WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.540 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today, we are strapping 00:00:02.540 --> 00:00:04.960 on our skates and heading back in time to a season 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:08.560 that, well, it fundamentally changed the trajectory 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:10.500 of professional sports. It really did. It's an 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:12.300 incredible turning point. Yeah, we are talking 00:00:12.300 --> 00:00:16.079 about the 1964 -65 NHL season. Now, whether you 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:19.679 are a diehard fan of ice hockey history or, you 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:21.960 know, just someone who finds high stakes organizational 00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:24.879 culture endlessly fascinating. You are going 00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:26.820 to want to hear this. Absolutely. We have this 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:29.120 massive stack of historical sources in front 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.880 of us today. And our mission is to look way beyond 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:37.380 the mere win -loss columns of this 70 -game, 00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:40.920 16 -season. We want to uncover this deeply transitional 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:44.530 era of professional hockey. It really is a fascinating 00:00:44.530 --> 00:00:46.570 pivot point. When we look back at the original 00:00:46.570 --> 00:00:49.329 six era, I mean, it is so incredibly easy to 00:00:49.329 --> 00:00:51.509 get caught up in the pure nostalgia of it all. 00:00:51.590 --> 00:00:53.929 Right. The vintage wool sweater. Exactly. The 00:00:53.929 --> 00:00:56.070 heavy sweaters, the grainy black and white photographs 00:00:56.070 --> 00:00:58.350 of guys with missing teeth, the legendary names. 00:00:58.450 --> 00:01:00.649 But the reality of this specific year is that 00:01:00.649 --> 00:01:03.130 it was a total pressure cooker. This is a story 00:01:03.130 --> 00:01:05.950 about intense rivalries, the evolution of the 00:01:05.950 --> 00:01:08.950 business of sports, and frankly, the heavy human 00:01:08.950 --> 00:01:11.450 toll of playing inside an environment that was 00:01:11.450 --> 00:01:13.739 almost structurally designed to break people. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:16.459 And that is exactly why you, the listener, should 00:01:16.459 --> 00:01:19.200 care about a hockey season from six decades ago. 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:22.560 This deep dive offers an absolute masterclass 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:25.180 in how high pressure organizations operate. It 00:01:25.180 --> 00:01:27.420 really is a blueprint for what not to do in some 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:29.939 cases. Totally. It gives us a front row seat 00:01:29.939 --> 00:01:32.260 to the early days of athletes fighting for their 00:01:32.260 --> 00:01:34.760 basic rights and mental health. And it shows 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:37.780 us exactly how modern global sports pipelines 00:01:37.780 --> 00:01:40.620 were born. Okay, let's unpack this, starting 00:01:40.620 --> 00:01:42.620 with the boardroom battles. The off -ice stuff 00:01:42.620 --> 00:01:45.120 was just as vicious as the on -ice stuff. It 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:47.319 really was. Because long before the puck even 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:49.879 dropped, there was a massive standoff regarding 00:01:49.879 --> 00:01:52.959 the NHL amateur draft and the whole system of 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:54.719 how young players were brought into the league, 00:01:54.780 --> 00:01:57.180 right? Yeah. What's fascinating here is the sheer 00:01:57.180 --> 00:01:59.780 tension between the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:04.420 the CAA, and the NHL itself. To understand this 00:02:04.420 --> 00:02:07.379 dispute you have to understand how a teenager 00:02:07.379 --> 00:02:11.259 actually made it to the pros back then. The NHL 00:02:11.259 --> 00:02:14.020 operated on a sponsorship system. Meaning they 00:02:14.020 --> 00:02:16.879 didn't just draft players at random. Right. Basically 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:19.659 if an NHL team like the Detroit Red Wings or 00:02:19.659 --> 00:02:21.979 the Montreal Canadiens sponsored your local junior 00:02:21.979 --> 00:02:25.060 ice hockey team they essentially owned your professional 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:27.259 rights before you were even old enough to drive 00:02:27.259 --> 