Changing the Game

by Stephen Laroche

  “It was really one area where I wasn’t too satisfied,” he said, “I felt he wasn’t a good NHL coach and felt he favoured a lot of the ex-Rangers. They got a lot more ice time and were made a bigger priority.”

  Before that point, Sullivan was complimentary of his play.

  “He’s playing well and not because he has scored goals. He just seems to be strong in his skating, his checking and carrying the puck. Some people say he’s not a good skater, but I think he’s a deceptive skater, like Gordie Howe and Gordie’s been around a long time.”

  The Penguins traded him away to the Philadelphia Flyers for Wayne Hicks on February 27, 1968, and he returned to the minors for good at the end of the season.

  “Artie was a great playmaker and moved the puck so well,” said captain Ab McDonald. “He could really handle the puck. I told him that he would have been an All-Star if he could see! His eyesight wasn’t great, but he was a great playmaker.”

  Val Fonteyne

  Fonteyne is regarded as perhaps the most gentlemanly player the game of hockey has ever seen. He spent most of his early NHL career as a member of the Detroit Red Wings. After years of great service to the club, he was demoted late in the 1966–67 campaign when the club began a youth movement, and he helped the Pittsburgh Hornets to a Calder Cup championship instead.

  “I was sent down with a month to go to a powerful team in the American League,” he recalled. “We had a great team and if they had brought that team into the NHL, it could have done well on its own.”

  Taken by Pittsburgh in the expansion draft, Fonteyne made his first goal as a member of the Penguins count, giving them a victory over the California Seals on October 25, 1967. He missed some time after getting hit in the ankle by a puck during practice, but he managed to establish new career marks in assists and points. In early February 1968, he had back-to-back two-assist games against St. Louis and Toronto and also managed a three-point night while facing the Seals on March 2.

  Today Fonteyne is remembered mostly for his clean play, but it was not something that was on his mind at the time.

  “It never even dawned on me,” he said. “I played that way since I was a kid, and it was just the way it was.”

  Team captain Ab McDonald was pleased by his effort throughout the year.

  “He had great wheels and could kill penalties. When the going got tough, you could count on him.”

  Leo Boivin

  The master of the hip check, Boivin was not the biggest defender in the NHL during the Original Six era, but his play was steady and he earned both fear and respect from opponents. By 1966–67, he was patrolling the blue line for the Detroit Red Wings, but he wasn’t upset about being made available in the expansion draft.

  “I didn’t mind,” he said. “I knew that I wasn’t going to be protected. They were going with younger guys.”

  Being drafted by the Penguins was a bit of a homecoming for him, as he had started his pro career with the AHL’s Pittsburgh Hornets and won a Calder Cup there in 1951–52. Looked upon as the new club’s anchor on defence, he had a goal and an assist in a loss to the Los Angeles Kings on October 28, 1967. He served as a mentor to many of the team’s youngsters, including Dick Mattiussi, who spoke to The Hockey News about Boivin.

  “If he sees something you’re doing wrong, he’ll tell you. When you’re on the ice, you’re going to learn a lot faster if you’re paired with him. If you make a mistake, he makes it look like it isn’t a mistake; he comes up smooth.”

  During the drive to the playoffs, the man teammates called “Fireplug” showed few signs of slowing down and he not only managed two goals in a win over the Seals on March 27, 1968, he also had the game-winning tally against Philadelphia three days later.

  “Leo and I were good friends and he could bodycheck,” said captain Ab McDonald. “One of the things I always remember is that Leo would always hit Ron Ellis when he was coming down the ice. You’d think that kid would learn!”

  Hank Bassen

  A solid backup netminder from the era when most NHL teams primarily used one goaltender, Bassen was often counted upon to fill in between the pipes whenever necessary. He definitely earned the nickname of “Mr. Emergency.” He served regularly as a backup to Terry Sawchuk or Roger Crozier in Detroit and was coveted by the Penguins after he led the Pittsburgh Hornets to a Calder Cup championship in 1966–67. Before the start of training camp, he was traded by the Red Wings for a solid younger goalie named Roy Edwards.

