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1977-78 NHL season

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

The 1977-78 NHL season was the 61st season of the National Hockey League. Eighteen teams each played 80 games. The Montreal Canadiens won their third Stanley Cup in a row as they beat the Boston Bruins four games to two in the finals.

A trophy for the top defensive forward, the Frank J. Selke Trophy, made its debut this season and went to Bob Gainey, who played Left Wing for Montreal.

The NHL noted with regret the death in a motorcycle crash of defenceman Bob Gassoff of the St. Louis Blues.

The St. Louis Blues were purchased by St. Louis-based Ralston-Purina company, and the Arena was renamed the Checkerdome.

Don Murdoch of the New York Rangers was arrested by customs agents when he was caught with a small quantity of cocaine. It was the first time an NHL player had been arrested on a drug charge. John Ziegler, new NHL president, said he would defer any action until Murdoch went to trial and a verdict was reached.

Clarence Campbell retired as NHL President, prior to this season. John Ziegler succeeded him.

Bob Pulford was named new Chicago general manager and coach and Bobby Orr was missing from defence. However, new defenceman Doug Wilson was an excellent replacement. The Black Hawks were on their way up.

The Cleveland Barons presented a strange appearence for their final year in the NHL. Harry Howell succeeded Bill McCreary as general manager and Jack Evans was retained as coach. Forwards Rick Shinske and Mike Crombeen were added. On defence was Greg Smith, Bob Stewart, John Baby, Rick Hampton and later Mike Christie was traded and Jim McKenny added. During the season, Gary Edwards was aquired for goal in exchange for Gary Simmons. Gilles Meloche was the number one goaltender for the team.

Leo Boivin was named coach of the St. Louis Blues and he had his hands full right from the start. The tragic death of Bob Gassoff left a big hole in the defence, which consisted of Rod Seiling, Bruce Affleck, newcomer Jack Brownschidle and Dick Redmond. During the season, Barry Gibbs was obtained from Atlanta and the retired Bob Plager came out of retirement for one last season of play. Forwards included Garry Unger, Red Berenson, Claude Larose, Tony Currie, Larry Patey, Bernie Federko and Brian Sutter. During the season, Inge Hammarstrom was picked up from Toronto.

Contents

1 Regular season

1.1 Final standings

1.1.1 Prince of Wales Conference
1.1.2 Clarence Campbell Conference

1.2 Scoring leaders
1.3 Leading goaltenders

2 Stanley Cup playoffs

[edit]

Regular season

The Stanley Cup champions opened at home October 11th and beat the Minnesota North Stars 7-3 as Guy Lapointe had a goal and two assists.

The Cleveland Barons won a close game with the St. Louis Blues October 22nd as Bob Murdoch scored two goals in a 3-2 win. Gilles Meloche was miraculous in goal for the Barons as his team was outshot 53-17 and Meloche made 51 saves. With 42 seconds to play, the Blues replaced goaltender Ed Staniowski with a sixth attacker and the Blues swarmed in on Meloche. Garry Unger had supposedly tied the the game on a rebound from a Dick Redmond shot, but by the time goal judge Rich Schweigler flicked on the red light, it could not come on as time had run out.

After starting the season with six straight losses, the St. Louis Blues finally got their first point of the season as they tied Atlanta 2-2 October 25th.

The Blues got their first win of the season November 1rst as Garry Unger had the hat trick in a 7-2 pasting of the Los Angeles Kings. Red Berenson scored his first goal of the season in this game. That same night, Bryan Trottier scored four goals as the New York Islanders crushed the Atlanta Flames 9-0. Billy Smith picked up the shutout in goal for the Islanders.

The St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks put on a scoring orgy November 9th as the Blues emerged victorious 8-6. Mike Walton and Jere Gillis each had two goals for the Canucks and Claude Larose had two for the Blues. That same night, the New York Rangers finally broke their Buffalo jinx with an 8-4 win over the Sabres at home. Phil Esposito and Pat Hickey each had two goals. Don Edwards started in goal for Buffalo, but gave way to Gerry Desjardins.

