1967 Maple Leafs recall historic Cup run ahead of All-Star honor 

Editor’s Note: The NHL Alumni Association will pay tribute to the 1967 Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 1, as part of NHL All-Star Thursday at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

The NHLAA’s “Keith Magnuson Man of the Year” award will salute the seven living members of the Maple Leafs’ most recent championship. Expected to attend are Hall of Famers Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich and Bob Pulford, and fellow forwards Brian Conacher, Ron Ellis, Pete Stemkowski and Mike Walton.

The award is presented to a former player or players who have applied the intangibles of perseverance, commitment and teamwork developed through the game into a successful post-career transition. Honorees are ambassadors for the game at all levels through their continued commitment in community and charitable causes. This award is named in honor and memory of Keith Magnuson, Executive Board of Director of the NHL Alumni Association who died Dec. 15, 2003.

To mark the occasion, NHL.com interviewed those players for a two-part look at the 1966-67 Maple Leafs. Today, Toronto stuns the Montreal Canadiens in the Final, and the aftermath of a championship for the ages. Part 1 appeared yesterday.

TORONTO -- It was fitting that Canada’s 1967 centennial year would see the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, the NHL’s two oldest, most storied rivals, meet for the priceless trophy that was conceived in 1892 by Lord Stanley of Preston, the country’s Governor General, and awarded for the first time a year later.

Toronto had won the championship 10 times, 12 including the two won before the franchise was branded the Maple Leafs in 1927 by owner Conn Smythe. The Canadiens had won 13, plus one more in the National Hockey Association a year before the 1917 founding of the NHL.

The Maple Leafs added their 11th in 1967 with two six-game postseason series wins following a season that was tumultuous both on and off the ice -- a colossal Semifinal upset of the regular-season champion Chicago Black Hawks, then a defeat of the favored Canadiens, the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions who figured they’d coast to their third in a row.

It was the final championship of the “Original Six” era, the six-team, 25-year period from 1942-67 that ended when expansion doubled the NHL to 12 teams for the 1967-68 season.

On Thursday, the NHL Alumni Association will honor the 1967 Maple Leafs as their Keith Magnuson Man of the Year. The seven surviving members of that team whose names appear on the historic trophy – Hall of Famers Dave Keon, Frank Mahovlich and Bob Pulford, and Brian Conacher, Ron Ellis, Pete Stemkowski and Mike Walton – will be feted at Scotiabank Arena to begin 2024 NHL All-Star Weekend, then celebrated during a reception at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“When I got the call from the Alumni Association, I said, ‘Man of the Year? Why are you honoring me?’ Then I realized it was the whole team,” joked Stemkowski, whose delicious sense of humor is sure to light up festivities.

“We’ve been brought to Toronto a few times on the anniversaries. We marked the 40th anniversary, the 50th. It’s always flattering, a great honor. I’ll be really thrilled to see some of the teammates I speak to occasionally, always wondering how they’re doing. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Toronto Maple Leafs captain George Armstrong (left), equipment manager Tommy Naylor (center) and goalie Terry Sawchuk with the 1967 Stanley Cup and the Trans-Canada Air Lines Trophy, a team award voted to Sawchuk for his outstanding play in the postseason.

Conacher is pleased that it’s a team being honored this year, not an individual as has been done the 21 previous times the Magnuson prize has been awarded to a single alumnus “who has applied the intangibles of perseverance, commitment and teamwork developed through the game into a successful post-career transition.”

(The only exception was in 2018, when Toronto’s Borje Salming and Mats Sundin and the Detroit Red Wings’ Nicklas Lidstrom were jointly honored.)

“The 1967 Maple Leafs, as difficult a regular season as we had, became in the very latter stages of that season a real team,” Conacher said. “The Magnuson honoree is the team, as opposed to any of the individuals. Dave Keon, certainly, as Conn Smythe Trophy winner, was most prominent as a player. But go down the lineup and it was a real team effort that ended up upsetting the much-favored Canadiens.”

