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Detroit Red Wings Greatest Players
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Monday
Tuesday
Gerry Odrowski
Gerry Odrowski put the well in well-travelled.
Let's see if we can get all the teams he played for, in chronological order of course:
Odrowski could have grown a complex over teams moving him all the time. But the worst had to be when Odrowski had to leave an Oakland Seals game vs. the New York Rangers with an injury. Odrowski remained in hospital because the Seals left town and forgot to arrange for him to come home.
Aside from that moment, the kid from Trout Creek, Ontario sure seemed to enjoy hockey in California. But he never stayed with one team very long. The longest stay was four seasons with the San Francisco Seals, which made him an obvious choice to join the Oakland Seals when they joined the NHL in 1967.
Former Seals teammate Kent Douglas called him "a beauty - he was one of a kind. He gave 150% on every shift. I've never seen anybody sweat like him. He worked very hard and was deceptively quick."
Odrowski was a stay at home defenseman who at times in his career, most notably in Oakland, killed penalties as a forward (with Charlie Burns). He was widely respected by his teammates for his hard work but also his great sense of humor. That sense of humor must have been relied on a few times in the Seals sorry history.
A self described "average hockey player," one thing Odrowski was not known for was scoring goals. In 309 NHL games he scored just 12 goals (and 31 points). In 282 WHA games he lit the lamp 16 times (plus 114 assists for 130 points).
Odrowski was easily identifiable because of his bald head. He began losing his hair at the age of 10.
"Nobody knows what caused it," he recalled. "For a while other kids called me 'baldy' but four or five years later it started to grow back, and I figure by the time I'm 65, I'll have a full head of hair just when everybody else will have lost theirs."
As a youth Odrowski was coached by long time NHL star (and member of Parliament) Bucko McDonald. It was Bucko who taugh Odrowski how to play defense.
"If it wasn't for Bucko, I would have never made it in hockey."
Odrowski was described "an efficient passer who was tough to get around in his own end." That sounds pretty much just like Bucko McDonald when he was a hard hitting player with the Leafs. He later went on to coach many young defensemen, including a young Bobby Orr.
Odrowski left the game behind in 1976, but not on good terms. He sued the Jets because he felt they failed to pay him a $12,500 bonus. He did eventually settle the suit but never got much money for it.
After retiring from the ice Gerry went to work for his brother Tony in North Bay selling automotive parts. He later got into politics serving on city council in South Himsworth Township, Ontario. Read more...
Friday
Bobby Francis
Bobby Francis grew up in the rich tradition of the National Hockey League since the day he was born. His father Emile "The Cat" Francis who played 12 professional seasons as a goaltender, 6 with the Chicago Blackhawks and New York Rangers. He is better known as a Hall of Fame builder in hockey after a long coaching and managing career including lengthy stays with the the New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues and Hartford Whalers.
Born in North Battleford Saskatchewan in 1958, Bobby grew up largely in New York where Emile became a front office fixture for the Rangers starting in 1962. Bobby developed his skills in the New York Metro Junior Hockey League. Because of the large population, ice time was hard to come by. So Bobby learned much of his hockey training by playing roller hockey. Of course Rollerblades or inline skates didn't exist back then. Like fellow New Yorkers Joey and Brian Mullen and Nick Fotiu, Bobby learned the game of hockey on those old roller derby skates!
But by playing on wheels Bobby's game improved immensely. When he did get a chance to get on the ice, he was already far better than the kids who didn't play on wheels. That, plus the fact that his dad was a former NHLer, helped open doors for Bobby.
Following Bobby's junior days, Bobby walked through one of those open doors when he decided to continue his education at the University of New Hampshire where he earned All American Honorable Mention. Bobby was a fantastic hockey player at UNH as well. During the years at New Hampshire, Bobby's team was the team to beat in the Eastern Collegiate Conference. After a 19 goal performance his senior year, another door was opened for Bobby when he signed as a free agent with the Calgary Flames.
During his first pro season, 1980-81, the 5'9" 175 pound center scored 22 goals while splitting the year playing for Birmingham (CHL) and Muskegon (IHL). However it was the 1981-82 that was the season to remember for Bobby. Bobby would set new scoring records while playing for Oklahoma City of the CHL. He not only earned the scoring title, and the Rookie of the Year honors, but the Most Valuable Player award as well. After scoring 48 and 114 points, Bobby returned to the CHL in 1982-83 with his sights set on the CHL scoring record. This time with Calgary's affiliate team in Colorado, Bobby was off to a fantastic start - scoring 20 goals and 36 points in 26 games. He even scored 5 goals in one game!
