NHL Hockey Trivia: Tony and Phil Esposito

Phil and Tony Esposito are two brothers that played in the National Hockey League in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. Both are members of the Hockey Hall of Fame, both have their jersey numbers retired by an NHL club and both were members of Team Canada at the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union.

One brother started his National Hockey League career with the same team the other ended up with. Read on and find out what team that was.

Test and expand your hockey trivia knowledge of the Esposito brothers with the following four trivia questions.

Q. What NHL team did Tony Esposito first play for?

A. All but thirteen of Tony’s NHL games were played with the Chicago Black Hawks. However, in 1968-69, he played those thirteen games with the Montreal Canadiens. At the time, both regular goalies were injured and Esposito was a call-up from the Houston Apollos of the Central Hockey League. Tony did not take part in the Stanley Cup playoffs that season when the Canadiens won the Cup.

1968-69 was before Ken Dryden came on the scene in Montreal. However, Tony still had Gump Worsley and Rogie Vachon to compete with. Worsley soon after entered the HHOF and Vachon should be there but has repeatedly been denied. The following year, 1969-70, Esposito walked into the number one spot in Chicago, appearing in 63 of 76 regular season games for the Blackhawks with Gerry Desjardins and Denis DeJordy seeing sparse action in backup roles.

Q. What NHL team did Phil Esposito first play for?

A. Phil was sponsored by the Chicago Black Hawks right from junior hockey with the St. Catherines TeePees of the Ontario Hockey Association. Esposito played four seasons with Chicago, in the shadow of Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita before being traded to the Boston Bruins where his career rocketed.

That trade is notorious for its one-sidedness. On May 15, 1967, going to Boston along with Phil were Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield. Heading to Chicago were Gilles Marotte, Pit Martin and Jack Norris. Esposito was part of another blockbuster trade in November, 1975 that sent him to the Rangers. Phil and Carol Vadnais went to the Big Apple while Brad Park, Jean Ratelle and Joe Zanussi went to Bean Town. He ended his career with New York.

Q. Which Esposito’s rookie hockey card is worth the most, according to Beckett Hockey?

A. The Tony Esposito rookie card was part of the 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee series and has a book value of $150. However, the Phil Esposito rookie card from the 1965-66 Topps series tops that with a book value of $400. Both Esposito rookie cards show the brothers as members of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Q. Which Esposito brother entered the Hockey Hall of Fame first?

A. Phil Esposito was the first of the two brothers to enter, being inducted in 1984. Tony followed in 1988. Phil played his final games in the National Hockey League during the 1980-81 season with the New York Rangers. This meant that he entered the Hockey Hall of Fame after the minimum three year waiting period. At his side in 1984 were goaltender Bernie Parent and career Montreal Canadien Jacques Lemaire.

Tony appeared in 18 games with the Blackhawks in 1983-84, his last games in the NHL. Four years later, he entered the HHOF, along with Guy Lafleur and Brad Park. Buddy O’Connor was also posthumously inducted.

The 4 Bill Hunter Trophy Winners In The WHA

Over the entire seven year history of the WHA, the Bill Hunter Trophy was given out each year to the player in the rebel league that finished the regular season with the most points. To put it another way, it was the World Hockey Association’s equivalent to the NHL’s Art Ross Trophy.

 Just four players won the award over the seven years, three winning on two occasions. Looking back, one would think that hockey greats Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe would be among this select group. However, that is not the case.

Andre Lacroix

Playing for the Philadelphia Blazers in the WHA’s inaugural season, Andre Lacroix was the first ever recipient of the Bill Hunter Trophy. Lacroix scored 50 goals and assisted on 74 others in 1972-73 for a total of 124 points. He was also the Bill Hunter Trophy winner two years later in 1974-75 as a member of the San Diego Mariners. That season, he scored just 41 but assisted on 106 for 147 points. He is one of just four major league hockey players to surpass 100 assists in a season. The other three are Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr.

Andre was no stranger to being at the top of a scoring race. He won the Eddie Powers Trophy in 1965-66 as the OHA’s top point-getter while playing major junior for the Peterborough Petes. Lacroix played in every WHA season from 1972-73 to 1978-79. He also appeared in 325 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Black Hawks and Hartford Whalers.

Mike Walton

In between Lacroix’s two Bill Hunter Trophy wins was Mike Walton, WHA scoring champion in 1973-74. Walton scored 57 goals and assisted on 60 for 117 points with the Minnesota Fighting Saints. It was the first of three years Walton would play in the WHA, all with Minnesota. He had a respectable NHL career, playing in 588 regular season games between 1965-66 and 1978-79 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks. Not a Calder Trophy winner in the National Hockey League, Walton made some hockey trivia, winning the CHL rookie of the year in 1964-65 and the AHL rookie of the year in 1965-66.

