1963-64 NHL season

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 1963-64 NHL season was the 47th season of the National Hockey League. Six teams each played 70 games. The Toronto Maple Leafs won their third consecutive Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings four games to three in the final series.

A big trade took place in June with the New York Rangers trading Gump Worsley, Dave Balon, Len Ronson and Leon Rochefort to the Montreal Canadiens for Jacques Plante, Don Marshall and Phil Goyette.

The governors noted with profound regret the death of William Northey, who died August 9th at 92. It was decided to establish a memorial for his favorite charity, Montreal Children's Hospital.

On August 26th, 1951, Bill Barilko and his friend Dr. Henry Hudson, departed in an airplane from Rupert House on James Bay for Timmins, Ontario after a weekend fishing trip and were never heard from again. When they failed to reach their destination, an extensive search was made by pilots of the R.C.A.F. over a period of several weeks without success. On June 7th, 1963, Ronald Boyd, a helicopter pilot from Chapleau, Ontario, found the missing plane about 60 miles north of Cochrane, Ontario. The remains of the men were still in the plane. The location of the crash was right on course, about halfway between Rupert House and Timmins.

It was announced that Ron Andrews would replace Ken McKenzie as the NHL's director of publicity.

Contents 1 Regular season 1.1 Final standings 1.2 Scoring leaders 1.3 Leading goaltenders 2 Stanley Cup playoffs 2.1 Playoff bracket 2.2 Stanley Cup finals 3 NHL awards 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Regular season

Jacques Plante made his debut as a Ranger October 9th in Chicago and it was a rough game for him, losing 3-1 and being cut by an elbow of Johnny McKenzie.

Gordie Howe scored two goals in Detroit's opener as the Red Wings beat Chicago 5-3. Howe was now only two goals shy of Maurice Richard's all-time career goal scoring record.

Montreal handed the Rangers a 6-2 pasting in their opener at the Forum. The fans both cheered and jeered Jacques Plante, now a Ranger.

Montreal defeated Detroit 6-4 in Detroit, but the highlight of the game was Gordie Howe scoring his 544th goal to tie Maurice Richard and he drew a five minute ovation. Worsley was the victim of the goal.

Toronto defeated Montreal 6-3 at the Forum October 30th in a penalty-filled game. The main event was put on by Terry Harper and Bob Pulford who drew majors. Gump Worsley badly pulled his hamstring and would be replaced by Charlie Hodge for the season.

The Detroit Red Wings blanked the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 November 10th. While the Wings were a man short, Gordie Howe scored on Charlie Hodge for his 545th career goal, breaking Maurice Richard's record. Yet another record was tied by Terry Sawchuk when he recorded his 94th career NHL shutout, tying him with George Hainsworth as the all-time NHL shutout leader.

Chicago defeated Toronto 2-0 November 28th, and Johnny McKenzie was severely injured when sandwiched by Bobby Baun and Carl Brewer. He was taken to hospital and an operation was performed on his spleen.

There was a lengthy delay in the start of a game between Detroit and Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens November 30th while the ice surface was repaired. A rodeo had been held and the cleaning job took longer than expected. Despite a terrible ice surface, a ragged game was played that ended in a 1-1 tie. Roger Crozier was hit with a slap shot by Frank Mahovlich but returned after a ten minute rest. The plucky goalkeeper had sustained a double fracture of the cheekbone and was unable to play the next night. The game was delayed for 20 minutes while Hank Bassen was located to replace Crozier. Toronto won the game 4-1.

Toronto blanked Chicago 3-0 December 7th in a wild brawl. Three minutes before the end of the game, Reg Fleming speared Eddie Shack, and after the Chicago player entered the penalty box, Bobby Baun decided to drag him out. Both benches emptied and a free-for-all started, and seven major penalties, six misconducts, three game misconducts and $25 fines were assessed against 22 players who left the benches. The game was completed with each team two men short. NHL president Clarence Campbell fined coaches Billy Reay and Punch Imlach $1000 for allowing their players to fight. Fleming was fined $200, Baun $150, Larry Hillman $150, Murray Balfour $100, and Carl Brewer $50. The 22 players that left the bench were fined $100 each.

Johnny Bower got his third consecutive shutout January 4th with a 3-0 win over Chicago. Mahovlich scored two goals in the win. During the game, the Black Hawks got a bench penalty and Reg Fleming was chosen to serve it. Fleming mocked referee Vern Buffey by applauding which led to a misconduct penalty, after which Fleming bumped Buffey and was given a game misconduct.

