The man who sat in Jeff Gorton’s seat just over four decades ago is expected at the Garden for Sunday’s Jean Ratelle celebration. General manager to general manager, Emile Francis understands perhaps better than anyone the tear-down, rebuild scenario facing Gorton, because he was forced to initiate the very same action when his beloved team’s time had come in the mid-’70s.
“It’s absolutely the same thing,” The Cat told Slap Shots on Thursday. “We had our great run, had teams that were good enough to win the Cup, I’ll tell you that. But then, they all got a year older, and when you get older you’re prone to getting hurt, and your performance goes down, and as general manager you’re faced with decisions, and they’re hard, believe me, because you came so close and you’ve been with so many of them for so long.
“It’s tough.”
Nothing, though, was tougher for Francis than trading Ratelle and Brad Park (plus Joe Zanussi) to the Bruins on Nov. 7, 1975, for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais.
“The worst thing I’ve ever had to do,” said the father of modern Rangerstown. “That summer I knew we were going to need a [new] goalie, so I made the trade with St. Louis for John [Davidson]. But every time we played him at home, the fans would start with ‘Ed-die … Ed-die …’ ”
That would be Ed-die Giacomin, of course, as popular in his day as Henrik Lundqvist, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Maybe even more so.
“So, I had to trade Giacomin,” Emile said. “I tried but the word was out that he had bad knees and no one would trade for him. So I put him on waivers and Detroit took him.”
Ah yes, Detroit took him, came into the Garden with him two days later to prompt one of the most memorable fan demonstrations — “Ed-die … Ed-die … Ed-die” — in the history of pro sports, here or anywhere.
That was Nov. 1, 1975. Giacomin was gone. Vic Hadfield had been traded following the 1974 Game 7 Cup semifinals defeat in Philadelphia. Teddy Irvine was gone in the deal to acquire Davidson. Chief Neilson had been claimed in the intra-league draft by the Golden Seals after the loss to the Flyers. Dale Rolfe had retired following the 1975 Game 3 preliminary-round defeat to the Islanders.
“But I knew what I had to do,” said Francis, who on Thursday told us the player he first attempted to acquire from the Bruins in the mega-deal.
Ready for this?
“Bobby Orr,” Francis said.
“You don’t trade twos and threes for aces,” said the Cat. “I went after Orr. But I might as well have been trying to get the Guy Upstairs. No chance of that.”
Actually, Orr had sat out the first five weeks of the season while recovering from knee surgery. He would make his 1975-76 debut on Nov. 8 in Vancouver and play just 10 games that season. Indeed, the greatest player of his — or any — time, would play only an additional 26 games following that season before retiring at the age of 30 in early 1978-79.
Regardless, the Bruins and their first-year owner, Jeremy Jacobs, would not hear of trading Orr, who was deceived by his agent, the felonious Alan Eagleson, into joining the Black Hawks as a free agent during the summer of 1976. Hence, it was Esposito and Vadnais to Broadway.
“Jean and his wife came by my house right after the trade,” Francis said. “I told him that no mater how much it hurt, I knew I had to do what I had to do. He thanked me for trading him to such a good team and a good city. There were never any grudges.”
The Bruins of Ratelle and Park went to the finals in 1977 and 1978 before losing to the Canadiens. The Rangers of Esposito and Vadnais and Davidson went to the finals in 1979 before losing to the Canadiens.
“When they went to the finals a few years later, who was the guy that took them there?” Francis asked before answering. “It was John [Davidson].
“Sometimes you do things that hurt, but they’re the right things. It happened to us. That’s what they’re going through now.”
You’d rather your role model be a parent, a sibling, a family member; perhaps even a teacher or faith-based confidante.
But if a class of athletes ever qualified, it is the gold-medal-winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team, whose empowerment off and on the ice stamps this group as something to be remembered and celebrated for all time.
Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig, Mark Johnson, Neal Broten, Jack O’Callahan and Rob McClanahan need to make some room on the pedestal for Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, Maddie Rooney, Hilary Knight, Amanda Kessel, Brianna Decker and Monique Lamoureux-Morando.
Champions, these women, by every definition of the word.
Out of unspeakable tragedy, heroes have emerged from Parkland, Fla. And though Roberto Luongo did not personally endure the horror in which 14 children and three teachers were gunned down in their school, the Panthers’ goaltender has emerged as a strong voice in the community he intends to make home for the rest of his life.
The hockey world has long known of Luongo’s grace and class. Now, under the most unfortunate circumstances, a wider audience may come to appreciate him as a man and a neighbor, not just as a player.
The NHL should be proud to have men of Luongo’s conscience representing the league.
So Canada’s Gilbert Brule attempts to take the head off Germany’s David Wolf in the Olympic semifinal game while Canada’s Jocelyne Larocque takes the silver medal off from around her neck in the ceremony following the final defeat to the USA, and just guess which act provokes more outrage among our friends north of the border?
Perspective, people. Perspective, please.
Finally, Derek Jeter sees no reason at all for the Rangers to rebuild.