Changing the Game

by Stephen Laroche

  Joe Watson

  A fresh-faced rookie with the Boston Bruins in 1966–67, Watson played alongside fellow freshman Bobby Orr and had a solid 15-point year that made him a prized prospect heading into the expansion draft. The Flyers took him with their third pick among skaters, and he was the youngest regular member of their defence corps once the regular season started.

  When Philadelphia took on the Bruins on November 12, 1967, Watson opened the scoring at 1:12 of the first period with his first goal in a Flyers uniform. That game also marked the first time the team defeated Boston, and he commented to the press about it afterwards.

  “The Flyers’ performance was just great. It was so good that the Philly skaters made Bobby Orr look ordinary. It’s a good thing, too. If you let him get loose, he’ll murder you.”

  Over the course of the season, Watson’s solid play from the back end earned him attention from All-Star voters. He had a two-point outing against the Chicago Black Hawks on February 3, 1968. He also scored the winning goal against the Minnesota North Stars on March 10, his final tally of the regular season.

  Newspaper reports noted that his mother could actually hear telecasts in Vancouver of Flyers games from radio station WCAU 1210 thanks to its powerful signal.

  “Joe was steady and a smart player,” said goaltender Doug Favell. “He was reliable and a smart defenceman. He wasn’t flashy and maybe sometimes you didn’t notice him. As a goaltender, you noticed him the most.”

  Watson remained with the Flyers for most of the rest of his playing days and was a defensive anchor during two Stanley Cup championships. His younger brother, Jim, eventually made the club as well. Today, he remains active with the team’s alumni association.

  Ed Van Impe

  The runner-up to Bobby Orr in voting for the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year in 1966–67, Van Impe finally became a regular with the Chicago Black Hawks that year after spending several seasons in the minors honing his skills. Many observers were shocked to see him exposed in the expansion draft, and he was the first skater selected by the Flyers.

  “Believe me, we were really surprised when we saw that Van Impe was left unprotected,” said general manager Bud Poile. “This changed our plans to a degree because we simply didn’t think a player of his capabilities would be let go. But it’s understandable. After all, the Black Hawks were really loaded up front and they’ve got some outstanding kids in their organization, a few who are really good prospects. Yet there was no doubt as to our picking Van Impe if we got the opportunity. Hell, anybody who played regularly on the Black Hawks’ defence, well, we just had to go after him.”

  Given the honour of being named an assistant captain, Van Impe scored his first goal with Philadelphia on October 22, 1967, in a 5–2 win over the California Seals. On November 19, he got the game-winner against the St. Louis Blues, and later in the season he recorded two-assist games against Los Angeles and Toronto. Because of his strong play throughout Philly’s first year in the NHL, he gained some All-Star votes and his future with the club looked bright.

  “There’s no doubt that Van Impe has all of the qualifications of being our team leader,” said coach Keith Allen. “This guy comes to play. He’s going to play a big role in our first few seasons.”

  Larry Zeidel

  Zeidel bravely dealt with adversity throughout his career and could be considered one of hockey’s greatest success stories. One of the few Jewish players of the Original Six era, he played for Detroit and Chicago between 1951–52 and 1953–54 and won a Stanley Cup as a rookie. After that, he spent many years in the minor leagues and played with the AHL’s Cleveland Barons in 1966–67.

  Not ready to give up on his pro hockey career, he felt he could offer some much-needed experience to any NHL team as the expansion era began. He drafted a 10–page pamphlet entitled, “A Resume with References and Testimonials of Larry Zeidel, Professional Hockey Player, Sales Promotion and Public Relations Executive.”

  “With expansion coming up, I figured I’d better let people know I was available,” he said. “I never attempted anything like that before, so I talked to a lot of people and used some of their ideas. The best advice I got was from a friend who said to spend some money and make the booklet a first-class presentation.”

  After spending $150 of his own money to produce the booklet and sending out 200 copies to just about anyone in the hockey world, Zeidel received a great number of rejections and was even turned down by Philadelphia’s Bill Putnam. Once training camp began, though, Bud Poile was interested enough to purchase his rights from Cleveland.

