Errors and discrepancies came in many flavors: (1) a simple accounted for. I was able to narrow the probable typo, or misidentification, especially with players of a similar discrepancy to a March game against Birmingham. I then name. Mark and Marty Howe were often confused with one checked the 1978-79 Whalers Media Guide, which broke another in the summaries, as were Larry Hale and Murray down each player’s goals by team, and saw that Marty Hall, for example; (2) an outright error that could be easily Howe (in my list) had one more against Birmingham checked against other resources, and (3) situations where a than he should have, while McKenzie had one less. Thus, change in scoring occurred after the summaries had been the goal should have been McKenzie’s. In this case, I used typeset and distributed to papers across Canada and the the “overwhelming preponderance of evidence” to make United States. this decision.  was credited with a goal (according to the In many cases, I was able to correct these errors by checking game summary) on December 30, 1978 against the against the team media guides, which sometimes broke a Czechs, and his running goal count continued thereafter player’s goals down on a team-by-team basis. I would also for another month before the “correction” was made. The track the player’s running goal count to identify any 1979-80 Oilers Media Guide shows only the breakdowns inconsistencies in the ordinal numbering of each goal. If there against each of the other WHA teams, which match was a scoring change to a goal once summaries had been perfectly with the charts, so by inference, his “extra” goal prepared and sent out, it almost certainly would not be must have come against one of the touring European reported after the fact in the newspapers. They don’t do this teams. I was able to get confirmation that he did not today, and certainly not in the 1970s. The following are a actually receive credit for a goal in this game, but who did couple of common conundrums I encountered, and how I is uncertain. Every other Oiler’s goals are accounted for, resolved them: except for Doug Berry. By inference only, this would have to be his goal, and I have listed him as such for that  Mike Rogers was credited with 34 goals for the 1974-75 game. , when he should have had 35, while Ken Baird was credited with 31 goals, when he should have There remain a very few cases where I simply cannot resolve had 30. I was able to determine that a goal given to Baird the discrepancy. A couple are noted below: (supposedly his 26th of the season) in the March 25 game against New England most likely was retro-actively  Rusty Patenaude scored 20 goals for the 1974-75 Oilers, granted to Rogers, which would have given him the hat while Bobby Sheehan scored 19 goals. However, my trick for that game. I was able to find corroborating counts show Patenaude with 21 goals, Sheehan with 18. evidence of this in the 1978-79 WHA Media Guide that The 1975-76 Oilers Media Guide does not show listed each player’s hat tricks, showing that Rogers had breakdowns, and the game summaries seem to support the only two as of the end of the 1977-78 season, one during 21 and 18 counts, which differ from the official counts. I 1977-78, and none during 1975-76 or 1976-77. have no way at the moment to determine where the Furthermore, Ken Baird’s running goal count resets to 26 discrepancy lies, so I have left it alone. the next night (March 26), so the combination of clues  Steve Atkinson of Toronto is officially credited with two leads to just one conclusion: Baird’s goal in the March goals during 1975-76, but the game summaries give him 25th game should be granted to Rogers. credit for three goals, and checking against other  John Miszuk was credited with three goals during 1976- summaries, all are consistent in crediting him with three 77, going strictly by the game summaries. However, the goals. Meanwhile, teammate Paul Heaver is officially official records credit him with two goals that season. I credited with two goals, but only appears once in the found a “suspicious” goal credited to him on October 12, 1975-76 summaries. My suspicion is that Atkinson’s third 1976 against Birmingham. I then checked the goal should be Heaver’s, but I have no corroborating Herald editions of October 13 and October 14. The evidence, so I left the discrepancy alone. October 13 edition described the goal as unassisted, fired  Thommie Abrahamsson is credited with 5 goals when he from the blue line and taking an odd bounce off officially should have 6 for the 1976-77 New England goaltender Wayne Wood into the net. The October 14 Whalers, while Ralph Backstrom has 19 goals credited edition included a sentence in which that goal was when he should have 18. All other Whaler goals are retroactively credited to Danny Lawson. This is the only properly accounted for. However, other than narrowing instance where a scoring change was reported in a down the likely game to within a two-month window, I newspaper that I could find. cannot determine which of Backstrom’s goals should be  Joe Noris was credited with 10 goals for the 1977-78 Abrahamsson’s. Birmingham Bulls, going by game summaries only, while Paul Henderson was credited with 36 goals. However, Proper Spelling of Russian Names their official counts are 9 and 37, respectively. The game summary for the February 25, 1978 game shows Noris as The names of the players from the Soviet Union were scoring his 29th goal. That goal clearly was Henderson’s transliterated from the Cyrillic alphabet into the Western which would have been his 29th. In this case, it was alphabet, but no standards existed at the time (1970s) clearly a misprint and easy to resolve. regarding consistency. Thus, for example, “Alexander” could  Marty Howe and John McKenzie were over- and under- be transliterated as Aleksander or even Aleksandr, if going by counted by one goal each, respectively, for the 1977-78 a literal character-for-character transliteration. The spellings New England Whalers, with all other Whalers being in this book reflect the preferred standards as put forth by the 532