Changing the Game

by Stephen Laroche

  “I knew I had the ability offensively, but I took a lot of pride in keeping the puck out of my net and got a lot more playing time.”

  Over the rest of the schedule, Mark Howe had some big games, including four-point outings against the Kings and Oilers, but he was really on fire facing the Bruins on January 30, 1980, when he racked up five assists in a wild 8–2 win. Boston general manager Harry Sinden had heavy praise for his abilities.

  “The first time I saw Mark Howe play, I got goose bumps. Only five or six players have I felt that way about, and he’s one of them. He’s one of the best and most talented players in the league.”

  At the end of the season, he ranked as one of the NHL’s top-scoring defenders and his future looked bright. He was one of the top blueliners in the sport over the rest of the decade and was enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011.

  Dave Keon

  At the end of the 1974–75 season, Keon was embroiled in a nasty contract dispute with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The actions of then-team owner Harold Ballard forced his captain to choose to play in the WHA instead. Over the next four seasons, he still proved that he had lots of gas left in the tank and spent a good chunk of that time with the New England Whalers.

  The club retained Keon’s rights when they entered the NHL, and he had a fairly good start even though he was swiftly approaching his 40th birthday. His return to Maple Leaf Gardens on October 31, 1979, created reams of newspaper copy and was especially sweet, as he had a goal and an assist during the 4–2 victory to earn a first-star selection.

  “Tonight was one of those nights that you hope for but doesn’t happen very often,” he said after the game.

  Mike Rogers, who was taught by Keon how to play more defensively, recalled the significance of the contest.

  “When you go back to a city where someone was traded, you always wanted to win for them. This was something different. The bizarre thing was that hundreds of people showed up for the morning skate just to see him.”

  Having reinvented himself as a defensive specialist, Keon was always on top of the top scorers for the opposition, so he saw a lot of action when the Whalers were shorthanded. Coach Don Blackburn was also very pleased by his play.

  “Dave Keon has a bad habit of bottling up the other team’s centremen. He’s been doing it for 21 years. David doesn’t know what it’s like to play against anybody but Henri Richard, Beliveau, Mikita or Gretzky — people like that. It’s always been Keon’s job to match up with the top centremen in the game.”

  At the end of the year, the future Hall of Famer was the team’s nominee for the Masterton Trophy. He continued to play until the end of the 1981–82 season. Teammate Mark Howe had tremendous praise for Keon as well.

  “Any time you get a chance to play with an individual like that, it’s a real pleasure to watch him work and play. He was a competitive guy and he demanded as much from others as he did from himself.”

  Dave Keon

  Pat Boutette

  Known in his playing days as one of hockey’s best shadows, Boutette struggled with the Toronto Maple Leafs during his fifth NHL season in 1979–80 and he had only four assists to his credit after 32 games. The Leafs thought that they could offload him to the Whalers and get a solid prospect in Bob Stephenson, who had been tearing up the AHL, but Hartford had the last laugh when he put up nearly a point per game over the rest of the season.

  Not long after the deal, Boutette recorded his first goal of the season against Gilles Meloche of the Minnesota North Stars. He earned a pair of assists in a battle with the Pittsburgh Penguins on January 17, 1980. The points kept on coming and he scored twice in a 5–5 tie with the Vancouver Canucks on February 12. The second of those tallies gave the Whalers the lead with less than three minutes to go, but Harold Snepsts scored with just 11 seconds left to force a deadlock.

  Gordie Howe

  The ageless wonder, Howe came out of retirement in 1973 and spent six seasons in the WHA with the Houston Aeros and New England Whalers, demonstrating that he had not lost a step as he headed into his 50s. Playing alongside his sons, Mark and Marty, certainly helped keep him young, but during the 1978–79 campaign, he battled injuries and had his lowest offensive totals in 30 years.

