No real games. Not even Mike Babcock mind games. So here in the toy departments we have to get creative with computer-simulated contests, throwback use of dice and board games and analytical projections based on how many goals that Stephan Noesen would have been good for had the coronavirus not intervened.
Too much time on our hands these days, trying to feed an audience begging for distractions. If this goes long enough, someone eventually will use Expected Goals For to prove that the Cleveland Barons were much misunderstood, just shooting in bad luck against hot goalies.
If the season doesn’t resume, or even if it does in a drastically-shortened form, teams that had a legitimate chance to make deep runs this spring will spend the rest of their days wondering: What if? But since we need a column right now and will worry about the rest of our days sometime next week, we’re not going to wait for any more What Ifs, not when hockey history already has given us plenty.
It’s (Not) such a Wonderful Life these days. But Jeremy Jacobs is doing his best to play Mr. Potter so we’ll be your Clarence, the angel wannabe, picking you and your despair out of the river and providing a tour around hockey’s Bedford Falls. In these days without answer, we can at least add to the questions. How much different might things would have been? If only . . .
. . . Gordie Howe hadn’t gotten homesick and left the first NHL camp to which he was invited—that of the Rangers in Winnipeg. Might have boosted those 17-32-16 Blueshirts of 1952-53 a little more than Eddie Kullman did. Would have taken at least 15 years off those “1940” chants, we figure.
. . .Badger Bob Johnson not become terminally ill in 1991 and Scotty Bowman not been so convenient to Craig Patrick to finish the season behind the Penguin bench. Coming off the one bad ending in his career–in Buffalo–a 5-time Cup winner hadn’t been invited back behind a bench in more than four years, which is mind-boggling. In Pittsburgh and Detroit, Bowman would go on to win 505 more games and five more Cups. Of course, even without the second life, Scotty still would be fourth all time in wins and tied for third in championships.
. . .the 1967 expansion franchise expected to go to Baltimore not landed instead in Philadelphia on a secret surprise bid. Had Baltimore won, you still have to figure there would have been an expansion to the eighth-largest market by now, but it wouldn’t have been the Flyers of Ed Snider and Bobby Clarke. And with a franchise in Baltimore would the Capitals exist? Who would Yvan Labre have played for?
. . . Winnipeg Jets owner Michael Gobuty had taken up Indianapolis Racers owner Nelson Skalbania on his wager of one game of backgammon for the rights to Wayne Gretzky. The kid might have been shipped to the Jets instead of the Oilers. And then there is another twist to the Gretzky story. What if the NHL, losing all these underage top prospects to the WHA, would have gotten over itself and the belief in the superiority of its product no matter what, and lowered its eligibility age? Under threat of a lawsuit, it eventually went from 20 to 18 by 1980. Had it been willing to go to 17, the team with the worst record in 1977-78–pre draft lottery days–was Washington. Gretzky signed with Indy that June.
. . .No.99 been traded to his first choice, the Canucks, rather than the Kings in 1988. We can hear Jim Robson now . . .“Gretzky feeds Bure on a breakaway. He scores!” Realize you gotta be careful with these dream line combinations; Gretzky and Brett Hull proved without chemistry in St. Louis. Still, imagine the Canucks with Gretzky coming off and Bure coming on. Bye bye, 1994 Rangers.
. .Craig Patrick not accepted one of worst takes for a superstar in any sport in history when, for Jagr in 2001, the Penguin GM got Frantisek Kucera, Kris Beech, Michal Sivak, and Ross Lipaschuk. With a reasonable return, would the Penguins have been bad enough to be in lottery position for Sidney Crosby five years later?
. . . Flyers GM Russ Farwell, holding the fourth pick in the 1990 draft, had taken Jagr over Mike Ricci. With the sixth selection the following year, Farwell chose Peter Forsberg well ahead of where Central Scouting rated the Swede but here’s another twist: Had Forsberg been willing to come to the NHL by the following season, Farwell has said he never would have been inclined to part with so much, including Forsberg, in the package for Eric Lindros, who almost surely would have been traded by Quebec to the Rangers instead. Ricci had a solid, 16-year, career. Jagr is the NHL’s second all– time leading scorer. The hockey gods showed their sense of humor by delivering Forsberg and Jagr to the Flyers and Lindros to the Rangers well past their dominance.
. . .A team, any ignorant team of that time, not let the diabetic Clarke slide to the 17th pick in 1969. The Bruins, for instance, had three shots at him before that selection came up. Think that 1974 Boston-Philly final result might have flipped with Clarkie in black and gold? What’s more, the Bruins drafted Rick MacLeish and traded him to Philadelphia. Yikes. The wait between 1972 and 2011 would have been shortened a little, don’t you believe?
And then there were franchise-altering draft opportunities. What if the . . . .
. . . Canadiens had taken Paul Coffey instead of Doug Wickenheiser with the first pick of 1980?
. . .Kings had selected Ron Francis instead of Doug Smith with the second selection of 1981?
. . .Whalers had drafted Steve Yzerman or Pat LaFontaine rather than Sylvain Turgeon with the second choice in 1983?
. . .Senators had plucked Chris Pronger instead of Alexandre Daigle with the first pick in 1993?
And how much different would current events be if the . . . .
. . .Blues had plucked Jonathan Toews rather than Erik Johnson first in 2007?
. . .Thrashers had taken Alex Pietrangelo instead of Zach Begosian third in 2008?
. . .Sabres had taken Leon Draisaitl over Sam Reinhart at No. 2 in 2014?
And even allowing for human error, the puck always will have a mind of its own. What if. . .
. . . Nathan Lafayette had not hit the post with a few minutes to go in 1994 and the Canucks then won in overtime? Vancouver would have a Cup and Ranger fans would still be mad at Gordie, not just Potvin, for a drought now reached 80 years. You may notice a pattern here of fate not being particularly kind to the Rangers. But in these hard times—and hard look backs–we will throw you pining Broadway Blueshirts at least one bone: Brian Leetch fell to New York with the ninth overall pick in 1986.
. . . Marty McSorley had checked his stick before the Canadiens, down a game and about to go down two, asked for the curvature measurement that turned the 1993 final against Gretzky’s Kings completely around? Montreal’s drought would be at 34 years.
. . .The Bruins, about to finally slay the mighty Canadiens in their third meeting in three years, not put too many men on the ice in Game Seven of their 1979 semifinal series, giving Guy Lafleur one more chance to save the dynasty?
. . .Bunny Larocque, the longtime backup who was going to get the Canadiens’ Game Two start after Ken Dryden had struggled in the 1979 final opener against the Rangers, not gotten hit on the head with a puck during the warmup? Bowman had to back to Dryden, who got his game together and Montreal won the next four.
Larocque died of brain cancer at age 40. But having read this far, you already were reminded that fate can suck.
Blogger •NHL Hall of Fame writer • 
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