Hey there everyone!  As I write this latest entry, my Habs are the last team yet to lose a game in regulation, and that surely means the Stanley Cup is returning to Montreal, doesn’t it?  Doesn’t it?  Shea Weber has been on fire, and fans might actually be starting to forget about the great P,K. Subban.  That guy certainly had a lot of flair, and he was always a lot of fun to watch.  The Seals also once had a defenseman who was flashy, tough, and talented: Carol Vadnais.  During the late sixties and early seventies, he was the guy that every team in the league was interested in getting in a trade with the Seals, but the team always resisted, that is until Vadnais himself requested a trade.  He ended up winning the Cup with Boston in 1972, so I’m sure he didn’t complain too much about the move.  Anyway, getting to the point of this rambling paragraph, check out Vadnais’ 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee card in the “Overexposed” section of the Hockey Hall of Shame.

Also be sure to check out the two new articles posted in the Articles section.  The first is about the Barons’ first NHL game back in October, 1976.  The second article describes the unusual agreement that merged the Barons with the Minnesota North Stars almost two years later.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hockey season is well under way, and my beloved Habs are off to a great start.  If you watched them play last season, you’ll know not to get too excited, but nevertheless, I’m encouraged by what I see.  I know I’ve said this before, but there are new additions coming to the site soon, including articles and a new section that will list the books in which you can find information and stories about the Seals.  In fact, Wayne Gretzky’s brand new book, 99: Stories of the Game, has a whole chapter on the Seals, so be sure to pick it up.  As for what’s new today, as always there is a new induction to the Overexposed wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame, and it features my NHL birthday buddy, Mike Bullard, formerly of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Calgary Flames, and Toronto Maple Leafs.  Enjoy!

Hi everyone!  What a great week this has been!  Hockey season is once again underway, and all sorts of story lines are just waiting to unfold.  Will Crosby recover from his latest concussion?  Will Auston Matthews continue to average four goals a game?  Will Connor McDavid lead the league in scoring?  Will John Tortorella still have a job come November?  Oh, I’m getting giddy just thinking about it all.

Be sure to check out the latest induction to the Overexposed wing.  All you Seals fans out there are sure to enjoy this week’s cardboard crap-o-rama!  This might be the worst ever card to feature a member of the Seals, but there will be more baddies in the coming weeks.

Hello hockey fans!  Well, the World Cup has come and gone, and Canada once again walked away triumphant, not that anyone really noticed… One thing you hopefully will notice is that there is another new addition to the “Overexposed” wing of the Hockey Hall of Shame.  Ever wondered what quirk Michael Jackson and former NHL goalie Glen Hanlon have in common?  Head on over to the HHOS to find out.  Rest assured, it has nothing to do with gliding effortlessly across a shiny surface in front of thousands of adoring fans.

Why is Doug Gilmour patiently sitting in a bowl of pea soup waiting to hop back onto the ice?  I have absolutely no idea, but check “Killer” out in his classic 89-90 O-Pee-Chee disaster… and I mean disaster of nuclear proportions!  Head on over to the Hockey Hall of Shame to see the newest addition to the Overexposed wing.  Sorry for the small update this week, but things have been busy here at Seals central, but plans are in the works to add some profiles of some of the Seals’ all-time best lines, including the 3-M Line and the Wrecking Crew Line.  There will also be more articles detailing the most important moments in Seals history, so keep checking in.

Hey everyone!  Happy “Overexposed” Friday!  Keep checking out the site to find a brand new “Overexposed” entry each and every Friday.  To celebrate the event, there are TWO new fascinatingly weird cards analyzed in excruciating detail for your reading pleasure.  You’ll never look at Ted Bulley and the legendary Tony Esposito quite the same way again.  I’ve also added two new rare Seals photos from the team’s early NHL years.  There will be many more additions to the site as the weeks go by, so come on back to see what gets unearthed!

It’s here, it’s here!!  No, not the iPhone 7, but a brand spankin’ new induction to the Hockey Hall of Shame.  In (dis)honour of the greatest day in the history of technology, head on over to the Hall to find out what Steve Jobs and Charlie Finley have in common.

It’s “back to school” time for many of you, but for ole Steve here it’s business as usual, and unlike you, his homework never stopped in the first place.  Golden Seals Hockey is pleased to announce that in just a little over a week, on September 16, there will be a very special, new induction to the Hockey Hall of Shame you won’t want to miss!  On the day the new Apple iPhone 7 will have everyone waiting in lines around the block, I will be sitting at home posting a new induction, and I hope you all use your new hand-held devices to check it out.  It will be something very techie, yet hockey-related, and definitely something that is long overdue to be mocked.

