Watching the Stanley Cup playoffs, I couldn't help but wonder how different professional hockey would be today if the old Western Hockey League and old American Hockey League hadn't merged in 1965, successfully competed with and ultimately forced the NHL into the formation of the modern International Hockey League as the premier major hockey league in the world.
Had the merger never occurred (management and players initially didn't like the travel and expenses and that almost stalled the merger), would the NHL have ever done what the IHL has?
In 1965, there were twenty MLB franchises stretching across the continent, two major professional football leagues, numbering twenty two franchises- with two more to begin play in 1966 for a total of twenty four, and nine NBA franchises, soon to be ten in 1966.
The geography covered by those major leagues was immense, and there were plans for even more expansion to come.
Meanwhile, the NHL consisted of six teams, all packed into a relatively narrow patch of the North American continent. That, and for a league that was supposedly Canada's 'National Hockey League', they sure had a funny way of showing it with only two of the six teams actually being based in Canada...despite just about all the players and coaches being Canadian nationals.
What if the 'new' American Hockey League hadn't won the legal battle that kept the NHL from expanding to LA and the Bay Area? What if Jack Kent Cooke hadn't bought the Blades (as the Kings were known before he bought them) and R.R.M. Carpenter hadn't bought the Hershey Bears and secured the land deal to get the Spectrum built in Philly, thus giving the league a pair of strong owners and lucrative markets? Doubtful the Hershey Bears would have been a credible major league team without the move to Philly. Likewise, if Bill Shea and Roy Boe hadn't bought the Rochester Americans and moved them to Commack- then got the arena deal in Uniondale (by icing some pretty damn impressive Islanders clubs in those early days), could the 'new' AHL have survived without a club in the NYC market?
Another thing I wonder about is the NHL and Canadian expansion.
When Clarence Campbell attempted to 'call their bluff', with his 1965 expansion statement, NONE of the cities mentioned as expansion candidates were Canadian cities. The AHL began play with three Canadian franchises (the Canucks, Aces and, in a shrewd move, the Victoria Cougars moving into the vacated Winnipeg Arena and becoming the Jets) to the NHL's TWO (and that's, apparently, how it was going to stay so long as the Leafs and Habs had anything to say about it).
Without the new league to force the question "Who's 'National Hockey League' is this?" among the Canadian people and giving Canadian cities a league that would take them, would Ottawa have built the old Civic Centre as large as they did? Or Hamilton to build the original Copps Coliseum or Calgary and eventually, Edmonton to build the gorgeous arenas such an opportunity presented?
If the NHL's old guard had their way, would Milwaukee have a team today? It's no secret 'Dollar Bill' Wirtz, had he been in a position to do so, would have stopped any attempt to expand to Milwaukee in the old boys club.
What about Seattle, or Hartford?
We take Seattle as a given, because they were part of the original AHL-WHL merger, but what if the Totems hadn't gone major in '65 with the rest of the WHL of the time? Would they have gotten a team if/when the NHL got around to expansion?
On further thought, without the Totems giving Seattle some early major league credibility, (the Sonics surely helped too), would Seattle have developed the big league aspirations that led to the massive renovation of Sick's Stadium that landed them the Pilots and helped sustain them while the Seattle Dome (that landed them the Seahawks) was being built? Hell, without the successes of the Totems, Sonics and Pilots at the gate in the mid to late 60's, would the Seattle Dome even have been built? Seattle seemingly always had stadium plans (and designs to go with them), yet couldn't seem to pull the trigger on construction. Then, Totems, Sonics, Pilots, BOOM! Seattle Dome breaks ground in 1969, opens in '71.
One last thing: Anybody else think the 'Major A' adopting 20 minute, sudden death rules OT and legalizing the two line pass helped increase hockey's popularity in the U.S.? A lot of 'Boomers (like my dad) who came to hockey after the 'Major A' began operating as a major league with the rules changes, have told me the same thing, time and again, that the old NHL rules made hockey seem slow and all of them hated the ties- "Too much like soccer." is what they tell me.
The Major A and the way it changed the game after absorbing the NHL and formed the IHL, pretty much eliminating ties and the faster pace and more open game, I think it created a lot of fans hockey wouldn't have had otherwise.
There's so many other ripples off this pond...
All that said, thoughts?
Also, we're down to the final four, who do you like?
I like Tigers over Rags in six out east, Totems over 'Hawks in seven in the west.
And, though my body now resides in Denver, and the Grizzlies aren't unwatchable, my heart still belongs to the Whalers.
All I need is Eichel's choice of jersey number and I'm putting in my order for a brand new home forest green!