Apple podcast title, The End of the Original
Six. Inside the Historic 1966 -67 NHL Season,
Apple podcast description. Join us for a fascinating
deep dive into the 1966 -67 NHL season, the 50th
in league history, and the definitive end of
the Original Six era. We unpack the behind -the
-scenes business moves that birthed the modern
amateur draft, relive the electrifying rookie
debut of Bobby Orr, and examine the absolute
dominance of Stan Mikita. Plus, we break down
the historic playoffs that culminated in the
Toronto Maple Leafs' 13th and to date last Stanley
Cup victory. Whether you're a sports history
buff or a curious learner wanting to understand
the foundation of modern hockey, this deep dive
delivers the ultimate aha moments. 1966 -67 NHL
season, original six errors, Stanley Cup history,
Toronto Maple Leafs last cup, Bobby Orr rookie
year, Stan Nikita, NHL expansion, hockey history.
Welcome to the deep dive. We're jumping into
a single truly monumental pivot point in history
today. A massive one. Yeah, the 1966 -67 NHL
season. And look, before you assume this is just
a deep dive for sports fanatics, stick around.
Because the reporting... we pulled from this
specific 50 -year -old season is. It's a masterclass.
It really is a masterclass in how a deeply entrenched
monopoly is forced to adapt to a changing world.
Exactly. Even if you don't follow the sport at
all, what we're looking at here is a huge organizational
restructuring. You have a business scrambling
to modernize its labor practices. Right. You
have an antiquated media landscape trying to
catch up with audience demand. And honestly,
you have an entire city. burdened with a championship
curse that continues to impact its culture today.
Oh, heavily. Understanding the mechanics of this
one specific year really helps explain the billion
-dollar sports and entertainment complexes we
interact with right now. So to set the stage
for you, we are looking at the 50th season in
league history. Which is widely recognized as
the definitive end of an era. The original six
era. Exactly. This was the final year of the
so -called original six before the NHL completely
transformed, literally doubling its size to 12
teams the very next year. Which is a huge jump.
Massive. So imagine an entire professional league
with only six teams. You've got the Boston Bruins,
the Chicago Blackhawks, the Detroit Red Wings,
the Montreal Canadiens, the New York Rangers,
and the Toronto Maple Leafs. And they're playing
a 70 -game regular season schedule. Which means...
It means these six teams are playing each other
constantly. Like 14 times a year. Right. It was
an incredibly intimate, brutal, and geographically
concentrated professional loop. The rivalries
weren't just competitive in a sports sense. They
were deeply personal. You're seeing the same
guys over and over. But the real revolution of
this season, it didn't actually start on the
ice. No, it didn't. It started in the boardroom.
In April of 1966, the fourth ever amateur draft
took place at the Mount Royal Hotel in Montreal.
A very different draft than what we see today.
Oh, completely. The Boston Bruins picked a defenseman
named Barry Gibbs first overall, but... The draft
itself was kind of overshadowed by a massive
shift in how teams acquired talent. There was
this new professional agreement announced by
the NHL president, Clarence Campbell, and the
Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. And what's
fascinating here is the absolute elimination
of a deeply entrenched and highly controversial
sponsorship system. The A, B and C forms. Yes.
For decades, these professional clubs effectively
owned the rights to teenagers before they even
reached the professional level. I want to stop
you there for a second. Sure. Because when I
was reading through the archives on this, these
forms sounded more like, I don't know, tax paperwork
than sports contracts. What exactly is a C -form?
Okay, think of it like an ironclad non -compete
clause, but designed for a 14 -year -old kid.
14. Yes. Under the old system, an NHL team could
sponsor an entire amateur junior team. So if
a teenager wanted to play high -level hockey
in their local town, they often had to sign one
of these forms. And once they did? Once they
did, their professional rights belonged entirely
to that specific NHL club. Their geographic movement
was restricted, and they had virtually zero leverage
to negotiate or play for anyone else. Which is
just staggering by today's labor standards. It
really is. It sounds like the professional teams
were operating regional monopolies on human talent.
