A ¨Retro¨ NHL

Recently in the Sports What-Ifs thread there was somr discussion about the failed Seals franchise in the NHL and that got me motivated enough to begin this.

For the last little while I have been running a NHL simulation starting with the 1967-68 expansion season and hope to get up to the present day. Through this simulator I want to follow these four main what-ifs:

1) What if the six '67 expansion clubs (primarily the Seals) were run to their fullest potential? From a economic side this TL will appear to be extremely optimistic, as all the ownership groups will pan out and that I have both the Seals and Blues getting new arenas by the early '70s to handwave any problems off the ice.

2) What-if the NHL didn't have to compete with an active rival league (WHA)? The Wha had a number of affects on the NHL (both good and bad), but the one thing I want to look at is the impact on the rosters and the player pool as a whole. In 1974-75 for example there were only 18 NHL clubs but there were in fact 32 ¨big league¨ clubs in total and this not only impacted the established NHL teams but more importantly gutted the entire upper-tier minor leagues (AHL/WHL) of talent. I plan on having expansion to happen in the same years as they did in OTL (1972, 74 and 1979) albeit with different clubs joining in several cases, as well as having the threat of a proposed rival league that spurs this expansion phase.

3) What if the NHL Draft age remained at 20 and not lowered to 18 as it is now? Without the WHA not only is this possible but also it means that one Wayne Gretzky will be draft elegible in 1981 and the butterflies will have major ramifications on which, if any, teams dominate the 80's and early 90's.

4) What if the league remained at 21 teams, in addition to what if the NHL remained locked out of the eastern european talent pool? I have seen two opposing view points, primarily online, about the NHL's expansion in the 1990's. Some argue that the league over expanded and this diluted the talent pool, while I have seen others respond that thanks to injection of new talent from europe that it is/was sustainable. Now to find out.

This is also one reason why I have dubbed this project ¨Retro¨, but as well because from the individual player stats that I've accumulated and comparing the average goals per game it has remained similar to that of the mid-1960's. I will compare Bobby Orr's stats through 1970-71 as an example within the next few updates.

Lastly before I begin there are 4 retroactive butterflies to get out of the way:

1) August 13, 1949: Bobby Clarke is born without diabetes, and therefore will go first overall in 1969 NHL Amateur Draft. There were several clubs uncertain if he could even play in the NHL in OTL.

2) October 23, 1962: The Baltimore Civic Center officially opens with a capacity for hockey games of 13,650. In OTL it only could hold 11,286 then because they decided to put a stage at one end, and thus helped to quickly eliminate Baltimore from the running of the '67 expansion. In TTL Philadelphia is still selected but because of preference in ownership. Baltimore (as the Clippers will join the NHL from the AHL in either '72 or '74)

3) February, 1966: the NHL selected San Francisco-Oakland as one of the six expansion markets, along with Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul and St. Louis. The NHL gave Mel Swig, the Seals' owner and prospective governor, permission to play out of the Cow Palace as long as neccesary upgrades were made and that plans for a new arena in San Francisco were being made.

4) December 29, 1967: The Ottawa Centenial Arena (Civic Center in OTL) opens for an Ottawa 67's OHA Jr. game versus the Montreal Junior Canadiens to a sell-out crowd of 11,867. In OTL the OCC can hold 9,862 because of its location under the north grandstand at Lansdowne Park. In TTL the northside of the football stadium has fewer seats and allowing for more room for the rink. Like Baltimore, Ottawa will get a team and sooner than in OTL

Now time to drop the puck with the results of the 1967-68 regular season.
 
Last edited:
1967-68 Regular Season

OTL Season http://www.hockey-reference.com/leagues/NHL_1968.html

Points Leader: Stan Mikita (83)

League Standings Playoff teams are marked with an (X)

Team GP W L T PTS GF GA
East Division
X - Montreal CANADIENS 74 38 15 21 97 222 178
X - Chicago BLACK HAWKS 74 31 22 21 83 219 191
X - Boston BRUINS 74 30 26 18 78 226 218
X - New York RANGERS 74 31 29 14 76 229 206
Toronto MAPLE LEAFS 74 29 29 16 74 198 191
Detroit RED WINGS 74 27 31 16 70 195 206


West Division
X - Los Angeles KINGS 74 29 29 16 74 181 191
X - St. Louis BLUES 74 25 30 19 69 193 207
X – San Franisco SEALS 74 25 33 16 66 194 222 (1)
X – Philadelphia FLYERS 74 24 33 17 65 189 205
Pittsburgh PENGUINS 74 23 32 19 65 193 208
Minnesota NORTH STARS 74 23 33 18 64 190 207


(1) Since they were discussing the Seals in the other thread, I made sure that they played all of their home games at the Cow Palace, where the WHL's Seals played, instead of across the Bay at the newer Oakland Arena. In OTL they would average just north of 4,000 per game. In TTL, they would more than double that, drawing 9,531 on average.

