Mid-Season All-Star Teams, 50 Years Ago

Fifty years ago, Montreal Gazette columnist Pat Curran selected his mid-season All-Star team for the 1966/67 season. Curran described the factors that went into his All-Stars,"Points production was broken down as much as possible to consider winning or tying goals and assists plus consistent performances during the half schedule. Defensive play was also a major factor."
Among the obvious choices like Mikita, Pilote and Howell, Curran selected under-rated Don Marshall as his 1st Team LW over Bobby Hull and Rod Gilbert at RW over Gordie Howe. Curran valued Marshall's all around game over Hull and he was only four goals in arrears of the perennial sniper. Gilbert's choice over Howe was perhaps less surprising as he had led the league with 20 goals, 7 ahead of Howe.
Less respect was given to rookie Bobby Orr, who at the halfway mark had 7 goals and 18 points, only 6 and 4 points behind veterans Pilote and Howell. Curran chose Tim Horton and Terry Harper for his 2nd Team, they had 15 points combined. Apparently, Curran really did value the defensive side of the game. The NHL scoring leaders as of Jan 10, 1967 are below.


Just for fun, let's see who were the second half scoring leaders of 1967.

BHull       33-19-52
Mikita      18-27-45
Esposito   14-28-42
Mohns      18-21-39
Ullman     14-24-38
Richard    13-21-34
Bucyk      12-22-34
Pulford     12-21-33
Howe        12-21-33
Rousseau  10-20-30
Wharram  12-17-29
Delvecchio  9-20-29
Ferguson   16-12-28
Keon         11-17-28
Goyette       8-20-28
Pilote          2-26-28
Hampson    5-22-28
Stemkowski 10-17-27
Prentice      14-12-26
Mahovlich   7-19-26
Beliveau      8-16-26

Orr               6-17-23
Marshall       9-11-20
Howell         5-13-18
Gilbert           8-7-15
Bobby Hull has a fantastic second half, ripping off 33 goals and 52 points in Chicago's final 37 games outscoring his teammate and overall scoring leader Mikita. Phil Esposito, riding the Hull wave breaks out with over a point per game in the second half. Doug Mohns rounds out the Chicago quartet atop the second half leaders, almost doubling his first half points.  Montreal's John Ferguson literally did double his first half production. 
A surprising name produces top-tenscoring i the second half, Toronto's Bob Pulford. His 33 points equaled Gordie Howe and almost tripled his production up till Jan 10. Also, Pete Stemkowski had 27 points in the second half after only 8 in the first. Three of Curran's first half stars tailed off; Marshall, Howell and Gilbert were all well below in the second half. Rookie Bobby Orr kept chugging along with 23 points to earn the Calder Trophy and official Second Team All-Star status.


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