Changing the Game

by Stephen Laroche

  Ron Schock

  In 1966–67, Schock became a full-timer with the Boston Bruins following several years of trying to catch on with the club, but there were changes in the works that made his move to St. Louis a little less painful.

  “I wasn’t disappointed because Boston made a big trade with Chicago and got Esposito and Stanfield, so the writing was on the wall.”

  Schock missed the early part of the season with a charley horse and even spent some time in the minors with Kansas City. Back with the team for good after just 10 minor league games, he offered some thoughts on the coaching changes the Blues experienced in their first year.

  “They had a two-coach system at the start and it didn’t work out too well. When Scotty took over, he brought in a lot of players from the Montreal system and that made it work. These players knew how to have fun and they knew how to win. I knew Lynn from Boston and I liked him an awful lot, but I don’t think he was as good a coach as Scotty was, but he was much better in management.”

  Among Schock’s highlights for the year were a two-goal game against Philadelphia on November 19, 1967, and a game-winner to end a losing streak 10 days later while playing Los Angeles. Once the playoffs were in full swing, he scored a very memorable goal to seal a double-overtime victory in Game 7 of the second-round series with Minnesota.

  “We got into the playoffs in the last game of the season and dug ourselves out of a hole. Scotty had a way of putting the right player out at the right time.”

  That goal sent the Blues to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time. Schock reflected on the experience.

  “It was amazing to get out there and you’re playing against a team who had been there for most of the past 20 years. You were in awe. I was very happy to be there.”

  Noel Picard

  Picard was part of Montreal’s farm system in the mid-1960s, but he saw some action with the Canadiens during the 1964–65 season and was a part of the Stanley Cup–winning team that year. Sent back to the minors, he split the 1966–67 campaign between the WHL’s Seattle Totems and the Providence Reds of the AHL before St. Louis acquired him through the expansion draft.

  Joining his older brother, Roger, in training camp, Noel Picard had little trouble securing a position with the Blues and became one of the more intimidating members of their defence corps. He recorded assists in consecutive games in early November and celebrated his 29th birthday in style when he scored his first NHL goal, the game-winner against the Minnesota North Stars on December 25, 1967.

  During the playoffs, a battle between the Blues and the Philadelphia Flyers inadvertently started a revolution in hockey when Picard surprised Claude LaForge with a punch during a line brawl that escalated when both teams cleared the bench. After that, the Flyers focused on drafting and trading for tougher players, which ultimately led to the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970s.

  “That’s the first time I saw anybody get knocked out on the ice,” recalled Ron Schock. “LaForge started to swing his stick at Picard, so he grabbed it and hit him. Ed Van Impe came over and he knocked him out cold. LaForge brought it on himself because he came off the boards swinging his stick and Noel didn’t have his.”

  That was not Picard’s only moment as a historical catalyst, as he was also the defender who tripped up Bobby Orr when he scored his famous Stanley Cup–winning goal in 1970.

  Noel Picard

  Al Arbour

  Even though he was one of the best defensive defencemen in hockey during the 1960s, Arbour spent most of the decade languishing in the minors as part of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. After winning a Stanley Cup with Chicago in 1960–61, he won two more with the Leafs but saw only spot duty beyond the 1962–63 campaign. That changed with expansion when Lynn Patrick had his sights set on the shot-blocking blueliner he had coveted since his days running the Boston Bruins.

  “I don’t care how old a man is, I only care about how good he can play,” said the team’s general manager. “I drafted Arbour because I knew he would do the sort of job he is doing for us… . And I signed him to a three-year contract, too!”

  Named captain of the Blues before the beginning of the 1967–68 season, Arbour scored against the Bruins on November 1, 1967, and had a pair of assists in a 3–3 tie with the Montreal Canadiens on February 28, 1968. He is one of the few players in NHL history to play while wearing glasses and he earned a lot of praise from teammate Glenn Hall.