That's exactly what they were doing. And according
to the coverage from that year, the parents of
these young players were finally pushing back.
There were serious legal threats happening when
pro teams refused to release a kid who wanted
to play somewhere else. The pressure was really
mounting from all sides at that point. Parents
were lawyering up. The public was souring on
the idea of corporate teams holding kids hostage
to a single franchise. Yeah. But the real catalyst
for abolishing the system was the looming 1967
expansion. Right. The new teams. Yeah, exactly.
You can't successfully launch six brand new franchises
if the original six teams have every talented
teenager in North America locked down in an exclusive
sponsorship contract. The new teams would be
completely starved for players. They'd have nobody
to draft. So the league finally caves. They agree
to phase out direct sponsorship. Junior -aged
players would instead become eligible for an
actual amateur draft once they graduated. Or
they could sign as free agents at age 20. Right.
It essentially birthed the modern draft system
as we know it today. It did. It leveled the playing
field and created a mechanism for talent distribution
that didn't rely on those geographic monopolies.
Right. It was a massive structural pivot for
the business of hockey. Okay. So while the executives
are restructuring the future of the game behind
closed doors, the actual product on the ice during
the 66 -67 season is just explosive. Unbelievable
hockey. Let's look at the Chicago Blackhawks.
Their regular season dominance that year genuinely
looks like a misprint. It does. They finished
first overall for the very first time in their
franchise history, but it wasn't even a contest.
They completely dismantled the competition. Chicago
ended up a full 17 points ahead of the second
-place Montreal Canadiens and 19 points ahead
of the third -place Toronto Maple Leafs. But
the most glaring statistic, the one that really
jumps out, is their goal differential. Oh, I
have this right here. They scored 264 goals and
allowed only 170. That is a plus 94 differential.
Plus 94. Right. And to put that in perspective
for you, especially if you're used to modern
league parity where everything is so tight. Games
are won by a single goal now. Exactly. The next
closest team that season was Montreal with a
plus 14. That's absurd. Plus 94 versus plus 14.
Chicago was essentially playing a different sport
that year. So who is driving that kind of unprecedented
offense? Because I know Bobby Hall scored his
50th goal of the season that March against Toronto,
actually. He finished the year with 52 goals.
Which is incredible on its own. Right. But the
real standout in the reporting, the guy who just
owned the year, is Stan Mikita. Oh. Stan Mikita
had what is arguably one of the greatest individual
seasons in sports history. It really did. He
tied the league scoring record with 97 points.
points in just 70 games. But it's the specific
combination of awards he won that makes this
season so incredibly legendary. He swept the
major ones. He did. He won the Art Ross Trophy
as a top scorer, the Hart Memorial Trophy as
the season's most valuable player, and the Lady
Bing Memorial Trophy. And the Lady Bing, that's
for excellence and sportsmanship. Taking all
three of those in one season during the original
six era seems almost contradictory to me. How
so? Well, to be the most dominant player in a
brutally physical enclosed six team league where
guys are practically going to war every night
while also being recognized as the most sportsmanlike.
It's a great point. It highlights a real shift
in how the game could be played. You didn't necessarily
have to be a bruiser or an enforcer. to dominate
if your skill level was just that transcendent.
Right. Makita and Hall provided this incredible
one -two punch that just completely overwhelmed
the rest of the league. But Chicago wasn't the
only team making history. We also saw some incredible
milestones on the defensive side of the puck.
Terry Sawchuck. Yes. Terry Sawchuck. the veteran
goalie for Toronto. He secures his historic 100th
career shutout by completely blanking that exact
same powerhouse Chicago offense in early March.
Which was no small feat against that roster.
Not at all. And then we have the arrival of an
absolute legend. Maybe the biggest arrival. On
October 19th, a young defenseman named Bobby
Orr makes his debut for the Boston Bruins, picking
up an assist in his very first game. What's fascinating
about Orr's arrival is that he would go on to
win the Calder Memorial Trophy as the best rookie,
and eventually he just completely revolutionizes
the defenseman position. Why, becoming an offensive
threat? Exactly. Rushing the puck up the ice.