00:02:31.620 a car. Wow. There was no true open draft, as 00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:34.180 we know it today, which created these massive 00:02:34.180 --> 00:02:36.680 talent monopolies for the franchises with the 00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:38.759 deepest pockets. Wait, let me stop you there, 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:41.419 though. From the NHL's perspective, they were 00:02:41.419 --> 00:02:43.419 the ones footing the bill for these junior leagues, 00:02:43.539 --> 00:02:45.360 right? They're paying for the ice time, the pucks, 00:02:45.400 --> 00:02:47.800 the travel. Yep. Weren't they just aggressively 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:49.780 protecting their financial investment? Oh, that 00:02:49.780 --> 00:02:52.539 was entirely the NHL's argument. Yes. They viewed 00:02:52.539 --> 00:02:55.379 it as a pure return on investment. But the CAAJ, 00:02:55.580 --> 00:02:58.340 led by its president, Lionel Flurry. viewed it 00:02:58.340 --> 00:03:00.939 as a massive workers' rights and child welfare 00:03:00.939 --> 00:03:04.840 issue. Child welfare. Yeah. Flory wanted to blow 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:07.680 this monopolistic system up. He wanted the NHL 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:10.080 to take the money it invested and spread it equally 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:13.500 among all the junior leagues across Canada. But 00:03:13.500 --> 00:03:15.840 more importantly, Flory wanted to change the 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:18.639 age rules to let these kids actually finish their 00:03:18.639 --> 00:03:21.960 education. Because under the NHL system, a player's 00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:25.080 rights were obtained at age 18. Exactly. And 00:03:25.080 --> 00:03:27.400 think about what that practically meant for a 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:30.819 16 or 17 year old kid in rural Canada. The system 00:03:30.819 --> 00:03:33.879 heavily incentivized and in many ways pressured 00:03:33.879 --> 00:03:36.439 these teenagers to just quit high school altogether 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:39.099 and focus entirely on hockey. Because that was 00:03:39.099 --> 00:03:41.560 the only path. Right. And if you didn't end up 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:43.259 making the NHL, you were just... suddenly 19 00:03:43.259 --> 00:03:45.719 years old with no high school diploma, no backup 00:03:45.719 --> 00:03:48.219 plan, and nothing but a pair of worn -out skates. 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:51.300 It's wild to think about that dynamic now, considering 00:03:51.300 --> 00:03:54.199 how deeply protective we are of young athletes' 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:56.199 development today. It's night and day. They were 00:03:56.199 --> 00:03:58.560 quite literally fighting for the right of teenagers 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:01.240 to finish high school without losing their singular 00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:04.409 shot at the pros. And while that specific discussion 00:04:04.409 --> 00:04:06.490 remained unresolved until they finally reached 00:04:06.490 --> 00:04:09.490 an agreement in 1966, you can actively see the 00:04:09.490 --> 00:04:11.270 ground shifting beneath their feet this season. 00:04:11.370 --> 00:04:13.830 You definitely can. Speaking of shifting ground, 00:04:14.069 --> 00:04:17.009 this season also featured the second ever NHL 00:04:17.009 --> 00:04:19.750 amateur draft held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel 00:04:19.750 --> 00:04:22.790 in Montreal, where a player named Claude Gauthier 00:04:22.790 --> 00:04:25.730 went first overall to Detroit. And that draft 00:04:25.730 --> 00:04:28.410 was just one of many new milestones that year, 00:04:28.529 --> 00:04:30.569 showing a league slowly being forced to look 00:04:30.569 --> 00:04:35.629 outward. For example, on January 27, 1965, Ulf 00:04:35.629 --> 00:04:38.689 Sterner made his NHL debut for the New York Rangers 00:04:38.689 --> 00:04:41.149 against the Boston Bruins. Which is a huge deal. 00:04:41.250 --> 00:04:43.250 But for those who don't know the roster history, 00:04:43.509 --> 00:04:46.410 why is one guy making his debut so significant? 00:04:46.689 --> 00:04:49.569 Because Sterner was the first European -trained 00:04:49.569 --> 00:04:51.750 player in the entire history of the National 00:04:51.750 --> 00:04:54.610 Hockey League. The very first. The first. You 00:04:54.610 --> 00:04:56.610 have to remember the context of the era. The 00:04:56.610 --> 00:04:59.930 original six was a famously insular, aggressively 00:04:59.930 --> 00:05:03.529 North American boys club. The style of play was 00:05:03.529 --> 00:05:05.790 brutal and there was a heavy prejudice that European 00:05:05.790 --> 00:05:08.189 players just couldn't handle the physical punishment. 