WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.500 Welcome to the Deep Dive. We are thrilled you're 00:00:02.500 --> 00:00:04.440 joining us today. Yeah, really glad to be here. 00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:07.259 So the mission for our time together today is 00:00:07.259 --> 00:00:10.500 to explore a single pivotal year in sports history. 00:00:10.619 --> 00:00:14.179 A very specific season. Exactly. We are looking 00:00:14.179 --> 00:00:17.660 at a season that completely reshaped an entire 00:00:17.660 --> 00:00:21.109 major league. It turned it from this... somewhat 00:00:21.109 --> 00:00:24.089 regional, old school tradition into the modern 00:00:24.089 --> 00:00:26.410 athletic corporation that we recognize today. 00:00:26.609 --> 00:00:30.510 Right. We're talking about the 1979 to 1980 National 00:00:30.510 --> 00:00:32.700 Hockey League season. And the source material 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:35.439 we have in front of us is a comprehensive historical 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:38.299 and statistical breakdown of that exact season. 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:40.840 It draws heavily on official league records and 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:43.219 archives. Which is great because it really grounds 00:00:43.219 --> 00:00:45.500 the discussion. It does. And, you know, while 00:00:45.500 --> 00:00:47.700 the numbers and the stats provide the framework 00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:50.039 here, the underlying narrative is really about 00:00:50.039 --> 00:00:53.140 control. It is a fascinating case study of how 00:00:53.140 --> 00:00:55.659 decisions made in boardrooms directly dictate 00:00:55.659 --> 00:00:58.280 the action happening down on the ice. OK, let's 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:01.020 unpack this, because setting the stage for 1970 00:01:01.130 --> 00:01:03.909 requires looking at the business landscape of 00:01:03.909 --> 00:01:05.590 the sport at the time. Yeah, you have to understand 00:01:05.590 --> 00:01:08.750 the context. Right. Going into this season, the 00:01:08.750 --> 00:01:12.269 NHL suddenly jumped from 17 teams to 21 teams. 00:01:12.450 --> 00:01:15.329 Which is a massive operational shift. Massive. 00:01:15.329 --> 00:01:17.510 It was an earthquake for the sport. Absolutely. 00:01:17.629 --> 00:01:20.329 Because those four new franchises didn't just 00:01:20.329 --> 00:01:22.689 appear out of thin air. They were the survivors 00:01:22.689 --> 00:01:26.709 of a bitter seven -year corporate war. The rival 00:01:26.709 --> 00:01:30.269 league. Yes. Throughout the 1970s, the NHL had 00:01:30.269 --> 00:01:33.890 a major rival, the World Hockey Association or 00:01:33.890 --> 00:01:37.469 the WHA. And the WHA was essentially a pirate 00:01:37.469 --> 00:01:39.170 league. They just did their own thing. Pretty 00:01:39.170 --> 00:01:41.849 much. They didn't abide by the NHL's traditional 00:01:41.849 --> 00:01:45.590 rules. They actively poached established NHL 00:01:45.590 --> 00:01:48.230 stars by offering them massive contracts. They 00:01:48.230 --> 00:01:50.930 scouted heavily in Europe, too. They did. And 00:01:50.930 --> 00:01:53.269 they played a much more wide open style of hockey. 00:01:53.430 --> 00:01:55.510 So they were actively threatening the NHL's money. 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:58.099 Without a doubt. They drove up player salary 00:01:58.099 --> 00:02:00.260 and across the board and forced the NHL into 00:02:00.260 --> 00:02:03.040 this frantic defensive posture. But it couldn't 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:06.420 last forever. No. By 1979, the financial strain 00:02:06.420 --> 00:02:08.360 of that rebel approach finally caught up with 00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:10.259 the WHA. They just couldn't sustain it and the 00:02:10.259 --> 00:02:13.199 league collapsed. Right. So the NHL agreed to 00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:16.500 absorb four of their surviving franchises. The 00:02:16.500 --> 00:02:19.360 Edmonton Oilers, the Winnipeg Jets, the Quebec 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:22.020 Nordiques, and the New England Whalers. But I 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:23.780 noticed in the records that there were actually 00:02:23.780 --> 00:02:26.400 two other WHA. teams still operating at the time. 