  Bassen was in the net in the club’s opening game against Montreal and looked good despite surrendering the 400th goal of Jean Beliveau’s career. Two nights later, he was responsible for the first victory in franchise history by making 37 saves in the 3–1 win over the St. Louis Blues. Platooned with Les Binkley, he recorded a shutout against the Philadelphia Flyers on November 15, 1967, and did not shy away from the rough stuff during the next outing with St. Louis. After he received a bloody nose thanks to the errant elbow of Jim Roberts, he responded by smashing his opponent’s head with his stick, and a fight broke out.

  As the season wore on, Binkley emerged as the team’s number one goalie and Bassen saw less and less action on the ice. Although their goals-against averages were comparable, Binkley had a better winning percentage. At the end of the year, the 35-year-old hung up his pads for good, but his son, Bob, later had a solid NHL career.

  “I played with Hank Bassen in Detroit,” said Leo Boivin. “He was a jolly good guy. Sometimes goalies are a little flaky, but Hank was a good guy.”

  Les Binkley

  Binkley had been a pro for more than a decade when the NHL expanded and, even though he had been one of the best goalies in the minors in the 1960s, he didn’t end up going to one of the new clubs until just before the 1967–68 season started. That was when the WHL’s San Diego Gulls sold him to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

  At the age of 33, he won the backup role to Hank Bassen and made his long-awaited NHL debut in a 3–3 tie with the Minnesota North Stars on October 18, 1967. Three days later, he became the first West Division goaltender to beat an established club when the Pens took down the struggling Chicago Black Hawks by a score of 4–2. From that point on, he began a hot streak that saw him take over as top man in the crease after earning the confidence of coach Red Sullivan.

  “I know of only one man who has the edge on Binkley and that’s Bower of Toronto. There are one or two others who are Bink’s equal and there are several who get more publicity. But there is no one outside of Bower who has more ability as a goaltender than Binkley… . He consistently plays a fantastic game. Sure, he’s not infallible. I’ve seen him make some bad plays. But for every bad one, he’ll make 10 or 15 big saves. I’ll match him against anyone in the league.”

  Toward the end of December, he shut out Minnesota and also managed to earn a rare 0–0 tie with the Oakland Seals, earning West Division Player of the Week honours from The Hockey News. By the end of the season, he had six blankings to his credit, but the team narrowly missed out on the playoffs. Down the stretch, he missed several games because of a broken finger, and the club suffered without him in the crease.

  “He played so well and took over as number one,” said Ab McDonald. “He went out and played as hard as he could. When you came up the way Bink did, you deserve it. He came up the hard way.”

  Ken Schinkel also had a lot of praise for the veteran goalie.

  “I played against him in junior when he played for Galt. Les took over and he was the kind of goalie that made saves. He won a lot of games for us and he probably kept us in the game 50 percent or more of the time.”

  At the end of the year, Binkley was voted Pittsburgh’s MVP and also earned votes for the All-Star Team and the Calder Trophy.

  Les Binkley

  EXPANSION YEAR RECORD: 27–31–16

  (70 points — third in West Division)

  COACH: Lynn Patrick and Scotty Bowman

  GENERAL MANAGER: Lynn Patrick

  FIRST GAME: Octobe
r 11, 1967 —

  2–2 tie vs. Minnesota North Stars

  FIRST GOAL: October 11, 1967 by Larry Keenan

  ST. LOUIS

  BLUES

  The city of St. Louis became the new home for the troubled Ottawa Senators franchise during the 1934–35 season, but the Eagles lasted only for a single season, unable to soar out of the last-place spot in the NHL’s Canadian Division and the league.

  As the franchise’s financial problems continued, they sold off star Syd Howe to Detroit to stay afloat. Their anemic offence and poor defence proved a recipe that kept fans away from the St. Louis Arena, and the cost of rail travel to other NHL cities was prohibitive. The team sold off more players at the end of the season and then were put up for sale. A buyer could not be found, so the league bought it back and the remaining members of the club were dispersed.

