The Complete World Hockey Association
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Barry Long Barry Kenneth Long

Height: 6-2
Weight: 210
Shoot: L
Born: 3 Jan 1949, Red Deer AB

 

Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)

year team
gp
g
a
pts
pim
gp
g
a
pts
pim
1974-75 Edmonton
78
20
40
60
116
1975-76 Edmonton
78
10
32
42
66
4
0
0
0
4
1976-77 Edmonton
2
0
1
1
2
Winnipeg
71
9
38
47
54
20
1
5
6
10
Totals (2 teams)
73
9
39
48
56
1977-78 Winnipeg
78
7
24
31
42
9
0
5
5
6
1978-79 Winnipeg
79
5
36
41
42
10
2
3
5
0
Totals:
386
51
171
222
322
43
3
13
16
20

 

Excerpts from Pro Hockey, WHA 1976-77 (by Dan Proudfoot)

Barry Long's an extraordinarily-talented defenseman, but he's also a student of human behaviour. Therefore, his observations were worth listening to after a year with the Oilers. He'd been highly-rated with the Los Angeles Kings the year before.

"At times I felt like I had a different attitude than some of the guys," Long related. "The way I look at it is, there are winners and there are losers and there are guys who sit on the fence and who can be either winners or losers depending on which is easiest in the situation." As Oilers' depressing 1975-76 season continued, Long's own attitude slipped somewhat. "Things were never this bad with Los Angeles Kings when I played there," he said in a radio interview. "In Los Angeles they didn't improve until we got a new general manager."

 

Jets' Long Thrives on Ice Time • no byline • The Hockey News • December 29, 1978

They call him the "Marathon Man" and seldom has a nickname fit so well.

Barry Long would play 45-50 minutes a game if asked to and if injury problems beset the Winnipeg Jets, Long is often the first man coach Larry Hillman looks to.

"There's no place that I couldn't put him," says Hillman of his hard-working defenseman. "He plays the power play, kills penalties, and the way he blocks shots I wouldn't be afraid to play him in goal — if I needed a goalie."

Long was a World Hockey Association All Star in 1975, a rejected unwanted Edmonton Oiler in 1976 and a reborn professional with Winnipeg in 1977.

Gone, seeming forever, is the tremendously hard slapshot that accounted for 20 goals in 1974-75 and made him one of the WHA's best power-play point men.

Also missing, at least in the minds of some fans, is the aggressiveness that should come, apparently naturally, from a man who stands six-foot-two and weighs 210 pounds. But never lacking in the hustle, the unselfish determination and the awkwardness that has become his trademark. Edmonton coach Glen Sather says Long looks like he's going to fall down with his skating style, "but he always seems to make the right play."

"Actually he's well co-ordinated for a man his size," says Hillman. "Don't forget he's taller and heavier than most. Sure he darts and flops here and there but that's his style."

That syle was never more effective than in last spring's playoffs when Long dared and flopped so often it at times appeared he was the only Jet behind their own blueline. But never was a defenseman so effective and dominant. He blocked an average of six shots per game in the playoffs — the average defememan blocks two to four — he cleaned up in front of his net, and most important, he led by his actions.

He was a leader and the Jets followed his example ... all the way to the Avco Cup. So effective was he in the playoffs, Long emerged with a plus 11 rating, the best of any defenseman. And that's typical of Barry Long ... not spectacular, just effective.

 

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