Goaltender Gilles Meloche was a fifth round pick by the Chicago Blackhawks at the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft. However, Meloche played just two games with the Hawks in 1970-71 before ending up with the California Golden Seals. With the Seals, Gilles was thrust into the number one role in 1971-72 and didn't disappoint.
In his true rookie season, Meloche played 56 games for California, posting a 3.33 goals against average with four shutouts. These were great numbers for a goalie on a team that didn't qualify for the post season. In his first game with the club, he shut down the high-powered Boston Bruins, earning his first career shutout while turning away 34 shots at the Boston Garden.
Typical of the Golden Seals, Meloche stopped 52 of 54 shots in a March 11, 1972 game at Maple Leaf Gardens but still lost the to Toronto 2-1. It was Darryl Sittler sinking the Seals with a power play goal at 12:29 of the second period.
Despite this, Gilles received just a single vote for the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1971-72. Ahead of him in voting was winner Ken Dryden along with Rick Martin and Marcel Dionne, certainly a deserving trio.
The following year, 1972-73, Meloche led the NHL in games and minutes played, shots, saves and goals against. Gilles was getting better as a goalie but the Golden Seals were simply getting worse as a franchise. In three games, he faced over 50 shots. In 14, opponents fired more than 40 at him.
Gilles Meloche played 788 regular season and 45 playoff games in the National Hockey League between 1970-71 and 1987-88 with the Blackhawks, Golden Seals, Cleveland Barons, Minnesota North Stars and Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Califonia Golden Seals existed in the National Hockey League
for just a short nine year span from 1967-68 to 1975-76. Originally
dubbed the Oakland Seals, the team was one of six expansion teams to
enter the NHL for the 1967-68 season. Despite the fact that their
nine years were nothing more than dismal, several decent players
passed through the organization.
Harry Howell
Harry
Howell is the only player in the Hockey Hall of Fame that ever
dressed for the Golden Seals. Howell played just the 1969-70 season
and part of the 1970-71 season with the club after 17 years with the
New York Rangers. After 28 games in 1970-71, he was traded down the
California coast to the Los Angeles Kings. The 1966-67 Norris Trophy
winner was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979.
Bryan Watson
Bryan
‘Bugsy’ Watson was best known for the time he spent in the
penalty box but he was also a decent defenseman. Now 41st on the
NHL’s all-time list of penalty minute leaders, he was once number
one. Watson finished his NHL career with 2212 PIM in 878 games.
Watson played one season with the Oakland Seals, 1968-69. His NHL
career spanned from 1963-64 to 1978-79, also playing for the Montreal
Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, St. Louis Blues, Detroit Red Wings
and Washington Capitals.
Bobby Baun
In the final season of the ‘Original Six’era, 1966-67, Bob Baun was the hero of the Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup victory. The
following season, he was on the blue line for the Oakland Seals, a
team that won just 15 games. 1967-68 was the only season Baun spent
in California during a career that started in 1956-57 and ended after
the 1972-73 season. Baun also played three seasons with the Detroit
Red Wings.
Carol Vadnais
Carol
Vadnais played sparingly for the Montreal Canadiens during the
1966-67 and 1967-68 seasons. He became a regular in the NHL with the
Seals in 1968-69. Vadnais spent two years with California before
moving on to bigger and better things with the Boston Bruins. Carol
played a total of 1087 regular season NHL games between 1966-67 and
1982-83 with the Canadiens, Golden Seals, Bruins, New York Rangers
and New Jersey Devils.
Reg Leach
Drafted third overall by the Boston
Bruins in the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft, Reggie
Leach never really caught on with the Big Bad Bruins, playing
just two partial seasons with the club in 1970-71 and part of 1971-72
and scoring just a total of nine goals. Playing with the California
Golden Seals until the end of the 1973-74 season, Leach’s goal
scoring ability began to blossom. It was with the Philadelphia Flyers
that Leach exploded. He scored 61 in 1975-76 and 50 in 1979-80. He
scored 19 in 16 playoff games in 1975-76 earning him the Conn Smythe
Trophy in a losing effort. He won two Stanley Cups with Philadelphia,
included a victory over the Bruins in 1974.
Charlie Simmer
Charlie Simmer was a third round pick of the Seals in the 1974 NHL
Draft. He was a seldom used forward by California and even by the
Cleveland Barons when the team was relocated there for the 1976-77
season. However, after being traded to the Los Angeles Kings in
1978-79 and being stuck on a line with Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor,
Charlie showed the hockey world what he could do. Simmer scored 56
goals in each the 1979-80 and 1980-81 seasons as a member of the
Triple
Crown Line. Those goal totals were accomplished in just 64 and 65
games. Simmer played 712 NHL games with the Seals, Barons, Kings,
Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Dennis Maruk
In the 1975 NHL Amateur Draft, the last for the Golden Seals, they
finally got it right. In the second round, they drafted Dennis Maruk.
Maruk scored 30 goals in his rookie season and 36 with the Barons two
years later. He topped out with 60 goals and 136 points in a
Washington Capitals uniform in 1981-82. Dennis played 888 regular
season NHL games with the Seals/Barons/North Stars and Capitals and
scored 356 goals over that time.
A Bit More About The Team
The California Golden Seals were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) that existed from 1967 to 1976. Originally known as the California Seals, the team underwent a name change in 1970 to become the California Golden Seals. Based in Oakland, California, the Seals faced financial and on-ice challenges throughout their brief history.
The team struggled to achieve success in terms of playoff appearances and faced difficulties in building a dedicated fan base. Despite their challenges, the California Golden Seals are remembered for their distinctive green and gold jerseys and remain a unique part of NHL history.