Yet there is a deep irony to his rookie year.
Despite adding a generational talent like Bobby
Orr, the Boston Bruins finished dead last in
the standings. They only managed 17 wins all
season. And missed the playoffs entirely. Which
just has to be agonizing for a fan base. You
finally get the prodigy, the guy everyone's been
talking about, and you still finish in the basement.
It's tough. But looking at the broader timeline,
that 1966 -67 season was actually the very last
time the Bruins would miss the playoffs before
launching into a record -setting 29 -season playoff
streak. Talk about a turning point. Right. They
hit rock bottom one final time, and then Orr
essentially carries them into three decades of
contention. It really illustrates the intense
psychological pressure cooker of these 16 markets.
Every single game mattered. and the fans were
deeply, sometimes aggressively invested. Aggressively
is the right word. The margin between being celebrated
as a hero and being run out of town was razor
thin. There is a story from the archives that
perfectly captures that exact fan psychology.
It involves the New York Rangers and their goalie,
Ed Geocoman. Oh, this is a wild story. In early
November, the Rangers are playing the Bruins
at Madison Square Garden. The Bruins mount a
comeback. They tie the game at 3 -3. And the
New York fans just absolutely turn on Geocoman.
The reports from the arena that night describe
it as a truly vicious display of fan abuse. Yeah.
They weren't just booing him. They were actually
pelting him with garbage out on the ice. Throwing
trash at their own goalie. But fast forward a
few months. The Rangers start stringing together
some wins. They secure a playoff spot. At one
point, they were even leading the league. Right.
And those exact same fans who were throwing trash
at Jock Coleman completely flip the script. They
start cheering for him like a conquering hero.
That's amazing. He ends up leading the league
with 30 wins, gets named to the first all -star
team, and suddenly the city loves him. In a 16
-league, before the era of a 24 -hour national
sports cycle, There was nowhere for a player
to hide. You were either the local savior or
the local scapegoat every single night. There's
no in -between. None. The emotional volatility
of the fans was incredibly intense, and that
pressure only magnified once the regular season
ended and the playoffs began. Okay, so take that
intense fishbowl environment and put it into
a postseason scenario. The format back then was
a straightforward best -of -seven. Right. The
first -place team plays the third -place team,
and the second plays the fourth. Which sets up
a semifinal matchup between the unstoppable first
place Chicago Blackhawks and the third seed Toronto
Maple Leafs. A classic David and Goliath. Exactly.
On paper, Chicago should have walked right over
them. Everyone expected a coronation for Chicago.
They were just too good. But the playoffs are
a different animal entirely. And Toronto had
something Chicago couldn't quite crack. That
goaltending duo. Yes. an incredibly resilient
veteran goaltending duo in Terry Sawchuck and
Johnny Bauer. The narrative of this series is
just a classic underdog story. You have Chicago's
high -flying offense constantly pressing, but
Toronto's gritty veteran depth just absorbs the
blows. They bent, but didn't break. Right. They
trade games back and forth, but Toronto ultimately
breaks them down, winning the series in six.
They completely neutralized the New York Rangers,
finishing them off in a clean four -game sweep.
that culminated in a nail -biting overtime winner
by John Ferguson. Which sets the stage for a
cinematic finale. The 1967 Stanley Cup Finals.
The Toronto Maple Leafs versus the Montreal Canadiens.
Two of the most storied franchises in the sport.
Clashing at the absolute end of the original
six era. You couldn't script it better. You really
couldn't. And the momentum swings in this series
were staggering. Montreal comes out in game one.
and completely blitzes Toronto 6 -2. It looked
like a mismatch early on. It really did. But
Toronto's veteran core refuses to fold. Johnny
Bauer shuts the door in Game 2 with a 3 -0 shutout.
And then Game 3 goes into double overtime. A
marathon. Yeah, before Bob Pulford finally finds
the back of the net at 8 .26 of the second OT
to give Toronto the edge. Huge goal. They trade
blows all the way to game six at Maple Leaf Gardens
on May 2nd. It's a tense, scoreless tie for the
entire first period. But Toronto finally breaks
through. They get goals from Ron Ellis, Jim Pappen,
and George Armstrong. They hold on to win the
game 3 -1. Taking the series and the championship.
