On May 6th 1973 the 1st WHA Championship was decided as the New England (Later to be Hartford)Whalers beat Winnipeg Jets, 4 games to 1...why the big deal? Well....its the one league that the NHL wants to remain dead and buried..like a bad memory of a bad relationship..remember that league NHL? The one you ignore in the history books but didnt mind screwing the teams over when you brought them into the NHL fold in 1979...dispersal draft my ass...the last thing the NHL needed in 79 was the Winnipeg Jets skating around with the Stanley Cup after telling everyone they were bush league for seven years, if the league was so bush, why didn't the NHL let them prove it instead of stripping the teams of 13 skaters each? The league was chickenshit...its like a bully saying lets fight...ok now tie one leg and one arm behind your back...exact same thing...
Robb with the WHA's Avco Cup
Sure The WHA brought over Europeans (Bet Don Cherry loved them...) and some of the teams had some bad fashion sense...but the WHA also brought in high contracts for hockey players whom were always being screwed over by managers and owners, it also eliminated the red line from hockey, speeding up the game and lowered the draft age to 18.. in inter-league competition the WHA did well against their NHL counterparts, were the first to adapt overtime during the regular season to attempt to settle regular season tie games and were really the first to give more American born players a place to play. The only WHA team left in existance today is the Edmonton Oilers..
Robb with Mr Hockey Gordie Howe who was lured out of retirement in 1973 by the Houston Aeros and played in the WHA for another six years and one more year in the NHL in 1979-80.
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