Hi everyone! It’s great to be back! It’s been an interesting week. I’ve been cutting back on sugar these last two weeks, and I’m starting to see a difference. I’m not even all that grumpy that my blood sugar is now officially more blood than sugar. That’s probably a good thing, I suppose. Sugar, I think, is not absolutely necessary to life, but it certainly adds a little fun, doesn’t it, much like hockey players who offer fans a little more than just goals and assists. Connor McDavid can really rack up the points, but man, can that guy ever do it with flair. Other superstars put up big numbers too, but the flair factor is not quite the same. If there were two guys in the NHL back in the Seals days who genuinely got fans excited, it was the two Bobbys, Orr and Hull, the latter of which is the subject of this week’s new article.

It doesn’t happen every day that I learn something new about the California Seals. I’ve been researching the team since I was about 12, and I’ve read just about everything I could get my hands on if it had anything to do with the Seals. So when I found this article from December 9, 1970 saying that Finley not only made one, but two cash offers for Bobby Hull, I was pretty stunned. Everyone talks about how the Seals would have been different had they been able to draft Guy Lafleur a few months later, but Hull in a Seals uniform is a very intriguing thought indeed. Who knows how many fans he could have drawn to the Coliseum? He might have still bolted when the WHA came into existence two years later, but you never know, maybe he would have stayed in Oakland. Fun to think about, isn’t it? If you want to read about this very little-known part of Seals history, you can find this Oakland Tribune piece right here.

Hope you all have a great weekend! Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! How are you all doing this fine Friday evening, (or maybe Saturday morning, if you’re reading this with the next day’s morning coffee)? Am I glad that it is the weekend! Is there anything better than Friday night? It’s the longest possible time before you have to go back to work on Monday. It feels like the world is your oyster, and it’s difficult to decide just what you’re going to do out of all the things on your list. I know that by Sunday night I’ll be kicking myself for not getting as much done as I wanted, but hey, that’s how every weekend goes, doesn’t it?

I can’t say it was a great week… fighting a cold, playing catch up at work and still not feeling like I got everything done, the Habs lost twice (maybe three times, I can’t remember). I couldn’t even play Nintendo Sports golf without the Switch disconnecting at least seven times in twenty minutes. I hope things turn out better this weekend.

Where am I going with this? Oh yeah, the Seals ’68-’69 season. It started off pretty badly too. The team looked listless, and unable to beat anyone, and attendance was lousy, if not worse than the year before. The team’s future looked totally bleak, but out of the darkness came a tiny glint, just a little sunshine, and all of a sudden the Seals were gunning for second place. This week’s article is a wonderfully written piece from the San Rafael Independent Journal‘s November 1, 1968 edition. It describes in a rather humorous way how the Seals were floundering early in their second season, namely how they couldn’t draw flies to the Coliseum. While that situation never really changed over the course of their nine years in Oakland, the team somehow survived those early bumps to enjoy a little bit of success a few months later. You can read this week’s article here.

Anyway, hope you all have a great weekend! If you’re on the East Coast (or sort-of East Coast like me), take it easy on the roads tonight and tomorrow, and then try to hit the sledding hills with the kids and grandkids!

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! No, I haven’t forgotten about any of you these last three weeks. Just took some time off for the Christmas holidays, and boy was it necessary! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (or a Happy Hanukkah), and a Happy New Year! I may have mentioned it before, but December is one busy month in the Currier household: two children’s birthdays and the Christmas holidays (in which said children are home full-time!). There’s lots of presents to buy, wrap, open, store, not to mention a whole heaping load of old toys to bring down to Value Village. I also made the huge mistake of booking a few medical and dental appointments during the last month, not to mention the fact that my work all scheduled a four-day training session for me, so yeah… December was tough. Luckily, January has been like taking a toboggan ride down a nice snowy hill. Considering we are getting our first real snowfall of the winter as I write this entry, the previous simile is about as close as any of us actually got to tobogganing.

In the meantime, I’ve taken advantage of the down time to read up on the early years of Canadian power trio Rush, and how to “nudge” someone into making a wise choice (two separate books). I’ve also had time to drink lots and lots of coffee, watch some hockey, play some Nintendo Switch with the lad, take some online classes on critical decision making, and do some research for my next book. I feel I’ve uncovered some very interesting stories (in my opinion… probably no one else’s). I’m hoping to have it all done within the next year and have a publisher secured next year, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this timeline is realistic.