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:28.900 Yeah. The Birmingham Bulls and the Cincinnati 00:02:28.900 --> 00:02:31.900 Stingers. The NHL had zero interest in those 00:02:31.900 --> 00:02:34.599 markets. None at all. Those two ownership groups 00:02:34.599 --> 00:02:37.479 were literally paid a settlement to simply fold 00:02:37.479 --> 00:02:40.919 their franchises and walk away. Wow. Yeah. The 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:43.659 boardroom had decided which markets were viable 00:02:43.659 --> 00:02:45.680 for the future and which ones were collateral 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:48.360 damage. Which really brings up the language the 00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:50.800 NHL used to describe this whole arrangement. 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:52.919 I mean, popular history remembers this as the 00:02:52.919 --> 00:02:56.780 NHL W. WHA merger. Two likes combining. Right, 00:02:56.879 --> 00:02:59.039 but the official paperwork tells a very different 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:02.139 story. What's fascinating here is the sheer level 00:03:02.139 --> 00:03:04.740 of petty semantics the NHL employed to maintain 00:03:04.740 --> 00:03:07.500 their dominance. Oh, it's incredible. The NHL 00:03:07.500 --> 00:03:10.639 absolutely refused to call this a merger. Officially, 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:13.319 they labeled it an expansion. An expansion. Yes. 00:03:13.460 --> 00:03:16.979 They argued that these were four completely new 00:03:16.979 --> 00:03:20.120 NHL franchises that just coincidentally happened 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:22.699 to have the exact same names, the same logos, 00:03:22.979 --> 00:03:25.759 the same players. and the same home cities as 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:28.759 the former WHA teams. The legal gymnastics there 00:03:28.759 --> 00:03:31.460 are pretty astounding, but why go through the 00:03:31.460 --> 00:03:33.460 trouble of pretending these are brand new teams? 00:03:33.699 --> 00:03:36.599 Because of the historical record. By classifying 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:40.099 it as an expansion, the NHL legally erased all 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:42.539 of the WHA's records in history. Just wiped it 00:03:42.539 --> 00:03:45.280 out. Exactly. The goals scored in the WHA, the 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:48.349 championships won, the rivalries... None of it 00:03:48.349 --> 00:03:50.469 transferred over to the NHL record books. It 00:03:50.469 --> 00:03:53.370 was a masterclass in corporate erasure. The NHL 00:03:53.370 --> 00:03:55.569 basically dictated that history only mattered 00:03:55.569 --> 00:03:58.009 if it happened under their shield. And that expansion 00:03:58.009 --> 00:04:00.909 label also gave the NHL executives a massive 00:04:00.909 --> 00:04:02.650 advantage when it came to the players themselves. 00:04:03.110 --> 00:04:05.689 Because if two leagues actually merge, there 00:04:05.689 --> 00:04:08.050 are usually agreements in place to keep the existing 00:04:08.050 --> 00:04:10.870 team rosters intact. Right. But because this 00:04:10.870 --> 00:04:13.409 was legally an expansion, the NHL allowed its 00:04:13.409 --> 00:04:15.610 existing teams to launch a corporate raid on 00:04:15.610 --> 00:04:18.879 the newcomers. It was. brutal. The established 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:22.100 NHL teams were allowed to simply reclaim any 00:04:22.100 --> 00:04:24.980 players they previously held NHL rights to from 00:04:24.980 --> 00:04:27.680 those former WHA clubs. And they didn't have 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:30.120 to pay a dime of compensation? Nothing. The four 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:32.339 new teams coming in were only allowed to protect 00:04:32.339 --> 00:04:34.899 two goaltenders and two skaters from their own 00:04:34.899 --> 00:04:37.579 existing rosters. That's it? That's it. Everyone 00:04:37.579 --> 00:04:39.860 else was fair game to be stripped away by their 00:04:39.860 --> 00:04:41.920 new competitors. It's hard to imagine trying 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:44.560 to compete in a premier sports league when your 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:47.000 opponents are legally allowed to pill your roster 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:49.699 before the first game even starts. And the established 00:04:49.699 --> 00:04:51.720 teams weren't just aggressive with the rosters. 