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1979-80 NHL season

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

The 1979-80 NHL season was the 63rd season of the National Hockey League. Twenty-one teams each played 80 games. This season saw the addition of four teams from the collapse of the World Hockey Association (WHA) the previous season as expansion franchises. The Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, New England Whalers (later renamed "Hartford Whalers" at the insistence of the Boston Bruins), and Quebec Nordiques joined the NHL bringing a new total of 21 teams. The other two WHA teams (Birmingham Bulls and Cincinnati Stingers) were paid to disband. The collapse of the WHA also saw the much hyped super-star rookie Wayne Gretzky come to the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers. Gretzky would tie Marcel Dionne for the scoring lead with 137 points and capture the Hart Trophy as the most valuable player while Dionne took home the Art Ross Trophy as the leading scorer by virtue of having scored two more goals.

The big story of the regular season was the record-breaking undefeated streak compiled by the Philadelphia Flyers. After starting the season with one win and one loss, the Flyers did not lose again for nearly three months, earning at least one point in every game between October 14, 1979 and January 6, 1980, a span of 35 games. This stands as the longest undefeated streak in North American professional sports history.

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

On October 9th, the St. Louis Blues defeated the Vancouver Canucks in their opener at Pacific Coliseum. Wayne Babych had a goal and two assists. Before the game, there was a pre-game ceremony honouring Cyclone Taylor, the great pre-NHL star defenceman and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame who had passed away June 9th at the age of 94. The Governor’s Cup, given to the Canucks most valuable player, was renamed the Cyclone Taylor Award and a moment of silence was observed in memory of this great defence player.

The Philadelphia Flyers won a game at the Spectrum October 25th 5-2 over the New York Rangers. Rookie Brian Propp looked right at home on left wing on a line with Bobby Clarke and Reg Leach. He set up Clarke for a goal. That same night, Pierre Larouche scored four goals as Montreal beat Pittsburgh 8-4.

Montreal won a game at St. Louis November 13th as Rejean Houle had the hat trick in a 5-2 win.

Pittsburgh and St. Louis decided to make a trade and right wing Blair Chapman went to St. Louis in exchange for defenceman Bob Stewart.

Toronto walloped the St. Louis Blues 7-2 November 14th as Tiger Williams and Paul Gardner each had a pair of goals. Mike Liut looked weak in the Blues goal.

The Washington Capitals decided on a coaching change and fired Danny Belisle, hiring Gary Green, who at 26 was the youngest coach ever in NHL history. Green’s debut was ruined by the Boston Bruins who defeated the Capitals 3-2 as Rick Middleton showed why he was nicknamed “Nifty” with a goal and then setting up setting up Stan Jonathan for the tying goal. Dick Redmond won the game at 13:58 of the third period on the power play.

On November 24th, Montreal beat Boston 3-1. Pierre Larouche scored a goal and assisted on two others.

The Colorado Rockies surprised the New York Islanders November 28th with a 7-4 win, but the highlight of the game was the first ever goal by a goaltender. A penalty was delayed in calling and so the Rockies pulled goaltender Bill McKenzie and put out six attackers. Rob Ramage then inadvertently backhanded the puck into his own net. The goal was credited to Dave Lewis of the Islanders, but videotape of the game showed the Islander goaltender Billy Smith was the last to touch the puck, and he was then given credit for the goal. In the game, Ron Delorme scored two goals for the Rockies and Lorne Henning had two goals in a losing cause for the Islanders.

With the Blues slumping and coach Barclay Plager not well, Plager decided to step down as Blues coach. He was suceeded by Red Berenson. Soon afterward, sad news was released that Plager was suffering from a brain tumor.

Berenson’s first game as coach was against the Winnepeg Jets, who walked right into the Checkerdome and beat the Blues 4-2 December 4th. All the Jets goals were in the first period, including an impressive opening goal by Bobby Hull at 4:41. The Golden Jet fired a quick wrist shot that goaltender Ed Staniowski had no chance to stop.

The Philadelphia Flyers broke the NHL record for longest streak of undefeated games December 22nd when they defeated Boston 5-2. The old record was 28 games held by Montreal in 1977-78. That same night, Garry Unger’s consecutive game streak came to an end at 914 when he sat out his 915th game as Atlanta walked into the Checkerdome and laced the St. Louis Blues 7-3 as Ivan Boldirev had the hat trick and Willi Plett scored two goals. Mike Liut was not sharp in the Blues net.