  “I don’t think there’s anyone I’d rather have playing in front of me than Arbour,” he said. “He’s the most underrated defenceman, there just isn’t anyone better. Among other things, there is no one who is better at blocking pucks. Al does it with such perfect timing that it’s beautiful to watch. But if I wore glasses as he does, I don’t think I’d ever want to drop to my knees in front of someone with a puck on his stick.”

  Al Arbour

  Dickie Moore

  Moore announced his retirement in 1965, but a little more than two years later, the Toronto Maple Leafs, who still held his rights, decided to deal him away to the Blues, who were looking for veteran experience to bolster their lineup.

  “I’m very happy that he wants to play for us,” said GM Lynn Patrick. “I think he can help give us the kind of lift that Bernie Geoffrion gave the Rangers last year.”

  Moore’s return to the NHL took place on December 6, 1967, against the Los Angeles Kings. Fittingly, his first goal with his new club came against Toronto’s Bruce Gamble when they met four days later, and it proved the game-winning tally. Early in the new year, he sustained a rib injury that dampened his comeback, but he was back in time for the playoffs and made important contributions on the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

  Perhaps the greatest impact he made was with the team’s younger players, especially those who grew up watching him play with the Montreal Canadiens. Scotty Bowman offered an appraisal of Moore’s value to the team at the time.

  “He’s a winner. He’s great for the team on the ice and he’s great for us in the dressing room… . And when the kids see an old veteran like Dickie hustle out there, they just sort of catch the fire.”

  The playoffs proved to be his swan song as a pro, but Moore was certainly not washed up, as he had a goal and assist in Game 2 of the first-round battle with Philadelphia on April 6, 1968, and five days later, potted the game-winning goal in Game 4. Facing his old club in the Stanley Cup Final, he looked absolutely ageless as he scored a goal in a tight 3–2 overtime loss in Game 1.

  Seth Martin

  Hockey historians are very familiar with Martin’s contributions to the game in the 1960s because he starred for the senior Trail Smoke Eaters club that won an Allan Cup on their way to a World Championship. In subsequent years, he represented Canada in international competition and won two more bronze medals at the Worlds in addition to protecting the net at the 1964 Winter Olympics.

  “When we were playing in Vienna for the World Championship in 1967, Scotty Bowman joined us for the tour,” recalled Martin. “He talked to me after one of the games and asked me if I was interested. He said he would contact me in the spring. I was sitting out one of the games and we talked. I later got a call from Lynn Patrick, and he ended up coming up with what I would need to go there.”

  To protect his pension, Martin had to plan a leave of absence from his job as a firefighter for a mining company and then he joined the Blues for their first season. Because Glenn Hall was missing the early part of the season with a hand infection, he got the call to play in the first game for St. Louis, where he looked good in the 2–2 tie with Minnesota. Three days later, he secured the first win in franchise history as they battled the Pittsburgh Penguins.

  “I know I was nervous! I can’t really remember much about it,” he said.

  That nervousness was back a few weeks later when he was about to face the Montreal Canadiens on October 28, 1967.

  “Going into Montreal was a great thrill. Scotty told me that I was going to play that Saturday night game a
nd I put my pad on the wrong leg!”

  Once Hall came back, Martin’s time in net decreased, but he managed a decent 8–10–7 record over 30 appearances. One of those victories was over the North Stars on December 25 and it was the only shutout of his NHL career. In the postseason, he made two appearances on the road to the Stanley Cup Final.

  “That playoff run was just amazing. The excitement in the building was incredible. We weren’t supposed to beat Minnesota and weren’t supposed to beat Philadelphia, either.”

  Burnt out after more than 10 years of playing goal, Martin returned home to Trail and saw sporadic action with the Smoke Eaters before joining the Spokane Jets. In 1969–70, he helped make them the first American-based club to win the Allan Cup.

  What some fans also may not know is that Martin also made his own masks.

