1969-70 Los Angeles Kings Leon Rochefort Jersey

After two seasons with the Trois-Rivieres Lions of the Quebec Junior Hockey League, Leon Rochefort joined the Guelph Biltmores for the 1957-58 season. As a part of the New York Rangers system, he played alongside future Hall of Famers Rod Gilbert and Jean Ratelle. In two seasons with Guelph, Rochefort put up identical 35 point seasons playing 52 and then 54 games.

He turned pro in 1959-60 with the Trois-Rivieres Lions of the Eastern Professional Hockey League, scoring 27 goals and 49 points in 70 games as a center.

The following season of 1960-61, Rochefort played with the Kitchener-Waterloo Beavers, also of the EPHL. That season he had 20 goals and 38 points in 65 games while also making his NHL debut with the Rangers, playing in a lone game.

Rochefort, born on this date in 1939, spent the entire 1961-62 season with the Beavers and saw his scoring output increase with 33 goals and 60 points in 69 games.

He made strides toward becoming a full time NHL player in 1962-63 by playing in 23 games with the Rangers, scoring his first 5 NHL goals and 9 points. The remainder of his season saw him play in 50 games with the Baltimore Clippers of the American Hockey League with 14 goals and 34 assists.

Rochefort during his early days with the Rangers

Before the 1963-64 season, the Rangers made a seven player trade that sent Rochefort, Dave Balon, Len Ronson and Gump Worsley to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Phil Goyette, Don Marshall and Jacques Plante. Montreal was looking to revive their fortunes, as they had been eliminated from the playoffs in the first round three years running after having won five straight Stanley Cups from 1956-60.

Unfortunately for Rochefort, the Canadiens lineup was loaded from the start, and Rochefort spent the vast majority of the next three seasons playing for the Quebec Aces of the AHL, highlighted by averaging a point per game in 1965-66 with 35 goals and 72 points in 71 games played.

The Quebec Aces Leon Rochefort

During that three year span from 1963-64 to 1965-66, Rochefort played in 13 regular season games for Montreal, but during the 1966 Stanley Cup playoffs, he saw action in four of the Canadiens ten playoff games, scoring a goal and an assist as Montreal would go on to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs in four straight and the Detroit Red Wings in six to win the championship, earning Rochefort his name on the Stanley Cup.

Rochefort won a Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1966

Rochefort was limited by injuries during the 1966-67 season, and finished with 8 games for the Aces in the AHL and 27 with Montreal, where he scored 9 goals and 16 points. He also participated in ten playoff games with the Canadiens with a goal and an assist.

The NHL expanded dramatically for the 1967-68 season, doubling in size from six teams to now 12. The expansion gave Rochefort's career a fresh start, as he was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1967 Expansion Draft and led the first year club in goals in 27 in 74 games played as he finished third on the team with 42 points.

Rochefort led the first year Flyers in goals

He returned to the Flyers for the 1968-69 season, with 65 games played and 35 points. After the conclusion of the season, Rochefort was traded by Philadelphia to his original club, the Rangers, on June 6th, only to have the Rangers deal Rochefort to the Los Angeles Kings three days later.

Rochefort spend one season with Los Angeles

In 76 games for the Kings, he scored 9 goals and 32 points. Once more, Rochefort was traded during the offseason, as Los Angeles sent him back to the Canadiens in three for three trade. The situation in Montreal was not very different than before, as Rochefort played ten games in the minor leagues for the Montreal Voyageurs before 57 regular season games back in the NHL with the Canadiens in a checking role, which saw his previous point production drop by half to 15 points. He did see action in 10 playoff games as Montreal would win the second Stanley Cup of Rochefort's career.

The 1970-71 Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens

For the 1971-72 season, Rochefort found himself on the roster of the Red Wings after being traded a week after the Canadiens Stanley Cup victory. He would score 17 goals with Detroit in 64 games on his way to 29 points.

Rochefort was dealt to Detroit a week after winning a Stanley Cup

In 1972-73, he would play 20 games for Detroit only to be traded yet again, this time to the upstart Atlanta Flames. In 54 games with Atlanta, the veteran Rochefort would score 9 goals and 27 points.

