1963-64
OFF-SEASON
This is the year the NHL introduces the amateur draft so we have a large number of new players entering the game this season. Note I elected to assign players to the organization they began with instead of having a draft.
Boston gets Bernie Parent, Derek Sanderson, Ted Irvine and Jean Pronovost. Montreal adds Rogie Vachon, Serge Savard, Carol Vadnais and Jacques Lemaire. Jim McKenney and Gerry Meehan join Toronto while Pete Mahovlich becomes a Red Wing.
Allan Stanley highlights the retirements this off-season. The 37 year old played 990 career NHL games, all with the New York Rangers. He had 87 goals and 373 points in his 15 year career including 31 points last season. Because he spent his entire career with New York, Stanley appeared in just 5 playoff games.
Long-time Chicago defenseman Bob Armstrong has retired at the age of 32. He played two seasons with Boston before joining the Black Hawks in 1951-52. Armstrong played 807 NHL games and had 63 goals and 109 assists in his 14 year career. He had 6 points in 51 games last season.
Don Cherry also retired. The future CBC icon had a much better pro career in the sim then his real life NHL career that consisted of 1 playoff game, being traded to Detroit from the Bruins and he appeared in 251 games for the Red Wings over 4 seasons, scoring 12 times and earning 53 points.
REGULAR SEASON
The big news this season was Ted Lindsay overtook Maurice Richard as the NHL's all-time scoring leader. Lindsay finished the season with 1,212 career points after earning 49 this year. Richard had held the record with 1,173. Lindsay also increased his assist total to 728 and is closing in on former Canadien Elmer Lach's record 750 helpers. Lindsay is also second in career goals with 484. Richard leads with 595.
Lindsay also extended his own record for career games played and he now sits at 1281.
Gordie Howe of Detroit, Doug Harvey of Montreal and Toronto's Red Kelly, Fleming Mackell and goaltender Terry Sawchuk all reached the 1000 game mark. Sawchuk becomes the first goaltender to play in 1000 games and ended the season with 1055 appearances.
The season went very similiar to last year as all four playoff teams finished in the same order as they did in 1963-64. Montreal's Jean Beliveau regained the Art Ross Trophy from Detroit's Alex Delvecchio, who dropped to 4th in scoring this year. Jacques Plante earned another 46 wins this season to increase his record career total to 629 victories. The 35 year old, who won his 12th Vezina Trophy this season, is 629-152-96 in his 885 career regular season games.
The New York Rangers haven't made the playoffs since 1950 but they did manage to escape the basement and finish ahead of Boston. It ended a 4 year run of last place finishes for the Rangers. Big things have been expected of Rod Gilbert and Jean Ratelle but the two youngsters have yet to put it all together. The 23 year old Ratelle played just 38 games this year and had 11 points while the 22 year old Gilbert did manage to score 17 goals and 36 points and play the full 70 games.
Code:
GP W L T PTS
Montreal Canadiens 70 46 13 11 103
Toronto Maple Leafs 70 41 17 12 94
Detroit Red Wings 70 26 28 16 68
Chicago Black Hawks 70 27 32 11 65
New York Rangers 70 23 34 13 59
Boston Bruins 70 12 51 7 31
SCORING LEADERS TEAM GP G A PTS
Jean Beliveau MON 70 38 48 86
Bobby Hull CHI 69 34 47 81
Henri Richard MON 70 32 38 70
Alex Delvecchio DET 70 31 38 69
Frank Mahovlich TOR 70 35 33 68
Gilles Tremblay MON 70 23 43 66
Norm Ullman NYR 70 23 41 64
Stan Mikita CHI 58 18 45 63
Gordie Howe DET 67 27 35 62
Johnny Bucyk DET 70 23 39 62
PLAYOFFS
Toronto's big line of Ron Stewart (3-4-7), Frank Mahovlich (3-4-7) and George Armstrong (2-5-7) proved too much for Montreal as the Leafs upset the Canadiens in six games in their semi-final series. Terry Sawchuk was strong in the Toronto net but Jacques Plante had a couple of tough outings for Montreal.
An injury to Bobby Hull proved the difference in the other semi-final. With Hull in the lineup the Black Hawks won the first two games of their series on the road in Detroit but after he went down the Red Wings took four of the next five games despite 6 goals and 9 points in the series from Chicago's Stan Mikita. Game Seven was a 2-1 Detroit victory with Paul Henderson getting the winner with less than 5 minutes remaining in regulation.
The finals would mark the 6th time Toronto and Detroit would meet with the Leafs winning each of the previous five including a series two years ago.
Overtime was needed to decide Game One of the finals and the hometown Leafs prevailed 4-3 thanks to a Parker MacDonald goal. Defenseman Red Kelly scored twice for Toronto in the win.
Game Two saw the Wings overcome a 3-0 second period deficit and win 4-3 in overtime on a Gordie Howe goal. It was probably the worst 20 minutes of playoff hockey goaltender Terry Sawchuk ever played as the Leafs netminder allowed 3 goals on 8 Detroit shots in the third period.
The Wings carried that momentum into Game Three and had another 3 goal outburst in the third period as they beat Toronto 5-2 at The Olympia. Howe had another goal in this game and Ted Lindsay chipped in with 2 assists but it was former New York Ranger Tom McCarthy who led the way with 2 third period goals and an assist for Detroit.
Detroit moves to within one victory of the Stanley Cup with a 3-2 win in Game Four. Defenseman Harry Howell got what proved to be the game winner midway through the second period on a setup from Howe and Delvecchio, who each had 2 assists in the win.
It is the Leafs turn for a comeback win as Tim Horton scores to tie the game at 2 with 2:21 remaining in regulation and then Earl Ingerfield scores in overtime to give Toronto a 3-2 victory and make the series 3-2 in Detroit's favour.
Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe each have a goal and an assist while Gump Worsley makes 27 saves as Detroit wins the Stanley Cup at home with a 3-0 victory in Game Six. With a 2.28 GAA and a .916 save percentage in 13 playoff games, Worsley is named the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
It was a Montreal sweep for the other Award winners:
HART TROPHY: Jean Beliveau Montreal (70GP 38-48-86)
VEZINA TROPHY: Jacques Plante Montreal (46-13-10, 1.76)
NORRIS TROPHY: Jacques Laperriere Montreal (70GP 16-41-57)
ART ROSS TROPHY: Jean Beliveau Montreal (70GP 38-48-86)
CALDER TROPHY: Barclay Plager Montreal (58GP 6-12-18)
The game does not select the all-star team but I will start naming first and second team all-stars
Code:
POS FIRST TEAM SECOND TEAM
G Jacques Plante Montreal Terry Sawchuk Toronto
D Pierre Pilote Chicago Red Kelly Toronto
D J Laperriere Montreal Doug Harvey Montreal
C Jean Beliveau Montreal Stan Mikita Chicago
LW Bobby Hull Chicago Gilles Tremblay Montreal
RW Frank Mahovlich Toronto Alex Delvecchio Detroit