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This Week in Montreal Canadiens History: April 25th – May 1st

By Joshua Rosa

1974; Goalie Ken Dryden #29 of the Montreal Canadiens. (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images)
1974; Goalie Ken Dryden #29 of the Montreal Canadiens. (Photo by Melchior DiGiacomo/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK – CIRCA 1979: Jacques Lemaire #25 of the Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
NEW YORK – CIRCA 1979: Jacques Lemaire #25 of the Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /

April 28th

Singing the Blues

On this day, the year of our Lord 1968, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 in overtime. Bobby Rousseau scored the only goal in the first, and the Canadiens and Blackhawks go blow for blow through the game with goals by Bobby Schmaultz, J.C. Tremblay, Stan Mikita, Jacques Lemaire and Wayne Maki tying the game with just over 10 minutes left.

Just 2 minutes into the extra period, Lemaire was the benefactor of a miscue from the Blackhawks defenders, that let him walk in almost alone on goalie Denis DeJordy from a little tap pass by Dick Duff, and fired a slapper into the corner of the net.

The goal sent the Canadiens to their 4th straight Stanley Cup Final against the expansion franchise St. Louis Blues. And the Canadiens promptly swept the Blues in their inaugural season and won the Stanley Cup. In 1968-69, the Blues made it to the Final again, and were swept out of the Final by the Montreal Canadiens, again.

In 1969-70 the Blues made the Stanley Cup Final, but this time met the Boston Bruins. But the result was the same 4-0 sweep. 1970-71 was the first year that the Blues did not make the Stanley Cup Final.

Now you might think that that is quite the impressive feat, even better than the Vegas Golden Knights, who made the Stanley Cup Final in their first season. Well, not quite.

The 1967 NHL expansion was the earliest and biggest expansion that the NHL has ever gone through. The Blues, Penguins, Flyers, Kings, North Stars and Seals were all added, doubling the amount of teams in the league. But they weren’t fully integrated into the league. Instead, the league was split in half, with the Original Six teams in one conference, and the expansion teams in another.

This meant that every year one expansion team would make the Stanley Cup Final, and the Blues just happened to be the best expansion team at the time. Which does not mean that they were on the same level as the Original Six, as you can see when the two division champions met in the Stanley Cup Final.

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