He would play a second season with the Flames with similar results, this time 10 goals and 22 points.

Rochefort's veteran presence was welcomed on the young Flames

Probably used to it by now, Rochefort was traded for the seventh time in his NHL career, as the Flames sent him west to the Vancouver Canucks just prior to the start of the 1974-75 season.

He played well in Vancouver, scoring 18 goals and 29 points, his highest total in five years.

After the seventh trade of Rochefort's career to the Canucks, the

airbrushers at O-Pee-Chee apparently put Rochefort in a body cast

Rochefort had one final season of hockey to play, which saw him in 11 games for the Canucks before playing in 60 games with the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League, where he proved he could still play, scoring 25 goals and 40 assists for 65 points, putting up similar numbers to what he had done a decade earlier for the Aces.

His final NHL totals were 617 games played with 121 goals and 147 assists for 268 points and a pair of Stanley Cups with Montreal.

Today's featured jersey is a 1969-70 Los Angeles Kings Leon Rochefort jersey as worn during Rochefort's only season in Los Angeles.

The Kings first took to the ice in 1967-68 wearing this style jersey with one color numbers. After two seasons of play, they added a white outline to the crest and the numbers. Names arrived the next season on the home gold jerseys and the purple stripe moved to the bottom of the jerseys in 1971-72. Names came to the back of the purple road jerseys in 1977-78 and the jerseys remained in use through the 1979-80 season.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1973-74 Atlanta Flames Leon Rochefort jersey worn during his two year stint in Atlanta.

The Flames were founded in 1972-73 in response to the arrival of the new World Hockey Association. The striping on the jerseys was changed slightly from the original three stripe pattern to a five stripe "Northwestern" pattern for the remainder of their time in Atlanta through the 1979-80 season, with the only other change being the addition of names on the back in 1977-78.

Extra bonus jersey: Today's extra bonus jersey is a 1974-75 Vancouver Canucks Leon Rochefort jersey worn during Rochefort's final stop on his hockey tour of North America, which took him from New York to Montreal to Philadelphia across the country to Los Angeles and back to Montreal to Detroit to Atlanta back across the continent to Vancouver.

The original Canucks jerseys had sizeable white V's inside the arm stripes. Two seasons later, the striping patterns were changed on the arms and waist. Vancouver's jerseys would remain the same through the 1977-78 jersey until the docile green and blue jerseys were replaced by their savage black, gold and orange Flying V style.

1973-74 Atlanta Flames Ed Kea Jersey

Born on this day in Weesp, Netherlands in 1948, the story of Ed Kea is one of triumph and tragedy.

His family emigrated to Ontario, Canada when Ed was four years old and he began to play hockey like many young boys in Canada.

His first professional club was the Jersey Devils of the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) in 1969-70 where the defenseman played 52 games, scoring 22 points and accumulating 130 penalty minutes.

The following season he played 74 games with Jersey, scoring 34 points, and also played five games with the Seattle Totems of the Western Hockey League.

For the 1971-72 season, Kea would head to St. Petersburg, Florida for a year with the short-lived Suncoast Suns of the EHL. Kea was the Suns highest scoring defenseman and set career highs with 10 goals and 39 assists for 49 points.

The 1971-72 Suncoast Suns. Kea is third from the right in the front row wearing the assistant captain's "A".

He moved a step closer to the NHL in 1972-73 when he played for the Omaha Knights in the Central Hockey League. In 68 games he equalled his career high ten goals from the year before and contributed six points in 11 playoff games as the Knights won the Adams Cup as league champions.

The 1973-74 season was a memorable one for Kea. He would play seven games for the Knights and 51 games for the Tulsa Oilers, scoring 23 points, but the true highlight was making his NHL debut with the Atlanta Flames. He would see action in just three games that season, but his two assists would make Kea the first player born in the Netherlands to ever score a point in the NHL.

