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Montreal Canadiens history

Patrick Roy Emerges With The 1986 Montreal Canadiens

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The 1986 Montreal Canadiens entered the season having failed to win a Stanley Cup the previous six years. That’s nothing for any other franchise but for the NHL’s proudest team, one who had won four straight Cups as recently as 1976-79, it was an interminable wait. 1986 saw a surprise return to the top led by a 20-year-goaltender named Patrick Roy.

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Montreal had been through four coaches since the great Scotty Bowman left following the 1979 championship. Jean Perron became the fifth when he led the 1986 team. Most of the great players from that dynasty era were gone, but one big exception was 34-year-old defenseman Larry Robinson, who helped lead a defense that ranked fourth in the league in goals allowed.

Mats Naslund was a second-team All-Star, scoring 43 goals and handing out 67 assists. Other 30-goal scorers were Bobby Smith and Kjell Dahlin. The offense ranked sixth in the league in goals scored.

But the ultimate story of the season was Roy, and it’s appropriate that he was microcosm for the team. He was pretty good in the regular season, an 87.5% save rate that was much better by the context of 1986 than it would be today. And in the playoffs he lifted his game to a new level.

Montreal was consistent in the regular season, for better and for worse. They were .500 at Thanksgiving and nudged up to 19-12-4 by the New Year. They had a five-game win streak in January that was wiped out by a six-game losing streak in February. The Canadiens ended the regular season at 40-33-7.

It was good for second in the Adams Division—basically the Northeast, with Boston and division champ Quebec included. The record was fifth-best in the Wales Conference (the East) and seventh overall. There was no reason to expect something special from this Canadien team in the playoffs—the bracket seemed set up to produce an Edmonton-Philadelphia rematch in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Montreal met their longtime rival in Boston in the first round. The Bruins were led by the great defenseman Ray Borque and had 30-goal scorers in Keith Crowder and Charlie Simmer. They had the sixth-best defense in the NHL, but they didn’t have anyone that would match Roy in goal.

The young goalie got his postseason underway with a sweep of what was then a best-of-five series in the first round. Boston managed just six goals and Montreal was able to grind out wins of 3-1, 3-2 and 4-3. They got good news elsewhere—in the other Adams Division semifinal, Quebec had been upset by the Hartford Whalers. The Canadiens would have home ice for another round.

Hartford might have been last of the four Adams Division playoff teams, but they were pretty good in a balanced division that saw all five teams (Buffalo was the one to not make the playoffs) end up between 80-92 points. The Whalers had the fifth-best offense in the NHL, led by 45-goal scorer Sylvanian Turgeon and they got to Roy in Game 1, taking a 4-1 win.

Roy immediately got his game turned around, and Montreal won Game 2 by a 3-1 count and then reclaimed home ice in Game 3 with a 4-1 win. Roy continued to be great in Game 4, but the Canadiens lost a 2-1 overtime game that tied the series. The offense did its job in Game 5 with a 5-3 victory. Roy was back in form for Game 6, but got no support in a 1-0 loss. With the season on the line, Game 7 went to overtime and Montreal pulled out a 2-1 win.

It was a hair-raising survival, but more bracket breaks were coming Montreal’s way. The New York Rangers had upset Philadelphia and the conference finals would be Canadiens-Rangers. And for as well as Roy was now playing, the best goalie in hockey in 1986 was 22-year-old Vezina Trophy winner John Vanbiesbrouck. The Wales Conference would be decided by two rising stars in net.

What New York did not have was the ability to generate any offense, ranking 20th in the league in goals scorer. It enabled Roy to win a 2-1 due in the opener, and Montreal’s own attack was able to put pressure on Vanbiesbrouck in wins of 6-2 and 4-3 in overtime to put the Canadiens on the brink. The Ranger goalie went down fighting, producing a 2-0 shutout win, but Roy got the best of him in Game 5 with a 2-1 win. Montreal was returning to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since the dynasty ended in 1979.

And it was time for one more break in the bracket. Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers had been to three straight Finals, won two straight Cups and were the best team in hockey in 1986. The Calgary Flames ousted Gretzky in the division finals and then survived a seven-game battle with the St. Louis Blues. It would be an all-Canada battle in the Stanley Cup Finals, the first since 1967.