Marc Tardif

The Quebec Nordiques dominated the Bill Hunter Trophy for the final four years of the WHA with Marc Tardif and Real Cloutier alternating victories. Tardif won in 1975-76 with 71 goals and 77 assists for 148 points. His 154 points on 65 goals and 89 assists in 1977-78 will forever be a WHA record for most points in a single season. At the time, it was a major league record, two points better than Phil Esposito’s total with the Boston Bruins in 1970-71.

Tardif was the second overall pick at the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft by the Montreal Canadiens. He played parts of four seasons with the Habs before jumping to the Los Angeles Sharks of the WHA for the 1973-74 season. He moved to the Nordiques midway through the 1974-75 season and remained with the club throughout their WHA days and four years into their existence in the NHL.

Real Cloutier

Real Cloutier is the only one of the four players to begin his career in the WHA. He was a ninth overall draft pick of the Nordiques at the 1974 WHA Amateur Draft. He played with Quebec from 1974-75 until the demise of the WHA after the 1978-79 season. He carried on with the NHL Nordiques for four more years and ended his NHL career with two partial seasons with the Buffalo Sabres.

Cloutier was the Bill Hunter Trophy winner in 1976-77 and 1978-79. In his first win, he scored 66 and assisted on 75 for 141 points. He reached 75 goals in 1978-79, adding 54 assists for 129 points. In 1973-74, as a junior with the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL, Cloutier honed his scoring touch with 93 goals and 123 assists for 216 points in just 69 games. However, Real was a full 35 points behind league leader Pierre Larouche of the Sorel Eperviers who led the league with 251 points.

Pat Burns: Only 3 Time Winner Of The Jack Adams Award

The Jack Adams was first awarded to the NHL's top head coach for the 1973-74 season. Fred Shero was the first recipient and Pat Burns is the only three time winner. Both Shero and Burns are deceased and both were inexplicably denied entry to the Hockey Hall of Fame while still alive.

In a National Hockey League head coaching career that lasted from 1988-89 to 2003-04, Pat Burns became the only person to win the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top coach three times. The Jack Adams Award was introduced for the 1973-74 season, with Fred Shero of the Philadelphia Flyers being the first recipient.

1988-89 Montreal Canadiens

Burns won the Jack Adams in his first year of coaching in the NHL, 1988-89. The Montreal Canadiens finished first overall in the Prince of Wales Conference and second overall in the NHL, behind only the Calgary Flames. The Canadiens and Flames met in the Stanley Cup finals with Calgary coming out victorious in six games.

1992-93 Toronto Maple Leafs

In 1992-93, in his first year as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Burns saw a 32 improvement over the previous season. In 1991-92, Toronto had finished last in the Norris Division with just 67 points. Their point total improved to 99 points under Pat and the team made it to the Conference finals before losing to the Los Angeles Kings in seven games.

1997-98 Boston Bruins

In 1997-98, in his first year as coach of the Boston Bruins, the team saw a similar turnaround that the Maple Leafs had experience under Burns. The team improved 30 points over 1996-97. The previous year was the first time Boston had failed to qualify for the post season since the 1966-67 season. The team bowed out to the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs.

Pat Burns

Never a player at the professional level, Burns rose quickly to prominence in the coaching world. He was behind the bench of the Hull Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for three years, from 1984-85 to 1986-87. In the second year, the Olympiques won the Jean Rougeau Trophy as regular season champions and the President’s Cup as champs in the playoffs. Pat was selected as QMJHL First Team All-Star coach.

The Olympiques qualified for the Memorial Cup that season, making it through to the final game. The Guelph Platers (today’s Owen Sound Attack) were crowned Memorial Cup champions with a 6-2 victory over Hull. Hockey Hall of Fame member Luc Robitaille was a member of that Olympiques team.

After a year coaching the Sherbrooke Canadiens of the American Hockey League in 1987-88, it was straight up to the NHL Canadiens. Along with coaching in Montreal, Toronto and Boston, Burns won a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils, where he coached in 2002-03 and 2003-04.

Along with Fred Shero, now both deceased, the Hockey Hall of Fame were under fire for denying the two entry. Shero won two Stanley Cups and was a finalist on two other occasions, as well as winning championships in three other professional league and was inducted posthumously in 2013. Pat’s qualifications for the Hall of Fame are obvious from his accomplishments stated above and is finally allowed entry for 2014.