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Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins 1976-77

The Stanley Cup is one of the most-recognized symbols in North American sports. It is the championship trophy of the NHL, National Hockey League which is won by one of the teams that have qualified for the championship finals after playing a series of playoff matches.

Montreal's swift skating, tight checking Canadiens swept to their second straight Stanley Cup championship 20th overall in 14 games, two over the maximum. In the course they set the rest of the National Hockey League to worry about the Frankenstein in their middle. It wasn't just that Les Ogres, as they're known in some quarters, swept four straight from the tough Boston Bruins to wrap up at the Boston Garden. The thing that distresses the other NHL clubs is that the persistent wave of bleu blanc rouge jerseys will be falling over the boards in the next season and beyond that. Ken Dryden, the 6-4 goalkeeper with the wingspan of 747, is only 29 and is backed by Michel Larocque 24, who is getting a mite disheartened.

Coach Bowman could not shift from Dryden who scored only 22 goals in 14 games a sweep of St. Louis, a six game set with the New York Islanders and a four game sweep of Boston. As an example of the incredible depth of Hab’s the General Manager, Sam Pollock has attained through an excessive collection of a top round draft selections, Montreal has two netminders on the Nova Scotia AHL, American Hockey League affiliate who would start on many NHL clubs. They are Ed Walsh of Arlington of all places, and Dave Elenbaas of Toronto via Cornell University. Pollock went in the June 14 amateur junior draft with two first round choices, a mere trifle for Sam and Atlanta.

All this while, Bowman and Boston Coach, Don Cherry were chattering at each other in the media. Actually, they became good friends after a friendship coaching Team Canada last fall in the Canada Cup matches. Boston struck first on a power play goal by Bobby Schmautz, his 11th goal of the playoffs.

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