1970-71 Pro Hockey Season

If you're a fan of classic, "throwback" hockey: good news! The 1970-71 Pro Hockey Season for HOCKEY BLAST Pro Hockey Game is NOW AVAILABLE!

The '70-71 Pro Season was one of the greatest seasons in the long and colorful history of professional hockey. The league added two new teams, one in Canada, the other just across the Canadian border, bringing its total to fourteen teams. Reigning champion Boston defended their title with an amazing display of offensive firepower—at one point during the season, the top five scorers in the league all played for Boston! The club got off to a great start, lost a few meaningless games near the end of the season, and finished far ahead in first place, smashing all kinds of records along the way. "Big Phil" and "The Kid" were the best-known stars wearing the black and gold, but there were many other great players as well.

Boston's dominance overshadowed three other good Eastern teams: Montreal, Toronto and New York. Each club had its own interesting story line. Montreal acquired "The Big M" from Detroit mid-season and suddenly they were a very good hockey team. As an unexpected bonus, the Habs' rookie goalie excelled as the season closed and was outstanding in the playoffs. New York also put an excellent squad on the ice, and some thought if anyone could upset the high-flying Beantowners, it would be the Blueshirts. They were strong up the middle and picked up some great veterans in trades along the way. Toronto was the surprise team. Languishing in last place with a 4-19 record, the Leafs' fortunes improved dramatically after picking up a veteran defenseman in trade. With that key addition and lights-out play from their thought-to-be-washed-up goalie, Toronto rang up 33 additional wins and charged into the playoffs.

Chicago dominated the western division, so aside from the races in the east many of the most dramatic moments of the season were saved for the playoffs. There, the Habs pulled off a shocking seventh game upset of Boston—with their rookie goalie no less! New York got everything it could handle from Toronto, but managed to advance. In the semi-finals, Montreal got past an upstart Minnesota squad that posted the first-ever expansion team playoff wins, defeating the Habs in games two and four. Chicago and New York battled it out for seven games, in an epic series eventually won by the Hawks. That set up a championship series between two veteran teams, Montreal and Chicago. The home team won every game until game seven, when Montreal stormed back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 and capture yet another title Cup.

Sound exciting? It IS exciting! You'll be able to re-create this historic season in whatever detail you desire, with this classic hockey card set for HOCKEY BLAST. Conduct a play-through of your favorite team's season, maybe you'll be able to wring out a few more wins or even coach your club to the championship cup! Or, start your project with the playoff field and watch the drama unfold. Will Montreal be able to match its real-life title? Or, will Boston finish what they started and avoid the quarterfinal stunner? A revised trade here, deflected shot there—your season could have an entirely different conclusion! That's the fun of tabletop hockey, you never know what's going to happen next!

With the 1970-71 Pro Season for HOCKEY BLAST Pro Hockey board game, you get over 300 classic hockey players individually carded for their real-life performance during this, the first season of the seventies. Plus, you get over 40 additional traded player cards. (As an aside, the '70-71 season is notable for its many, MANY trades!) There are notations at the bottom of each traded player's card, both for his original and traded-to team. By observing the trade code, you can easily arrange your cards to form rosters that represent the start of the season, or the playoff push—it's your choice!

Your card set also comes with a season summary and an Instant Results chart, which will allow you to generate winners of any league match-up with a single roll of the dice. It's perfect for creating context for a single-team full-season replay project, coaching YOUR team each game, and quick-rolling the rest of the league schedule to see if you've gained (or lost) any ground in the standings!

The 1970-71 Pro Season for HOCKEY BLAST comes in two versions. We offer the full set of printed cards for $24, presented in team colors on micro-perforated card stock sheets. Or, get the PDF edition for $16, download instantly, print and play the same day!