Monday, October 25, 2010

A Gull Roar

Just a quick follow-up to my WHL post.

San Diego and Phoenix were successful in the WHL.
San Diego very.
The two moved to the WHA together.
Phoenix was an expansion team, San Diego got the New York franchise
Three years later they left together.
Folded their tents.

Here's the year by year breakdown of their attendance


WHL


66.67 San Diego Gulls 8,106 X
67.68 San Diego Gulls 8,663 Phoenix Roadrunners 4,739
68.69 San Diego Gulls 8,250 Phoenix Roadrunners 4,288
69.70 San Diego Gulls 8,416 Phoenix Roadrunners 5,345
70.73 San Diego Gulls 7,041 Phoenix Roadrunners 4,978
71.72 San Diego Gulls 7,439 Phoenix Roadrunners 5,952
72.73 San Diego Gulls 5,594 Phoenix Roadrunners 5,464
71.73 San Diego Gulls 7,134 Phoenix Roadrunners 6,305

WHA


74.75 San Diego Mariners 6,080 Phoenix Roadrunners 7,443
75.76 San Diego Mariners 6,237 Phoenix Roadrunners 6,484
76.77 San Diego Mariners 6,013 Phoenix Roadrunners 6,985
:
So, San Diego's attendance dropped steadily while the Roadrunners' rose by a third.
If you graphed these numbers, your trnd lines would make a big ol' X.
By this time in WHA history, New England had moved to Hartford and joined Quebec and Winnipeg in the 10,000 seat club.
The three would've been averaging about 90% capacity in this period.
6 to 7 thousand wasn't enough and both ex-WHL sides shut it down after three years

I got the WHA numbers here.

* * * * * *
The WHL figures came from Jon Stott's  book Ice Warriors.
Its a year-by-year survey  of the comings and goings of the WHL and its predecessor the Pacific Coast League.
Cities came and went.
Players came and went.
NHL affiliations came and went.
Major League dreams too.
Stott chronicles them all.

He throws in some bio pieces on the better known players.
And a stats and fact-filled appendix too

Its not a story filled effort - nothing about the time Andy Hebenton hit Gilles Villemure across the head with a salmon.
Of course he didn't
But if he had, you wouldn't hear about it in this book.

Friday, October 22, 2010

The League of the Setting Sun


A couple of weeks back I looked at the players the WHA raided from the Central Hockey League in the summer of 1972.
We turn now [finally] to the Western League.

* * * * * *
Pro hockey returned to the Pacific Coast in 1948, a 10-team league stretching from Vancouver and New Westminster in the north to Los Angeles and Fresno in the south. Over the next few years the California cities disappeared and were replaced by Canadian prairie metropoli.

By 54-55 every team in the league was Canadian.
That didn't last though, Regina & Saskatoon were too small, Winnipeg too far. And, new 10,000 to 13,000 seat arenas were looking for tenants all along the west coast. The prairie era ended after the 62-63 season when Edmonton and Calgary withdrew from the league.

* * * * * *
Vancouver had the largest single season WHL average attendance – 9,000+ in the Canuck’s final year in the league.
Folks were getting themselves to the head of the NHL season ticket line.
Here are the Top-10 seasons [Average Attendance]:
69.70 Vancouver Canucks 9,170
67.68 San Diego Gulls 8,662
69.70 San Diego Gulls 8,416
68.69 San Diego Gulls 8,249
66.67 San Diego Gulls 8,105
61.62 Portland Buckaroos 8,076
62.63 Portland Buckaroos 8,022
64.65 Portland Buckaroos 7,775
60.61 Portland Buckaroos 7,577
71.72 San Diego Gulls 7,438

I always thought that San Diego was a crappy place for a WHA franchise; I can now see why others disagreed.
And I still don't understand how the WHA didn't land in Portland.

* * * * *
In the 71-72 season the WHL had 6 teams, with 96 skaters dressing for at least 25 games:
- Prospects, 14%, 22 and Under
- Veterans, 50%, 23 to 31
- Old Timers, 36%, 32 and up

This age breakdown is exactly opposite to that of the CHL.

