1977–78 NHL season

The 1977–78 NHL season was the 61st season of the National Hockey League. The Montreal Canadiens won their third Stanley Cup in a row, defeating the Boston Bruins four games to two in the final.

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 next time the NHL had a team in Ohio would be the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets in 2000-01.

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 the 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 spot. The last four qualifiers were from the next-best four regular-season records from third and lower place finishers.

Teams were required to place the last names of players on the back of all jerseys starting with this season.

Regular season

Milestones

On December 11, 1977, the Philadelphia Flyers' 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.

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

Prince of Wales Conference

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Clarence Campbell Conference

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Playoffs

The playoffs were held in four rounds, preliminary, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. In the preliminary round, the Detroit Red Wings were the only lower-placed team to win over the higher-placed team. The Red Wings were then defeated in five games by the first-place Montreal Canadiens. The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Los Angeles Kings to advance to the quarter-finals, where the Leafs upset the third-place New York Islanders in seven games, setting up an "Original Six" playoff against Montreal. The upsets ended there as the Canadiens swept the Leafs to advance to the final. In the other groupings, the higher-placed team won each round, and the second-place Boston Bruins advanced to the final to playoff against the first-place Canadiens. In the final, the Canadiens defeated the Bruins in six games to win their third consecutive Stanley Cup.

The Colorado Rockies made their one and only playoff appearance in the preliminary round against the Philadelphia Flyers, and were swept in two games. The Chicago Black Hawks were swept in the other "Original Six" matchup of the playoffs, losing to Boston in the quarter-finals.

Semifinals

(2) Philadelphia Flyers vs. (4) Boston Bruins

Game 5 was Fred Shero's last game as head coach of the Flyers and Gerry Cheevers left the ice without shaking hands with any of the Flyers.^[3]

Finals

Boston Bruins vs. Montreal Canadiens

Montreal wins the series 4–2.

Larry Robinson won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

Playoff bracket

NHL awards

All-Star teams

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

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

Source: NHL.^[4]

Leading goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; Min - Minutes Played; GA = Goals Against; GAA = Goals Against Average; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts

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

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.

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

References

• Diamond, Dan, ed. (2000). Total Hockey. Kingston, NY: Total Sports. ISBN 1-892129-85-X. 
• Dinger, Ralph, ed. (2011). The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2012. Toronto, ON: Dan Diamond & Associates. ISBN 978-1-894801-22-5. 
• Dryden, Steve, ed. (2000). Century of hockey. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart Ltd.. ISBN 0-7710-4179-9. 
• Fischler, Stan; Fischler, Shirley; Hughes, Morgan; Romain, Joseph; Duplacey, James (2003). The Hockey Chronicle: Year-by-Year History of the National Hockey League. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International Inc.. ISBN 0-7853-9624-1. 

Notes

External links

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com