“I was excited because, whether to prove myself right or wrong, I deserved a chance to play in Detroit. It was nice that somebody wanted me. Having only played a few NHL games, if you read the papers and you listened to the experts, this was going to be the worst team ever. There really weren’t any name players who had a consistently strong NHL career, but the older players we had were good team players. In hindsight, the scouts and writers didn’t know who the heck we were.”
After recording his first NHL point with an assist on Keith McCreary’s goal against Buffalo on October 8, 1972, Manery scored his first goal in the next game three days later on Gary Smith of the Chicago Black Hawks. In November, he had several multi-point games. He enjoyed playing under coach Bernie Geoffrion.
“For me it was great because Bernie was old school. If he had a problem with you, he pulled you aside. He was our best PR man as young players.”
By mid-season, Manery had made a strong enough impression around the league to earn a spot with the West Division side at the 1973 NHL All-Star Game in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
“It was really incredible and a tremendous opportunity. That’s where being in the NHL made an impact on me. I was so excited to be there, but I wish my mom and dad had been there to see me.”
By the end of the year, he was the top-scoring defender for the Flames and outpaced blueline partner Pat Quinn by a whopping 17 points. He reflected on what the team had accomplished during their first season.
“We had done what we could and couldn’t get any farther. It was disappointing but we had done better than anyone had anticipated. We beat the big clubs and when we came back for the second year, we were feeling positive.”
Randy Manery
Jacques Richard
The second overall selection in the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft, Richard spent five seasons with the Quebec Remparts and scored 160 points in 1971–72. The Flames had very high hopes for the young star, but in the long run he was a major headache for the club.
The first sign of problems appeared in training camp when Richard’s brashness and overconfidence started to get on the nerves of teammates. Captain Keith McCreary felt it was his duty to help protect him, however.
“There were times, many times, when several of our guys could have really clobbered the kid, really hurt him,” he said. “Not because they wanted to but because of the way he’d come up the ice. If a guy’s got his head down, you blast him. That’s just the way the game’s played. But I told the guys to lay off him at first, let him get a feel of things. He’ll get better, I promise you that.”
After a few exhibition games, Fletcher felt that he had drafted the best junior player available in 1972.
“No question now,” said Fletcher. “Richard was by far the better player. Harris hasn’t shown me much at all. Richard, however, did some good things… . He’s only been here a week and already he’s far and away the best skater in camp. I was a little worried the first few days but I’m sure not now.”
Part of Richard’s struggles adapting to life in Atlanta came from the fact that he did not speak English at the time. Goaltender Phil Myre felt it was just a matter of time before he adjusted.
“He’s afraid somebody will make fun of him,” he said. “He knows a little English but he’s too bashful to speak it. He’ll learn, though, especially when he gets to Atlanta and is hungry. That’s when we all learn.”
Richard’s first NHL contest produced his first point, which was an assist on a goal by Rey Comeau against the New York Islanders, and his first goal came on October 25 against Marv Edwards of the California Golden Seals. Later on, he scored game-winners in matches with Pittsburgh and Chicago.
At one point, his youth and inexperience got him into trouble when he was benched during a win against the Minnesota North Stars. His nonchalant response to the discipline rankled a few feathers, but coach Bernie Geoffrion was not too upset.
“He’s mad at me, I know. But he’ll get over it. Don’t be too rough on the kid. He’s only played a few National Hockey League games. He’s got a lot to learn.”
Things got worse later when the team was in Toronto, as he left the team and went home to Quebec. There were rumours that he had quit, disappointed by his lack of production at the NHL level, but he returned to action soon after. Teammate Curt Bennett feels the Flames may have rushed the development of Richard.
“Jacques, or ‘Jacks Richard’ as the Atlanta telephone information girl called him, was a very successful junior player who was forced into a starring role right away. We were an expansion team, so he was the franchise. He was an example of a player who played the power player all the time but had not earned the right. If he had been sent to the minors and had to earn his way back, he would have done much better. In fact, I think he did finally end up in the minors, then after a few years he came up and scored 52 goals for Quebec. He always had the talent. I think he was handled wrong. He drove Boomer nuts. Boomer couldn’t figure out why Jacques, a French wunderkind like himself, couldn’t get angry and dig deeper. I think Jacques was embarrassed he got preferential treatment. It’s hard to think you deserve fame and fortune when you know you don’t, like a rich guy’s son.”
Jacques Richard
Pat Quinn
A big, tough, rock-solid defender, Quinn was with the Vancouver Canucks for their first two NHL seasons, but as a result of a rough 1971–72 campaign the team let him become available in the expansion draft. Often described by opposing players and teammates as “mean,” he was set to take on the role of protecting his teammates.
“I’m not a good skater at all,” he admitted at the time. “I’m tall and I don’t have the good balance, so I have to do other things to make sure I keep my job. I try to prepare myself mentally for games. Keep a very sharp head. Other guys can make mistakes and cover up with quickness. I can’t. But I think I play my position well. I clear the net area pretty well and I’m known as a pretty fair policeman, too… . I prefer to think of myself as tough. I don’t play dirty, but a man has to look after his job and family. And since I’m not the good skater, I’ve got to compensate in other ways.”
