Mike Palmateer Rookie Photos

Scott Garland and Mike Palmateer
 My source for rarely seen hockey photos from the 1970's Doug Petepiece took these great shots of one of my favourite Leafs, Mike Palmateer. These one's were fairly easy to identify the game they were from. Palmateer only wore this mask during his rookie season of 1976/77, and Toronto played in Montreal only three times that year. The first visit in October 1976 saw Leaf goalie Wayne Thomas between the pipes. Palmateer played in the other two games in November and again at the end of March.
As far as I can tell, all the players pictured played in both games and Steve Shutt scored in both as well. He's pictured below tapping in an easy one. We get a break however when looking at the Montreal Gazette archives for the game from March 30, 1977 as linked below.


Jacques Lemaire looks on as Shutt taps in a gimme on the powerplay
There it is, in photographic evidence of the same goal in the picture Doug took. So this game is from March 30, 1977 and this was Shutt's 57th goal to extend his Montreal team record. He finished with 60. Darryl Sittler would score to tie this game up at 3 with nine minutes remaining and it ended 3-3.
Palmateer peers around Brian Glennie as Pete Mahovlich and Borje Salming jostle in front
Left to Right, Palmateer, Salming, Mahovlich, Glennie, Errol Thompson, Lafleur
Ian Turnbull fights off Doug Risebrough as The Flower swoops in

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHA Ottawa Civics, The Two Week Franchise

Image
Tom Earl, Daryl Maggs, Mark Lomenda, Gary MacGregor, Garry Swain "Please let the fans make up their own minds," Henry Feller told a press gathering. "Let them decide if they want pro hockey here. We have to average 7,000 or 8,000 in the remaining 19 home games for a break-even point." Feller was a director of the Founders Club who had interest in buying the WHA's Denver Spurs club. Ivan Mullinex, owner of the Spurs had brought his team to Ottawa in an attempt to drum up interest and save his investment. The date was January 2, 1976 and Mullinex was in debt to a Denver bank to the tune of $1 million dollars. This same day, the newly christened Civics lost their first game under the new moniker by a score of 2-1 at Cincinnati. Star of the team, Ralph Backstrom said after the game, "Our first official notice of the move hit us when we entered the Cincinnati rink and the names on the big scoreboard read: Stingers and Civics. Until that moment we were un
Read more

Team Canada 1972, What Might have Been

Image
Guy Lafleur, if he had played in the 72 Summit Series "No way. Can you imagine what our fans would say if we allowed Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito to play for Canada in that series and either...suffered an injury that might prevent them from playing with us for a year or more?" This was the concern of Weston Adams Jr, president of the Boston Bruins as quoted on April 20, 1972. After being speculated and discussed since February 1972 at the Olympics in Sapporo Japan, the series was set to go. Early on however, controversy stirred as to who exactly would be representing Canada. Bruins GM, Milt Schmidt agreed with his boss saying, "My only interest would be to see the Russians play the Bruins for the world championship...or whatever team wins the Stanley Cup." In the Vancouver Sun a few days later, the legendary Jim Coleman responds to the American naysayers suggesting that Team Canada should be made up strictly of players from Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal
Read more

Ron Hextall and the stolen Conn Smythe Trophy

Image
Ron Hextall did not deserve the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1987....there, I said it. I recently caught game seven of the '87 finals on ESPN Classic, where the Oilers beat the Flyers 3-1. Hextall was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy to the disdain and boos of the Northlands Coliseum. Hextall was (and remains) the fourth player to win the trophy in a losing cause. Even as a teenager following these playoffs as they happened, I thought this was an injustice. Upon further inspection, I believe he only won because he was a rookie, and was the "sexy" pick as opposed to the proper pick. When looking at his numbers, it's hard to figure why he won. Hextall finished with 15 wins, 11 losses and a GAA of 2.77. Oilers, Grant Fuhr went 14 and 5 with an average of 2.46. I realize that stats cannot tell the whole story, but even if we dig further the award doesn't seem justified. His .908 Save Pct was the same as Fuhr's and tied for third behind Ken Wregget and Kelly Hrudey. Also,
Read more