Hi everyone! A quick little back story on this week’s new article, which you can find right here by the way. This week, I received an e-mail from site subscriber Sante Debacco, who informed me about the significance Seals-Kings contest from December 25, 1971. I remembered quite clearly that the Seals were involved in the NHL’s last-ever Christmas game, so I was surprised to notice that I had never posted an article about said contest. So, this week, I’ve added a great John Porter article about that game, a 3-1 victory for the Seals, who, as you may remember, were on a bit of a roll that season after acquiring Gilles Meloche from Chicago. The Seals were looking like serious playoff contenders at this point, and they wouldn’t relinquish their hold on the West Division’s last post-season ticket until the latter days of March. On Christmas night, the lowly Kings gave the Seals all they could handle, but the Golden Ones hung on for the win thanks to some stellar goaltending from Meloche, playing in his ninth straight game. Fred Glover, by then the Kings’ coach, was confronting his former team, who had fired him three games into the season, for the first time. Little did Glover know that within less than a year, he would be back behind the Oakland bench. Thanks Sante for bringing the game up and for pointing out its significance!

That’s about it for this week, so I hope you all have a great weekend and get that Christmas shopping finished (or started?). Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! December has been a lot of fun so far. My daughter Laura turned two yesterday, so the wife and I spent the night before wrapping presents and decorating the house a little bit. My daughter was actually fighting a cold on her birthday so she stayed home, and my wife picked up our son Emmett at school a bit early so we could open some presents and have a few birthday snacks before supper. We all had a great time, and even sick little Laura managed to enjoy her birthday.

Then today we went out to buy this year’s Christmas tree, which the wife and I are going to set up tonight and decorate tomorrow with the kids, so it should be another fun day. Emmett and I did a little Christmas shopping so he could pick up a few small presents for his aunts, uncles and grandparents, and even though he was tired, he pushed ahead and we managed to find a few nice trinkets and candy for everyone. We even had a nice little snowfall of about 4 cm this morning, so it really is starting to feel like the holidays again.

As you’ve probably realized by now, I really have absolutely no segue into this week’s new additions to the site. I’ve added a new article from the December 10, 1970 Vancouver Sun. The game detailed in this article isn’t anything special per se other than the fact the Seals won and that Earl Ingarfield scored 4 points for the victors. I chose to add this article to the site archives for the simple reason that Vancouver coach Hal Laycoe’s description of what it was like playing against the Seals during the 1970-71 season is hilarious. I won’t spoil it for you here (other than a little teaser in this week’s headline), so I urge you to read this great piece about one of the Seals’ rare wins that year.

For all of you stats nerds and San Francisco Seals fans, you may want to download the updated version of the team’s game-by-game summary which now includes about 99% of the team’s game-by-game attendance figures. A huge thanks to Chuck Nan who was able to find most of the WHL Seals’ home attendance marks, as well as a few road figures as well, including quite a few I was having trouble finding!

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! The NHL season is heating up! Some teams are already out of the playoff picture (cough, cough… Montreal), some contenders are hitting the skids and holding their hands over the panic button, and the media is speculating about everything, from that “lower body” injury with which Joe Fourth-liner missed last night’s game to why Auston Matthews decided to change deodorants. Yes, it’s the quarter-season mark, and things are starting to get crazy. It isn’t just this season either. Even way back in the California Golden Seals days, crazy rumours would spring up here and there. For instance, right around this time back in 1974, Seals broadcaster Joe Starkey had been told that coach Marshall Johnston had been fired and replaced by Bill McCreary (which actually did happen a few months later), and that captain Joey Johnston was on his way to New York. It turns out it was all a hoax, which I invite you to read about in my book. Starkey was kind enough to share this embarrassing story with me for the book, and to this day, he still has no idea how that rumour managed to make its way into the broadcast, considering only a select few could actually call in to report any hockey news during a game in progress. The “hoax” game itself was a letdown for the Seals – a 3-1 loss to Minnesota – even though the Golden Ones had played quite well. This week’s article, from the Oakland Tribune‘s John Porter is all about that fateful night, and you can find it right here.

That’s about it for this week. I’m about to dive into my “Best of the World Hockey Association Hall of Fame” DVD which I received today from Amazon. It’s about 5 hours long, so considering my busy schedule I might have it done in three or four weeks, or more.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! The day is getting closer! In exactly two months and one day (January 20, 2022), my new book, When the NHL Invaded Japan: the Washington Capitals, the Kansas City Scouts, and the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup, 1975-76, will be released. That means I should probably start shilling and promoting my baby, so here goes. Click on this link to find a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of the book, not to mention a few links to places where you can pre-order it. If you liked my first book, I think you will find this new tome an interesting read as well. The book covers the Scouts and Capitals’ first two years in the NHL, but in actuality, the book is about the mysterious Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup. To fully understand how the little-known Japanese mini-series came to be, one must start at the very beginning of these two franchises, even going a little further back to the NHL’s earliest forays into expansion. The NHL picked a very bad time to expand into Washington and Kansas City. The World Hockey Association had already pillaged and plundered the New York Islanders in 1972, and the rebel league continued to wreak havoc on the NHL when the Scouts and Capitals prepared for the 1974 expansion draft. The slim pickings at their disposal sent the NHL newbies on a two-year roller-coaster ride that culminated in the four-game set of games in Tokyo and Sapporo.

