Hi everyone! Well, we’re finally here… the Stanley Cup Final, and I think it’s safe to say that in January no one would have expected a rematch of the 1970 championship series between St. Louis and Boston. Boston isn’t much of a surprise, but St. Louis? Never expected that, especially considering they were dead last in the league around the mid-way point of the season. I’m glad to see the Blues overcame the awful refereeing they had to endure in their semi-final series against San Jose. It’s almost as though they got so peeved by that hand pass that they told themselves they weren’t going to let their season end because of it.

In doing some quick research hoping to find the attendance figures for the Seals’ WHL years, I came across an interesting article that details the Seals’ ownership history from their founding in 1961 all the way to the franchise being sold to Barry van Gerbig. I wish I had found this article before I finished writing my book because it would have made researching those early years so much easier. You can check it out in the articles section

You also have to check out the latest addition to the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame. This week, we’re featuring a classic card from the 1998-99 Upper Deck Choice set. Hall-of-Famer Dino Ciccarelli is the man of the hour, but he isn’t one to hog the spotlight, however, as you will see. You can check out his contribution to our hallowed Hall right here.

Just to finish up this week, our weekly reminder to go and vote for your pick for the 2019 Seals Hall of Fame. Voting will be closed in early July as we get ready to announce the inductions at the site’s anniversary in mid-July.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, please spread the word about my book, The California Golden Seals: a Tale of Whites Skates, Red Ink, and One of the NHL’s Most Outlandish Teams either by leaving some feedback on Amazon.ca or Amazon.com or on some other site where hockey fans are found. Heck, even YouTube is a great place to place some comments, if you have an account there.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Hope you are all enjoying these playoffs. If you are, you’re likely blind and deaf because you obviously were not aware that the refereeing this year has been beyond atrocious. All I can say is WOW! I mean… WOW! You would think that with double the number of referees from back in the Seals’ day at least one of them would be able to detect a hand passe, cheap shot or blatant foul, but nope. To say the least, the referees have been shoddy and sleepy out there. Reminds me of a game the Seals once played…

This week, we’ve added a brand new article from late in the 1975-76 season. It is a classic John Porter article about the Seals’ March 7 game versus St. Louis in which the teams ended up in a 7-7 draw, which prompted almost everyone in attendance to proclaim it as one of the sloppiest games ever played. While that may not be quite true, it was definitely one of the more interesting games the Seals played that season because of the fact there were fourteen goals scored yet no one actually won. You can check it out over in the articles section.

Over in the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame, a truly shameful piece of glossy cardboard from the 1992-93 Topps Stadium Club and featuring Mike Ricci of the Philadelphia Flyers. If you have any interest in golf, boy are you gonna love this hockey/golf crossover!

Thanks to everyone who has cast a vote for the 2019 Seals Hall of Fame. We’ve already surpassed last year’s vote total and there are still two more months to go before the induction is made official.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! This week, in honour of the craziness that is this year’s playoffs, what with all the suspensions and idiotic over-the-top physical play, we present you with an article about the Seals’ exhibition game versus Buffalo on October 5, 1969. I know, I know, you’re probably thinking, “Hey Steve, you screwed up big this time; Buffalo didn’t even have a NHL team in 1969!”, and to that I say, “You are absolutely right… but the AHL did“, and that is the team the Seals took on that night. This game, while only a pre-season contest, was special because it featured a huge brawl that involved some 200 people, stitches, and lots of bad blood. On a interesting note, one of the Seals’ goalies that night was one Marcel Paille, who never actually played a regular-season game with Oakland or California. This was also the Seals’ second loss to a minor-league team that pre-season, foreshadowing the difficult 1969-70 season the Seals were about to endure after their successful second-place finish the previous year. You can check out the article over here.

In keeping with the combative spirit of this week’s post, you’re going to love the card posted in the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame. It features none other than the nephew of former Seal Dennis Hextall: the great Ron Hextall! And he looks pissed… at one of his own teammates. Is he going to snap? Is he going to skate away? You’ll have to check out this card and find out for yourself.

And that’s about it for this week. Don’t forget to cast your votes for who you believe should be inducted into the 2019 Seals Hall of Fame, which you can do by clicking on the name of the person you like over there on the right-hand side of the page. Keep those e-mails coming as well. Always great to hear from fans of the Seals and hockey history. Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! In keeping with the playoff theme we’ve had the last few weeks, there is a new article about Game Two of the 1969 all-California West Division semi-final series between Oakland and Los Angeles. You can read about this pivotal game here in the articles section.

