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| 1977-78 Regular Season: Red Wings vs. Pittsburgh Penguins |
In 1976-77, the team hit rock bottom, finishing with an ugly 16-55-9 record, worst in the league and in franchise history. General Manager/Coach Alex Delvecchio was fired midway through the season. He was replaced in both jobs by former teammates: Johnny Wilson as coach, and Production Line-mate Ted Lindsay.
Lindsay returned for 1977-78, vowing that "Aggressive Hockey Is Back In Town". He replaced Wilson with Bobby Kromm, former WHA Winnipeg Jets coach. Lindsay bolstered the lineup with the #1 overall draft pick, selecting St. Catherines sniper Dale McCourt. He followed that with trades for Andre St. Laurent from the Islanders and Errol Thompson from the Leafs. A noteworthy move was acquiring Czech forward Vaclav Nedomansky from the WHA's Birmingham Bulls, the first-ever trade between a WHA team and NHL team.
With a much-improved lineup and coaching staff, the Wings doubled their win total, going 32-34-14. Their 78 points were good enough for second place in the Norris Division, 1 point ahead of Los Angeles, but 41 behind first-place Montreal. For leading the Wings' surprising turnaround, Bobby Kromm took home the Jack Adams award as Coach of the Year, the first Wings coach to do so.
Defense was much better as well, as the Red Wings allowed 266 this season, down from 309. Detroit benefited from having a full season on the blueline from Reed Larson, a former University of Minnesota standout. Larson, with his howitzer of a slapshot, had an excellent first full season in Detroit, pumping in 19 goals and 60 points in 75 games. The team used three goaltenders that season. The bulk of the work was split between Jim Rutherford and Ron Low. Rutherford, in his second stint with the Wings, played 43 games with a 20-17-4 record, along with a 3.26 GAA and 1 shutout. Low, acquired in the offseason from Washington, played 32 games, sporting a 9-12-9 record with a 3.37 GAA and 1 shutout. Future Hall of Famer Ed Giacomin started the season with the Wings and played 9 games, with a 3-5-1 record and 3.14 GAA, but retired midway through the season.
For the first time since 1969-70, the Red Wings qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They opened the preliminary round against the Atlanta Flames, a team that finished 10 points ahead of Detroit in the standings. In the best-of-three series, the Wings upset the Flames in two straight, including a come from behind 3-2 win in Game 2 in front of a delirious sellout crowd at the Olympia.
Detroit then faced the powerful Montreal Canadiens in the second round. Montreal was in the middle of it's latest dynasty, having won the past two Stanley Cups with relative ease. The Canadiens were 59-10-11, far and away the best record in the NHL, with a roster loaded with future Hall-of-Famers. Most experts expected the mighty Habs to quickly swat the Wings away in four straight on their way to another Cup win. So it was a shock that the teams split the first two games in Montreal. Detroit hung tough with the defending champions and actually held the lead midway through Game 3. But in the end, the Canadiens were simply too much, and they won the series in five.
I just got this program online. 1977-78 was one of the better seasons during the "Dead Things" era. It's a typical program from this time period, a split between the team's program and the NHL's "Goal" magazine. Wings enforcer Dan Maloney is featured on the front, which tells me this program was from a game before he was traded to Toronto for Errol Thompson. With these type of programs, you were just as likely to have an opposing player on the cover as you were a hometown player.
This is from a Wings-Pittsburgh Penguins game, but not sure what date. Again, just guessing that it was prior to the Maloney trade, but that doesn't narrow down the game date, since the Pens and Wings were divisional rivals. Reed Larson and Bill Lochead, both of which figured into the team's long-term plans, have their own articles in the Red Wings' portion of the program. Both teams rosters and pictures of all the players were included.
In the "Goal" portion, bandleader Guy Lombardo, a big hockey fan from his childhood days in Toronto, was interviewed. Profiles of Atlanta's top three forwards (Willi Plett, Tom Lysiak and Eric Vail) was included, as was a photo essay of how Blues' netminder Ed Staniowski dressed for a game. Finally, future Hall-of-Fame defenseman Doug Wilson, then a rookie with the Black Hawks, wrote a diary on his first few days in the NHL.
Overall, this program is 80 pages. Most of the GOAL pages are in color, while most of the Wings' section is in black and white. Local advertisements include NBD Bank, WJBK-TV 2, Little Caesars, Tubby's Submarines and Sanders Chocolate and Ice Cream Shop. Car advertisements include the 1978 Pontiac Grand Am, the 1978 Dodge Magnum, the 1978 Buick Regal and the AMC Concord D/L.
Aftermath: The Wings would crash back into the basement after the 1977-78 season, with a disappointing 23-41-16 record. Lindsay's signing of goaltender Rogie Vachon caused a long, drawn-out court battle when the Kings chose Dale McCourt as compensation, a battle that hindered McCourt's career in the long-run. Bobby Kromm would be fired midway through the 1979-80 season, and Lindsay would be during the 1980-81 season. The Red Wings continued to struggle until the franchise was purchased by Little Caesars owner Mike Illitch in 1982 for $8 million. Under Illitch's leadership, the team slowly improved and became a contender by 1986-87. The franchise, after four Stanley Cup wins and a playoff streak of 25-straight years under Illitch family ownership, is now valued at $800 million.
References:
National Hockey League Statistics: 1977-78 , from hockeydb.com
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