  “The Rock was different,” said Doug Favell. “He was very enthusiastic and excited to be there. A unique and neat guy. To see a guy that age and knowing he was a career minor-leaguer, it kept us on edge. We needed that at the time.”

  From the start, Zeidel gave the Flyers toughness. His pugnaciousness came through when he spoke to The Hockey News about an early-season scuffle with Noel Picard of the St. Louis Blues.

  “That Picard thinks he’s a tough guy, but he really isn’t. He hit me with a sneak punch and only floored me for the count of five. If he was as tough as he thinks he is, he would have knocked me out for the full count.”

  His only goal of the 1967–68 season was only the third of his NHL career, but it gave the Flyers a victory over the Los Angeles Kings on December 31, 1967. He also earned an assist that night and felt good about the team’s chances to win a championship.

  “If you mention that you feel an expansion club can win the Stanley Cup, a lot of people laugh in your face,” he said. “Right away, they say, ‘Hell, you’re a new team. Those other teams have been around for years.’ If you hear too much of that kind of stuff, you start doubting yourself. But right now I feel positive that it’s possible.”

  Throughout the year, however, Zeidel had to deal with narrow-minded taunts from opponents because of his religious background. Some members of the Boston Bruins were particularly vicious with their barbs, and the tension came to a boil when the two teams met at Maple Leaf Gardens on March 7, 1968, as anti-Semitic comments were directed at the veteran defender.

  “Nearly the whole Boston team tried to intimidate me about being the only Jewish player in the league,” he said to the press afterward. “They said they wouldn’t be satisfied until they put me in a gas chamber.”

  Those comments truly hit close to home because Zeidel had lost his grandparents in World War II when they were killed at the hands of the Nazis. A nasty stick-swinging incident was triggered after Zeidel cross-checked Eddie Shack as he skated over Philly’s blue line during the first period. There was a fair deal of history between the two combatants stemming back from their days in the AHL, but according to some reports Shack was not the one who made the comments — just a convenient nearby target.

  Andre Lacroix disagreed with that assessment, however.

  “From my perspective, it was Shack saying something like ‘I’m going to get you, you fucking Jew.’ With all of the reporters around, you would think that somebody would have found out who said it.”

  Both combatants drew blood that night, and the battle came as a bit of a surprise to the officials.

  “There really wasn’t a buildup to it as I recall,” said referee Bruce Hood. “When it happened, I was surprised. There was nothing that jumped out at me earlier in the game. I had not heard any remarks and neither had any of the other officials. It was a bit of a shock to me. I just thought to myself, ‘My God, what is going on here?’”

  Teammate Bill Sutherland was on the ice when it happened and did his best to calm down the situation.

  “It smartened a lot of us up. Once they stopped swinging, I went to tackle Larry. We were lucky none of them got hurt.”

  “Boston started pulling this kind of stuff when we played them earlier in the season,” said Zeidel. “I didn’t let it get to me even though it hurt me to hear it. It was bad on my part to try and ignore it then, because things only got worse and they r
eally got bad just before the start of our last game in Boston Garden. That bit about me being a ‘Jew boy’ is music to my ears, but when they brought up the business of the gas chamber and extermination, well, I didn’t buy it.

  “When I didn’t retaliate immediately, they figured I wasn’t the same fellow of a few years ago. So they thought they could push me around. The first thing in hockey you learn is that you don’t let anyone push you around. Let them do that and you might as well pack up and leave because they’ll run you right off the ice.”

  Fellow tough-guy Forbes Kennedy refused to name the Bruins players who made the comments but stood up to them during the game.

  “It wasn’t the tough guys who were yappin’ at him. I didn’t like it at all. I told them that, too. They were hiding behind the tough guys. That was a bad scene. I don’t blame Larry at that time.”

  Naturally, the NHL offices were alerted to what had happened and league president Clarence Campbell called the battle a “near disaster.” Each player was fined $300, Shack received a three-game suspension and Zeidel, as the aggressor in their fight, was put on the shelf for four contests.

