Hi everyone, and welcome back to another exciting update from Golden Seals Hockey, your home for all things related to golden seals (the hockey kind only, sorry…) and, uh, hockey. I guess that part is pretty obvious.

Congratulations to the Washington Capitals for their excellent playoff and the capture of their very first Stanley Cup championship. Congratulations also to the Vegas Golden Knights for providing, in my opinion, the greatest story the NHL has seen in many a year. I absolutely loved following the Knights and seeing them knock off one expansion record after another. I think at this point they literally have every positive record for an expansion team, and I’m willing to bet they will never be broken. I also love the fact that these two teams have either a direct or indirect link to the book I’m now writing about the 1974 expansion that welcomed Kansas City and Washington to the fold. Washington, of course, is still the worst expansion team of all-time, and Kansas City wasn’t far off, whereas the Knights are the all-time best expansion team. How did the 1974 draft turn out so badly, yet the 2017 draft turned out so well? And why did it take the Capitals so long to finally win their first championship? I’m looking forward to diving deeper into these two questions.

Anyway, back to the subject of the website: the Seals. I came across a great article last weekend that had slipped under my radar for two years. I remember reading in Brad Kurtzberg’s Shorthanded: the Untold Story of the Seals, that Stan Gilbertson had seemingly vanished into thin air. No one seemed to know where he was, or what he was doing. A lot of people were worried about his well-being. Then, NHL Network Radio’s Mick Kern took it upon himself to find out what happened to Stan, and I’ve added his article to the site so you can all read about his search.

And there’s also a brand new induction to the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame, and it’s a real stinker. You’ll just have to go check it out for yourself to see what I mean.

Until next time, enjoy the NHL awards (which might be future induction material if they keep hauling out more D-list celebrities…), and enjoy the NHL draft as well, which with the current Mike Hoffman-Erik Karlsson saga, might be extremely interesting…

And stay gold!

Hi everyone! With the Washington Capitals’ huge game five victory Thursday night, that just about wraps up another great NHL season. And now my favorite part of the NHL season begins. That is unless my beloved Habs are in the final themselves, then that is my favorite part of the season, but that hasn’t happened since I was in grade school, so I take what I can get to find true hockey happiness. My favorite part of the hockey season is (usually) June and early July when players start getting swapped around for fifth-round picks and used jock straps, and we get the endless analysis about how signing David Clarkson to a five-year deal is a franchise-altering decision (indeed it was, just not in the way the Toronto Maple Leafs expected). I can only imagine which third-line schlub is going to win the lottery this time around. My money is on Rick Nash, whose career has been on a severe down slide the last five years or so; therefore, he will be highly sought after, and I don’t mean that sarcastically. Patrick Maroon seems like another guy some team will believe is going to score a solid thirty goals every year for the next five years, and then he’ll get nothing more than half that, and the team that signs him will be left scratching their noggins. Put Paul Stastny on that list too. He had a great playoff for Winnipeg, and like most UFAs who have great playoffs after a bunch of so-so regular seasons, the May offensive outburst is usually an aberration, and he’ll go back to scoring 40-50 points a year. The difference, however, is that starting in 2018 he’ll get way too much money to do it. In a recent issue of The Hockey News, they mention the best and worst signings of every general manager in the league, and I was flabbergasted by how many albatross deals have been signed in the last decade. Since this year’s crop of free agents ain’t all that great, something tells me there are going to be a lot of big birds finding their way to new towns.

I know everything is going to get completely ridiculous and yet, I get suckered into this insanity every year…

As teams are preparing themselves for the 2018-19 season, I wanted to look back at how the Seals were preparing for their very first NHL season. This week, I’ve added a new article on the WHL California Seals’ Rudy Pilous, and the lead-up to the NHL California Seals expansion draft. Like the Vegas Golden Knights some fifty years later, Pilous was looking to draft lots of young players rather than fading veterans, which makes total sense, but there was one older dude he was looking to entice to Oakland, and that would be the legendary Jacques Plante..

In honour of the Stanley Cup final, I’ve also added a brand new induction to the Hockey Hall of Shame! It has been about a year, almost to the day, since the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins met in game four of their Stanley Cup final series, and on this night, the Hall of Shame’s doors began creaking open to let something awful get in. If you’re a country music fan, you may want to turn away now. If you’re not a country music fan, you’ll probably want to turn away too. If you’re a fan of national anthems, you will most definitely want to click on the little X in the top right corner of your browser. You’ve been warned!

