1976 Stanley Cup Finals

1976 Stanley Cup Finals
1 2 3 4 Total Montreal Canadiens 4 2 3 5 4 Philadelphia Flyers 3 1 2 3 0
Location(s)	Montreal: Montreal Forum (1, 2) Philadelphia: Spectrum (3, 4)
Coaches	Montreal: Scotty Bowman Philadelphia: Fred Shero
Captains	Montreal: Yvan Cournoyer Philadelphia: Bobby Clarke
Referees	Ron Wicks (1) Dave Newell (2) Wally Harris (3) Lloyd Gilmour (4)
Dates	May 9 – May 16
MVP	Reggie Leach (Flyers)
Series-winning goal	Guy Lafleur (14:18, third, G4)
Networks	CBC (Canada-English), SRC (Canada-French), NHL (United States)
Stanley Cup Finals

The 1976 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1975–76 season, and the culmination of the 1976 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested by the defending champion Philadelphia Flyers, making their third consecutive finals appearance, and the Montreal Canadiens. This was the Canadiens first appearance in the Final since their Cup win in 1973. The Canadiens would win the best-of-seven series, four games to none.

Paths to the Finals

Montreal defeated the Chicago Black Hawks 4–0 and the New York Islanders 4–1 to advance to the final.

Philadelphia defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4–3 and the Boston Bruins 4–1 to make it to the final.

Game summaries

Guy Lafleur scored the first two finals goals in his career, both game-winners.

Reggie Leach scored four goals in the Finals, and nineteen times in total in the playoffs to win the Conn Smythe Trophy even though the Flyers lost the Cup to the Canadiens. He is the only non-goaltender in NHL history to be named MVP of the playoffs in an unsuccessful cause, and the third of only five as of 2019. His accomplishment followed Roger Crozier (Detroit Red Wings, in 1966) and Glenn Hall (St. Louis Blues, 1968) and preceded Ron Hextall (Philadelphia, 1987) and Jean-Sebastien Giguere (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 2003).

May 9	Philadelphia Flyers		3–4		Montreal Canadiens	Montreal Forum	Recap
Reggie Leach (16) - 00:21 Ross Lonsberry (4) - 13:22		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			4:04 - Jimmy Roberts (3) 6:30 - Larry Robinson (3)
Larry Goodenough (3) - pp - 5:17		Third period			10:02 - Jacques Lemaire (2) 18:38 - Guy Lapointe (3)
Wayne Stephenson		Goalie stats			Ken Dryden

May 11	Philadelphia Flyers		1–2		Montreal Canadiens	Montreal Forum	Recap
No scoring		First period			No scoring
No scoring		Second period			15:19 - sh - Jacques Lemaire (3)
Dave Schultz (2) - 17:35		Third period			2:41 - Guy Lafleur (6)
Wayne Stephenson		Goalie stats			Ken Dryden

May 13	Montreal Canadiens		3–2		Philadelphia Flyers	The Spectrum	Recap
Steve Shutt (5) - pp - 3:17		First period			8:40 - pp - Reggie Leach (17) 18:14 - Reggie Leach (18)
Steve Shutt (6) - pp - 1:09		Second period			No scoring
Pierre Bouchard (1) - 9:16		Third period			No scoring
Ken Dryden		Goalie stats			Wayne Stephenson

May 16	Montreal Canadiens		5–3		Philadelphia Flyers	The Spectrum	Recap
Steve Shutt (7) - pp - 5:35 Pierre Bouchard (2) - pp - 11:48		First period			00:40 - Reggie Leach (19) 18:20 - pp - Bill Barber (6)
Yvan Cournoyer (3) - pp - 19:49		Second period			13:59 - pp - Andre Dupont (2)
Guy Lafleur (7) - 14:18 Peter Mahovlich (4) - 15:16		Third period			No scoring
Ken Dryden		Goalie stats			Wayne Stephenson

Montreal won series 4–0

Reggie Leach won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

Montreal Canadiens 1976 Stanley Cup champions

Players

  Centres

  Wingers

• 6 Jim Roberts
• 10 Guy Lafleur
• 11 Yvon Lambert
• 12 Yvan Cournoyer (Captain)
• 14 Mario Tremblay
• 17 Murray Wilson
• 22 Steve Shutt
• 23 Bob Gainey

  Defencemen

• 2 Bill Nyrop
• 3 John Van Boxmeer†
• 5 Guy Lapointe
• 18 Serge Savard
• 19 Larry Robinson
• 24 Don Awrey†
• 26 Pierre Bouchard
• 2-27 Rick Chartraw

  Goaltenders

• 29 Ken Dryden
• 1 Michel Larocque

† left off cup, but qualified to be on it.

Coaching and administrative staff

• Jacques Courtois (President), Jean Beliveau (Vice President – Director of Cooperate Relations)
• Peter Bronfman (Chairman/Owner), Edward Bronfman (Executive Director/Owner)
• Sam Pollock (Vice President/General Manager), William Scotty Bowman (Head Coach)
• Eddy Palchak (Trainer), Pierre Meilleur (Asst Trainer)
• Claude Ruel (Director of Player Development)
• Floyd Curry† (Asst. General Manager), Ron Caron† (Asst. General Manager)

Stanley Cup engraving

• Don Awrey played 72 regular-season games, and John van Boxmeer played 46 games. As neither player played in the playoffs, their names were not included on the Stanley Cup. The official rules says that players must play in the playoffs to be included on the Stanley Cup, but this rule was not followed very well. Players who played in playoffs were often left off, and many players who did not play in the playoffs were still engraved on it. The NHL changed the rules to say that any player who played at least 40 games (half the regular season game total) or more for the winning team, or one game in the Stanley Cup Finals must be included. However, Awrey and Van Boxmeer were not added to the cup for 1976. Awrey's name is on the Cup in 1970, 1972 with Boston. Van Boxmeer's name does not appear on the Stanley Cup.
• Between 1976 and 1985, an "A" (alternate captain) was no longer marked on players' sweaters. Only the captain was marked with a "C."
• American Rick Chartraw was born in Venezuela, and was first South America born player to win the Stanley Cup.

See also

• 1975–76 NHL season

References

External videos
1976 Stanley Cup Final, Game 4 on YouTube

• Diamond, Dan, ed. (2000). Total Stanley Cup. NHL.
• Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1-55168-261-7.