Welcome to this deep dive. We have got something
incredibly special custom tailored just for you
today. We really do. If you have any interest
in sports history or, you know, just stories
of absolute human endurance and massive institutional
shifts, you are in the exact right place. Absolutely.
Today we're looking at a comprehensive Wikipedia
article detailing the 1963 -64 NHL season. And
our mission today, what we're really trying to
do here, is explore a truly transformative year
in hockey history. Yeah. It's a big one. We aren't
just going to read off a list of game scores
or dry statistics. We want to show you how this
one specific season acted as this chaotic, grueling
bridge between the old school rough and tumble
era of the sport and the modern game we recognize
today. Right. The turning point. Exactly. So
to set the scene for you, this is the peak of
the original six era. You have exactly six teams,
the Montreal Canadiens, the Chicago Blackhawks,
the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Detroit Red Wings,
the New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins. That's
the whole league. That is the whole league. They
are playing a 70 game schedule in a tight knit,
incredibly physical environment where every team
plays each other over and over again. And I mean,
the rivalries are just blood deep. They really
are. It is a fascinating year to analyze because
the 1963 -64 season was essentially a pressure
cooker. Yeah. You have these major systemic changes
happening at the league level, completely monumental
shattered records on the ice, and some of the
most punishing playoff series we have ever seen.
Brutal stuff. The overarching theme you'll notice
as we go through this deep dive is how institutional
evolution and individual greatness just... collided
in one unforgettable stretch. It is the perfect
microcosm of a sport trying to grow up in real
time. OK, let's unpack this, because to really
understand this season, we have to look at the
offseason chaos first. Oh, yeah. The drama started
way before the puck even dropped on opening night.
It really did. In June of 1963, the New York
Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens pulled off
this blockbuster goalie swap. Massive news at
the time. Right. So Montreal was desperate to
get rid of their goaltender, Jacques Plante,
because he constantly butted heads with their
coach, Toblake. So they shipped him off to New
York in a multiplayer deal, bringing Gump Worsley
to Montreal in return. And we have to put some
context around the name Jacques Plante for anyone
who might not be a diehard hockey historian.
Please do. You don't just trade a guy like Plante
lightly. He had already won the Vizina Trophy.
Meaning he was crowned the absolute best goaltender
in the entire league. Right. Six times. Six times.
Six times. Imagine a modern sports franchise
creating a six -time MVP in his prime simply
because the head coach couldn't stand his attitude
anymore. The tension in that Montreal locker
room must have been completely suffocating for
management to finally pull the trigger on a deal
like that. Suffocating is the right word. And
the fallout was immediate. The reception Tlanti
got in his new Rangers uniform was just brutal.
Rough start. Very rough. He makes his debut in
New York. in early October against Chicago. Not
only do the Rangers lose that game 3 -1, but
Plante actually gets cut open by an elbow from
Chicago's Johnny McKenzie. Welcome to New York.
Exactly. Welcome to New York. Then, just four
nights later, the schedule has him playing his
very first game back in Montreal against his
old team. The Rangers lose 6 -2 in the forum,
and the Montreal fans are simultaneously applauding
his legacy and jeering him mercilessly. Just
a chaotic, emotional start to the year. But that
trade wasn't even the biggest offseason news.
We also have to talk about what happened on June
5th at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.
Yes. The league held its first ever NHL amateur
draft. where Montreal took a player named Gary
Monahan with the historic first overall pick.
But did a draft actually fix the league's problems
right away, or was it more of a PR move? If we
connect this to the bigger picture, it was definitely
a baby step, and it took years to actually balance
the league. But the birth of the first NHL draft
is arguably the most significant structural change
in the history of the sport. Wow. Yes. NHL president
Clarence Campbell instituted it to phase out
a really archaic, almost futile system. Previously,
wealthy NHL clubs would actually sponsor entire
amateur teams. By doing so, they essentially
monopolized all the young talent on those sponsored
rosters. If you were a talented teenager playing
for a sponsored amateur club in Canada, your
professional rights were practically owned by
the NHL team that funded your local rink. Your
prospects were severely limited. So if you were
a kid in Montreal's harm system, you could only
ever play for Montreal. Precisely. And that allowed
powerhouses like Montreal and Toronto to hoard
all the best youth talent, creating these impenetrable
dynasties while teams like Boston just languished
at the bottom. That makes total sense. Campbell
wanted to create what he called a uniform opportunity
for each team to acquire a star player. It was
the very beginning of the league trying to manufacture
competitive parity and break the stranglehold
that the wealthier franchises had on the future
of the sport. It totally changed the DNA of how
teams were built. Now let's transition into the
regular season itself because the sheer volume
of history made on the ice this year is staggering.
