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67-68LAKings
1967–68 Los Angeles Kings
Division 2nd West
1967–68 record 31–33–10
Home record 20-13-4
Road record 11-20-6
Goals for 200
Goals against 224
Team information
General manager Larry Regan
Coach Red Kelly
Captain Bob Wall
Alternate captains Eddie Joyal
Bill White
Dale Rolfe
Arena Long Beach Arena
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena
Los Angeles Forum
Team leaders
Goals Bill Flett (26)
Assists Eddie Joyal (34)
Points Eddie Joyal (57)
Penalty minutes Dave Amadio (101)
Wins Wayne Rutledge (20)
Goals against average Wayne Rutledge (2.87)

The 1967–68 Los Angeles Kings season was the franchise's 1st season in the National Hockey League. The Kings finished 2nd in the West Division and lost in the Division Semi-finals to the St. Louis Blues 4 games to 3.

Off-season[]

The Kings were one of six expansion teams, which doubled the size of the league from six to twelve. The Kings were placed in the newly established West Division, along with the other expansion teams: the California Seals, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues.

The Kings picked goaltenders Terry Sawchuk and Wayne Rutledge with their first picks of the Expansion Draft, but the Kings did not rely on the draft. Owner Jack Kent Cooke purchased the American Hockey League's Springfield Indians for $1 million to bolster the Kings roster. Long-time Indians player Brian Kilrea would score the Kings' first goal.

1967-White-Wall jerseys

Bill White and Bob Wall's 1967-68 style jerseys.

The Kings inaugural jersey colours were purple and gold with a primarily purple home jersey and a primarily gold away jersey. The jerseys had one stripe on the arms and body (on the purple jersey the body stripe was at the bottom while on the gold jersey it was near the bottom), no names on the back and the jersey numbers were not outlined. The logo was a white, purple and gold crown. These jerseys would remain in use with very minor modifications for the next decade.

Pre-season[]

BaunSeals

Eddie Joyal and Bob Baun, wearing the Seals pre-season jersey.

The Kings held their training camp in Guelph, Ontario.

September 18, 1967: Minnesota North Stars 7, Los Angeles Kings 3 @ Hamilton, Ontario
September 19, 1967: Los Angeles 6, Minnesota 2 @ Guelph, Ontario
September 24, 1967: Minnesota 3, Los Angeles 0 @ Oshawa, Ontario

Regular Season[]

Brian Smith 1st goal-22Oct1967

Brian Smith scores his first career goal, October 22, 1967.

The Kings played their home games in three locations during that inaugural campaign. They alternated between both the Long Beach Arena and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena before the brand new arena built by Cooke and known as The Forum would become their permanent home. In the first game ever at The Forum, they lost 2-0 to the Philadelphia Flyers. This loss came back to haunt them as they finished in 2nd place, one point behind the Flyers.

The Los Angeles Kings were a team that writers predicted to finish last in the new West Division.[1] Surprisingly, the Kings finished second, just one point out of first. Bill Flett scored 26 goals, while Eddie Joyal scored 23 goals, adding 34 assists for 57 points and was the second leading scorer in the West Division.

Balon from Masterton-3Jan1968

Bill Masterton sets up Dave Balon, January 3, 1968.

On December 13, 1967, the Minnesota North Stars and Cesare Maniago achieved the first shutout in team history, defeating the Los Angeles Kings 4-0. Maniago and the North Stars went on a shutout streak, beating the Kings 3-0 on December 15 and the Oakland Seals 1-0 on December 16. Maniago had his 4th shutout on January 3, 1968 as the Stars blanked the Kings for the third time, by 6-0. Maniago finished the season with 6 shutouts, tied for second best in the league and the most in a season in his career.

1968-Jan7-Ehman goal

First goal of Gerry Ehman's hat trick, January 7, 1968.

Goalie Jacques Caron played his first NHL game on December 27, 1967 in a 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues. Mike Corrigan and Larry Johnston played their first NHL game on December 30, 1967 as the Kings lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 2-0. Corrigan would play over 400 games for Los Angeles.

The Kings were the only team the Seals had some success against. In January 1968, Oakland won all three games versus Los Angeles, including shutting them out twice. Gerry Ehman had the Seals only Hat trick of the season in one of these games, on January 7, 1968 in a 6-0 win. The season series ended 4-4-2 between the teams.

Sather goal-18Feb1968

Glen Sather scores the game winner, February 18, 1968.

The Kings combined to go 20-13-4 in their 37 home games spread over 3 arenas that first season. On the road, Los Angeles posted a record of just 11-20-6. The Kings finished a surprising second place in the Western Conference behind the coaching of Red Kelly, who as a player holds the distinction of playing on the most Stanley Cup championship teams without any of them including time in Montreal. The goaltending tandem of future hall of famer Terry Sawchuk and Wayne Rutledge allowed the team to stay in most games. The Kings had the best record of any of the expansion teams against the "Original Six", going a respectable 10-12-2, including winning their first two games ever against the storied Montreal Canadiens.

Final Standings[]

West Division
GP W L T GF GA PTS
Philadelphia Flyers 74 31 32 11 173 179 73
Los Angeles Kings 74 31 33 10 200 224 72
St. Louis Blues 74 27 31 16 177 191 70
Minnesota North Stars 74 27 32 15 191 226 69
Pittsburgh Penguins 74 27 34 13 195 216 67
Oakland Seals 74 15 42 17 153 219 47

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.