Montreal broke out of a three game losing streak November 11th with a 5-1 win over the New York Islanders.

Detroit gave St. Louis a bad pounding 10-1 November 16th. Ed Johnston started in goal for the Blues, but had to be replaced by Ed Staniowski. Reed Larson, Andre St. Laurent and rookie Dale McCourt each had two goals for the Red Wings. McCourt was now being looked at by writers for the Calder Trophy.

On November 29th, the slumping Pittsburgh Penguins decided that a shake-up was necessary and traded their star centre Pierre Larouche to the Montreal Canadiens for centre Pete Mahovlich and right wing Peter Lee.

On December 8th, Montreal pasted St. Louis 8-1 and Pierre Larouche fit right in and scored the opening goal at 2:35 of the first period. Steve Shutt had a pair of goals in the game. Ed Johnston was not sharp in the Blues goal and was replaced by Ed Staniowski in the third period.

Defenceman Tom Bladon of the Philadelphia Flyers set an NHL record for most points in one game by a defenceman, breaking Bobby Orr's record, by scoring four goals and adding four assists as the Flyers walloped the Cleveland Barons 11-1 December 11th.

Frank Boucher, former star centre for the Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers in the 1920's and 1930's and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, died in Kemptville, Ontario of cancer at age 76.

With the Blues down in the standings, general manager Emile Francis endeavored to shake up the team and traded defenceman Dick Redmond, forward Bob MacMillan and goaltender Yves Belanger to Atlanta for goaltender Phil Myre, defenceman Barry Gibbs and forward Curt Bennett.

Andy Blair, a forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1930's, died in Seattle,Washington December 27th at age 69.

Defenceman Jack Brownschidle was struggling and not playing well for the Blues in his rookie season and it was decided to bring defenceman Bob Plager out of retirement to play for a while. Brownschidle was sent down to the Blues farm team for seasoning. This appeared to be the right move as the Blues beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 at home December 30th. Jim Roberts scored the winning goal at 7:54 of the third period, and Phil Myre was right at home in goal for the Blues.

On January 7th, Phil Myre of St Louis and Tony Esposito of Chicago hooked up for a classic scoreless tie. Both goaltenders played very well and made some great saves.

On February 8th, after snow had forced postponement of a game between the Minnesota North Stars and New York Rangers the previous night, the two teams went at it and the Rangers defeated the North Stars 3-0 as Wayne Thomas got the shutout and Phil Esposito scored his 20th goal. The next night, the Buffalo Sabres beat the Rangers 2-0. A near tragedy took place when Rick Martin was nailed by Dave Farrish near the Rangers goal. Martin flipped backwards and hit his head on the ice. Martin twitched ominously as if he had been seriously injured, and was removed from the ice on a stretcher. However, the diagnosis from the hospital was only a severe concussion and Martin was able to return to play after missing 15 games.

Aubrey Dit Clapper, a great right wing and defence star for the Boston Bruins and the first National Hockey League player to play 20 seasons in the NHL and also member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, died from complications of a stroke January 20th at age 70.

On February 11th, Steve Shutt scored a pair of goals as Montreal laced St. Louis 7-3. The Canadiens were missing players who had contracted the flu, including defence star Guy Lapointe, and Rod Langway and Brian Engblom filled in nicely. That same night, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New York Rangers in a rough game that threatened to get out of hand. After Tiger Williams slashed Ranger goaltender Wayne Thomas, Thomas slashed back. Ranger tough guy Nick Fotiu charged Toronto right wing Lanny McDonald and McDonald retaliated by giving Fotiu a good two-hander.

With only 11 wins in 54 games, St Louis coach Leo Boivin decided to resign as coach. Barclay Plager, who had been coaching the Blues farm team in Salt Lake City, was brought up to coach the Blues. Bob Plager again retired to replace his brother as coach at Salt Lake.

