Today in hockey history, the league makes an adjustment to the length of the regular season, a super defenseman is born, a Stanley Cup victory ends with an impressive streak, a coaching legend retires, and a very notorious upper-management player gets a new job.
June 1, 1949 – The NHL increased its regular season schedule from 60 to 70 games. Here’s a timeline of the amount of games in each season:
Here are the specific changes: 1917: 22 /// 1918: 18 /// 1919: 24 /// 1924: 30 /// 1925: 36 /// 1926: 44 /// 1931: 48 /// 1943: 50 /// 1946: 60 /// 1949: 70 /// 1967 (first expansion): 74 /// 1968: 76 /// 1970: 78 /// 1974: 80 /// 1992: 84 /// 1994: 48 (some lockout humor) /// 1995: 82 /// 2004: 0 (well that’s not funny at all) /// 2005: 82 /// 2012: 48 (again???)
June 1, 1960 – Hall-of-Fame defenseman Paul Coffey was born in Weston, Ontario. Coffey ranks second amongst defenseman in career regular season goals (396), assists (1,135), and points (1,531), numbers all behind Ray Bourque. He does, however, rank first amongst defensemen in playoff scoring with 196 points and hold the records for most goals in one playoff season (12 on the 1984-85 Oilers), assists (25 on that same Oilers team), and points (37, obviously with that same team)…also assists/points by a defenseman in a playoff game with five assists and six points (same team, same game).
June 1, 1992 – The Penguins beat the Blackhawks 6-5 in Game 4 of the Finals to win their second consecutive (and second overall) Stanley Cup). It was actually 11 wins in a row for the Penguins, who, ironically, ended the Blackhawks streak of 11-straight wins in their Game 1 victory of the Finals.
June 1, 1994 – Al Arbour retired after coaching 1,606 career NHL games, the most of anyone to that point (he’s since been passed by Scotty Bowman). He won four Cups with the Islanders in their 15 playoff appearances over 19 seasons, although he returned for one game in the 2007-08 season, his 1,500th with the Isles (and 740th win).
June 1, 2000 – The Rangers hired Glen Sather as the 10th general manager in team history. Hi, I’m Glen Sather. You might remember me from such poor free agent signings as Bobby Holik, Eric Lindros, Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Wade Redden, and Brad Richards. They cost the team a fortune to produce nothing. Although I did manage to trade Scott Gomez for Ryan McDonagh.
Source: Hockey Hall of Fame
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