00:05:08.410 --> 00:05:11.050 They thought they were too soft. Exactly. So 00:05:11.050 --> 00:05:13.629 Sterner stepping onto that ice was the first 00:05:13.629 --> 00:05:16.670 tangible crack in the dam. It was the absolute 00:05:16.670 --> 00:05:19.470 genesis of the massively international global 00:05:19.470 --> 00:05:22.089 game we see today. And the old guard was shifting 00:05:22.089 --> 00:05:24.959 in the front offices, too. Frank Silk retired 00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:27.180 as general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, 00:05:27.180 --> 00:05:30.759 and Sam Pollock took over. A huge transition. 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:32.540 Yeah, Pollock had been running their farm system 00:05:32.540 --> 00:05:35.480 for years and inherited this incredibly deep 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:38.819 roster. Meanwhile, in New York, Emile Francis 00:05:38.819 --> 00:05:41.579 stepped up to replace Muz Patrick as the Rangers 00:05:41.579 --> 00:05:44.259 GM. Those management changes were critical because 00:05:44.259 --> 00:05:47.120 they set the stage for organizational dynasties 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:49.339 that would dominate the next decade. But it is 00:05:49.339 --> 00:05:51.160 vital to remember that while the executives were 00:05:51.160 --> 00:05:53.160 playing chess in the front office, the players 00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:55.220 and staff down on the ice were dealing with some 00:05:55.220 --> 00:05:58.120 of the most intense, unforgiving conditions imaginable. 00:05:58.300 --> 00:06:00.480 Here's where it gets really interesting. The 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:03.899 mental toll of the game. Today, we talk openly 00:06:03.899 --> 00:06:06.579 about athletes' mental health. All the time. 00:06:06.740 --> 00:06:09.579 We see global superstars stepping away from competition 00:06:09.579 --> 00:06:12.269 to protect their well -being. And we generally 00:06:12.269 --> 00:06:15.889 applaud them for it. But in 1964, that concept 00:06:15.889 --> 00:06:18.269 was practically unheard of. It was seen as a 00:06:18.269 --> 00:06:21.810 weakness, a severe weakness. Yet that very season, 00:06:21.949 --> 00:06:24.829 Toronto Maple Leafs star Frank Mohavlich had 00:06:24.829 --> 00:06:27.529 to step away and enter a hospital for psychiatric 00:06:27.529 --> 00:06:31.620 treatment. It is a sobering reality check. Mahavich's 00:06:31.620 --> 00:06:34.000 situation highlights just how brutal the culture 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.199 of the sport really was behind closed doors. 00:06:36.420 --> 00:06:39.300 He was buckling under immense stress. Just the 00:06:39.300 --> 00:06:41.740 pressure to perform. Not just the baseline pressure 00:06:41.740 --> 00:06:43.980 of performing at an elite athletic level, no. 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:46.959 It was the highly toxic environment specifically 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:50.740 created by his manager, Punch Imlach, compounded 00:06:50.740 --> 00:06:53.339 by an utterly unforgiving fan base. How bad was 00:06:53.339 --> 00:06:56.019 Imlach's management style? Imlach ruled the Maple 00:06:56.019 --> 00:06:58.850 Leafs with an absolute iron fist. He utilized 00:06:58.850 --> 00:07:01.610 fear as his primary management tool. He expected 00:07:01.610 --> 00:07:03.930 far more from Mihavlich than he felt he was delivering. 00:07:04.170 --> 00:07:06.290 And he made sure Mihavlich felt that disappointment 00:07:06.290 --> 00:07:09.870 every single day. So constant criticism. Relentless. 00:07:10.050 --> 00:07:13.069 Imlach would constantly threaten wholesale demotions 00:07:13.069 --> 00:07:15.209 to the minor leagues whenever the team slumped. 00:07:15.230 --> 00:07:17.829 And in a six -team league, if your manager sends 00:07:17.829 --> 00:07:20.170 you down, you don't have many other places to 00:07:20.170 --> 00:07:23.389 go. You are essentially trapped. It was a culture 00:07:23.389 --> 00:07:26.480 of constant suffocating fear. The pressure was 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:29.180 so heavy that Mahavlich literally could not stand 00:07:29.180 --> 00:07:32.100 playing. And the fan culture certainly wasn't 00:07:32.100 --> 00:07:34.439 providing a safe haven either. Not at all. I 00:07:34.439 --> 00:07:36.459 read this detail in our sources and it completely 00:07:36.459 --> 00:07:39.399 blew my mind. Toronto played the New York Rangers 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:42.319 and absolutely clobbered them. We are talking 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:46.980 about a 6 -0 blowout win. A 6 -0 dominant victory. 