However his chase of the CHL scoring record was put on hold after the 5 goal game. Bobby was traded by Calgary to Detroit of the National Hockey League. Bobby was quickly called up to the Red Wings where he would make his NHL debut.
"Playing in the National Hockey League was something I always dreamed of, everybody does. It was real gratifying to know I had finally made it," said Francis.
However, this Cinderella story ends with the call-up to the big show. Despite his obvious promise, Bobby never got a great shot at making the Red Wings roster. While on the Red Wings roster, there were 7 other centers on the team. And with Detroit in a playoff race there was no chance that a raw rookie like Bobby would get some playing time.
"It was then I opened my eyes to the other things that go on off the ice in hockey," Francis said. "Everybody in the Detroit organization was new and they were having a tough time adjusting. Things just didn't go like I thought they would."
Bobby played in only 14 games, scoring 2 goals and no assists.
Bobby was shipped to the American League to play with Adirondack to finish the season. In 16 games Francis scored only three goals. The promising CHL star had trouble adjusting to the higher level of competition, and that left Bobby frustrated.
"As the season came to a close, I had to consider my future in the game. There were several offers from European teams and one of the offers looked real good. Then out of the blue, Doug Spedding (owner and president of the Colorado Flames) called me and asked what it would take for me to play with the Flames," Francis recalled.
Bobby ended up signing a 1 year contract with the Colorado CHL team. The popular #9 had a strong season, scoring 82 points (32 goals, 50 assists) in just 68 games but opted to leave Colorado in the summer of 1984. He continued his career in his new home of Salt Lake where he played with the IHL's Golden Eagles. He started out slowly in the IHL, scoring 40 points in 53 games in 1984-85. The following year he improved to 76 points in 82 games before scoring his second best professional season of 98 points in his final year of pro hockey in 1986-87.
Bobby quit playing hockey but remained with the Golden Eagles until 1993 in a coaching capacity. He was an assistant coach until 1989 when he was named head coach . Bob decided to pursue opportunities outside of Utah that would lead him to a NHL coaching job. The Golden Eagles at the time were a Calgary Flames affiliate, but their number one farm team was the St. John Maple Leafs. The Flames were impressed with Francis enough to offer him the head job with the St. John Flames from 1993 through 1995.
Bobby left the Flames organization to coach the Boston Bruins farm team in Providence from 1995 through 1997.
By 1997 Bobby Francis - like his dad many years before him - had become one of the top coaching prospects in all of hockey. The Bruins promoted him to the NHL where he served as an assistant coach under Pat Burns.
By 1999 Bobby reached his ultimate goal by becoming the head coach of his own NHL team. The Phoenix Coyotes hired Francis. He did an admirable job with a ownership-in-limbo situation and superstar goalie Nokolai Khabibulin's contract squabbles.
"I have been spending a lot of years to prepare for this opportunity. I was the head coach in the minor leagues for nine years and I had the luxury and the good fortune to be an assistant coach for Pat Burns and work for Jacques Laperriere for two years in Boston. You tend to -- I think you have to be your own person. You have to generate your own style. If you try to emulate somebody else, I think the players can read through that and the things have to come natural, they have to come from your own thought process. You learn a little bit from different people you work with throughout the years. Again, I think like any individual, you learn most from your parents growing up and what they stand for and you try to implement those beliefs in your daily process," he said of his coaching abilities.
By 2002 he was named as the Jack Adams Award winner as best coach in the NHL. Less than two years later he was fired as the Coyotes on-ice performance wilted significantly.
Bill Lochead
Bill Lochead was a fine junior player, scoring 140 goals and 278 points in only 158 games for the Oshawa Generals. He was chosen to the second OHA All-Star team in 1973 and the first in 1974. In 1974 he was awarded the Red Tilson Award as the MVP in his last season of junior hockey.
His fine junior career of course attracted a lot of attention from the NHL scouts. Bill was eventually drafted by the Detroit Red Wings with their 1st round draft choice, 9th overall in 1974. He had a solid rookie season in the NHL 1974-75, scoring 16 goals (28 points) in 65 games and was selected as the team rookie-of-the-year by the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association.
But the following season Bill only scored 9 goals (20 points) in 53 games. He also played 24 games in the minors, playing for New Haven (AHL) where he scored 30 points (17 goals + 13 assists). Detroit´s management was impatiently waiting for Bill to blossom, yet he was showing no signs of coming around, scoring 16 goals and 14 assists in 61 games for Detroit during the 1976-77 season.