The Vancouver Canucks were not performing adequately, so a housecleaning began when they sold defenceman Jack McIlhargey back to the Philadelphia Flyers January 2nd.

On January 5th, Chicago walked right into the Forum in Montreal and beat the Canadiens 4-3. Tom Lysiak scored two goals for the Black Hawks, while Pierre Mondou had a pair for Montreal. On that same night, Wayne Gretzky scored his 20th and 21rst goals of the season as Edmonton tied Los Angeles 3-3. Gretzky was the NHL’s new star.

The Philadelphia Flyers extended their unbeaten streak to 35 games January 6th with a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres. The next night, the streak came to an end when the Minnesota North Stars pummelled the Flyers 7-1. Mike Eaves scored two goals for the North Stars in the win.

On January 26th, the St. Louis Blues and Colorado Rockies played to a 4-4 tie at the Checkerdome. It was a dull game and former Rangers player and one-time Blues coach and general manager Lynn Patrick decided to go home and walk the dog that his daughter had given him. While driving his car, he suffered a heart attack and his car crashed into a fire hydrant. He was taken to a St. Louis hospital where he died, eight days short of his 68th birthday.

The St. Louis Blues defeated the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 February 6th as Mike Zuke scored two goals. Wayne Gretzky was very impressive in the Oilers loss with a goal and two assists.

The Vancouver Canucks decided to trade center Don Lever and Brad Smith to Atlanta in exchange for Ivan Boldirev and Darcy Rota. Then, they continued their house-cleaning with a not so wise trade of Rick Vaive and Bill Derlago to Toronto in exchange for Tiger Williams and Jerry Butler.

On Fevbruary 23rd, Pierre Larouche had two goals as Montreal defeated Detroit 5-1. That same night, Mike Rogers scored a goal and assisted on a goal by Blaine Stoughton as Hartford defeated Atlanta 6-5.

On February 29th, goaltender Al Smith of Hartford blanked the St. Louis Blues 3-0, but the highlight of the game was Gordie Howe’s goal at 1:27 of the third period on a wrist shot from ten feet out on the left side, beating Mike Liut. It was Howe’s 800th NHL goal and he received a long ovation from the fans.

St. Louis walked right into Maple Leaf Gardens March 12th and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 as Wayne Babych scored a pair of goals. That same night, Don Maloney scored two goals and John Davidson picked up a shutout as the New York Rangers beat the Colorado Rockies 6-0.

The New York Rangers defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-2 March 16th as Ron Duguay scored two goals. An alarming incident took place after Rick Lapointe scored for the Blues. Ranger defenceman Dave Maloney slammed his stick on the Ranger goal in frustration, but instead of hitting the crossbar as he intended, he missed it and instead inadvertently hit his goaltender John Davidson on the left ankle. Davidson writhed in pain on the ice, and a stretcher was called for, but Davidson only suffered a bruised achilles tendon and Steve Baker, Rangers back-up goaltender, only had to play a few minutes before Davidson returned to the Rangers net.

The New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens played to a 2-2 tie at the Forum March 28th. Mike Bossy scored his 51rst goal in this game. That same night, the lowly Colorado Rockies managed a win as goaltender Bill McKenzie handled 30 shots in a 5-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Lucien Deblois had two goals in the game.

The St. Louis Blues got an impressive win April 1rst 5-2 over Chicago. Brian Sutter, Larry Patey and Ralph Klassen scored in the third period to win it.

The New York Rangers managed an 8-3 pasting of the Philadelphia Flyers in their season finale April 6th. Defenceman Ron Greschner led the way with two goals and two assists and Ron Duguay had a pair of goals. Phil Myre started in goal for the Flyers, but gave way to Pete Peeters.

For the four previous seasons, the Boston Bruins had owned first place in the Adams Division. This season saw the Buffalo Sabres dethrone the Bruins in the Adams. The New York Islanders finished first overall in the NHL the previous season with 116 points, but had lost in the semi-finals of the playoffs to the upstart New York Rangers. This season saw them fall considerably in the standings as they finished 4th overall with 91 points, a full 25 points below last year's finish. On the other hand, the Philadelphia Flyers improved by 21 points from the previous season. Their 35-game undefeated streak [25-0-10] propelled them to the best record in the NHL with 116 points.