On January 18th, Terry Sawchuk broke George Hainsworth's record of career NHL shutouts with his 95th in a 2-0 win over Montreal. Hainsworth still held the major league record with 104, 10 in the Western Hockey League. That same night, Boston, the laughing stock of the league, had some laughs of their own when they walked right into Toronto and clobbered the Leafs 11-0, Andy Hebenton and Dean Prentice each scoring hat tricks. Next, the Bruins walked right into the Forum in Montreal January 25th and whitewashed the Canadiens 6-0, and then shut out Toronto 2-0 the next night.

On February 1rst, Bobby Rousseau joined the elite who have scored five goals in a game when he scored five against Detroit in a 9-3 trouncing of Detroit.

On February 5th, the Rangers had a 2-1 lead late in the third period when Andy Hebenton and Orland Kurtenbach scored 27 seconds of each other to give the Bruins a 3-2 win.

A trade that was rumoured most of the season finally took place when the New York Rangers traded Andy Bathgate and Don McKenney to Toronto in exchange for Dick Duff, Bob Nevin, Arnie Brown, Bill Collins and Rod Seiling. Ranger fans did not like the deal and in the next game chants of "Muzz must go!" were heard(referring to Muzz Patrick, Rangers general manager.)

Wildor Larochelle, a former Canadiens player of the early 1930's, died March 23rd at age 58.

[edit] Final standings

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

National Hockey League	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Montreal Canadiens	70	36	21	13	85	209	167	982
Chicago Black Hawks	70	36	22	12	84	218	169	1116
Toronto Maple Leafs	70	33	25	12	78	192	172	928
Detroit Red Wings	70	30	29	11	71	191	204	771
New York Rangers	70	22	38	10	54	186	242	715
Boston Bruins	70	18	40	12	48	170	212	858

[edit] Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, PTS = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Player	Team	GP	G	A	PTS	PIM
Stan Mikita	Chicago Black Hawks	70	39	50	89	146
Bobby Hull	Chicago Black Hawks	70	43	44	87	50
Jean Beliveau	Montreal Canadiens	68	28	50	78	42
Andy Bathgate	NYR/Tor	71	19	58	77	34
Gordie Howe	Detroit Red Wings	69	26	47	73	70

[edit] Leading goaltenders

[edit] Stanley Cup playoffs

This playoff season saw the exact same match-ups as the previous season with the two Canadian teams, Toronto and Montreal, and the two American teams, Detroit and Chicago, matching up. As with last season, the Maple Leafs ousted the Canadiens, but it was the Red Wings over the Black Hawks this time. For the first time since the league began using the best-of-seven playoff format in 1939, all three series went the full seven games.

[edit] Playoff bracket

	Semifinals					Finals
	1	Montreal Canadiens	3
	3	Toronto Maple Leafs	4
						3	Toronto Maple Leafs	4
						4	Detroit Red Wings	3
	2	Chicago Black Hawks	3
	4	Detroit Red Wings	4

[edit] Stanley Cup finals

The 1964 Stanley Cup finals between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings were an exciting series -- probably one of the most exciting and memorable ones ever. Toronto won the first game by one goal, 3-2, and the second game was won by Detroit by one goal in overtime. The third game saw Detroit win, again by one goal, and take a two games to one series lead. The Leafs came back in game four with a 4-2 victory to tie the series. But game five was won, again by one goal, by Detroit giving the Wings a three games to two lead. Game six saw the second overtime of the series, but before the game went into overtime, Toronto defenceman Bobby Baun stopped a hard shot and was taken off the ice with a broken ankle. He later returned to the game in overtime, with the broken ankle, and scored the game winning goal. After six close games, game seven was anticlimactic as Toronto handily won 4-0 for the Stanley Cup, their third in a row.

[edit] NHL awards

Prince of Wales Trophy:	Montreal Canadiens
Art Ross Memorial Trophy:	Stan Mikita, Chicago Black Hawks
Calder Memorial Trophy:	Jacques Laperriere, Montreal Canadiens
Hart Memorial Trophy:	Jean Beliveau, Montreal Canadiens
James Norris Memorial Trophy:	Pierre Pilote, Chicago Black Hawks
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:	Ken Wharram, Chicago Black Hawks
Vezina Trophy:	Charlie Hodge, Montreal Canadiens

[edit] See also

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• NHL Amateur Draft
• 1963 NHL Amateur Draft
• 17th National Hockey League All-Star Game
• National Hockey League All-Star Game
• Ice hockey at the 1964 Winter Olympics
• 1963 in sports
• 1964 in sports

[edit] References

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com

NHL seasons
1959-60 | 1960-61 | 1961-62 | 1962-63 | 1963-64 | 1964-65 | 1965-66 | 1966-67 | 1967-68