Calgary’s 89 points in the regular season were slightly ahead of Montreal’s 87, so even this bracket break didn’t bring home ice advantage. The Flames had a deep and balanced offense that ranked second in scoring without one particular dominant player. And they had their own young goalie with a bright future ahead of him in 22-year-old Mike Vernon.

That deep offense hit Roy right away and Montreal lost the opener 5-2. The Canadiens fought Game 2 to a 2-2 tie through regulation and overtime began. It lasted all of nine seconds as Brian Skrudland scored immediately off the faceoff and Montreal had tied the series.

Montreal got to Vernon for five goals in Game 3, taking a 5-3 win and then Roy put his teammates on his back in a 1-0 Game 4 win that put the Canadiens on the verge of a title. They went to Calgary and finished the job, winning 4-3.

Roy’s numbers in the postseason were nothing short of spectacular. His save rate was 92.3% and he allowed just 1.92 goals per game. He was an easy choice for the Conn Smythe Award as MVP of the entire postseason.

The Montreal Canadiens were back on top of the hockey world and had briefly interrupted the Gretzky Dynasty in Edmonton. And Patrick Roy was just getting started on a career that would take him to the Hall of Fame.

The 1979 Montreal Canadiens Hold On To Their Cup & Dynasty

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The 1979 Montreal Canadiens marked the end of an era in franchise history–they capped off a great dynasty run by winning a fourth straight Stanley Cup and they used one of the more memorable moments in NHL playoff history to do it.

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Montreal had set lofty standards in its Cup runs of 1976-78 and you could see signs of slippage in ’79. For the first time in the run, they did not get the #1 seed in the playoffs. They “only” went 52-17-11 and “settled” for the #2 seed, one point behind the New York Islanders. Instead of being the best in the NHL in both goals scored and goals allowed, the ’79 Canadiens “slipped” to second on offense, while retaining the top ranking on defense.

There was also new personnel working their way in, as Previe Mondou and Mario Trembley took on greater roles and were 30-plus goal scorers in a lineup that got a little less deep each year into the dynasty.

What the Canadiens still had was Guy Lafleur at right wing and he continued to make up the slack for declining depth, this time scoring 52 goals and dishing 77 assists. Those numbers ranked 2nd in the 3rd in the NHL respectively. The Canadiens still had the great defenseman Larry Robinson, who was a 1st-team All-Star along with Lafleur. And above all, they still had the magnificent Ken Dryden in goal, who won another Vezina Trophy as the league’s top netminder. And they still had left winger Steve Shutt, who even in decline, was still good for 37 goals.

The structure of the NHL playoffs had 12 of the league’s 18 teams qualify and seeding took place without regard to conference affiliation, so East and West could crisscross at any point in the bracket. Montreal, as one of the top four teams got a first-round bye and avoided the best-of-three preliminary round. The Canadiens then drew Toronto, the third straight year they had faced the Maple Leafs.

It was basically the same Toronto team of previous seasons, with good scorers and Darryl Sitter and Lanny McDonald, and a top defenseman in Borjie Salming, a 2nd-team All-Star. And it was basically the same result. Montreal was in command of the first two games at home, scoring a combined ten goals and winning each one decisively. The Canadiens then got seriously pushed in Games 3 & 4 back in Toronto, going to double-overtime in the third game before surviving 4-3. Then the fourth game went to overtime before Montreal won 5-4. It was the first sign that this playoff run wasn’t going to be the coronation affair of recent seasons.

The Canadiens faced the Boston Bruins in the semifinals. The Bruins were the third-best team in hockey and had taken Montreal to six games in the previous year’s Stanley Cup Finals. They ranked fourth in scoring and sixth on defense, with a balanced lineup that didn’t rely on one scorer, but spread the wealth among Rick Middleton, Peter McNab, Terry O’Reilly and Jean Ratelle. And they gave Montreal everything the champs could possibly want.

It didn’t start out like a dramatic series, with the Canadiens winning the first two games by a combined score of 9-3. When the series returned to Boston Garden, the Bruins won both games ,including a 4-3 overtime decision in Game 4. It was shaping up strikingly like the ’78 Finals had and when Montreal convincingly won Game 5 by a 5-1 count, the pattern was holding. But this time, instead of rolling over, Boston grabbed the sixth game by a 5-2 score. Game 7 back in Montreal was tied 3-3 with less than five minutes to go when the drama kicked into high gear.