And for all you Westworld fans out there, do we have a treat for you! It seems as though a former NHL superstar has some acting aspirations, and in my humble opinion, he would be perfect in the HBO hit series. Of course, I’m sure he’d happy to start out as an extra, but I think you’ll agree that this guy has leading man potential. It even says so on his 1992-93 Pinnacle card, and who understands Hollywood better than a second-rate card company? Who is this week’s mystery induction, you’ll have to head on over to the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame to find out.

Thanks again to everyone who has cast their votes for the 2019 Seals Hall of Fame. A couple of front-runners are emerging and leaving the rest of the pack behind, but there is still lots of time. The new inductees will be announced in July on the site’s anniversary. And thanks also to anyone who has just discovered the site and has picked up my book. Keep spreading the word, folks! Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Well, what a first playoff round that was! I’ve never seen so many surprises and upsets in the span of a week. I still can’t believe Tampa, Washington, Pittsburgh and Winnipeg all fell like dominos. Up was down, left was right, black was white, and the Leafs lost again… to Boston… in Game 7… in an embarrassing fashion… Hmm, I guess things weren’t as upside down and topsy-turvy as I thought.

I was doing a little research in some old Bay Area newspapers when I stumbled across a great article about Game 7 of the 1966 semi-final series between the San Francisco Seals and Victoria Maple Leafs. And since the game took place 53 years ago tomorrow, what better time than now to present you with this great new article. You may remember the article I wrote a while back on the bizarre circumstances that took place throughout the series. The Seals went through a virtual goaltender carousel during those seven games, and the Leafs outshot the Seals by a wide margin night after night. It was a miracle the series was as close as it was. If you’ve got the time, head on over to the articles section to read about the series’ concluding contest.

Thanks to the Easter long weekend, I’ve had a chance to catch up a little bit and write some new material for the site including some new Overexposed entries. I found one hell of a great-looking disaster of a card that I just had to post. This one is almost inexplicable, so you’ll have to check it out for yourself right here. If you’re a Jeremy Roenick fan, or have been to Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Nova Scotia, you’re gonna love it.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy what hopefully is a couple of days of nice, warm spring weather! Until next time, stay gold!

I have just found out through the Society for International Hockey Research’s quarterly newsletter that Dr. Eugene Willis passed away at the end of January. I wanted to mention this to everyone because Gene was a long-time Seals fan who played a large role in getting my book off the ground.

Gene was a big Seals fan, and he wanted to do something to commemorate the team’s 50th anniversary, so around April or May 2017, Gene contacted me and asked if I wanted to participate in a Seals 50th Anniversary Night in Toronto that would be held in October, about two weeks before my book’s release. I was a little hesitant at first since I had never been to Toronto on my own, and I definitely was not going to drive out there since I was not at all familiar with the city. So it was up to me to get a hotel room, and a train ticket, and try to figure out how to get from point A to point B without screwing anything up. I’m not a terribly organized person, so all of this was hinging on me not doing anything Steve-like. What can I say, he was very convincing, and the idea of meeting several former players and getting some autographs, not to mention selling a bunch of books started sounding like good ideas. We spoke over the phone and communicated by e-mail for several weeks, often expressing concern about players who said they would come to the event but changed their minds at the last minute, not to mention waiting for my publisher to send advanced copies to Gene in Toronto. Gene also took it upon himself to not only accept delivery of the 25 books I had sent over from the University of Nebraska Press, but he carted them over to the event as well, which saved me a lot of trouble and effort.

In the end, everything worked out perfectly. Gene took charge of organizing the whole event at St. Michael’s College, and he even ordered pizza for everyone who arrived early. He spoke to the crowd about the Seals’ history, and he brought out all of his old Seals and Barons jerseys, as well as his personal collection of hockey cards, memorabilia, and a few photo boards which he lovingly put together.

We had a big crowd, I sold lots of books, got some autographs, shook hands with four former NHL players, had my first-ever interview (with fellow writer Greg Oliver), and made some great personal connections with players and fans.

At the end of the event, Gene also gave all of the players, and myself, a binder of custom cards he had made of the entire 1967-68 team, which I still have on the bookshelf in my office. He also gave me a few extra cards featuring the players at the event so I could get a couple extra autographs. It was a wonderful evening which will probably never happen again due to logistics, but if it does happen again we’ll have a great template for how to do it.

R.I.P. Gene and thanks for your support.

All photos courtesy of Greg Oliver.

Hi everyone! I can’t believe this, but I have never posted an article on one of the most famous moments in Sealdom: the night the streaker skated on to the Coliseum ice and into hockey history. What an oversight! Usually, I’m much more alert than that, but hey we all make mistakes; that gets rectified today! The incident in question, which many of you have already read about, happened during the last game of the 1973-74 season, April 5 to be exact. You can read all about the streaker and find out her identity right here, or, if you haven’t done so already (You’ve got some nerve, mister!) you can go one better and pick up a copy of my book, which goes into great detail about the night in question.

