Hi everyone! After a short Christmas/New Year’s hiatus, we’re back! I hope everyone had themselves a wonderful holiday season whether or not you had the luxury of having a full two weeks off or not. I do realize I am lucky to work in a job where I have the opportunity to spend the holidays with the family, and really get to enjoy myself. I’ve had the opportunity to fully immerse myself in finishing up my next book, which I hope will hit the shelves (or at least some online version of a shelf) in the next year or two, but first that means preparing a book proposal and then sending off everywhere across the continent hoping some publisher will bite. Of course, I will post any interesting developments on the site, so stay tuned!

I’ve also had the time to get back into watching games now that the kids are getting older and showing some interest in my passion. The NHL season has been an interesting one to say the least. It’s been a bit crazy how, this season, so many contenders have been flopping and how many rebuilding teams have been surging. Who would have thought that right now the Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Pittsburgh Penguins would have a better shot at the Stanley Cup than the New York Rangers or Nashville Predators? I was not among that very small minority a month ago, but I am now. The Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks both seem completely lost, and no one seems to be getting along in their dressing rooms. I love these kinds of story lines, the changing of the guard, so to speak. I feel a sort-of mini-revolution developing in the NHL right now, and the perennial contenders are not going to be looking up from their penthouse much longer.

As I got back to planning a new update for this site, I was utterly shocked to discover that one of the most infamous games in Seals/Barons history was somehow NOT found in the articles section. I’m talking about the horrendous 13-3 loss to Buffalo on February 25, 1978. It was one of the Barons’ last games in the NHL, and undoubtedly one of the most forgettable. I couldn’t believe there was barely a mention of the game anywhere on the site, so even though it is a painful read, it is a game that stands out, and so today I’ve posted an article about that awful defeat. You can read about it right here.

That’s about it for this week, folks. Hope you’re all having a nice, smooth return to work and that you are enjoying the developing story lines around the NHL. I will see you all again in a week. Until that time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! As you probably know, my Montreal Canadiens suffered one of the worst defeats in franchise history just a few days ago. It wasn’t that they lost the game, 9-2, but rather that they were only down 3-2 after forty minutes, and then somehow found a way to give up six goals in the span of about fourteen minutes. It was one of those losses where you just shake your head in bewilderment. I mean, WOW! What the hell was that? Sure, all losses add up to zeros in the points column, but some of those zeros hurt more than others. You’ve got those games where you just played like crap and deserved to lose. You’ve got others where you’ve outplayed the other team all night, and a hot goalie prevents you from winning. Other nights, both teams play great, and someone has to lose. All those outcomes suck, to be sure, but once in a while you suffer a season-defining loss, or a loss that leaves you demoralized or embarrassed. That was what happened December 12.

Since most of you reading this have been coming back to this site for a while, so I don’t need to tell you that the Seals and Barons came out on the losing end more often than not. This week, I’ve posted a new article from October 14, 1976, the day after the Cleveland Barons lost 4-2 to the visiting Atlanta Flames. It was a frustrating game for the Barons. They gave up the first two goals, and the last two, and in between all that, the Flames’ Phil Myre stood on his head. It was a game in which the Barons had every opportunity to win, or at least tie, but in the end, they were just left shaking their heads. You can read all about the game here.

That’s about it for this week. I hope you all enjoy the games on the slate this weekend, and that you come back again soon! Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone, and welcome back! I’d like to start this week with a little feel-good story to set the scene for today’s new article. On Thursday morning, I lost my wedding ring. I noticed it was gone once I returned home from taking the kids to school, and I must have spent close to an hour looking for it under furniture, behind table legs, and beneath toys. I eventually just gave up and figured it would turn up, but I was upset the rest of the day. When I picked up the kids that night, my son was upset that he had misplaced his little tin of Pokemon cards. I replied that he shouldn’t feel so bad, since I couldn’t find my wedding ring. And then my five-year-old daughter uttered a phrase that I never would have expected to hear: “I know where it is!” Whaaaaa? “Where did you see it?” I asked, and she replied that it was in the little front pocket of her backpack. I grabbed her bad and rifled through the pocket and, there it was, my wedding ring. Why it was in the front pocket, I didn’t understand, since I hadn’t put anything in that pocket in days. When we returned home and I told my wife the story, she quickly asked our daughter if she had taken my ring and put it in her bag. Normally, my little one cracks the minute she knows we’ve discovered her lie, but this time, she was very adamant that she hadn’t taken the ring. She said it was in the big pocket of her bag, and that when she found the ring, she put it in the front pocket to not lose it. That’s when I realized the ring must have got caught on the inside of her bag, and slipped off my finger when I was putting in her lunch. I realized how lucky I was to have my wedding ring make a trip to my daughter’s kindergarten class and survive the day. I also realized that my daughter is much more responsible than I ever gave her credit for.

