Hi everyone! This week, I’ve chosen to go back to a happier time in Seals history: the early months of the 1971-72 season. In this week’s article from the November 28th Santa Rosa Press Democrat the Seals’ recipe for success is completely outlined: how they jettisoned the older, less productive players, took chances on rookies and prospects, made a couple of smart trades, and held on to all-star Carol Vadnais. It was a very smart strategy, and had the team not been decimated by the invading World Hockey Association, the strategy may have proved fruitful in the long term. And sure, Vadnais was eventually traded to Boston, but the deal netted the Seals a decent return: Reggie Leach, Bob Stewart, and Rick Smith.
We will never know if Garry Young’s plan would have ultimately been successful. On one hand, we can speculate that the Seals were just a few years away from a Stanley Cup? On the other hand, some would argue that a championship was unlikely, given that they would have had to get through Boston, Philadelphia, and Montreal to do so. Maybe a division championship would have been a more realistic possibility, or maybe just one really good run to the semi-finals or even the Cup finals sometime in the following decade? I’d be curious to know what everyone thought. Feel free to send an email with your thoughts on the matter.
Hi everyone! I hope everyone has had a great week and is enjoying this year’s playoffs. Any predictions on who will capture Lord Stanley’s mug this year? Personally, I find it difficult to make such predictions anymore. Every year it seems like there are eight or nine teams (or more) that have an excellent chance. Who do you pick among the Rangers, Hurricanes, Panthers, Bruins, Golden Knights, Oilers, Stars, and Canucks? Even the Predators, Kings, Lightning, and yes, even the dreadful Leafs have a chance. A few of these teams might be preparing to have that window of opportunity close for this year (I’m looking at you Dallas, Long Island, and Tampa Bay), but you never really know. A 3-0 series lead isn’t as safe as it used to be. If you twist my arm, I guess I would say that New York is my pick in the East, and Vegas in the West, although my heart is going with Edmonton since I’d love to see the Cup come back to Canada. That said, I’d choose to have the drought continue for thirty more years if the only other option I was given was to see the Leafs win it all.
This is definitely the time of year when comebacks seem to occur every night, and many of the historic variety. Like I said earlier, a 3-0 lead, whether in a single game or an entire series, are not as safe as they used to be. While the Seals never had one of those moments in their brief playoff history, there are a few moments when they did stage a memorable comeback in the regular season. One of those moments took place November 27, 1968 against the Minnesota North Stars. Down 3-0, the Seals chipped away at the Stars’ lead and eventually came away with a tie. Not a win, but an impressive showing nonetheless, and you can read about it in the articles section here.
On a sad closing note today, I regretfully announce the passing of Scott Ruffell, a former Seals stick boy during the Charlie Finley era. Those of you who have read my book may remember that I interviewed Scott, and he provided me with some enlightening stories about how the infamous streaker managed to sneak onto the ice on the last day of the 1973-74 season, and how he once used white latex house paint on the Seals’ skates. He was very happy to reminisce about his days with the Seals, and his contributions to my book were very important and much appreciated. Stay gold, Scott.
Hi everyone! I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend so far. I, for one, have greatly enjoyed my first day off, and took full advantage to get some a few items knocked off my to-do list. One of which was updating this site. This week, we go back to early in the 1974-75 season, and the Seals are in Washington to take on the first-year Capitals, who are struggling mightily with just a single win to their name. Not that the Seals are doing much better, with just three wins in 19 games, but since they still had a better team than Washington, a win seemed assured, but it was not meant to be. The game was significant for several reasons. It was the first-ever match up between the two teams, who would have a few noteworthy games that season. It was also the first time Pete Laframboise played against the team that left him exposed in the expansion draft. In an issue of The Hockey News released soon after, coach Marshall Johnston said that he believed this game was the turning point for rookie Dave Hrechkosy, who would go on to score 29 goals that year. For the Seals, it wasn’t quite rock bottom as they would lose their next three games as well, providing a few other teams with easy points in their own quest for the Stanley Cup. If you would like to read more about this week’s feature game, head on over to the Articles section.
In case, you haven’t been following the NHL recently, tonight is the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs. May your team be the recipient of good luck and happy bounces (unless, of course, if your team is the Maple Leafs, then, you know… opposite wishes, and Go Bruins, Go!).
Hi everyone! It’s Friday once again, and as usual, I’m here to take you for a ride down memory lane. This week, we’re going back to December 2, 1969 for the Seals debut of 37-year-old future Hall-of-Fame defenseman Harry Howell. The former Ranger stalwart had undergone back surgery in the off-season, but the Seals knew they could use a defenseman of his pedigree, so they took a chance and acquired him in a cash deal with New York. The struggling L.A. Kings defeated the Seals 4-3, and Howell picked up his first point, an assist, and his first two penalty minutes. It took the Seals a few more weeks to turn things around, but in the end, they qualified for the playoffs, and Howell was a big reason for the team’s second-half surge. He finished the year with four goals and 16 assists in 55 games. You can read about Howell’s debut in the articles section.
