This retrospective, which mainly covers what happened in the '74 calendar year, is the penultimate entry in Sports74 Gold. How time flies.
After leaving Canada with a win, a loss, and two ties, the Soviet
Union's national team defeats a team of WHA all-stars in three out of four games
in Moscow; the other game is a tie. The squad that represents Canada
includes all three Howes (of the Houston Aeros), Winnipeg Jets
player-coach Bobby Hull, and '72 Summit Series hero Paul Henderson
(a new arrival on the Toronto Toros). Hull scores nine points against the Soviets and Gordie
Howe gets seven.
On the way to Moscow, the WHA stars defeat Finland in Helsinki and Sweden in Gothenburg. On the way home, they lose to Czechoslovakia in Prague.
In the NHL, this season is the debut of the Kansas City
Scouts and Washington Capitals. With this expansion, the league is
realigned into the Wales Conference and the Campbell Conference, each of which
has two divisions.
An advertisement for the Capitals that first season contains these words:
"For as little as $4 a ticket, the least you'll feel is reasonably
disappointed."
Franchises in Denver and Seattle are planned for the NHL in
1976-77, but for several reasons, neither one will materialize.
The Northlands Coliseum opens, and it will be the home of the
WHA's (later NHL's) Edmonton Oilers for over 40 years.
The New England Whalers play games in West
Springfield, Mass. -- where they had played their '74 playoff games -- for the
season up to and including Jan. 4, 1975. They play their first game at the
Hartford Civic Center on Jan. 11, 1975. Except for some time in the late '70s,
the Whalers will keep calling Hartford home until 1997.
The WHA's third season is the first for which plus-minus
figures are available. The best in that figure is Bobby Hull with 55. The
worst, with negative 63, is defenseman Paul Curtis of the team that
starts the season as the Michigan Stags and finishes as the Baltimore
Blades.
Ken Dryden is back on the Montreal
Canadiens. After a year of absence, he has the third-best GAA in the NHL
(2.69). He led the league in '72-73 with 2.26.
Speaking of the Habs, they begin a streak of 23 road games
without a loss Nov. 27.
Guy Lafleur of Montreal has his
breakout season with 53 goals and 66 assists.
Gordie Howe's 99 points bring him to 2,008 combined for NHL
and WHA games.
Phil Esposito of the Boston
Bruins scores his 500th goal Dec. 22 in his 803rd career game, played at the Boston Garden against
the Detroit Red Wings. He is the
sixth player in league history to reach the 500 mark.
Esposito and Bobby Orr play what proves to be
their last season together and Orr's last season before his premature decline.
Also in Boston, Don Cherry is brought in to start a
six-year run as head coach.
The playoffs that follow this NHL season will be different
from how they had been in the last four years. From 1971 to 1974, East and West
teams met in the semifinals. Now, the four division winners get byes and the second- and third-place teams play in the preliminaries, with
matchups determined by points regardless of division or even conference.
In the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft, the Buffalo Sabres
use their eleventh-round pick on made-up Japanese player Taro Tsujimoto. Among
the real players drafted this year are two future Hall of Famers, both New
York Islanders selections: Clark Gillies of the WCHL's Regina Pats
and Bryan Trottier of the Western Canada League's Swift Current Broncos (who play in Lethbridge, Alberta, for 12 years starting in the coming season).
The Toronto Maple Leafs draft the Broncos' Dave
"Tiger" Williams, who had 854 penalty minutes in 204 games with
Swift Current, but also 108 goals and 133 assists. In '74-75, he has 202
penalty minutes in 39 games with the Central League's Oklahoma City
Blazers and 187 in 42 games with the Leafs.
With the first pick, the Capitals select Greg Joly
of the Pats. The second pick belongs to the Scouts, and they choose Wilf
Paiement of the OHA's St. Catharines Black Hawks.
In the WHA, the Minnesota Fighting Saints acquire
the players who will be made famous in the 1977 movie Slap Shot. They
select Dave Hanson of the Midwest Junior Hockey League's St. Paul Vulcans in the '74 draft. From the USHL's Marquette Iron Rangers, the Saints draft two of the Carlson brothers (Jack Carlson
and Steve Carlson) and sign the third, Jeff Carlson.
All told, there are eight different drafts for the two
leagues in 1974. To wit:
· In addition to the aforementioned, the NHL amateur draft involves the California Golden Seals selecting Joly's teammate Rick Hampton with the third overall pick.
· The WHA amateur draft brings Real Cloutier of the QMJHL's Quebec Remparts to the Quebec Nordiques.
· A secret amateur draft results in Cam Connor of the WCHL's Flin Flon Bombers going to the Phoenix Roadrunners.
· That new franchise is one of two teams with picks to make in the WHA expansion draft; the Indianapolis Racers get Bob Fitchner from the Oilers.
· The NHL also has an expansion draft, whose most important picks might be Seals left winger Gary Croteau for the Scouts and Pittsburgh Penguins blueliner Yvon Labre for the Capitals.
· The expansion teams also take part in an interleague draft, each one choosing a player from the Hershey Bears of the American League. The Caps take Jim Hrycuik (who scores the team's very first goal Oct. 9), and the Scouts pick Hugh Harvey.
· In the reverse draft, the AHL's Nova Scotia Voyageurs get Al Hangsleben back from their parent club, the Canadiens, but he plays the season with the Whalers and their NAHL affiliate, the Cape Codders.
· Finally, there's the NHL's intraleague draft, in which the New York Rangers claim Walt McKechnie of the Golden Seals as compensation for losing Seals pick Jeff Neilson, only to immediately send McKechnie to the Bruins in what appears to be a pre-arranged, three-team trade.
Soviet defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov plays a single game this season that begins a distinguished 15-year run with CSKA Moscow.
The finale for Sports74 Gold involves front office problems, free throw problems, and a moment that caused problems for some fans in Vermont. Pro and college roundball will round out the series Oct. 18.
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