It has been 41 years now since the NHL doubled in size from six to twelve teams with the expansion of the 1967-68 season. Of the dozen buildings in which those teams played the majority of their games that season, only two -- Madison Square Garden IV in New York and Mellon Arena (then called Civic Arena) in Pittsburgh -- are still hosting NHL hockey. While it now appears that the New York Rangers will remain in MSG for some years to come, a new home for the Penguins is now under construction in Pittsburgh to replace what is currently the oldest arena (opened 1961) in the league. The 2009-10 season will thus be the last for Mellon Arena as it will be torn down when the Pens move to their new home located nearby at Center Ave and 5th Ave.



The Mellon Arena and The Spectrum...their days are numbered.

The 2008-09 season, however, will be the last for another 1967-68 NHL venue -- The Spectrum in Philadelphia -- which was the home of the Flyers from the inaugural season for the expansion club until 1996 when the team moved across the parking lot to its current home, the Wachovia (then Corestates) Center. Since 1996 the Spectrum has been home ice for the AHL Philadelphia Phantoms, the Flyers' development team, and as did the Flyers when they were there, that club has won a pair of playoff titles (the Calder Cup) during its time in the Spectrum. But with the planned development of a large shopping and entertainment complex including a new hotel to be built on the site, the Spectrum will have to go after this season as well.

Here is a look back at the fate of the arenas that housed the "Original Six" teams in the NHL in 1967 and what happened to them since. (I'll take a look at the Expansion clubs' arenas in part two.)



EAST DIVISION

(The "Original Six")

Montreal Canadiens: The Montreal Forum, Avenue Atwater and Rue Ste-Catherine Ouest, Montreal, PQ, Canada




"The Montreal Forum" ... is now the ... "The Pepsi Forum"

Originally opened in 1924 for the Montreal Maroons, the Forum served as the Canadiens' home ice for seventy years from 1926 to 1996 and also shared it with the Maroons (both clubs were owned by the Canadian Arena Company) from 1926 to 1938. The Habs won all of their 24 Stanley Cup titles as an NHL team wil playing at the Forum (the first in 1930 over the Rangers, their last in 1993 against Los Angeles) while the Maroons won Cups in 1926 vs Ottawa and 1935 vs New York for a total of 26 titles by tenants of the building.



The Montreal Forum as it looked in the 1950's

Built in less than six months and opened in November, 1924, the original Forum had seats for just 9,300. It derived its name from a roller skating rink also called "The Forum" which had been located there previously. The last Canadiens' game played at the Forum occurred on March 11, 1996, a 4-1 victory over the Dallas Stars, and five days later the Habs took to the ice at the Molson (now Bell) Centre for the first time, defeating the New York Rangers to inaugurate their new home.



The Bell Centre

Although no longer a sports arena, the building itself lives on under the new name of the "Pepsi Forum" as a downtown mall and entertainment center. After being gutted, the interior of the Forum was replaced with shops, restaurants, and an AMC multiplex theater. The former life of the Forum is not forgotten, however, as a large bronze Montreal Canadiens logo surrounded by 24 bronze Stanley Cup banners is inbedded in the sidewalk at the Atwater Street enterence while inside the entire building is decorated with special emphasis on the history of the Montreal Canadiens.



New York Rangers: Madison Square Garden IV, 33rd St & 8th Ave, New York City, NY




MSG IV

The Rangers actually started the 1967-68 season still skating in their longtime original home, Madison Square Garden III, located at 50th Street and 8th Avenue, where the club had played since it's first season in 1926 as construction was not yet completed on the new MSG. Built over Pennsylvania Station and with an ice surface is located five stories above street level, MSG IV opened on February 14, 1968, and has been the home of the Rangers ever since. Twice since then, however, plans have been announced to build a Madison Square Garden V, but both times they have ben canceled because of the huge expense and ownership instead opted for extensive renovations of the current arena.

