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.

Contents 1 League Business 2 Regular season 2.1 Milestones 2.2 Final standings 2.2.1 Prince of Wales Conference 2.2.2 Clarence Campbell Conference 2.3 Scoring leaders 2.4 Leading goaltenders 3 Playoffs 3.1 Playoff bracket 3.2 Finals 4 NHL awards 4.1 All-Star teams 5 Debuts 6 Last games 7 See also 8 References

[edit] League Business

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

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.

On June 14, 1978, the league approved the merger of the financially struggling Cleveland Barons and Minnesota North Stars franchises, reducing the number of teams to seventeen, with the North Stars (now the Dallas Stars) assuming the Barons' place in the Adams Division. It was the only instance of a league team vanishing since the Brooklyn Americans ceased operations in 1942.

The Colorado Rockies made the playoffs for the only time in franchise history. They would not make the playoffs again until their cinderella run of 1988 in New Jersey. The next time playoffs came to Colorado would be the Colorado Avalanche's championship season of 1996.

The league changed the playoff qualification format for this season. Whereas before the first through third-place teams in every division qualified, the format was changed to only guarantee the first and second-place finisher in each division a playoff sport. The last four qualifiers were from the next-best four regular-season records from third and lower place finishers.

[edit] Regular season

[edit] Milestones

On December 11, 1977, Tom Bladon became the first defenceman in NHL history to score 8 points in one game.^[1] He scored four goals and four assists versus the Cleveland Barons. It was 25% of his point total for the entire season.

[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] Playoffs

[edit] Playoff bracket

	Preliminary Round					Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Stanley Cup Final
						1	Montreal Canadiens	4
						9	Detroit Red Wings	1
	7	Atlanta Flames	0
	9	Detroit Red Wings	2
											1	Montreal Canadiens	4
										6	Toronto Maple Leafs	0
						3	New York Islanders	3
						6	Toronto Maple Leafs	4
	6	Toronto Maple Leafs	2
	10	Los Angeles Kings	0
																1	Montreal Canadiens	4
																2	Boston Bruins	2
						2	Boston Bruins	4
						8	Chicago Black Hawks	0
											2	Boston Bruins	4
										4	Philadelphia Flyers	1
	4	Philadelphia Flyers	2
	12	Colorado Rockies	0
						4	Philadelphia Flyers	4
						5	Buffalo Sabres	1
	5	Buffalo Sabres	2
	11	New York Rangers	1

[edit] Finals

Boston Bruins vs. Montreal Canadiens

Date	Visitors	Score	Home	Score	Notes
May 13	Boston	1	Montreal	4
May 16	Boston	2	Montreal	3	OT
May 18	Montreal	0	Boston	4
May 21	Montreal	3	Boston	4	OT
May 23	Boston	1	Montreal	4
May 25	Montreal	4	Boston	1

Montreal wins the series 4–2.

Larry Robinson won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

[edit] NHL awards

Prince of Wales Trophy:	Montreal Canadiens
Clarence S. Campbell Bowl:	New York Islanders
Art Ross 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):

• Doug Wilson, Chicago Black Hawks
• Barry Beck, Colorado Rockies
• Dale McCourt, Detroit Red Wings
• Vaclav Nedomansky, Detroit Red Wings
• Dave Taylor, Los Angeles Kings
• Mike Bossy, New York Islanders
• Ron Duguay, New York Rangers
• Glen Hanlon, Vancouver Canucks
• Murray Bannerman, Vancouver Canucks
• Robert Picard, Washington Capitals

[edit] Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1977–78 (listed with their last team):

• Johnny Bucyk, Boston Bruins
• Eddie Johnston, Chicago Black Hawks
• Jim Neilson, Cleveland Barons
• Dennis Hull, Detroit Red Wings
• Ed Giacomin, Detroit Red Wings
• Bill Goldsworthy, New York Rangers
• Dallas Smith, New York Rangers
• Ken Hodge, New York Rangers
• Rod Gilbert, New York Rangers
• Gary Dornhoefer, Philadelphia Flyers
• Derek Sanderson, Pittsburgh Penguins
• Claude Larose, St. Louis Blues
• Jimmy Roberts, St. Louis Blues
• Red Berenson, St. Louis Blues
• Cesare Maniago, Vancouver Canucks

NOTE: Goldsworthy and Neilson would finish their major professional careers in the World Hockey Association.

[edit] See also

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• 1977 NHL Amateur Draft
• 31st National Hockey League All-Star Game
• National Hockey League All-Star Game
• 1977–78 WHA season
• 1977 in sports
• 1978 in sports

[edit] References

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com

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