Game Log[]

Game Log

Playoffs[]

Minnesota North Stars 4, Los Angeles Kings 3[]

Doug Robinson and Lowell MacDonald led all Kings playoff scorers with 7 points, while Eddie Joyal and Gord Labossiere had 5 points each.

Date Away Score Home Score Notes
April 4 Minnesota 1 Los Angeles 2
April 6 Minnesota 0 Los Angeles 2
April 9 Los Angeles 5 Minnesota 7
April 11 Los Angeles 2 Minnesota 3
April 13 Minnesota 2 Los Angeles 3
April 16 Los Angeles 3 Minnesota 4 (OT)
April 18 Minnesota 9 Los Angeles 4

Player Stats[]

Forwards[]

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

# Player GP G A Pts PIM
16 Eddie Joyal 74 23 34 57 20
17 Bill Flett 73 26 20 46 97
11 Lowell MacDonald 74 21 24 45 12
15 Ted Irvine 73 18 22 40 26
20 Gord Labossiere 68 13 27 40 31
9 Real Lemieux 74 12 23 35 60
7 Terry Gray 65 12 16 28 22
19, 23 Howie Menard 35 9 15 24 32
10 Howie Hughes 74 9 14 23 20
12 Bryan Campbell 44 6 15 21 16
8 Brian Smith 58 10 9 19 33
23 Doug Robinson 34 9 9 18 6
19 Brian Kilrea 25 3 5 8 12
22 Jim Anderson 7 1 2 3 2
22 Bill Inglis 12 1 1 2 0
19 Mike Corrigan 5 0 0 0 2

Defencemen[]

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

# Player GP G A Pts PIM
21 Bill White 74 11 27 38 100
2 Bob Wall 71 5 18 23 66
6 Dale Rolfe 68 3 13 16 84
4, 5 Brent Hughes 44 4 10 14 36
3, 5 Dave Amadio 58 4 6 10 101
4 Jacques Lemieux 16 0 3 3 8
4 Jim Murray 30 0 2 2 14
3 Poul Popiel 1 0 0 0 0
5 Larry Johnston 4 0 0 0 4

Goaltending[]

Note: GP = Games played; MIN = Minutes; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average

# Player GP MIN W L T SO GAA
1 Wayne Rutledge 45 2444 20 18 4 2 2.87
30 Terry Sawchuk 36 1936 11 14 6 2 3.07
30 Jacques Caron 1 60 0 1 0 0 4.00

Awards and Records[]

  • Team Records:
    • Fastest two goals, 6 seconds apart, Bill Flett at 9:14 of first period, and Eddie Joyal at 9:20 on March 10, 1968.
    • Fewest short-handed goals against in season, 3
    • Most shutouts against in season, 9

Milestones[]

     Player is still active or individual record

Regular season
Player Milestone Reached
Brian Kilrea First Kings goal October 14, 1967

Transactions[]

Draft Picks[]

NHL Draft[]

See also: 1967 NHL Entry Draft
Round Pick Player Nationality
1 1 Rick Pagnutti Flag of Canada Canada
LosAngelesKingsOld

LA Kings primary logo

Expansion Draft[]

  • Los Angeles Kings selections
# Player Drafted from
1. Terry Sawchuk (G) Toronto Maple Leafs
2. Wayne Rutledge (G) New York Rangers
3. Gord Labossiere (C) Montreal Canadiens
4. Bob Wall (D) Detroit Red Wings
5. Eddie Joyal (C) Toronto Maple Leafs
6. Réal Lemieux (W) Detroit Red Wings
7. Poul Popiel (D) Boston Bruins
8. Terry Gray (RW) Detroit Red Wings
9. Bryan Campbell (C) New York Rangers
10. Ted Irvine (LW) Boston Bruins
11. Howie Hughes (RW) Montreal Canadiens
12. Bill Inglis (C) Montreal Canadiens
13. Doug Robinson (LW) New York Rangers
14. Mike Corrigan (LW) Toronto Maple Leafs
15. Jacques Lemieux (LW) Montreal Canadiens
16. Lowell MacDonald (LW) Toronto Maple Leafs
17. Ken Block (D) New York Rangers
18. Bill Flett (RW) Toronto Maple Leafs
19. Brent Hughes (D) Detroit Red Wings
20. Marc Dufour (RW) New York Rangers

Farm Teams[]

Trivia[]

Gallery[]


1967–68 Los Angeles Kings Roster

Goaltenders:

1 Rutledge • 30 Sawchuk • 1 Caron 

Defensemen:

2 Wall • 4 J. Lemieux • 4 Murray • 4 B. Hughes • 5 Amadio • 5 Johnston • 6 Rolfe • 9 Popiel • 21 White 

Forwards:

7 Gray • 8 Smith • 9 R. Lemieux • 10 H. Hughes • 11 MacDonald • 11 Corrigan • 12 Campbell • 15 Irvine • 16 Joyal • 17 Flett • 18 Anderson • 19 Kilrea • 19 Menard • 20 Labossiere • 22 Inglis • 23 Robinson • 25 Corbett 

OwnerJack Kent Cooke •  General ManagerLarry Regan •  CoachRed Kelly

References[]

  1. Brian McFarlane, 50 Years of Hockey, pp. 140–143, Greywood Publishing Ltd, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1967–68 Los Angeles Kings season. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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