Eklund: Are These Bruins The Best Ever Regular Season Team? Buzz@1

Canadiens in the 70s are better. Though no salary cap makes a huge difference. Among some other league practices that allowed Montreal advantages. No one will care about this Boston team if they disappoint in the playoffs. Just like no one cares about the 2019 Lightning.

76-77 Canadians best team ever…. Bar none !

Habs of 76-77

95/96 Red Wings

Eklund: Are These Bruins The Best Ever Regular Season Team? Buzz@1
- Eklund

https://en.wikipedia.org/...Montreal_Canadiens_season

Philadelphia Flyers 2022-23

The Habs got their record in an era where there was no regular season overtime. Not just no shootouts or loser points. No overtime at all. All games ended in 60 regardless of score.

Subtract 11 post-regulation wins from Boston's ledger this year (7 OT and 4 SO) and their record through 80 games is 52-12-16 (with that 16 representing ties rather than OT/SO losses).

Alternatively: if you gave the 1977 Canadiens five minutes of 3-on-3 plus a SO to settle those 12 ties, plus two extra entire games to get to 82, there's a decent chance they would have hit 70 wins. Habs also easily have the better goal share, too.

Granted, the 1970s were probably the least competitively balanced decade in NHL history. I think a truly fair analysis would try to compensate for that statistically.

The Habs got their record in an era where there was no regular season overtime. Not just no shootouts or loser points. No overtime at all. All games ended in 60 regardless of score.

Subtract 11 post-regulation wins from Boston's ledger this year (7 OT and 4 SO) and their record through 80 games is 56-12-12 (with that second 12 representing ties rather than OT/SO losses).

Alternatively: if you gave the 1977 Canadiens five minutes of 3-on-3 plus a SO to settle those 12 ties, plus two extra entire games to get to 82, there's a decent chance they would have hit 70 wins. Habs also easily have the better goal share, too.

Granted, the 1970s were probably the least competitively balanced decade in NHL history. I think a truly fair analysis would try to compensate for that statistically.
- Sven22

In that era didn't Montreal get exclusive first access to sign the vast majority of rookies as they entered the league? Combined with no salary cap, that is an insanely unfair advantage no modern NHL team could ever compare to.

The Bruins just beat up on a weak division.

In that era didn't Montreal get exclusive first access to sign the vast majority of rookies as they entered the league? Combined with no salary cap, that is an insanely unfair advantage no modern NHL team could ever compare to.
- jfkst1

No, not this era.

Pre-1963 (the first draft) teams got young players through signing them as kids and sponsoring amateur teams. By 1969 all of the previously committed kids got grandfathered out of the system and all amateur players had to enter the NHL via the draft.

That being said, Montreal often did get to pick top-end draft picks year after year basically because Sam Pollock realized how important the entry draft was about a decade before anybody else, so he traded a crapload of mediocre players in the 60s and early 70s for other teams' first rounders, sometimes years in advance. A lot of Montreal's high-end players drafted in the early to mid 70s (LaFleur, Gainey, Shutt, Tremblay, Robinson) were acquired from picks that originally belonged to other teams.

Bold take cotton

Some points to clarify on the amateur draft......

The first amateur draft was actually in 1963, not 1969. Most Montreal Canadiens haters like to point out that the Habs had an unfair advantage between 1963 and 1969 because they were allowed to pick any two French-Canadian players to start the draft, before anyone else did (these picks would replace their first two round picks). This arrangement was compensation to the team once the decision was made to end the "sponsorship" program that previously existed (at which the Habs were experts). The thing is, they only took advantage of that rule twice....in 1969 to select goalie Michel Plasse and Roger Belisle (Plasse went to KC in the '74 expansion draft, Belisle never made the NHL) and then again in 1970 to select Rejean Houle and Marc Tardif (both WHL bound 4 years later). Fortunately that rule was disbanded a year later because that was the Gilbert Perrault draft, with Lafleur and Dionne coming next. Imagine those three on the same team!!

I hate the Habs, but they get my vote.