As I was thinking of what I could add to the site this week, I realized I had forgotten two very important statistics sections pertaining to the San Francisco Seals. First, there is the WHL Seals’ all-time scoring and goaltending stats, and then there is the club’s year-by-year scoring and goaltending stats. Can’t believe I never got around to posting them until now, especially since they were all ready to go just sitting there in a computer folder since something like 2019. Whoops!

So that’s the update for this week. Have a great weekend, and get some hockey under your belts! Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! It has been a tough couple of weeks in the California Seals family as three of its members sadly passed away. Former San Francisco Seals player-coach Charlie Burns died on November 5 at the age of 85. Tony Featherstone, the Seals’ first round draft pick in 1969 passed October 30 at the age of 72. Defenseman Ron Serafini, who played two games for the Seals in 1973-74, also passed away October 30 one day before his 68th birthday. We wish the families and friends of Mr. Burns, Mr. Featherstone, and Mr. Serafini our sincerest condolences.

Charlie Burns was one of the most prominent players in Seals history, and one of the few players to cross over from the WHL club to the NHL club. Burns totalled 237 points, the fourth-highest total in team history, in 230 career WHL games with the Seals. His 92 goals place him 5th overall in that category. He also has the distinction of scoring the very last regular-season goal in WHL Seals history. For a time, Burns both played and coached the Seals, compiling a 50-44-5 record and franchise-best .530 win percentage. Burns was a heart-and-soul player who always gave it his all, and he fought his way back to the NHL after having been sent down to San Francisco while he was a member of the parent Boston Bruins. Burns suffered a severe head injury during his junior career, so he was forced to wear a distinct leather helmet during his professional career, which stretched out from 1958 to 1973. He began his NHL career in Detroit, but after just one season, he was sent to Boston where he would perform admirably as a penalty-killer for the next four years. He had a deft scoring touch, however, notching 48 career goals with Boston. He was sent down to San Francisco for four years, and he became one of the Seals’ most valuable players. In fact, the Seals Booster Club named him the team’s MVP in both 1964 and 1965. He also led the team in scoring in 1963-64 with 69 points in 68 games, and he played a valuable role in the Seals’ second straight championship season. After four seasons in the WHL, Burns returned to the NHL as a member of the California Seals, and he did not look out of place finishing the year with nine goals and a team-leading 26 assists. His 35 points placed him third on the expansion team’s scoring list. The Pittsburgh Penguins claimed him in the intra-league draft during the off-season, and he continued to play a prominent role with his new club (second in team scoring with 51 points) before moving on to Minnesota for the last four years of his career.

Tony Featherstone’s stay in Oakland was not quite as long as Burns, but at times he showed some flashes of skill, notably when he finished the 1970-71 season on a five-game point streak. They were the last games he would play for the Seals before being traded to Montreal for goaltending prospect Ray Martyniuk. Featherstone had been selected by Oakland, 7th overall in the 1969 amateur draft, and he would see action nine times with the 1969-70 Seals. Featherstone was expected to play a bigger role with the club the following season, but he struggled for the most part until a season-ending stretch in which he scored seven points in nine games. The Seals were desperate for goaltending, however, as the 1971-72 season approached. Gary Smith had been dealt to Chicago for Gerry Desjardins, but Desjardins arrived in Oakland with an injured arm, and so the deal was left in limbo for a few weeks, meaning the Seals were bereft of any veteran goaltenders. Featherstone never caught on with Montreal (although he did score 103 points one year with the Habs’ farm team in Nova Scotia), and Martyniuk never reached the NHL at all, but the Minnesota North Stars gave him another opportunity in 1973-74 (21 points in 54 games). Featherstone then signed with the Toronto Toros of the WHA and enjoyed a successful 63-point season his first year. He retired from professional hockey in 1976.

Defenseman Ron Serafini was drafted 50th overall by California in the 1973 amateur draft, but only suited up twice for the Seals before eventually finding his way to the World Hockey Association. He played 16 games for Cincinnati, posting two assists before returning to the minors. He played one last season in Austria in 1977-78 before hanging up his blades.