All four expansion teams finished poorly with records below .500. The Hartford Whalers fared the best with 73 points and the Winnipeg Jets tied the Colorado Rockies for last overall with 51 points.

[edit]

Final standings

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Note: 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
Buffalo Sabres	80	47	17	16	110	318	201	967
Boston Bruins	80	46	21	13	105	310	234	1460
Minnesota North Stars	80	36	28	16	88	311	253	1064
Toronto Maple Leafs	80	35	40	5	75	304	327	1158
Quebec Nordiques	80	25	44	11	61	248	313	1062

Norris Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Montreal Canadiens	80	47	20	13	107	328	240	874
Los Angeles Kings	80	30	36	14	74	290	313	1124
Pittsburgh Penguins	80	30	37	13	73	251	303	1038
Hartford Whalers	80	27	34	19	73	303	312	875
Detroit Red Wings	80	26	43	11	63	268	306	1114

[edit]

Clarence Campbell Conference

Patrick Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Philadelphia Flyers	80	48	12	20	116	327	254	1844
New York Islanders	80	39	28	13	91	281	247	1298
New York Rangers	80	38	32	10	86	308	284	1342
Atlanta Flames	80	35	32	13	83	282	269	1048
Washington Capitals	80	27	40	13	67	261	293	1198

Smythe Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Chicago Black Hawks	80	34	27	19	87	241	250	1325
St. Louis Blues	80	34	34	12	80	266	278	1037
Vancouver Canucks	80	27	37	16	70	256	281	1808
Edmonton Oilers	80	28	39	13	69	301	322	1528
Winnipeg Jets	80	20	49	11	51	214	314	1251
Colorado Rockies	80	19	48	13	51	234	308	1020

[edit]

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Marcel Dionne	Los Angeles Kings	80	53*	84	137*	32
Wayne Gretzky	Edmonton Oilers	79	51	86	137	21
Guy Lafleur	Montreal Canadiens	74	50	75	125	12
Gilbert Perreault	Buffalo Sabres	80	40	66	106	57
Mike Rogers	Hartford Whalers	80	44	61	105	10
Bryan Trottier	New York Islanders	78	42	62	104	68
Charlie Simmer	Los Angeles Kings	64	56*	45	101	65
Blaine Stoughton	Hartford Whalers	80	56*	44	100	16
Darryl Sittler	Toronto Maple Leafs	73	40	57	97	62
Blair MacDonald	Edmonton Oilers	80	46	48	96	24

Danny Gare also had 56 goals to tie Simmer and Stoughton for most goals

[edit]

Leading goaltenders

[edit]

Stanley Cup playoffs

With the league expansion from 17 to 21 teams, the Stanley Cup playoffs were also expanded, from a 12 team tournament to a 16 team tournament. Division leaders no longer received first round byes. Since the teams played a completely balanced schedule in the regular season (4 games each against each of the other 20 teams), the top 16 teams in the regular season (by points) qualified for the playoffs, regardless of division. The teams were seeded 1 through 16, with the top team playing the 16th team in the first round, and so on. In subsequent rounds, matchups were similarly arranged, with the top remaining seed against the lowest remaining seed, and so on. The Preliminary Round would be a best-of-five set.

The story of the playoffs, though, was Mike Bossy and the New York Islanders. After a dismal start for their franchise in the early seventies, the Islanders built a contender for the Stanley Cup and won their first of four in a row by beating the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime of game six of the finals. Defenceman Denis Potvin scored a crucial overtime goal in game one and the Cup was won when Bobby Nystrom scored the Cup-winning goal from John Tonelli and Lorne Henning at 7:11 of the first overtime. Hall of Fame announcer Dan Kelly was calling the play-by-play for CBS Sports on that day, May 24, 1980. It was the last NHL game to air on American network television for nearly ten years.

