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10 Notable Trends
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Travel by plane
Although teams had been travelling by plane sporadically during the NHL season for years, all teams were forced to adopt the air once the league expanded to the West Coast of the U.S. in California in 1967. |
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Goalie Masks
Prompted by Jacques Plante and the advent of the blistering slapshot from Bobby Hull and the banana blade sticks that greatly increased puck velocity, the 1960’s saw almost all goalies adopt a mask during games. |
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Banana blades
Led by the high-scoring tandem of Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita in Chicago, the NHL saw the introduction of hockey sticks with huge curves in the blades which in turn increased the velocity and unpredictability of shots. Soon, the NHL legislated against any curve of more than half an inch. |
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Backup goalies must dress
By the early 1960s goalies were far less likely to play an entire season and frequent injuries during games meant teams were soon required to dress a spare where previously the home rink had been responsible for ensuring a legitimate goalie was in the crowd in case of emergency. |
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Christmas Day games
Before the NHLPA gained enough strength and bargaining leverage for its players in the ‘70s, many teams played games on December 25 as if it were any other night of the season. |
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All-Star game goes mid-season
Beginning in 1967, the NHL’s All-Star Game was played near the halfway point in the season rather than at the end of the pre-season in early October. For the first two years at mid-season, it still featured the Stanley Cup champs against the best of the rest, after which it became a pure glitter game between two All-Star teams representing the two divisions. |
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Expansion
The doubling of the league from six teams to 12 in 1967 was the start of a trend that continues to this day. The NHL later added two teams in 1970 and two more in 1972. By 1980 there were 21 teams and by 2000 the NHL has expanded to 30 teams. |
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Colour photography/TV
With the advent of colour photography came colour TV and soon after glossy magazines and playing cards featuring NHL players from coast to coast. |
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Amateur Draft
Begun in 1963 and continuing to this day, the draft is the fairest way of distributing the finest young players readying themselves for an NHL career. The principle allows the weakest team the previous season to make the first selection and the strongest to make the last of each round, thus giving teams a chance to improve at a commensurate rate. |
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Empty-net goals
Although there had been the occasional pulling of the goalie since the 1940s, the practice of trying to tie a game in the last minute with an extra skater didn’t become a nightly habit until the 1960s. |
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