We?re down to our final two teams in fan voting and today you can cast your vote for which team deserves to be called the NHL?s Greatest Team.
Our panel of experts chose the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, a team that had nine eventual Hall of Fame players and went an incredible 60-8-12 with an NHL record 132 points.
We?re down to the final two teams in fan voting and today you can cast your vote for which one deserves to be the greatest of all time. Which team did SN anoint No. 1? The '76-77 Canadiens. | Vote now | SN's Top 10 NHL teams | Video You?ll get no argument from anyone who tried to beat them.
?When you played Montreal, you didn?t want to give up seven, eight, nine, 10 goals. Those guys, if you didn?t have a good night against them, you were going to get embarrassed,? says Florida general manager Dale Tallon, a 26-year-old defenseman for the Blackhawks that season. ?They had no weaknesses.?
There were good teams during that era but none that could match up with the Canadiens. They won the Stanley Cup in 1976 and didn?t relinquish it until 1980, when the Islanders started a dynasty of their own.
?The Canadiens were a different animal. They could beat you in so many different ways,? says former defenseman Mike Milbury, whose Bruins were swept in the 1977 Cup finals. ?My admiration for that team is nailed to the fact that they were so consistently good. It?s hard to do that. It?s hard to be that good for that long. ... They deserved their status.?
Driven hard by Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman, the Canadiens? biggest rival wasn?t contemporary?they outscored opponents by an amazing 2.7 goals per game. They were competing mostly against the all-time great Montreal teams for the title of best ever.
Hockey will never again see a team so stacked. The Canadiens of that era didn?t have a salary cap to contend with and developed most of their own players, using relationships with amateur teams to discover talent.
Guy Lafleur was in his prime. Steve Shutt coming off his 60-goal season. Great defensemen Larry Robinson, Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe. There was Jacques Lemaire, Bob Gainey, Yvan Cournoyer and Ken Dryden. Each of them are in the Hall of Fame.
?They had all the ingredients, and they had a coach who got the most out of a talented team.? Says Red Berenson, whose Blues were swept by Montreal in the quarterfinals that season. ?They had everything covered.?
A version of this story first appeared in the Feb. 14, 2011, edition of Sporting News magazine. If you are not receiving the magazine, subscribe today, or pick up a copy, available at most Barnes & Noble and Hudson Retail outlets.
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