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:49.579 A perfect game, essentially. And despite that, 00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:52.420 the hometown fans spent the game angrily chanting, 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:55.410 We want Shaq! They were aggressively demanding 00:07:55.410 --> 00:07:57.970 Eddie Shaq instead of appreciating the landslide 00:07:57.970 --> 00:08:00.110 win happening right in front of them. Imagine 00:08:00.110 --> 00:08:02.370 being a player on the ice winning by six goals 00:08:02.370 --> 00:08:05.009 and your own crowd is still deeply hostile. It 00:08:05.009 --> 00:08:07.709 creates an impossible, unwinnable psychological 00:08:07.709 --> 00:08:10.089 landscape. You are dealing with a manager who 00:08:10.089 --> 00:08:12.089 threatens your livelihood at the drop of a hat 00:08:12.089 --> 00:08:14.449 and a fan base that is never, ever satisfied. 00:08:15.069 --> 00:08:17.889 It's toxic. Mahavlich did eventually return to 00:08:17.889 --> 00:08:20.149 the ice later in December and played brilliantly, 00:08:20.310 --> 00:08:23.149 but the fact that a star player was pushed to 00:08:23.149 --> 00:08:26.250 the absolute brink of hospitalization reveals 00:08:26.250 --> 00:08:30.170 the incredibly dark underbelly of original six 00:08:30.170 --> 00:08:33.549 hockey. Mahavlich internalized that pressure 00:08:33.549 --> 00:08:37.269 until he broke, but other players externalized 00:08:37.269 --> 00:08:39.870 it. They took that same frustration with the 00:08:39.870 --> 00:08:42.490 league's authoritarian culture and aimed it right 00:08:42.490 --> 00:08:44.590 back at the front office. Oh, the rebellions 00:08:44.590 --> 00:08:47.110 were everywhere. Which brings us to Ted Lindsey. 00:08:47.690 --> 00:08:49.970 He decides to make a comeback with the Detroit 00:08:49.970 --> 00:08:53.029 Red Wings. In a game against Toronto, he gets 00:08:53.029 --> 00:08:55.529 into this incredibly heated, very public argument 00:08:55.529 --> 00:08:58.289 with referee Vern Buffy over a penalty call against 00:08:58.289 --> 00:09:01.250 Jim Papin. Right. The argument blows up, and 00:09:01.250 --> 00:09:03.149 Lindsey ends up getting slapped with a 10 -minute 00:09:03.149 --> 00:09:05.610 misconduct and a game misconduct. But the real 00:09:05.610 --> 00:09:07.970 rebellion happens after the final horn sounds. 00:09:08.330 --> 00:09:10.409 Lindsey goes straight to the press and publicly 00:09:10.409 --> 00:09:13.370 states that he advised his coach, Sid Abel, not 00:09:13.370 --> 00:09:15.590 to pay the league fines. You went straight to 00:09:15.590 --> 00:09:18.049 the papers? Straight to them. He essentially 00:09:18.049 --> 00:09:20.629 calls out the most powerful man in the sport, 00:09:20.789 --> 00:09:23.370 NHL president Clarence Campbell, stating on the 00:09:23.370 --> 00:09:26.309 record that he absolutely refuses to sit still 00:09:26.309 --> 00:09:29.519 for Campbell's kangaroo court. I love the sheer 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:32.440 audacity of calling the NHL president's discipline 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:36.019 a kangaroo court in the morning papers. It was 00:09:36.019 --> 00:09:39.120 incredibly bold. Clarence Campbell had to be 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:41.600 an authoritarian figure to control a league of 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:44.759 very tough men, but that bred immense resentment. 00:09:45.139 --> 00:09:47.820 Campbell immediately fired back, stating Lindsey 00:09:47.820 --> 00:09:50.019 would either pay the fines or he simply wouldn't 00:09:50.019 --> 00:09:53.289 play another shift. So who blinked first? Ultimately, 00:09:53.389 --> 00:09:56.389 the establishment won that specific round. Lindsay 00:09:56.389 --> 00:09:58.509 had to hand over a formally signed apology and 00:09:58.509 --> 00:10:00.629 a check for the fines before he was reinstated 00:10:00.629 --> 00:10:03.769 in early January. But the incident publicly exposed 00:10:03.769 --> 00:10:06.649 a rising, undeniable tide of player defiance. 00:10:06.889 --> 00:10:08.889 And it wasn't just the players pushing back against 00:10:08.889 --> 00:10:10.889 authority. The fans were getting in on it, too, 00:10:10.990 --> 00:10:13.090 specifically regarding the business of how the 00:10:13.090 --> 00:10:15.549 game was broadcast. This is a great story. On 00:10:15.549 --> 00:10:18.379 March 23. During a game between the Rangers and 00:10:18.379 --> 00:10:21.120 the Chicago Blackhawks, fans started physically 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:24.679 protesting the plans for closed -circuit telecasts 00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:27.899 of Chicago games. They were shouting, Norris 00:10:27.899 --> 00:10:31.279 is a fink, at James D. Norris, the part owner 