Ed Kea, the first Dutchman to ever score a point in the NHL

He would work to establish himself as a full-time NHL regular the following season, as he spent 21 games with Omaha but the majority of the season with 50 games in Atlanta, which included his first NHL goal, also the first one ever by a player born in the Netherlands.

Kea would play exclusively in the NHL over the next three seasons with the Flames, supplying solid defensive work, with a +21 rating in 1976 and a +25 in 1978, as well as steady offensive contributions with 27, 25 and 26 points.

He played on more season in Atlanta, although he was limited to 53 games, but still managed his usual point production with 24. He also appeared in a pair of games with Tulsa back in the CHL.

Prior to the 1979-80 season, Kea was traded to the St. Louis Blues, where he would play three and a half seasons with a +9, +15 and +19 rating to go along with his 19, 21 and 16 points the first three seasons.

After 46 games in 1982-83, Kea was sitting at just five assists with a -7 rating and was sent down to the Salt Lake Golden Eagles of the CHL, where during just his ninth game with the Golden Eagles, Kea would suffer a career ending severe head injury when his bare head struck the ice face first after a clean check, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious. He would require emergency major brain surgery to save his life two days later to relieve hemorrhaging, swelling and clotting and was left both mentally and physically disabled after beating 50-50 odds of surviving the surgery.

Worse yet, since he was playing in the minor leagues, the NHL benefits for catastrophic injuries did not apply to his case, and with his inability to support his wife and four children, times were very hard for the Kea family.

It was the handling of Kea's case in particular that appalled journalist Russ Conway, which led to him exposing the corruption of Alan Eagleson and his embezzlement of insurance payments meant for the players he represented as head of their union which led to Eagleson's conviction of fraud and embezzlement.

Kea survived the surgery and underwent therapy and rehabilitation and moved on to a life beyond hockey, but 16 years later tragedy struck again, and Kea died in 1999 at the age of just 51 when he drowned in the swimming pool at his family's summer cottage.

Of note, former NHLers Jeff Bukeboom and Joe Nieuwendyk are Kea's nephews.

Today's featured jersey is a 1973-74 Atlanta Flames Ed Kea jersey as worn by Kea during his rookie season in the NHL when he became the first player born in the Netherlands to score a point in the NHL. In his ten year career, Kea would score 30 goals and 145 assists for 175 points.

The Flames used the same jersey for each of their eight seasons in Atlanta and it remained intact after the relocation to Calgary, allowing for the obvious change in crest from the flaming A to the flaming C, all the way through the 1994-95 season, a 15 year run for this classic hockey template.

The Calgary Flames pay tribute to their past by using the original Atlanta Flames logo as the A worn to designate their alternate captains.

This jersey was worn without names on the back until 1977-78 when they became mandatory for all NHL jerseys.

Today's video hunt finds us with nothing but brawls to pick from, as the Flames apparently never actually scored any goals if we are to believe YouTube.

Note the Philadelphia Flyers reverse nameplates. They had one set made up for TV games and wore them on both the white and orange jerseys, a look they have recently revived.

This next collection of mayhem features the Flames and the Maple Leafs from 1979.

1975-76 Atlanta Flames Bill Clement Jersey

Born on this date in 1960, Bill Clement played his junior hockey with the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League. A center, Clement played three seasons for the 67's, including being named team captain for the last two seasons. He scored a high of 19 goals and 36 assists for 55 points in 1969-70, which led to him being drafted 18th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft.

His apprenticeship continued with the Quebec Aces of the American Hockey League in 1970-71 where he again posted very similar numbers with 19 goals and 58 points. He began the 1971-72 season with the Richmond Robins of the AHL, where he played in 26 games prior to making his NHL debut with the Flyers. Once called up to the NHL, Clement scored 9 goals and 23 points that season for his first NHL points.

After one more full season with the Flyers, Clement played an abbreviated season with Philadelphia, playing in just 39 games and four of the Flyers 17 playoff games on their way to their first Stanley Cup championship, the first ever won by a 1967 expansion club.