  “I started wearing a mask soon after Plante got hit, as I took a puck off the mouth while playing in Rossland, British Columbia. It wasn’t the best mask in the world but it worked. I made Glenn Hall’s mask in St. Louis. I had done a bit of that as an amateur and had access to the materials at work.”

  At the end of the year, Martin broke the masks with a rubber hammer to figure out where the weak spots were, but he does not know where his last mask is today.

  Claude Cardin

  Cardin was a senior hockey standout who helped the Sherbrooke Castors to an Allan Cup championship in 1964–65, and he was on their roster when they went to the final again in 1965–66. He was unable to crack the roster of the Montreal Canadiens, and the team sold him to the Blues on June 21, 1967. He was relegated to their farm club in Kansas City, where he was fifth on the team in scoring with 52 points and showed some grit as he racked up 193 penalty minutes.

  Cardin was called up for a brief one-game trial with the Blues and faced the New York Rangers. It proved to be his only NHL action, as he froze on the bench because of nerves and did not step out onto the ice when told to by coach Scotty Bowman. He was sent back to the minors almost immediately.

  “I remember laughing about it after he went back to Kansas City,” said Ron Schock. “I haven’t seen anything like it before or since. He couldn’t move his legs! On the bench, you kind of felt sorry for him, though.”

  Regardless of his memorable mistake, he remained in the St. Louis system with Kansas City for two more seasons. His coach in Kansas City, Fred Hucul, gave an honest appraisal of his abilities.

  “He had a hard nose. He wasn’t scared to hit the corners.”

  Glenn Hall

  The man known as “Mr. Goalie” was one of the most dominant at his position in the waning years of the Original Six era. Yet even though he shared the Vezina Trophy and helped the Chicago Black Hawks to a regular-season championship in 1966–67, the team chose to protect Denis DeJordy in the expansion draft. The St. Louis Blues chose Hall as their first selection.

  Hall was known to hold off on coming to training camp until the crops were in on his farm in Alberta, so he did not appear in any pre-season games. Before he could make his St. Louis debut, a hand infection kept him out of the team’s opening game against Minnesota. He also had a quirk for throwing up between periods because of nerves. He realized at the time that he had even greater responsibilities with the new club.

  “All goalkeepers are mental cases,” he said. “I can’t hold it back before the games, but I’ve learned to choke it back during the games… . I think the pressure is even greater now because Chicago owed me for a few bad games after the career I’d had there, but this is a new town, a new challenge, and I guess I have my pride and reputation to live up to.”

  His St. Louis debut came as relief for Seth Martin on October 21, 1967, and he put forth a solid effort during a 2–1 loss to Philadelphia. His first shutout of the season came against Oakland on December 9 and it was the first one in franchise history. Over the course of the season, he got four more shutouts, one of which was the 70th of his career on January 3, 1968. After that game, he joked around with the press.

  “Not bad for an old man, one shutout for every year of my life.”

  Teammates were very impressed with Hall’s solid play at the age of 36 and his positive attitude.

  “You had the best goalie in hockey as far as I was concerned,” said Ron Schock. “I remember losing one time in Boston and the score was quite high. Showering afterward, Terry Crisp said, ‘Oh goalie, I’m sorry,’ and he said, ‘The sun will come up in the morning.’ He’s got a sense of humour and that was great.”

  The only member of the Blues selected to play in the 1968 NHL All-Star Game, Hall finished the regular season in sixth place among all netminders in goals-against average. Once the playoffs began, though, he took his play to another level and opened the first round against Philadelphia with a shutout. Brilliant the rest of the way, he went to the seven-game limit over the first two rounds and kept St. Louis within one goal in every match with the Montreal Canadiens.

  Hall had to wait until a couple of days after the series ended to be awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the postseason. The award was normally given out immediately after the game, but the league decided to change the process slightly to allow voters to submit their ballots. An anonymous Canadiens player was quoted in the Montreal Gazette as feeling that Gump Worsley should have received the honour, and coach Toe Blake felt the same way as well.