Typically good for a couple of goals a season, Quinn scored while the team was shorthanded against the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 26, 1972. Coach Bernie Geoffrion told him to move his hands down on his stick, and that helped him get the edge he needed to score that goal. On January 26, 1973, he had a pair of assists when the Flames skated to a 3–3 tie with the Los Angeles Kings.
Lew Morrison reflected on what Quinn brought to the team.
“He was a little older than I was,” he said. “He seemed at home being a leader. Pat would organize team functions, and if things weren’t going well, he would get us all together. He was a pretty imposing guy and didn’t have to say anything.”
Quinn’s defence partner in the early years in Atlanta was Randy Manery, who reflected on working with the big blueliner.
“I have a world of respect for Pat. Off the ice, our families became friends, and on the ice, we played off each other’s strengths. Bernie had a lot of confidence in us and we were their top defensive team those first few years. He understood the game really well and had friends all over the league. You could see that he wanted to go to that next level.”
Noel Price
Price was a part of the first-year Pittsburgh Penguins in 1967–68, but he ended up back in the minors for the 1969–70 season after he was claimed by Springfield in the reverse draft. He responded by winning his first Eddie Shore Award as the AHL’s top defenceman and was up with the Los Angeles Kings the following year.
In 1971–72, he started the year back with Springfield but was traded to Montreal in the deal that sent Rogie Vachon out west. The Canadiens would not bring him up, however, but he excelled with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs and won the Shore once again.
“At the end of that season, Claude Ruel wanted to meet with me to see if I wanted to go to Atlanta,” he said. “I said I’d love to pla
y with Boomer again. I was certainly surprised that Montreal wanted to do that for me, but I guess they got some compensation.”
With more than 15 years of pro experience, Price was a real asset to the Flames during the 1972–73 campaign, and he gave a little payback to the Habs on December 2, 1972, when he scored one goal and added an assist in a 4–4 tie. Two weeks later, he earned a pair of assists against the Penguins.
“I learned an awful lot from Noel,” said Randy Manery. “He was a real classy gentleman. He taught me a lot of individual defensive drills that I could work on. He was a no-nonsense guy and he wanted everybody to realize the opportunity they had to play in the NHL.”
Dan Bouchard
The Boston Bruins drafted Bouchard in 1970, and he had a great season with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Braves, in 1971–72. He was named to the league’s First All-Star Team and shared the Harry “Hap” Holmes Award after combining with Ross Brooks for the lowest team goals-against average. After a performance like that, there was little doubt he would be taken in the expansion draft, so he got a shot at big-league action with the Flames.
On October 8, 1972, Bouchard made his NHL debut in a 5–3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. He earned his first victory 17 days later against the California Golden Seals. Over the course of the season, he proved that he was big-league material. He earned his first shutout on December 13 in a 2–0 win over Detroit, and less than a month later, he got a second one under his belt with a defeat of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Two days later, against Los Angeles, he earned an assist on the second goal of the night by Larry Romanchych.
“Danny was a unique character,” said Randy Manery. “Incredibly intense. He expected the best from himself and from everybody else. That sometimes made him hard to like, but he was such a competitor.”
Once the regular season was over, Bouchard placed fifth in voting for the Calder Trophy. He went on to play for the Flames all seven seasons they spent in Atlanta.
Dan Bouchard
Phil Myre
There were a ton of goalies vying for a job in the Montreal Canadiens organization in the early 1970s, but Myre proved one of the most promising prospects under the team’s control and appeared in 49 games over three seasons. He made just nine appearances in his final year with the Habs, but that did not stop the Flames from taking him with their first pick in the expansion draft.
In net for the season opener, Myre looked good in the win over the New York Islanders and later shut them out twice in the first half of the schedule. He was a big factor in the team’s early success and was pleased to be playing for the Flames.
“A goaler worries about getting shell-shocked with a weak team. I only hoped we wouldn’t be embarrassed so often that I’d hate to go to the games. But I’ve been given protection. We don’t have top individual talent, but we do have hard workers and big, strong checkers, and we’ve been able to stay close in games and win more than we expected. It’s been a thrill.”
When the Flames took on the St. Louis Blues on January 19, 1973, Myre got involved in a controversial fight when he was pulled out of the crease by Steve Durbano. He responded by hitting Durbano in the neck with his stick. Once the notorious tough-guy got up off the ice, he charged the goalie and earned a misconduct penalty. When Durbano got back to the ice later in the game, he tried to get a little more revenge on the Flames’ netminder and a bench-clearing brawl ensued.
As part of a young tandem with Dan Bouchard, Myre saw a greater share of action and registered a higher winning percentage, and he had a lower goals-against average. He shared the team’s MVP honours and eventually spent a little more than five seasons in a Flames uniform. In retirement, he regularly found work as a respected coach and scout.
EXPANSION YEAR RECORD: 12–60–6
(30 points — eighth in East Division)
Coaches: Phil Goyette and Earl Ingarfield
GENERAL MANAGER: Bill Torrey
FIRST GAME: October 7, 1972 —
3–2 loss vs. Atlanta Flames
FIRST GOAL: October 7, 1972 by Ed Westfall
NEW YORK
ISLANDERS
The New York Rangers had the local big-league hockey market to themselves for 30 seasons before the Islanders arrived on the NHL scene. If it had not been for the WHA sniffing around the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a rival NHL team might never have come to be.