00:04:51.740 --> 00:04:54.420 They were intensely territorial over branding. 00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:57.100 Oh, the Boston Bruins provide the perfect example 00:04:57.100 --> 00:05:00.579 of that. Boston was and still is a massive hockey 00:05:00.579 --> 00:05:02.860 market. Oh, for sure. So when the New England 00:05:02.860 --> 00:05:05.579 Whalers were absorbed into the NHL, the Boston 00:05:05.579 --> 00:05:08.000 executives threw their considerable weight around 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.779 in the boardroom. They demanded that the Whalers 00:05:10.779 --> 00:05:13.839 drop the New England geographic identifier. They 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:16.160 essentially claimed ownership of the entire region. 00:05:16.540 --> 00:05:19.819 Exactly that. The Bruins forced the new franchise 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:23.759 to rebrand simply to assert dominance. And that's 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:26.000 how the New England Whalers became the Hartford 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:28.439 Whalers. It was a very clear message from the 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:31.279 old guard. You are entering our house and you 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:33.720 will play by our rules. But the boardroom executives 00:05:33.720 --> 00:05:36.160 couldn't control everything. In their rush to 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:39.759 absorb the WHA and crush their rival, they had 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:42.160 to tweak some administrative rules. And those 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:44.920 tweaks accidentally unleashed a youth movement 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:47.660 that completely took over the sport. To understand 00:05:47.660 --> 00:05:49.459 how that happened, we really need to look at 00:05:49.459 --> 00:05:52.420 the draft system. The WHA, in their rebel days, 00:05:52.660 --> 00:05:55.459 had a habit of signing underage teenagers to 00:05:55.459 --> 00:05:58.120 professional contracts. Whereas the NHL had a 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:00.120 strict rule you had to be 20 years old to be 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:03.139 drafted. Right. But when the NHL absorbed the 00:06:03.139 --> 00:06:05.639 WHA teams, they wore s**t. suddenly inheriting 00:06:05.639 --> 00:06:08.240 players who were 18 or 19 years old and already 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:10.860 playing professional hockey. The NHL had to figure 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:13.759 out a way to legally process these underage pros 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:15.899 into their own system. They couldn't exactly 00:06:15.899 --> 00:06:18.839 just kick them out of the sport. Precisely. So 00:06:18.839 --> 00:06:21.000 they changed the name of the draft from the amateur 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:23.939 draft to the entry draft. And more importantly, 00:06:24.139 --> 00:06:27.459 they lowered the draft age limit from 20 down 00:06:27.459 --> 00:06:30.560 to 18. Which, you know, seems like a minor administrative 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:33.500 fix on paper. But if we connect this to the bigger 00:06:33.500 --> 00:06:36.959 picture, lowering the draft age by two full years 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:39.639 essentially broke the dam. Oh, completely. Instead 00:06:39.639 --> 00:06:42.360 of just drafting 20 -year -olds, teams were suddenly 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.379 drafting the best 18-, 19-, and 20 -year -olds 00:06:45.379 --> 00:06:48.339 all at the exact same time. The league was flooded 00:06:48.339 --> 00:06:51.220 with an unprecedented wave of generational talent. 00:06:51.579 --> 00:06:54.000 Seven future Hall of Famers made their debut 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:56.560 in this single season. Looking at the list, the 00:06:56.560 --> 00:06:59.579 impact is staggering. You have Ray Bork stepping 00:06:59.579 --> 00:07:02.399 onto the ice for Boston. immediately becoming 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:04.920 a defensive superstar and winning the top rookie 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:07.660 award. You have Marc Messier debuting with Edmonton, 00:07:07.660 --> 00:07:09.319 who would go on to become one of the greatest 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:12.000 leaders in sports history. Mike Gartner, Michelle 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.819 Goulet, Joe Mullen. The sheer volume of raw, 00:07:15.939 --> 00:07:18.639 youthful talent was overwhelming. But the crown 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:20.980 jewel of that underage loophole was a 19 -year 00:07:20.980 --> 00:07:23.040 -old kid coming over with the Edmonton Oilers. 