It's a busy year. Very busy. Picture this. It's
November. Detroit is playing Montreal and Detroit
is blanking them. Gordie Howe, Mr. Hockey himself,
is on the ice. He scores his 545th career goal,
officially breaking Maurice Richard's all -time
career goal scoring record. A massive milestone.
But the detail here that is just so memorable
is how he did it. He didn't score on a standard
power play or a lucky bounce. He broke the all
-time record by scoring a shorthanded goal against
Montreal's goaltender Charlie Hodge. His team
was down a man and he still pushed through to
make history. It's an incredible display of dominance
and you really have to consider the sheer longevity
of this achievement to appreciate it. Gordie
Howe would go on to hold that all -time career
goal scoring record for 30 years. 30 years. It
wasn't until Wayne Gretzky broke it in 1994 that
Howe's name was finally moved to second place.
That speaks to the monumental nature of what
happened on that November night. But wait, because
the history books weren't done with that specific
game. No, they weren't. In that exact same match
on November 10th, the same night, Howe broke
the goal record. Detroit's goaltender, Terry
Sawchuck, recorded his 94th career NHL shutout.
In the exact same game. In the exact same game.
That tied him with George Hainsworth as the all
-time NHL shutout leader. He would officially
break that record entirely just a couple months
later in January with his 95th shutout in a 2
-0 win over Montreal. And much like Howe's record,
Sawchuck's achievement stood the test of time,
but for even longer. Sawchuck held that all -time
shutout record for an astonishing 45 years. That's
half a century. It stood all the way until Martin
Berger finally broke it in 2009. To have two
records of that magnitude records that would
define the ceiling of the sport for decades,
cross paths in the very same season, and tie
or break in the very same games. It really highlights
the insane concentration of legendary talent
in the original six era. It does. The milestones
just kept falling all season long. We have to
talk about the sheer physical endurance of these
guys. Andy Hebenton of the Boston Bruins broke
the all -time career Ironman streak. He played
in his 581st consecutive game, passing Johnny
Wilson's mark, and Hebenton would eventually
extend that NHL streak to 630 games. Which is
mind -boggling when you factor in the physicality
of the game at that time. 630 consecutive games
in a league where checking was ferocious, equipment
was essentially heavy leather and thin padding,
and sports medicine was practically non -existent
is a testament to raw toughness. And while Hebenton
was surviving, Jean Beliveau was thriving. Yes,
he was. During a completely wild game against
Detroit where the Montreal Canadiens exploded
for five goals in just nine minutes of the second
period, Beliveau scored a goal that made him
the highest scoring center in league history.
It genuinely felt like every single week a piece
of hockey history was being rewritten. And that
speed of scoring you mentioned, five goals in
nine minutes, shows how explosive the offensive
talent was, even in an era often remembered for
its defensive grinding and physical play. Speaking
of explosive moments, here's where it gets really
interesting. This season is absolutely packed
with bizarre trivia and historical firsts that
really paint a picture of what it was like to
be a fan or a player in 1963. Some of these stories
are just fantastic. They are. For instance, in
December, Montreal and New York played a game
that Montreal won 6 -4. During that match, three
different players scored three goals between
them in a span of just 18 seconds. An 18 second
frenzy. Exactly. It set a new record for the
fastest three goals by two teams. But as fast
as the scoring was, the tempers were even faster.