  “Who could have played better,” he asked. “After all, we won the Cup so Gump should be the logical choice. Surely they’re not going to give the trophy to a loser again like when Roger Crozier got it two years ago.”

  Voters obviously did not agree with Blake, and Hall became the first player from an expansion club to win a major NHL award. Scotty Bowman nicely summed up the legend’s contributions during the season.

  “He was the franchise. He was unbelievable and was great before we got him.”

  Glenn Hall

  Doug Harvey

  One of the greatest players in hockey during the Original Six era, Harvey changed the game forever as a rushing defenceman with the Montreal Canadiens and he captured the Norris Trophy on seven occasions. By the early 1960s, however, he was being punished by the game’s establishment for his involvement in the aborted attempt at a players’ association. He played for New York and Detroit before being hired by the Blues to coach their minor league affiliate in Kansas City in 1967–68.

  With the CHL’s Blues, he served as a playing coach and led them to a 31–29–10 record before losing in the league’s final to the Tulsa Oilers. When Harvey was called up to St. Louis as a standby, general manager Lynn Patrick said he knew early on that he would see some action with the club at some point.

  “It wasn’t a last-minute decision, really,” he said. “Scotty [Bowman] and I had talked a couple of months ago about bringing Doug into the lineup when we got into the Stanley Cup action. We both had the feeling he would be able to give the club the kind of experience and morale lift that might be a real boost.”

  “Harvey steadied the club,” said Bowman. “They respect him and he has actually coached a number of the youngsters on our club.”

  One of those youngsters was Gary Veneruzzo, who played with Harvey during the run to the Stanley Cup Final as well.

  “He was a great guy,” said Veneruzzo. “He gave me a lot of chances and was always pushing me to Scotty. In between periods, he wouldn’t give you heck and told us stories about players he knew to keep you loose. He was a character, too!”

  Brought in toward the end of the first-round series with Philadelphia, Harvey assisted on the series-winning goal by Larry Keenan in Game 7. In the next round, he assisted on a couple of early goals and chipped in another in Game 3 of the Final against Montreal.

  Instead of sending him back to Kansas City the following year, the Blues kept him for one final NHL season. In retirement, Harvey stuck around the game with some coaching positions but battled alcoholism and suffered from bipolar disorder before he passed away as a result of cirrhosi
s of the liver in 1989.

  THE EXPANSION ERA

  Successes and Failures

  Once the first expansion season was over and the grand experiment considered a success for the most part, it was only natural that the NHL would look to the future and continue to bring big-league hockey to more North American markets.

  The seeds for future expansion were sown during the 1967–68 campaign when the troubled California Seals were being shopped around by Barry Van Gerbig. A move to Vancouver or Buffalo was heavily rumoured early on but was shot down by the NHL Board of Governors. Both cities had been shut out in the first round of expansion, but their persistence meant that the league approved both locations (and avoided a potentially costly legal bill or two) when the league was ready to grow to 14 teams at the start of the 1970–71 campaign.

  Both communities had a very strong minor league presence with the WHL’s Canucks and the AHL’s Bisons and received a great deal of support from local hockey fans from the start — even if the on-ice product needed some time to become a success. The Buffalo Sabres, who had former Toronto Maple Leafs coach and general manager Punch Imlach running the show, became a contender sooner than the Canucks and made the playoffs for the first time in 1972–73 with young stars Gilbert Perreault, Richard Martin and Rene Robert forming the legendary French Connection line.

  The next round of expansion came more as a reaction to the World Hockey Association heading to the ice for the 1972–73 season. The NHL ventured south of the Mason-Dixon line for the first time and welcomed the Atlanta Flames and at the same time created a greater presence in its largest American market by welcoming the New York Islanders. Many established and younger players jumped to the rival league, and the Islanders lost a lot of talent before even hitting the ice. As a result, their first season was a woeful one, and they won only 12 contests. The Flames, on the other hand, had a bit more on-ice success, but they lasted only seven seasons in Georgia before moving to Calgary.