  Just three years later, the Montreal Maroons attempted to move to St. Louis, but the proposal was shot down by the league, mostly because of the potential travel costs. Over the next three decades, local fans got to see some great minor league hockey instead. The St. Louis Flyers of the AHA, who were around before and while the Eagles were in town, ran until the end of the 1941–42 season and then came back as part of the American Hockey League in 1944–45. Although they were not a success on the ice, they stuck around until the end of the 1952–53 campaign.

  A decade later, pro hockey returned to St. Louis when the Syracuse Braves of the Eastern Professional Hockey League (EPHL) were moved mid-season and relocated to Missouri. That league closed its doors at the end of the year and was replaced by the Central Hockey League instead. The Braves soldiered on, but once the NHL was looking at expansion, their days were numbered.

  After the failure of the Eagles, the NHL was not entirely keen on putting a team back in St. Louis; however, there was a lot of pressure from Chicago Black Hawks owners, the Wirtz brothers, to make use of the St. Louis Arena since they owned the aging rink. Although the arena was in a somewhat decrepit state, its sale gave them some return on their investment. Once the league announced six new expansion cities, St. Louis was included without a formal bid in place — much to the chagrin of many other worthy cities that applied.

  It was only a matter of time before the league found a buyer and, after a meeting with NHL executive William Jennings, insurance mogul Sid Salomon Jr., along with his son Sid Salomon III and Robert L. Wolfson, took over the reins of ownership. Naturally, millions of dollars had to be sunk into franchise fees, but they also had to make some serious upgrades to the arena to get it ready for NHL action.

  Needing an experienced hockey man to build their club, the Salomons hired Lynn Patrick, who formerly coached the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins before taking over as general manager of the Blues. He was also tapped to coach the team but got some assistance in the form of a budding hockey man named Scotty Bowman, who had great success with the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA).

  “I was coaching in the Montreal organization, and Lynn Patrick was the GM of Boston, and I think he was out on the west coast with the L.A. Blades,” Bowman reflected. “He wanted to get a young guy, but I had a year left on my contract, and Montreal let me out so I could work in the NHL.”

  At the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft, the Blues took quite a few established veterans who were approaching the end of their careers, as well as a handful of youngsters. Their first selection happened to be Glenn Hall, who was fresh off sharing the Vezina Trophy with Denis DeJordy in Chicago. Other vets getting an extension on their playing days included defencemen Al Arbour and Fred Hucul, plus talents like Don McKenney, who had played for Patrick in Boston. As for the youngsters, there were not a lot of them, but they included players like Terry Crisp and Ron Schock, who stuck around the league for a long time.

  The Blues also selected Bill Hay from Chicago, but he retired before the team took to the ice. Patrick felt that he and his scouts basically robbed the established clubs at the expansion draft, especially when they traded Rod Seiling back to the Rangers for four young players.

  “We knew we would have to play 24 games with the established clubs, and we tried to draft a team that would make a credible showing, and particular attention was placed on defence because we knew we would have to stop those old clubs to beat them,” said Scotty Bowman.

  “We wanted to buy ourselves some time,” he continued. “So we would have a team that could keep us in contention while we were building our younger players to the point where they could move into the big time.”

  In pre-season action, it became apparent that the Blues were going to be very strong defensively, but there were some questions about how much offence could be expected from their forward lines. Hall was not reporting to camp until October 1, 1967, as he had to bring in the crops at his Alberta farm, but there was little doubt that he would be in playing condition soon after his arrival. There were some injuries before the season started, but those problems were secondary to the reality that there were issues in getting their arena completed in time.

  Luck was on the side of the Blues, however, and their home opener took place on October 11 against the Minnesota North Stars. There was a lengthy and elaborate pre-game ceremony that featured such entertainment figures as Arthur Godfrey, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, Anna Maria Alberghetti and figure skater Aja Zanova. St. Louis sent the crowd home wanting more as they managed only a 2–2 tie.

