Grown-ups, starting with owner Bill Foley and general manager George McPhee, are in charge of the Vegas Golden Knights. So it is unlikely that, to publicize their fledgling franchise, the bosses would approve a stunt such as sending a naked young lady streaking onto the ice between periods, something one of their expansion predecessors did four decades ago.
“I was at this game,’’ said Mark Greczmiel, an impressionable 15 years old at the time, “so I remember it very distinctly.’’
Greczmiel, now 58, is the filmmaker behind “The California Golden Seals Story,’’ a documentary available at iTunes ($12.99 to purchase, $4.99 to rent). The Oakland-based Seals entered the NHL as part of the league’s six-team expansion in 1967-68, alongside the Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and St. Louis Blues.
The Seals’ expansion counterparts have since rooted themselves into the NHL’s bedrock, something the soon-to-launch Vegas franchise aims to duplicate. The Kings won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and ’14. They have become one of the three headaches, alongside Anaheim and San Jose, for the 27 opponents that tremble upon formerly friendly visits to sunny California.
The North Stars, relocated to Dallas, are stable. The Flyers are the sixth-most-valuable franchise in the league, according to Forbes. The Penguins are the defending champions. Depending on their performance, the Blues could become the next version of the Blackhawks as a Midwestern franchise with a ravenous following.
In comparison, the Seals did not even last a decade, perhaps because of a history of sophomoric escapades. In retrospect, such hijinks are why Greczmiel considered the organization worthy of documentary exploration. Other teams that have landed in history’s trash can, such as the Montreal Maroons, Philadelphia Quakers, and St. Louis Eagles, do not inspire the same kind of rubbernecking appeal as the sad-sack Seals.
“Other cities seemed to feel sorry for them,’’ said Greczmiel, a Vancouver native who moved with his family to the Bay Area when he was 7. “There was a lot of ridicule. There were a lot of people who felt sorry for these guys, trying to continue the sport in this faraway place.’’
Greczmiel, who lives in Studio City, Calif., became a TV news producer and a documentary producer whose credits include “E! True Hollywood Story.’’ Greczmiel’s interest in the Seals did not wane with time.
For approximately 2½ years, Greczmiel worked on his Seals documentary, aided by two crowdfunding campaigns. He traveled the United States and Canada to conduct more than 30 interviews. Greczmiel gathered photos and footage, including clips from NESN. The product is his 96-minute work that helps to illustrate how far the NHL has come.
Like all pro sports leagues, the NHL is a sober, professional, and business-first conglomerate. It is something of culture shock, then, to flip through history’s pages and learn how one organization zigged so severely while everybody else zagged. The Seals, especially under eccentric owner Charlie Finley, were in some ways the NHL’s personification of the Charlestown Chiefs.
“Finley did a lot of different promotions,’’ Greczmiel said. “There was an airline in California called Pacific Southwest Airlines. They would advertise that their flight attendants had the shortest skirts in the air. They’d wear hot pants and micro-miniskirts, and they’d be one of the sponsors between periods when the Zamboni would redo the ice.’’
The Seals were perhaps best known for their Finley-mandated white skates. It was to his players’ detriment. The skates had to be painted after every game to scrub out scuff marks. The skates became heavier with each application of paint.
Off the ice, the Seals were a bare-bones operation. One season, their entire advertising budget was $5,000. This prompted their staff to promote the team in creative ways, such as hiring the girlfriend of a stickboy to skate across the ice between periods, and not in hockey gear.
“The PR staff told the press photographers, ‘Stand over there at that end, there might be something happening,’ ’’ Greczmiel said. “She skated out of the players’ bench just wearing skates and a strategically placed Seals sticker across her chest. Everybody was screaming. That got a lot of publicity for the team. Not only were there photos of that stunt, somebody sent me Super 8 footage of her skating.’’
The Seals played at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena. The rink barely filled up. The dates that were guaranteed sellouts, however, were when the mighty Bruins swung through Oakland.
At the time, the Bruins were at the peak of their powers. They had lost J.P. Parise and Ron Harris to the Seals in the 1967 expansion draft. But the Black and Gold roster was so robust that their departures barely mattered. So when Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Gerry Cheevers, and rest of the Big Bad Bruins strutted in, so did the fans.
In 1971-72, the second of the Bruins’ Cup seasons, the Seals did the unthinkable. On Oct. 28, 1971, a 21-year-old Gilles Meloche, acquired from Chicago, backstopped the Seals to a 2-0 win over the Bruins at Boston Garden.