Montreal’s 1960 championship wrapped up their unprecedented run of five in a row. They would win in 1965 and 1966 and again in 1968 and 1969; Toronto had won three straight from 1962-64. The Black Hawks’ 1961 title would prove to be the only smudge on Canada’s Stanley Cup decade.

Toronto Maple Leafs’ Dave Keon (left) and Eddie Shack in convertibles at the start of the team’s Stanley Cup parade May 5, 1967.

“The final season of the Original Six, Canada’s centennial, Montreal’s Expo 67 (world’s fair),” Keon recalled of the remarkable year. “We were happy we’d won the Cup for a fourth time that decade, happy that we beat the Canadiens. At the time, we didn’t know that winning in 1967 would break up their run at another five-peat. Looking back, that was a tremendous accomplishment.”

Walton, a cocky, brash talent who would win again in 1972 with the Boston Bruins, said the 1967 Maple Leafs “had nothing to lose and everything to win. No one but us thought we could do it. It doesn’t matter where you play, you believe you can win.

“I think Chicago and Montreal are still in shock. They totally thought they were going to beat us, but we outplayed them both. Two huge upsets.”

Knocking off Chicago was almost unthinkable and yet, the Maple Leafs buried the Black Hawks without going the limit.

“When we got by Chicago, we thought we could win,” Conacher said. “We knew Montreal was good. Canada’s centennial year, Expo 67 in Montreal… maybe that had some effect on the Canadiens but none on us. We just went about our business. When we gave ourselves an opportunity to win, we were expected, as a group, to win.”

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Brian Conacher and his fiancée, Susan Davis, pose with the Stanley Cup at Maple Leaf Gardens on May 5, 1967. They would marry 10 days later. Other trophies commemorate milestone goals by Frank Mahovlich, Mike Walton, Pete Stemkowski and George Armstrong, as well as the Trans Canada Air Lines Trophy voted to goalie Terry Sawchuk for his outstanding 1967 postseason play. At right: forward Mike Walton with the Stanley Cup in his team’s dressing room.

Pulford says that beating the Black Hawks “was a huge accomplishment. They were a top team in the League at that time. Our goaltending of Terry Sawchuk and Johnny Bower was outstanding. That had a lot to do with our beating them, and Montreal.”

It was a minor miracle that the Maple Leafs had even survived the regular season, coach and general manager Punch Imlach having driven his squad like a team of mules, alienating virtually everyone.

Only when Imlach was hospitalized Feb. 18 and assistant GM Frank “King” Clancy took over for 10 games did the game become fun for the players. They responded by going 7-1-2 under Clancy, having emerged from a 10-game losing/11-game winless skid, slumps that still stand as Maple Leafs records.

“King was like our good uncle, the good guy,” Stemkowski recalled. “Imlach treated the guys really rough. I think his theory was, ‘If you get really mad at me, you’ll take it out on the other team.’

“Imagine you’re in an office and your boss is over your shoulder, checking everything you do, how many times you go to the water fountain. That’s the kind of cloud that was over us with Punch. When Clancy came in, all of that disappeared. King was funny. We practiced for half an hour instead of two hours like we did with Punch, did a few line rushes then got off the ice. We were happier.”

Toronto Maple Leafs captain George Armstrong on Maple Leaf Gardens ice with the Stanley Cup and his teammates May 2, 1967. Injured Larry Jeffrey is on crutches.

Keon recalls the Maple Leafs being a different team under Clancy, then largely going their own way upon Imlach’s return.

“With Clancy, everybody enjoyed going to the rink again because it wasn’t drudgery,” he said. “Punch made it so that you didn’t even want to go. King made it a bit of fun and we started to enjoy the game again.

“Punch came back after we’d had our little respite where we got to enjoy the game again. He was going to try to beat that out of us but a little bit of it stayed as the season ended and we got to the playoffs.”