On February 25th, Mike Bossy of the New York Islanders broke Rick Martin's record for goals by a rookie with his 45th goal at 17:53 of the second period as the Islanders routed the Chicago Black Hawks 7-1. That same night, the New York Rangers ended the Montreal Canadiens 28 game unbeaten streak with a 6-3 win. Also that night Buffalo gave the Cleveland Barons a bad crushing 13-3 as Danny Gare had the hat trick. Gilles Meloche had a bad night in goal for the Barons and was replaced in goal in the third period by Gary Edwards, who could only try to fend off as many goals as he could as the Sabres fired 26 shots at him in the final period. The Sabres outshot the Barons 50-26 in the game.

On February 26th, the St. Louis Blues managed a win, pummeling the Minnesota North Stars 7-1 as Garry Unger and Red Berenson each had two goals.

On March 25th, Phil Esposito broke Bobby Hull's NHL record for career hat tricks with his 29th hat trick as the New York Rangers clobbered the Washington Capitals 11-4. Rookie Ron Duguay also had the hat trick for the Rangers in this game. Bryan Watson of the Capitals did his part to damage his team's chances when he picked up 29 minutes in penalties and was ejected from the game following a fight, as was his teammate Gord Lane.

Mike Bossy became the first rookie to score 50 goals in a season when he scored two goals in a 3-2 Islanders win over Washington April 1rst.

On April 8th, having never won a game from the St. Louis Blues and facing the possibility of making the playoffs, the Colorado Rockies beat the Blues at home 5-2 as Joe Contini starred. This now meant that if the Vancouver Canucks wanted to beat out the Rockies and make the playoffs, they had to beat the Los Angeles Kings right at the Forum in Inglewood. But Kings defenceman Gary Sargent scored a pair of goals as the Kings beat the Canucks 5-3. The Canucks missed the playoffs and the Rockies made it to their only playoff.

[edit]

Final standings

GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, PIM = Penalties In Minutes
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold

[edit]

Prince of Wales Conference

Adams Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Boston Bruins	80	51	18	11	113	333	218	1237
Buffalo Sabres	80	44	19	17	105	288	215	800
Toronto Maple Leafs	80	41	29	10	92	271	237	1258
Cleveland Barons	80	22	45	13	57	230	325	1010

Norris Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Montreal Canadiens	80	59	10	11	129	359	183	745
Detroit Red Wings	80	32	34	14	78	252	266	1534
Los Angeles Kings	80	31	34	15	77	243	245	903
Pittsburgh Penguins	80	25	37	18	68	254	321	1300
Washington Capitals	80	17	49	14	48	195	321	1332

[edit]

Clarence Campbell Conference

Patrick Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
New York Islanders	80	48	17	15	111	334	210	938
Philadelphia Flyers	80	45	20	15	105	296	200	1668
Atlanta Flames	80	34	27	19	87	274	252	984
New York Rangers	80	30	37	13	73	279	280	1057

Smythe Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Chicago Black Hawks	80	32	29	19	83	230	220	1308
Colorado Rockies	80	19	40	21	59	257	305	818
Vancouver Canucks	80	20	43	17	57	239	320	962
St. Louis Blues	80	20	47	13	53	195	304	845
Minnesota North Stars	80	18	53	9	45	218	325	1096

[edit]

Scoring leaders

GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points, PIM == Penalties In Minutes

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Guy Lafleur	Montreal Canadiens	78	60	72	132	26
Bryan Trottier	New York Islanders	77	46	77	123	46
Darryl Sittler	Toronto Maple Leafs	80	45	72	117	100
Jacques Lemaire	Montreal Canadiens	76	36	61	97	14
Denis Potvin	New York Islanders	80	30	64	94	81
Mike Bossy	New York Islanders	73	53	38	91	6
Terry O'Reilly	Boston Bruins	77	29	61	90	211
Gilbert Perreault	Buffalo Sabres	79	41	48	89	20
Bobby Clarke	Philadelphia Flyers	71	21	68	89	83
Lanny McDonald	Toronto Maple Leafs	74	47	40	87	54