Until next time, stay gold!

 

 

Hi everyone! Indeed, like the title of this post indicates, it certainly feels like summer has arrived here in Ottawa. It’s actually been very humid and uncomfortable the last few days, but beggars can’t be choosers, and I’ll take this over the seemingly endless winter we went through this year. And to celebrate the occasion, we present you yet another in our series of 1991-92 hockey card atrocities: the classic Pavel “I’m-not-yet-in-the-NHL-but-with-this-type-of-photogenic-presence-I’m-sure-to-be-a-hit-with-the-ladies” Bure. Pavel here must have signed a rich entry-level deal with Vancouver because he certainly looked to be living it up in what was presumably his first summer in North America. He may have also taken in a couple of nearby Seattle Mariners games because I swear, in this card, it looks like he is more interested in playing baseball, but I’ll let you to decide if he ultimately made the right decision by choosing the Canucks.

In the articles section, I’ve added a great article from October 1991 which covers the Seals’ most interesting and sometimes truly bizarre moments. I received this article sometime in the mid-1990s when I started doing very preliminary research for my book. I had the idea of writing to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and asking them if they had any information on the Seals. Of course, this was long before I had access to the Internet, so this was some pretty hardcore research. A few weeks later, I received an envelope with four or five articles from the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner. This week’s article is my favorite of the bunch.

Time is running out to vote for your picks for the 2018 Seals Hall of Fame, so it you haven’t voted yet, now is the time. The polls will close the first week of July, and this year’s inductees will be announced around the time of the site’s third anniversary, which also falls around the time of the Seals’ move to Cleveland.

Until next time, stay gold!

 

Washington and Vegas? Never would have thought I would be writing those words in the month of May. Talk about an absolutely jaw-dropping, shocking playoff. Washington not only beat Pittsburgh, but they did so in a seventh game, breaking two long-standing negative playoff traditions. And then they go out and win a second game seven in a row, this time a shutout against the mighty Tampa Bay Lightning. As if that wasn’t surprising enough, the Vegas Golden Knights have gone 12-3 to advance to the Stanley Cup final in their first year. One thing’s for sure; someone is winning their first-ever Cup this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing it. I’m happy to finally see Ovie get his team to the final series and hopefully prove to everyone that he’s every bit as good as Crosby, but I’m also thrilled about the story that has been developing all year in Vegas. Cinderella stories like this almost never end well, but this team sure is special, and one hell of a feisty bunch.

Of course, the Seals never came close to reaching the Stanley Cup final, and their one appearance in a game seven (in 1969 versus L.A.) ended in defeat. This week, I’ve added an article that was published shortly after the Seals’ last-ever playoff game, a 3-2 overtime loss to Pittsburgh in 1970. The 1969-70 season was not exactly a banner year in Oakland. The Seals had had an impressive season the year before, but by December 1969, the team was looking a lot older and worse for wear. It was only a matter of time before the team retooled. Unfortunately, that time was one year too late.

In the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame, another 1991-92 classic, this time from Upper Deck. The NHL’s 75th anniversary season was a weird time for sports card collecting. Like we’ve seen in previous inductions, everyone on planet Earth had his own hockey card clogging up the bike spokes of sixth-graders. I’m sure if I looked hard enough, I could find one or two cards of myself playing goal for my old ball hockey team. Hopefully, if I ever find that card, I won’t be dressed in the same get-up as poor Andrew Verner in his rookie card.

You may have also noticed the new ad for my book on the right-hand side of the page. Underneath, there is a little box, which if you scroll down to the bottom of it, you can go directly to Amazon to buy lots and lots of copies, or you can read a preview of the book before you go to Amazon and buy lots and lots of copies.

Weekly reminder time: Time is running out to cast your votes for the Seals Hall of Fame. The voting will be open for about another month and the new inductees will be announced in July on the site’s third anniversary.

Until next time, stay gold!

 

Hi everyone! Happy long weekend! Hope the weather in your neck of the woods is every bit as wonderful as it has been in Ottawa the last week or so.