But to stir the pot more, look at the best winning percentage ever and maybe Boston is the winner.....but we are talking the 1930 Bruins team! Link is here.....

https://champsorchumps.us...ecords#tab-win-percentage

Some points to clarify on the amateur draft......

The first amateur draft was actually in 1963, not 1969. Most Montreal Canadiens haters like to point out that the Habs had an unfair advantage between 1963 and 1969 because they were allowed to pick any two French-Canadian players to start the draft, before anyone else did (these picks would replace their first two round picks). This arrangement was compensation to the team once the decision was made to end the "sponsorship" program that previously existed (at which the Habs were experts). The thing is, they only took advantage of that rule twice....in 1969 to select goalie Michel Plasse and Roger Belisle (Plasse went to KC in the '74 expansion draft, Belisle never made the NHL) and then again in 1970 to select Rejean Houle and Marc Tardif (both WHL bound 4 years later). Fortunately that rule was disbanded a year later because that was the Gilbert Perrault draft, with Lafleur and Dionne coming next. Imagine those three on the same team!!

I hate the Habs, but they get my vote.

But to stir the pot more, look at the best winning percentage ever and maybe Boston is the winner.....but we are talking the 1930 Bruins team! Link is here.....

https://champsorchumps.us...ecords#tab-win-percentage
- bullethead7

Yes, I said 1963. But kids who were already committed to a team by then (Bobby Orr, for example, who was sponsored by the Bruins in 1962 at age 13/14) could still bypass the draft. If I'm not mistaken, 1969 was the first draft where all such players signed or sponsored under the old system had graduated.

Yes, I said 1963. But kids who were already committed to a team by then (Bobby Orr, for example, who was sponsored by the Bruins in 1962 at age 13/14) could still bypass the draft. If I'm not mistaken, 1969 was the first draft where all such players signed or sponsored under the old system had graduated.
- Sven22

True. I misread your dates...my apologies.

I can't even read what you write anymore Ek, your blogs are so full of typos and mistakes, it's ridiculous. This is so unprofessional - why should I take the time to read what you write when you won't even proofread your own writing? Have some professional responsibility man.

I can't even read what you write anymore Ek, your blogs are so full of typos and mistakes, it's ridiculous. This is so unprofessional - why should I take the time to read what you write when you won't even proofread your own writing? Have some professional responsibility man.

I can't even read what you write anymore Ek, your blogs are so full of typos and mistakes, it's ridiculous. This is so unprofessional - why should I take the time to read what you write when you won't even proofread your own writing? Have some professional responsibility man.
- quinneroma

because you take your frustration out in real life on some hockey blogger who only succeeds because people poop on his errors, creating an endless cycle of ad revenue

In that era didn't Montreal get exclusive first access to sign the vast majority of rookies as they entered the league? Combined with no salary cap, that is an insanely unfair advantage no modern NHL team could ever compare to.
- jfkst1

And overall the quality is better now by a mile. Goaltending, players, systems, diet and exercise. Back in the day it was no summer training regime among the players. (Booze & cigarettes 🚬).

The 76/77 Habs only lost 8 games out of 80.
At the 80 game mark, this year's Bruins have already lost 12.
I'd love to watch an OT 3 on 3 where Bowman sends out Lafleur, Shutt and Robinson to start the overtime. If it lasted any longer than a shift, follow up with Cournoyer, Savard and Lapointe. It would never make it to the shoot out but Lafleur. Shutt and Cournoyer would be a goalie's nightmare.

And overall the quality is better now by a mile. Goaltending, players, systems, diet and exercise. Back in the day it was no summer training regime among the players. (Booze & cigarettes 🚬).
- THE EVIL WITHIN

Modern refinement is better no doubt. There were also only 14-18 teams in the 1970s.

Eklund: Are These Bruins The Best Ever Regular Season Team? Buzz@1
- Eklund

No.

Not even close.

YUP.

Eklund: Are These Bruins The Best Ever Regular Season Team? Buzz@1
- Eklund

No🤦‍♂️

‘72 dolphins were undefeated and won the Super Bowl👍🏿

Bs aren’t even undefeated so boom👊 mic 🎤 drop 👊🏿

They have 52 Regulation wins, far away from even tying the record.