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:33.700 of the Blackhawks. Calling him a fink. They were 00:10:33.700 --> 00:10:37.059 actively protesting the 1960s version of a media 00:10:37.059 --> 00:10:39.190 paywall. Which is brilliant because it shows 00:10:39.190 --> 00:10:41.929 the fans collectively realizing that the local 00:10:41.929 --> 00:10:44.929 game they loved was rapidly morphing into a heavily 00:10:44.929 --> 00:10:48.190 monetized, restricted corporate product. They 00:10:48.190 --> 00:10:50.870 saw the writing on the wall. They did. But perhaps 00:10:50.870 --> 00:10:53.210 the most bizarre rebellion of the entire season 00:10:53.210 --> 00:10:55.990 came from the officials themselves. George Hayes, 00:10:56.090 --> 00:10:58.110 who had been a highly respected NHL official 00:10:58.110 --> 00:11:00.870 for 19 years, was suspended for a very unusual 00:11:00.870 --> 00:11:04.090 reason. He point -blank refused to take an eye 00:11:04.090 --> 00:11:06.710 test. Wait, a hockey referee refusing an eye 00:11:06.710 --> 00:11:09.190 test? That sounds like a punchline to a bad joke 00:11:09.190 --> 00:11:11.110 from the cheap seats. You would think so. But 00:11:11.110 --> 00:11:13.590 Hayes was dead serious. He dug his heels in, 00:11:13.649 --> 00:11:15.750 refused the medical test, and his contract was 00:11:15.750 --> 00:11:17.730 ultimately terminated by the league. Over an 00:11:17.730 --> 00:11:20.730 eye exam. Yes. And this bizarre incident created 00:11:20.730 --> 00:11:23.549 such a massive rift behind the scenes that the 00:11:23.549 --> 00:11:26.830 referee -in -chief, Carl Voss, announced he would 00:11:26.830 --> 00:11:30.169 resign at the end of the season. And Hayes, along 00:11:30.169 --> 00:11:33.590 with ex -referee Eddie Powers, publicly cheered 00:11:33.590 --> 00:11:36.480 Voss' resignation. It was complete institutional 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:39.120 chaos on every level. So let's recap where we 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:41.899 are. We have a league where the executives are 00:11:41.899 --> 00:11:44.120 fighting over teenagers' high school education. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:46.480 Check. The players are fighting for their mental 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:49.000 health against tyrannical coaches. Check. The 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:50.960 veterans are calling the league office a kangaroo 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:54.100 court. Fans are protesting ownership paywalls. 00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:56.480 And referees are getting fired over eye exams. 00:11:56.779 --> 00:11:58.320 And we haven't even talked about the actual hockey 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:00.460 yet. And the hockey itself was just as chaotic 00:12:00.460 --> 00:12:02.919 and fiercely competitive as the boardroom politics. 00:12:03.259 --> 00:12:05.600 Where do we even start? Well, to set the stage 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:07.799 for the on -ice action, the Detroit Red Wings 00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:09.899 finished the regular season in first place with 00:12:09.899 --> 00:12:12.799 87 points. It was their first time topping the 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:16.320 standings since the 1956 -57 season. But the 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:19.200 intensity between these rosters really boiled 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:22.200 over in a game on February 10th when the Montreal 00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:24.379 Canadiens were playing the Toronto Maple Leafs 00:12:24.379 --> 00:12:27.730 in Toronto. Montreal had been suffering through 00:12:27.730 --> 00:12:29.809 a miserable five -game losing streak, and the 00:12:29.809 --> 00:12:33.090 tension just snapped. It was a powder keg. Referee 00:12:33.090 --> 00:12:35.330 Bill Friday had to deal with an absolute mess 00:12:35.330 --> 00:12:38.830 of a bench -clearing brawl. John Ferguson of 00:12:38.830 --> 00:12:42.350 Montreal hooked Toronto's Frank Mohavlich, and 00:12:42.350 --> 00:12:45.450 that was the spark. It escalated instantly. You 00:12:45.450 --> 00:12:48.429 had massive guys like Terry Harper, Ted Harris, 00:12:48.629 --> 00:12:50.870 Pete Stemkowski, and Kent Douglas moving in, 00:12:50.929 --> 00:12:52.789 throwing punches, and then both benches just 00:12:52.789 --> 00:12:55.350 completely emptied onto the ice. Complete pandemonium. 00:12:55.850 --> 00:12:58.250 It took so long to separate the players that 00:12:58.250 --> 00:13:01.049 it delayed the game for a full 20 minutes. Referee 00:13:01.049 --> 00:13:03.710 Friday ended up handing out 66 minutes in penalties, 00:13:04.009 --> 00:13:07.129 which included 10 -minute misconducts for Mahavlich 00:13:07.129 --> 00:13:09.970 and Harris. With 66 penalty minutes and a 20 00:13:09.970 --> 00:13:12.090 -minute delay, the league must have come down 00:13:12.090 --> 00:13:13.950 incredibly hard on them financially, right? I 00:13:13.950 --> 00:13:15.529 mean, this was a massive black eye for the sport. 