Dave Keon wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as the
playoff MVP. But here is where the story of the
1966 -67 season shifts from just sports history
into cultural sociology. Okay, let's unpack this.
Because this was the Toronto Maple Leafs' 13th
Stanley Cup victory. And to date, as you listen
to this, it is their last. Over 50 years ago.
They have not won a championship since that night
in May of 1967. It's really difficult to overstate
the sociological weight of that drought for a
major city. This final original sixth season
permanently etched a dividing line into the culture
of Toronto. A clear before and after. Exactly.
You have multiple generations of fans who have
never seen a championship, yet every single modern
season is measured against the ghosts of 1967.
It's a generational sports trauma that hangs
over the entire franchise. It really forces you
to reconsider how quickly an era can close, and
how long the sh - of a championship can actually
last. But to fully grasp the mythology of this
season, we have to look at how the average person
actually consumed the games back then. Because
the media landscape was entirely different from
the high definition on demand world we live in
now. It was a completely different universe.
I was reading through the broadcast notes from
the archives and this blew my mind. In Canada,
fans watched Hockey Night in Canada on CBC on
Saturdays and CTV on Wednesdays. But regular
season games were rarely broadcast from start
to finish this is wild to think about today if
you tuned in the game was usually joined in progress
usually right around the start of the second
period or sometimes even later help me understand
the logic there why would a network deliberately
choose not to show the beginning of a professional
sports game it comes down to the perceived value
of sports broadcasting at the time versus local
programming priorities okay Today, live sports
are the most expensive guaranteed ratings juggernauts
on television. Networks pay billions for exclusive
start to finish rights. Right. It anchors the
whole network. But in 1966, the networks prioritized
their scheduled evening entertainment blocks.
Hockey was just slotted in wherever it fit, usually
after the primetime news or a popular variety
show finished. So you just missed the entire
first period. You just miss it. And the situation
in the United States was just as fragmented.
This was the first year of a new U .S. rights
agreement with CBS. But because CBS had prior
programming commitments on Sundays, they actually
had to sub -license their afternoon hockey games
to a different network, RKO General. It's a perfect
encapsulation of a league caught between two
eras. Exactly. On the ice, the product is modernizing
quickly, the players are getting faster, the
talent pool is about to double with the expansion,
and the restrictive Loeber contracts are being
thrown out. But the delivery system... The delivery
system, the way fans actually experience the
game from their living rooms, is still stuck
in this archaic piecemeal format. When you lay
out all the foundational shifts of the 66 -67
season, it's astonishing. It really is an unbelievable...
Unbelievable 12 months. You have the boardroom
revolution that abolishes the sponsorship forms
and births the modern draft. You have Bobby Orr
stepping onto the ice to redefine what a defenseman
can be. You have Stan Mikita's sheer dominance.
And you have the Maple Leafs sipping from the
Stanley Cup one final time before wandering into
a 50 -year desert. The expansion, the drafting,
the free agency concepts, it all traces its roots
back to the pressures of this specific 50 -year.
season. It really is the bedrock of the modern
game. Before we wrap up though, I want to leave
you with a lingering thought to ponder regarding
that bizarre broadcasting reality we just talked
about. The join in progress thing. Yeah. In our
modern era, we have instant analytics, isolation
cameras, and 4K replays. We see every single
second of the action from every possible angle.
Nothing is missed. Nothing. But back in 1967,
fans watching at home only saw fragments. They
joined in progress. Which makes you wonder, how
much of the early mythology of sports, how much
of the larger -than -life legendary status of
those original six players, was born precisely
because fans couldn't see everything? Oh, that's
interesting. How much did the human imagination
have to fill in the gaps before the television
cameras finally turned on? The idea that the
legend actually grows in the unseen moments,
what a fascinating concept to leave off on. Thank
you for joining us for this deep dive into the
1966 -67 season. It's been an absolute blast
exploring the archives with you. Until next time,
keep your curiosity alive.