In 1977-78 Bill showed flashes of his potential when he scored 20 goals and added 16 assists in 77 games for Detroit. During the 1977-78 season Bill's coach Bobby Kromm described his style like this: "Bill depends on skating and forechecking in the opponent's end. He tries to force their defense to cough up the puck and make mistakes. He's a quick, hard skater, and so far, he's been very effective."
He also went on to score his most important goal in a Red Wings uniform in the playoffs that season. For one night on April 13, 1978 he was the king of Hockeytown before there was such a kingdom. Bill's two third-period goals against Atlanta in the playoffs, including the winner with 1:34 left, made the Wings the toast of the city. The goal that brought Red Wings fans to their feet and the Atlanta Flames to their knees got etched into the Olympia Stadium lore until this day. Bill's goal clinched the Wings first playoff series in 12 years.
The goal was Detroit's most electrifying playoff goal in a long time and belonged to an underachieving first-round draft pick whose tiptoe through the Flames was a shining moment in a decade of darkness. "For me, it was the best time I had in professional hockey," Bill said.
The 1977-78 Detroit team was coming off the franchise's worst season to that point (16-55-9), when they failed to make the playoffs for the seventh consecutive year. But first-year coach Bobby Kromm and general manager Ted Lindsay assembled an electrifying blend of players who helped the Wings double their victory total with a 32-34-14 record. Among the players on the team was chippy team captain Dennis Hextall, tough defenseman Terry Harper, fast forward Nick Libett, hustling wing Dennis Polonich, rookie Dale McCourt, Paul Woods, hard shooting defenseman Reed Larson, goalie Jim Rutherford, big winger Vaclav Nedomansky and 20 goal scorer Bill Lochead.
A strong second half propelled the Wings to a 78-point season, good for second place in the Norris Division behind Montreal and a first-round playoff date with Atlanta. The best-of-three preliminary series pitted the Wings against the Flames, perennial playoff chokers. Atlanta was a big, physical team that featured Tom Lysiak, Willi Plett and goaltender Dan Bouchard.
In Game 1 at the Omni, Detroit won, 5-3, after having scored three power-play goals. Two nights later, a Thursday, an Olympia-record crowd of 16,671 crammed into the old red barn, anticipating Detroit's first series victory since 1966. All the fervor that had evaporated from the glory years in the 1950s and '60s was back. After a scoreless first period, the teams traded second-period goals from Lysiak and Vaclav Nedomansky. Lochead scored at 8:58 of the third to put the Wings up for the first time, 2-1. Five minutes later, Atlanta tied it on Bobby Lalonde's unassisted goal.
With less than two minutes left, the Lochead-McCourt-Woods line was ready to return to the bench. A TV time-out revived them for one more face-off. On his off-wing, the right-handed Lochead took a pass from Woods at his blue line and dashed up the left boards.
"I remember coming up on Dick Redmond and just missing his hip check at the blue line," Bill said. "Bouchard came out trying to take away the shot. Instead of going to the net, I dragged the puck into my feet as if going behind the net. At that point, I was on the goal line, and Bouchard was out of position, but I'm really flying now." As he continued around the net, Bill kicked the puck toward the crease and -- while standing behind the goal -- reached over the crossbar and tucked it into the net with a one-handed flick of the wrist. With 94 seconds left, the Wings' bench and the Olympia throng exploded in an ice-littering celebration that halted play for five minutes.
"I think Bouchard's jock was still in the rafters when they tore the building down," Dennis Hextall joked 20 years later.
"It amazes me after all these years and all the nice goals that have been scored, that goal still stands out in the minds of a lot of people,"
Bill said "It's nice to have one game where things went as they should have gone as a No. 1 pick."
It was Detroit's last playoff victory at Olympia. The Wings played Montreal in the quarterfinals. Although they won one of the first two games at the Forum, the Canadiens swept the final three games by a combined 16-4 en route to a third consecutive Stanley Cup.
Bill,the speedy winger failed to live up to the high expectations that came with him as the team's top draft choice in 1974 also failed in training camp the following fall. Bill suffered a knee injury and was out several months. He was claimed off waivers by Colorado and traded to the New York Rangers after the season.
Bill retired from the NHL after the '79-80 season and then headed out for Europe where he stared for almost a decade. Bill played for German teams Bad Nauheim, Kaufbeuren, Mannheim and Swiss team Chur before ending his career in Austria and WEV Wien in 1986-87. Bill began coaching in Germany in 1991 after a four-year hiatus in the private sector in London, Ontario. Today he lives in Germany. He's coached ECD Iserlohn, Frankfurt Lions, Kassel Huskies of the German Elite League. Read more...
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