The Winter Outdoor Classic was fun again but other sites have covered that game more than adequately and much better than I could.

The one thing that did bring back a memory, though, was the beginning of the game when Bobby Orr and Bobby Clarke were brought out on to the ice at Fenway as the “honorary captains”.

Bobby Orr joined the league at the age of 18 in the fall of 1966, Clarke about 3 years later. The Bruins built their rugged, talented team around Orr from the time he joined the team. They already had Eddie Westfall, Johnny Bucyk and Johnny Mckenzie, but in came Esposito, Hodge and Stanfield, then Wayne Cashman and Derek Sanderson and many others who fit the “Big Bad Bruins” label. They were good and they were tough.

The Flyers did much the same with Clarke, developing a team with a macho identity that did everything they could within—and well outside—the rules to protect their captain and intimidate the opposition. They already had ex-Bruin Gary Dornhoefer and rugged Ed Van Impe, but in came names like Shultz, Saleski, “Mad Dog” Kelly, “Moose” Dupont and others who became the “Broad Street Bullies”. The Flyers also had elite talent in guys like Clarke and Rick MacLeish.

Orr was a brilliant skater and playmaker, with remarkable anticipation. He was tough, as well. Because of his skill level, speed and his ability to move in any direction on a dime, it was almost impossible to get the puck away from him.

Clarke was not big, but he played hard, and was as fiercely determined a player as I’ve ever seen. Though he wasn’t a great skater in the classic sense, he, too, was hard to get the puck from. He was particularly dangerous when the game was on the line.

Now, I hated both the Bruins and the Flyers. While I admired the talent and work ethic of both Orr and Clarke, I’ve never liked the bully mentality that both teams utilized. So I kind of hated them, too—while wishing the Leafs had someone just like them.

The Bruins and Flyers had many battles in the early and mid-‘70s when both were at their peak, and one series that hockey fans most remember was when they played in the 1974 NHL finals, before Orr’s still-young knees were totally shot.

The Flyers had come on that year and were a really good team, but I doubt 10% of fans believed they had a shot against the Bruins. Funnily, choosing between two evils, I was pulling for the Flyers to win, though I would have preferred they declare no winner that year. The Bruins had won the Cup in 1970 and 1972 (though they never beat Montreal in the process), and had taken out the Leafs that spring in 4 games in the quarter-finals.

The series went back and forth, Clarke scoring an overtime goal in Game 2 in Boston (correct me if I’m wrong on this point), which started to make people wonder if the Flyers may well be able to compete.

The Flyers had the edge in goal with Bernie Parent, a future Hall-of-Famer. The longer the series went, the more confident the Flyers became.

By Game 6, they were at home at the Spectrum. They led the series three games to two, but if they lost, they faced the specter of heading back to face Orr and a great Bruins team in Boston.

Well, the game was coming down to the wire, Philadelphia protecting a 1-0 lead, and there was a battle for possession in front of Boston’s net. Orr and Clarke got into it (both on their knees at one point, if I’m not mistaken) flailing at one another. I think Clarke goaded Orr into more of a ‘fight’ than Orr should have been getting into late in the game. To see these hockey warriors fighting—for the puck, for ice and then each other—was something to see.

As valuable as Clarke was, getting Orr off the ice late in the game was a trade off you’d take every time.

Philadelphia held off the Bruins, and won the game, the series and the Cup. Philadelphia fans exploded in joy, many racing onto the Spectrum ice surface. It was a huge upset that an “expansion” team had won the Cup. But the lingering memory for me was that sudden, pitched battle between Orr and Clarke, probably the two most valuable players in hockey at the time, when everything was on the line.

That’s what popped into my mind when watching them embrace at center ice before the game at Fenway Park. Chances are, they both thought back to that moment in Game 6 of 1974, too.

Within the last few weeks, I mentioned that we would see over the next while if the 2009-2010 Leafs were simply one of those teams that can look strong at times and upset a good team every once in a while—or will actually ‘turn the corner” and become a consistently competitive team.

They’ve beaten “good” teams—Detroit, Washington twice, Boston, Pittsburgh. But they typically follow up these short spurts of somewhat inspired play with flat performances. (They finished the first half of this season with a record of 14-18-9 and lost the first game of the second half last night in Calgary.)

Now, for younger Leaf fans reading this, you should know one thing: this is not new. Many of us have seen this movie for a long, long time.