This week I have posted an article from February 12, 1968, the date of Burns’ best (NHL) Seals game, a two-goal performance in a 4-3 come-from-behind victory for the Seals. I’ve also posted an article from April 1, 1971 about the Seals’ impressive 4-1 win over Minnesota. This game featured Tony Featherstone’s last goal as a member of the Seals. He was really heating up as the season was coming to a close, scoring four goals and three assists in his last nine games of the season. During that stretch, he had scored goals in three consecutive games, the last of which was the one presented in this week’s second article.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Uh… so glad this week is finally over. I had no idea last week how crappy this week was going to be. I’ve been slogging through a cold since last weekend, and I’m finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. For the first time in days, I’m not stuffed up, drippy, raspy voiced, or nauseous. I suppose my condition this week was a little like the Cleveland Barons circa May-June 1977. Ok, maybe not THAT much alike. After all, at that time the Barons had practically been resurrected like a hockey-playing Lazarus, and I had a cold, but it’s the only way I can segue into this week’s new article, which pertains to George Gund’s purchase of the franchise, and the hope that things were going to get better in Cleveland. Hopefully, my recovery from this cold does NOT follow the same model as the Cleveland Barons, who quickly became sick again and then died about a year later. Think happy thoughts, Steve… Anyway, you can find this week’s new article right here.

As an added bonus this week, a brand new induction into the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame. I had a bit of extra time this week, and I was able to track down a strange card from the 1992-93 Classic Four Sport set. Classic has provided this site with a non-stop pipeline of crappy cardboard for several years now, and this week’s is indeed another classic Classic. Poor Dave Tretowicz… I can only hope he has overcome his public narcolepsy and has regained a sense of normalcy in the 21st century. To find out what the hell I’m talking about, I urge you to check out this week’s induction.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Let me begin by saying Wow… and I sincerely mean, WOW! Has this been a breathtakingly calamitous week for the Chicago Blackhawks or what? Not only has this storied franchise been shaken to its very core with the recent sexual assault accusations (Shame! SHAME!) and its fallout, to add insult to injury, the Hawks have been absolute crap on the ice. I thought Montreal had been sucking pretty badly this season, but man, I’d hate to be a Hawks fan right now. Site subscriber Mark Harris wrote to me the other day to point out that an old Seals futility record (were there any other kinds of records for the Seals?) had fallen. Apparently, the 1970-71 Seals had gone 324 minutes and 25 seconds without taking lead in a game, but the 2021-22 Blackhawks actually went a whopping 366 minutes and 41 seconds without taking a single lead. Not only did the Hawks set a new record, they absolutely blasted the old one out of the water. So good news for Seals fans everywhere: another ignominious record wiped from the books. Another Seals record that has since fallen was of course the 232 penalty minutes they and the Philadelphia Flyers accumulated this very week 48 years ago. Of course, that was the infamous night the Flyers attacked Seals defenseman Mike Christie in the penalty box.

While there are not many Seals records that still stand today, one thing did not change in the years after the team left Oakland. At least, one thing didn’t change in the years immediately after the team’s move to Cleveland, and that would be the team’s propensity for making bad decisions and living to regret them. This week, we dive deep into Gary Webster’s excellent new book, The NHL’s Mistake by the Lake: a History of the Cleveland Barons. I had been waiting anxiously for the book to arrive in my mailbox, but Amazon took its sweet time sending it to me, so I’m a bit late in posting my review, but fear not, the big day has finally arrived. You can head on over to the Seals Literature section to read all about Webster’s new book. It is a real hoot. As an added bonus, you can also listen to the interview he recorded with Tim Hanlon of Good Seats Still Available this summer. Just scroll down the page to episode 225 to hear the interview.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! It’s been one suuuuuuucktacular season in Montreal! 0-5. Oh and freakin’ five!

As I write this entry this Saturday evening, Montreal is currently leading Detroit 5-1 as the 2nd period is winding down, so my hopes are certainly up that the goose egg will be broken before 11pm tonight, but part of me is cringing about the possibility of a Wings comeback. Believe it or not, tonight is the first night I’ve actually witnessed a Montreal goal. Most evenings I don’t actually start watching games until 8:30 or so since I’ve got to put one or both of my kids to bed. So first periods and the majority of second periods don’t exist for me unless the game takes place anywhere West of Chicago. For some reason, every Montreal goal this season, prior to tonight, all FOUR of them, have been scored in the first or second periods. Hopefully, all of these trends are going to bid the team goodbye before long.