In keeping with this week’s “blue” theme, might I interest you in this week’s Overexposed card. As you probably already know, the Washington Capitals are beginning the defense of their 2018 Stanley Cup championship this week, and to commemorate what is the hardest thing to accomplish in hockey – winning back-to-back titles – we go back in time to when the Capitals employed another goaltender, who is now toiling for the up-and-coming Colorado Avalanche. This week, we present an awesome error card featuring Semyon Varlamov, and before you ask, yes, that is how you spell his name. What, you don’t believe me? (Again… some nerve, mister!) Go check out his card for yourself.

That’s about it for this week. Come back soon for more hockey-related history and insanity, and don’t forget to check out some of the less-known corners of the site, including the Ultimate Seals Quiz, the Seals-related Book Reviews, and the Frequently Asked Questions. You can also vote for the person or people you feel should be inducted into the Seals Hall of Fame in 2019. You can vote up to three times per device, and the winners will be revealed in July when Golden Seals Hockey celebrates its fourth anniversary. Until next time, stay gold!

After some Internet connection issues last week, we’re back, and with a brand new update! With my Habs getting officially eliminated from playoff contention yesterday, I thought a trip in time to February 2, 1975 was in order. That day, it became a sad reality – at least in the mind of San Francisco Chronicle sports writer Ken Miller – that the Seals probably weren’t going to make the playoffs that April. For the most part, the Seals had shown considerable improvement in 1974-75 despite some initial jitters and occasional blowouts. Thanks to a very lackluster Toronto Maple Leaf team the Seals were still in position to make a run at the post-season. December was a strong month for the Seals and so was early January, but as the All-Star Game rolled around, it became clear that even though two thirds of the Seals final 30 or so games would be played at home, there was little chance of catching Toronto. Check out this article from the San Francisco Chronicle. to find out more.

Be sure to also head on over to the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame to try to find out what is making Bernie Federko contort his face like a disturbed six-year-old. It’s a card whose induction has been long overdue.

Just to close out this update, don’t forget to vote for the one, two or three players/personalities you believe are deserving of induction into the Seals Hall of Fame. Only three will make the cut this year! You can vote up to three times per device, so come back multiple times if you like, and it’s FREE to vote too! Can’t get a better deal than that now, can you?

And if you haven’t done so already, and are so inclined to do so, please head over to Amazon.ca or Amazon.com and leave some feedback about my book. Every little comment helps spread the word just a little bit.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! This will be a short update this week since I’m writing this at work, and like the legendary John McLean in Die Hard, I gotta make this quick before I get caught. Except I don’t have guns pointed at me in every direction, so maybe I’m not at all like John McLean.

I won’t be able to put a real update on the site this week since our router at home seems to have died, which is weird since TekSavvy just sent us a supposedly “better and faster” router just a few weeks ago. Well, after not being able to print anything, and not being able to use our Internet-connected phone for several weeks, now the Internet ain’t working at all, so in other words, impossible to properly update the site this week aside from this short message. Hopefully, TekSavvy will have everything resolved this weekend and I’ll be able to make a better update next week.

In the meantime, feel free to go back into the bowels of the site and check out some classic Hall of Shame updates like the brightest (but not “smartest” brightest) hockey uniforms of all-time, the most useless-never-going-to-get-their-own-comic-book-movie-even-in-2019-when-even-Shazam!-is-getting-his-own-movie-comic-book-characters, and one of the biggest fashion faux pas in hockey history.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Well, here we are, officially in spring… and with a 10-15 centimetre snowstorm heading our way tonight and tomorrow morning! I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get a little sick and tired of snow. At least there’s still the best part of the hockey season to come.

Back in January 1978, the Cleveland Barons were also looking forward to this part of the hockey season: the stretch drive and playoffs. General manager Harry Howell started stocking up on veterans and tried to help the Barons make one final push in what turned out to be their last NHL season. Ultimately, the Barons’ bid for a wild-card playoff spot failed, but for a little while at least, Cleveland had a legitimate reason to cheer on its team in the latter half of the 1977-78 season. You can check out a new article on the Barons’ new winning attitude right here.

In the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame we have a brand new card from the 1983-84 O-Pee-Chee set. It isn’t one of the weirdest-looking cards we’ve ever featured, but it is definitely one of the most baffling to explain. You can check it out here.

Before you leave the site today, if you haven’t already done so, please vote for who you believe should be elected to the 2019 Seals Hall of Fame. You can vote up to three times per device so you don’t have to wrack your brain trying to decide between two worthy candidates! The race is definitely a close one and it promises to go right down to the wire.

Until next time, stay gold!