The WHA signed 17 WHL regulars.
Once again they skimmed the creme.
Of the Veteran forwards, the Top-5 scorers in order were Larry Lund, Fran Huck,Gary Veneruzzo, Ron Buchanan, Andre Hinse.
First, third and fourth signed with the new league [second and fifth followed a year later].

Three of the Top-4 scoring Veteran defensemen also moved - two to Houston, one to Chicago.

Orest Kindrachuk was among the Top-5 in Prospect scoring in 71-72, he went on to play for the NHL's Flyers.
The other 4 all jumped.

Here's the complete list:

 


Player Name Age Pos. WHL WHA G A Pts PPG
Ron Buchanan 26 C 1.16 Cleveland Crusaders 37 44 81 1.08
Gary Veneruzzo 28 L 1.19 Los Angeles Sharks 43 30 73 0.94
Reg Fleming 35 D 0.86 Chicago Cougars 23 45 68 0.91
Larry Lund 30 C 1.45 Houston Aeros 21 45 66 0.86
Larry Mavety 29 D 0.85 Chicago Cougars 9 40 49 0.73
Phil "Skip" Krake 27 C 0.96 Cleveland Crusaders 9 10 19 0.73
Bob Whitlock 22 L 1.22 Chicago Cougars 23 28 51 0.68
Frank Hughes 21 R 1.17 Houston Aeros 22 19 41 0.53
Dunc McCallum 31 D 0.66 Houston Aeros 9 20 29 0.42
Bob Liddington 22 L 0.57 Chicago Cougars 20 11 31 0.40
John Hanna 36 D 0.42 Cleveland Crusaders 6 20 26 0.39
Ted McCaskill 34 C 0.77 Los Angeles Sharks 11 11 22 0.30
Mel Pearson 33 C 0.82 Minn Fighting Saints 8 12 20 0.29
Gord Kannegiesser 25 D 0.47 Houston Aeros 0 10 10 0.22
Brian Glenwright 21 L 0.63 Chicago Cougars 2 7 9 0.18
Ray LaRose 29 D 0.54 Houston Aeros 1 10 11 0.16
Larry Cahan 37 D 0.32 Chicago Cougars 1 10 11 0.15
 
That's a WHA-E of 64%

The big players in raiding the WHL were the Chicago Cougars with 6 signings, the Houston Aeros signed 5.

The Western League had been hit hard by major league expansion.
It lost several of its larger markets - Vancouver, Los Angelas and the Bay Area.
Plus quality players were now scarcer and dearer.
The advent of the WHA just made things worse, and the League folded two years later.

Monday, October 18, 2010

It is Election Day in Edmonton

No referendum this year, but in 3 years its very likely Edmontonians will be voting to fund, or not, a new Sports Palace for the Drug Lord and his minions.

October 16, 1970. The good citizens said no to the Omniplex;   30,000 football seats, 10,000 hockey seats.

The original downtown arena.
A frickin' beautiful building.
Innovative too, with the hockey arena underneath the football field








There was an earlier version, more the ugly, giant bunker style.   But it envisioned the now de rigueur Club Seating.  So, unlike 60s Edmonites, the building was ahead of its time.


Friday, October 15, 2010

Sovietsky Sports Says

I came across an interesting item published just after the 72 Summit Series.
Its a newspaper rewrite from a Reuters piece, taken from a translation of an interview published in Sovietsky Sport.

In other words, what I'm about to type isn't first hand info.

Sovietsky Sport had sat down with CCCP coaches Bobrov and Kulagin after the Summit Series.

One paragraph in particular may give us some insight to how the Comrades down at Hockey Centralsky looked at the game:
"The paper [Sovietsky Sport] quoted figures showing the technical superiority of the Soviet team.  The Russians carried out 341 attacks, 172 on the move during the Moscow matches to Canada's 230, 134 on the move, and the Soviet players had 249 shots on goal to Canada's 192."

The official Shots on Goal were Canada 267, Soviets 217.

What does "on the move" mean in this context?   Its it just a translation thing, or does it point to a different way of looking at the game? Of measuring good things?

If it is a good thing, only half the Soviet attacks were on the move, while over 58% of Team Canada's were - so I'm encouraged by that.