On a more positive note, I am deep into Gary Webster’s new book on the Cleveland Barons, The NHL’s Mistake by the Lake, and so far I’m learning a lot about Ohio’s most infamous hockey venture. It is a fascinating read that all of you will enjoy, I promise. If you enjoyed reading the two chapters about the Barons in my book on the Seals, you’ll enjoy Webster’s book, which goes much more into detail and leaps way into the shadows behind the scenes to expose what went on in Cleveland. I’m hoping to post a full review of the book next week, assuming I get the chance to read the rest in the next few days, so stay tuned.

This week’s article promises to make a lot of you think and reflect on the past. It will make you wonder how Seals history might have turned out differently if a certain Charles O. Finley had purchased the team two years earlier than he did. What? You didn’t know that Finley was thinking of buying the Seals as far back as their first year in the NHL? Just think about it. What if Finley had actually bought the Seals in time for Year Two. He probably would have got bored of the team by 1972, perhaps just in time for someone else with deeper pockets to step in and pay players like Paul Shmyr, Bobby Sheehan, Gerry Pinder and others enough money to keep them away from the WHA. Would the awful 1972-73 and 1973-74 season have ever happened? Would the team have been good enough to bring attendance up and perhaps keep the team in Oakland? I’ll leave you with that to think about…

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Lots to discuss today, so let’s get right to it. I received an interesting email from subscriber Sante Debacco just yesterday, who has done a little Seals research over the years. He discovered that the Seals’ 1971-72 schedule, which happened exactly 50 years ago, falls on exactly the same days as the 2021-22 calendar. In other words, today is Friday, October 15, and way back in 1971, October 15 also fell on a Friday. A little digging will show that October 15, 1971 was not exactly a banner day in Seals history. It was Vic Stasiuk’s first game behind the bench, and while his troops looked great the first 12 minutes of the game, racking up a 4-0 lead over the over-matched Vancouver Canucks, the Seals then completely fell apart losing 9-6. So, to commemorate this interesting night on its true 50th anniversary, I present to you a trio of articles about the game itself, the firing of Fred Glover, and some other off-ice notes. As usual you can find them in the articles section.

This week, I finally received my copy of Gary Webster’s book on the Cleveland Barons, The NHL’s Mistake By The Lake. I’ve only had the time to read the first 30 pages or so, but so far it is a good read. I’m just getting to the part where the Cleveland crew is getting ready for the 1976-77 season, so I imagine things to downhill pretty fast for the team afterwards. Never saw the Barons play, I might add; I just get that feeling things don’t turn out so well, but who knows, books have surprised me in the past. Anyway, when I finish the book I will be sure to post a review, but don’t wait around for me, folks, go get yourself a copy today.

So that’s about it for this week. I look forward to catching a few hockey games on the TV this weekend, although if Montreal’s first two games are any indication, I feel they will be sharing a few negative traits with those aforementioned Barons before long. It’s looking like it’s going to be a long season, but hey, we’re all here because we’re Seals fans, so we’re used to losing, right?

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I hope everyone has been enjoying the return of a (relatively) normal NHL. I say “relatively” because there is still a lot that is completely bonkers. We’ve got players who are being forced to sit out because they refuse to get the COVID vaccine (seriously, did anyone ever think they would read that sentence?). Can’t say I disagree with the league making that decision; I just can’t believe this is the point we’re at in world history. Then we have Tony DeAngelo, who actually got himself a new job in Carolina (seriously, did anyone ever think they would read that sentence?). And we’ve also got Carey Price taking a much-needed rest to battle some mental health issues, not to mention Shea Weber probably out of action for good. Yes, Montreal is going to be absolutely sucktacular this year… But we also got that new Leafs documentary showing how their cockiness and overinflated heads would lead them to yet another first-round collapse, so not all is bad right now.

Yes, it has been an off-season full of upheaval, trials, and tribulations, but one could easily argue that the 1972 off-season was actually more uncertain and more tumultuous. That, of course, was the year the rebel World Hockey Association came into existence and forever changed the face of professional hockey. As you all know by now, no other NHL was affected more negatively by the WHA than the California Golden Seals. This week, I’ve added a new article about the Seals’ rocky 1972 off-season, that difficult period between the Seals’ season ending 8-game winless skid and the start of the 1972-73 season when the core of the team had been stripped by the WHA. Gone were Gerry Pinder, Bobby Sheehan, Wayne Carleton, Paul Shmyr, Gary Kurt, Tom Webster, Gary Jarrett, and Ken Baird. In other words, the Seals present and future were pretty much wiped out by the renegade league and it’s surprisingly thick pocket-books. This article by the Oakland Tribune‘s John Porter is a rather interesting one as it makes the case that the 1972 Major League Baseball strike may have indirectly led to the Seals losing half their team.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving, that is if you live in Canada. If you live in the States, I guess Happy Columbus Day. Enjoy the day off, stay safe, and take advantage of the last bits of nice weather if you’re lucky enough to have it. Until next time, stay gold!