Middleton scored with four minutes left and the Montreal Dynasty was on life support. With less than three minutes left, Boston was whistled for too many men on the ice. On the ensuing power play, Lafleur scored to tie the game. It’s a moment that lives in Boston sports infamy, somewhere just behind the Buckner ground ball and the Tyree catch. Montreal had new life and they won it in overtime.

The Canadiens got another break when it came to the Finals matchup. For the second straight year, the Islanders would be upset one round prior to getting a crack at Montreal. New York was a young team that had gradually gained steam through each year of the Montreal Dynasty and by 1980 the Islanders would start a dynastic run of their own. But their experience hadn’t yet matched their talent and while Montreal always took care of business, the Isles would mess things up. Like losing in the semifinals to an inferior crosstown rival in the Rangers.

The Rangers’ best player was Phil Esposito, one of great scorers of his era, but now 36-years-old. And they had the fifth-best record in hockey, so it’s not like this was a bad team. But the NHL was much more top-heavy in those days than it is now, even beyond Montreal. The gap between the top and the fifth-best team was considerable and it showed in these Stanley Cup Finals.

Montreal took the ice three days after the Game 7 epic and were still out of it, falling behind 2-0 in the first period and losing 4-1. But they quickly righted themselves and took over. A 6-2 win in Game 2 set the tone for the remainder of the Finals. The Canadiens reclaimed home ice with a 4-1 win in Game 3 and then survived an overtime battle, 4-3 in Game 4. They returned home for another 4-1 win in Game 5. The Stanley Cup had gone to Montreal yet again.

The Conn Smythe Award went to Bob Gainey, who scored six goals and had ten assists. It was a bizarre decision, given that Jacques Lemaire had 11/12, while Lafleur had number of 10/13, to say nothing of the biggest goal of the entire dynasty run in Game 7 of the semifinals. Dryden had what was, for him, a relatively pedestrian playoff, with 2.48 goals-against-average. Keep in mind, this is sterling, but by Dryden’s impeccable standards, falls short. Anyway, I’d have picked Lafleur for the Conn Smythe.

Montreal was the epitome of a proud veteran champion in 1979. Their stranglehold on the rest of the league was gone, but they still kept finding ways to win and added one more championship to their franchise’s long resume.

The 1978 Montreal Canadiens Win A Third Straight Stanley Cup

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The 1978 Montreal Canadiens might not have been the best team of the modern era, the way they had been in 1977. But the ’78 edition of the Canadiens was awfully close and they continued their dynasty run of the latter half of the 1970s, winning a third straight Stanley Cup.

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Just as they had in 1977, this Montreal team was the best in the league both scoring goals and preventing them. Just as they had in 1977, they had the MVP and the Vezina Trophy winner, in Guy Lafleur and Ken Dryden. Just as they had in 1977, they were the #1 seed in the playoffs. The only difference was that the ’78 team came up three points shy of the record they had set in 1977.

Lafleur’s 60 goals were the best in the NHL, and his 72 assists were second. Dryden’s 2.05 goals-against-average (GAA) was easily the league’s best. Steve Shutt scored 49 goals, third-best in the league and he, along with defenseman Larry Robinson, were 2nd-team All-Star selections. Jacques Lemaire was fourth in points, thanks to 61 assists. All five of these players–Lafleur, Dryden, Shutt, Robinson and Lemaire–were eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame. Yes, this team could play a little.

The NHL had 18 teams in the league at this time and 12 made the playoffs. The format simply seeded the teams 1 thru 12 without regard to conference structure. Montreal was one of the four teams with byes, avoiding the best-of-three preliminary round.

They drew the Detroit Red Wings when it came time for the quarterfinals and the traditional best-of-seven format. The Red Wings had a good team defense, ranking 7th in the league in goals allowed, but did not have a goaltender who could lift an entire team, and their offensive capacity was light-years behind Montreal’s. The Canadiens won the series in five games, including an 8-0 rout in Game 4.

Montreal then got a break. The New York Islanders were an up-and-coming team that had met the Canadiens in the semi-finals each of the previous two years and were the only team to win any games against Montreal, stretching the great 1977 team to six games. New York had added a brilliant young scorer in Mike Bossy, and a third straight meeting in the semis would have been a good one. But the Islanders got upset by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I don’t want to overstate how big of a break this was–Montreal still would have been favored over the Isles, and the Leafs had some talent–Darryl Sitter scored 45 goals and was a second-team All-Star, as was defenseman Borje Salming. The Leafs were still the sixth-best team in the NHL. But they didn’t have a chance in this series and Montreal swept Toronto four straight, with three victories by two-goal margins and a 6-1 domination in Game 3.

