Summary
The Philadelphia Flyers, who had won the Stanley Cup two years in a row, had another excellent season. They won 51 games and accumulated 118 points to lead the Patrick Division. But that was overshadowed by the Montreal Canadiens' performance. They set records with 58 victories and 128 points to run away with the Norris Division.
For seven years in a row, a Boston Bruin had led the NHL in scoring, Phil Esposito five times and Bobby Orr twice over that stretch. But Orr played in only 10 games this season because of two knee operations and Esposito was sent to the New York Rangers, with Carol Vadnais, for Brad Park, Jean Ratelle, and Joe Zanussi. The new scoring leader was Montreal's Guy LaFleur. Montreal also had the league's top goaltender in Ken Dryden.
The retooled Bruins won the Adams Division and the Chicago Blackhawks supplanted the Vancouver Canucks atop the Smythe Division.
For the first time, two expansion teams met in the finals. The Philadelphia Flyers, the defending Stanley Cup champions, took a 3-0 lead in their semifinal series against the New York Islanders, only to see the Islanders win three in a row to force a seventh game. But the Flyers took that game at home to advance to the finals.
The Buffalo Sabres, meanwhile, beat two of the "Original Six," the Chicago Blackhawks and the Canadiens, to get there. The Flyers took the first two games at home and Buffalo also won two home games. After Philadelphia's easy 5-1 win in Game 5, the series went back to Buffalo. As he had the year before, Bernie Parent came up with a shutout. The Flyers were also scoreless for two periods, but they scored two goals in the final period to win the game and the cup.
For the second year in a row, Rick MacLeish was the leading scorer in the playoffs, but Parent won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the post-season MVP. He was the first player to win the trophy twice in a row.
