"Eddie Giacomin Returns" (#41 of the 50 Greatest Moments at MSG) 

Emile Francis' Rangers only reached the Stanley Cup Final once: 1971-72. When the Blueshirts returned to the Final in 1978-79, Both Francis and Eddie Giacomin were gone.

@@reneleclerc6119 Francis was called “The Cat”. When he let Eddie go, I said “The Cat is a Rat!”

They came as close as a Brad Park slapshot that hit the crossbar dead on.

We used to call him Dunc the Drunk.

Joseph De Vito Actually Marv Albert was the Rangers main play by play guy, though his brother Al did fill in at times. Signature phrase:"'Kick save, and a beauty!" His sidekick on radio broadcasts during those days was "The Big Whistle" Bill Chadwick, the first American born NHL ref who invented the system of hand signals for penalties in use today. Great announcers, great team, great goaltender. For me as a high school kid playing net myself in the early 70s, that was the golden age of hockey, and Giacomin was my hero.

Joseph De Vito not really. Case in point, Eddie's in the HHOF, Villemure never received consideration.

Marc Weissman I didn't think Giacomin deserved to be in the hall.

I think Villemure was equal to Giacomin. His stats reflect it. His .601 winning % is better than Giacomin's .580. His GAA is 2.81 to Giacomin's 2.82 and his playoff record at 5-5 is better than Giacomin's 29-35.

Don't forget.... Giacomin's playoff record includes losing twice to one of the greatest teams of all times... Bobby Orr and the Big Bad Bruins ...both times in the finals.

We were pretty bad to Adam Graves after his kid died and he took a puck to the face…not the fans but the organization.

Doubt that was the case, not to mention you can't put a player on waivers for a specific team. All teams had a shot at Eddie.

Marc Weissman True, but the team with the lowest points in the standings actually got the player. The team waiving a player can also recall the waived player (at least in those days) - sometimes waivers was used to determine how much interest there was around the league for a player that a team wished to trade. In the 1970's, Detroit was usually at the bottom of the standings. On the day Eddie was waived, only the Capitals and North Stars were below Detroit. It could have been arranged beforehand that if either of those teams claimed Eddie, the Rangers would recall him and make a trade instead.

RicPhlare Excellent points. Tx for clarifying :)

I was at the 9-5 game and Howe, Delvecchio, etc., played that afternoon and Howe even scored a goal. Crozier played goal for the Wings and the Rangers bombarded him with 65 shots. They needed to score as many goals as they could because, as Jim says here, they needed to beat Montreal in total goals to finish fourth and get into the playoffs. The game took a strange turn some time in the 3rd period when the Rangers pulled Giacomin and played 6 on 5 with an empty net. I do think that the "power play" worked in that the Rangers got a goal and also the Wings got a couple of empty net goals. That night, Montreal played at Chicago and in the third period they pulled Vachon (I think it was him) and the Hawks ended up putting, if I recall, 5 open net goals on the board and won 10-2. That was a real burlesque of the rules and they got rid of the total goals tie breaker later on. I listened to the Montreal-Chicago game that night on CBC radio and it sure sounded odd. As far as the Giacomin return, I was at that one too and it was one of the loudest crowds that I ever heard there in the hundreds of games that I attended there.

+David Rolfing I checked out what you wrote about the 9-5 game and you were right. The best players were in the lineup. I checked Frank Mahovlich's book and what he talked about was the big party the Red Wings owners had for the team on the flight to New York. The Wings weren't in good form for the game and Mahovlich claimed the Production line was benched for most of the first two periods. In essence he puts some of the blame for the Wings being swept out of the playoffs by Chicago on management. The team hadn't really won anything and the celebration was premature. Management didn't keep the team 'in the zone', so to speak.

negtype13 neccesary trade

@@BonkoPlayzMinecraft No Chef...when you've EARNED it...NOTHING is necessary....it's just RIGHT!!

youtube has exposed the myth of jds 1979 playoff performance. he let in terrible goals and even the saves he made that were considered great at the time would be routine by todays standards

They did not deserve that victory vs the islanders