“The game wasn’t televised back to the Bay Area,’’ recalled Greczmiel. “I remember the next day reading the paper and hearing the radio that the Seals shut out Boston, 2-0. There was excitement that electrified all hockey fans in the Bay Area that the goalie might actually be pretty good. It was very exciting.’’
It was short-lived. The next year, Gerry Pinder, Bobby Sheehan, and Norm Ferguson were among the Seals who bolted for the World Hockey Association. Over the next two seasons, the Seals recorded 26 ties, a league record.In 1973-74, they won only two road games.
By 1976, the Seals’ relationship with Oakland was over. The franchise relocated to Cleveland and operated as the Barons for two seasons. The team that left California 41 years ago, however, is not forgotten.
“The players told me, to a man, that a week doesn’t go by when they don’t get two or three letters with a hockey card, program, or photo that somebody wants signed,’’ Greczmiel said. “There’s still a fascination.’’
NOT HIS STYLE
Galchenyuk gets early message
There is no denying Alex Galchenyuk’s touch with the puck. The 23-year-old is Montreal’s best player when he has the puck on his stick. It’s hard for opponents to take it off his blade. He can drive to the net and create his own chances, or he can distribute it for linemates to do their thing. The 6-foot-1-inch, 210-pound pivot has a good mix of physicality and skill, similar to Patrice Bergeron’s playing style.
But what makes Galchenyuk an inaccurate overall comparable to Bergeron is the former’s flickering presence without the puck compared with the latter’s. Bergeron is manic in his precise and smothering defensive approach. Galchenyuk, even with five seasons of NHL experience, is more in the scatterbrain category when it comes to own-zone play. Defensively, Galchenyuk has more in common with Ryan Spooner than Bergeron.
Now that he’s playing for Claude Julien, Galchenyuk will have no choice but to learn how to skate, think, and position himself without the puck. Otherwise, he will not play, just like he learned in Julien’s first game behind the Montreal bench. For two periods, Galchenyuk played on the first line with Max Pacioretty and Alexander Radulov. But in the third, Galchenyuk was dropped to the No. 3 line, primarily because he was not dependable in defensive situations.
Julien could not help turn Spooner into a reliable defensive player. It is the rare miss amid hits such as Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, David Krejci, Milan Lucic, and Reilly Smith. They all became stronger offensive players once they figured out how to be thorough and responsible defensively. It took two years of work before Pastrnak improved on the shortcomings — falling down, hearing footsteps along the walls, turning over pucks, getting caught chasing — that muted his offensive wizardry.
It’s likely that Galchenyuk will join their company. When he becomes a better defensive player, it will give him more time to play with the puck. That’s when he’s at his best.
ETC.
Kings benefiting from backups
The Bruins played at Anaheim Wednesday and at LA Thursday. Even if the cities are separated by a bus ride, Bruce Cassidy opted to split the action between his goalies, starting Tuukka Rask against the Ducks and Anton Khudobin against the Kings.
While there are exceptions, coaches regularly tab both of their goalies to play against the Ducks and Kings when they swing through Southern California. This season, with Anaheim leading LA by 12 points entering the weekend, opponents have used their aces in Orange County more often.
Of Anaheim’s 28 home games, it has played only three against goalies who were backups: Chad Johnson, Antti Niemi, and Carter Hutton. The Ducks went 1-2-0 in those games.
Conversely, the Kings have played 11 of their 26 home games against No. 2 goalies: Michal Neuvirth, Jakob Markstrom, Marc-Andre Fleury, Jonas Gustavsson, Jaroslav Halak, Scott Darling, Jared Coreau, Darcy Kuemper, Michael Hutchinson, Spencer Martin, and Khudobin. They went 8-3-0 against the backups.
The Kings are fighting for one of the wild-card spots. They might not even be in the hunt without the points they’ve compiled against backups.
Boston reunion in Calgary
For three months in 2010, Dennis Wideman and Matt Bartkowski were Bruins property at the same time. Seven seasons later, the ex-Bruins played together on Calgary’s third pairing in the Flames’ 2-1 loss to Vancouver, Bartkowski’s previous NHL team, on Feb. 18. Wideman’s days in Calgary are concluding. The 33-year-old will be unrestricted at season’s end. Bartkowski, however, is on a two-year, $1.225 million contract, a turnaround worthy of a stick salute. The 28-year-old Bartkowski could have tucked his tail after being let go by Vancouver and failing to catch on with Ottawa during training camp. But Bartkowski accepted an AHL contract and turned 34 games with Providence into a varsity deal. The Flames added to their blue line on Monday by acquiring Michael Stone from Arizona. It was Wideman, not Bartkowski, who was scratched upon Stone’s arrival.