00:13:15.710 --> 00:13:18.110 You would think so. But the total fine from President 00:13:18.110 --> 00:13:20.710 Campbell's office was a grand total of $925. 00:13:21.129 --> 00:13:25.539 Wait, $900 total? Total. Ten Leafs players and 00:13:25.539 --> 00:13:28.360 six Canadiens players were fined just $50 each. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:31.259 It's almost quaint by today's multimillion -dollar 00:13:31.259 --> 00:13:33.960 disciplinary standards, but it deeply highlights 00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:36.799 how fiercely these teams despised each other 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:39.500 and how the league tacitly accepted a certain 00:13:39.500 --> 00:13:42.080 level of violence. So what does this all mean 00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:44.889 for the actual style of play? Because despite 00:13:44.889 --> 00:13:48.149 the brawls and the sheer chaos we also saw some 00:13:48.149 --> 00:13:50.590 of the most spectacular individual statistical 00:13:50.590 --> 00:13:52.870 performances in Stanley Cup history that season. 00:13:52.990 --> 00:13:55.429 We really did. The Chicago Blackhawks for instance 00:13:55.429 --> 00:13:58.610 had an absolute powerhouse of a roster. Stan 00:13:58.610 --> 00:14:00.870 Mikito won the Art Ross Trophy as the league's 00:14:00.870 --> 00:14:04.350 top scorer, racking up 87 points. This was his 00:14:04.350 --> 00:14:06.629 second consecutive year winning the scoring title. 00:14:06.769 --> 00:14:09.090 And his teammate Bobby Hall was revolutionizing 00:14:09.090 --> 00:14:11.809 the game. He scored 39 goals in just 61 games. 00:14:11.929 --> 00:14:14.190 He won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable 00:14:14.190 --> 00:14:16.690 player. And he also took home the Lady Bing Memorial 00:14:16.690 --> 00:14:19.570 Trophy for sportsmanship. A clean sweep of awards. 00:14:19.909 --> 00:14:22.830 Pretty much. But we have to understand why Hall 00:14:22.830 --> 00:14:26.019 was so dominant. He was essentially weaponizing 00:14:26.019 --> 00:14:28.419 the slap shot in a way nobody had seen before, 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:31.539 utilizing the curve of his stick to make the 00:14:31.539 --> 00:14:33.960 puck move unpredictably. It must have been terrifying 00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:36.659 for the goalies. He was terrifying goaltenders. 00:14:36.740 --> 00:14:39.700 He was actually chasing the legendary 50 goal 00:14:39.700 --> 00:14:42.320 mark, but his chances were derailed in February 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:45.299 when he took a brutally heavy check from Toronto's 00:14:45.299 --> 00:14:48.639 Bobby Bowne. Hull limped off the ice with strained 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:51.120 knee ligaments, which really hampered his historic 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:53.840 pace, highlighting the intense physical toll 00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:56.259 of his style of play. Speaking of that physical 00:14:56.259 --> 00:14:58.559 toll, let's talk about the goalies, because there 00:14:58.559 --> 00:15:00.740 was a really interesting rule change that year 00:15:00.740 --> 00:15:03.740 regarding the Vizina Trophy, which is awarded 00:15:03.740 --> 00:15:06.379 for goaltending excellence. For the first time, 00:15:06.379 --> 00:15:09.100 the NHL changed the criteria to allow multiple 00:15:09.100 --> 00:15:11.740 goaltenders from the same team to share the award. 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:14.240 That rule change is a perfect example of the 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:16.779 league colliding with the biological limits of 00:15:16.779 --> 00:15:18.519 the human body. Because they just couldn't play 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:21.500 every game anymore. Yeah, exactly. The game had 00:15:21.500 --> 00:15:25.279 become so brutally fast and the shots from players 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:28.360 like Bobby Hull had become so heavy that the 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:30.940 era of the Iron Man goalie who played every single 00:15:30.940 --> 00:15:33.840 minute of every single game was effectively over. 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:36.740 The physical demands were simply too much for 00:15:36.740 --> 00:15:38.519 one person. It's just too much wear and tear. 