So where am I going with this? I doesn’t really matter if you lose something… there’s always hope that you will find what you’ve lost, and you never really know how you’re going to find it, and under what circumstances. Ted Hampson once lost something during his third season with the Seals. Early in the 1969-70 season, the Seals’ captain had lost his mojo. He had been money in the bank the previous two years, but for some reason when October 1969 hit, he couldn’t find the back of the net, and he couldn’t set up a teammate to do it either. Then all of a sudden one night versus Chicago, Hampson picked up an assist, and everything went right once again. Come April he was leading the team in scoring once again. This week’s article, from Spence Conley of the Oakland Tribune, is all about Hampson (and several other Seals) and their early-season scoring slump, and you can read all about it here.

I hope you all have a great weekend and that you enjoy the quiet before the holiday season officially starts. I’m personally looking forward to spending a wad of cash at the local sports card show with my Pokemon-loving son, and that nothing gets lost in the crowd. Thankfully, I found my wedding ring, and he found his tin of cards, so we’ve got luck on our side, hopefully for at least one more day.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! After a one-week hiatus, I’m back! It’s been a bit hectic around the Currier abode the last little while. The title of this week’s posting is fitting for more reasons than one. Of late, my children have become masters of procrastination, especially when it comes to getting hair washed, teeth brushed, pajamas on, and stories read. After putting the kids down for the night, I’m usually lucky if I get to watch the last ten minutes of the Habs game. Seriously, there was one game about a month ago where I caught (I kid you not), the last seven seconds of the game. How I can actually keep track of what’s going on this season is nothing short of miraculous. So, yeah… I’ve had way too little time to get much of anything done for this site, usually because it is much too late to even begin.

In keeping with this week’s theme, we’re going back to February 19, 1976. The Seals were enjoying a resurgence in the first half of the season, and for the first time in years, the playoffs were a realistic possibility. All they needed was a good streak and the Leafs would be shaking in their skates. Unfortunately, starting in late January, all the Seals could muster was a bad streak, to the tune of ten straight without a win. By the time the Minnesota North Stars arrived in Oakland that night, the damage had already been done and the playoffs were no longer a possibility despite a Seals victory. It was, as they say, too little, too late, and before anyone knew it, the Seals were on their way out of town. You can read today’s article right here.

That’s about it for this week. I have a busy weekend ahead of me preparing for my kids’ birthday parties, taking my kids to other kids’ birthday parties, wrapping birthday presents, shopping for Christmas presents, and hopefully getting more than seven seconds of hockey under my belt. Wish me luck, folks, and hopefully you’ll be seeing me back again next week. Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Some of you may know that recently Gilles Meloche was in Toronto to sign some autographs and shake some hands. One of this site’s regular visitors, Mark Harris, who has contributed many a photo of his encounters with former Seals greats Bobby Baun and Walt McKechnie, was fortunate enough to meet one of the greatest Seals of all time.

As much as I love living in the Nation’s Capital, and would never even think of ever living in Toronto (much too stodgy, busy, crowded, prone to frequent flooding, and let’s face it, a crap ton of Leafs crap everywhere… no, no, not goin’ anywhere near any of that), I do envy the fact that T.O. has so much cool stuff at every corner, that they’ve got pro hockey, baseball, basketball, and football going on, every great band visits on a yearly basis, and you can run into celebrities getting a double-double at just about any Timmies. Ottawa? Ehhhh, not so much.