  The Whalers retained his rights when they entered the NHL, and Howe scored a goal against Greg Millen of the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 13, 1979. That was his first tally since April 3, 1971, when he beat Tony Esposito of the Chicago Black Hawks. Once the game was over, he made the announcement that he would be retiring at the end of the season, but Pittsburgh coach Johnny Wilson was very impressed with his play at the age of 51.

  “It’s amazing the way Gordie Howe can still do the things he does at his age. He’s got great peripheral vision. He just skates around and makes things happen.”

  When asked how he still kept playing, Howe was honest and upfront.

  “It’s not the how, it’s the why. The dream of playing alongside my sons in the NHL hasn’t been fulfilled yet. It’ll come about, but they’d better hurry before these old legs give out.”

  Linemate Mike Rogers was awestruck, playing with a living legend along with another future Hall of Famer in Mark Howe.

  “When you play with those two guys, you’re bound to get scoring chances. Mark is one of the best skaters in all of hockey and to have him on the left side makes me skate a little bit harder and the thing about Gordie is that he opens the play up so much. He’s not going to be streaking down the wing … but people are aware of him. And if you give him the puck inside the blue line, then he’s going to make plays that pretty near nobody else can. If we are skating for Gordie, it’s going to open up everything for us and that’s what we’ve done ever since we’ve been together. Mark and I have done a lot of skating. Let Gordie take care of the other stuff — the passing, the work in their end.”

  On November 2, Gordie Howe scored twice and added an assist in a battle with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He put two more past Esposito when the Whalers earned a tie with Chicago nine days later. His strong play ensured that he received a spot at the 1980 NHL All-Star Game in his old stomping grounds of Detroit, and he set up the winning goal scored by Real Cloutier, which was met by thunderous applause.

  Despite a rough second half of the season, Howe made history on February 29, 1980, when he became the first player in NHL history to score 800 career goals, beating Mike Liut of the St. Louis Blues. He did not bulge the twine again until the final contest of the regular schedule on April 6, when he scored for the final time, fittingly enough, against Red Wings goaltender Rogie Vachon. In the playoffs against Montreal, he chipped in a single goal during Game 2 of the opening-round series. He hung up the blades for good after the next game on April 11.

  Greg Carroll

  Carroll split the 1978–79 season between the Washington Capitals and Detroit Red Wings and he chose to sign with the Whalers as a free agent after the next campaign began. At one time, he was a first-round pick and a top prospect, but junior success simply did not translate to big numbers in the WHA or NHL.

  His new surroundings gave Carroll the spark he needed to prove that he was indeed NHL material. Used as a penalty killer, he was very effective on faceoffs, and he scored the winning goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins on November 30, 1979. What was appreciated most, however, was his passion for the game.

  “The way I look at it, when Blackie opens the gate and says go, I just go wherever. If he says go here, that’s where I go. I don’t mind it,” he revealed in The Hockey News.

  At the end of the season, he was a free agent once again, but dark times were ahead, as he was arrested for the possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking in the summer of 1980. His career was essentially over at that point, but he had a brief stint with the Billings Marlboros club in the Continental Hockey League in 1985–86. Teammate Mike Rogers commented on Carroll’s contributions to the Whalers.

  “Immense talent but strange. Internally, his nickname was ‘Bebop.�
� He was really out there and was carefree. I think he could have been a great player, but what he did out of the rink we had no idea.”

  Nick Fotiu

  Before he became phenomenally popular as a member of the New York Rangers, Fotiu played for the New England Whalers in the WHA. He jumped at the chance to play for his hometown club in 1976–77. After three seasons in the Big Apple, he had a legion of fans and many of them were sad to see the team make his rights available in the expansion draft soon after their run to the Stanley Cup Final.

  The second pick for Hartford, Fotiu surprised many by avoiding any major penalties during his first 25 games with the Whalers. His established reputation as one of the sport’s toughest players ensured that no one wanted to tangle with him. His first goal of the season came on Tony Esposito of the Chicago Black Hawks on November 11, 1979, but he missed some action the following month because of a bruised heel. He still threw several pucks into the crowd during warmups, and his only fight of the season came against Scott Campbell of the Winnipeg Jets on January 21, 1980.

