The "Down Goes Brown" History of the NHL: The World’s Most Beautiful Sport, the World’s Most Ridiculous League

281 Pages·2018·2.27 MB·English

by  Sean McIndoe

Copyright © 2018 Sean McIndoe All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
2008right Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from
the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in 2018 by
Random House Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. Distributed in
Canada and the United States of America by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.penguinrandomhouse.ca
Random House Canada and colophon are registered trademarks.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication McIndoe, Sean, author
The Down goes Brown history of the NHL : the world’s most beautiful sport, the world’s most
ridiculous league / Sean McIndoe.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 9780735273894
eBook ISBN 9780735273917
1. National Hockey League—History. I. Title.
GV847.8.N3M423 2018    796.962’64       C2018-902690-1
                        C2018-902691-X
Ebook design adapted from printed book design by Rachel Cooper Cover photo: © Frank Prazak / Hockey
Hall of Fame
v5.3.2
a
To my parents,
Bob and Judi McIndoe
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
1: In the Beginning
STRANGE BUT TRUE: Rules Are Rules
2: The Forgotten Teams
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The Best Team to Ever Miss the Playoffs
3: The Dawn of the Original Six
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The Original...Seven?
4: Hockey’s First Superstars
STRANGE BUT TRUE: Broadway Bullies
5: The Cup Heads North
STRANGE BUT TRUE: Superstar for Sale
6: Expansion Arrives
STRANGE BUT TRUE: Earmuff It for Me
7: Here We Grow Again
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The Wheel
8: That ’70s Show
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The August Draft
9: The High-Flying ’80s
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The Blues Take a Pass
10: Bad Blood
STRANGE BUT TRUE: Spin the bottle
11: The European Invasion
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The Greatest Japanese Player Who Never Was
12: The Trade
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The Biggest Trade Proposal Ever Made
13: Expanding Horizons
STRANGE BUT TRUE: Draft Dodgers
14: The Hall of Presidents
STRANGE BUT TRUE: Referee Your Own Stinking Game
15: A Tale of Three Centres
STRANGE BUT TRUE: O Captain, My Captain
16: The Greatest Season Ever
STRANGE BUT TRUE: That’s Using Your Head
17: The Dead Puck Era
STRANGE BUT TRUE: Esposito’s Smudge
18: The Last Great Rivalry
STRANGE BUT TRUE: How Hollywood Saved the Avalanche
19: International Incidents
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The Case of the Disappearing Canada Cup
20: Southern Comfort
STRANGE BUT TRUE: When Compensation Goes Bad
21: A History of Violence
STRANGE BUT TRUE: From the Canoe to the Boxing Ring
22: The League of the Lockout
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The NHL’s Only Strike
23: Getting Creative
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The Forgotten Outdoor Games
24: The Parity Era
STRANGE BUT TRUE: The Case of the Missing Cup
25: The Future
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION
It’s not just you. This league has always been a little bit off.
THE NHL IS A WEIRD LEAGUE.
Every hockey fan has had this thought. One moment, you’re in awe of the
speed, skill and intensity that define the sport, shaking your head as a player
makes an impossible play, shatters a record or sobs into his first Stanley Cup.
The next, everyone’s wearing earmuffs, Mr. Rogers has shown up and guys in
yellow raincoats are officiating playoff games.
That’s just life in the NHL, a league that can’t seem to get out of its own way.
No matter how long you’ve been a hockey fan, you’ve known the sinking
feeling that maybe, just maybe, some of the people in charge here don’t always
know what they’re doing. And at some point, you’ve probably wondered: Was it
always like this?
The short answer is yes.
As for the longer answer, that’s this book.
I was born in Australia and lived in California until I was almost five, so when
it came to being a hockey fan, I had some catching up to do. Once I arrived in
Canada it didn’t take me long to fall in love with the game, and by the time the
Islanders dynasty was giving way to Wayne Gretzky and the Oilers, I was
hooked. I dove into the game’s history, reading anything I could get my hands
on and listening to older fans tell the stories of the legends who had come before
my time.
But there was another half of the fan experience, and it was one I didn’t often
see reflected in the reference books I signed out of the school library. This part
came in bits and pieces, from throwaway lines in Sunday columns and rambling
stories from late-night sports radio callers and offhand anecdotes by colour
commentators late in blowouts. And it seemed to send a clear message: The
game’s history was filled with epic stories of dramatic moments and heroic
performances, to be sure. But there was also plenty of weird stuff that happened
in between.
Once I hit my forties and was able to make a career out of writing about
hockey, that’s the kind of stuff I made sure to mention. To this day, I’ll drop in a
passing reference to some strange moment or circumstance and find that readers
often have no idea what I’m talking about. Some assume I’m joking; others
accuse me of making stuff up. I’m not. The NHL has featured so many weird
side notes over the years that the story doesn’t feel complete without them.
That’s where this book comes in. The idea here is to trace the history of the
NHL from its earliest days as a four-team organization (that almost immediately
shrank to three when an arena fire left one team homeless) to its current iteration
as a multibillion-dollar monstrosity. We’ll look at the story from a fan’s
perspective—from yours and mine—and cover the best, the worst and
(especially) the downright odd. This book is about the moments that brought you
out of your seat, but also the ones that left you just shaking your head. Because
Lord knows, the NHL has given us plenty of both.
To tell that tale, we’ll have to go back to the start, more than a century ago.