Poor Broken Wings

"I'm pleased they didn't shoot me down," Harkness said with commendable understatement.

If he was pleased, so, for varying reasons, was everybody else except, perhaps, Sid Abel. Doug Barkley, a former NHL player who lost an eye five years ago manning the Red Wing defense, was brought on from a minor league coaching job to take Harkness' place on the bench against the Sabres that night.

Doug got a big greeting from the fans at the start. Throughout the game he managed his team with aplomb, staying mostly in one position, with a foot up on the bench. Suddenly revived, the Red Wings themselves went out and—well, if they didn't exactly knock the stuffing out of the Sabres, they did beat them 3-2.

One other thing: the Wings won on a power play made possible by the fact that Sabre Coach Punch Imlach was penalized for having too many men on the ice.