The first of these, a $200 Million Dollar facelift which included the installation of 89 luxury suites, was completed in 1991. In 2004 current Garden owner Cablevision announced its own plans to raze MSG IV and replace it with high-rise commercial buildings. The proposed new Garden would then be built one block west across 8th Avenue at the site of the current James Farley Post Office in conjunction with the Moynihan Station project however that MSG project was canceled as well in April, 2008. The second renovation of MSG IV to replace it is expected to be completed in time for the 2011-12 season.



...Gone...

MSG III (1925-68) was demolished shortly after it closed and the site was occupied by a parking lot until 1989 when a fifty story office tower and 38 story apartment tower complex called "World Wide Plaza" were built on the site.



Boston Bruins: The Boston Garden, 150 Causeway St, Boston, MA




...Gone...

The Bruins played at Boston Garden -- which like MSG IV was built over a railroad station (North Station) -- from the time it opened on November 17, 1928, until the end of the 1994-95 season when the team moved to the new Fleet Center (now TD Banknorth Garden) which had been built just nine inches north of the Garden. In addition to the Bruins, Boston Garden was also home to the NBA Celtics and amazingly for two years -- 1972-74 -- the venerable arena was the home to no less than three professional hockey teams at once: the Bruins, AHL Boston Braves, and WHA New England Whalers thus making it for those two years probably the busiest pro hockey rink in history.



TD Banknorth Garden

The seating in the Garden was very steep and therefore close to the ice. This was not without its problems though as the arena's dozens of columns obstructed the view of the ice for many patrons. As NHL rinks did not have a standard size (200' x 85') when the Garden was built, its ice surface was only 191' x 83' and the players' benches were also on opposite sides of the ice. Both penalty benches were therefore next to the Bruins' bench which was a considerable advantage for them when penalties expired.

The Garden was also never air conditioned so many late spring regular season and play-off games -- especially ones with long overtimes -- were liable to be interrupted by fog. Two Stanley Cup Finals games against the Edmonton Oilers played in 1988 and 1990 were also both severely disrupted by power outages in the old barn on Causeway Street. (One was declared a 3-3 tie when power could not be restored, and the other was finally won by the Oilers in triple OT after a long delay which stretched the game to six hours overall.) While the diehard hockey fans of Boston no doubt miss the character and history of the Boston Garden, they surely do not miss its many foibles!

The Boston Garden was demolished in 1997, two years after it closed, and the space where it stood for 73 years is now occupied by a parking lot for the new building.



Chicago Blackhawks: The Chicago Stadium, 1800 W. Madison Street, Chicago, IL




...Gone...

Opened in March, 1929, the three tiered Chicago Stadium was home to the Chicago Blackhawks from the 1929-30 season until the club left for the new United Center immediately West of the Stadium in 1994. In addition to hockey and basketball, the "Madhouse on Madison" (as it was popularly known) hosted events as diverse as the 1933 funeral of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak (who was assassinated on February 15, 1933, while shaking hands with President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in the rear seat of an open car in Miami, Florida, by Giuseppe Zangara who was attempting to assassinate Roosevelt but hit Cermak instead), and the first ever NFL Championship Playoff Game which was played due to extremely cold weather on a 60-yard dirt field on December 19, 1932, between the Chicago Bears and Portsmouth Spartans. (Chicago won, 9-0).

The Stadium was also a popular venue for national political conventions during its first fifteen years hosting five of them (FDR was nominated there for President three times -- 1932, 1940, and 1944, and the Republicans met there as well in 1932 and 1944). It also featured a massive 3,663-pipe Barton pipe organ played for years by the great Al Melgard.



Al Melgard at the Chicago Stadium Organ

Visiting NHL teams hated playing at Chicago Stadium for a wide variety of reasons -- its short ice (188') which made a neutral zone a dozen feet shorter than regulation, its incredible loud crowds (especially during the National Anthem), blaring pipe organ, having to climb a narrow staircase from the visiting basement level locker room, and of course Bobby Hull slapshots! Although it officially sat 17,317 for hockey, with standing room as many as 20,000 rabid fans could squeeze in the massive structure.



The United Center

After the Blackhawks moved next door to the United Center, the Chicago Stadium was demolished in 1995 and its site is now occupied by a parking lot for the newer building.



