- 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 theSt. Louis Eagles , had an NHL team moved. This year saw not one, but two teams relocate. TheKansas City Scouts moved toDenver, Colorado and became the Colorado Rockies and theCalifornia Golden Seals moved toCleveland, Ohio and became the Cleveland Barons. The instability along with the poor performances of theWashington 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 theStanley 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.
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, with the second best winning percentage in NHL history, they had 60 wins and 132 points. Their home record was an impressive 33 wins, 1 loss, and 6 ties. Scoring a remarkable two hundred goals more than they allowed, the Canadiens were a full 26 points ahead of the second-place
Boston Bruins , who were swept outright byMontreal 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
All-Star teams
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
*Don Murdoch , New York Rangers
*Bernie Federko , St. Louis Blues
*Brian Sutter , St. Louis Blues
*Randy Carlyle , Toronto Maple Leafs
*Rick Green , Washington CapitalsLast 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):
*Pat Quinn , Atlanta Flames
*Gilles Villemure , Chicago Black Hawks
*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 CapitalsSee 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
* [http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/nhl1927.html Hockey Database]
* [http://nhl.com/ NHL.com]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.