So, this week, I’ve decided to go into the archives and find an article featuring the Seals’ legend. We’re going all the way back to December 1973 this time, when Meloche was nursing his injured hand after having it severed by an errant Reggie Leach skate blade. Even though he hadn’t been off that long, you could see that Meloche was starting to get bored, so he dabbled in bartending. This article, from John Porter of the Oakland Tribune, gives us a glimpse into Meloche’s childhood, and his feelings about his hometown Montreal Canadiens, a team he always well against. You can access this week’s article by clicking on this link.

On a sadder note, I regret to inform you that former Seal Al Simmons passed away on October 28. He suited up for California just one time before finding his way to Boston where he played the final ten games of his NHL career. I invite you to read his obituary to find out a little more about his impressive career outside of hockey. R.I.P. Al, you will be missed.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I know, I know, I know, I know… my Montreal Canadiens have crapped the bed once again. It’s getting to the point where they are practically running out of sheets in the closet. You know what I mean. It’s like when your kid has one of those awful once-in-a-decade stomach flus and over the course of a single night has so many barfing and pooping accidents that they are eventually left to using beach towels and bath mats to keep warm. That’s where the Habs are right now.

If you’ve watched any Habs games this year, you may have noticed their propensity for giving up goals in small (and sometimes large) bunches. Just about every game there is one moment when everything goes wrong, and it is usually the result of two or three quick goals in the span of a couple minutes. It is very frustrating to watch this every night. It is, in my opinion, the result of having a very young, very fragile defense. One goal easily leads to two, and before long, two goals leads to three.

So when I (seriously) stumbled upon this week’s article about the Seals-Canadiens game from February 4, 1970, I was quite surprised by the comparisons to the 2024 Habs. For one thing, the low-scoring Seals blitzed the Jean Beliveau-Yvan Cournoyer-Rogie Vachon-and-about-ten-other-Hall-of-Famers-led Habs for five third period goals on their way to a 5-2 win. The Habs of 1970, much like the Habs of 2022-2024 (and likely 2025), did not make the playoffs, and this game played a big part in the debacle. After all, the Seals were easy pickings and the Habs held a 1-0 lead into the third period before the Seals went ballistic scoring four times in 13 minutes (including a shorthanded goal from Ted Hampson). In the end, the Habs missed the playoffs after losing a tie-breaker after the final regular-season game; the Habs and Rangers both finished tied for fourth with 92 points, but the Rangers got in because they had scored two more goals. If you’d like to read about one of the most rousing victories in Seals history, head on over to the Articles section and check out this piece from the San Francisco Examiner‘s Jim Bainbridge.

Have a great weekend, folks! Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Most of you reading this right now have never met me, but if you’ve been to this site a few times over the last eight years, I’ve shared some of my philosophies about hockey, family, and life in general. I’m not saying I’ve every shared anything truly profound, but today I do have some wisdom to impart, so read carefully.

One thing I don’t like doing is getting overconfident, especially when it comes to my sports teams. I’ve learned that when you start feeling overconfident, things are always going to head south. When an opponent seems like an easy two points, I never get excited. If a rookie goalie with zero experience is suiting up for the opposition, I don’t start licking my chops. When my Habs skate out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first period, I always get this overwhelming feeling of dread, because I just know that that three-goal lead is going to disappear slowly but surely. I don’t know the specifics of what is about to take place, but I know it is going to be bad. Especially in the playoffs, you can bet that if things are going just a little too well for your team, something bad is going to happen. You might say I have this sense of foreshadowing. For those of you who might have skipped English class the day this term was presented (probably as you were reading Lord of the Flies or Animal Farm, or something), foreshadowing is when there are hints of important events that will happen later in a play or novel.

I immediately got this feeling of foreshadowing when I read John Porter’s game summary from the December 13, 1971 Oakland Tribune. The Seals had just beaten the Boston Bruins, 4-2, and the Seals were so amazed by their performance, not only that night, but since the start of the season. Of course, this was the year the club sat in a playoff spot most of the season, only to witness everything fall apart all around them. In my opinion, the turning point of the season happened February 23 when the Seals blew a 6-1 lead to those same Bruins, and lost 8-6. The Seals had already been in the middle of a winless streak, but this game just deflated the team and they never recovered. This week’s article is actually the second one describing the events of December 13, but this one contains far more quotes, and this is what I found most fascinating, since I knew how the rest of the season was going to turn out. To read this week’s article, just click on this link.