Even when the Leafs were not very good—late ‘60s, through the 1970s off and on and of course, the rather bleak ‘80s—the team could occasionally upset one of the “big boys” (usually someone like Montreal, when they were really good). Everyone would get revved up, and think about the possibilities, if only….

Reality usually hit us in the face before too much time had passed. History reminds us we haven’t been to the finals since, well, we all know since when.

A few days ago I posted on the subject of “Who will be here in three years”. That is, how many of the guys on the current Leaf roster will likely be in blue and white by the 2012-2013 season, or even 2011-2012. A number of players on the back end may be (Gustavsson, Beauchemin, Komisarek - they’re Burke guys) but it’s not hard to project a virtual wholesale change with the 12-13 forward spots.

So much can change in hockey nowadays with free agency; it is tough to project where a club might be. Two solid drafts, a couple of kids step up, a franchise player bursts onto the scene, improvement in goal—a team can improve quickly. Maybe even the Leafs.

Most observers will give the current Leafs that, most nights, they work. They are all solid NHL players. And on occasion, when the grinders grind and the “skill” forwards make a slick move, a nice pass, or the puck goes in- you start thinking players like Stajan, Grabovski, Ponikarovsky, Mitchell, Hagman might be part of the long-term ‘answer’.

In reality, there may be only two pieces up front that Burke will want to keep: Kessel (if he doesn’t drive his coach crazy as time goes on) and Kulemin. Everyone else could be moved, one would think.

How far are the Leafs away? Again, that things can change quickly nowadays.

But to sustain an elite-level team, over a period of years, in addition to outstanding coaching, health, good fortune and an unbelievable work ethic, you need top-end talent and depth.

The Leafs just don’t have that, and it’s not in the “system” or even the junior ranks.

I think back over the years to when the Leafs were “good” but nowhere near good enough to win a Cup:

In the early ‘70s, when they were ‘good’ for one season, they had Keon, Ullman and Armstrong up front, Bernie Parent and Jacques Plante in goal, all Hall-of-Famers. Bobby Baun was on defense. They had a top rookie in Darryl Sittler, quality veterans like Henderson and Ellis, rugged grinders like Spencer and Harrison and talented young defensemen.

They didn’t get out of the quarter-finals.

When Pat Burns changed the culture of the organization under Cliff Fletcher in the early 90s, they had “Dougie” and Wendell, still, and a cast of character players, as well as a young goalie who could be pretty good at times in Felix Potvin. We all felt cheated in 1993, but the reality is, despite the talent and the grit, they didn’t win in ’93 or ‘94.

Under Pat Quinn, the Leafs had those two runs – in 1999 and 2002. A superstar in Sundin, a top-end goalie in Cujo, but they could not get to the end. In their last final four appearance against Carolina they leaned on Sundin (through they actually played their best hockey when he was hurt), a rugged leader in Gary Roberts, and more Curtis Joseph.

My point is with all that over the years…at times a lot of talent, sometimes a ton of grit, good coaching, outstanding goaltending, it’s never been enough to win a championship. It’s that hard in the NHL.

Just think back to last season: The Penguins won with superior goalkeeping, extraordinary talent in Crosby and Malkin and an outstanding supporting core. Look who didn’t—the Red Wings, with a quality roster up and down and tremendous depth. Anaheim, the Cup champions two years before. San Jose. Washington. Look at the teams who get to the final four every year. How much talent they have, how hard they have to work.

The Leafs, in truth, just don’t—and can’t—play anything like that on a regular basis right now.

They seem to be a long, long way away.

Nevertheless, since the fun isn’t (thank God) always in “winning”, but in hoping that someday you’ll get there, Leaf fans keep checking out the Marlie roster for the sleeper who may develop late; they see how Kadri is doing in London, they wonder how the next couple of drafts might go.

Because it’s always worth believing.

New Year’s usually means a new beginning, or at least the intention of doing some things a bit differently.

Well, on January 2, 1971, the Leafs did something I’m pretty sure they had not done before, and certainly haven’t done since. They won a game by the rather astounding score of 13-0.

I’ve written in the past that one of my favorite seasons following the Leafs was that 1970-’71 season. They had missed the playoffs the year before, the first season under the direction of new General Manager Jim Gregory and coach Johnny McLellan.