This week, I ran across an interesting article about the Seals almost moving to San Diego. I hadn’t actually talked about that in my book, so I’m bringing it up now. The NHL could have actually rid itself of Charlie Finley, and saved themselves the $6.5 million they would eventually fork over to make Finley’s departure a reality a few months later, but alas, this was not to be, as you will find out. This article, is a “twofer”, so you also get a summary of the Seals-Black Hawks game from the day before. Morris Mott and Rick Kessell were the big stars of the night at a time when the Seals were desperately hoping to turn their season around. You can read both pieces right here.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Some of you may know that I have been working as a French teacher for close to 20 years now, and most of that time has been spent helping Canada’s public servants pass their mandatory second-language tests. These tests are horrible, stressful, and unlike everyone’s high school or college exams, there is no guarantee you are going to pass even if you spend six months studying for it. As my school’s Academic Director, I’m often the person students approach to vent their frustrations. One of my many techniques to show empathy and build a relationship with a student is to try to blame the government for just about everything. Now, I know what you’re saying, “Steve, the government IS to blame for EVERYTHING.” Well, no that’s not exactly true. Except in my case, the government usually IS to blame. Or maybe they’re not, but they are an easy way out of a conversation you might not want to be part of. What I’m trying to say is that it is human nature to want to blame anything and everything for every problem we have. God forbid WE might be the reason for our shortcomings, right?

Hockey is no stranger to the blame game. Everyone and their puck-stopping dog has something to complain about, and we all know who bears the brunt of the blame: referees. Geez, the boys in stripes just don’t have a lot of friends, do they. It’s always their fault. Bad call here, missed penalty there, they seem to never get anything right, except for the most part, they are pretty damn good at what they do. That said, we just can’t help ourselves from pointing the finger at the zebras. Case in point, February 11, 1973. The Atlanta Flames have just beaten the California Golden Seals 3-1, and Fred Glover is mad at referee Ron Wicks. Glover’s Seals have already gone winless in nine (a streak which would eventually reach 14 games!), and so he may have been looking for something to justify his team’s poor performance. Give the guy a break though… his team hadn’t won in three weeks! I will let you decide whether or not Glover was just blowing off some steam, or if he was totally justified.

Unfortunately, I have to close on a sad note today. Former Seal Hartland Monahan passed away last week at the age of 72. He only suited up once for California, back in 1973-74, but he had a successful career elsewhere, notably with Washington, where he had seasons of 46 and 50 points before the end of the decade. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Monahan’s friends, family, and teammates. Stay gold…

Hi everyone! December is always a busy time at the Currier household. Between the traditional winter illnesses, two birthdays, and Christmas, that doesn’t leave my wife and I with much time to do much of anything. There’s lots of stuffy noses to blow, things to cough up, presents to buy, presents to wrap, parties to prepare, and consequently, parties to attend. So, now that I finally have a few hours to myself, I am able to make a small update to the site. This week, we are going back to late 1977, and the Cleveland Barons have had the misfortune of playing the rugged Philadelphia Flyers. Things did not go well. There were plenty of fights, and plenty of goals, most of which came off Flyers sticks. You could definitely feel that some members of the Barons were growing sick and tired of the Flyers shenanigans, and luckily for them, the Broad Street Bullies’ heyday was coming to an end. They would still be contenders for several more years, but their goonish behaviour was definitely toned down.

So, that’s it for this week. Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season and are making plans to celebrate with loved ones. And if you’re like me and struggling with a miserable December cold, hang tough; it gets better.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I really feel for all of you San Jose Sharks fans out there. It has been a really rough year. I can’t remember the last time a team actually gave up back-to-back ten-spots. Not even the 1974-75 Washington Capitals, who gave up ten or more goals seven times, managed to pull off that feat. While I’m not a huge Sharks fan, per se (after all, I grew up supporting the Montreal Canadiens), I’ve always admired the team for the way it built itself up in its early years, its smart marketing decisions, the beautiful uniforms, and the rabid fan base that has always stuck with them no matter what. I understand what you’re going through right now having already suffered through my franchise’s all-time worst season just two years ago, and even this season, after massively upgrading the roster, there is little chance they are heading for the playoffs. Things seem to start out okay, a few young players here and there make a great impression, score a hat trick or two, and then boom, knee injury… boom, upper body injury… boom, personal issue. In the end, the result is always the same: no playoffs once again.

