A Thought or 2 - L.A. Kings & NHL History

     A TBT salute to the Los Angeles Kings in appreciation of their exciting Game 6 win over Anaheim at the Staples Center last night.  Going back 45 years, a month and two days ago to April 13, 1969 finds the Kings completing their first ever playoff series win as they upset the Oakland Seals by score of 5 -3 in Game 7.   Lowell MacDonald scored the clinching goal   (unassisted) at 7:53 of the 3^rd period. 

             The top attractions on the Kings squad that season were rookie goaltender Gerry Desjardins and leading scorer Eddie ‘The Jet’ Joyal.  It was the NHL’s second season of expansion (from the ‘Original 6’) and the East Division was vastly stronger than the West. This imbalance led, in part, to the rush of scoring records that really began to take hold during the 1968/69 season which included Bobby Hull’s new single season record of 58 goals, and Bobby Orr’s new record of  21 goals by a defenseman.  Notably, three  all-time greats also became the first in the NHL to score 100 points in a season:  league leader Phil Esposito had 126; Hull added 49 assists to his goal tally for 107 points; and the legendary Gordie Howe had a first-team All-Star season as he finished with 103 points. Geographically, these Divisions didn’t work too well either as the Flyers and Penguins struggled to get established in the Western grouping while lots of traditional hockey fans decried the absence of an expansion team in Canada. 

            The Jack Kent Cooke-owned Los Angeles team was swept out of the 1969 playoffs in the second round by the St. Louis Blues.  They failed to qualify for the postseason the next four seasons and didn’t win another playoff series until 1976.  St. Louis went on to get swept by Montreal in the finals as they scored only 3 goals in four games against future Kings goalie Rogie Vachon. In fact, five of the seven NHL playoff series in 1969 ended in ‘4-0’ sweeps while the ‘Original 6’ Canadian teams (Montreal and Toronto) were in the midst of an era-ending streak between 1955 and 1970 during which they brought the Stanley Cup back to Canada 13 times in 14 years.

            Good luck to Los Angeles at Anaheim on Friday night.  It’s been an entertaining and hard fought series, but I’d much prefer to see the Kings rather than the Ducks go up against the Blackhawks in the Conference finals.