1976-77 NHL SEASON

The '1976-77 NHL season' was the 60th season of the National Hockey League. Eighteen teams each played 80 games. Not since the Ottawa Senators had relocated in 1934, becoming the St. Louis Eagles, had an NHL team moved. This year saw not one, but two teams relocate. The Kansas City Scouts moved to Denver, Colorado and became the Colorado Rockies and the California Golden Seals moved to Cleveland, Ohio and became the Cleveland Barons. The instability along with the poor performances of the Washington Capitals and the Scouts since the 1974 expansion caused the league to shelve an expansion to Denver and Seattle proposed for this season.
The Montreal Canadiens once again dominated the Stanley Cup playoffs as for the second straight year, they swept their opponent four games to none in the final series for the Cup.
This season would be Clarence Campbell's last as NHL President. He would be succeeded by John Ziegler.

Contents

Regular season

Final standings

Prince of Wales Conference

Clarence Campbell Conference

Scoring leaders

Stanley Cup playoffs

Playoff bracket

NHL awards

All-Star teams

Debuts

Last games

See also

References

Regular season

The previous season saw the Montreal Canadiens set new records in wins and points. Both of those records were broken again by the Canadiens this season as they had 60 wins and 132 points. Their home record was an impressive 33 wins, 1 loss, and 6 ties. The Canadiens were a full 26 points ahead of the second-place Boston Bruins, who were swept outright by Montreal in the 1977 Final.

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

Adams Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
'Boston Bruins'	80	49	23	8	106	312	240	1065
'Buffalo Sabres'	80	48	24	8	104	301	220	848
'Toronto Maple Leafs'	80	33	32	15	81	301	285	1200
Cleveland Barons	80	25	42	13	63	240	292	1011

Norris Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
'Montreal Canadiens'	80	60	8	12	132	387	171	764
'Los Angeles Kings'	80	34	31	15	83	271	241	1186
'Pittsburgh Penguins'	80	34	33	13	81	240	252	669
Washington Capitals	80	24	42	14	62	221	307	1231
Detroit Red Wings	80	16	55	9	41	183	309	1332

Clarence Campbell Conference

Patrick Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
'Philadelphia Flyers'	80	48	16	16	112	323	213	1547
'New York Islanders'	80	47	21	12	106	288	193	1012
'Atlanta Flames'	80	34	34	12	80	264	265	889
New York Rangers	80	29	37	14	72	272	310	1164

Smythe Division	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
'St. Louis Blues'	80	32	39	9	73	239	276	877
'Minnesota North Stars'	80	23	39	18	64	240	310	774
'Chicago Black Hawks'	80	26	43	11	63	240	298	1104
Vancouver Canucks	80	25	42	13	63	235	294	1078
Colorado Rockies	80	20	46	14	54	226	307	978

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	80	56	80	136	20
Marcel Dionne	Los Angeles Kings	80	53	69	122	12
Steve Shutt	Montreal Canadiens	80	60	45	105	28
Rick MacLeish	Philadelphia Flyers	79	49	48	97	42
Gilbert Perreault	Buffalo Sabres	80	39	56	95	30
Tim Young	Minnesota North Stars	80	29	66	95	58
Jean Ratelle	Boston Bruins	78	33	61	94	22
Lanny McDonald	Toronto Maple Leafs	80	46	44	90	77
Darryl Sittler	Toronto Maple Leafs	73	38	52	90	89
Bobby Clarke	Philadelphia Flyers	80	27	63	90	71

Stanley Cup playoffs

Playoff bracket

NHL awards

Prince of Wales Trophy:	Montreal Canadiens
Clarence S. Campbell Bowl:	Philadelphia Flyers
Art Ross Memorial Trophy:	Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy:	Ed Westfall, New York Islanders
Calder Memorial Trophy:	Willi Plett, Atlanta Flames
Conn Smythe Trophy:	Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens
Hart Memorial Trophy:	Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens
Jack Adams Award:	Scotty Bowman, Montreal Canadiens
James Norris Memorial Trophy:	Larry Robinson, Montreal Canadiens
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy:	Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings
Lester B. Pearson Award:	Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens
NHL Plus/Minus Award:	Larry Robinson, Montreal Canadiens
Vezina Trophy:	Ken Dryden & Michel Larocque, Montreal Canadiens
Lester Patrick Trophy:	John Bucyk, Murray A. Armstrong, John Mariucci

All-Star teams

First Team	Position	Second Team
Ken Dryden, Montreal Canadiens	G	Rogie Vachon, Los Angeles Kings
Larry Robinson, Montreal Canadiens	D	Denis Potvin, New York Islanders
Borje Salming, Toronto Maple Leafs	D	Guy Lapointe, Montreal Canadiens
Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings	C	Gilbert Perreault, Buffalo Sabres
Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens	RW	Lanny McDonald, Toronto Maple Leafs
Steve Shutt, Montreal Canadiens	LW	Rick Martin, Buffalo Sabres

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1976-77 (listed with their first team, asterisk(
★ ) marks debut in playoffs):

★ Don Edwards, Buffalo Sabres

★ Bob Sauve, Buffalo Sabres

★ Reed Larson, Detroit Red Wings

★ Brian Engblom
★ , Montreal Canadiens

★ Bernie Federko, St. Louis Blues

★ Brian Sutter, St. Louis Blues

★ Randy Carlyle, Toronto Maple Leafs

★ Rick Green, Washington Capitals

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1976-77 (listed with their last team):

★ Gilles Villemure, Chicago Blackhawks

★ Jim Pappin, Cleveland Barons

★ Simon Nolet, Colorado Rockies

★ Bob Berry, Los Angeles Kings

★ Ed Van Impe, Pittsburgh Penguins

★ Vic Hadfield, Pittsburgh Penguins

★ Barclay Plager, St. Louis Blues

★ Roger Crozier, Washington Capitals

See also

★ List of Stanley Cup champions

★ 1976 NHL Amateur Draft

★ 1976 Canada Cup

★ 30th National Hockey League All-Star Game

★ National Hockey League All-Star Game

★ 1976-77 WHA season

★ 1976 in sports

★ 1977 in sports

References

★ Hockey Database

★ NHL.com