Check out a few new Seals-related articles today as well in the Articles section. The first one is an excellent two-part interview with Seals legend Gary “Cobra” Simmons, the man whose masks currently reside in the Hall of Fame, and whose story is one-of-a-kind.  The other article details the infamous October 25, 1974 brawl between the Seals and Philadelphia Flyers where several members of the Broad Street Bullies attacked California defenseman Mike Christie in the penalty box.  The incident remains one of the more unfortunate landmarks in the history of both franchises as numerous penalty-minute records were set.

Don’t forget to send in your suggestions for new articles or classic newspaper articles you would like to see in the future, since I may have some interesting things in my archives.  If you have any ideas for inductions to the Hall of Shame, send them in too!

There have been a few updates to the site since I launched it a few weeks ago.  First, there’s a brand spankin’ new induction to the Hockey Hall of Shame that you don’t want to miss, and there’s also a new addition to the “Overexposed” wing.  Be sure to check them both out!

There are also going to be regular updates to other sections of the site: new video links, new articles from important moments in Seals history, and other goodies as well.  Thanks to everyone who has checked out my site!  I’m thrilled to see that so many people are still interested in the Seals after so many years.  Be sure to spread the word about Golden Seals Hockey and help the site grow!

Steve Currier

Why indeed. Why not the Montreal Canadiens or the Boston Bruins? For lack of a better word, the Seals were just so weird. Not Twin Peaks-weird, but rather white-skates-on-white-ice-weird. Live-seals-as-mascots-weird. Since World War II, the Seals are the only NHL franchise to just vanish from existence, not because they were kicked out of the league, but because of a crude transaction scribbled on a cocktail napkin in Czechoslovakia. And that was only after moving to an arena where sheep were known to roam. Is that weird enough for you? The Seals (and their successors, the Cleveland Barons) own one of the professional hockey’s worst all-time records: 229 wins, 488 losses, 141 ties, and a .349 winning percentage. In fact, of the 51 franchises to have played more than one season in the NHL or WHA, the Seals/Barons’ winning percentage ranks 51st. By comparison, the Seals made the Charlestown Chiefs look like a well-oiled machine, yet the Seals are shrouded in mystery.

I grew up, and still am, a Canadiens fan. My Dad and my grandfather were both Habs fans. Growing up in Eastern Ontario, it was natural to support the Habs. This being the late 1980s, the Ottawa Senators were not even around yet, and the Quebec Nordiques and Toronto Maple Leafs were both atrocious. You would think that my passion for losing hockey teams would make me a die-hard Toronto Maple Leafs fan, but there’s a difference between being a Leafs fan and a being a Seals fan. Leafs fans are mostly masochists who say, “Bring on the torture, we can take it” as their team misses the playoffs over and over again. Seals fans, despite seeing their team lose a boatload of hockey games, couldn’t have cared less whether the team won or lost. The whole point of being a Seals fan was just being at the rink, hanging out with the locals, and making some lifelong friends. While Leafs fans think they are tough for putting up with fifty years of Stanley Cup-less hockey, they never had their heart ripped out of their chest upon hearing their team was moving to Cleveland. This is a team that still has a Booster Club, FORTY years after the team packed up and left. Seals fans are few and far between now, but they all seem to know each other, no matter where they reside. Thanks to the Internet, there are Seals fans across the continent who have stories, photos and memorabilia to share.

When I was a kid, hardly a mention of this long-suffering franchise could be found. I first leared of the existence of the Seals in my 1987 NHL sticker book. There were three players with a “CAL” abbreviation written into their career stats, Dennis Maruk, Gilles Meloche, and Charlie Simmer, and none of them had ever suited up for Calgary. I could see by their numbers that they had all been very good players, and I could have just left well-enough alone, but my natural curiosity pushed me to find out what in the world had happened to “CAL”? I later found the answer (sort of) while perusing another sticker book, this time from the Esso gas station franchise. For a ten-year old kid, this was heavy research. In this sticker book, there was a brief piece about NHL expansion, but it didn’t explain much. It went something like, “the old Seals just disappeared entirely.” I couldn’t accept this; nothing could just up and vanish into thin air, could it? I had to find out what had happened to this team. Then I plunged down the rabbit hole.

I later received a sign in the form of a 1975-76 Seals media guide that told me this team was worth looking into. When I was about eleven, I wrote the National Hockey League and vaguely asked for information about its more recently-defunct franchises, the Scouts, Flames, Rockies, and Seals. This being about 1991, the Internet did not exist, and it was almost impossible for a twelve year-old to find any information on anything related to 1970s hockey. But someone at the NHL’s head office in New York took the time to photocopy an entire Seals yearbook and sent it to me. I scoured that yearbook, memorized stats and names to the point where players like Norm Ferguson and Joey Johnston were household names.

So sit back, click on a few links and delve into the history of this strange franchise. There really is nothing else like it in the world today, and probably never will be again.

 

Thanks to Chris Creamer of Sportslogos.net for graciously allowing me to use the Seals and Barons logos featured on this site.  Please visit his excellent and fascinating site at http://www.sportslogos.net.