Here's a clip from a highlight film from Philadelphia's first Cup in 1974:
This clip triggered a few memories, mostly because it's the last Stanley Cup that I don't have any memories of. Anything past this championship, and I've got at least some fleeting impressions of what was going on in hockey.
A couple of years ago, I was wandering through the aisles of an independent video store here in Northern Virginia, and I stumbled across a copy of the deciding Game Six of the series, complete with some post production narration from the late, great Flyers play-by-play man, Gene Hart. Feeling a little bit stunned, I wondered why I'd been so lucky to uncover such a buried treasure, and how I might make sure that it wouldn't be lost forever.
Watching the video was even more fun than discovering it in the first place, if for no other reason that it gave me a chance to see Bobby Orr play hockey at something close to full speed. Yes my friends, he was as great as advertised, and clearly that much better than anybody else on the ice.
And yes my friends, the game was better back then, and it wasn't a mirage.
That’s interesting…my gf found that same video in someplace like a truck stop in Pennsacola, FL, many years ago. It’s complete except for approx 5 minutes at the beginning of the third period. That game was played well before I started watching hockey and I was amazed at how much the game has changed. The two things that really stick out are that, at that time, goalies were stand-up goalies (no butterflying as soon as someone skates into the zone) and that when a fight started the players on the ice would grab the opposing player closest to them and start dancing.
Lots of fun, watching that game.