I hope all of you had a great week and are gearing up for a nice relaxing weekend. I’m happy to say that the snow is finally completely melted from everyone’s lawn and we can finally start thinking about spending time at the park with the kids, taking leisurely afternoon walks around the neighbourhood (in a t-shirt and sneakers no less!), and working from home in the backyard.
Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a relaxing Easter weekend and was able to spend some much-needed time with family and friends. I don’t know about any of you out there, but it hasn’t exactly felt like spring lately despite the Easter Bunny’s recent appearance. Ottawa was hit by a major snow storm on Wednesday and we got another five or ten centimetres today, so the kids have been suiting up in thick winter coats and snow pants, but luckily the temperature has been above zero degrees (Celsius, that is) today so the roads and driveways are mostly clear now, and in a day or two the snow should be completely gone.
So, since Mother Nature has decided to do something different this year, we’re going to do something a bit different here too. A few weeks ago, a site visitor by the name of Jessica Hobson contacted me with a few questions concerning the Seals’ famous footwear. Here are some excerpts from the emails she has sent:
I purchased a very cool looking pair of white and green skates years ago, to display in my shop’s window during Christmas, as they were the colours of my hometown Hespeler Shamrocks. I cannot for the life of me remember where they came from, but I can only assume that I would have picked them up at a thrift store or at a garage sale as they would have been only a few dollars at the time.
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Fast forward to this winter when I’ve been beginning to part with some items from my storage unit full of treasure that I am no longer really needing…
I received a message from a local memorabilia collector who shone a light on exactly what I was in possession of; a very rare pair of Bauer Supreme 91’s from the California Golden Seals! He mentioned that I should connect with a couple auction houses in the USA.
As they are of no sentimental value to me and appear to be valued at far more than the original $35 I had once listed them at, I wanted to connect with you to see if you may be able to suggest the most appropriate person or organization that may be interested in purchasing this rare piece of hockey history, seeing as there are only 2 photos existing on the internet of these exact skates.
In a second email, she also mentioned that the skates tongues have some unique cuts on them, which may indicate which player these beauties once belonged to.
For all you non-Canucks out there, Hespeler is a town in Southern Ontario (near Waterloo). Perhaps these skates once belonged to a Seals player with a link to Hespeler or Waterloo, either as a hometown or a place where they once played some junior hockey, I’m really not sure. If anyone has any information, please let me know and I can put you in contact with Jessica. She is also looking for a buyer so if you’re looking to own a rare piece of Seals memorabilia, here is your chance.
That’s about it for this week. Hope you all have a great weekend and, if you are in the path of the solar eclipse, I hope you get a nice glimpse of this once in a lifetime occurrence. Until next time, stay gold!
Since the very earliest days of organized sports, brothers have grown up competing against one another. In many cases, the youngest brother became a goaltender because that was where his older brother told him to do if he wanted to hang out with the older kids. In many other cases, however, both brothers got to skate freely and score a few goals. Sometimes, their paths would cross in junior hockey, and sometimes those paths would cross in the big leagues. In very rare cases, some brothers got to play together, such as the Seals’ Bill and Ernie Hicke, but in most cases, brothers competed for different teams and made it difficult for Mom and Dad to side with one kid or the other.
Mickey Redmond was the first to crack the NHL back in October 1967, and his brother Dick debuted in the early weeks of the 1969-70 season. Mickey moved from the Canadiens to the Red Wings in 1971, and Dick moved from Minnesota to California not long after. The moves did wonders for their careers. Mickey became a two-time 50-goal scorer with the Wings, and Dick became a quality offensive defenseman for the Seals. In February 1972, the brothers faced off in a game that meant a great deal to both teams, who were fighting for playoff spots in their respective divisions. The Seals were coming off an impressive 2-2 draw with Montreal, so a positive result was expected against the less talented Wings, but Mickey had other plans. The elder Redmond scored three times, and almost netted a fourth, so the younger Redmond had no choice but to eat a little crow, especially after the Wings triumphed 8-2. You can read all about the game here.
Well, that’s it for this week. I will be off next week as I will be travelling with the family this Easter weekend, but I will be back soon after. Enjoy the lead-up to the playoffs, and until next time, stay gold!
Hi everyone! Isn’t it great when an underdog, somehow, overcomes the odds and takes down a bigger, meaner opponent? It doesn’t happen often, but if you are a fan of an underdog, those moments stick with you for a long, long time. You feel like you can stand up a little straighter, swagger a bit, chew that gum a bit louder. You know the feeling. Problem is, that feeling don’t last long. Reality eventually sets in and losing becomes the norm again. Where am I going with this? Well, let’s take a trip back to November 15, 1970. The Seals have just taken down the mighty Boston Bruins, the defending Stanley Cup champs. The Seals were talking tall, no doubt about it. It was their fifth win in seven games, and the team was looking like it was going to make a serious run at the playoffs. The Bruins, on the other hand, had different ideas. Not only did the B’s beat the Seals every other time they met that season, all four contests were, well, no contests. This week, you can read all about the Seals’ big win, from the perspective of the losing club, as this article comes from the Boston Globe. Check it out here.