  “Nicky played the game like crazy and played hard,” said Mark Howe. “When you needed someone to stick up for you, he was there. He was playing on a line with my dad that year. They didn’t get a lot of ice time but they still scored goals. You knew when you put him on the ice, he wasn’t going to hurt your team.”

  Although Fotiu had a career-best 10 goals in his first year with the NHL edition of the Whalers, he was traded back to the Rangers for a draft pick.

  Bobby Hull

  Hull’s long association with the Winnipeg Jets drew to a close on February 27, 1980, when he was traded to the Whalers for future considerations. It was apparent to many that his days as an active player were numbered. Hartford was reportedly going to be his destination earlier in the year, but stalled contract talks and a shoulder injury delayed the trade process.

  “I think he’s going to help us. He’s enthusiastic about playing and that’s going to carry over to our team,” said coach Don Blackburn. “If he can play anywhere near like he has in the past, that’s a great bonus for us.”

  The trade was a bit controversial, since Hull was still a partial owner of the Jets and the league needed to determine if trading him created a conflict of interest, but he was eager to get back to action. His first goal with the Whalers came against Buffalo on March 6, and the final goal of his Hall of Fame career was in Gordie Howe’s last visit to Detroit six days later. After nine regular-season contests and three more in the playoffs against Montreal, it was time to hang up the blades. After that, Hull tried once more to come back with the New York Rangers during training camp before the 1981–82 season.

  “He wasn’t there for very long but his presence made an impact,” said Mike Rogers. “He went through a tough time and I didn’t get to know him as much I would have liked to. You could still see that he could still be a dominant force at times. He was so strong and so ripped at that age and when I saw the shape he was in, there was a long way to go.”

  John Garrett

  In his days in the WHA, Garrett was one of the league’s premier netminders. He spent the 1978–79 season with the New England Whalers after being acquired from the Birmingham Bulls and recorded his sixth 20-win campaign in a row. As the club got ready to head into the NHL, the Chicago Black Hawks attempted to reclaim him. The Hartford club nipped that move right away and made him one of their priority selections.

  With Al Smith injured, Garrett had the heavy responsibility of being the team’s starter for their first 13 games, and he went 4–5–4 during that time. On October 19, 1979, he recorded the first win in club history when they battled the Los Angeles Kings. He followed that by stringing together three wins in a row that included a pair against Toronto. Throughout the year, he continued to work on his stand-up game and earned a lot of praise from coach Don Blackburn.

  “You can’t fault Garrett. He’s given us the chance to pick up points just about every night we’ve played, but we’ve got to start scoring some goals for him. We’re putting a lot of pressure on him when he’s sitting on a one-goal lead all the way along.”

  At the end of the season, the team’s booster club named Garrett their Most Valuable Player.

  John Garrett

  Marty Howe

  During his six seasons in the WHA, Marty Howe was practically inseparable from his brother and father, but that all changed once the trio came to the NHL with the Whalers in 1979–80. Typically, the Howe family was treated as a package deal, but team management felt the older sibling was prone to some defensive mistakes and needed to get his mojo back in the minors with Springfield.

  Howe was not pleased by the demotion when the axe was brought down during training camp.

  “When I first got the news I was a little upset about it. It was just that it was the first time it’s happened to me and it was a little bit of a shock. It took me about half a day to get over that but it’s working out okay.”

  He turned to his father for support and let the press know about the Hall of Famer’s reaction.

  “He didn’t know what to say. He was having enough problems himself with all the press he’d been getting with his so-called ‘dizzy spells’… . It was all my decision. I talked with [my parents] about it. I was interested in the different options that I had, but after considering the alternatives, I decided to go to Springfield. It’s a living. It’s a business and you’ve got to make business-like decisions.”