00:07:23.220 --> 00:07:25.879 Wayne Gretzky. The hype surrounding Gretzky coming 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:28.939 into the NHL was immense. He had been a prodigy 00:07:28.939 --> 00:07:32.389 in the WHA. But the old guard NHL traditionalists 00:07:32.389 --> 00:07:34.750 doubted him, didn't they? Yeah, they really doubted 00:07:34.750 --> 00:07:37.389 if his slight frame and creative style could 00:07:37.389 --> 00:07:40.670 survive the grueling physical nature of the established 00:07:40.670 --> 00:07:42.709 league. Well, he answered those doubts pretty 00:07:42.709 --> 00:07:45.189 quickly. He absolutely did. But before we get 00:07:45.189 --> 00:07:47.350 into his stats, we should clarify something for 00:07:47.350 --> 00:07:49.930 anyone listening who might not watch hockey every 00:07:49.930 --> 00:07:52.430 day. We are going to be talking a lot about points 00:07:52.430 --> 00:07:55.810 today, but the word means two completely different 00:07:55.810 --> 00:07:58.509 things depending on the context. It is a crucial 00:07:58.509 --> 00:08:00.949 distinction. When we talk about individual players, 00:08:01.149 --> 00:08:03.870 a point is a personal statistic. A player earns 00:08:03.870 --> 00:08:06.550 one point for scoring a goal, and they also earn 00:08:06.550 --> 00:08:08.810 one point for assisting on a teammate's goal. 00:08:09.009 --> 00:08:11.649 So a player's total points are their goals plus 00:08:11.649 --> 00:08:14.610 their assists. Exactly. But when we talk about 00:08:14.610 --> 00:08:17.370 a team standing in the league, that's based on 00:08:17.370 --> 00:08:19.850 game outcomes. Right. Two points for winning 00:08:19.850 --> 00:08:23.029 a game, one point for tying a game, and zero 00:08:23.029 --> 00:08:26.529 points for a loss. Exactly. So going back to... 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:29.680 Gretzky and his individual player points. In 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:32.440 his rookie NHL season he was utterly dominant. 00:08:32.759 --> 00:08:36.600 He racked up 137 points heavily driven by his 00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:39.000 incredible ability to assist his teammates. And 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.440 he easily captured the league's most valuable 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:43.840 player award. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:47.700 He gets the MVP. He puts up 137 points but he 00:08:47.700 --> 00:08:49.600 actually does not win the scoring title. Right. 00:08:49.740 --> 00:08:53.139 The award for the most points in the league goes 00:08:53.139 --> 00:08:55.960 to Marcel Dion of the Los Angeles Kings. Right. 00:08:56.350 --> 00:08:58.649 How does the undisputed MVP lose the scoring 00:08:58.649 --> 00:09:01.570 title when he had 137 points? Because Marcel 00:09:01.570 --> 00:09:04.590 Dion also scored exactly 137 points that season. 00:09:04.730 --> 00:09:07.289 They tied for the league lead. Wow. Now, you 00:09:07.289 --> 00:09:09.330 might assume they would share the award or perhaps 00:09:09.330 --> 00:09:11.850 the rookie would be favored. But the NHL had 00:09:11.850 --> 00:09:14.250 a very specific pre -written tiebreaker rule 00:09:14.250 --> 00:09:16.370 for the scoring title. Of course they did. In 00:09:16.370 --> 00:09:18.490 the event of a tie, the award goes to the player 00:09:18.490 --> 00:09:21.149 who scored the most goals. It prioritizes the 00:09:21.149 --> 00:09:23.529 goal scorer over the playmaker. Marcel Dion scored 00:09:23.529 --> 00:09:25.990 53 goals that season. Wayne Gretzky scored 51. 00:09:26.350 --> 00:09:29.350 So Dion takes home the trophy simply by virtue 00:09:29.350 --> 00:09:31.870 of having scored two more goals, even though 00:09:31.870 --> 00:09:34.370 their overall offensive production was completely 00:09:34.370 --> 00:09:37.970 identical. It's a trivia buff's dream. The rookie 00:09:37.970 --> 00:09:40.370 prodigy rewrites the expectations of the sport, 00:09:40.610 --> 00:09:43.090 ties for the most points in the entire league, 00:09:43.250 --> 00:09:47.149 and loses the top scorer award on a technicality. 