  “This was without a doubt the most vicious episode of its type the league has experienced in many years,” Campbell stated. “The force of any one of the blows could easily have produced a disaster. Both of the principals are very fortunate that their injuries were of a minor nature, but such conduct is absolutely intolerable. A realistic effort will be made to stamp out such behaviour in the future.”

  Campbell made his ruling after reviewing footage of the incident and reports from Bruce Hood and the game’s linesmen. It was reported, however, that Campbell did not want to hear a word about the anti-Semitic remarks at the hearing. Several fans who were near the bench happened to overhear what the Bruins players said, but that evidence was also disregarded when discipline was handed out. Zeidel refused to talk about the incident later in the season.

  Zeidel finished the year with Philadelphia and, after playing just nine games in 1968–69, announced his retirement. Although a single incident casts a shadow on his career, fans everywhere respect him for standing up for himself.

  Larry Zeidel

  Bernie Parent

  Seemingly destined to become a great goaltender, Parent grew up in Montreal and watched his idol, Jacques Plante, from afar when Plante visited his sister, who lived on the same street as the budding young star’s family. By the early 1960s, Parent was part of the Boston Bruins organization and he starred for the Niagara Falls Flyers before he made his NHL debut in 1965–66. Despite his incredible potential, the club chose to protect Ed Johnston and Gerry Cheevers on draft day, and Parent was the first player selected by the Philadelphia Flyers.

  In net for the team’s opener against California, he did not record his first victory until November 4, 1967, but it was a big one as he thrilled his hometown crowd in a 4–1 defeat of the Canadiens. By December, he was on a hot streak and earned shutouts against St. Louis and Minnesota and was at one point named West Division Player of the Week.

  At the halfway mark of the season, Parent and tandem-mate Doug Favell were awarded the prize money for the Vezina Trophy because they had the lowest combined goals-against average in the league at the time. They had let in only 77 goals over the first 37 games.

  “What makes me so happy is that both Dougie and I played about the same number of games,” said Parent at the time. “That means each of us can feel that we had a lot to do with winning it.”

  The Flyers eventually finished first in the West Division, but it was Parent who got the call to step in net once the playoffs started. At the time, he acknowledged the pressure of the postseason but told reporters that he was used to it by then.

  “Sure, there’s plenty of pressure in the playoffs,” he remarked. “But, don’t forget, we had just as much pressure on us for the last six weeks of the regular season. We beat the pressure then and wound up winning the championship. I feel we’ll be able to stand up to the pressure now in the playoffs. I have never played in the Stanley Cup playoffs before, but it doesn’t scare me.”

  He appeared in five games during the first-round battle with St. Louis and was on the losing end despite a sparkling goals-against average of 1.35, ahead of all playoff goaltenders that year. At the end of the season, he placed fourth in voting for the annual All-Star Team. Parent eventually went on to a Hall of Fame career.

  Bernie Parent

  Doug Favell

  Favell was a rising prospect in the Boston Bruins organization in the late 1960s but was stuck in limbo in many ways because there were three NHL-calibre goalies ranking ahead of him on the team. A second-year pro in 1966–67, he spent the year with the Oklahoma City Blazers along with Bernie Parent and put up a 14–13–4 record. In the expansion draft, the Philadelphia Flyers surprised many observers at the time by picking him despite his lack of big-league experience.

  Once training camp began, it all started to make sense when the Flyers made him their backup goaltender to Parent after he beat out veteran Al Millar for the job.

  “I played well enough for them to keep me,” he said. “We didn’t have much scoring, but we had a great defence.”

  Although the team had two talented young goalies on their roster, some members of the hockey media didn’t have high hopes for Philadelphia’s fate in their first year. In short fashion, however, Favell’s play changed their tune. He debuted in a 4–2 loss to Los Angeles on October 14, 1967, and was understandably tense beforehand.

  “I never forgot that feeling. It was the most nervous I ever felt during a game. My legs were like rubber.”

