ScottM

@WordsOfWisdom Yashin was a "me first" type of guy. Guys like Ovi get accused of that by some now for a perception of being more interested in personal stats than anything else, but Ovi has never done anything to directly undermine his team. No honor is an accurate statement.

@JagerMeister The Maple Leafs series in 2001 summed up his playoff performance (or lack thereof) very well. I remember Senators fans (myself included) wanting the #2 seed instead of the #1 seed because we had swept Toronto in the regular season. Suffice it to say, many (myself included) felt that we would have been better off without Yashin. It felt like he was a drag on the whole team.

@yave1964 The charity ordeal showed that his issues were more deeply rooted than hockey. I agree that he had delusions of grandeur. The sad thing is, that if he had played hard and not been so selfish, he probably could have been great. He missed out on a lot because of his attitude.

@Bertmega The thing about Daigle that angered Yashin was that the Senators were touting Daigle more highly before their rookie season. We obviously now know that Daigle was a bust, but at the time, he was thought to be a can't miss superstar. What team wouldn't have talked him up under those circumstances? I really don't think there would have been a difference. Yashin was too greedy anyway. And, yeah, the trade made it all worthwhile.

Bure would have clashed with Bowman because of his attitude. He wasn't a team guy and didn't like playing within the system. That would have been a definite no go with Bowman.

Yeah, that moment in 1998 ranks up there with Ray Bourque in 2001. I always loved the way that the Wings made sure to make Konstantinov a part of things that year. He was well deserving of it because of his contributions to the team. I think having a feel good moment like that was a great thing considering the heartbreak they had a year earlier.

That was a screw up by the league. Bure was 18 at the time of that draft, so he was eligible. That has my curiosity piqued now, so I may have to research that.

IIRC, Bure did play with Fedorov in Russia. I think the two of them and Mogilny made up one of the lines for the CSKA Moscow team before Fedorov's defection. I do think that their styles would have meshed well. Fedorov is one of the best two-way guys in the history of hockey, and he was well-rounded offensively too. He could score, he could set up goals, and was obviously great defensively. That last one would have gone very well with Bure and his Devil may care attitude on defense. With a guy like Fedorov playing next to him, he wouldn't have had to care.

I also agree with you about Bowman and Bure. I think that Bure likely would have ended up in Bowman's dog house, so I don't know if any of that would have come to fruition if Bowman still came along in an alternate timeline. All in all, though, I'd definitely say things worked out well for the Wings. That said, I can't help but wonder what if the Russian Five had been created a couple of years earlier. Would it have made any difference in 1995? Could they have given Detroit a boost to make the Finals that year more competitive, or maybe even turned it with a jump on the series?

I'm not sure one short blog post could cover all the records for patheticness that this particular Caps team set. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the NHL and WHA have 30 teams between the two of them at one point? Between having no access to Eastern European players (at least no significant access) and a then much more limited US talent pool, 30 teams was WAY too much at the time.

Of course, with all of that said, I think in the long run the rapid expansion paid off for the league. It forced them to look to other markets for players. Soon, there were more Americans in the game, and Europeans began to come over. In that respect, I think it helped to globalize the NHL.

Also, while the Devils have had a lot more success than the Caps, winning the 3 Cups, both teams can now claim their fair share of success. As bad as the expansion looked at the time, adding those teams wasn't so bad after all.

Thank you very much!

I could tell a similar story about McDonald. I first remember watching hockey around 1992 or 1993. That was obviously after Lanny's retirement, but I knew who he was even as a kid. He certainly left a mark on the game.

The thing that made Lanny so great to me was the passion that he played with. He always meant a lot to his teams because of that, regardless of what his stats were like. It is true that there are several guys who put up bigger raw numbers than he did, but I'd still take him ahead of a lot of guys that put up the bigger stats.

The one hockey game I've had the privilege of attending was just a few months after this in Jackson when the Bandits played in the ECHL. It was with the church youth group, and I remember a lot of the parents being scared to death after hearing about this and our church youth director having to try to ease their minds. I don't think I would have forgotten this anyway, but that makes me remember it even more vividly.

I always had a soft spot for Knutsen after this happened. He seems to be a classy guy, and I hate to see how he was eaten by guilt over something that he wasn't really responsible for. I couldn't put everything I found into the article, but if I were to add one more thing, it would be what happened when Knutsen's son first learned about the incident at age eight. After reading about it online, he asked his dad, "Did you really take a shot that killed a girl?" He was just being an eight-year-old, and he expressed sympathy for his dad and Britannie, but that still had to sting.