Most years, the Seals followed a similar script, but no season was more heartbreaking than 1971-72, and you all know what I’m talking about. This week, I’ve posted an article from Hugh McDonald of the San Mateo Times. It was published the day after Joey Johnston scored his first NHL hat trick, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Seals were, quite simply, reeling at the worst possible time. They had been holding on to third place for most of the season, but by March, they slipped out of third place and all the way down to fifth. Now every point counted, and so when a weaker team like the second-year Buffalo Sabres came to town, it was essential to go for the win and not just settle for a tie. Luckily for the Seals, the new line of Joey Johnston, Gary Croteau, and Reggie Leach were flying, and they led the way to an impressive 6-3 win. The victory seemed to spark the Seals just a bit, as they went 2-1-2 their next five games, but as you already know, the last six games of the season, many of which were against teams who were also competing for West Division playoff spot, were all losses. Enjoy the article, which will hopefully remind you of those rare, happier times.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I have some exciting news for all of you book-lovers out there. If you are looking for early Christmas presents, such as, oh, I don’t know, my latest book, The Washington Capitals, the Kansas City Scouts, and the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup, 1975-76, or maybe some other excellent non-fiction work like Cold War on Ice about the 1976 NHL Super Series, The Life and Times of Johnny F. Bassett, about the legendary owner of the Toronto Toros, Birmingham Bulls, and Tampa Bay Bandits, or The NHL’s Mistake by the Lake, a great book about the history of the Cleveland Barons, McFarland Press is offering a 40% discount on all of its titles. You read that right, folks, but don’t let me steal any of McFarland’s thunder. Here is their pitch:

The holidays are almost here, and Black Friday…well…okay, look, we value our readers too much to make them wait until the day after Thanksgiving to get The Good Deals. You deserve nice things, and so do your friends and family this holiday season! That’s why we’re again offering a special, early access to our annual holiday sale as our way of thanking our customers for supporting our authors this year, and every year. Through Cyber Monday, November 27, get 40% off ALL titles with coupon code HOLIDAY23! Don’t delay, because when early access ends, the discount will drop to the standard 25%. If you’d like to help share the word, please do! You’ll find sharable social media posts pinned to the tops of our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles, and the main landing page is here: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/holiday23/

As for this week’s Seals article, I found an interesting one from Oct 1974. Last time we dove into the 1974-75 pre-season we looked at the ill-fated experimental “free shot” rule. This week, we go back to the pre-season, but we will focus on what the Seals were doing behind the scenes. In this Santa Rosa Press Democrat article, writer George Hower describes an East-West game the Seals held to determine which players were going to stay in Oakland, and which ones would be heading to Salt Lake City. What was interesting about his scrimmage is that a slightly nervous Charles “Sparky” Schulz (of Peanuts fame, of course), was the referee! You can find out here who stood out during the game, and which side claimed victory.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I’m currently reading a new book from John Robertson and Carl Madden called Cold War on Ice. It’s a fascinating look at Super Series ’76, as well as the Canada-Soviet Union battles that preceded the first in-season NHL-Soviet Union games. I’m only half-way through it but I’m really enjoying it so far, and I’ve learned a lot of interesting tidbits about the Canada/North America vs Soviet Union feud that preceded the ’76 series. I didn’t know much about the first Super Series except the famous Montreal-Red Army game from New Year’s Eve 1975 (Todd Denault’s book, The Greatest Game, is a phenomenal read), and the final game of the series when the Philadelphia Flyers bullied their way past the same Red Army team. The other six games, especially those played by the Soviet Wings, were a complete mystery to me. Even more of a mystery was why a middling team like the Pittsburgh Penguins were chosen to represent the NHL in the second game of the series. The contest was an unmitigated disaster for the Penguins and the NHL. The Wings built up a commanding first period lead and won the game 7-4. The Penguins looked completely different than two weeks earlier when they took on the Seals in Oakland.