Toronto Maple Leafs: Maple Leaf Gardens, 60 Carlton St, Toronto, OT, Canada




Closed ... awaiting conversion

Built in just six months at a cost of a little over a million Dollars, Maple Leaf Gardens was opened by the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 12, 1931, with a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Black Hawks and remained as the club's home for the next 67 seasons. During that time the Leafs won 11 Stanley Cups, but ironically not one of those was captured after the NHL's expansion as their last title came in 1967, the last year of the six-team NHL. The Gardens and the Leafs were controlled until 1960 by Leafs managing director Conn Smythe who had also built the arena. He sold most of his interest in both in 1961 to a three-person partnership consisting of the Harold Ballard, John Bassett, and Smythe's son, Stafford. Over the next ten years that group considerably expanded the facility by adding a private club and many new seats (even removing the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II to make room for some) eventually increasing its capacity to 16,307.



The colorful Ballard acquired full control of MLG and the Leafs in 1971 but also missed parts of his club's first two seasons under his sole control as a guest of the Canadian Government at Kingston Penitentiary and later the Millhaven Institution after being convicted of 47 counts of fraud and grand theft relating to his converting to his personal use hundreds of thousands of dollars of funds belonging to the publically traded MLG Ltd.. The Ballard era was always a controversial one as he did everything "his way" including maintaining an apartment in the Gardens. When he died in 1990, one of his estate's executors, Steve Stavro, eventually acquired control and formed a new private company called Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which immediately began to consider building a new, modern arena to replace Maple Leaf Gardens which by then was considered too small -- and also lacking in the high revenue-generating luxury boxes and other ammenities needed to supply the many tens of millions of Dollars it takes to operate a modern NHL team.

Although the Air Canada Centre was then under construction by the owners of the NBA Toronto Raptors, the Leafs were not planning to join them there as a co-tenant. But when MLSE subsequently acquired the NBA team, the ACC was retrofitted to accommodate both hockey and basketball and the plans for a new MLG were abandoned. The Leafs final game at the Gardens came on February 13, 1999, with a 6–2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks -- the same team which beat them there when they opened MLG some 67 years earlier.



The Air Canada Centre

The NLL Toronto Rock played in the building for another year before moving to the ACC in 2001 after which the arena became dormant. MLSE finally sold the facility in 2004 to the Loblaw Companies, Canada's largest food retailer, which intends to eventually convert its interior to accommodate a Real Canadian Superstore and parking but that project has not yet been started.



Detroit Red Wings: Detroit Olympia Stadium, 5920 Grand River Avenue, Detroit, MI




...Gone...

The Detroit Olympia was built in 1927 by the Detroit Athletic Club and immediately became the home of the former WCHL Victoria (BC) Cougars which had been bought and moved after that league folded in 1926. (The Cougars played their first NHL season at the Border Cities Arena in Windsor while the Olympia was under construction.) The Cougars opened the Olympia on October 15, 1927, and continued to play in the massive brick edifice until 1979 under three different names: Cougars (1927-29), Falcons (1929-31), and the club's current moniker, the Red Wings (1931-79).

Over that stretch the Red Wings won seven Stanely Cup titles (1936, 1937, 1943, 1950, 1952, 1954, & 1955), and during the 1952 Cup run an unusual tradition—the octopus throw -- was born. Peter Cusimano, the owner of a local fish market, threw one of the eight legged creatures onto the ice before a game symbolic of the eight wins it then took to win the Stanley Cup which the Red Wings did that year by sweeping both the Leafs and Canadiens in eight straight games.



The Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI

In 1979 the Red Wings became the second of the "Original Six" clubs (after the Rangers in 1968) to move out of their original home into a new "modern" building as they took up residence at the Joe Louis Arena located on the river front. The Wings' last game at the Olympia was a 4-4 tie with the Quebec Nordiques on December 15, 1979. As the Wings' lease prohibited them from operating the Olympia in competition with Joe Louis or Cobo Arenas, the building was closed down but not finally demolished until eight years later in September, 1987, to make way for U.S. National Guard's Olympia Armory which now occupies the site.

A look at the fates of the 1967-68 NHL arenas will follow in Part II.