I can't even begin to imagine, nor would I want to, what Brittanie's family went through. To have it happen at any time is tragic, but so close to her birthday when the game was a birthday present? I'm at a loss for words for that.

To be perfectly honest with you all, this was hard to write. A lot of the details of this tore at my heart. But I still feel like these stories need to be told. I don't really know how to fully express my thoughts and emotions about it either.

I'm 31, so I've only ever seen these teams by way of video, and therefore haven't seen as much as you did, but they were a lot of fun to research. The Flyers had more than their share of characters in the 70s. Everyone thinks about the toughness they sported in the 70s, but they had a lot of skill too. Those two Stanley Cup winners were some of the most complete teams in hockey history.

It's also an interesting note that one of the guys who played for Bowman in St. Louis was Al Arbour. The same Al Arbour that replaced him as Blues coach, and went on to a legendary coaching career of his own. It looks like Joel Quenneville will pass Al for second place in wins this coming season, but having the top two winningest coaches in league history  for so many years associated with a team from its earliest days is rather remarkable.

@TropicalFruitGirl26 Thanks for weighing in, and thanks for the kind words!

All in all, I'd say the process was relatively well done, though the St. Louis thing was rather bizarre. The Vancouver omission didn't die out, either, and there was actually a threat of a lawsuit before the city received a team in 1970.

You're right about it not being all that long ago. All of this happened less than 50 years ago. That's not a lot of time for a complete face lift, but it happened. One can only hope it continues.

Thank you again, good sir. I always appreciate your input on these too, as you always have something to say that adds to the conversation.

Gordie Howe wrote the foreward for the book "Bluelines and Bloodlines," and talked about this story. He talked about how little recognition his wife is given for her part. I'll go this far: If not for her, it never would have happened. What are the odds that Mark and Marty would have been chosen by the same team had they waited another year or two for the "normal" draft? Would Gordie have still been able to get himself back into shape after a couple more years? Even if he could, my first question might have prevented him from playing with both of his boys.

Nice story about Dineen too. That's funny. Lol

Yeah, there was some great hockey back then. I'm not so sure about the styles of the era though. I think some of the fashions of the 90's need to stay there. The Rhinos' color scheme may just be one of them. Lol

That may not have been an exceptionally large goal tally for that era, but it was very high for a player with the style of Tiger Williams. You also have to take into consideration that had he not been traded in his 30 goal season, he would have been second on the Leafs team in goals and he led the Canucks in goals the year he scored 35. No matter how you look at it, that is impressive. Was he a world-class goal scorer? No. A good one? Yes. A good one for an enforcer? Very much so, like very few others.

I think all three of those guys fit very nicely into the group of players that you love if they play for your team, and you hate if they don't. When you look at guys like them, you find a lot of very interesting characters. They always seemed to know exactly which buttons to press. Guys like Williams, Hunter, and Lemieux add a lot of personality to the sport.

Both, actually. He was with the Aeros from 1973-77 and with the Whalers from 1977-80, with the last season being an NHL season post-merger.

Howe actually came out of retirement (and underwent surgery) to return to play in the WHA. If not for that league, he might not have had that later part of his career.

That story I had never read. Of all the things to have as an afterthought, the trophy is a doozy. Lol

I thought you'd enjoy this one, yave. The WHA definitely has its fair share of stories, especially considering how short its lifespan was. I really didn't get to put everything I would have liked to into this, because I didn't want to make it too long. In doing my research for this post, I could easily see how I could do quite a few posts about the league without having any trouble. I may do that at some point in the future.

Thank you very much.

To give further proof to what you just said, if I'm not mistaken, only two members of the 1960 roster ever played in the NHL. McCartan (who only played 12 games) and Tommy Williams. In fact, between Frank Brimsek's retirement and Williams' debut, no American regularly played in the NHL. It really wasn't until the WHA came onto the scene that that started to change much at all, but I won't go into that because I'll step on a future blog post I have planned. Compare that to the 1980 team, from which several players would end up in the NHL. It was definitely a different world.

I think you're right. I think most people felt like we were losing -- or even being embarrassed -- in the Cold War, and the international scene as a whole, and the Miracle on Ice was a shot in the arm. I don't want to belittle the cultural significance of the 1980 squad, because they were just what the country needed, but as a hockey accomplishment, 1960 was just as big. It's all in the prism through which things are viewed.

I read about the documentary when I was doing research for the blog post. I was curious about it, so I'd love to hear your impressions of it when you do watch it. If it's good, I might try to find a copy.