Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction Fall 2020
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/21/2020
In 1972 founders of a company named Hockey Diversified Inc. envisioned that each puck shot into the net to produce an official goal scored in an NHL hockey game would develop a degree of intrinsic collector value for hockey fans everywhere. The founders took this idea to the NHL and procured the rights to all such NHL pucks during regular season and playoff games for a period of five years. Pucks shot into the net for a goal were collected by the referees, given to the time keepers to label and then shipped to Hockey Diversified to further label with scoring details. The pucks were then marketed to the public by Hockey Diversified Inc. Unfortunately this idea was ahead of its time and pucks sold poorly. The program lasted only two seasons, 1972-73 and 1973-74. Hockey Diversified Inc. dissolved shortly thereafter. Classic Auctions is honored to have been chosen by an original founder of Hockey Diversified to sell, at upcoming auctions, residual, unsold pucks from that “NHL Registered Goal Puck” collection.
Each puck originally distributed by Hockey Diversified could be obtained by mail with the buyer’s choice of team and possibly player. A label was affixed to each puck listing the scorer, team and date, along with a code that divulged which team-goal said puck accounted for. This particular puck was used by HOF superstar Phil Esposito to score the Boston Bruins 254th goal of the season vs the Minnesota North Stars, at the Met Center, on Feb 20, 1974. Assisted by Wayne Cashman and superstar Bobby Orr, it was Espo’s 50th goal of the season and 448th of his career, with a total of 717 career goals scored. The third goal of a hat trick, the marker was the final goal of the contest, scored on the power play at 15:32 of the third to tie the score at 5-5. The rubberized North Stars logo exhibits a large cut, with a bit of residue and paper loss to the Goal Puck Program label. There is also additional wear to the puck including a few large cuts along with a few small edge gouges.
Addendum; Please take note that the statistics for this game differs on various sites. NHL.com has Cashman and Hodge assisting on Esposito’s 50th goal. A pair of other sites has Orr and Cashman assisting on that goal. A highlight video of the goals of the game clearly shows Bobby Orr assisting on the goal (link below). The video is incorrectly dated as from February 17th 1973 (a 5-2 loss for the Bruins) but if you look up all the goals, there are in the order they are noted on NHL.com and the other sites and by the scorers of the February 20th 1974 game (a 5-5 tie).
https://youtu.be/AZ-3HhQVYB8
https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/bos-vs-mns/1974/02/20/1973020452#game=1973020452,game_state=final
http://www.flyershistory.com/cgi-bin/ppoboxscore.cgi?H19730452
https://www.ultimate70s.com/nhlbox/19740220/BOS/MIN/H
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