On This Day July 25th.

July 25: On this day in 1977, Roger Neilson was hired as head coach of the Maple Leafs and thus began his long NHL coaching career of exactly 1,000 games. In his first season as Leaf bench boss, "Captain Video" led the team to a successful regular season record of 41-29-10 and then guided the team to its first best-of-seven playoff series victory in 11 years. Neilson endured only two seasons under Leaf owner Harold Ballard but went out with a winning record of 75-62-23. His downfall was two consecutive four game sweeps in the playoffs to the powerful Canadiens of the late '70's.