple Leaf rookie who impressed a NY Ranger scout at an early age, and we get the story on how Canadiens coach Scotty Bowman very nearly lost his life in a hotel fire in St. Louis!

In our 120th weekly show, we cover a very quiet NHL 1972 trade deadline, we learn of a successful Jr A coach whose name would become familiar to us all in a few short years, and we get the scoop on Bernie Parent’s impending move to the WHA!

In this week’s show we learn that Bernie Parent is indeed planning on going to the WHA, the American owners of the Vancouver Canucks are hit with criminal charges in Canada, and in another court, and in another court an Ontario judge makes a very curious determination about the nature of the game of hockey.

In this very busy episode, we have lots of news from the WHA player draft, the Bernie Parent situation becomes even more muddled in Toronto and a couple of Montreal Canadiens players used a unique mode of transportation to make it to a Saturday night Habs game in Montreal.

In our 117th weekly show we get some great quotes from various hockey folks around the industry, we gain some insight into what a work week looks like for prominent sports agent Bob Woolf, and we have a ton of WHA news happening!

In our 116th weekly episode, we talk about the Russians challenging the Montreal Canadiens to an exhibition game or series, we learn that a WHA team in Ottawa is very close to becoming a reality, and we hear of an 11-year-old kid in Brantford ON who has quite the scoring touch...

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In this week’s show, we have lots of WHA news, we learn how the NHL will line up with 16 teams for next season, and the NHL All-star game goes in Minneapolis. 

We return from our holiday with this week’s show in which we talk about the sudden illness of Sabres Punch Imlach, the squabble over ownership of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Gordie Howe’s future as an executive with the Detroit Red Wings, plus much more!

As we continue to recover from COVID here, we bring you this flashback episode from a couple years ago. We appreciate you bearing with us during this time, and hope to be back soon with updates on all the current goings-on, from 50 years ago!

In this, the final episode on the media and the death of Terry Sawchuk, we give you a selection of some of the tributes written by some of the best hockey writers of all time in the various newspapers in the US and Canada.

In the third episode of our series on how the media covered the death of Terry Sawchuk, we cover the legal aspects of the case, the evidence that the Grand Jury would hear, and their decision. As we report on all the evidence, we get a good idea on what likely happened on the night of April 29, 1970.

How the media covered the hospitalization of Terry Sawchuk just prior to his death, and how the NY Rangers may have completely covered up the story.

Following hospitalization and a brief period of silence, Terry Sawchuk's death shocks the hockey world, and the press scrambles to catch up.

In our 113th weekly episode we have more WHA news on several fronts, we learn about a very bad junior hockey team in Southwestern Ontario, and we have a feature on one of my favourites - Gump Worsely!

In this episode, we learn of the Jr A Toronto Marlboros efforts to get Gordie Howe’s other hockey-playing son Mark to join his brother Marty on the team, we talk about a couple of NHL trades that happened this week, and we take a close look at Roy Edwards and the Penguins other two goalies, Jimmy Rutherford and Les Binkley.

December 6-12, 1971: Who’s Jumping To The WHA?

In our 110th weekly episode, we talk about Sabres’ rookie Richard Martin having last June’s Amateur Draft all figured out, we get word of a Toronto - Boston trade brewing, and we learn of the retirement of my very first hockey hero, and the time I first met him.

In this week’s show we have more WHA news, the Seals figure they have been taken advantage of in another trade, and Stan Fischler tells us the Canadiens were all wrong about Bobby Sheehan.

In this week’s show, we have lots of trades to tell you about, also a crazy, unfortunate off-ice injury to a St. Louis Blues player, and some WHA news as well!

November 8-14, 1971: NHL Announces Expansion

n this week’s episode we have more turmoil with the Detroit Red Wings, the Kings make a trade to get the goalkeeper they desperately need, and the fledgling World Hockey Association makes a big announcement!

In this week’s episode we have more NHL coaching changes, we get more news from the WHA and a young goalkeeper makes a very auspicious debut after being traded to a new team.

In our 104th show, we learn of a trade between the Red Wings and Seals, we hear of a tongue-in-cheek plan to host the Stanley Cup finals at the Orange Bowl in Miami Florida, and Harold Ballard assumed control at Maple Leaf Gardens, a day that will forever live in infamy for Maple Leafs Fans. 

This week we talk a lot about the mess that is the California Golden Seals, including a coaching change, we wonder if Gordie Howe is thinking about coming back to the Red Wings, and we have lots of coverage of the death of Toronto Maple Leafs president Stafford Smythe. 

The NHL’s 1971-72 regular season finally gets underway and we have all the details in this week’s show with reports on two games. We also have a progress report on the WHA and some news from the Penguins that wasn’t good for some of the team’s veterans.

In this week’s episode we learn a little more about the disputed trade between the Black Hawks and Golden Seals, we ask the question “will there ever be a 100-goal-scorer in an NHL season?” and we get to know the legendary hockey man Rudy Pilous thanks to an interview conducted by Terry Jones of the Edmonton Journal, 50 years ago this week!

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In our 100th weekly episode we talk about further developments in NHL 1971 training camps, we find out about a Flyer defenseman who leaves camp considering retirement, and the WHA is getting closer to becoming a real thing.

In a very busy Episode #99, we have a ton of news from various NHL training camps, we find out why Gordie Howe did not attend the first week of the Red Wings training camp, and we get some insight into what sort of training regimen the NHL on-ice officials were experiencing 50 years ago. 

This is a clip from OVERTIME, our bonus series for supporters. To hear the full bonus episode, plus hours more exclusive content, please support us at http://patreon.com/hockey50years. Enjoy this clip!

In this week’s show, we talk about teams making preparations for training camp, we give the California Golden Seals a little more attention than they deserve, but it was, after all, hockey news, and the greatest player who ever lived hung up his skates after an illustrious career.

We kick off the third season of the 50 Years Ago in Hockey Podcast with some big stories: the Penguins hand out the biggest contract in their brief history; we get lots of news from teams regarding signing players and getting ready for training camps, and we will learn of a sudden change in the ownership structure of the Toronto Maple Leafs that will shape the fortunes of the team for decades to come.

In this week’s show, we learn about Bobby Orr’s new contract finally being announced (although when it was actually signed remains a matter for investigation); we get an insight into the personality of new Flyers broadcaster Pat (Red) Shetler, and we are given some more information on the NHL’s never-ending battle to curb (but not totally end) bench-clearing brawls.

This is a clip from the latest episode of OVERTIME, our bonus series for Patreon supporters. To hear all our bonus shows and support our work, visit http://patreon.com/hockey50years