The two Soviet coaches also accused the Canadians of "trying several methods to intimidate the Soviet players"
True.
And the intimidation "did not bring them success."
Also true.
"Coach John Ferguson was singled out for his 'pugnacity' during play"
Three for three.

The bit about Eagleson being a complete dink must have been blue-penciled.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Fondue Season

There's good news and there's bad news.

I can start planning my holiday season now that the Spengler Cup schedule is up.
In addition to the Canadian side, 5 teams are entered:

HC Davos (Swiss National League)
SKA St. Petersburg (KHL)
Spartak Moscow (KHL)
Sparta Prague (Czech Elite League)
Servette Geneva (Swiss National League)



Dec 26 Sun GS – SKA Torriani

DAV – SM Cattini



Dec 27 Mon SP – L1 Torriani

CAN – L2 Cattini



Dec 28 Tue W1 – SP Torriani

W2 – CAN Cattini



Dec 29 Wed A2 – B3 Quarter-final

B2 – A3 Quarter-final



Dec 30 Thu A1 – W7 Semifinal

B1 – W8 Semifinal



Dec 31 Fri W9 – W10 Championship


This is a new format - 6 teams, two groups, Torriani    & Cattini.
In past years its been 5 teams playing a single round-robin with the Top-2 advancing to the championship game.
Another noticeable difference is that the DEL isn't represented. Traditionally a German side is invited to the tournament.  It was a bad period against Mannheim that ultimately kept Canada out of the Final at last year's event.

The roster will be announced in December.

And the bad news is:
"Hockey Canada announced Friday that Hockey Hall of Famer Mark Messier will serve as head coach of Canada’s national men’s teams at the 2010 Spengler Cup. Mark Messier has extensive experience representing Canada at the international level as a player, including the 1984, 1987 and 1991 Canada Cups, the 1989 IIHF World Championship and the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. The St. Albert, Alta. native totaled nine goals and 23 assists for 32 points in 38 games playing for Canada.
This will be Messier’s second appearance with Team Canada off the ice, as he served as Canada’s general manager at the 2010 IIHF World Championship.
“I am excited for this opportunity to coach Canada on the world stage,” said Messier. “I have always taken pride in representing Canada at an international level as a player, and look forward to the challenges in front of us at the Deutschland Cup and Spengler Cup."

They couldn't find anyone qualified?

Messier will be assisted at the Spengler Cup by:
Doug Shedden (Wallaceburg, Ont.) has previous international coaching experience, guiding Finland to a bronze medal at the 2008 IIHF World Championship.

I know nothing about the Deutschland Cup. Its runs in November. Its a four team event. We'll keep you posted..

Monday, October 11, 2010

Hint, Only one Oiler has worn Number 3

The other day the Edmonton Oilers announced their new captain.
Tom Renney made a fine choice when he selected Shawn Horcoff.
The $7,000,000 man.
Horcov!

But, there was a troubling side to the announcement.
The Oilers Traintrust can't count.
This might explain their troubles with the CBA.
They announced Horcoff as the 13th Captain of the Oilers.
In fact he is the Oilers' 16th captain.

On this day in 1972, it was a Wednesday that year, The Oilers' first Captain led them onto the ice at the Ottawa Civic Center.
The Oilers' hosts in that funky 9,500 seat arena were the Ottawa Nationals.  The two franchises met opening night, and they were still banging heads in the WHA's final season.
You have to follow the bouncing ball though, Ottawa Nationals became the Toronto Toros became the Birmingham Bulls.
A little over 5,000 were in attendance that night in Ottawa.
Let's face it, there was hardly a rivalry.
No blogger comments about how "Guy Trottier was a wuss when he played for the Laffs and he's an even bigger wuss for jumpin' to the Gnats." were to be found anywhere.
[Blogging was much different in those times.]

No doubt the CBC also played a roll in the the attendance numbers.
I know this because whatever the CBC does is wrong.
But in this case their national broadcast of the game wasn't blacked-out in Ottawa.
Don Wittman did the play by play.
You're thinking "Don Wittman, the HNIC guy? Cool"
Wrong.  Wittman was on the CBC's B-Team in those days.
One published review of his performance noted that Wittman "May or may not have been chosen for the prairie-flat quality of his voice, which exactly suited the tempo of the game."