Which leads us to what happened at Maple Leaf
Gardens in October. Ah, yes. Toronto defeated
Montreal 6 -3 in a massively penalty -filled
game. A huge brawl broke out between Montreal's
Terry Harper and Toronto's Bob Pulford, and they
both drew fighting majors. The fallout from this
fight actually changed the architecture of hockey
rinks forever. It really did. On November 8th,
Maple Leaf... Gardens became the first arena
in the NHL to install separate penalty boxes.
It seems almost comical to us now, right? Before
this, opposing players who had just been throwing
bare -knuckle punches at each other were forced
to sit in the exact same penalty box together.
Just sitting there. Just shoulder to shoulder,
bleeding and furious, confined in a tiny wooden
box. It took a heated original six rivalry game
in 1963 to make the league look at that situation
and realize that maybe, just maybe, separate
boxes were a good idea for player safety. Better
late than never. Right. It's a perfect example
of the game's infrastructure evolving out of
pure necessity. I love those quirky details where
the history of the sport is shaped by a single
chaotic moment. And, you know, the fans were
just as involved in the drama as the players.
Take the Boston Bruins that year. Oh, the poor
Bruins. They were struggling terribly, finishing
in last place with only 18 wins in the entire
70 -game season. In January, rookie Detroit goaltender
Roger Crozier, who was just filling in for an
injured Terry Sawchuck, completely shut out the
Bruins in Boston. Imagine paying for a ticket,
watching your team get absolutely blanked by
a rookie backup goalie, and the whole arena just
gives up. There were only 7 ,000 fans in attendance
at the Boston Garden that night. They were so
fed up with their team's dismal performance that
they actually started singing, We Shall Overcome.
To mock the Bruins. That is a special level of
sports misery. I thought it really is. It's a
hilarious anecdote, but it reflects the deep
frustration of a fan base in a six -team league.
If your team was at the bottom, there was nowhere
to hide. You played the same five elite teams
over and over. Yeah, that's rough. But speaking
of Boston, despite their last -place finish,
they had a player who delivered what I consider
one of the most phenomenal displays of endurance
in sports history. Boston goaltender Eddie Johnston
played every single minute. of all 70 regular
season games. Wait, every single game without
being pulled once? Every single minute. That
is 4 ,200 minutes of ice time. And what makes
this so significant is that this was the absolute
last time in NHL history a goaltender would ever
achieve this. Really? Yes. Playing every minute
of a 70 -game season without a backup, taking
the net for even a second. is unfathomable by
today's standards. Especially when you think
about the gear. We aren't talking about modern,
lightweight, synthetic pads. We're talking about
heavy, waterlogged equipment, heavy wooden sticks,
and taking slap shots night after night. Exactly.
The sheer physical toll of stopping pucks in
the 1960s, combined with the brutal train travel
schedules across North America, makes Johnston's
endurance absolutely staggering. It's a feat
that will simply never be replicated. The modern
game's pace and the understanding of physical
fatigue make it impossible. So with all of this
exhaustion and all of these records, let's look
at how this regular season drama actually wrapped
up. It was a tight finish. The race for the regular
season title was a photo finish. The Chicago
Blackhawks had a substantial lead halfway through
the season. It looked like they were going to
run away with it, but Montreal surged back. It
came down to the absolute wire. The very end.
Montreal actually needed a win against the Rangers
on the road in their very last game of the season
just to nose ahead of Chicago and secure the
top spot. They got it. finishing with 85 points,
while Chicago finished with 84. Ouch. Heartbreaking
for the Blackhawks, who had never finished first
in the league standings to that date, to lose
it by a single point on the final day. That one
-point differential perfectly set the stage for
the postseason. And if you think the regular
season sounded grueling, the playoffs were historic
in their intensity. I can imagine. The matchups
were essentially a carbon copy of the previous
year. In the semifinals, you had the first place
Montreal Canadiens facing the third place Toronto
Maple Leafs, while the second place Chicago Blackhawks
played the fourth place Detroit Red Wings. Two
bitter Canadian rivals battling it out and two
fierce American rivals battling it out. The Maple
Leafs had won the Stanley Cup the previous two
years, so they were looking for a massive three
-peat. But these playoffs were an absolute war
of attrition. They really were. We need to dedicate
some time to just how punishing this postseason
was. The defining stat of the 1964 playoffs is
this. For the first time since the league adopted
the best of seven format in 1939, every single
series went the full seven games. Wow. Both semifinals
required seven games to decide a winner, and
the Stanley Cup finals went to seven games. Which
means they played 21 total playoff games in a
span of just a few weeks. Exactly. You have to
imagine the incredible physical and mental toll
this took on the players. In an era with smaller
rosters and less sophisticated medical support,
playing three consecutive seven -game series
is... Just exhausting. And remember, because
there were only six teams in the league, these
players had already played against these exact
same opponents 14 times during the regular season.
