Lonsberry, Cowboy and The Jet

The 1st cut is the deepest. 1972 was the Los Angeles Kings 5th season and is still their 2nd worst ever. It was my 3rd season as a royal fan. “We’ve gotta do something!” So they trade Ross Lonsberry, Bill “Cowboy” Flett, Eddie “The Jet” Joyal and Jean Potvin to the Phildelphia Flyers for Jim Johnson, Bill Lesuk and Serge Bernier. (Larry Brown also came to L.A. on waivers)
I remember whining to anyone who would listen, “Oh Man! Lonsberry’s gonna be really good! You can’t trade our 2 guys with nicknames! Serge Bernier better be the next "Rocket" Richard. This is only gonna help the Flyers."
2 years later I was rooting for Lonsberry, Flett and the Philadelphia Flyers to win the Stanley Cup against Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and the "Big Bad Boston Bruins" while watching the finals in a sun-drenched living room on a 19’’ color TV, trying to pick up a clear signal from the motorized rotatable antenna on the roof of my Laurel Canyon home. 

By 1974 Bernier and Joyal were in the WHA. Bernier had a 122 point season with the Quebec Nordiques in the 1974-75 season. "Rocket Richard my eye!"  This is the trade that made me the hardened trade-aholic I am today.

Krazy Kozak

My first ever hockey jersey was the original “royal-blue and gold” Los Angeles Kings dark #24,  in honor of my favorite player, my age and my hairstyle at the time.
I’m talking about the deceptively fast* Don Kozak of the Los Angeles Kings, who on April 17, 1977,  scored the fastest goal ever from the start of an NHL playoff game. He scored just six seconds after the opening face off in Game 4 of a Quarter-final Stanley Cup playoff series against the Boston Bruins. Real hockey fans always arrive early!  This was a mind boggling David & Goliath moment because the Kings had been walloped in Boston 8-3 & 6-2 and had lost Game 3 at home in the Fabulous Forum 7-6. The Kings ended up winning that game 7-4 over the Bruins and then amazingly won the next game in Boston 3-1.  By game six, back in Los Angeles, the Kings had lost their mojo and were eliminated by the Bruins 4-3, in a game that was not as close as the score.  Kozak had 4 goals, 1 assist and 17 penalty minutes in 9 playoff games in 1977.  Krazy Kozy peaked at 24 and 20 goal seasons and injected a lot of personality and bursts of frenetic energy into each game he played.

*his fluttering long blonde hair made him look lot faster then he really was.

The Four Player Trade

I'll never forget where I was when I found out about one of the most stunning and glamorous NHL trades of the 70's. It was November 1975, I had just finished the day at Marina Del Rey Junior High School teaching math classes. I call my girlfriend from the front office counter to confirm our plans and she says to me coyly, "I heard something on the news about two of the biggest names in hockey getting traded today. I thought you'd wanna know. I can't remember their names. Do you know who they're talking about?" Dumbfounded and burned out from trying to teach math to 8th graders, I was clueless. Plus, I was a little self-conscious discussing hockey trades at the school's busy front counter. The trade, we finally figured out was Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais of the Boston Bruins going to the New York Rangers for Brad Park and Jean Ratelle. Even though neither the Bruins nor the Rangers were my home team, Espo and Park were in my awesome category (Ratelle & Vadnais were great players too, in their own right). For me, that unexpected mega-trade has always been an NHL flashback to that moment, in that junior high and me as a junior high school math teacher. 

NHL Fans Reminiscing

If you are an avid NHL hockey fan like me, you must have countless untold flashback moments from the many years the you've followed NHL hockey;  your team, your players, the Stanley Cup playoffs, the shocking trades,  the unbelievable comebacks, the record breaking moments and even your favorite hockey jerseys. We'll never forget the wonderful elation of that sweet victory or the heartrending disappointment of unexpected defeat.  

You are invited to share with other NHL fans your best and worst memories, trivial flashbacks and nostalgic moments, the thrill of victory and the agony of the feet .