Goaltender Game-by-Game Logs (1965-66 to present) and research questions

[Doctor No]

March 24, 1966 – Chicago 1 at BOSTON 3
Chicago Blackhawks - Boston Bruins - March 24th, 1966
NHL gives the victory to Eddie Johnston
GWG is the second Boston goal; Wayne Rivers at 27:17 of the game.
NHL summary link above has Parent playing 27:41 and Johnston 32:19.
Port Huron Times Herald:

Other sources say “eighth minute of second period” but 7:41 exactly conforms to the NHL summary.
MY CONCLUSION: If Rivers’ goal was truly scored ay 27:17, then Parent was in net for it, and deserves the win, not Johnston.
Unless! If the time of Rivers’ goal is incorrect (and it was later) then Johnston may deserve the win. All box summaries I see show 27:17 (including the Chicago Tribune), although the Tribune is a bit more vague about it in the summary (weird to mention Parent’s injury, then Rivers’ goal, then Johnston’s big saves, although it could just be weird writing).

 

[Doctor No]

January 23, 1966 – MONTREAL 3 at Chicago 3
Montréal Canadiens - Chicago Blackhawks - January 23rd, 1966
NHL gives the tie to Charlie Hodge.
GTG is Bobby Hull’s goal at 49:04. UPI game summary also says 49:04.
NHL summary link above has Worsley playing 53:22 and Hodge playing 6:38.

Windsor Star (Montreal Gazette’s Pat Curran has similar but separate account)

Chicago Tribune states that Hull’s goal was scored on Worsley:

Vancouver Province suggests that the game was tied when Worsley left:

MY CONCLUSION: Worsley deserves the tie, not Hodge.

 

[Doctor No]

January 2, 1966 – Montreal 6, NEW YORK 3
Montréal Canadiens - New York Rangers - January 2nd, 1966
NHL box has Giacomin playing one period (does not say which); Simmons playing two periods, each allowing three goals. NHL does give Giacomin the loss (the GWG was Laperriere’s at 28:41, so it’s inferred that Giacomin played the second only).

Based on evidence I can find, Simmons played the first period and Giacomin played the final two periods. Hackensack (NJ) Record below – I can’t find any paper suggesting that Simmons returned.

MY CONCLUSION: Functionally, I swapped Giacomin and Simmons above (all box summaries show Montreal with 16-13-13 shots, so if Simmons played the first alone he’d be 13/16 and Giacomin would be 23/26).

 

[frisco]

I'm too lazy to look but how did they ever track that game back in the 90's when Pittsburgh coach Scotty Bowman decided to change his goalies on the fly for much of the contest? I believe it was towards the end of the season, if not the last game. It must not have meant anything in the standings.

Edit: Found it. 4/16/1992. Wregget and Young split the chores.

My Best-Carey

 

[BM67]

Your game logs don't have the 4/10/1982 game, NYI vs Pit, as an OT game, giving Smith and Dion both 60 minutes, rather than 64:14.

On a side note, I find myself being more and more disappointed with the old NHL game logs on their site. It's just such sloppy work. The first year Sabres had zero PPs in all the games in which they didn't score a PPG according to the game logs.

 

[Doctor No]

Thanks! I'll update that in the next refresh. The early 1980s were the trickiest part when I was reconstructing these, because I was living in Salt Lake City as a professor and had essentially no online resources and only SLC newspapers on microfilm.

Agreed on the game logs - on the places where I disagree with the official league totals (now being promulgated as official) I'm sure that I'm right more than I'm wrong.

 

[Doctor No]

Okay, they're here:
1965-1966 National Hockey League Goaltender Game-by-Game Performance

Individual team logs are located at that link, and individual goaltender game logs can be found there.

I tried to find every backup appearance I could although it's spotty (I think I have 2/3 to 3/4 of them). Oddly enough, my main source was the Windsor Star (the Red Wings' Canadian "home" newspaper) but they would frequently list backup goaltenders for other games but not for the Red Wings' games. If you find any, I would love to add them!

I did find three "backup onlies" - Denis DeJordy and Roy Edwards for Chicago, and Carl Wetzel for Montreal.

NHL debut for Bernie Parent - the first NHL goaltender who never played maskless (per Tom Adrahtas' book).

Glenn Hall got a week off (when Dave Dryden played and DeJordy/Edwards backed up) and it appears to have helped.

Roger Crozier was fantastic in the series against Chicago. The injury against Montreal seems to have finished him (although Bassen played fine in relief, Crozier returned and struggled as Montreal closed out the Finals). Crozier still won the Smythe, however.

In the regular season, Crozier (-0.10 goals/game) faced meaningfully tougher opposition than Bassen (-0.43).
So did Sawchuk (+0.09) versus Bower (-0.25) - although Bower was incredible when he played (+3.1 standard deviations above league average).
So did Worsley (-0.08) versus Hodge (-0.52). 58% of Hodge's minutes were against bottom quartile opponents (you'd expect about 30%, since Hodge couldn't play Montreal).

Al Smith made his NHL debut as a junior emergency call-up, a few days after Gary Smith made his NHL debut. Things I never thought I'd get frustrated with: box summaries that only list "Smith" as the backup.

 

[Doctor No]

Last but not least, I tried to pull interesting goaltender photos out of the daily newspapers during this exercise.

Some of them are really fun, some are just silly, and some are meaningful. Here's the full list:

#196566GameLogsProject - Twitter Search

Some WJC games in there too. Enjoy! Tell your friends, and happy quarantining.

 

[Doctor No]

Interesting Windsor Star column of November 2, 1961, looking at the "backup goaltenders" of the early 1960s.

 

[Doctor No]

Currently working on 1961-62, for what it's worth.

 

[Doctor No]

NHL debut for Bernie Parent - the first NHL goaltender who never played maskless (per Tom Adrahtas' book).

Tying out one loose end - I found a counterexample to Adrahtas' claim about Parent being the first NHL goaltender who never played maskless.

Bob Champoux was an emergency sub for Terry Sawchuk in the 1964 playoffs (March 29, 1964 to be exact), and wore a mask in his debut (as you can see). Bob didn't appear in the NHL again until December 1973, at which point of course he was still wearing a mask.

 

[Sanf]

Interesting Windsor Star column of November 2, 1961, looking at the "backup goaltenders" of the early 1960s.

View attachment 419934

That list of names of the next generation is quite impressive.

 

[Doctor No]

Yeah, it's a pretty nice catalog! Makes you wonder what it would have looked like if there were more than six jobs (populated primarily by Hall of Famers).