Hope you’re having yourselves a great weekend! Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I recently came across a great article about the Seals in, of all places, the Atlanta Journal. And no, in case you’re wondering there is no Atlanta anywhere near the Bay Area. I’m of course talking about Atlanta, Georgia, a place that, at the time the article was written, had been a member of the NHL for about a year and a half. What can I say, the article’s writer, Dick Beardsley, nailed it. I’m somewhat surprised, however, that the Seals would be so prominent in his radar that he would write an article about them rather than Bobby Orr, Bobby Clarke, or Bobby Hull. In Beardsley’s article from January 23, 1974, he wonderfully summarizes the turmoil that had encompassed the Seals since the very beginning of the season. Ivan Boldirev gets the spotlight in this piece as his participation in the controversial Mind Dynamics program is discussed, and ridiculed, by his teammates. Something about seeing things in colours and how it can make you look at life more positively. Of course, everyone on the team was chasing wins rather than rainbows, but in the end, no one really caught anything.

What I found interesting in the article was how there seemed to be this simmering feeling of tension between everyone in the Seals dressing room. The quotes you will read in the article could be just innocent ribbing between jocks, but something tells me there was an underlying feeling of anger and resentment. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever read another article that contained so much uneasiness without actually having any angry exclamation marks. When you read the article you feel as though the team really had given up hope, which is understandable, of course. This takes place just weeks before Charlie Finley sold the Seals to the NHL, and everyone was getting quite fed up with what was going on in Oakland. To read this great article, head on over to the articles section.

Have a great rest of the weekend, and we’ll see you all back next week. Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I was watching Montreal against Los Angeles the other day, and I was amazed to find out that when the horn sounded to signal the end of the game, Montreal’s rookie defenseman Lane Hutson had actually logged thirty minutes of ice time. He had just seven games of NHL experience, including the game that night, so it was an impressive outing for the 20-year-old. There was of course a very logical reason for Hutson’s huge effort. It helped that coach Martin St. Louis likes to give his young players every opportunity to shine, but it was also due in part to an injury to number one defenseman Mike Matheson early in the contest. That said, St. Louis could have called on someone with more experience to log those extra minutes, but Hutson was given the opportunity and he took full advantage looking he did this sort of thing every night. Something tells me that by the end of this season, he will have done so quite often.

Hockey is a sport where a player is often asked to step it up or take one for the team. I’m sure it was never easy when a Seals goaltender was asked to step up considering most nights there was usually somewhere in the neighbourhood of 35 or 40 shots (often more!) directed at the Oakland cage, so when Gilles Meloche was forced to take over for Marv Edwards, who was injured near the end of warm-up, Meloche probably wasn’t too thrilled, but he did a great job nonetheless. On this night, October 24, 1972, Meloche did his best to keep the Seals in the game, but the end result was a 5-0 defeat to the hometown Kings. This week’s article was penned by Oakland Tribune sportswriter John Porter, and you can read it here.

I hope you’ve all been enjoying the start of the new NHL season, and hopefully your favourite team is not Colorado or Nashville (Seriously, what the hell’s going on there?). Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Yes, it is the first week of October, so you know what that means: new NHL season! So many story lines yet to be unveiled, old records getting set to fall, a new Stanley Cup champion to be crowned… I love the start of the new NHL season. Everyone has a chance to win, optimism runs rampant in every city. Sure, by the end of the month, a lot of people are going to be terribly disappointed in their team’s performance, but as we saw last year with Edmonton, you can never really count anyone out until after the All-Star Game. It’s also the first year in which I’m hoping to get my son excited about pro sports. He seemed interested in watching the Cup final last year, so hopefully, that enthusiasm hasn’t waned. And if he gets excited about hockey, it may be enough to persuade him to put on his pajamas early and not in the 30 seconds before it is time to go to bed. So, win-win…

Because it is the dawn of a brand new season, let’s go back to Game One of the 1968-69 season when the Minnesota North Stars visited the undefeated (!) Seals. Yes, you read that correct, the Seals entered their second season undefeated (6-0-2 in exhibition play!). The regular season didn’t get off to a great start, as you will read, but the ship was eventually righted, and a couple new guys emerged as key performers. You wouldn’t have thought it though based on how the Seals performed in the season opener, which you can read about right here.

Until next time, stay gold!