Murder At Tax Time : Don Murdoch Interview April 15th 1978 + Fotiu vs Schoenfeld !

The Mouth treats us to yet another treasure trove that features an interview with then young Ranger superstar Don Murdoch. The almost three minute interview was conducted by NHL 78’s Dave Hodge between periods of Game Three of the best of three preliminaries series between the Rangers and Sabres at the Aud in Buffalo.

Donny Murdoch or “Murder” as he was known to his teammates was a personable as they come and a media darling to boot and in The Mouth opinion it absolutely shines through on this video.

If you talk to any former Ranger who played with Don Murdoch they will all eventually tell you that here was a guy who had unlimited potential, skies the limit. Phil Esposito once even went as far as saying that Don could have been a Hall of Famer.

But like a lot of young pro players that play in New York things came so easy and hit so fast and that he got swallowed up, when it was over for Don who was just a young kid from Cranbrook, B.C found himself in all kinds off ice problems. The main one being a drug conviction which led to a absurd 40 game suspension from the league, as well as a banishment from playing any NHL games in his native Canada.

But all that negative nonsense aside, Don was a natural goal scorer, in his rookie season he scored sixteen goals in his first 16 NHL games , he also had a five goal game against the Minnesota North Stars that year, he probably would have won the Calder trophy that season but he hurt his ankle and only wound up with 32 goals. One less than the guy who won it that year Willi Plett.

The Big man besides digging up this Murdoch interview gave a swift kick to the Crisis Time Machine several times and got it to spit out actual footage from this game, which took place on April 15th, 1978.

The Rangers lost badly 4-1 and got bounced from the playoffs. But the Rangers didn’t go down with a fight , and The Mouth means literally. In the last minute the Rangers took their frustrations out on the Sabres which culminated in several fights including a Nick Fotiu versus Jim Schoenfeld scrap.