00:09:47.429 --> 00:09:50.269 But while Gretzky was redefining individual performance 00:09:50.269 --> 00:09:53.210 at West, There was a collective team narrative 00:09:53.210 --> 00:09:56.090 unfolding on the East Coast that completely defied 00:09:56.090 --> 00:09:58.850 belief. That brings us to the Philadelphia Flyers, 00:09:58.909 --> 00:10:01.950 because what they accomplished in the 1979 -80 00:10:01.950 --> 00:10:05.570 regular season remains, to this day, the longest 00:10:05.570 --> 00:10:07.809 undefeated streak in North American professional 00:10:07.809 --> 00:10:11.330 sports history. To truly appreciate this, you 00:10:11.330 --> 00:10:13.470 have to visualize the grueling reality of an 00:10:13.470 --> 00:10:16.419 80 -game hockey schedule in that era. The equipment 00:10:16.419 --> 00:10:18.740 was heavier, the travel was exhausting, the style 00:10:18.740 --> 00:10:21.059 of play was intensely physical. And the variance 00:10:21.059 --> 00:10:23.519 of puck luck means that even great teams lose 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:26.519 games to bad teams all the time. Exactly. To 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:28.759 go on a run in this sport is incredibly difficult. 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:30.960 And the Flyers didn't look like an unstoppable 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:33.179 juggernaut right out of the gate. Not at all. 00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:35.320 They won their first game, but then they were 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:37.620 completely dismantled in their second game, losing 00:10:37.620 --> 00:10:40.980 9 -2 to the Atlanta Flames. But after that embarrassing 00:10:40.980 --> 00:10:44.340 blowout on October 13th, something clicked. From 00:10:44.340 --> 00:10:48.159 October 14th, 1979 all the way to January 6th, 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:51.639 1980, the Philadelphia Flyers did not lose a 00:10:51.639 --> 00:10:54.320 single game. They went nearly three full months 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:56.740 without a defeat. The final record for that streak 00:10:56.740 --> 00:10:59.580 was 35 consecutive games. It consisted of 25 00:10:59.580 --> 00:11:03.169 wins, zero losses, and 10 ties. Keep in mind, 00:11:03.190 --> 00:11:05.710 this was long before the NHL introduced overtime 00:11:05.710 --> 00:11:07.990 shootouts to guarantee a winner. Right. Games 00:11:07.990 --> 00:11:10.990 could and often did end in a tie. But managing 00:11:10.990 --> 00:11:13.769 to battle through injuries, bad bounces and exhaustion 00:11:13.769 --> 00:11:16.110 to secure at least one point in the standings 00:11:16.110 --> 00:11:18.789 for 35 straight games is a monument of consistency. 00:11:18.870 --> 00:11:21.590 They finished the regular season with 116 points 00:11:21.590 --> 00:11:23.490 in the standings, which was the best record in 00:11:23.490 --> 00:11:25.750 the league. They were the undisputed heavyweights 00:11:25.750 --> 00:11:27.620 of the regular season. And they cruised through 00:11:27.620 --> 00:11:29.559 the first few rounds of the playoffs and marched 00:11:29.559 --> 00:11:32.179 all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. But history 00:11:32.179 --> 00:11:35.919 loves a cruel twist. The Flyers, with their 116 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:38.500 standings points and their historic 35 -game 00:11:38.500 --> 00:11:41.039 streak, did not win the championship. They ran 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:43.720 into the New York Islanders. And the Islanders' 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:46.320 trajectory that year provides a fascinating contrast 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:49.340 to Philadelphia. How so? Well, the year prior, 00:11:49.620 --> 00:11:52.700 the Islanders had been their regular season darlings. 00:11:53.450 --> 00:11:56.190 They had finished with 116 points themselves, 00:11:56.269 --> 00:11:59.309 only to suffer a heartbreaking playoff collapse. 00:11:59.649 --> 00:12:01.970 Ah, they spent all their energy dominating the 00:12:01.970 --> 00:12:03.870 regular season and had nothing left for the playoffs. 