The Boston Bruins were the last hurdle left in the Stanley Cup Finals. The B’s were well-balanced, and they had one of the best defensemen in the game, with Brad Park. Peter McNab led the third-best offense in the NHL and Terry O’Reilly was an enforcer par excellence. But there was a huge disparity in goaltending. Gerry Cheevers was a nice, competent netminder, but Dryden was in a world several layers above that.

Montreal took the first two games at home 4-1 and 3-2, but they needed overtime to take Game 2, with a Lafleur goal winning it. Then the Canadiens started to show some cracks in the dynasty for the first time, losing both Games 3 & 4 at the old Boston Garden. They were shutout 4-0 in the third game and trailed 3-2 in the closing minute of Game 4 when a Lafleur goal with 0:33 left bought them a reprieve. But the Bruins still won in overtime.

Even though Montreal had lost twice to the Islanders in 1977, the series had never been tied this deep at any point in the previous two years. Dryden recovered and took over Games 5 & 6, both of them 4-1 wins that brought home another Stanley Cup.

Robinson’s passing was exquisite throughout the postseason. His two assists in the Game 6 clincher were part of 17 for the entire playoffs and it won him the Conn Smythe Award, as MVP of the postseason. I’m always partial to Dryden for this award, as he consistently elevated his game in the playoffs. Consider that’s elevating off a standard that’s already the best in the league and doing it exclusively against the best teams in hockey. Dryden’s postseason GAA was 1.89. Lafleur scored 10 goals and had 11 assists.

You could see the gap between Montreal and the rest of the NHL closing a bit, but there was still plenty of cushion. The Canadiens had a third straight Cup and looking ahead, they had one more title run left in them.

The 1976 Montreal Canadiens Start A New Dynasty

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For most franchises, two consecutive years of missing the Stanley Cup Finals wouldn’t even register on the radar, much less be cause for alarm. But for the Montreal Canadiens, the most decorated franchise in NHL history, the two title-less years that followed the 1973 Stanley Cup, were an interminable drought. The 1976 Montreal Canadiens got back on top and in the process won a historic Stanley Cup Finals and began a new dynasty.

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Montreal did everything well, but their calling card was the best defense in the league. Ken Dryden won the Vezina Trophy, as the NHL’s top goaltender, with a 2.03 goals-against (GAA) average.

Offensively, the Canadiens weren’t far behind the pace they set on defense, ranking fourth in goals scored. The great Guy Lafleur ranked second in the NHL in goals scored (56), third in assists (61) and it added up to making him the total points leader and a first-team All-Star at forward. Another Guy–Guy Lapointe in this case, dished 47 assists and was a 2nd-team All-Star.

Montreal had still more firepower in left winger Steve Shutt, with his 45-goal season. Center Pete Mahovlich and right winger Yvan Courmoyer were great passers, with 71 assists apiece, and both lit the lamp 30-plus times to boot.

This kind of depth led the Canadiens to the best record in the league, 58-11-1. They were the top seed in a 12-team playoff bracket where conference affiliation didn’t matter. It was simply bracketed 1 thru 12. After enjoying their first-round bye, Montreal got the playoffs started with a series against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Chicago was barely over .500, at 32-30-18, but they had an excellent goaltender in Tony Esposito. The problem was, they lacked offensive punch. The best Blackhawk scorer, Pit Martin, would have been the sixth-best player in the Montreal lineup. They were no match for Dryden, who spun a 4-0 shutout in Game 1 and then held Chicago to a goal per game the rest of the way.

Esposito performed admirably, but he couldn’t hold off the tide that Montreal brought, as they won Games 2 thru 4 by scores of 3-1, 2-1 and 4-1 to complete the sweep.

The Canadiens prepared to face the New York Islanders in the semi-finals. The Isles had a core of young talent that would eventually become a dynasty of their own in the early 1980s. Denis Potvin, a 22-year-old defenseman, was a 1st-team All-Star. Bryan Trottier, 19-years-old, joined Potvin as a 30-goal scorer. Clark Gillies was another kid, age 21, and would be a part of the future dynasty.