On December 17 the Penguins ran roughshod over the Seals ringing up a huge lead in the opening twenty minutes and cruising to an impressive 9-2 victory. It was arguably the Seals’ worst outing of the entire season, a game that coach Jack Evans called “an embarrassment”. The Penguins, on the other hand, looked great after having shown very little pep all season long. Before the season was over coach Marc Boileau would be out of a job. This game was one of his last hurrahs in the NHL. You can all about the Seals’ awful night in this San Francisco Examiner article right here.

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! Oh boy, have I got something fun to share with you today. I’m willing to bet that anyone reading this right now is about to learn something about hockey that they never ever believed could possibly have existed. Today, you are about to read about a one-time NHL rule called the “free shot”.

Ok, I know what you’re saying: “What the hell is a free shot?” Let me explain. The free shot was an experimental rule that was only applied for about two weeks during the 1974 exhibition schedule. In essence, the free shot rule was brought in because games were becoming too slow. Players, and especially goaltenders, were constantly delaying the game, and NBC insisted that the NHL do something to make games more interesting, otherwise the TV network was not going to broadcast anymore games. The rule went something like this: a player would be allowed a shot on goal, unobstructed, if a) an opposing goalie froze the puck for more than three seconds, b) a opposing goalie delayed the game by placing the puck onto the goal netting, or c) an opposing player, including the goalie, despite not being checked by an opponent, chose to freeze the puck or play the puck along the boards in a way that led to a whistle.

What may shock you even more is that the free shot was not even the league’s first attempt to tweak the penalty for delay of game. In 1970, the NHL attempted to impose a free faceoff rule, which was basically the same as the free shot except, in this case, the centreman had to pass the puck to a teammate instead of shooting the puck himself. Can you imagine this rule being applied to the NHL of 2023? The NHL has definitely changed some rules over the years, like taking away the red line, adding no-touch icing, and implementing 3-on-3 overtime followed by a shootout. But giving a player an opportunity to let one rip on a defenseless goaltender? Not sure the NHLPA would be in favour of that, and NHL players of the 1970s were less than thrilled at the rule as well.

In the end, the free shot rule accomplished very little. It was called about two dozen times, resulting in less goals (3) than Law and Order spin-offs (too many to count). Obviously, neither of these rules were ever applied during a regular-season game, so most people don’t know about this odd little footnote in hockey history. The free shot/faceoff rules certainly weren’t widely reported in either 1970 or 1974, but they were indeed documented. You just have to look really, really, really hard in some old newspapers and Hockey News issues.

So there you have it, folks. You can now say for sure that you have learned something today. You’re welcome!

Of course, the Seals were around during both of these aforementioned periods. As far as I know, the Seals were never involved in a free faceoff situation, but they were indeed involved in one free shot on September 22, 1974 versus Atlanta. The game took place in Kingston, Ontario as did many Seals pre-season games in those days, and this partial article from the Ottawa Journal is the best description I could find of the unusual (and historic) event. Happy reading!

Until next time, stay gold!

Hi everyone! I’m not sure if anyone else here is a subscriber to The Hockey News like me, but if you are, you are probably very excited about the news that all past issues of the magazine are going to be available online in digital format. I have been waiting for this day for literally years, so I was stoked when I saw that THN had sent me an email announcing the official launch of its archive. Of course, there are tons of Seals-related articles for you to peruse, so I urge you to head over to THN.com and subscribe to their new service.

This week, we go back to March 1975. As was the yearly tradition, the Seals’ season was all but over by this point, and so the troops were left to play out the stretch with very little to gain or lose. The only people who really benefited from these last few weeks of the season were the young players looking to impress enough so that they could earn a permanent spot on the roster in October. So this week’s article is about the Seals’ decision to go against the grain and continue to play with the same roster it had used all year. The team felt it was better to keep the youngsters down on the farm so that the Salt Lake Golden Eagles could challenge for the Central League crown. While the Eagles finished atop the North Division, they fell short in the playoffs. Many of those players, most notably Bob Murdoch, Bob Girard, Fred Ahern, and Jim Moxey would be a part of the Seals the following season. The Toledo Goaldiggers of the IHL, however, did capture the championship, but since this was a lower minor league, not many of these players made major impacts in the NHL or WHA.

If you live anywhere in the East, enjoy these last few days of warmish weather as next week is going to be frigid. Happy Halloween! Until next time, stay gold!