00:12:04.029 --> 00:12:07.429 Precisely. So in the 79 -80 season, the Islanders 00:12:07.429 --> 00:12:09.730 took a different approach. They actually struggled 00:12:09.730 --> 00:12:11.850 at times during the regular season. They fell 00:12:11.850 --> 00:12:13.990 considerably in the standings, finishing fifth 00:12:13.990 --> 00:12:17.370 overall with 91 points. That is a massive 25 00:12:17.370 --> 00:12:19.809 -point drop from their previous year. But when 00:12:19.809 --> 00:12:21.809 the playoffs rolled around, the Islanders were 00:12:21.809 --> 00:12:24.750 battle -tested. and healthy they met the juggernaut 00:12:24.750 --> 00:12:27.509 flyers in the finals and defeated them in six 00:12:27.509 --> 00:12:30.309 games to win their first ever stanley cup i think 00:12:30.309 --> 00:12:32.590 this asks a lot of us when we evaluate success 00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:35.620 When you look back at the legacy of a franchise, 00:12:35.899 --> 00:12:39.720 does a 35 -game undefeated streak, a record that 00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:42.000 has stood against the test of time across all 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.179 sports matter more? Or does falling short in 00:12:44.179 --> 00:12:46.559 the final series overwrite that entire regular 00:12:46.559 --> 00:12:49.539 season achievement? Exactly. Does the championship 00:12:49.539 --> 00:12:53.120 ring validate an Islanders team that underperformed 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:56.000 for six months while the Flyers are left as a 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:59.100 historical footnote of what if? It is the ultimate 00:12:59.100 --> 00:13:02.139 debate of regular season dominance versus postseason 00:13:02.139 --> 00:13:04.960 survival. And navigating the playoffs that year 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:07.600 was particularly difficult because the boardroom 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:10.159 executives had introduced another massive structural 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:12.340 change. Right. Because when the league jumped 00:13:12.340 --> 00:13:15.279 to 21 teams. They didn't know how to organize 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:17.840 the postseason. The expansion created administrative 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:21.200 panic. The NHL basically threw their hands up 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:23.940 and made divisional affiliations entirely irrelevant 00:13:23.940 --> 00:13:26.360 for playoff qualification. Traditionally, you 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:28.059 win your division, you get a good playoff spot. 00:13:28.620 --> 00:13:31.240 But the NHL scrapped that. They took the four 00:13:31.240 --> 00:13:33.019 division winners and then they just took the 00:13:33.019 --> 00:13:34.960 next 12 teams with the best overall records, 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:37.279 regardless of where they played geographically. 00:13:37.320 --> 00:13:40.120 They expanded the playoffs to a massive 16 -team 00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:42.740 tournament. And they seeded them 1 through 16 00:13:42.740 --> 00:13:45.100 strictly based on their regular season points. 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:48.899 which led to a chaotic, continuously receding 00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:52.759 bracket. In every single round, the highest remaining 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:55.659 seed played the lowest remaining seed. The number 00:13:55.659 --> 00:13:58.799 one overall team played the 16th team right out 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:01.419 of the gate. It was a brutal welcome for the 00:14:01.419 --> 00:14:04.240 new expansion teams. The Hartford Whalers and 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:06.779 the Edmonton Oilers actually managed to scrape 00:14:06.779 --> 00:14:09.559 into the 16 -team tournament. Right. Hartford 00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:12.820 finished 14th. Edmonton finished 16th. But both 00:14:12.820 --> 00:14:15.059 of them were completely swept three games to 00:14:15.059 --> 00:14:17.820 zero in their first round matchups. The old guard 00:14:17.820 --> 00:14:20.100 was not ready to let the newcomers take the crown 00:14:20.100 --> 00:14:22.879 just yet. Definitely not. It was an administrative 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:25.620 experiment that proved to be a logistical nightmare. 