The hatred, the exhaustion, and the familiarity
must have been palpable on the ice. It was Toronto
and Detroit who survived those brutal seven -game
semifinals to face each other for the Cup, and
the Stanley Cup finals were just a back -and
-forth heavyweight fight. A classic series. Toronto
wins Game 1. Detroit bounces back and wins Game
2 in overtime. They trade blows until Detroit
goes up 3 -2 in the series after winning Game
5. It all comes down to Game 6 in Detroit. Toronto
is facing elimination. The tension is sky high,
the game is tied, and it goes into sudden death
overtime. The stakes couldn't be higher. Just
under two minutes into the extra period, Toronto's
Bob Bowne scores the game -winning goal to keep
their season alive and force a Game 7. That Bob
Bowne goal is one of the most legendary moments
in Toronto Maple Leafs' Stanley Cup history.
It completely shifted the psychological momentum
of the series. Detroit had the cup in their building
ready to lift it, and Bowne snatches it away
in overtime. It broke Detroit's spirit. Because
when we get to Game 7 at Maple Leaf Gardens on
April 25th, Toronto just completely dominates.
They shut out Detroit Fournaro, Andy Bathgate,
Dave Keon, Red Kelly, and George Armstrong all
score for Toronto, while their legendary goaltender
Johnny Bauer makes 33 saves for the flawless
shutout. Incredible performance. Toronto wins
their third consecutive Stanley Cup. They cemented
a true dynasty right at the end of this historically
exhausting season. So what does this all mean
when we take a step back? Yeah, let's tie it
all together. If we look at the sources we've
discussed today, the 1963 -64 NHL season really
serves as a pivotal turning point for the sport.
It perfectly encapsulates the end of an era and
the birth of modern parody. Right. On one hand,
you have the Death of the amateur sponsorship
system and the very last time a goalie would
ever play every single minute of a season. These
are symbols of the old, localized Ironman era
of hockey fading away. Like closing a chapter.
Exactly. And on the other hand, you have the
birth of the draft. which was designed to spread
talent evenly across the league, and the introduction
of separate penalty boxes, symbols of a league
modernizing its infrastructure and standardizing
its rules for safety and fairness. It is a brilliant
snapshot of a sport growing up. I love how you
frame that. It really was a bridge between two
worlds, the old rough and tumble days and the
highly regulated modern era. And I want to leave
you, our listener, with a final thought to ponder
today. Go for it. We spent a lot of time talking
about the sheer exhaustion of this specific season.
4 ,200 minutes for Eddie Johnston. 14 regular
season matchups against the same teams, followed
by three grueling seven game playoff series.
Consider this. 1964 was the peak of this localized,
brutal six team pressure cooker. But just three
years later in 1967, the NHL would double in
size to 12 teams, completely ending the original
six era forever. Did this grueling 64 season
push the players and the product to their absolute
breaking point, forcing the league to expand
just to survive the physical toll? That's a great
question. Did the league realize that if they
didn't widen the pool of teams and players, the
sport would just cannibalize itself? How much
does modern sports infrastructure like massive
rosters, load management and 32 team leagues
change the very nature of competition compared
to the intimate, brutal pressure cooker of the
1964 NHL? It's a completely different world now.
It really is. It's something fascinating to mull
over. Thank you so much for joining us on this
deep dive. We hope you enjoyed exploring the
1963 -64 NHL season as much as we did. Keep seeking
out the fascinating stories hidden in the footnotes
of history, and we will catch you next time.