Height: 5-11
Weight: 175
Shoot: L
Born: 4 Nov 1937, Winnipeg MB (d. 2011)
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Houston | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | Houston | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Playoffs Again • by Joey LeBourgeois • The Hockey Spectator • April 20, 1973
"Experience" is a word that shows up without fail when assessments are made of the Houston Aeros. There is no substitute for it when it comes to playoff time, it's said, and the Aeros have plenty of it. It's that, along with the basic talent, of course, that makes Houston a team to watch through the first WHA championship drive. And people like center Ed Hoekstra. In 15 years of professional hockey, Hoekstra has missed the playoffs just twice. When it comes to that tense part of the year that everyone plays 78 preliminary battles for, he knows what's going on. Now the Aeros are in the middle of a series with the Los Angeles Sharks, so far the most even series going in pro hockey. While other teams are cruising through the first set, Houston and Los Angeles are fighting it out at close quarters, and nobody is running away with anything. "We're pretty evenly matched," ways Hoekstra, "and I think it is going to boil down to the goaltending in this series. This is one that will go six or seven games. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see it goto all seven." "On a game-to-game basis, it's going to be who comes up with the big save that's important. There's not much difference in ability between the two teams. You just never know what's going to happen in the playoffs," he says. "The first game we bombed them, maybe because they had a 10-day layoff after the regular season. They were a bit rusty, and we weren't, so we go out and win, 7-2. But that was a particular situation." "After getting that first game out of their systems, they came back and we played a pretty even second game, We were playing well, but they come out and get a quick goal in the third period (to gain a 2-2 tie) and it gives them life. Then they go on to win, 4-2. The first series is always tough, and the second is tougher, and so on. We definitely have to win in their rink to make it to the second series. I don't see why we can't either." "We've won a couple of big games over there, and we should be able to do it again. The home-ice advantage doesn't mean that much when you get to the playoffs. It gets down to the fact that we have to win and so do they, so the crowd isn't such a big factor anymore. During the regular season there's always another game around the corner, but not now. This is the end of the line." But it's certainly nothing new for the 36-year-old Winnipeg native, Not like killing penalties, his speciality this year. "I never did a lot of before," he says, "But if the coach says that's what I'm going to do I'll do it. It's a job someone has to do. I haven't had much of a year, point-wise, because of that, but I think I've done a fair job here. I've been terrible about scoring goals and giving out assists, but that comes with working on a penalty-killing crew. I'd like to get a few goals and help us win a few games in the playoffs, but I'll do what Bill (Dineen) wants. Killing penaities, you have to play defense, and you don't get the chance to score that you usually would." Hoekstra, along with defensemen Poul Popiel and John Schella, and [forward] Duke Harris, have that strategy of forcing mistakes when in the shorthanded situation. Matter of factly, Hoekstra elaborates: "We try to control, of course, and try to keep the other team off balance. You've got to cause a mistake. We've been able to do that fairly well through the year, and it pays off occasionally with a goal. When you catch them deep in their own end making a mistake you've got the possibility of scoring. They'll be thinking offensively, and it's easy to catch them with nobody back to stop a break." "Getting a shorthanded goal gives a team a lift, too. You never know when that might turn a game around." That's what he'll be trying to do through a remaining season he hopes includes two more series after the current one. |
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