  Players like Jim Roberts were very pleased by the early efforts of the team to make the players comfortable in their new surroundings.

  “I think the management of the Blues is first class,” he said. “They have done everything to get us settled here, they have given us a building that ranks with the best in the league, they have done everything they could to get us started in a race to the top. Now it’s up to the players.”

  He also predicted that the Blues would be on top at the end of the season.

  “All six of the teams are freshly put together. It’s going to be a big question mark for everyone until we have had a chance to play each other at least once. It’s not like the usual start of a season, where all you have to do is look over the roster of the opposing club and have a pretty fair idea of what to expect from each and also what you have to do to prepare for each game. But after once around the circuit, we’ll all have a pretty good notion of what it shapes up like.”

  As for the view from the management side, Patrick said he would be happy just to be in the thick of things.

  “I’m hungry, sure, but I’m not going to kid myself,” he said. “I’m disappointed with the way our club has performed in camp and in the exhibition games. After the draft I said I wouldn’t trade our personnel for that of any other club. Now, I’m not so sure. We seem to have a very slow defence. The other clubs may wheel around us like hoops around a barrel. Still, we have a long way to go. And we’re working very hard. I do think it will be a toss-up for honours among all six teams in the new league, and very little will separate the top club from the bottom club, so we could do better than I expect.”

  The Blues won their first game on the road in Pittsburgh just three days after their debut, but wins were fairly scarce early on. They got back-to-back victories over Boston and Detroit at the beginning of November, but Patrick made a major change soon after that, changing the team’s fortunes.

  “After 16 games I found that the general manager’s job is a full-time position, so I decided to appoint Bowman immediately,” he said.

  At the time, Bowman was 32 and the youngest coach in the league, but he had a lot of experience coaching at the junior level in the Montreal organization. The team did not respond to the change as quickly as he hoped, since they scored just two goals in his first three games behind the bench. Instead of sticking with his lineup, he brought up Frank St. Marseille and Norm Beaudin to shake things up and add some youthful vigour. They also signed retired legend Dickie Moore and made a major trade to acquire Red Berenson from the New York Rangers
.

  By mid-season, the Blues had a pair of three-game winning streaks under their belt and were beginning to assert themselves as contenders.

  “We may have the only old building to come into the major leagues this year but we have one of the best buildings,” said Patrick. “I love the town and I’m very impressed with the interest there in sports and hockey. Our attendance isn’t what I would have hoped, but neither is our record. We’ve been losing low-scoring games. When we pick up, so will the crowds.

  “We have had more problems putting together an effective combination than some of the other expansion teams. We have five players that were amateurs last year and never played pro before. That’s a lot of inexperience. But these are talented players and we’ll grow with them. We have a lot of old guys, sure, like Glenn Hall, Al Arbour, Dickie Moore and Don McKenney, but I just wish we had them all the time. We’ve had more injuries than most clubs. McKenney missed the first nine weeks. Moore just joined us. We have good personnel, and when we settle down with everyone playing regularly we’ll be tough to beat. We need scoring, which is why we signed Moore.”

  Although they did not set the league on fire the rest of the way, they did finish in third place among West Division clubs but had the unfortunate luck of facing Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs.

  The Flyers had dominated the Blues during the regular season and their GM, Bud Poile, predicted a sweep for his team. What he was not prepared for, though, was that St. Louis was loaded with players who were playoff performers and had Stanley Cup rings to prove it. They shut out the Flyers in the series opener on April 4, 1968, and managed victories in Games 3 and 4. Both teams were bruised and battered because of some bad blood, and that animosity came to an ugly head during Game 5 when a brawl broke out after Noel Picard allegedly sucker-punched Claude LaForge.

  The Blues prevailed in seven games before taking on Minnesota in the second round. That battle went to the limit as well. Three of the team’s four victories came in overtime, and the series was decided with a big goal by Ron Schock that sent St. Louis to the Stanley Cup Final.