Doctor No
Registered User
Some 1969-70 initial observations (since I apparently stayed up late last night):
- Bruins had a good pattern going with Cheevers and Johnston alternating until the end of January. Then Sinden got streaky.
- Cheevers in the 1970 playoffs - five above average, seven average, and only one below average.
- Chicago is interesting - Esposito got the start against his old team on October 25, and that was it. Even when DeJordy got back into the net as a starter in mid-December, it didn't last long (I bet there was a minor injury to Espo there, although I need to find it).
- Still amuses me that Chicago swept Detroit 4-2, 4-2, 4-2, and 4-2.
- I haven't run the variability calculations yet, but Roy Edwards' chart in Detroit looks like it will be really high. He ended up about league average in total, but the highs and lows are there.
- The Kings had to run with Gerry Desjardins due to Wayne Rutledge's injury problems. This was some bad goaltending (noting that all of these are derived from save percentage, which has acknowledged flaws, and the Kings' defense surely contributed to this).
- The North Stars floundered for a backup to Maniago (Rivard, Broderick, Gilbert) before getting Worsley to come out of retirement.
- Rogie looked good in Montreal - they stayed with him over Myre even when he struggled around New Year's. Final game of the year is the famous "5 empty net goals" game.
- Terry Sawchuk's finally in the charts as the New York Rangers' backup to Giacomin. He had a few moments, but he looked done (of course, he was 40 in an era where 40 was old).
- Charlie Hodge looked done here for the Seals - Gary Smith has a nice long streak without being subbed for (even in-game) here.
- Bernie Parent looks solid here, although you can see that his time pre-Plante was streakier.
- Smith, Binkley and Daley struggled in Pittsburgh - until the playoffs against Oakland.
- Once Glenn Hall returned, the Blues had a nice three-man rotation with Plante and Wakely. I don't have an injury noted for Plante around his 12/20 shutout, but it's weird that he disappeared for a bit at that point, so I'm going to look for one.
- The underrated Bruce Gamble holds down the fort in Toronto. Johnny Bower briefly appears for the first time in my logs on December 10.