00:14:25.980 --> 00:14:28.419 Sending teams crisscrossing the continent for 00:14:28.419 --> 00:14:30.519 a first round matchup simply because of their 00:14:30.519 --> 00:14:33.419 seed number incurred massive travel costs. I 00:14:33.419 --> 00:14:35.580 can imagine. The league abandoned this format 00:14:35.580 --> 00:14:38.259 after just two seasons, realigning the divisions 00:14:38.259 --> 00:14:42.779 in 1981. But that chaotic Wild West energy wasn't 00:14:42.779 --> 00:14:44.919 just happening in the boardroom or in the playoff 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:47.820 brackets. It was literally visible on the players 00:14:47.820 --> 00:14:50.100 themselves. Because this was also the season, 00:14:50.259 --> 00:14:55.480 the NHL finally... player safety. Up until this 00:14:55.480 --> 00:14:57.860 point, playing bareheaded with your hair flowing 00:14:57.860 --> 00:15:00.820 in the cold rink air was just part of the romanticized 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:05.019 hockey aesthetic. But in August 1979, the NHL 00:15:05.019 --> 00:15:08.419 president made a definitive announcement. Protective 00:15:08.419 --> 00:15:12.019 helmets were now mandatory for all players. Which 00:15:12.019 --> 00:15:14.860 seems like common sense today, but how did the 00:15:14.860 --> 00:15:17.580 veteran players react to the boardroom mandating 00:15:17.580 --> 00:15:20.500 their equipment? Well, the culture was already 00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:23.679 shifting. The archives note that about 70 % of 00:15:23.679 --> 00:15:26.159 NHL players were already wearing helmets voluntarily 00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:29.240 by the late 70s. But mandating it across the 00:15:29.240 --> 00:15:31.379 board required negotiations with the players' 00:15:31.460 --> 00:15:33.740 union. You couldn't just force veterans who had 00:15:33.740 --> 00:15:36.480 played for 15 years bareheaded to suddenly change 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:39.000 their gear. So the boardroom created a compromise. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:41.879 They included a grandfather clause. I love the 00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:44.299 nuance of a grandfather clause in sports history. 00:15:44.519 --> 00:15:46.740 It's great. If a player had signed a professional 00:15:46.740 --> 00:15:50.080 contract prior to June 1st, 1979, they were exempt 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:52.019 from the mandate. All they had to do was sign 00:15:52.019 --> 00:15:54.379 a waiver form and they could continue to play 00:15:54.379 --> 00:15:55.899 without a helmet for the rest of their career. 00:15:56.059 --> 00:15:58.460 It creates these incredible visual anomalies 00:15:58.460 --> 00:16:01.330 that stretch years into the future. The timeline 00:16:01.330 --> 00:16:04.190 on this one is amazing. If you debuted in 1979, 00:16:04.610 --> 00:16:06.769 you could theoretically play for a long time. 00:16:07.029 --> 00:16:09.169 And that is exactly what happened with a player 00:16:09.169 --> 00:16:11.750 named Craig McTavish. He debuted this very season 00:16:11.750 --> 00:16:14.389 playing for the Boston Bruins. Because his contract 00:16:14.389 --> 00:16:16.529 was signed before the deadline, he signed the 00:16:16.529 --> 00:16:19.309 waiver. And he just kept playing without a helmet, 00:16:19.429 --> 00:16:22.500 year after year. decade after decade. This single 00:16:22.500 --> 00:16:25.379 piece of boardroom paperwork allowed McTavish 00:16:25.379 --> 00:16:28.039 to play helmetless all the way until he retired 00:16:28.039 --> 00:16:31.820 after the 1996 to 1997 season. It is astounding 00:16:31.820 --> 00:16:35.000 to visualize. You have a guy in the late 1990s 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.340 playing in the hyper -modern high -speed era 00:16:37.340 --> 00:16:40.019 of the NHL, looking like he time -traveled from 00:16:40.019 --> 00:16:42.659 the 1970s. It perfectly encapsulates what the 00:16:42.659 --> 00:16:45.879 1979 -80 season was all about. It was an incredible 00:16:45.879 --> 00:16:48.259 generational overlap. The past and the future 00:16:48.259 --> 00:16:50.039 of the sport were physically sharing the ice. 00:16:50.090 --> 00:16:52.509 at the exact same time. We talked about Gretzky 00:16:52.509 --> 00:16:54.309 and the youth movement arriving, but this was 00:16:54.309 --> 00:16:57.049 also the final bow for some absolute titans of 00:16:57.049 --> 00:16:59.330 the old game. It was the final season for Bobby 00:16:59.330 --> 00:17:01.970 Hull, who split his last year