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Before that disappointment, Robson noted that Stafford Smythe came to Vancouver and said he would build an arena downtown, if the city gave him the land, and then the NHL would be here.

“They rebuffed him for good reason,” laughed Robson. “He wanted to build where the post office building came in.”

When the NHL expanded from six to 12 teams for the 1967-68 season, it was accomplished amid rumoured back-door deals and ownership favouritism. San Francisco wanted in. Philadelphia didn’t even have its arena finished and played the first dozen games on the road. And Vancouver didn’t stand a chance.

Photo by Bill Keay / Vancouver Sun

“There were lots of political moves going on with NHL governors and it was such a jolt in Vancouver, that when they were declined an expansion team, the fans wanted to know how to show their displeasure,” said Robson. They cut their Esso credit cards in half because Imperial Oil sponsored Hockey Night in Canada. And they also stopped drinking Molson’s beer because they owned the Canadiens.

“They thought they had support from Montreal and Toronto. Molson’s lost a lot of beer sales to Labatt and Carling, and Esso lost a lot of customers to rivals like Shell and other companies. It had an impact on the future move to get Vancouver in,” Robson said.

However, it took the struggling expansion Oakland Seals, who would later be named the California Golden Seals, to add to the ongoing Vancouver franchise drama.

Photo by Ian Smith / Vancouver Sun

The optics of moving the Seals so quickly weren’t good, but there was genuine purchase interest elsewhere. It took a promise by the league in 1968 to award Vancouver a franchise two years later and avoid a lawsuit, instead of accepting an offer from Labatt. The brewery wanted to buy and relocate the California club and thepromise finally led to bringing the NHL to Canada’s West Coast.