OHL History

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who was the best while wearing the Cooperall? From 1981 to 1987, instead of wearing the traditional equipment that’s been used for many years, every team in the OHL wore a new style of equipment known as Cooperalls. Created by Cooper Canada, the style featured a girdle that was worn under what looked like trackpants that were padded and tight fitted to protect the players bodies. It weighed a lot less than the traditional equipment and allowed players to move around easier. Despite the positives to the new pant like design, they didn’t have much friction to them, causing players to slide into the boards harder when they fell to the ice. Players also said that they found them too warm when they played in them. 

            Over the six seasons that the OHL wore the Cooperalls, 17 teams played in the style. 12 teams wore them for all six years. Guelph was granted an expansion team in 1982, so they wore them for 5 seasons. The Niagara Falls Flyers wore them for one season before moving to North Bay, and Brantford wore them for three seasons before moving to Hamilton to become the Steelhawks. Out of all of those teams, who had the best regular season record while wearing them?

Regular Season Standings:

1- Peterborough Petes– 247-137-22 (0.635)

2- Oshawa Generals- 240-153-13 (0.607)

3- Kitchener Rangers- 235-153-18 (0.601)

4- North Bay Centennials- 187-133-18 (0.580) (Five Seasons)

5- Soo Greyhounds- 226-164-16 (0.576)

6- Ottawa 67’s- 214-175-17 (0.548)

7- Toronto Marlboros- 197-194-15 (0.504)

8- Hamilton Steelhawks- 94-95-9 (0.497) (Three Seasons)

9- London Knights- 195-198-13 (0.496)

10- Brantford Alexanders- 98-102-8 (0.490) (Three Seasons)

11- Belleville Bulls- 196-205-5 (0.489)

12- Niagara Falls Flyers- 31-34-3 (0.478) (One Season)

13- Cornwall Royals- 182-211-13 (0.464)

14- Windsor Spitfires- 161-224-21 (0.422)

15- Kingston Canadians- 157-238-11 (0.400)

16- Guelph Platers- 118-207-13 (0.368) (Five Seasons)

17- Sudbury Wolves- 119-276-11 (0.307)

            One thing that is always fascinating when looking at past teams is looking at goals for and goals against to get a good gauge on whether a team put offence before defence or vice versa. Most of these are very comparable to the Regular Season Standings, but there are a few surprises in both of these. Who had the most goals for in Cooperalls?

Goals For Standings:

1- Kitchener Rangers (2038)

2- Peterborough Petes (1957)

3- Soo Greyhounds (1955)

4- Cornwall Royals (1944)

5- Toronto Marlboros (1943)

6- Ottawa 67’s (1942)

7- Belleville Bulls (1928)

8- Oshawa Generals (1908)

9- London Knights (1853)

10- Kingston Canadians (1789)

11- Windsor Spitfires (1672)

12- Sudbury Wolves (1632)

13- North Bay Centennials (1564) (Five Seasons)

14- Guelph Platers (1300) (Five Seasons)

15- Hamilton Steelhawks (902) (Three Seasons)

16- Brantford Alexanders (871) (Three Seasons)

17- Niagara Falls Flyers (311) (One Season)

Now we ask a similar question, who had the most goals against in Cooperalls?

Goals Against Standings:

1- Sudbury Wolves (2305)

2- Cornwall Royals (2106)

3- Kingston Canadians (2072)

4- Toronto Marlboros (1941)

5- Windsor Spitfires (1925)

6- London Knights (1883)

7- Belleville Bulls (1855)

8- Guelph Platers (1769) (Five Seasons)

9- Ottawa 67’s (1757)

10- Soo Greyhounds (1735)

11- Kitchener Rangers (1679)

12- Oshawa Generals (1565)

13- Peterborough Petes (1486)

14- North Bay Centennials (1322) (Five Seasons)

15- Hamilton Steelhawks (860) (Three Seasons)

16- Brantford Alexanders (830) (Three Seasons)

17- Niagara Falls Flyers (338) (One Season)

            With six seasons, of course also means six seasons of playoff hockey. Multiple teams played some of the best hockey in their franchises history in these seasons, while others played their worst and won’t be high on this list. I’ve decided to count a bye as a series win, since the teams have earned their spot in the next round, though it will be noted how many times they had a bye in this six year span. Who won the most playoff series in Cooperalls?

Playoff Series Wins Plus Byes:

11- Soo Greyhounds (8 series wins, 3 byes)

10- Oshawa Generals (10 series wins)

10- Ottawa 67’s (7 series wins, 3 byes)

10- Peterborough Petes (7 series wins, 3 byes)

9- Kitchener Rangers (6 series wins, 3 byes)

5- Belleville Bulls (5 series wins)

5- Windsor Spitfires (5 series wins)

5- North Bay Centennials (4 series wins, 1 bye)

4- Guelph Platers (4 series wins)

3- Hamilton Steelhawks (3 series wins)

3- Toronto Marlboros (2 series wins, 1 bye)

3- Brantford Alexanders (2 series wins, 1 bye)

2- Cornwall Royals (2 series wins)

2- London Knights (2 series wins)

2- Kingston Canadians (2 series wins)

0- Niagara Falls Flyers

0- Sudbury Wolves

            Out of those teams that made the playoffs, 5 of them won OHL titles, Oshawa twice (1983 and 1987), Kitchener (1982), Ottawa (1984), Soo (1985) and Guelph (1986). Only three of those teams would go on to raise the Memorial Cup with their Cooperalls, Kitchener (1982), Ottawa (1984) and Guelph (1986).

            Now that we know who the best team was in terms of on ice performance, it’s time to go to the completely opinion based section of this article. Who had the best Cooperalls look? My vote has to go to the Sudbury Wolves.

            Their on-ice play was absolutely abysmal during this time period, winning 119 out of 406 games in the regular season and going 0-4 in the playoffs (missed 5 out of 6 years and were swept by the Guelph Platers in 1986). While they may have lost a lot during this era, they looked good doing it with bright green pants and that great green wolf logo. It was a very unique look. While the London Knights also wore green at the time, they wore a darker shade of green, which doesn’t stand out as well as the Wolves did. One honorable mention in this category would go to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds with the red pants and red jersey. While many of those games up north were probably blowouts, at least the red vs green was a treat for the eyes. The other one goes to the Guelph Platers because of the lightning bolt design that ran across the side of the pants.