Hi everyone! How are you all doing on this fine Friday? I’m just sitting here listening to a sports podcast, taking it easy. Might read a little later on, and then head off to bed. Yup, it’s been that kind of evening over here. Looking to take the kid out to buy him his first hockey stick, and then sit in the house because it’s supposed to be something like -20 degrees out tomorrow afternoon. Would be a great time to catch an afternoon game, but it’s All-Star Weekend time, which means that if anything does appear on screen resembling a game, it probably won’t be worth the time to watch it. The last All-Star game I watched a few years back, I believe it was on a Sunday afternoon, and I actually, literally fell asleep at one point. I used to really enjoy the All-Star game, but now I can’t even bare to press my thumb down on the remote control to select the channel which will carry it. And with my Canadiens in the midst of arguably their worst-ever season, my enthusiasm for hockey has indeed begun to wane.

So let’s go back to 1973-74, arguably the Seals all-time worst campaign. Not much went right for the team that year, but there was a glimmer of hope as Charlie Finley sold the team, Marshall Johnston took over as coach, and Garry Young returned as a pseudo-general manager. This week’s new article comes from March 14, 1974, the day after Marshall Johnston’s daughter Amy was born. Johnston’s head was probably elsewhere that night as his Seals took on the Detroit Red Wings while his wife Barbara was in the hospital giving birth. The Seals played their hearts out and gave the Wings all they could handle, but goaltender Jim Rutherford was simply too much, and the Seals’ record dropped to 13-45-9. March 1974 was indeed an interesting, if not memorable month for the Seals’ new bench boss. Of course, there was his first NHL win against the Montreal Canadiens at the fabled Forum. That was just the Seals’ second road win of the season. Not long after, the Seals pulled off their second major upset of the month defeating the mighty Boston Bruins whose goaltender that night, the little-known Ross Brooks, had been on a NHL-record 12-game winning streak. A lot of interesting Seals trivia answers that month, indeed.

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Enjoy All-Star Weekend, if you’re into that sort of thing, and if you’re not, hang tight, real hockey will be back in a few days. Until next time, stay gold!