Year two of the new regime started poorly, too. The Leafs got off to a rough start, but by early December they started to play with some confidence.

Now, a lot of things happened that season. Just a few things that I remember:

 the Leafs unveiled a ‘new-look’ uniform about a month into the season

 the league changed rules to ensure that the home teams wore white, so fans would get to see visiting teams wear their more colorful uniforms

 the Bruins of Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito set a boat load of offensive records

    Darryl Sittler joined the Leafs as a rookie from the London Junior team

 Dave Keon was an end-of-season NHL All-Star center (second team)

That year, another “Original Six” team, the Detroit Red Wings, went in a “different” direction. After making the playoffs the previous season on the second-to-last night of the season (and then giving away a game against the Rangers the next afternoon when they were obviously hung-over, allowing New York to edge ahead of Montreal for the last playoff spot), they changed coaches—Abel essentially replacing himself behind the bench.

In came respected U.S. college coach Ned Harkness.

This kind of thing had never been done before. Pro hockey was pro hockey. You rarely had a college player make it to the NHL and you never saw a university coach join the professional ranks. (Things obviously changed years later. Former University of Toronto coach Tom Watt earned an NHL job, as did Herb Brooks after the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980. We all know about the Hall-of-Fame success Lou Lamoriello has achieved with the Devils after his years running U.S. college programs.)

Interestingly, I don’t believe it was Abel’s decision. Owner Bruce Norris was influenced by an advisor who was involved in the firing of Bill Gadsby just the season before, ostensibly because he didn’t bring enough “sophistication” to the job, it was reported at the time. (I thought Gadsby, a wonderful defenseman for 20 years in the league, had done a fine job.)

In any event, Harkness came in and took over a squad that was re-building with some young players like Garry Unger and Pete Stemkowski, both acquired from the Leafs in the big Frank Mahovlich trade. Nick Libett was a solid young player and Gary Bergman was an excellent defenseman But they also had past-their-prime greats like Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio (shown in game action from that season against Buffalo with this story. You can also see former Red Wing and Maple Leaf Floyd Smith in the photo). Harkness just didn’t mesh as a coach with either the young or older players. General Manager Sid Abel, the Hall-of-Fame Wing player and long-time coach, lost a power struggle with newcomer Harkness and quit the team. (Shortly after the 13-0 loss, Harkness, in an interview, indirectly blamed Abel for what he called the team “paying for the sins of 10 years”. The implication was that Abel as GM had not developed enough young players to keep the club competitive.)

Amazingly, despite his poor record as coach, Harkness was promoted to GM, a peculiar turn of events, and former Wing defenseman Doug Barkley assumed the coaching job.

This is all a preamble to my memory of the night the Wings visited Maple Leaf Gardens on January 2, 1971.

That night, the Wings put in a poor effort, to say the least, and lost to the Leafs by the aforementioned score of 13-0.

I remember the night well, because it was still during my high school Christmas “break”, and I was able to watch the game on the UHF station that showed all Red Wing away games in those days. (It may also have been aired on Hockey Night in Canada, but I’m not sure.)

That Leaf team had the makings of something a bit special—Keon played with youngsters Gary Monahan and Billy MacMillan. Norm Ullman played with Ron Ellis and Paul Henderson. Rugged Jim Harrison centered rookies Darryl Sittler and Brian Spencer a fair bit of the time. Denis Dupere killed penalties and Guy Trottier, a veteran minor-league winger who could score, was an extra forward along with former captain George Armstrong, who came out of retirement one final time that season.

The defense was buffeted by the return of the veteran Bobby Baun part-way through that season. Baun was let go by Abel, Harkness and the Wings and ended up with the Leafs. Back “home”, Baun played well the rest of that season. The rest of the “D” was very young- Rick Ley, Mike Pelyk, Brad Selwood, Brian Glennie, Jim McKenny and Jim Dorey—and were just coming into their own.

Ageless Jacques Plante was in his 40s but had joined the team and played superbly. Then Gregory made a stunningly good trade shortly after the game I’m talking about to bring in a young and gifted goalie, Bernie Parent. (He traded away the unhappy Mike Walton and goalie Bruce Gamble in that deal.)

But that night, just about everyone contributed to a 13-goal victory (including Brian Spencer, who scored his first NHL goal) which must be a team record, I would think, in terms of margin of victory.