Clement apparently went to the same barber as Bobby Clarke

Clement came back strong in 1974-75, setting personal highs with 21 goals and 37 points. He also played a bigger role in the Flyers second consecutive Stanley Cup championship by not only playing in 12 of the Flyers 17 playoff games, but scoring the cup winning goal in Game 6 against the Buffalo Sabres.

That summer Clement was traded to the second year Washington Capitals, immediately going from the penthouse to the outhouse, as he moved from the two-time Stanley Cup champions to the Capitals, who had just concluded the previous season with the fewest number of points in NHL history, 21, from a horrendous 8-67-5 record.

Clement during his half a season with the Capitals
while serving as team captain

Clement was named the Capitals team captain for the 1975-76 season and appeared in 46 games prior to being traded to the Atlanta Flames halfway through the season. Just as the second year Capitals relied on Clement, so did the fourth year Flames. Despite the mid-season upheaval of being traded, Clement was able to score a combined 23 goals and 31 assists for 54 points to set career highs in all three offensive categories. He also made his first of two NHL All-Star Game appearances in 1976.

Clement as a member of the Flames while they were still in Atlanta

He had his second 50 point season in 1977-78, and appeared in his second All-Star Game, prior to playing two more seasons in Atlanta before following the franchise to it's new home in Calgary, where they retained the Flames name and colors. Clement was the Flames eighth leading scorer during their time in Atlanta, an impressive showing for a two-way forward.

Clement at the 1978 NHL All-Star Game

Clement played two seasons in Calgary to close out his career, finishing with 719 games played, 148 goals and 208 assists for 356 regular season points. He also played in 50 playoff games, which included five goals, one of which was the cup clincher in 1975.

Following his playing career, Clement entered the world of broadcasting, where his charisma and ever-present smile has made him one of the most popular color commentators in the game.

Color commentator Clement gets silly as the Islanders and Capitals
enter the third overtime in their legendary playoff game

Today's featured jersey is a 1975-76 Atlanta Flames Bill Clement jersey as worn during the most productive offensive season of his career, when he scored a combined 54 points with both the Capitals and Flames.

The Flames kept essentially the same jerseys from their inception in 1972 through their move to Calgary in 1980, with only a tweak in striping following their first season and the addition of league mandated names on the back in 1977 worth noting. In fact, the Flames retained the same jersey template following their move to Calgary through 1992, with only the obvious change in crest from a flaming "A" to a flaming "C". To this day, Calgary pays tribute to their Atlanta origins by retaining the flaming "A" to designate their alternate captains.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1975-76 Atlanta Flames Bill Clement jersey. This is the road red version of today's home white featured jersey. Like the home white jersey, this road red jersey was unchanged for the Flames entire run in Atlanta.

Photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Extra bonus jersey: Today's extra bonus jersey is a 1973-74 Philadelphia Flyers Bill Clement jersey as worn by Clement the year the Flyers won the Stanley Cup for the first time.

The Flyers introduced this jersey style for their inaugural 1967-68 season with one color numbers and no names. The numbers gained a black outline in 1970-71 and the names on the back of the home white jerseys arrived in 1972-73. The sleeve stripes were widened in 1978-79 so the arm numbers fit completely inside. For the final season for this style, the waist stripe was removed for the 1981-82 season when the team wore the full length Cooperall pants. For the second and final season of the Cooperalls, the jersey was heavily updated, primarily with the addition of black trim separating the sleeve stripes from the main body color and now a black waist stripe rather than the previous orange, ending the 15 year long run of their original jersey.

The orange version of this jersey was brought back as a throwback alternate in 2008-09, complete with the white nameplates once used for games on TV when the Flyers chose not to make a separate home and away set of nameplates and simply affixed the home white plates to their road orange jerseys.

The white version was brought back for the 2010 NHL Winter Classic only now with black nameplates, the same season the orange version replaced their then black primary home jersey.

The Winter Classic white jersey then became the team's primary road jersey for the 2010-11 jersey, making for a full return to the Flyers 1970-71 look, only now with names on the back with both utilizing the contrasting nameplate retro look.

