The Montreal Canadians have not been the same franchise that they once were when it came to dominance. In fact, since 2000 the Canadians have only won four division championships and have not made a trip to the finals.
While the Canadians are not the same franchise, we cannot discount history, and the Canadians are the most storied franchise in NHL history and one of the most storied franchises in North American sports history.
When you look at the most storied franchises in each of the four major sports you have the Yankees (27 championships), the Patriots and Steelers (6), the Celtics (17), the Lakers (16), and the Canadians with 24 championships (22 since 1927).
Like the Yankees in the MLB, the Canadians have a pretty large lead over the team with the next most—the Maple Leafs have 13 Stanley Cups. This was in large part to two separate dynasties (even though you could say the whole franchise was a dynasty), the 1952-53 season to the 1959-60 season in which the won six Stanley Cups and 1964-65 season to the 1978-79 season in which they won 10 Stanley Cups.
During their second dynasty run the Canadians had three two-peats, but their most impressive stretch was when the made the finals four years straight from the 1975-76 season to the 1978-79 season and won all four of their appearances.
The Canadians ran through the best teams in the east to get their championships, the Flyers in the 76’ Stanley Cup and the Bruins in the 77’ and 78’ Stanley Cup. This time though they were getting ready to take on the New York Rangers. The Rangers finished 3rd in their division but that did not stop them from fighting their way into the Stanley Cup final after defeating the Islanders in a six-game series.
The finals would be a little different though, the Canadians finished the season first place in their division with 115 points (second only to the Islanders) so they had home ice advantage. The Canadians outshot the Rangers in the first game 32-22, but Rangers goalie John Davidson stopped nearly every shot, saving 31 out of 32 shots. The Rangers were also firing on offense with two goals in the first period and two more in the second period to give them a 4-1 win and a 1-0 series lead.
That was the only game the Rangers were going to win in the series, after that the Canadians did not hold back and dominated almost every other game. In game two the Canadians out-shot the Rangers again, but it was the Rangers who got out to an early 2-0 lead six minutes into the first. They wouldn’t score the rest of the game.
Montreal came back to take the lead 3-2 by the end of the period and would add on three more goals before the end of the game to win 6-2 and tie the series going into New York 1-1.
In game three, Montreal got off to an early start by scoring two goals in the first and keeping that lead until the third. In the third the Rangers got one back six minutes into the period cutting the lead in half. With five minutes remaining in the game Montreal added two more goals to win the game 4-1 and take a 2-1 series lead.
Game four was a pivotal game for the Rangers and they fought hard, it was back and forth all game long with the score being 2-2 after two periods. In the third period the Rangers scored early on to take a 3-2 lead, but they would not hold on to it long, giving up a goal less than two minutes later for a 3-3 tie. The game ended up going into overtime where the Canadians ended up scoring seven and a half minutes in to get the 4-3 victory and take a commanding 3-1 series lead.
Game five took in Montreal and they looked like a team that were not going to lose no matter what. Montreal scored halfway through the period on a Chartraw to take an early 1-0 lead, but the Rangers tied it up with a goal from Vadnais three minutes before the end of the period.
The Rangers went into the break with all the momentum on their side but shortly after play resumed all momentum had gone. A minute into the second period Jacques Lemaire scored the first of his two goals in the period to give the Canadians a lead they would not look back on. Bob Gainey then scored halfway through the period to give them a 3-1 lead and at that point the series seemed like it was over.
Finally, for good measure Lemaire notched another goal with a minute remaining in the period to give the Canadians a commanding 4-1 lead. That turned out to be all Montreal needed and they ended up winning the game and winning the series in five games to give them their fourth straight Stanley Cup trophy and their 22nd overall Stanley Cup.