1967 Maple Leafs, Getting hot at the right time.


The Los Angeles Kings enter the 2012 Stanley Cup Final on a bit of a roll. They are 12-2 in the post season and overall since Jeff Carter played his first game on February 25, they have a record of 25-7-3. There is something to be said for getting hot at the right time of year. There is perhaps no greater example of this than the Toronto Maple Leafs of 1966/67.

On January 14, 1967 the Leafs had posted a record of 17-11-8 and were in third place, 3 points out of first. They then proceeded to go into the tank as few can losing the next 10 games in a row. Every loss but one was decided by two or more goals. By Feb. 8 they had dropped out of a playoff spot and were now 23 points from first place. The Leafs ineptitude is shown in their "scoring" leaders over the 10 game stretch; (there are no readily available game scoring logs from this period, so I had to compile game by game box scores from The Hockey Summary Project http://hsp.flyershistory.com/

10 Game Losing Streak Jan. 15 thru Feb. 8 (G-A-Pts)
  • Keon 2-3-5
  • Pulford 1-4-5
  • Horton 2-2-4
  • Baun 1-3-4
  • Conacher 2-1-3
  • Shack 2-1-3
  • Jeffrey 1-2-3
  • Walton 1-2-3
  • Pronovost 1-2-3
  • Ellis 1-1-2
  • Mahovlich 1-1-2
  • Stemkowski 1-0-1
  • Stanley 0-1-1
  • Douglas 0-1-1
  • Pappin 0-0-0
On Feb. 11, Toronto finally gained a point in a 4-4 tie with Chicago. The next day they beat Boston 2-1 for their first victory in almost a full month. On Tuesday Feb. 14, coach/GM Punch Imlach had still not seen enough. During a lacklustre practice Imlach chased them off the ice and ordered his team out of Maple Leaf Gardens. They responded the next night by dismantling the New York Rangers by a score of 6-0.

By the next game however, Imlach himself was banished from the Gardens...for health reasons. Suffering from exhaustion, Imlach was slated to spend at least a week in hospital. Assistant General Manager King Clancy stepped behind the bench. "They examined him from stem to gudgeon. He's all right but he's worn out. Punch has been trying to do more than he's able and he couldn't leave his problems at the office." Clancy is quoted by the Canadian Press on Feb. 17. In his autobiography "Over the Boards", Ron Ellis says that when Clancy assembled the line of Jim Pappin, Bob Pulford and Pete Stemkowski the team really got going. Looking at the numbers, it would appear that line did more than their share in helping to right the good ship Maple Leaf;

King Clancy takes over Feb. 18 thru Mar. 11
10 Games (7-1-2)
  • Stemkowski 5-10-15
  • Pulford 5-7-12
  • Pappin 6-5-11
  • Keon 3-7-10
  • Mahovlich 1-8-9
  • Armstrong 2-5-7
  • Horton 2-5-7
  • Ellis 2-0-2
  • Kelly 1-1-2

On March 12, upon Imlach's return behind the bench, the Leafs were shutout by Chicago and would go 6 and 5 in the final 11 regular season games. Of course, the playoffs saw the line of Pappin, Stemkowski and Pulford continue their terrific play as they finished 1,2,3 in scoring. The numbers are over-whelming when looking at their numbers after the line was put together;

Maple Leafs Final 33 Games including Playoffs (21-10-2)
  • Stemkowski 12-25-37
  • Pappin 18-14-32
  • Pulford 10-22-32
  • Mahovlich 8-21-29
  • Keon 10-15-25
  • Horton 6-13-19
  • Ellis 9-9-18
  • Armstrong 6-10-16 (29gp)
  • Kelly 4-11-15
In a season that saw only three men average at least one point per game (Mikita, Hull, Ullman) the production of this line over what amounts to almost half a season is quite impressive. This is not to say that King Clancy's line juggling was the sole reason the Leafs caught fire to win the Cup, of course not. This along with Imlach's banishing of the players during a practice in February are just a few of the factors in a championship run that lives on in history.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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