  Just four days later, Favell managed to earn the first victory in franchise history when the Flyers beat the St. Louis Blues and the following night he shut out the Pittsburgh Penguins. Over the rest of the first half, he racked up his fair share of wins and, along with Parent, recorded the lowest combined goals-against average in the league to win the Vezina Trophy prize money after 37 games. He also placed second in first-half voting for the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year.

  The presence of two hot goalies on the same team led the media to buzz about a rivalry between the young stars, but there was simply no animosity between them.

  “That was just the media playing it up. There was never a rivalry. We just laughed about it. We kind of helped each other. There were times where I wasn’t playing and I always kidded a lot and said something kind of silly to a reporter.”

  At the end of the season, Favell was voted the team’s most popular player by fans and also placed fifth in All-Star voting. As for the Calder Trophy, he ended up in third place as a result of a surge by Montreal’s Jacques Lemaire.

  Doug Favell

  EXPANSION YEAR RECORD: 27–34–13

  (67 points — fifth in West Division)

  COACH: Red Sullivan

  GENERAL MANAGER: Jack Riley

  FIRST GAME: October 11, 1967 —

  2–1 loss vs. Montreal Canadiens

  FIRST GOAL: October 11, 1967 by Andy Bathgate

  PITTSBURGH

  PENGUINS

  Even though the NHL’s Pittsburgh Pirates left town in 1930, hockey was far from dead in the Steel City, where the AHL’s Hornets began play six years later. For their first 20 seasons, the Hornets served as an affiliate for the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs before shutting down temporarily when the Pittsburgh Civic Arena, otherwise known as the “Igloo,” was being built.

  When they returned to action in 1961 once again as a farm team for Detroit, they were a hit with fans, but their days were numbered once the NHL decided to expand into the city. They won their third Calder Cup in 1966–67 and ended their AHL tenure on the highest note possible.

  The drive to bring the NHL back to Pittsburgh began in spring 1965 when state senator Jack McGregor started to seek investors in the expansion bid. The franchise was viewed in part as an urban renewal project and was awarded on February 8, 1966. Seating needed to be added to th
e Civic Arena and a payment was made to the Red Wings to settle up over the Hornets.

  Soon after, the team was given its name and a logo was created that featured a skating penguin in front of a triangle. The significance of the triangle comes from the “Golden Triangle” in Pittsburgh, and the original logo also saw the penguin wearing a scarf, which was removed early in the team’s history. Jack Riley was hired as general manager; he had previously held the same position with the Rochester Americans. He in turn hired a fine coach in George “Red” Sullivan, who had been the bench boss for the New York Rangers after finishing his playing career.

  The Penguins picked up a handful of players during the 1966–67 season but saved most of their energy for the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft. Both the goalies they picked that day were young talents with decent potential, but first selection Joe Daley did not end up playing for them in their first year and Roy Edwards was traded soon after to Detroit for veteran Hank Bassen. There was no mistaking Sullivan’s influence on the players the Penguins chose, as many of them had played under him on the Rangers. It was obvious that many of these players were also getting on in years and had a great deal of pro experience behind them. The best pick of them all proved the second-last one, as after being cast aside by the Red Wings, Andy Bathgate staged a big comeback in 1967–68.

  At first glance, the new Pittsburgh club looked effective when it came to checking, and their scoring attack drew a lot of praise. The most glaring problem in training camp was that they had too many goalies to choose from.

  “It’s going to be a tough job to select two goalies,” said Sullivan. “I’m going to be taking a good look at all of them during the exhibition games. All four of them have looked sharp in scrimmages, but I know a few other coaches who would like to be saddled with the same problem of picking out two of these four to stay with the team.”

  Even before the Pens hit the ice, after the owners of the Atlanta Braves purchased a minority stake in the club, there were rumours that the club was going to be moved. The Braves’ president, William C. Bartholomay, openly stated that purchasing part of the Penguins was “for the purpose of assuring Atlanta a place in the league when it expands again.” At the time, the NHL had no clear plans for further expansion, so fans in Pittsburgh were concerned their new team was going to leave town before they even got a chance to enjoy them. McGregor cautiously responded to the rumours in the press and tried his best to quell those fears.