OK, Didn't know that. I didn't think Turk was still with the team during the playoffs in 74. I thought he got kicked off the team during the season after Turk caused the fight with O'Reilly in the locker room. I know Guidolin was a big O'Reilly supporter
You're right; he was disciplined but not suspended until he flew west when the team flew east, back home. As you can see if you read in his excellent book, Derek was going through some tough personal problems when he returned from his famously brief stint with the WHA's Philadelphia Blazers (originally the Miami Screaming Eagles). They paid Turk the highest salary ever paid to a professional sports player. Of course, my favorite story about them is the team's first home game on Friday, October 13, 1972, when the
Zamboni fell through the ice of the
Philadelphia Civic Center.
Anyway, Derek came back here where he was badly needed on a team with talent but less veteran leadership than two years prior when they won the Cup. The story of Derek inadvertently dropping coke in the locker room, and the subsequent ordeal between him, Sinden and the Boston cops is hilarious, though sad in the context of where his life was headed the next few years.
The game at the Garden vs. the Black Hawks used to be on YouTube in its entirety
Derek got tossed in the second period, and Bobby was sent off at the end when he'd had it with Wally Harris. Derek was the most openly resentful of Sinden's firing of the well-liked (and respected) Tom Johnson (along with Satch Sanders, Mr. Bow Tie). Of course, Bobby Orr was way too classy to complain about anything. I guess you have to credit Magic Johnson, who spoke up and it paid off with titles.