Photos courtesy of Classic Auctions

In today's video segment, Clement gets into a scrap with Bobby Orr of the Bruins.

Here, Clement gets silly as the Capitals and Islanders enter the third overtime of their 1987 playoff game, known as "The Easter Epic", which eventually went into a fourth overtime.

Clement, Clement. Hands of cement.

1978-79 Atlanta Flames Dan Bouchard Jersey

On this date in 1971, the National Hockey League announced it had awarded a franchise to the city of Atlanta for the 1972-73 season as the NHL reacted quickly to occupy the new Nassau Coliseum on Long Island with the New York Islanders in order to prevent the upstart World Hockey Association from moving into the arena. Needing a second team to balance the schedule, Atlanta was also awarded a franchise to occupy The Omni, another brand new arena located in Atlanta, Georgia.

The team was named the "Flames", which originated from the famous burning of Atlanta during the American Civil War.

The Omni seated 15,278 for hockey and was a innovative architectural design with an unusual roof, which looked like an egg crate from the air. It's exterior panels which were designed to rust over to seal themselves shut(!), making a solid structure which would last for decades. The only problem was that the panels never stopped rusting, which eventually created holes in the outer wall so large people were able to sneak into the building for free!

The Omni

The club began with a reasonable start for an expansion team, which included being over .500 as late as mid-January, but a late season swoon saw them finish out of the playoffs at 25-38-15.

Being the only club in the American southeast, the Flames were faced with a difficult travel schedule, as the NHL's divisional alignment at the time defied any geographic logic, as it was still based on the principal of having the Original 6 teams in the East, while the 1967 expansion clubs grouped in the "West".

The additions of Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres in 1970 and the Islanders and Flames in 1972 further muddied the picture, as Atlanta was grouped with Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minnesota, St. Louis (closest at 556 miles away), Los Angeles and Oakland, while the "East" division was home to... Vancouver!

The Flames qualified for the playoffs in their second season after a nine point improvement in the standings, although with a sub .500 record of 30-34-14. Highlights that season included the additions of Tom Lysiak who led the club in scoring as a rookie.

Tom Lysiak

While the club improved to a 34-31-15 mark, their 83 points were not enough to make the playoffs. Bright spots were the addition of Eric Vail, who set a club record with 39 goals on his way to the Calder Trophy, and conference realignment, which saw Atlanta now in the Patrick Division (with Philadelphia, the New York Rangers and New York Islanders) of the Campbell Conference (which also included St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, Kansas City and Vancouver).

Eric Vail

While the club qualified for the playoffs in 1975-76 and posted their first winning record of 35-33-12, they remained winless in the playoffs, losing 2 games to none in an abbreviated best-of-three series after being swept in four straight by Philadelphia in 1974. The first signs of trouble on the financial front began to surface when their average attendance dropped from a high of 14,162 in 1973-74 to 13,444 then down to 11,963.

The following season of 1976-77 saw the Flames finally win their first playoff game, but were still eliminated in Round 1 by the Kings 2 games to 1. At one point the team was in danger of missing it's payroll in December, and in an emergency campaign, leading city businesses made $750,000 in advance ticket purchases to help the club avoid bankruptcy.

The now familiar pattern began to repeat, as the 1977-78 Flames once more saw a drop in attendance down to 10,501 as they again won 34 games and were eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs in two straight games, this time at the hands of the Red Wings.

A franchise record 90 points in 1978-79 saw a bump in average tickets sold, up to 11,441, but the Maple Leafs took their turn bouncing the Flames from the postseason in the now customary two straight games. While Lysiak was traded to Chicago, Guy Chouinard provided the thrills with the only 50 goal season in Atlanta history.

The 1979-80 season proved to be the Flames last in Atlanta, and yet again it was a predictable season for the club, as they won 35 games, the fifth time in 8 seasons with 34 or 35 wins. They then ended their eight year run in Atlanta with their fifth consecutive (and sixth overall) first round playoff loss, this time 3 games to 1 in the new best-of-five format to the New York Rangers, giving the Flames a combined playoff record of 2-15 in six tries.