The theme this week is questions, questions, questions. I’ve added a Frequently Asked Questions section to the site so you’ll be able to find answers to all those burning questions you may have about the Seals and my book, and as I think of new questions, I’ll add them to the section. Don’t be shy to ask away either!

If you need inspiration for really, really good questions, I invite you to head on over to the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame. We’re going back to the 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee set for the second time in three weeks, and once again we’re featuring a Hall-of-Famer in his prime. This time around, that would be Joe Nieuwendyk as a member of the Calgary Flames. Joe will have you all pondering the meaning of life and whether or not your wife left the curling iron on this morning.

I’d also like to point out that there is a new article (April 17th) from the Ponoka (Alberta) News that mostly focuses on Stan Weir’s time with the Seals. After the article’s writer, Jordie Dwyer, did a short article on my book, he followed it up with one about Ponoka native Weir’s career. You can access the article here.

Weekly reminder time: don’t forget to cast your vote(s) for the 2018 Seals Hall of Fame. You can also vote for your favorite Seal moment in the surveys section. And of course, I always encourage you to head over to Amazon or Goodreads to post some feedback about my book to help spread the buzz.

Until next time, stay gold!

 

Hi everyone! These playoffs have been really fascinating compared to the last few years. The Winnipeg Jets have been a lot of fun to watch, the Leafs got struck down by Brad Marchand’s “kiss of death” (although Ryan Callaghan must have had an antidote at the ready in round two; then again, that really was more of a lick than a kiss…), Nathan Walker became the first Welsh-born player to score a playoff point since former Seals coach Jack “Tex” Evans in 1961, and the Vegas Golden Knights, against all odds, are still alive! I’ve had a great time following the Knights throughout the season, mainly because my new book (hopefully ready in time to be published around late 2019 or 2020) deals with the pitiful 1974 expansion draft, and its unfortunate participants, the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts. This draft, unlike the one in which Vegas participated last year, was without a doubt the absolute worst expansion draft ever, and I mean that sincerely. Seriously, I’ve actually started studying the stats of players chosen in every expansion draft since 1967, and the title of “Worst Expansion Draft” ever is not even debatable. It will forever belong to 1974.

That the Knights have been by far the best first-year NHL team ever should not have come to anyone’s surprise. Imagine that the Knights were just handed James Neal, Jonathan Marchessault, David Perron, Erik Haula, and Marc-Andre Fleury, not to mention a career 18-goal scorer (William Karlsson) who wound up scoring 43 this season. Needless to say, neither the Scouts nor the Capitals were even remotely that lucky. Trust me, I’ve seen the protected lists of NHL teams before the 1974 draft, and thanks in part to the WHA luring several NHL players away, the Scouts and Caps were left with nothing but scraps, which easily explains why they won a combined 46 games in TWO seasons. And that includes games they won against each other! To write a book about these two teams, I must really be a glutton for punishment, but I digress…

This week, I’ve added a new review of Krazy George Henderson’s autobiography, Krazy George: Still Krazy After All These Cheers. Of course, George is known to visitors of this site as the Golden Seals’ one-man cheer-leading squad, and for years, that’s all I really knew about him, but he has in fact led a very busy life, and he has dabbled in more sports than I could have imagined. He’s cheered for literally dozens of teams, most of which you’ve probably never even heard of. His book is a very good read, and it reads really fast too, so I encourage you to pick it up at Amazon. You can also listen to the interview George did with Tim Hanlon at Good Seats Still Available, where they discuss the book: http://goodseatsstillavailable.com/listen/2017/4/15/episode-07-krazy-george-henderson-the-art-of-pro-sports-cheerleading

Also new this week, we dive back into the world of women’s hockey with a brand new induction for the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame, the really bizarre Cassie Campbell card from the classic 1997-98 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice set. I feel I may be able to induct cards from that set until the end of time, and if it wasn’t for me trying to mix it up from time to time by featuring cards from different sets and different eras, I probably would because this set is absolutely disastrous. Kinda like one of those movies from Mystery Science Theater 3000 that you can’t help but be drawn to even though you know it is a complete waste of time and brain cells.

Usual reminder time: go and vote for the Seals’ all-time greatest accomplishment in the surveys section, and keep on voting for the Seals Hall of Fame inductees for 2018. Also, if you’ve got the time and the desire, please leave some feedback about my book on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca. Any feedback is appreciated, and only helps get the word out about the Seals and their misunderstood history.

