Hi everyone! A lot to discuss this week, so let’s get started…

Well, another week has gone by with really very little to report on the NHL front, except for a non-stop series of rumours. Is the NHL coming back? If they do, do they continue with the regular season? Do they just let in the top 16 teams regardless of the number of games they have left to play? Do they invite all 31 teams to the dance? Who the hell knows? Personally, I’m no fan of the 31-team proposal even if that means my Habs missing the playoffs yet again. I just don’t think that a team that played terribly in the regular-season should get a free pass to the playoffs. I also don’t feel it’s fair some team ranked 9th in a conference but with a game or two in hand should miss the playoffs all on account of a virus wiping out the remainder of the regular season. That, and it would give the hated Leafs a free pass to the playoffs, so forget that proposal too. I think the league should invite all the teams who are reasonably close to a playoff spot and have the lowest ones, maybe even all the teams, compete in a best-of-three preliminary round like back in the late 70s, and then once you have 16 teams left, you have a regular old playoff. Of course, before any of that happens, you need to give the players a short training camp so that they can burn off the extra calories they put on in self-isolation, so who knows how, when, or if the season ever gets back on track.

This week, in (late) commemoration of the Seals’ final game, April 4, 1976, a nice piece from the Oakland Tribune courtesy of the great John Porter. Thanks to Bob Marceau for sending this article my way as I had never read it before. As a added bonus, there is also a cartoon from the Tribune‘s Lee Susman. You can find it all here in the Seals/Barons articles section.

On a sad note, I’m sorry to announce the death of former Seal, and WHA Hall of Famer Tom Webster, 71. This comes just a day after the passing of another WHA Hall of Famer and former Chicago Black Hawks star defenseman Pat Stapleton. Webster was sent to Oakland in a one-for-one swap for defenseman Ron Stackhouse, which was a fair deal, but Webster played only a handful of games for the Seals at the start of the 1971-72 season before going down with a leg injury. He had scored 30 goals for Detroit the year before, so the hope was for him to come back and be a major contributor to the Seals’ offense in 1972-73, but the World Hockey Association came calling and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Webster, like many other former Seals who left the white skates behind, became a big star in the rebel league, scoring 425 points in 352 games leaving many Seals fans to wonder how the team’s fortunes could have been different had the WHA never sprung up in the first place. His best game in Oakland was October 27, 1971 when he scored a goal and an assist, his first two points as a Seal. You can read the write-up to this game in the Seals/Barons articles section.

Until next time, stay gold, and please stay safe and healthy.