So long, Alaska
Tough news out of Alaska, where the Aces of the ECHL announced on Thursday that the franchise will go dark at the end of the season. According to managing member Terry Parks, the team has lost more money this year than the last two seasons combined. As much interest as there is in pro hockey in Alaska, the costs involved in running the organization have been too high for the team to absorb. “We worked through every possible solution that might have avoided this outcome,’’ Parks said in a statement. “But it became painfully obvious to us that, in this economy, a professional hockey team is not sustainable in Alaska.’’ This is ex-Providence coach Rob Murray’s sixth season behind the Aces’ bench. In 2012-13, during the NHL lockout, Murray’s roster included ex-Bruin Nate Thompson, Brandon Dubinsky, and Scott Gomez, all Alaska natives.
Switching sides
Ideally, defensemen play their strong sides in the offensive zone. It is easier for a defenseman to plant his stick on his forehand instead of his backhand to prevent the puck from skittering around the wall and out of the zone. There are times, however, when it’s offensively advantageous for defensemen to switch to their weak sides to open up for one-timers. Bruce Cassidy is all for his defensemen to pull off the switch, but not without the down-low puck carrier knowing what’s coming. Otherwise, if a turnover takes place when defensemen are changing sides, the likelihood of a dangerous counterattack rises. “Where I want them to be aware is when the forward has good possession of the puck, they’re making eye contact before they get involved in the cycle or a scissor down the wall,’’ said the Bruins coach. “That’s an area [against Vancouver on Feb. 11] where a few times, we’ve got to make better reads on. We don’t want to be all over the place without the puck where the forward with the puck doesn’t know what you’re up to. I’ve always felt it’s difficult to initiate plays without the puck. It’s hard on the puck carrier sometimes. He really needs to have good awareness of what’s going on before the riskier plays are made.’’
Drouin’s deal worth watching
If anybody questions Jonathan Drouin’s talent, watch his game-winning overtime shift against Colorado on Feb. 19. On the play, Drouin abused Blake Comeau, Matt Nieto, and just about everybody else in the greater Denver area before beating Calvin Pickard to give Tampa Bay a 3-2 win. But Drouin’s flammable mix of speed, quickness, hands, power, and vision does not guarantee him the megabucks he otherwise deserves when his deal expires after this season. Drouin plays for the cap-strapped Lightning. Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat are also entering restricted free agency. So even if Tampa is shedding the salaries of Ben Bishop ($5.95 million) and Brian Boyle ($2.2 million), it does not leave enough free cash to give Drouin the $6 million or more he deserves.
Vermette suspension upheld
Antoine Vermette, suspended 10 games for slashing linesman Shandor Alphonso, appealed his suspension on Thursday. Two days later, commissioner Gary Bettman upheld the ruling. Vermette, agent Allan Walsh, and the NHLPA argued that the slash was befitting of a Category III classification, which would have resulted in a three-game ban. In that case, the slash would have had to be defined as an action that “physically demeans an official or physical threatens an official.’’ Bettman concluded that the slash, which Vermette acknowledged delivering, qualified as a Category II offense: “Any player who deliberately applies physical force to an official in any manner [excluding actions as set out in Category I], which physical force is applied without intent to injure, or who spits on an official, shall be automatically suspended for not less than 10 games.’’ In his 11-page opinion, Bettman emphasized that the black-and-white infraction had a clear punishment according to the rule book. “Applying once again the plain language of Rule 40,’’ Bettman wrote, “I find no basis to disturb the determination of the On-Ice Officials that this action constituted a Category II offense.’’
Loose pucks
Some things to watch in Montreal: whether Tomas Plekanec’s defensive usage rises, if Paul Byron’s ice time goes up, and if the Canadiens ask 6-6, 231-pound behemoth Michael McCarron to elevate the pace of his game. The guesses here: yes, yes, and yes . . . For teams seeking a powerful and accurate shot, they should consider the young man on the viral video of the rat evicted by Duquesne University housemates. After the rat tumbled down the stairs, it was launched out the door by a broom-delivered one-timer. Every coach would kill for such a shot from the point.
Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto. Material from interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.
