Review Fix chats with When the NHL Invaded Japan: The Washington Capitals, the Kansas City Scouts and the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup, 1975-1976 author Steve Currier, who discusses the book and his love of hockey.
About Steve Currier:
Steve Currier teaches French as a second language, is a member of the Society for International Hockey Research and the moderator of the tribute site GoldenSealsHockey.com. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario.
About When the NHL Invaded Japan: The Washington Capitals, the Kansas City Scouts and the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup, 1975-1976:
When the NHL announced in early 1976 that its two worst teams, the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts, would travel to Japan for a four-game exhibition series dubbed the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup, fans and media were baffled. The Capitals and the Scouts were both expansion teams, with a combined 46 wins, 236 losses and 38 ties in their first two seasons—stats made more dismal when considering seven of those wins were against each other. Yet lagging so hopelessly behind the rest of the NHL, they were perfect for a one-off event on the other side of the globe. The series was an eye-opening success. Players skated on an Olympic swimming pool ringed with rickety boards hung with fishing nets that boomeranged pucks into their faces, as curious Japanese fans gasped at the gap-toothed Canadians wrestling on the ice. Filled with rare photos and player recollections, this book tells the story of how two league doormats became hockey heroes half-way around the world.
Review Fix: When did you decide you wanted to write this book?
Steve Currier: I was searching for a new topic to write about after finishing my first book on the California Golden Seals, and I love reading and researching hockey in the 1970s. I remembered reading a few articles in an old issue of the Hockey News about the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals playing an exhibition series in Japan. Since no one had really done any extensive research on the topic, I thought it would be fun to explore. I started by publishing an article about the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup series for the Society for International Hockey Research annual journal, but I believed that conducting interviews with players could provide deeper insights. The reason why the Scouts and Capitals were chosen to play in Japan – in April, right at the start of the playoff season – was because they were so far behind every other team in the league in January and February that even if one team won ten games in a row, there was almost zero chance they would qualify for the playoffs. I needed to know why the teams performed so badly, so I went back to the very beginning, the 1974 expansion draft, which had a relatively limited talent pool, and then I worked my way through the two seasons that led up to the Coca-Cola Cup series.
Review Fix: What’s your hockey background like?
Currier: I’ve been a Montreal Canadiens fan since 1987, though I’ve never quite mastered the game myself. My interest in hockey history was piqued a few years later, when my parents started buying me hockey books for Christmas. I found myself drawn to the stories of defunct franchises, who were largely ignored by mainstream books, and being the curious person I am, I had lots of questions that needed answers. This was before the Internet, so it was hard finding answers without spending hours reading microfilmed newspaper articles. When I was 12, I actually wrote to the NHL head office to request information about defunct teams the Colorado Rockies, KC Scouts, and California Golden Seals. I really could have been more specific, but I was 12 and really didn’t know any better. To my astonishment, a kind soul at the league’s headquarters sent me a photocopy of the 1975-76 Seals media guide, by far, the best piece of mail I’ve ever received. I still have it, actually. I read the guide over more times than I can count, and I immediately became a Seals fan over 15 years after they left the Bay Area. I always had a passion for writing, so I decided my first book was going to be about the Seals and their descendants, the Cleveland Barons. I started the book in eighth grade and completed it over twenty years later!
Review Fix: What was the research process like?
Currier: I had already done some of the leg work when I wrote my article on the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup, so most of that part was finished before I started the book. I then scoured newspapers looking for the most interesting games played by both the Capitals and Scouts, and tried to piece together the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons for both teams. The really fun part was connecting with former players, who provided incredible insight, great stories, and lots of photos. Robin Burns of the Scouts actually mailed me an entire photo album of one-of-a-kind photos his wife and other members of the team took while they were playing in Japan. Can you imagine sending a photo album full of rare photos to someone you’ve only spoken to over the phone? I was incredibly thrilled when that box arrived at my office! I had never seen any photos of the Coca-Cola Cup series, so without those photos, the book would not have felt complete. Ron Lalonde was also incredibly generous mailing me a rare Coca-Cola Cup program, a banner, and other awesome photos that just about no one has seen. Bill Mikkelson, Bernie Wolfe, Mike Lampman, Jack Lynch, Denis Herron, and the late Henry Boucha were other interview subjects. The Washington Capitals’ director of hockey operations, Kris Wagner, also arranged for the team photographer to take hi-def photos of the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup.
Review Fix: Any cool facts that didn’t make their way into the book?
Currier: After the book was published in July 2022, I received an email from former referee Malcolm Ashford, who I interviewed for my next book. He told me about how he may have made the most expensive phone call in sports history. In one game during the Japan series, the Scouts’ Steve Durbano, an unpredictable character, took exception to a call against him, so he slapped the puck at one of the linesmen. Ashford saw what happened and threw Durbano out of the game. At the end of the game, Ashford had to call NHL president Clarence Campbell in Montreal to explain what had happened, which was normal protocol when a game misconduct was given, but never had an NHL-related misconduct occurred all the way across the Pacific Ocean.
Review Fix: Who will enjoy this book the most?
Currier: I think the book will appeal to people who, like me, are curious about little-known events in hockey history. Readers who enjoy team histories should find the book interesting as well. The Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Cup series was one of the most bizarre events the NHL has ever been associated with. The players were treated with class and respect, and they had a wonderful time, but the playing conditions were farcical, and would never be accepted by the Players’ Association today. The rink in Tokyo was placed on top of an Olympic swimming pool. Diving boards hovered over one end of the rink. The rink boards would move when players were driven into them. It was a health risk just to participate in the series, but the players came back with wonderful memories. The Coca-Cola Cup, when it returned to North America after the series, was basically forgotten and almost destroyed, but was miraculously rescued before a wrecking ball could destroy the arena where the trophy was housed. This book is full of quirky anecdotes and vivid descriptions that are almost too difficult to believe, but I’m happy to say that no embellishment was needed to make these stories great.
Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?
Currier: I would like it to be remembered as a well-researched, funny book. I also hope that the Washington and Kansas City players and fans who read the book feel that every effort was made to get their story straight.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Currier: I’m writing a book on some of the lesser known, if not unknown, stories from the NHL and WHA. Now that the Hockey News has made its entire archive available to subscribers, I have been blessed with a seemingly limitless number of articles, anecdotes, tales, and statistics. It’s really just a matter of choosing the best of what I’ve written and putting those stories in order.
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
Currier: I hope that my passion for the sport and for history in general, comes through in my writing. I wrote this book because it was a subject that I was passionate about, and I’ve always believed that this is best way to pursue one’s artistic dreams. I could have written a book about a more mainstream topic, like the Montreal Canadiens or Bobby Orr, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed myself. There is nothing I could have added to the already extensively written histories of those teams, and I would have felt that my efforts meant little. In writing two books about long-forgotten teams and events, everything felt knew. I learned so much along the way.
Review Fix: Where can people find out more about you?
Currier: My website, Coca-ColaCup76.com, has lots of information about the Scouts-Capitals tour of Japan, rare photos, articles, and some podcast interviews I’ve done to promote the book. Signed copies of my book can be purchased there as well. I also update my Golden Seals tribute site, GoldenSealsHockey.com weekly. The site has dozens of articles about the Seals, a full statistics package, and other oddities, like the Hockey Hall of Shame, and commentary on some of the worst hockey cards ever printed.
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