What New York didn’t do well, at least at this stage of their development, was defend. Goaltender Glenn Resch was good, getting 2nd-team All-Star status behind Dryden. But attack any goalie often enough and some pucks will get through, and the Isles still ranked just 16th in defense.

The series was competitive, but Montreal consistently found the way to win close games. They took Games 1 thru 3 by scores of 3-2, 4-3 and 3-2, before their postseason win streak finally ended with a 5-2 loss in Game 4. The Canadiens wrapped up the series with a 5-2 victory of their own in Game 5.

Now it was time for a great showdown in the Finals. The Philadelphia Flyers were the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions and took their place in hockey lore as “The Broad Street Bullies”, for their ultra-physical play.

That shouldn’t obscure the talent the Flyers had though. Center Bobby Clarke had 89 assists to go with his 30 goals and he won the MVP award. Reggie Leach led all scorers with his 61 goals. Bill Barber lit the lamp 50 times and joined Lafleur as the All-Star forwards. Philly ranked 2nd in the NHL in scoring.

But while Philadelphia had a better offense, Montreal was a more complete team. The Flyers were only 17th on defense. No matter the sport, the deeper you get into the postseason, the more likely it is that the better defensive team will prevail. And Dryden was the difference.

Montreal held Philly to nine goals in four games and again won the close games, taking the first three by counts of 4-3, 2-1 and 3-2. A 5-3 victory in Game 4 sealed the Stanley Cup.

The Conn Smythe Award, given to the MVP of the entire postseason, went to Leach for his 19 goals and 5 assists. That’s a spectacular performance and not to be begrudged, although we should note that Dryden elevated his already superb game in the playoffs, with a 1.92 GAA. This in spite of the fact that 9 of the 13 games were played against teams with top-three offenses. And his team ultimately won the Stanley Cup. I think he deserved the award.

Other heroes included Lafleur and Shutt, who scored seven goals apiece. It was the second Stanley Cup for head coach Scotty Bowman, who had been the coach of the 1973 team.

And a new era of Montreal Canadiens ascendancy was at hand. The 1976 Stanley Cup Finals proved to be a changing-of-the-guard moment, as Montreal took the baton from Philly and went ahead and ran with it. The Canadiens would dominate the latter part of the 1970s, winning four straight Stanley Cups.

1993 Stanley Cup Finals: A Clash Of Dynasties…Sort Of

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The Montreal Canadiens were the NHL’s great dynasty of all time, most recently in the late 1970s when they won four straight Stanley Cups (1976-79) and then tacked on one more in 1986. No one would ever mistake the Los Angeles Kings for a dynasty. But Wayne Gretzky was most certainly a dynasty unto himself, having first led the Edmonton Oilers to the status of the league’s dominant team in the late 1980s, and was now in his fifth year in Los Angeles.

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In the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, the league’s greatest franchise and its greatest player met in their own version of a dynastic clash.

Montreal and Los Angeles each finished third in their respective divisions during the season. The Canadiens got superlative goaltending from 27-year-old Patrick Roy, but lacked a clear offensive star. Los Angeles got more than its share of offense from Luc Robatille, but Gretzky missed 37 games with injuries and the defense was subpar.

Gretzky was healthy for the playoffs and nothing matters more than goaltending in postseason play, and both teams played their way into the Finals. Los Angeles took Game 1 behind a goal and three assists from Gretzky, but from that point on it was all Montreal.

Montreal went through a hiccup to start the playoffs, losing the first two games to the Quebec Nordiques (a franchise that Roy would lead to greatness three years later after they moved to Colorado and re-named themselves the Avalanche). The Canadiens promptly went on an eight-game winning streak, to eliminate Quebec and then sweep the Buffalo Sabres.

A five-game dispatching of the New York Islanders completed a run to the Finals made easy by the fact the Wales Conference (the East) saw its best teams—the Boston Bruins and the two-time defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins lose in upsets prior to facing Montreal.

Los Angeles got by the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks to start the postseason. The Kings, as they had all season, relied on their offense. In two six-game series, Los Angeles gave up five or more goals five times and four goals two more times, but still managed to advance.

The Kings then won a great seven-game battle with the Toronto Maple Leafs, taking an overtime Game 6 to stay alive and then winning Game 7, each by a 5-4 count.

Gretzky was the story in the first game of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals. He scored a goal, dished three assists and led Los Angeles to a 4-1 win. But it turned out to be the last Kings win of the season.