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:41.600 The league realized they had to require all teams 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:44.980 to carry two goaltenders for the playoffs. As 00:15:44.980 --> 00:15:47.659 a result of this necessary evolution, the Vizina 00:15:47.659 --> 00:15:49.740 trophy was shared by the Toronto Maple Leafs 00:15:49.740 --> 00:15:53.000 duo of Johnny Bauer and Terry Sawcheck. Two legends. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:55.220 Neither of them actually made the first or second 00:15:55.220 --> 00:15:57.259 All -Star team, but their combined endurance 00:15:57.259 --> 00:15:59.960 won them the Vizina. It really shows how the 00:15:59.960 --> 00:16:02.879 game was actively shifting from being about individual, 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:06.320 unbreakable Ironmen to a necessary team -based 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:09.080 survival strategy, especially in that. Okay, 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:11.059 so all of this regular season drama leads us 00:16:11.059 --> 00:16:12.600 straight into the playoffs. The best time of 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:15.100 the year. The format was straightforward, but 00:16:15.100 --> 00:16:17.740 incredibly grueling. The top four teams qualify. 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:20.600 First place, Detroit faced third place, Chicago. 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:23.460 Second place, Montreal faced fourth place, Toronto. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:26.080 For the third straight year, the league saw these 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:29.299 exact same first round matchups. Montreal managed 00:16:29.299 --> 00:16:31.659 to completely dismantle the defending Stanley 00:16:31.659 --> 00:16:34.419 Cup champion Maple Leafs, eliminating them in 00:16:34.419 --> 00:16:37.220 six games. Just took them apart. It was a massive 00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:39.639 statement by Montreal, signaling that the balance 00:16:39.639 --> 00:16:41.919 of power in Canadian hockey was shifting back 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:44.279 to them. But the other side of the bracket was 00:16:44.279 --> 00:16:47.460 an absolute bloodbath of endurance. Chicago and 00:16:47.460 --> 00:16:49.879 Detroit went the distance in a grueling, exhausting 00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:53.529 seven game series. Chicago eventually edged out 00:16:53.529 --> 00:16:56.549 Detroit 4 -3 to advance. This set up an epic 00:16:56.549 --> 00:16:59.549 Stanley Cup Finals. The Montreal Canadiens against 00:16:59.549 --> 00:17:02.429 the Chicago Blackhawks. The finals were an absolute 00:17:02.429 --> 00:17:04.950 masterclass in momentum swings. Chicago actually 00:17:04.950 --> 00:17:07.869 shut out Montreal 2 -0 in Game 2, with Glenn 00:17:07.869 --> 00:17:10.089 Hall putting on a clinic in net. He was a wall. 00:17:10.329 --> 00:17:12.509 But Montreal, under that new management of Sam 00:17:12.509 --> 00:17:15.390 Pollock, proved to be incredibly resilient. They 00:17:15.390 --> 00:17:18.029 roared back dominating the later games, including 00:17:18.029 --> 00:17:21.130 a 6 -0 blowout in Game 5. And it all came down 00:17:21.130 --> 00:17:23.990 to a decisive Game 7 on May 1st at the Montreal 00:17:23.990 --> 00:17:26.509 Forum. Game sevens are always tense, nervous 00:17:26.509 --> 00:17:29.150 affairs where tees usually play incredibly tight 00:17:29.150 --> 00:17:32.190 defensively. Usually, yes. But Montreal completely 00:17:32.190 --> 00:17:34.910 took the wind out of Chicago's sails immediately. 00:17:35.109 --> 00:17:37.910 I mean, instantly. Jean Beliveau scored the opening 00:17:37.910 --> 00:17:40.569 goal in the first 14 seconds of the game. 14 00:17:40.569 --> 00:17:44.170 seconds. 14 seconds. Montreal rode that massive 00:17:44.170 --> 00:17:47.569 wave of energy to a 4 -0 shutout victory, capturing 00:17:47.569 --> 00:17:51.359 their first Stanley Cup since 1960. That Game 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:54.119 7 performance by Bolivo wasn't just dramatic. 00:17:54.299 --> 00:17:57.140 It was historically foundational. This was the 00:17:57.140 --> 00:18:00.019 very first season the NHL introduced the Conn 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:02.819 Smythe Trophy, which is awarded to the most valuable 00:18:02.819 --> 00:18:05.200 player of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And Jean 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:08.180 Bolivo was its inaugural winner. He cemented 00:18:08.180 --> 00:18:10.599 his absolute legendary status right there on 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:12.640 home ice. He did. And if we connect this to the 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:14.460 bigger picture, the introduction of the Conn 00:18:14.460 --> 00:18:17.140 Smythe Trophy fundamentally changed how we evaluate 00:18:17.140 --> 00:18:19.259 clutch performances in hockey history. Because 00:18:19.259 --> 00:18:20.529 before that, it was all... about the regular 00:18:20.529 --> 00:18:23.250 season. Before 1965, regular season awards were 00:18:23.250 --> 00:18:26.049 everything. By adding an award specifically for 00:18:26.049 --> 00:18:27.970 the grueling playoff run, the league formally 00:18:27.970 --> 00:18:30.130 recognized that the postseason is an entirely 00:18:30.130 --> 00:18:32.609 different beast requiring a completely different 00:18:32.609 --> 00:18:35.609 level of resilience, pain tolerance and heroism. 