The tempo was a little slow. A little disappointing.
NHL contracts ran October 1 to October 1 in those times.
So, all the guys who had jumped from the NHL couldn't start practicing with their new teams until 10 days before the season started.

Still, considering you could attend for a as little as $3.50, the game had its moments. [$3.50 is what it cost me to see April Wine in concert that same winter]

The Oilers' Ron Anderson scored the first goal in the WHA at 4:19 of he first period.  He encored with a second late in the middle period. Two goals in Game 1, twelve over the next 77.

The man the Canadiens thought might replace Rocket Richard, Bill Hicke, scored the Oilers second goal on a Penalty Shot and a third 15 seconds later.

The Oilers led 3-1, 6-2 and 7-4 by periods, but were outshot by the Gnats 33-31. No fights.  You had to go to a LA Sharks game for good fisticuff action that first WHA season.

Meanwhile, the First Oilers Captain assisted on two goals - Ron Walters' in the second and the Oilers' final goal by Eddie Joyal.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Look for fresh starts and new beginnings in as you clear the slate...

Over at OilersNation they're having a Predict-the-Points-for-all-the-Bragging-Rights contest.
Goals, Assists, Points, 9 Forwards, 4 Defensemen.

I decided to play along, but just with myself:

Ales Hemsky  25  55  80
Dustin Penner 28  30  58
Sam Gagner   19  35  54
Shawn Horcoff 16  29  45
Gilbert Brule 16  21  37 
Magnus Paajarvi 12 23 35
Andrew Cogliano 12 23 35
Taylor Hall 12  21  33
Jordan Eberle 10  19  29

==

Kurtis Foster  9  39  48
Ryan Whitney 7  33  40 
Tom Gilbert  5  27  32 
Ladislav Smid 2  16  18

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Caulking Also Works

We've looked at how the older players from the Central Hockey League moved en masse to the WHA in its first season. Sixteen of the Top-20 scorers signed with the new league. It’s not unreasonable to assume that some if not all of the other 4 were still under contract.

The prospects playing in that prospects league stayed put though. There were 55 regulars aged 22 and under on the 6 CHL teams. I don't know if it was signed contracts or the NHL beacon burning bright that kept all but two from moving to the new League.

Ron Plumb an undersized, 5.10 / 175, defenseman was drafted 9th overall by the Bruins in 1970. He paraded his decent offensive skills for all seven WHA seasons with the Blazers, Mariners, Stingers and finally moved to the NHL with the Whalers.

The other was Ken Baird, drafted 15th by the Seals out of Flin Flon in ‘71; he jumped to the Alberta Oilers after one professional season. Baird was a big lad at 6 feet, 190 pounds. With all the weight and diet work players do now, that 190 converts to about 210 in today's pounds. He was drafted as a defenseman, but played on the Left Wing as much, or more in the pros. Versatility, that's good! Right?
Hmmm. It was more that he got moved in hope he'd be better at one than the other. Baird could've used a little Laura Stamm action, he wasn't the fastest skater. But did score 30 goals one season for the Oilers.

Both of these guys finished their pro careers in West Germany. One of Plumb's teammates was a fellow from Calgary named Murray Heatley.

* * * * * *

I recently re-acquired possession of the 1971 issue of Hockey World magazine. In amongst stories about the NHLPA golf tournament and the HNIC golf tournament, there is a little feature on the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft.

The Oakland/ California Seals [Golden and not] have achieved some fame among the subset of Edmonton Oiler fans who read blogs. Thanks to one man's efforts.
In 70-71 Oakland finished last in the NHL, 10 points behind Detroit. The top 2 prospects that year were Guy Lafleur and Marcel Dionne. Detroit picked second and got Dionne, the Seals, selected, well, Ken Baird.
The Seals, in a move which defined the operation, had traded their first rounder to Montreal.

* * * * * *

Herb Tarlick was on acid when he helped Jocelyn Guevremont choose that jacket.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

20,000 Leagues under the Sea

The WHA and its rampant player theft vied with the Summit Series for Headline space in the summer of 1972.

The WHA signed 65 to 70 NHLers, including several guys who were selected to Team Canada.