  With the Indians, Marty Howe broke his arm in two places and missed a good chunk of the season. He finally got a chance to make his NHL debut against the Boston Bruins on March 9, 1980, and, three days later, he skated on a line with Mark and Gordie when they took on the Detroit Red Wings. It was the only time in league history that a father and his two sons skated on the same line. A rib injury slightly hampered his return to big-league action, but he was back in time for the playoffs and he was on the ice when his father scored his final professional goal.

  Al Smith

  “The Bear” came back to the NHL in 1979–80 and this time it was as a member of the Whalers, a club he had spent five of the previous seven seasons with in the WHA. A quirky veteran netminder, he missed the first part of the season thanks to a muscle pull in the back of his knee, but once he came back, he formed a solid tandem alongside John Garrett.

  In his second game of the season, Smith earned a shutout in the team’s first clash with the Edmonton Oilers on November 17, 1979. As Hartford’s first year headed into the home stretch, he saw more regular duty and had his second shutout on February 29, 1980, with a 3–0 victory over the St. Louis Blues. In the playoffs, he was counted on in the opening round against Montreal but had rough outings in the first and third games, and the Whalers were swept in three straight.

  EXPANSION YEAR RECORD: 25–44–11

  (61 points — fifth in Adams Division)

  COACH: Jacques Demers

  GENERAL MANAGER: Maurice Filion

  FIRST GAME: October 10, 1979 —

  5–3 loss vs. Atlanta Flames

  FIRST GOAL: October 10, 1979 by Real Cloutier

  QUEBEC

  NORDIQUES

  Had it not been for a collapse in funding for a proposed WHA club based out of San Francisco, the Quebec Nordiques might very well have never come into existence. However, the franchise was picked up by a group that owned the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts and they started play in 1972–73 with the legendary Maurice Richard as their coach.

  “The Rocket” spent only two games behind the bench, but over the course of seven seasons, the Nordiques built themselves into one of the rival league’s most powerful clubs. With prime talents like Real Cloutier, Marc Tardif, Serge Bernier, J.C. Tremblay and Richard Brodeur, they captured the AVCO Cup in 1976–77. During the final WHA season in 1978–79, they faced some internal strife, but were competitive enough to finish second overall. An early playoff exit ended their year, but at least they were able to look forward to entering the NHL and managed
to hang on to most of their core talent, with the exception of Brodeur, who was shipped off to the New York Islanders.

  The Nordiques did scoop up a new potential number one goalie through the WHA Dispersal Draft when they got Michel Dion from the Cincinnati Stingers. The 1979 NHL Expansion Draft was somewhat fruitful as well, the biggest prize being veteran defenceman Gerry Hart. The greatest success for the club came though the NHL Entry Draft, where they took future Hall of Famer Michel Goulet with their first-round pick and scooped up a tremendous prospect in Dale Hunter, who did not debut with the team until their second season.

  Some pundits looked at the Nordiques as a wild card club, since they had held on to many WHA vets and added Hart and Robbie Ftorek but many of the new players in the lineup had never played together before. Goaltending was also a question at the start, since they had not decided on a number one goalie. The retirement of J.C. Tremblay and a rough pre-season certainly did not help, but management was adamant that they had a four-year plan in place that would take them to a division title.

  “If we can get by just one of the other four in our division this year, then we will certainly have accomplished the first segment of our program,” said coach Jacques Demers. “Don’t ever forget, every NHL team and its coach, whether established or one of the 12 earlier expansion teams, has one thought in mind, collect eight points out of eight against us. And they’re going to come out to get us every inch of the way. It’s going to be dog eat dog.”

  General manager and director of hockey personnel Maurice Filion offered his thoughts about entering the NHL.

  “With the World Hockey Association, it was not just survival on a year to year basis. We did not even know if we were going to exist for the next 24 hours. But, with the NHL, we know that 20 years from now, 40 years from now, the Nordiques of Quebec will still be young and thriving and though personally, we won’t be there, our work today will determine the framework of the years to come.