Bowman relates to Vegas’ get-rich-quick fortunes
NHL’s winningest coach once took expansion Blues to Stanley Cup in 1968
Scotty Bowman knows what it’s like to be an expansion NHL team in the Stanley Cup final because he was coach of the St. Louis Blues 50 years ago as part of a six-team division of NHL newbies.
They beat the Minnesota North Stars to earn the right to lose to the mighty Montreal Canadiens in the final. They lost four straight to the juggernaut Habs, who still had a ton of trouble beating goalie Glenn Hall in 1968.
“We lost two games in overtime to Montreal (also 1-0 and 3-2 in regulation time) and that was a dynasty team,” said the coach with the most wins in NHL history. “The similarities between Vegas and us were the goalies. We drafted Glenn Hall, who was 35, from Chicago because they had this young goalie Denis DeJordy who was going to be the heir apparent and Vegas got (Marc-Andre) Fleury from Pittsburgh. Glenn was our differencemaker. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff MVP) that year.”
Bowman says there’s one other similarity: the fun atmosphere in the building in St. Louis and Vegas.
“We were the first team that played organ music and the fans joined in to sing. A lot of the original teams didn’t like the music,” he said. Bowman hasn’t been to TMobile Arena in Vegas yet, but has heard about the wonderful, loud experience there and hopes to get to a game next season.
Bowman didn’t get anywhere near the quality of players as Vegas when the Blues, North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins and Oakland Seals came into the league in 196768. The Original Six teams kept all their good players, and the Blues scrambled for guys with some sort of NHL pedigree.
The six expansion teams came in for $2 million a pop and all played in the same division.
“Clarence Campbell said they’d have their own division and they would reward one of us with a berth in the Stanley Cup final,” said Bowman. “I remember in our first playoff series against the Flyers, our farm team had finished up and I called down to the player-coach Doug Harvey and asked if he could give us some help for Game 7. He called himself up. I remember saying, ‘Doug, you are 44 years old.’ He said, ‘I have more than one game left in me’ and he played 40 minutes when we won Game 7.”
The expansion rules were penal to the expansion teams in the 196768 season.
“Each of the original teams had to lose three players which gave us all 18 skaters and we got one goalie, too. Teams got to protect 11 players and when they lost somebody to an expansion team, they added another guy (a 12th skater), and it was the same when they lost a second and third player,” said Bowman. “I remember we got Jimmy Roberts (Montreal) who could play defence or forward, which I liked. The best thing was teams could only keep one goalie, so we all got a shot. Philadelphia had first goalie pick and got the young Bernie Parent from Boston because the Bruins already had Gerry Cheevers and Eddie Johnston. L.A. took Terry Sawchuk from Toronto because they also had Johnny Bower. We got Hall with the pick from Chicago.
“We only got three NHL players (draft) because there were only six teams to pick from and there were lots of guys in the minors who couldn’t get up to the NHL,” said Bowman, who picked up players like Terry Crisp, Al Arbour and Gerry Melnyk off Original Six farm squads.
“Early that first year we also traded Ron Stewart, who we’d drafted, to the Rangers for Red Berenson and Barclay Plager, who were playing in the minors. We got lucky. Just like Vegas only they made their trades before the draft to get Reilly Smith from Florida along with Jonathan Marchessault and
I called down to the player-coach Doug Harvey and asked if they could give us some help. He called himself up.
Alex Tuch from Minnesota along with Eric Haula. One thing Vegas had that none of us had, there was only one team coming in and they didn’t have to worry about another team trying to also make a deal.”
Bowman is 84 now, but nobody watches more hockey than him. He lives in Sarasota, not far from Tampa, and is often at Lightning games. He wasn’t surprised Washington Capitals beat the Lightning because they pounded a team that’s not overly physical.
“Lots of games in the regular season now are no-hitters, and there aren’t any no-hitters in the playoffs,” said Bowman. “I thought Washington kind of beat up on them.”