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