Until next time, stay gold!

 

I usually don’t post twice in one week, let alone twice in one hour, but literally five minutes after my last post, I read that former Seals executive vice-president, the famously bow-tied William “Bill” Torrey has passed away at 83.Torrey was hired after the Seals’ awful first NHL season, and right away, he helped Frank Selke Jr. and Fred Glover turn the Seals (briefly) into a winner. The 1968-69 Seals remain the franchise’s benchmark for greatness, however fleeting it might have been. Selke called the three of them the “Three Musketeers”, and they should have been able to keep the franchise together, but Charlie Finley wanted everyone to sign new contracts when he bought the Seals. Selke and Torrey, lifelong friends, refused. Selke left first, and then Finley offered Torrey the general manager’s job, which was an excellent move. Had Charlie Finley not constantly interfered with Torrey, he probably would have remained in Oakland instead of moving on to greener pastures. I always remember that scene in Mark Greczmiel’s documentary where Finley announces he knows absolutely nothing about hockey, and then the camera shows the exasperation in Torrey’s face. He knew right then and there it was going to be a lonnnnnnng season, and he was right, to an extent. It was a very long season for the Seals, but not for Torrey. His departure in late 1970 is yet another of those “what if” questions we all ask ourselves when we talk about the Seals.

The Seals had a lot of brilliant and talented people in their organization, at one time or another. You can talk about the brilliance of Gilles Meloche, the speed of Dennis Maruk, the raw skill of Reggie Leach. Even Garry Young proved that you can create a pretty good team if you scout the players properly. But none was as cerebral as Bill Torrey. Of course, as everyone knows, Torrey was best known as the architect of the New York Islanders’ dynasty of the early 1980s. The Islanders became one of the greatest teams in sports history in due part to Torrey’s exceptional talent as a builder and general manager. He was crafty enough to know that bloodsucking Original Six teams like Montreal wanted nothing more than to fleece expansion teams like the Islanders by dangling middling talent or fading veterans in their face in exchange for high draft picks. Torrey always refused to take the bait. He knew that they way to build a champion, was through the draft. It was true then, and it’s true now. You wonder how a team like the Canadiens has fallen on such hard times of late. I’ll tell you why: bad drafting. By 1975, just three years into their existence, the Islanders were winners. By year eight, they were Stanley Cup Champs, mainly because Torrey did his homework and drafted future Hall of Famers like Denis Potvin, Clark Gillies, Bryan Trottier, and Mike Bossy (who many other teams thought was too soft to play in the NHL; Torrey was not fooled by those less-than-accurate scouting reports), not to mention other solid players like Bob Nystrom, Billy Harris, and Chico Resch. Torrey also drafted a future Hall-of-Fame goaltender, Billy Smith, in the 1972 expansion draft. Torrey’s decision-making abilities were nearly flawless, and in the history of the NHL, only a handful of general managers could hold a candle to Bill Torrey.

R.I.P.

Hi everyone! It’s been quite the roller-coaster playoff season so far! The Leafs blew it as usual, the Caps are playing the Pens once again, and the Winnipeg Jets blew everyone’s mind with that 7-4 game three victory. What an incredible comeback that was! If there was ever a turning point in one team’s playoff drive, it may just be that. You could just see an entire season just completely shifting directions in the second period of that game. All of Canada is of course hoping the Jets keep it up and bring home Stanley after a 25-year absence.

This week, I’ve added a new Hockey News article that summarizes the Seals’ record-breaking 1975-76 season. Much like the Seals, the Jets have soared to new heights this year, and have given not only the citizens of Winnipeg, but all of Manitoba, and all of Canada a reason to cheer. On a personal note, I find the title of this article a bit sad: “Seals Assault on Records Gives Fans Reason to Cheer.” Despite all the positivity surrounding the Seals, there would soon be absolutely no reason to cheer, since as you all know, the team announced it was moving to Cleveland less than three months later. One can only hope the Winnipeg Jets’ fate is a little kinder.

In the Hockey Hall of Shame, a brand new card has been inducted into the Overexposed wing. This one features Pittsburgh Penguins legend Mario Lemieux in one very weird photo. I really had a hard time explaining this one, and you’ll understand what I mean when you see it.

