Первый сезон Всемирной хоккейной ассоциации (1972–73)

Sports season

The 1972–73 WHA season was the first season of the World Hockey Association (WHA). Twelve teams played 78 games each. The league was officially incorporated in June of 1971 by Gary Davidson and Dennis A. Murphy and promised to ice twelve teams in various markets around Canada and the United States. The league championship trophy, the Avco World Trophy, was donated by AVCO Financial Services Corporation along with $500,000. The New England Whalers won the first Avco World Trophy.

The WHA's inaugural player draft was held in Anaheim, California on February 12 and 13, 1972. All 12 WHA franchises took part in the draft. There were no drafting constraints, and the WHA teams selected players from all levels of play, including established National Hockey League players, minor leaguers, college, junior players, Europeans, and even retired players. The first player selected in the general draft was United States men's national ice hockey team member Henry Boucha, taken by the Minnesota Fighting Saints (who also selected the Governor of Minnesota, Wendell Anderson, with a late pick). After 70 rounds the Winnipeg Jets selected Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin and then stopped participating in the draft, while the other teams continued making selections. This process continued, with teams arbitrarily dropping out from the draft, while others kept going, until attrition finally ended the process. The final two teams participating in this draft were the Dayton Aeros and the Los Angeles Sharks. In all, just under 1100 selections were made by the 12 teams, who could now focus their efforts on signing players for the first season of play.

1972 73 World Hockey Association Division Team City Arena Capacity Eastern Cleveland Crusaders Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Arena 9,900 New England Whalers Boston, Massachusetts Boston Arena Boston Garden 4,666 15,003 New York Raiders New York, New York Madison Square Garden 17,500 Ottawa Nationals Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa Civic Centre 9,000 Philadelphia Blazers Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia Civic Center 9,000 Quebec Nordiques Quebec City, Quebec Colisée de Québec 10,034 Western Alberta Oilers Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton Gardens 5,200 Chicago Cougars Chicago, Illinois International Amphitheatre 9,000 Houston Aeros Houston, Texas Sam Houston Coliseum 9,217 Los Angeles Sharks Los Angeles, California Long Beach, California Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena Long Beach Arena 14,546 12,500 Minnesota Fighting Saints St. Paul, Minnesota St. Paul Auditorium St. Paul Civic Center 5,000 16,000 Winnipeg Jets Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg Arena 10,100

The first WHA games, on October 11, 1972, were won by the Alberta Oilers 7–4 over the Ottawa Nationals and the Cleveland Crusaders 2–0 over the Quebec Nordiques. The WHA was split into two divisions, the Eastern Division and the Western Division. Each division sported six teams. The New England Whalers led the Eastern Division and had the best record in the league. The other playoff qualifiers in the East were Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Ottawa. The Winnipeg Jets led the Western Division and had the second best record in the league. Behind Winnipeg, the West had a thrilling race with four teams fighting for three playoff spots, trading second through fifth place all season. Houston won three of its last four games to finish second with 82 points. With two games remaining, Minnesota had 79 points, Alberta had 77, and Los Angeles had 76. Los Angeles won their last two games to finish third, while Minnesota and Alberta both lost their next to last game of the season, setting up a final game showdown in Minnesota against each other with Minnesota two points ahead of Alberta. Alberta won the game 5 3, so both teams finished with identical records. The league now faced a dilemma. The first standings tiebreaker was number of wins, and the teams both had 38. The second tiebreaker was head to head record and the teams split their eight games with four wins apiece. The league by laws did not specify further tiebreakers. In the NHL, the next two tie breakers were goal differential and goals scored, both of which favored Alberta. But because the WHA by laws did not specify additional tiebreakers, the league Board of Governors met to decide how to break the tie. They ultimately decided on a 1 game playoff at a neutral site. The Alberta Oilers missed the playoffs, despite having a superior goal differential to the Minnesota Fighting Saints, because they lost the neutral site, tie breaking game against the Saints in Calgary by a score of 4 2.

The WHA held its first all star game on January 6, 1973, in Quebec City. The attendance of 5,435 was lower than expected, perhaps because it was locally televised and Quebec City was hit by a major snow storm. The East defeated the West 6–2. Wayne Carleton of the Ottawa Nationals was named the game MVP. During the all star break, the WHA Players' Association was officially formed, with Curt Leichner of Portland as general counsel and Bill Hicke of the Alberta Oilers as president.

Compared to the thrilling race in the West Division, the playoffs were unexciting in that the team with the better record won every series and only one series went beyond 5 games. That was the West semifinal between Houston and Los Angeles. After getting blown out in game one in Houston by a score of 7–2, Los Angeles rallied to win game two 4–2 and even the series. The Sharks then won a thrilling game three in L. A. 3–2. Game 4 was the turning point of the series. The teams headed into overtime tied at 2; a Houston goal would even the series while a Los Angeles goal would give the Sharks a commanding 3–1 series lead. The Aeros scored in overtime to even the series, then won game 5 in Houston, 63. Game six in L. A. was another thriller, with Houston scoring in the final minutes to win the game 3–2 and win the series.

New England Whalers defeated the Winnipeg Jets, 4 games to 1. The Whalers defeated the Jets 9–6 in the deciding game in Boston on May 6, 1973, with Larry Pleau scoring a hat trick. Upon their win, The Avco World Trophy had not yet been completed. As a result, the Whalers skated their victory lap with their divisional trophy.

Avco World Trophy: New England WhalersGary L. Davidson Award: Bobby Hull, Winnipeg JetsBill Hunter Trophy: Andre Lacroix, Philadelphia BlazersLou Kaplan Trophy: Terry Caffery, New England Whalers Ben Hatskin Trophy: Gerry Cheevers, Cleveland CrusadersDennis A. Murphy Trophy: J. C. Tremblay, Quebec NordiquesPaul Deneau Trophy: Ted Hampson, Minnesota Fighting SaintsHoward Baldwin Trophy: Jack Kelley, New England Whalers

Position First Team Second Team Third Team Centre Andre Lacroix, Philadelphia Ron Ward, New York Chris Bordeleau, Winnipeg Right Wing Danny Lawson, Philadelphia Tom Webster, New England Norm Beaudin, Winnipeg Left Wing Bobby Hull, Winnipeg Gary Jarrett, Cleveland Wayne Carleton, Ottawa Defence J. C. Tremblay, Quebec Jim Dorey, New England Ted Green, New England Defence Paul Shmyr, Cleveland Larry Hornung, Winnipeg Rick Ley, New England Goaltender Gerry Cheevers, Cleveland Bernie Parent, Philadelphia Al Smith, New England