Mahovlich was a favorite target, Imlach even intentionally mispronouncing his star’s name just to get under his skin.

“Hockey is a streetcar named desire and too many days Ma-hal-o-vich doesn’t catch the train,” Imlach once told reporters.

“From my experience, Punch did a lot of bad things with the hockey team,” said the Big M, who was hospitalized in November 1964 for a nervous breakdown and acute depression when constant run-ins with his coach finally broke him.

“He’d practice you for three hours the day before a game. It was ridiculous. Younger guys would say to me, scratching their heads, ‘Frank, what the heck is up with this guy?’ ”

But if the youngsters were puzzled, many of the veterans knew that in their twilight years, with the NHL about to change forever with expansion, this might be their last shot at glory and Imlach had, after all, led three Toronto champions from 1962-64. So they soldiered on often grimly, believing in themselves when few others did.

Frank Mahovlich hoists the Stanley Cup beside equipment manager Tommy Naylor after the Toronto Maple Leafs’ May 2, 1967 victory. At right, Mahovlich celebrates his fourth championship beside his dear friend Red Kelly, who had just won his eighth.

“Everybody realized, the older guys particularly, that this maybe was the last chance,” Conacher said. “Allan Stanley, Bower, Red Kelly and so on. ‘We’ve got one more chance at this, let’s make the best of it.’ It was a fitting way for us, just as it was fitting for Montreal, to end the Original Six. The evolution of the game began the day after we won the Cup.”

Imlach and Toe Blake, his Canadiens counterpart, were almost a comedy routine, a sideshow with their constant public sparring, exchanging insults about everything from roster depth to each other’s weather.

Imlach turned up the Stanley Cup Final heat on the eve of Game 1 when he scoffed at Canadiens goalie Rogie Vachon. Two seasons removed from junior hockey in Thetford Mines, Quebec, Vachon had played 18 regular-season and four playoff games for Montreal heading into the Final.

“There is no way that the Canadiens can beat us with a Junior B goalie,” Imlach told Montreal Star columnist Red Fisher.

Imlach’s rant took on a life of its own, Vachon chirping, “It was nice of Punch to mention me,” after making 26 saves in the Canadiens’ 6-2 Game 1 victory.

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Pete Stemkowski chases the puck in front of Chicago Black Hawks goalie Denis Dejordy during a game at Maple Leaf Gardens. Behind him is Chicago’s Stan Mikita, with defenseman Ed Van Impe at right.

“The Leafs are No. 1 on our hate parade,” Canadiens enforcer John Ferguson said, jousting early and often with Toronto counterpart Eddie Shack. “It’s easier to get up for a game against the Leafs than any other. They said the week’s layoff would hurt us but we had the rhythm and poise. They had nothing.”

Stemkowski shrugged off the loss.

“I told the reporters, ‘Listen, it’s only Game 1. We’re tired, coming off a hard series against Chicago. We had only one day off, I think we’ll be OK,’ ” he said. “The Canadiens were the defending Cup champion, rested, and on paper, I think they had a better team than us.”

Imlach pulled a weary Sawchuk after the latter had been beaten for five goals then came back with Bower for Game 2. The cagey, increasingly fragile veteran was brilliant, making 31 saves in a 3-0 shutout to send the series back to Toronto tied for Game 3.

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Bob Pulford beats Montreal Canadiens goalie Rogie Vachon for the winning goal in double overtime of Game 3 in the 1967 Stanley Cup Final. From left: Bobby Rousseau, Terry Harper, Vachon, Claude Provost, Dick Duff and Pulford.

With Bower in net, Pulford’s goal at 8:26 of double overtime put the Maple Leafs in front, a lead they quickly surrendered in a 6-2 drubbing two nights later, Sawchuk a late, unprepared starter when Bower pulled his groin in the warmup.

The Canadiens smelled blood returning home, but lost 4-1 in Game 5 with Sawchuk magnificent against Vachon. The heavy favorite now faced a must-win on the road to force a seventh game.