between Winnipeg 00:17:01.970 --> 00:17:05.470 and Hartfold. And notably, Bobby Hull was the 00:17:05.470 --> 00:17:08.210 very last active player in the NHL to have been 00:17:08.210 --> 00:17:10.829 born in the 1930s. And his teammate in Hartford 00:17:10.829 --> 00:17:13.930 that year was Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe. 00:17:14.089 --> 00:17:16.450 Gordie Howe played all 80 games of the regular 00:17:16.450 --> 00:17:19.839 season at the age of 51. Which is just wild to 00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:21.539 think about. He was the last player in the NHL 00:17:21.539 --> 00:17:24.240 born in the 1920s, and he was the last active 00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:26.140 player to have played a professional game in 00:17:26.140 --> 00:17:28.640 the 1940s. Just let the scale of that sink in. 00:17:28.779 --> 00:17:30.700 You have Gordie Howe, whose professional career 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:33.619 began in the post -World War II era, lining up 00:17:33.619 --> 00:17:35.660 for a face -off against a 19 -year -old Wayne 00:17:35.660 --> 00:17:38.099 Gretzky. You literally have the embodiment of 00:17:38.099 --> 00:17:40.339 the game's past and the architect of its future 00:17:40.339 --> 00:17:42.680 shaking hands across the blue line. So what does 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:45.279 this all mean? When we look back at the 1979 00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:48.369 -80 NHL season, it is so much... more than a 00:17:48.369 --> 00:17:50.529 list of statistics or a trivia question about 00:17:50.529 --> 00:17:53.670 an undefeated streak. It really is. This was 00:17:53.670 --> 00:17:56.890 the exact pivot point of a major cultural institution. 00:17:57.289 --> 00:17:59.710 It was the moment the sport officially closed 00:17:59.710 --> 00:18:02.430 the door on its old school roots, the helmetless 00:18:02.430 --> 00:18:05.769 players, the rebel rivalries with the WHA, the 00:18:05.769 --> 00:18:08.529 regional traditions, and stepped firmly into 00:18:08.529 --> 00:18:10.740 the modern, highly structured corporate era. 00:18:10.859 --> 00:18:13.599 It is the bridge between two completely different 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:16.160 worlds. This raises an important question, something 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:18.420 for you to think about long after we sign off 00:18:18.420 --> 00:18:21.180 today. We so often think of sports or even our 00:18:21.180 --> 00:18:23.880 own industries and careers as being defined purely 00:18:23.880 --> 00:18:27.440 by raw talent, hard work and visible performance. 00:18:27.740 --> 00:18:30.099 We focus on the Gretzky's of the world or the 00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:32.460 teams that managed to win 35 games in a row. 00:18:32.890 --> 00:18:35.069 But if you look closely at this season, the entire 00:18:35.069 --> 00:18:37.210 landscape was actually being shaped by administrators 00:18:37.210 --> 00:18:40.230 in boardrooms. Lowering the draft age by two 00:18:40.230 --> 00:18:42.170 years flooded the league with Hall of Famers. 00:18:42.289 --> 00:18:44.829 A semantic choice to call a merger an expansion 00:18:44.829 --> 00:18:48.410 erased an entire rival league's history. A petty 00:18:48.410 --> 00:18:50.890 geographical dispute forced a team to rebrand. 00:18:51.309 --> 00:18:53.390 Even the way a player looked on the ice 20 years 00:18:53.390 --> 00:18:55.869 later was dictated by a waiver signed in 1979. 00:18:56.410 --> 00:18:58.430 It prompts you to look at the world around you 00:18:58.430 --> 00:19:02.450 and ask, What hidden administrative rules, what 00:19:02.450 --> 00:19:05.490 quiet paperwork, and what corporate semantics 00:19:05.490 --> 00:19:08.410 are secretly architecting the golden eras in 00:19:08.410 --> 00:19:10.869 your own field today? Who is actually setting 00:19:10.869 --> 00:19:13.589 the board before the players even arrive? That 00:19:13.589 --> 00:19:16.190 is a brilliant point to leave on, the invisible 00:19:16.190 --> 00:19:18.769 hands shaping the game. It's been great diving 00:19:18.769 --> 00:19:20.490 into this. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:19:20.490 --> 00:19:22.450 this deep dive. We hope we gave you a few new 00:19:22.450 --> 00:19:24.450 perspectives on how history actually gets made. 00:19:24.549 --> 00:19:27.289 Keep asking questions, and we warmly invite you 00:19:27.289 --> 00:19:29.150 to bring that curiosity back for our next one.