November 2, 1975: The Eddie Giacomin Game

November 2, 1975: A surreal event takes place at Madison Square Garden. The New York Rangers had traded popular goaltender Eddie Giacomin to the Detroit Red Wings, sparking outrage among their fans. As it happened, the Rangers' next home game was against the Wings.

Seeing Giacomin in not the white jersey with the blue Number 1, but the red jersey with the white Number 31, the Garden crowd chanted, "Ed-DIE! Ed-DIE! Ed-DIE!" all night long, and actually booed the Rangers when they scored.

The Red Wings won, 6-4, and, for perhaps the only time in Madison Square Garden history, the home fans cheered a visiting team's victory.

It was the end of an era that had seen the Rangers rise to championship contention, but the closest they'd gotten to the Stanley Cup was the 1972 Finals, losing to the Boston Bruins in 6 games. They were knocked out of the previous season's Playoffs by a 3rd-year expansion team, the suburban Islanders.

Just 9 days after The Giacomin Game, they would trade Brad Park, Jean Ratelle and Joe Zanussi to the Bruins for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais. The Rangers would miss the Playoffs in 1976 and '77, before bouncing back in '78 and reaching the Finals in '79.

With new management coming in, the Rangers made peace with Eddie, and retired his Number 1 in 1990. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987.

UPDATE: Eddie Giacomin died on September 14, 2025, a few weeks before the 50th Anniversary of this game. He was 86 years old.

 

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November 2, 1975 was a Sunday. There were 4 other NHL games played on this day:

* The Boston Bruins beat the California Golden Seals, 5-0 at the Boston Garden. This would be the last season in Oakland for the Seals franchise, who became the Cleveland Barons for 1976-77. For 1978-79, they merged with the Minnesota North Stars.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Kansas City Scouts, 10-0 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. This couldn't have been much more of a mismatch: The Flyers were the 2-time defending Stanley Cup Champions, while the Scouts were a 2nd-year expansion team. After this season, they moved to Denver to become the Colorado Rockies, a name that would later be given to Denver's baseball team. In 1982, the NHL's Rockies became the New Jersey Devils. Bobby Clarke, Orest Kindrachuk and Mel Bridgman each scored 2 goals.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

There were 4 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Cleveland Crusaders beat the Phoenix Roadrunners, 5-2 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Winnipeg Jets, 1-0 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Calgary Cowboys beat the New England Whalers, 4-3 in overtime at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the San Diego Mariners, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

There were 3 games played in the NBA: 

* The Houston Rockets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 104-89 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 116-113 in overtime at The Forum in the Los Angeles "suburb" of Inglewood, California. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 39 for the Lakers.

* And the Washington Bullets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 94-85 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There are 4 ABA games played:

* The New York Nets beat the Utah Stars, 123-111 at the Nassau Coliseum. Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 35 points.

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Denver Nuggets, 106-103 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

* The Spirits of St. Louis beat the Virginia Squires, 106-99 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the San Diego Sails beat the San Antonio Spurs, 105-102 at the San Diego Sports Arena. (It's now named the Pechanga Arena.)

These NFL games were played on the day: 

* The New York Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills, 24-23 at Shea Stadium. (The New York Giants played at Shea the day before, beating the San Diego Chargers, 35-24.)

* The Baltimore Colts beat the Cleveland Browns, 21-7 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 30-24 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The New Orleans Saints beat their arch-rivals, the Atlanta Falcons, 23-7 at the brand-new Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Washington Redskins beat their arch-rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, 30-24 in overtime at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Chicago Bears, 46-13 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers, 28-17 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the New England Patriots, 24-17 at Busch Memorial Stadium.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 17-13 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Denver Broncos, 42-17 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Detroit Lions beat the San Francisco 49ers, 28-17 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 42-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

Also on this day, child actor Danny Cooksey was born. As an adult, no longer recognizable, he turned to cartoon and video game voiceovers. And Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered. I have a separate entry for this event.