New England Whalers
VS
San Diego Mariners
WHALERS WIN!!!! 2-0
I couldn't tell you why Gordie Howe and Kevin Morrison were featured on the front
of a New England Whalers Program, but they were. Howe was still playing with the Aeros in March of '77.
Morrison was featured inside.
Just Leave That Stuff Wherever, There's a Brawl Taking Place!!
Interestingly enough there was an article entitled, "WHA Rule Changes to Curb Violence". Outright violence in hockey
was really beginning to plague hockey. (Yes, there is a difference between violence and straight up, hard-hitting hockey) There was an article in
Sports Illustrated in 1976 concerning the infamous Flyers vs Toronto police fight and the even more grizzly pummelling Rick Jodzio put on Marc Tardiff in the WHA playoff
series between Quebec and Calgary in spring of 1976. So in an effort to curb the violence, the WHA put in the instigator penalty to add an additional two-minutes to a fighter's normal
five minutes for fighting. Also players not fighting had to go to their nets in order to avoid getting hit with a two-minute penalty themselves. Third man in was given a game misconduct
and the first player to leave the bench would be given a game misconduct and a $500 dollar fine. Each additional player to leave the bench would be given a $250 fine. God help you if you instigate
a stick swinging fight. Penalties for that were set at a minimum of $1000 and a match penalty.
Bruce Landon Clears the Puck
"Two Weeks on the Road: One Man's Diary" was a nice little journal kept by play-by-play man Bob Neumeier. For the most part, Neumeier runs the stairs in the morning, eats, calls the game and drinks.
And boy does he drink. "...Wolf my burger, wash it down with another beer, then another, then...". Well you can see where that is going. Wednesday, February 2 was interesting. Bob watched President Carter's firside
chat then fell asleep during Charlie's Angels. He commented, "that's number one in the ratings?...Lord help us." The February 1st game was in Birmingham against the Bulls. "Whalers lose a 4-3 heartbreaker...Bilodeau (Bad News) acts up, Ley gets hurt,
Jack Carlson gets thrown out, Garrett kills the Whalers, fans go nuts, (now I know why the North had such a tough time at Gettysburg)...". Of course the night ends at the local pub, where "...one cold one leads to another and another."
That's about it. Some good stuff, just not much of it. They ended up 2-5 on Neumeier's Fear and Loathing road trip.