Imlach was in fine form before Game 6, Sawchuk in goal for Toronto, Blake deciding late that he’d go with veteran Gump Worsley.

“We’ll wind it up here,” Imlach sniffed. “We don’t even have transportation booked for a return to Montreal. We haven’t even tried. … What difference does it make who the Canadiens use in goal?”

Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Johnny Bower skates behind Terry Sawchuk during warmup before Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on May 2, 1967.

Montreal fell behind 2-0 but cut the lead in half with a goal by Dick Duff early in the third period, Jim Pappin having scored what proved to the Cup-clincher at 19:24 of the first.

“The dressing room was fairly quiet, very businesslike,” Ellis remembered of the second intermission, speaking with the Toronto Star in 2012. “That’s the way that team conducted themselves. Not a lot of chatter. For the most part, chatter wasn’t required. These are veterans and they know how to win. So it was fairly subdued, fairly quiet.

“One more period and we’ve won the Cup. And I’m sitting there with my legs just bouncing. Thinking: ‘One period, one period. One period, that’s maybe five shifts. Five shifts and I win a Cup.’ It was just ‘Let’s get out there and get this finished.’”

The Maple Leafs iced it with 47 seconds left on the clock, Armstrong hitting an empty Montreal net after defenseman Allan Stanley had beaten Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau on a face-off deep in Toronto’s end, Red Kelly feeding Pulford for a pass to the captain.

Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Johnny Bower defends his busy net against the Montreal Canadiens during a game at Maple Leaf Gardens. From left: Tim Horton, Yvan Cournoyer, Bower, Allan Stanley, Dick Duff, Jean Beliveau and Dave Keon.

Among the first to congratulate Sawchuk at the final horn was Bower, who was dressed but in no shape to play. Had Sawchuk been injured, Imlach had Al Smith suited up in the dressing room, but he had Bower on the bench out of respect for a player he called one of the hardest workers he’d ever coached.

“We may have had more ability in other years, but I’ve never played with a club that had more fight,” Armstrong said amid the celebration, following a modest on-ice Cup presentation from NHL President Clarence Campbell.

“We might not have outplayed them, but we certainly outscored them. This was a different kind of team. Young fellows came along and they were the ones that gave us the edge. It was a great mesh of old and young and great goaltending. You can’t say anyone gave it to us. Montreal fought and fought and fought until the end. They’re a great hockey club but we’re better.”

Maple Leafs players pocketed $6,000 each for the championship, Semifinal win and third-place regular-season finish, $1,000 more per man than the Canadiens.

Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Terry Sawchuk and defenseman Tim Horton defend against Montreal Canadiens forward Ralph Backstrom during a game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

It was an eighth Stanley Cup win for Kelly -- four as a defenseman for the Red Wings before adding four more as a Maple Leafs forward.

“I thought we could do it from the start,” he said. “I knew we could if everybody got going. One thing about it is that you never get over the thrill. It feels the same to win the Stanley Cup now as it ever did.”

Imlach was relieved the series ended in six games. The superstitious coach knew well that a seventh game would be played on a Thursday in Montreal, and the Maple Leafs had gone 0-4 in Thursday games through the playoffs.

Keon was presented the Conn Smythe Trophy the next day, having been voted the most valuable player of the postseason.

“It’s a great honor for me but I think my teammates’ names should be on the trophy alongside mine,” said Keon, one of hockey’s consummate team players. “Ours was a team effort with 18 players playing important parts. We had to have a team effort with every player giving maximum effort in order to win.”

Montreal Gazette story of May 4, 1967 detailing Dave Keon’s Conn Smythe Trophy win.

Sawchuk, surely a Conn Smythe candidate whose resilience and stellar performance played a massive role in the championship, was presented with the Trans-Canada Air Lines Trophy as the Maple Leafs’ outstanding playoff performer. The trophy apparently has vanished without a trace.

