43 Years of Maple Leaf Frustration: 1975-76 Season

The 1975–76 Toronto Maple Leafs season saw the Maple Leafs finish in third place in the Adams Division with a record of 34 wins, 31 losses, and 15 ties for 83 points. That was good for 5th overall in the Prince of Wales Conference and 7th overall in the league.  The Leafs were finally developing into one of the better teams in the NHL although not yet a match for the league elite of Montreal, Philadelphia and Boston.

The team was lead by newly appointed captain Darryl Sittler who was developing into one of the league's young stars.  Sittler finished 9th in scoring with his first 100 point season, the first Leaf to reach the 100 point level.  Other Leaf stars were Lanny McDonald, Tiger Williams, Errol Thompson (with a career high 43 goals), George Ferguson, Ian Turnbull and Borje Salming.


On February 7, 1976, Sittler set the NHL record for most points scored in one game when he recorded ten points (six goals, four assists) against the Boston Bruins. At 49:27 of the third period, Darryl Sittler scored a goal and earned the 9th point of the game. Sittler broke the NHL record for most points in a game and would go on to earn another point to set a new record with 10 points in a game. It's almost 35 years later and the record still stands.

Meanwhile behind the scene team owner Harold Ballard continued to rock the boat for his GM.  During the previous season, Ballard publicly blasted Dave Keon, saying that the team wasn't getting good leadership from its captain and vowing never again to agree to a no-trade clause in a contract, as he had with Keon. When Keon's contract expired at the end of the season, Ballard made it clear that there was no place for him on the Leafs.  The 35-year-old Keon was told he could make his own deal with another NHL team, but any club signing him would have been required to provide compensation to the Leafs. Ballard set the compensation price so high that other teams shied away from signing him, even though the Leafs had no intention of keeping him. In effect, Ballard had blocked Keon from going to another NHL team. In August 1975, with the Leafs still controlling his NHL rights, Keon jumped to the World Hockey Association, signing a deal with the Minnesota Fighting Saints.

In the playoffs, the Leafs defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins two games to one in the Preliminary Round before losing the Quarter-Finals in seven games to the Philadelphia Flyers.  The Leafs did give the Flyers a rough go losing in seven games in 1976. During the 1976 Quarterfinals against the Flyers, Red Kelly utilized his ‘Pyramid Power’ theory as a psychological ploy. Kelly had his players believe that pyramids were a source of energy and strength. The Leaf coach then placed small pyramids under the bench and in the dressing room. All this was to no avail as the hated Flyers won the bitter quarterfinal series in 7 games.