00:18:35.769 --> 00:18:38.329 So looking back at the complete chaotic picture 00:18:38.329 --> 00:18:42.849 of the 1964 -65 NHL season, we started our deep 00:18:42.849 --> 00:18:45.970 dive by promising a story about a heavily transitional 00:18:45.970 --> 00:18:49.180 era. And it absolutely delivered on every front. 00:18:49.299 --> 00:18:52.000 It really did. We saw the integration of European 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:54.400 players with Ulf Sterner breaking the North American 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:57.480 monopoly. We saw the intense fight led by the 00:18:57.480 --> 00:18:59.660 CHA to protect the high school education of young 00:18:59.660 --> 00:19:02.619 players. We witnessed the incredibly raw mental 00:19:02.619 --> 00:19:05.680 health struggles of Frank Mohavlich and the authoritarian 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:08.599 grip of managers like Punch Imlach. And we saw 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:11.599 the birth of the conspice trophy forever changing 00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:14.160 how we celebrate playoff legends. It was a season 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:16.059 where the stubborn old guard and traditional 00:19:16.059 --> 00:19:18.180 ways of doing business collided head on with 00:19:18.180 --> 00:19:20.420 the modern realities of the sport. The structural 00:19:20.420 --> 00:19:22.660 cracks of the original six were showing everywhere, 00:19:22.759 --> 00:19:24.900 but they were cracks that finally let the light 00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:28.079 in for the future of the game. Exactly. So for 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:30.500 you listening right now, take a moment to think 00:19:30.500 --> 00:19:32.500 about the structures of the organizations you 00:19:32.500 --> 00:19:35.079 work in today. Think about the management styles, 00:19:35.339 --> 00:19:38.059 the arbitrary rules, the intense pressure to 00:19:38.059 --> 00:19:41.220 perform. How do they compare to Punch Imlock's 00:19:41.220 --> 00:19:44.740 Iron Fist or the CHA's desperate push to ensure 00:19:44.740 --> 00:19:46.779 their young workers could at least finish high 00:19:46.779 --> 00:19:49.240 school? We like to think we've evolved. We like 00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:51.079 to think we've come a very long way from the 00:19:51.079 --> 00:19:53.519 kangaroo courts and forced public apologies of 00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:57.299 1964. But the underlying dynamics of power and 00:19:57.299 --> 00:20:00.279 pressure are always at play in high -stakes environments. 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:03.039 And this raises an important question to leave 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:05.019 you with. We spent a lot of time today discussing 00:20:05.019 --> 00:20:07.880 the sheer friction of the season from players 00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:10.279 breaking down mentally to goalies needing backups 00:20:10.279 --> 00:20:13.079 because their bodies were failing to junior players 00:20:13.079 --> 00:20:16.200 being treated as disposable assets. If the 1964 00:20:16.200 --> 00:20:18.759 season was the breaking point of the old guard. 00:20:19.079 --> 00:20:22.079 It begs the question, are the massive global 00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:24.400 expansion models we see in professional sports 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:27.240 today actually rooted in the fact that the original 00:20:27.240 --> 00:20:29.700 six model was fundamentally biologically and 00:20:29.700 --> 00:20:32.240 psychologically unsustainable for the human beings 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:34.779 actually playing it? What if Lionel Fleury and 00:20:34.779 --> 00:20:36.859 the CAAJ hadn't pushed back to protect those 00:20:36.859 --> 00:20:39.740 18 year old kids? That is an incredible thought 00:20:39.740 --> 00:20:42.680 to mull over until our next deep dive. Keep questioning 00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:44.480 the playbook and we will catch you next time.