In 2017, Ellis reflected on the historic championship as the franchise set off into its second century.

“People ask me about it all the time,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to be on the last Stanley Cup team here 50 years ago, and it’s so hard to believe the Leafs haven’t won since then. But as we know with expansion and so many teams now, it’s not an easy thing.”

The city of Toronto, Ellis said, “is going to go just bonkers” with its next championship.

The Canadiens would win the Stanley Cup again in 1968 and 1969, the Maple Leafs having interrupted what could have been another run of five straight. Montreal has won 10 championships since the 1967 defeat.

Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Terry Sawchuk and defenseman Marcel Pronovost defend against Montreal Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau during a Maple Leaf Gardens game.

Canadiens legend Yvan Cournoyer remembers the loss to Toronto more than any of the 10 championships he won, saying that Montreal badly underestimated their opponent.

“It’s nice to be on the Maple Leafs’ most recent winner,” Stemkowski said. “But it would be nice for that organization to finally win another one.”

The NHL doubled to 12 teams in the summer of 1967; expansion, retirements and head-scratching trades saw the Maple Leafs fail to make the playoffs in 1967-68, beginning a long, painful tailspin.

Among the trades was that of March 8, 1968, which saw Mahovlich, Stemkowski, Garry Unger and Carl Brewer shipped to Detroit for Doug Barrie, Paul Henderson, Floyd Smith and Norm Ullman. It practically caused a revolt in Toronto.

Two months later, Pappin was dealt to Chicago, where he would shine for seven seasons, in exchange for Pierre Pilote, a fine defenseman who at 36 was well past his prime.

On April 6, 1969, minutes after having been swept from the Quarterfinals by the Boston Bruins, Imlach was fired by Maple Leafs president Stafford Smythe. Toronto had been outscored 24-5 by Boston, beaten 10-0 and 7-0 in Games 1 and 2.

By 1970-71, only five members of the 1967 champions -- Armstrong, Keon, Ellis, Walton and Bob Baun -- were still with the team, nine members of the 1967 squad out of the NHL entirely by 1971.

Forward Mike Walton looks to head up ice during a game at Maple Leaf Gardens.

The unravelling of the 1967 champions will be only a footnote, if that, during All-Star Weekend when seven former teammates gather to share stories of a historic, even unlikely season that in part has defined them all.

“It’s going to be a great time to see them after all these years,” Pulford said.

“It’s a wonderful thing that the NHL Alumni Association is doing,” Walton added. “It’s a class move on their part to put this together, very kind and thoughtful of them.

“I give a shoutout to (NHLAA president and executive director) Glenn Healy and the whole crew who put this together. I’m sure it’s not easy with all of the rigmarole that’s going on the whole All-Star Weekend to fit us in there. All of us appreciate it.”

It's a “well-deserved honor,” said Mahovlich, who went on to win his fifth and sixth Stanley Cup titles with the Canadiens in 1971 and 1973, his 27 points in the 1971 playoffs still a franchise postseason record.

Toronto Maple Leafs fans assemble at City Hall for a civic reception that followed the team’s May 5, 1967 Stanley Cup parade.

The Big M, fresh off Jan. 15 knee-replacement surgery, is saddened to have lost many friends but he’s joyful to cherish those he still has, eager to connect with six fellow Maple Leafs champions this week.

“Red Kelly, guys like that meant so much to me,” he said. “I have many great memories. The 1967 Stanley Cup was the highlight of my career in Toronto. It’s so good that the team is being honored like this.”

And the clock is ticking, louder by the day. The 1966-67 champions are engraved on the top of five sterling bands on the Stanley Cup. The franchise will be removed entirely from the trophy in 2030, with the retirement of that band, unless the Maple Leafs win before then.

Top photo: Toronto Maple Leafs captain George Armstrong carries the Stanley Cup off Maple Leaf Gardens ice May 2, 1967, teammate Ron Ellis at right.