Toronto Maple Leafs at Seattle Totems, Oct. 2, 1968

The Seattle Totems in October 1968 were a real good hockey club. They had won back-to-back Western League championships the previous two years. The Totems would prove they were a good team this evening by beating the Toronto Maple Leafs who were only a year removed from a Stanley Cup victory. I recently picked up this program from the game to add to my den collection.
The pre-season game was played in front of 5,262 fans at the Seattle Centre Coliseum. This was Toronto's third visit to Seattle having won 7-4 in 1962 and 7-1 in 1964. Jim Armstrong started in goal for the Totems, Bruce Gamble for Toronto. Leaf rookie Rick Ley opened the scoring at 15:55 of the first period before Totem Don Chiz tied it on a power play early in the second. Halfway through the game, Don Head and Al Smith replaced the goalies for Seattle and Toronto respectively. 

Around two minutes after the goalie change, Bob Courcy put the Totems ahead after a pass from Guyle Fielder. Early in the third, Wayne Carleton tied it off a rebound of a Ley shot. The winner was scored by Marc Boileau off a Ray Larose rebound and Seattle held on for the victory. Afterwards, Leaf coach Punch Imlach said, "We could have jumped into a big lead in the first period and the game would have been over." Totem coach Bill MacFarland was a bit surprised by the outcome himself, saying, "I didn't think we were in that good condition."  

Seattle would go on to finish fourth in the Western League in 68/69 led by Fielder's 94 points and Courcy's 43 goals. They were swept in the playoffs by eventual champion Vancouver Canucks. Toronto would also finish fourth in the NHL's Eastern Division and were also swept by the Boston Bruins. Seattle lost the first two games of their series by scores of 7-1 and 6-0. Toronto's first two playoff losses were even worse, 10-0 and 7-0.

Seattle would not win another championship before the Western League folded after the 1973/74 season. Toronto...also...has not won a championship...since. 


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