Next the highlights from an important game played on January 15, 1968 between San Francisco and Minnesota
 
Last edited:
Jan 15, 1968

San Francisco Seals at Minnesota North Stars:
Met Center - Bloomington, Minnesota


Firstly, why is this game important?

Because it was the night that Bill Masterton hit his head on the ice after being checked by two Seal defencemen. He would die the next day in hospital. This is why the NHL hands out the Bill Masterton Trophy after every season and more importantly started the trend of most players deciding to wear a helmet.


Game Summary
Period 1

1:48 67-68 Seals Goal scored by Wally Boyer assisted by Kent Douglas and Billy Harris 67-68 Seals 1-0
2:08 67-68 North Stars 2 minute penalty on Mike McMahon for holding 67-68 North Stars 0-1
2:12 67-68 Seals Powerplay - Ted Hampson shoots and scores on the rebound assisted by Bill Hicke 67-68 Seals 2-0
9:36 67-68 North Stars 2 minute penalty on Dave Balon for tripping 67-68 North Stars 0-2
10:37 67-68 Seals 2 minute penalty on George Swarbrick for high sticking 67-68 Seals 2-0
11:36 67-68 Seals 2 minute penalty on Ted Hampson for cross check 67-68 Seals 2-0
11:45 67-68 North Stars Powerplay(2) - Goal scored by Bill Goldsworthy assisted by Mike McMahon and Jean-Paul Parise 67-68 North Stars 1-2
14:18 67-68 Seals Goal scored by Kent Douglas assisted by Wally Boyer and Alain Caron 67-68 Seals 3-1
16:43 67-68 North Stars Goal scored by Andre Boudrias assisted by Bill Goldsworthy and Ray Cullen 67-68 North Stars 2-3
Period 2
5:26 67-68 North Stars Goal scored by Andre Boudrias assisted by Bill Masterton and Mike McMahon Game tied 3-3
9:16 67-68 Seals 2 minute penalty on Ron Boehm for charging Game tied 3-3
10:53 67-68 North Stars Powerplay - Goal scored by Bill Goldsworthy assisted by Mike McMahon and Wayne Connelly 67-68 North Stars 4-3
Period 3
6:25 67-68 North Stars Goal scored by Pete Goegan assisted by Andre Boudrias and Bob Woytowich
Charlie Hodge is replaced by Doug Favell (1) in the net. 67-68 North Stars 5-3
7:54 67-68 Seals 2 minute penalty on Tracy Pratt for cross check 67-68 Seals 3-5
9:25 67-68 Seals 2 minute penalty on Bert Marshall for roughing 67-68 Seals 3-5


The stats line tonight for Bill Masterton is as followed: 1 plus/minus rating, 13:58 minutes of ice time through 24 shifts, 3 shots on goal, 1 assist, 1/3 in face-offs and 0 penalty minutes

1) One of the FEW but KEY changes in TTL's Expansion Draft

Lastly for tonight: Bobby Orr there and here.
 
Last edited:
BOBBY ORR
CAREER REGULAR SEASON STATISTICS - SUMMARY
Season Team GP G A Pts +/- PIM PP SH GW

1966-67 BRUINS 61 13 28 41 - 102 3 1 0
1967-68 BRUINS 68 9 37 46 12 88 6 0 0
1968-69 BRUINS 74 8 54 62 12 95 6 0 1
1969-70 BRUINS 76 6 43 49 27 88 3 1 1
1970-71 BRUINS 77 17 61 78 5 104 9 0 3
TTL PRO TOTALS 355 53 223 276 56 477 27 2 5
OTL PRO TOTALS 328 115 280 395 273 514 26 8 11


As you can see Orr scored 62 more goals, 57 more assists and 119 more total points while playing for 27 more games.

So my question is how would we remember Bobby if he was not as dominant and game-changing like he would be in OTL?


Next time, I have gifts for Blues, Canucks, and Maple Leaf fans involving Harold Ballard, John F Bassett, Darryl Sittler and Bobby Clarke. As well as the 1967-68 League Leaders, Award Winners and the First Round of the play-offs
 
Top