With falling ticket sales combined with a rapid rise in player costs, due to the competition for players between the NHL and WHA, the Flames also suffered from the lack of a major television deal.

When an offer to purchase the club came from Nelson Skalbania, former owner of both the Edmonton Oilers and Indianapolis Racers of the WHA, the Atlanta ownership group accepted the deal and Skalbania immediately moved the club to Calgary, Alberta and chose to keep the name "Flames", feeling it reminiscent of the iconic "gas flares" of the oil production industry in Alberta.

The new ownership also retained the Flames jerseys as well, only the flaming "A" logo changing to a flaming "C" for their new home in Calgary.

A comparison of the Flames jerseys worn in Atlanta and Calgary

Today's featured jersey is a 1978-79 Atlanta Flames Dan Bouchard jersey as worn during Bouchard's finest season of his career when he won 35 games to set a Flames record for most wins in a season. Bouchard split time with Phil Myre for the first five Flames seasons before Myre was dealt to St. Louis, making Bouchard the clear number one goaltender for the Flames final three seasons in Atlanta.

Bouchard never played in less than 34 games, and with the departure of Myre, his totals rose to 58, 64 and 53 before he moved to Calgary when the club was sold and relocated on this date in 1980.

The Flames used the same jersey for each of their eight seasons in Atlanta and it remained intact after the relocation to Calgary, allowing for the obvious change in crest from the flaming A to the flaming C, all the way through the 1994-95 season, a 15 year run for this classic hockey template.

The Calgary Flames pay tribute to their past by using the original Atlanta Flames logo as the A worn to designate their alternate captains.

This jersey was worn without names on the back until 1977-78 when they became mandatory for all NHL jerseys.

photos courtesy of Classic Auctions

 

Today's video hunt finds us with nothing but brawls to pick from, as the Flames apparently never actually scored any goals if we are to believe youtube.

Note the Philadelphia Flyers reverse nameplates. They had one set made up for TV games and wore them on both the white and orange jerseys, a look they have recently revived.

This next collection of mayhem features the Flames and the Maple Leafs from 1979.

The Atlanta Flames Are Extinguished

It was announced on this date in 1980 that the Atlanta Flames had been sold to a group of Canadian business men who announced that the franchise would relocate to Calgary, Alberta.

The Flames began play in 1972 as the NHL reacted quickly to occupy the new Nassau Coliseum on Long Island with the New York Islanders in order to prevent the upstart World Hockey Association from moving into the arena. Needing a second team to balance the schedule, Atlanta was also awarded a franchise to occupy The Omni, another brand new arena located in Atlanta, Georgia.

The team was named the "Flames", which originated from the famous burning of Atlanta during the American Civil War.

The Omni seated 15,278 for hockey and was a innovative architectural design with an unusual roof, which looked like an egg crate from the air. It's exterior panels which were designed to rust over to seal themselves shut(!), making a solid structure which would last for decades. The only problem was that the panels never stopped rusting, which eventually created holes in the outer wall so large people were able to sneak into the building for free!

The Omni

The club began with a reasonable start for an expansion team, which included being over .500 as late as mid-January, but a late season swoon saw them finish out of the playoffs at 25-38-15.

Being the only club in the American southeast, the Flames were faced with a difficult travel schedule, as the NHL's divisional alignment at the time defied any geographic logic, as it was still based on the principal of having the Original 6 teams in the East, while the 1967 expansion clubs grouped in the "West".

The additions of Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres in 1970 and the Islanders and Flames in 1972 further muddied the picture, as Atlanta was grouped with Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minnesota, St. Louis (closest at 556 miles away), Los Angeles and Oakland, while the "East" division was home to... Vancouver!

The Flames qualified for the playoffs in their second season after a nine point improvement in the standings, although with a sub .500 record of 30-34-14. Highlights that season included the additions of Tom Lysiak who led the club in scoring as a rookie.

