Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Hull has died at the age of 84.
Hull played for the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks and Hartford Whalers and the World Hockey Association’s Winnipeg Jets over a 23-year pro career. The Blackhawks confirmed his death on Monday.
He helped lead the Blackhawks to their first Stanley Cup in 23 years in 1961, and is 55th on the NHL’s all-time scoring list with 610 goals and 560 assists. He also had 303 goals and 335 assists in the WHA for combined total of 913 goals in both leagues in 1,474 games.
To put that into context, Wayne Gretzky has a combined total of 940 goals in both leagues over 1,567 games, although all but 80 of those were in the NHL.
His 604 goals with the Blackhawks remain a team record.
“Hull is part of an elite group of players who made a historic impact on our hockey club,” the Blackhawks said in a statement. “Generations of Chicagoans were dazzled by Bobby’s shooting prowess, skating skill and overall team leadership.”
Hull was the first player in the NHL history to score more than 50 goals in a season. He set the record of 54 in 1966 and broke it by four goals a couple of seasons later.
Along with Chicago teammate Stan Mikita, he helped popularize the curved hockey stick blade in the NHL. He would first soak the wooden blade, then bend it under a door and leave it overnight. It made Hull’s slapshot, clocked at close to 200 kilometres per hour, even harder for a goalie to stop.
His defection to the WHA in 1972 was the catalyst that helped shatter the NHL’s contractual stranglehold on players. It also started the escalation of salaries that now make Hull’s once record-setting million-dollar payday look like small change.
There were plenty of hard feelings at the time on both sides, but in 2011 a statue of Hull was erected alongside one of Mikita outside the United Center, where Chicago now plays.
“I never, ever thought in 100 years I’d ever be standing here tonight,” Hull said at the unveiling.
Robert Marvin Hull Jr., was born Jan. 3, 1939 in Pointe Anne, Ont., now part of the city of Belleville, and was 12 when he was first scouted by Chicago. He started playing with the Blackhawks in 1957 when he was just 18.
He was regarded as the fastest skater in the NHL and led the league in scoring seven times in the 1960s. When he left the NHL in 1972 for the WHA, he was second on the all-time scoring list behind only Gordie Howe, and Howe had been in the league for an extra decade.
Although not large by today’s standards (five-foot-10 and just under 190 pounds), the muscular Hull was not afraid to scrap. In 1966 when he set his first scoring record, he also had 70 penalty minutes in 65 games.
In an era when few players worked out in the off-season, Hull stayed in shape throwing around bales of hay on his farm — which led to a still iconic black and white photo of the shirtless Hull in action, a bale on the end of his pitchfork.
In 1978, Hull was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983 and his No. 9 jersey was retired by both the Blackhawks and the old Winnipeg Jets (who moved to Phoenix in 1996 and became the Coyotes before the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg in 2011 and reclaimed the Jets name).
Son Brett Hull became a star and Hall of Famer in his own right as a star scorer with St. Louis and Dallas and is 25th on the NHL’s all-time scoring list.
Hull said he loved his years in Chicago and the fans, but the organization didn’t love him as much. He resented what he was paid, as did many in the league at that time, and got into high-profile disputes over money with the Wirtz family that owned the team.
In 1972, he became the linchpin around which the WHA was formed and the first hockey player to earn a million dollars, his signing bonus for joining the new league with the Jets.
Although some resented him for the leap, Mikita once said he got down on his knees and thanked his former teammate and the Jets — his salary doubled almost overnight because of the competition.
But the move cost Hull a chance to play in the 1972 Summit Series when the NHL refused to let him join Team Canada. He made up for it in 1974, when a team of Canadians from the WHA met the Soviet Union in a second Summit Series, and again when he played in the 1976 Canada Cup.
Nicknamed the Golden Jet for his speed and blond hair (even before he joined the Jets), Hull spent eight seasons with the team, the last in the NHL, and helped make them one of the strongest clubs in the WHA. They won three Avco Cups, the league’s ultimate prize, in the seven years it was awarded, and were runners-up twice.
Hull played only part of the final Jets’ final WHA season in 1978-79, and returned only briefly the next season when Winnipeg joined the NHL as the two leagues merged. He moved to the Whalers, who also jumped to the NHL, for nine games that same season.
He was 42 when he made a brief comeback attempt with the New York Rangers in 1981 before finally hanging up his skates.
Hull could be aggressive and controversial off the ice.
An acrimonious divorce from his second wife of 20 years, Joanne — which included numerous allegations of abuse — cost him a stake he owned in the original Jets.
He returned to farming/ranching during the early years of his time away from hockey and then settled in Florida with third wife Deborah.
Although their marriage lasted, he also was accused by her of assault in 1986. She dropped the charges but the police officer who Hull took a swing at during the investigation did not. He was fined $150 and placed on six months court supervision.
He stoked more controversy when in 1998 he told the Moscow Times, an English-language newspaper, that the Nazis were not without merit, the Black population of the United States was growing too fast and genetic breeding was a worthy idea.
“Hitler, for example, had some good ideas. He just went a little bit too far,” Hull, who was visiting Russia, was quoted as saying.
The Blackhawks brought him back as a team ambassador in 2008 and he was on hand for their 2010 Stanley Cup win. It was their first Stanley Cup since 1961.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 30, 2023.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