When the ownership group of the proposed New York Raiders was looking at basing themselves out of Long Island, local officials were concerned that their product was not going to be professional and wanted to find a way to legally keep them out of the rink. But by approaching William Shea and having him bend the ear of NHL president Clarence Campbell, the owners convinced the league an expansion team would be a good idea. It also proved a very costly one in the beginning, however, because Roy Boe, who owned the New York Nets of the ABA, not only had to pay the expansion fee, but also make the Rangers $4 million richer with a territorial fee.
The area was already familiar with the sport, thanks to the long-standing success of the Long Island Ducks club, which was part of the Eastern Hockey League. That team is fondly remembered for many outrageous incidents and featured one of the game’s toughest players of all time in John Brophy. Once the NHL franchise was granted, there was speculation the club would take on the same name, but they settled on becoming the New York Islanders instead to build a broader appeal.
Bill Torrey, who had experience in the management of the Oakland Seals, was brought on board as the first general manager of the Islanders. He was committed to building a contender through shrewd drafting instead of the short-term solution of trading away picks. He went into the 1972 NHL Expansion Draft with high hopes and picked up an interesting mix of castoff players that day, including Brian Spencer, Ed Westfall and Terry Crisp to go along with goalies Gerry Desjardins and future Hall of Famer Billy Smith. At the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft, he began building the club’s prospect pool with such talent as Billy Harris, Bob Nystrom, Garry Howatt and Lorne Henning, all players who would stick around until the end of the decade.
What Torrey was not likely expecting, though, was that quite a few of the players he drafted jumped to the WHA. They were unable to sign Larry Hornung, John Schella, Norm Ferguson, Ted Hampson, Bart Crashley, Gord Labossiere and Ted Taylor, but they managed to keep enough talent to have a full roster for the season opener against their expansion cousins, the Atlanta Flames.
Coach Phil Goyette was not hired until after the expansion draft. He was lucky enough to have solid goaltending and hot young rookies, but it was obvious that he also had a generally inexperienced team with a lack of offensive power and a defence corps that was largely unproven. The team’s sweaters were unveiled before training camp, and it wasn’t long after that Goyette realized the Isles had some potential problems brewing. Still, he remained optimistic.
“Our biggest problem when we opened camp was that no one knew each other. Now that we’re working together, I feel we’re getting better every game, despite what the record shows… . Right now I would say we’ll go with 11 forwards, six defencemen and two goaltenders. There are only a few guys who are assured of making the club. Everything else is up for grabs.”
The home opener on October 7, 1972, ended up a tight 3–2 loss to the Flames, and the Islanders stumbled out of the gate by not registering their first shot on goal until halfway through the first period. Billy Harris scored their first goal and he had a decent start, which is often expected out of a first overall pick. Five days later, they earned their first win against the Los Angeles Kings, but there were signs of trouble when Arnie Brown decided to leave the team and was suspended. The first month of action was rough for the team, but players like Spencer realized they were going to have some tough games.
“I think we have a much better hockey club than we’ve shown. Every game we’ve lost was because of some lapse in front of the net. True, we’re a young team and going to make some mistakes, but if we can eliminate some of
these, we’re going to be alright.”
Goyette also expressed his frustration over the team’s poor start.
“I can tell them what to do but I can’t play for them.”
With just two wins in their first 16 outings, the players held a discussion among themselves and then went out to get a much-needed victory over the California Golden Seals. Their goalies had faced a lot of rubber already, but Goyette felt they were performing well.
“Our goaltenders keep us in the game. As long as we can stay close, you never know what will happen. Desjardins and Smith have been under tremendous pressure but have been equal to it.”
Wins — or even ties — were incredibly scarce over the first few months, and the home crowd began showing their impatience during a 6–1 loss to Atlanta on January 2, 1973, and started to chant “We’re number eight!” Crisp noted that the jeering was not going to get to the players, and they were out to win any way they could.
“Sure, we’ve been hearing the booing, but we just try to ignore it and play our game. We have pride, and we want to win just as much as they do, but we can only look at ourselves in the mirror.”
For team captain and 1973 All-Star Game participant Westfall, it was nothing new.
“I think the fans as a whole have been very patient with us. I went through the same thing in Boston a number of years ago. You can’t really blame them for getting on us a bit. They really want to see a winner.”
Soon after, the club recorded its biggest triumph of the expansion year when they got a big 5–0 lead on the Boston Bruins and held on to win the game 9–7 to end a 12-game losing streak.
“We just caught them flat-footed,” Goyette explained. “We got one, two, three goals and we just kept on coming. We charged at them from the start. That’s what they usually do.”
For the coach, though, the celebration did not last long, as he was let go on January 29 and replaced with scout Earl Ingarfield. Torrey did not blame Goyette for the club’s poor record and saw it as a move to motivate the team out of a season-long slump.
Changing the Game Page 21
