Hockey: Why Bookies Have Ulcers

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Even at 5-12 odds, it looked like the bet of the hockey season. The Toronto Maple Leafs, winners of the Stanley Cup for two years in a row, were shooting for three against the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings had all they could do just to finish fourth in the six-team National Hockey League. Their goalie, Terry Sawchuk, had 1) a pinched nerve, 2) a sick wife, 3) six kids and 4) a $100,000 liability suit over an automobile accident to contend with. And their star, Wingman Gordie Howe, was obviously slowing down. He would never see 35 again, and in 14 games against Toronto this season, he had not scored a single goal.

All of which goes to show why bookmakers wind up with ulcers. The Maple Leafs won it, but hardly the way a 5-12 favorite should. Howe picked up four goals and four assists in seven games, and Sawchuk averaged 31 saves a game. For the Maple Leafs, it was a matter of survival—with very little honor. Down two games to one, then three games to two, they scrambled back twice to tie, won the deciding game 4-0 when the exhausted Red Wings simply ran out of steam. "We acted like champions," said Toronto Coach Punch Imlach, "and we played like champions." Anybody else would have been content to say that the best team finally won.