The franchise ultimately relocated to Cleveland in 1976 and later merged with the Minnesota North Stars, ceasing to exist as an independent team.
The California Golden Seals existed in the National Hockey
League for nine years from 1967-68 to 1975-76. The team was one of six
expansion teams in 1967-68 that doubled the league in size from the ‘Original
Six’.
Test and expand your knowledge of the California
Golden Seals with the following four hockey trivia questions.
Q. The Golden Seals franchise originally entered the NHL under what
name?
A. For the first
three years that the franchise existed, they were dubbed the Oakland Seals.
Originally, the plan was to be called the San Francisco Seals. They became the
California Golden Seals and then the California Seals.
The ‘Seals’ nickname originated in 1961-62 with the San
Francisco Seals of the WHL. That franchise played in the minor pro league from
1961-62 until 1966-67.
Q. What defenseman from the inaugural Seals team starred with the
Toronto Maple Leafs the year before?
A. Bob Baun
played one season with the Oakland Seals in 1967-68. The long time Toronto
Maple Leafs blue liner played a major role as Toronto won the 1966-67 Stanley
Cup with a victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Baun would eventually return to
the Maple Leafs to finish his career but the Stanley Cup has yet to return to
Toronto.
Other Original 6 castaways that played for Oakland in that
first season include: Bill
Hicke, Charlie
Burns and Bert Marshall. The team’s goaltending duo was quite decent with
Charlie Hodge doing the bulk of the work with Gary Smith as his backup. Another
member of that 1967-68 Oakland team was Alain
Caron. It was the only full NHL season for Caron but a few years later, he
would score an amazing 78 goals in the North American Hockey League.
Q. After the 1975-76 season, to what city did the California Seals move
to?
A. For the
1976-77 season, the California Seals moved to Cleveland, Ohio and became the
Cleveland Barons. The Barons lasted just two seasons in the National Hockey
League before merging with the Minnesota North Stars.
The North Stars were a struggling franchise at the time and
were also one of the six 1967 expansion teams. In their second year after the
Cleveland Barons ceased to exist, Minnesota reached the Stanley Cup semi-finals
before losing to the Philadelphia Flyers. The following year, the North Stars
marched right to the Stanley Cup finals before losing to the New York
Islanders.
Minnesota would reach the Stanley Cup finals one more time
in 1990-91, losing to Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins. After 1992-93,
the franchise moved to Dallas to become the Dallas Stars. With Dallas, the
franchise finally won a championship in 1998-99 over the Buffalo Sabres.
Q. Who did the Oakland Seals meet in their first Stanley Cup playoffs
series?
A. In their
second season, the Seals faced off against the Los Angeles Kings in the
quarter-finals, losing in seven games to their California rivals. 1968-69 was
the team’s best season in their short history with 29 wins and 69 points to
finish second in the weak West Division. The team would make the playoffs just
one more time, losing in the first round the following season to the Pittsburgh
Penguins in four straight games.
Before 2011, the 1972 Boston Bruins were the last to bring
the Stanley Cup to Beantown. The 1971-72 Boston Bruins can be considered among
the top National Hockey League teams of all time, losing just 13 of 78 games
during the regular season and finishing ten points beyond the second place team
before storming their way to the Stanley Cup victory.
Test and expand your hockey trivia knowledge of the 1972
Boston Bruins with the following four hockey trivia questions:
Q. What Bruins player was the team leader in both goals and points in
1971-72?
A. Phil Esposito, coming off a record 76 goals and 152
points in 1970-71, led the team with lower, but still impressive, numbers than
the year before. Esposito finished out the year with 66 goals and 130 points.
There’s a bit of an asterix here as Esposito tied Bobby Orr
for the team lead with 24 points during the playoffs. In the goals department,
Esposito, John
Bucyk and Ken Hodge all tied for the team lead in the post season with nine
each. Assists? It was all Bobby Orr. Orr led the team during the regular season
with 80 assists and led in the playoffs with 19.
Q. Each of the Boston Bruins goaltending tandem finished off the
1971-72 season with an equal 27 wins. Although Gerry Cheevers is thought of
when the topic of Boston goaltenders from the 1970’s comes up, who was the
goalie that platooned with Cheevers that season?
A. Eddie Johnston quietly had the same number of wins,
although his goals against average was slightly higher than that of Gerry
Cheevers. Johnston played in the National Hockey League from 1962-63 to 1977-78
with the Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks.
His days in Chicago were limited to the final four games of his Eddie’s NHL
career.
Q. What team did the Boston Bruins beat in the finals to win the 1972
Stanley Cup?
A. The Bruins met the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup
finals and won the series in four games. The Rangers finished second overall in
the NHL during the regular season, ten points behind the Bruins. The Rangers
took out the Montreal Canadiens in the quarter-finals then swept the Chicago
Black Hawks in the semi-finals to earn the match-up against Boston.
Even though the teams had both been in the NHL since the mid
1920’s, it was just the second time Boston and New York met in the Stanley Cup
finals. The previous time came in 1928-29 with the Bruins sweeping the best of
three series in two games.
Q. The Boston Bruins lost just thirteen games in 1971-72. One team was
responsible for nearly a quarter of those losses. Which team did Boston lose
three games to in the regular season?
A. Not too shockingly, the Bruins lost three to the Montreal
Canadiens. Interestingly, two of the thirteen losses came at the hands of the
lowly California
Golden Seals. Seven of the thirteen losses came against teams that finished
the year below .500.