It’s odd, as poorly as the Wings played that night—and that season, they had quite a bit of talent. Many players went on to do really well elsewhere: Stemkowski was traded to New York before the 13-0 game, and Bruce MacGregor, along with defenseman Dale Rolfe also were sent to Rangers. Both had some excellent seasons with the Rangers. Larry Brown went to New York as well. Winger Tom Webster did well in the WHA. Gerry Hart had a stellar career later with the Islanders. Ron Harris played solidly for the Rangers. Gary Unger had many outstanding years with the Blues. Frank Mahovlich was traded (shortly after the 13-0 game) to Montreal and helped the Habs win two more Stanley Cups.

It was just a bad mix in Detroit—a management team lacking harmony, a college coach who couldn’t get pros to “buy-in”, dispirited players—and on that night in Toronto, we saw the worst of the Red Wings.

The Leafs? They went on to a pretty good season but were eliminated by the Rangers in a 6-game series later that spring.

Since our launch in September, we’ve posted dozens of stories about the Leafs, personal memories about things I’ve experienced as a life-long Leaf “fan”. Sometimes it’s been a personal encounter with a player, or something I remember as a child, teen or young adult. At times my stories harken back to players and people I interviewed when I was in the broadcast field many years ago.

From time to time I also post on the current Leaf team, which so far this season has done what Leaf teams have done many times over the past 40 years: show flashes which give the fans hope, then fall back into ordinary play.

The site also includes some new and ‘vintage’ (interviews I first did in the early 1980s) interviews that those visiting the site can listen to. We’ve had very positive and much appreciated feedback on many of the articles and interviews. People seem to be truly enjoying the site.

A couple of my ‘favorites’ have included the opportunity to interview two former Leafs, Jim Dorey (who I chatted with in November), now working for many years in the insurance industry in Kingston, Ontario, and Hall-of-Famer Dickie Moore.

Dickie still heads up Dickie Moore Rentals, and I spoke with him in October from his office in Montreal. Now, we ‘older’ fans remember Dickie as a great forward with the Montreal Canadiens in the 1950s and early ‘60s. But after retiring in 1963, Dickie made a comeback with Punch Imlach and the Leafs for the 1964-’65 season. Our interview discusses many great players and warm memories.

If you haven’t heard those interviews, click on our audio vault file.

The following have been among the most viewed posts:

 It was worth the drive to Chatham, a piece on the night that I, as a 10 year-old, was invited to head to Chatham (because it was blacked out in my home town) to watch a key playoff game between the Leafs and Habs

 Eddie Chadwick, Maple Leaf ironman reflected on the fact that the 1950s Leaf is the last Leaf goalie to play every game in the regular season

 our new audio interview in December with the respected hockey writer Red Fisher

 Dickie Moore, A Leaf too late details, as I alluded to above, Moore’s comeback with the Leafs in 1964-‘65

 Dave Keon scores three against Charlie Hodge and the Habs, my memory of listening to that famous Game 7 of the 1964 semi-finals on my dad’s old radio

 “The Original Twelve”, a fond look back at when the NHL expanded to twelve teams in 1967

 The 10 Best Leafs of the past 50 Years reflected my opinions on who the ten best Leafs have been since I’ve been following the team (not everyone agreed, of course!)

 12 things I preferred about pre-1967 expansion hockey covered some of the ways I feel the game may have been better in the old days

 Bobby Orr and the night my Dad didn’t believe me recaps a magical night in my life when a rare trip to Toronto led to a very unexpected meeting with 18 year-old hockey phenom Bobby Orr in 1967

 Ian White--the new Pat Stapleton? evoked response from those intrigued by the parallels between the small-in-stature Leaf rearguard and the 1960s and ‘70s NHL all-star

 The rosary and Gordie Howe (my Dad’s least favorite all-time hockey player!) is my light-hearted reflection on the many nights our family listened to Red Wing games on the old car radio while praying the rosary, and the occasional outburst precipitated by Gordie scoring a goal

 Eddie Litzenberger: The good luck charm looks back on a championship-filled professional career of the one-time Hawk captain and Maple Leaf

These stories and others were widely read and, I hope, enjoyed!

We also hope you’ll keep visiting Vintage Leaf Memories. We should have our new design up and running soon. I look forward to providing more stories and also look forward to your continued feedback and posts.

Happy New Year!