Montreal won three consecutive overtime games. Eric Desjardins scored a hat trick in Game 2, the final one wrapping up a 3-2 win. It was 4-3 in Game 3 behind 30 saves from Roy. The Canadien goalie then carried his team in Game 4, turning back 40 shots in a 3-2 win. Montreal went home for Game 5 with a chance to clinch.

Outstanding team defense was the story in the fifth game. Los Angeles got only 19 shots on goal and that’s not enough against anyone, much less Patrick Roy. Robatille finished with just one goal for the entire Finals, and Gretzky was inconsequential after the opener. Montreal won 4-1 and won the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals.

1977 Montreal Canadiens: The Best Team Of The Dynasty Years

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The 1977 Montreal Canadiens were the best of the four consecutive Stanley Cup winners that the franchise produced from 1976-79. In fact, the ’77 Canadiens were the best team in the modern era of the NHL and quite possibly the best hockey team of all time.

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Montreal led the NHL in both scoring and defense, both by a wide margin. They had four first-team All-Stars, including the league MVP (Guy Lafleur), the top goalie (Ken Dryden) and the NHL’s leading goal-scorer (Steve Shutt). Defenseman Larry Robinson, a future Hall of Famer himself, was the fourth and the other defenseman, Guy Lapointe was a 2nd-team All-Star.

The only frontline player not to be a 1st or 2nd-team All-Star was center Jacques Lemaire, and he merely stepped in the Stanley Cup Finals to score three game-winning goals, including an overtime goal that won the Cup. Every last aspect of the Montreal team operated at the highest level.

Head coach Scotty Bowman led this team to a 60-8-1 regular season record and the 132 points were a new record.

The structure of the NHL playoffs at the time allowed 12 of the league’s 18 teams into the postseason, which was then seeded without regard to conference affiliation. Montreal was, quite naturally, the #1 seed, got a bye in the preliminary round and then drew the St. Louis Blues in the quarterfinals.

Montreal easily overmatched St. Louis, whose best scorer, Garry Unger, would have been about the seventh-best player on the Canadiens. The Blues were a sub-.500 team and Montreal quickly set the tone of the series with a 7-2 win. They cruised home with three more easy wins.

The semifinals were a rematch with the New York Islanders. One year earlier, the Canadiens had faced the Isles in this round and the five-game series marked the only time Montreal lost a game in the postseason.

New York was an up-and-coming force, with 22-year-old defenseman Denis Potvin joining Robinson as the All-Star defensemen. Potvin, along with Bryan Trottier and Clark Gillies, would be key parts of a team that would eventually become a dynasty of their own.

Goaltender Glenn Resch, with his 2.28 goals-against-average (GAA) was one of the few netminders in the league who could hold a candle to the great Dryden. The Islanders finished the regular season at 47-21-2 and had swept their way into this battle with Montreal.

The Canadiens defended home ice, with wins over 4-3 and 3-0 before they again had their postseason winning streak ended by the Islanders in Game 3. Dryden delivered a 4-0 shutout in Game 4, but New York came back to win Game 5 in overtime. Montreal closed it out in Game 6, but it was fair to wonder if the Islanders had exposed any cracks that might open in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Montreal would face rival Boston, with two decent scorers in Jean Ratelle and Peter McNabb, along with a top defenseman in Brad Parks. But Gerry Cheevers was nowhere close to Dryden as a goaltender and the Bruins would not challenge the Canadiens in the same way the Islanders had.

A seven-goal outburst gave Montreal a 7-3 win to start the Finals and then it was Dryden time. He held Boston to three goals in the next three games. Cheevers hung in as best he could, but the talent disparity was too much. The Canadiens won 3-0 and 4-2, before going to overtime in Game 4 tied at 1-1. Lemaire then scored the goal that won Montreal’s second straight Stanley Cup.

Lafleur scored nine goals and dished seventeen assists over the three playoff rounds and won the Conn Smythe Award, given to the MVP of the entire postseason. Lemaire had seven goals and 12 assists, while Shutt lit the lamp eight times. Dryden, whose regular season GAA had been a sterling 2.14, was even better in the playoffs. The postseason GAA was 1.55, and he should have won the Conn Smythe.

No matter who won the awards, the 1977 Montreal Canadiens were an all-time great team and with their second straight Stanley Cup, they were only halfway done on the developing dynasty.