For anyone living in the Ottawa area, I’ll be appearing at the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair on June 23 in room 203 of the Jack Purcell Community Centre (on Elgin, at 320 Jack Purcell Lane). I’ll be there to sign and sell copies of my book, The California Golden Seals: a Tale of White Skates, Red Ink, and One of the NHL’s Most Outlandish Teams so if you’re in the area, and you want to say hi, don’t by shy.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Hope everyone is enjoying the 2018 NHL playoffs! It’s been quite the first round. Who would have thought that the Vegas Golden Knights would sweep the once-mighty Los Angeles Kings? Then there is the Boston Bruins’ top line of Marchand-Bergeron-Pasternak. I mean, WOW! They’ve been showing some SERIOUS skill this past week. Then there’s Auston Matthews, who has done a whole lot of nothing in the Leafs’ first four games, and then there are of course Philadelphia’s goaltenders, who have already started dreaming of summer vacation (again), so some things are not all that surprising. It kinda summarizes this week’s theme: promising vs. pathetic.

This week, I’ve posted a new article on the oxymoronic Seals of 1972-73: “pathetic but promising” is what they are referred as in this Hockey News article. The Seals were just that. Though they had one horrible record that year, they still had tons of talent, and that was despite the fact the WHA had raided the Seals mercilessly. This article talks about how players like Joey Johnston and Hilliard Graves were lighting it up in Oakland.

I’ve also added a few new autographed card scans to the photos section.

Just to let you all know, there won’t be an update next week, as I will be out of town with no consistent Internet access. For those of you who are fairly new to the site, and who haven’t yet had the time to scroll to the bottom of each section and check out some of the older Hockey Hall of Shame inductions from the Overexposed wing, might I suggest you check out these classics: such as the charmingly aggressive Dave Balon, the wood-fearing Rene Corbet, or the most boring Mario Lemieux picture you’ve ever seen.

You can also continue voting for the next inductees to the Seals Hall of Fame, which can be found, as you probably know by now, on the right side of the screen.

Until next time, stay gold!

 

 

 

Hi everyone! This week, I’m happy to announce the results of the Seals/Barons Uniform Playoff. I have to admit I was a little surprised by what I discovered. THirty percent of voters picked the Seals 1969-70 road uniform as their favorite, but personally, It’s probably my least favorite of all Seals and Barons uniforms (and there were a LOT of those over their seventeen years of existence!). I always preferred those used from 1967-69, especially the dark green “California Seals” jerseys from their inaugural season, before the team filled in the “C” and made it into a big “O”. For those of you who have heard the podcasts I have done the last few months, I mentioned a few times how I saw a black and white photo of George Swarbrick in the May 1988 issue of Hockey Illustrated, and that photo is what really got me interested in the Seals in the first place. I also like the Seals’ home whites used from 1974-76, and the Charlie FInley-inspired canary-yellow uniforms have always held a special place in my heart since they are the ones almost everyone thinks of when they hear the words “Golden Seals” but it was in fact the ’69-’70 uni that garnered 30% of the vote. That being said, the winner, however (by just ONE vote) is the 1974-76 Pacific blue road uniform! Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote!

In the end, this is how you all voted:

1966-67 California Seals WHL road uniform: 13.3%

1969-70 Oakland Seals road uniform: 30%

1971-74 California Golden Seals home uniform: 16.67%

1974-76 California Golden Seals road uniform: 33%

1976-77 Cleveland Barons home uniform: 6.5%

With the NHL regular season now a memory (if you’re a Canadiens fan like me, it was a bad one), the Stanley Cup playoffs are now underway, and to celebrate the first ever playoff appearance and win of the surprising Vegas Golden Knights, we present to you the latest induction into the Hockey Hall of Shame’s Overexposed wing. This card features more bright neon pink than should be legally permitted in a hockey photo.

I’ve also added a brand new survey to the site, which you will want to check out. This time, I would like you to tell me which individual achievement you consider the greatest in franchise history. I’ve put up 9 suggestions, but feel free to add your own, and in a few weeks I’ll reveal the results.

You can also keep voting for your picks for the Seals Hall of Fame by clicking on your choice of player or personality on the right. Like last year, the inductees will be announced in July around the site’s second anniversary.

Until next time, stay gold!