Hope you all enjoy the weekend, and that the weather is warm and pleasant like it is up here in Ottawa. Spring time is just around the corner, and that means the playoffs! May your team be the author of, and not the recipient, of a surprising outcome that allows you to walk tall and chew louder. Until next time, stay gold!
Hi everyone! How was your week? If you live in Ontario, it was probably a little shorter than most thanks to Monday’s Family Day. It was a nice opportunity for my family and I to take in a matinee movie (Turning Red, for the kids, of course), eat lots of popcorn, play some arcade games… and then watch my daughter puke up a entire serving of strawberry Fruitopia all over the coach, and then a few seconds later, all over our white carpet, literally two feet away from the bathroom. We suspect it was a little too much sugar on an empty stomach. Here’s a parenting tip for all of you: if you plan on going to the movies with your kids around lunch time, and you plan on letting your kids load up on sugar, make sure they a good lunch first to balance out the good and the bad food. Other than that little incident, it was a nice day, and a relaxing long weekend.
Stability is indeed a nice thing. Spending a relaxing few days with the family, not making any major plans, staying in your pajamas and playing video games on the couch is rewarding. Travelling around is nice too, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it’s nice just take in the comfort your home provides. I imagine former Seals great Gary “Suitcase” Smith probably wished for that stability once in a while. As you can imagine, with a nickname like the one he was christened with, Smith moved around a lot during his career. His four-year stint in Oakland was actually the longest of his professional career. This week, I invite you to head on over to Sports Collectors Daily to read a wonderful, comprehensive career summary of Smith’s career. It’s a long piece, so you might want to pour yourselves a cup of coffee first, but the article is well worth your time. It covers Smith’s entire professional career, from his time as a Toronto Maple Leaf call-up to his very last NHL season as a Winnipeg Jet some fifteen years later. A big thanks again this week to Mark Harris for sending me the link to Stephen Laroche’s article.
Hi everyone! You’ve picked a great day to spend a little time from your busy day with Golden Seals Hockey! This week, I’ve got a double-whammy for you all! Two articles for the price of one, which, considering is zero dollars, is one heck of a great deal, right? The first piece is about Charlie Finley’s attempts to make the Seals relevant. Old Charlie was always up for a wild new marketing ploy, even though most of them failed miserably, or at the very least, were just plain weird. One of his classic moves was taking his legendary “Charlie O.” mule mascot from the baseball A’s and transferring it over to the ice. The problem, I can only assume, is that donkey’s don’t skate. Not in the least. So, what else could Charlie do but hire a couple of dudes, stick them inside a donkey costume, and voilà! The Seals’ new mascot worked out about as well as their previous mascots, Stella and Seymour, the two live seals who spent their short-lived careers literally laying down on the wonderfully cold ice surface of the Oakland Coliseum. This article, courtesy of Mark Harris, features a beautiful picture of the Seals’ mule, and you can take a look at it right here.
The second treat this week is a funny, short story from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan about former Seal great Bill Hicke, who seemed to have a bit of trouble understanding how the autographing procedure worked. From what I gather, he may have had quite the collection of Bill Hicke cards in his personal collection. Why, you ask? You’ll have to check the article out for yourself here. Thanks go out to Pete Manzolillo for sending me the link to this great piece.
Hope you all have a great weekend, and if you are living in Ontario, a great, long Family Day weekend! Until next time, stay gold!
Hi everyone! As you may or may not know, I’m working on a new book which I hope to have published in a year or two (the process takes a VERRRRRRY long time). It’s something a little different than what I’ve done before. I decided to look for some overlooked, forgotten, odd, and unusual stories from the 1970s, write some short pieces on each, and put them together to create a sort-of history of the disco decade. If you’ve visited this site a couple of times of the years, you’ve probably figured out by now that I tend to get excited by stuff no one has ever heard of, or at least, has tucked away in the back of the brain where you can find those old memories of when you wet your pants in kindergarten….
Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, now I remember. So, I was doing some research this week, and I realized a couple of things. 1. I had not yet posted anything about the night when Gary Sabourin tied the franchise record with four goals in one game. 2. Sabourin scored those four goals the legendary Phil Esposito to New York trade took place, and 3. Esposito’s first game as a Ranger was in Oakland. So that’s what today’s article is about: the night Gary Sabourin stole the spotlight from Esposito as the entire hockey media descended upon the Bay Area. You have to admit his timing could not have been better, at least from a personal standpoint. If you’d like to read up on the historic night in Seals history, you can head on over to the article right here.
So, that’s about it, folks. Hope you enjoy the NHL All-Star Weekend, if you’re into that sort of thing. Personally, I kind of take an annual break from hockey at this time, but don’t let me deter you from taking in the skills competition or the 3-on-3 tournament. Just not my thing, that’s all. Hope to see you all back here again next weekend! Until next time, stay gold!