Tom Lysiak

While the club improved to a 34-31-15 mark, their 83 points were not enough to make the playoffs. Bright spots were the addition of Eric Vail, who set a club record with 39 goals on his way to the Calder Trophy, and conference realignment, which saw Atlanta now in the Patrick Division (with Philadelphia, the New York Rangers and New York Islanders) of the Campbell Conference (which also included St. Louis, Chicago, Minnesota, Kansas City and Vancouver).

Eric Vail

While the club qualified for the playoffs in 1975-76 and posted their first winning record of 35-33-12, they remained winless in the playoffs, losing 2 games to none in an abbreviated best-of-three series after being swept in four straight by Philadelphia in 1974. The first signs of trouble on the financial front began to surface when their average attendance dropped from a high of 14,162 in 1973-74 to 13,444 then down to 11,963.

The following season of 1976-77 saw the Flames finally win their first playoff game, but were still eliminated in Round 1 by the Kings 2 games to 1. At one point the team was in danger of missing it's payroll in December, and in an emergency campaign, leading city businesses made $750,000 in advance ticket purchases to help the club avoid bankruptcy.

The now familiar pattern began to repeat, as the 1977-78 Flames once more saw a drop in attendance down to 10,501 as they again won 34 games and were eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs in two straight games, this time at the hands of the Red Wings.

A franchise record 90 points in 1978-79 saw a bump in average tickets sold, up to 11,441, but the Maple Leafs took their turn bouncing the Flames from the postseason in the now customary two straight games. While Lysiak was traded to Chicago, Guy Chouinard provided the thrills with the only 50 goal season in Atlanta history.

50 goal scorer Guy Chouinard

The 1979-80 season proved to be the Flames last in Atlanta, and yet again it was a predictable season for the club, as they won 35 games, the fifth time in 8 seasons with 34 or 35 wins. They then ended their eight year run in Atlanta with their fifth consecutive (and sixth overall) first round playoff loss, this time 3 games to 1 in the new best-of-five format to the New York Rangers, giving the Flames a combined playoff record of 2-15 in six tries.

With falling ticket sales combined with a rapid rise in player costs, due to the competition for players between the NHL and WHA, the Flames also suffered from the lack of a major television deal.

When an offer to purchase the club came from Nelson Skalbania, former owner of both the Edmonton Oilers and Indianapolis Racers of the WHA, the Atlanta ownership group accepted the deal and Skalbania immediately moved the club to Calgary, Alberta and chose to keep the name "Flames", feeling it reminiscent of the iconic "gas flares" of the oil production industry in Alberta.

The new ownership also retained the Flames jerseys as well, only the flaming "A" logo changing to a flaming "C" for their new home in Calgary.

History repeated itself in Atlanta one day short of 31 years later when the news broke that the troubled Atlanta Thrashers franchise was sold to a group who then moved the Thrashers over the border to Winnipeg, Manitoba as the long desired replacement for the beloved Jets, who relocated to Phoenix in 1996.

Today's featured jersey is a 1978-79 Atlanta Flames Eric Vail jersey. Vail played more games in Atlanta Flames history than any other player, 469, joining the club for it's second season of 1973-74 through their sale and relocation seven seasons later. Vail also led the Flames in all-time goals with 174 and ranked second in points with 383, behind only Lysiak.

The Flames used the same jersey for each of their eight seasons in Atlanta and it remained intact after the relocation to Calgary, allowing for the obvious change in crest from the flaming A to the flaming C, all the way through the 1994-95 season, a 15 year run for this classic hockey template.

The Calgary Flames pay tribute to their past by using the original Atlanta Flames logo as the A worn to designate their alternate captains.

This jersey was worn without names on the back until 1977-78 when they became mandatory for all NHL jerseys.

Today's video hunt finds us with nothing but brawls to pick from, as the Flames apparently never actually scored any goals if we are to believe youtube.

Note the Philadelphia Flyers reverse nameplates. They had one set made up for TV games and wore them on both the white and orange jerseys, a look they have recently revived.

This next collection of mayhem features the Flames and the Maple Leafs from 1979.