The new league also signed a truckload of players from the three minor pro leagues; the American, the Central and the Western. Those leagues were quite different from each other. The American was the NHL's spare parts league - the best, most complete players. The Central was the prospects league. Everyone else ended up in the Western League.

These differences show up in the player breakdown between
- Prospects, 22 and Under
- Veterans, 23 to 31
- Old Timers, 32 and up
in that final season, 1971-72, before the WHA launched.

The AHL had 11 teams, with 204 skaters playing at least 25 games
- Prospects, 39%
- Veterans, 50%
- Old Timers, 11%

The WHL had 6 teams, with 96 skaters dressing for at least 25 games:
- Prospects, 14%
- Veterans, 50%
- Old Timers, 36%

The CHL also had 6 teams, with 102 regular skaters:
- Prospects, 54%
- Veterans, 45%
- Old Timers, 1%

But that doesn't tell the real story, lets re-jig that CHL split:
- 22 and Under, 54%
- 23-years-old, 22%
- Veterans, 23%
- Old Timers, 1%

In 71-72, there were Twenty-five guys 24 years and older in the Central League. The WHA signed 17 of them; 4 of the top 5 scorers [using Point Per Game] and 16 of the top 20.

Lets see how those 16 did when they stepped up. We'll compare their PPG in 71-72 to their first WHA season:






CHL

G
A
Pts
WHA
C Ross Perkins 1.43 Alberta Oilers
21
37
58
0.82
C Jean Payette 1.35 Quebec Nordiques
15
29
44
0.62
C J P LeBlanc 1.29 Los Angeles Sharks
19
50
69
0.90
C Bob Sicinski 1.25 Chicago Cougars
25
63
88
1.14
R Bernie Blanchette 1.05 Chicago Cougars
7
7
14
0.30
D Bart Crashley 1.04 Los Angeles Sharks
18
27
45
0.64
D Dick Proceviat 0.81 Chicago Cougars
4
14
18
0.34
R Dan Lodboa 0.67 Chicago Cougars
15
18
33
0.57
C Brian Conacher 0.65 Ottawa Nationals
8
19
27
0.39
R Alain Caron 0.63 Quebec Nordiques
36
27
63
0.93
L Brian Bradley 0.57 New York Raiders
22
33
55
0.71
R Bill Hicke 0.56 Alberta Oilers
14
24
38
0.52
L Brit Selby 0.56 New England Whalers
13
30
43
0.60
C Tommy Earl 0.52 New England Whalers
10
13
23
0.30
F Bill Young 0.51 Los Angeles Sharks
14
12
26
0.52
D Bob Ash 0.48 Winnipeg Jets
3
14
17
0.22

That's a WHA-E of 76%.
The two guys who blew that .76 out of the water were Alain Caron [one of the Old Timers] at 1.48, and Brian Bradley at 1.25.
The Oiler's two signings came in at .57 for Ross Perkins and .93 for the other Old Timer Hicke.  Perkins won the OIler's "Unsung Hero" award for his effort in the WHA's first.
Brian Conacher, spent the weeks before Ottawa's training camp as Second Banana to Foster Hewitt''s play-by-play of the Summit Series.

WHA teams also signed some 23-year-olds, including the Top Four scorers from that age group [by PPG]:




CHL

G
A
Pts
WHA
L Cal Swenson 1.23 Winnipeg Jets
7
21
28
0.36
R Bill Klatt 1.14 Minnesota Fighting Saints
36
22
58
0.74
R Tom Martin 1.13 Ottawa Nationals
19
27
46
0.62
L Jan Popiel 0.97 Chicago Cougars
31
34
65
0.86

The Twenty gus listed above were mostly depth players for their WHA sides.
For the most part they were out of organized hockey long before the WHA-NHL merger.

And, finally, two young defensemen moved to the WHA:




CHL

G A Pts WHA
D Ron Plumb 0.72 Philadelphia Blazers 10 41 51 0.65
D Ken Baird 0.27 Alberta Oilers 14 15 29 0.39

These two had the longest WHA careers with Plumb part of the rebel league for its duration. And, only Plumb would've rated a second look from the Team Canada 74 selectors.

In the next few days we'll break down the other two leagues as well.