[edit]

Playoff bracket

{{16TeamBracket | RD1=Preliminary Round | RD2=Quarterfinals | RD3=Semifinals | RD4=Finals | RD1-seed01=1 | RD1-team01=Philadelphia Flyers | RD1-score01=4 | RD1-seed02=16 | RD1-team02=Edmonton Oilers | RD1-score02=0 | RD1-seed03=8 | RD1-team03=New York Rangers | RD1-score03=4 | RD1-seed04=9 | RD1-team04=Atlanta Flames | RD1-score04=1 | RD1-seed05=3 | RD1-team05=Montreal Canadiens | RD1-score05=4 | RD1-seed06=14 | RD1-team06=Hartford Whalers | RD1-score06=0 | RD1-seed07=6 | RD1-team07=Minnesota North Stars | RD1-score07=4 | RD1-seed08=11 | RD1-team08=Toronto Maple Leafs | RD1-score08=0 | RD1-seed09=2 | RD1-team09=Buffalo Sabres | RD1-score09=4 | RD1-seed10=15 | RD1-team10=Vancouver Canucks | RD1-score10=1 | RD1-seed11=7 | RD1-team11=Chicago Black Hawks | RD1-score11=4 | RD1-seed12=10 | RD1-team12=St. Louis Blues | RD1-score12=0 | RD1-seed13=4 | RD1-team13=Boston Bruins | RD1-score13=4 | RD1-seed14=13 | RD1-team14=Pittsburgh Penguins | RD1-score14=2 | RD1-seed15=5 | RD1-team15=New York Islanders | RD1-score15=4 | RD1-seed16=12 | RD1-team16=Los Angeles Kings | RD1-score16=1 | RD2-seed01=1 | RD2-team01=Philadelphia Flyers | RD2-score01=4 | RD2-seed02=8 | RD2-team02=New York Rangers | RD2-score02=1 | RD2-seed03=3 | RD2-team03=Montreal Canadiens | RD2-score03= | RD2-seed04=6 | RD2-team04=Minnesota North Stars | RD2-score04=4 | RD2-seed05=2 | RD2-team05=Buffalo Sabres | RD2-score05=4 | RD2-seed06=7 | RD2-team06=Chicago Black Hawks | RD2-score06=0 | RD2-seed07=4 | RD2-team07=Boston Bruins | RD2-score07=1 | RD2-seed08=5 | RD2-team08=New York Islanders | RD2-score08=4 | RD3-seed01=1 | RD3-team01=Philadelphia Flyers | RD3-score01=4 | RD3-seed02=6 | RD3-team02=Minnesota North Stars | RD3-score02=1 | RD3-seed03=2 | RD3-team03=Buffalo Sabres | RD3-score03=2 | RD3-seed04=5 | RD3-team04=New York Islanders | RD3-score04=4 | RD4-seed01=1 | RD4-team01=Philadelphia Flyers | RD4-score01=2 | RD4-seed02=5 | RD4-team02=New York Islanders | RD4-score02=4 }}

[edit]

NHL awards

Prince of Wales Trophy:	Buffalo Sabres
Clarence S. Campbell Bowl:	Philadelphia Flyers
Art Ross Memorial Trophy:	Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy:	Al MacAdam, Minnesota North Stars
Calder Memorial Trophy:	Ray Bourque, Boston Bruins
Conn Smythe Trophy:	Bryan Trottier, New York Islanders
Frank J. Selke Trophy:	Bob Gainey, Montreal Canadiens
Hart Memorial Trophy:	Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers
Jack Adams Award:	Pat Quinn, Philadelphia Flyers
James Norris Memorial Trophy:	Larry Robinson, Montreal Canadiens
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:	Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers
Lester B. Pearson Award:	Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings
NHL Plus/Minus Award:	Jim Schoenfeld, Buffalo Sabres & Jimmy Watson, Philadelphia Flyers
Vezina Trophy:	Don Edwards & Bob Sauve, Buffalo Sabres
Lester Patrick Trophy:	Bobby Clarke, Edward M. Snider, Frederick A. Shero

[edit]

All-Star teams

First Team	Position	Second Team
Tony Esposito, Chicago Blackhawks	G	Don Edwards, Buffalo Sabres
Larry Robinson, Montreal Canadiens	D	Borje Salming, Toronto Maple Leafs
Ray Bourque, Boston Bruins	D	Jim Schoenfeld, Buffalo Sabres
Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings	C	Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers
Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens	RW	Danny Gare, Buffalo Sabres
Charlie Simmer, Los Angeles Kings	LW	Steve Shutt, Montreal Canadiens

[edit]

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1979-80 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):