[edit]

Leading goaltenders

[edit]

Stanley Cup playoffs

[edit]

Playoff bracket

{{4RoundBracket-Byes | RD1=Preliminary Round | RD2=Quarterfinals | RD3=Semifinals | RD4=Finals | RD1-seed03=7 | RD1-team03=Atlanta Flames | RD1-score03=0 | RD1-seed04=9 | RD1-team04=Detroit Red Wings | RD1-score04=2 | RD1-seed07=6 | RD1-team07=Toronto Maple Leafs | RD1-score07=2 | RD1-seed08=10 | RD1-team08=Los Angeles Kings | RD1-score08=0 | RD1-seed13=4 | RD1-team13=Philadelphia Flyers | RD1-score13=2 | RD1-seed14=12 | RD1-team14=Colorado Rockies | RD1-score14=0 | RD1-seed15=5 | RD1-team15=Buffalo Sabres | RD1-score15=2 | RD1-seed16=11 | RD1-team16=New York Rangers | RD1-score16=1 | RD2-seed01=1 | RD2-team01=Montreal Canadiens | RD2-score01=4 | RD2-seed02=9 | RD2-team02=Detroit Red Wings | RD2-score02=1 | RD2-seed03=3 | RD2-team03=New York Islanders | RD2-score03=3 | RD2-seed04=6 | RD2-team04=Toronto Maple Leafs | RD2-score04=4 | RD2-seed05=2 | RD2-team05=Boston Bruins | RD2-score05=4 | RD2-seed06=8 | RD2-team06=Chicago Black Hawks | RD2-score06=0 | RD2-seed07=4 | RD2-team07=Philadelphia Flyers | RD2-score07=4 | RD2-seed08=5 | RD2-team08=Buffalo Sabres | RD2-score08=1 | RD3-seed01=1 | RD3-team01=Montreal Canadiens | RD3-score01=4 | RD3-seed02=6 | RD3-team02=Toronto Maple Leafs | RD3-score02=0 | RD3-seed03=2 | RD3-team03=Boston Bruins | RD3-score03=4 | RD3-seed04=4 | RD3-team04=Philadelphia Flyers | RD3-score04=1 | RD4-seed01=1 | RD4-team01=Montreal Canadiens | RD4-score01=4 | RD4-seed02=2 | RD4-team02=Boston Bruins | RD4-score02=2 }}

[edit]

NHL awards

Prince of Wales Trophy:	Montreal Canadiens
Clarence S. Campbell Bowl:	New York Islanders
Art Ross Memorial Trophy:	Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy:	Butch Goring, Los Angeles Kings
Calder Memorial Trophy:	Mike Bossy, New York Islanders
Conn Smythe Trophy:	Larry Robinson, Montreal Canadiens
Frank J. Selke Trophy:	Bob Gainey, Montreal Canadiens
Hart Memorial Trophy:	Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens
Jack Adams Award:	Bobby Kromm, Detroit Red Wings
James Norris Memorial Trophy:	Denis Potvin, New York Islanders
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:	Butch Goring, Los Angeles Kings
Lester B. Pearson Award:	Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens
NHL Plus/Minus Award:	Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens
Vezina Trophy:	Ken Dryden & Michel Larocque, Montreal Canadiens
Lester Patrick Trophy:	Phil Esposito, Tom Fitzgerald, William T. Tutt, William W. Wirtz

[edit]

All-Star teams

First Team	Position	Second Team
Ken Dryden, Montreal Canadiens	G	Don Edwards, Buffalo Sabres
Denis Potvin, New York Islanders	D	Larry Robinson, Montreal Canadiens
Brad Park, Boston Bruins	D	Borje Salming, Toronto Maple Leafs
Bryan Trottier, New York Islanders	C	Darryl Sittler, Toronto Maple Leafs
Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens	RW	Mike Bossy, New York Islanders
Clark Gillies, New York Islanders	LW	Steve Shutt, Montreal Canadiens

[edit]

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1977-78 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):