1966 Stanley Cup Final

Paths to the Final

Montreal defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4–0 to advance to the Final, and Detroit defeated the Chicago Black Hawks 4–2.

Game summaries

With this series, Toe Blake had coached the Canadiens to seven Cups in eleven years. Henri Richard, a member of all seven championship teams, would score the series winner in game six in overtime. Two minutes into the extra period, Richard broke in on Red Wing goalie Roger Crozier, lost his footing on the newly resurfaced ice as he cut across the goalmouth, and sprawled into Crozier. The puck went in, and even though Crozier and the Wings protested that Richard had pushed the puck in with his hand, the goal stood. His brilliant play in goal, even in defeat, earned Crozier the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs, becoming the first player to win the award as a member of the losing team.

|1-1-1 =Floyd Smith (3) - 13:25 |1-1-2 =No scoring |1-2-1 =Bill Gadsby (1) - 5:14 |1-2-2 =4:23 - Ralph Backstrom (2) |1-3-1 =Paul Henderson (3) - 2:14 |1-3-2 =2:36 - Terry Harper (2) |goalie1-1 =Roger Crozier 33 saves / 35 shots |goalie1-2 =Gump Worsley 32 saves / 35 shots

|2-1-1 =Andy Bathgate (6) - pp - 18:39 |2-1-2 =6:55 - pp - J.C. Tremblay (2) |2-2-1 =No scoring |2-2-2 =No scoring |2-3-1 =Bruce MacGregor (1) - 1:51 Ab McDonald (1) - 2:45 Floyd Smith (4) - 12:28 Dean Prentice (5) - 16:25 |2-3-2 =12:00 - Yvan Cournoyer (1) |goalie2-1 =Roger Crozier 23 saves / 25 shots |goalie2-2 =Gump Worsley 29 saves / 34 shots

|3-1-1 =4:20 - Norm Ullman (3) |3-1-2 =Dave Balon (1) - 15:40 Jean Beliveau (3) - 19:12 |3-2-1 =No scoring |3-2-2 =No scoring |3-3-1 =19:59 - Gordie Howe (4) |3-3-2 =Gilles Tremblay (3) - 1:45 Gilles Tremblay (4) - pp - 3:21 |goalie3-1 =Roger Crozier 27 saves / 31 shots |goalie3-2 =Gump Worsley 29 saves / 31 shots

|4-1-1 =No scoring |4-1-2 =No scoring |4-2-1 =11:24 - Norm Ullman (4) |4-2-2 =Jean Beliveau (4) - pp - 19:51 |4-3-1 =No scoring |4-3-2 =Ralph Backstrom (3) - 13:37 |goalie4-1 =Roger Crozier 3 saves / 3 shots Hank Bassen 28 saves / 30 shots |goalie4-2 =Gump Worsley 22 saves / 23 shots

|5-1-1 =No scoring |5-1-2 =1:06 - Claude Provost (2) 19:21 - pp - Yvan Cournoyer (2) |5-2-1 =Norm Ullman (5) - 14:22 |5-2-2 =1:05 - Dave Balon (2) 11:22 - Bobby Rousseau (4) |5-3-1 =No scoring |5-3-2 =5:31 - Dick Duff (2) |goalie5-1 =Roger Crozier 28 saves / 33 shots |goalie5-2 =Gump Worsley 20 saves / 21 shots

|6-1-1 =No scoring |6-1-2 =Jean Beliveau (5) - 9:08 |6-2-1 =11:55 - pp - Norm Ullman (6) |6-2-2 =Leon Rochefort (1) - 10:11 |6-3-1 =10:30 - Floyd Smith (5) |6-3-2 =No scoring |6-4-1 =No scoring |6-4-2 =Henri Richard (1) - 2:20 |goalie6-1 =Roger Crozier 19 saves / 22 shots |goalie6-2 =Gump Worsley 28 saves / 30 shots

Stanley Cup engraving

The 1966 Stanley Cup was presented to Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau by NHL President Clarence Campbell following the Canadiens 3–2 win over the Red Wings in game six.

The following Canadiens players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

1965–66 Montreal Canadiens

• 30 Lorne Gump Worsley
• 3 Jean-Claude J. C. Tremblay
• 10 Edward Ted Harris
• 17 Jean-Guy Talbot (A)
• 19 Terry Harper
• 23 Noel Price
• 6 Ralph Backstrom
• 16 Henri Richard (A)
• 18 Leon Rochefort
• 12 Yvan Cournoyer
• 11 Claude Larose
• 14 Claude Provost
• 15 Bobby Rousseau
• 20 David Balon
• 21 Gilles Tremblay
• 22 John Ferguson Sr.
• 26 Jim Roberts |non-players=
• Hartland Molson (Chairman/owner), J. David Molson (President)
• Sam Pollock (Vice President/Manager), Hector Toe Blake (Coach)
• Andy Galley (Trainer), Larry Albut (Asst. Trainer)}}

Stanley Cup engravings

• Montreal Canadiens name was misspelt MONTREAL CANADIENE. This mistake was later corrected on the Replica Cup created in 1992–93.

Broadcasting

In 1966, NBC became the first television network in the United States to air a national broadcast of a Stanley Cup Playoff game. The network provided coverage of four Sunday afternoon playoff games during the postseason. On April 10 and April 17, NBC aired semifinal games between the Chicago Black Hawks and the Detroit Red Wings. On April 24, and May 1, NBC aired Games 1 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings. Win Elliot served as the play-by-play man while Bill Mazer served as the color commentator for the games.

NBC's coverage of the 1966 Stanley Cup Final marked the first time that hockey games were broadcast on network television in color. The CBC would follow suit the following year. NBC's Stanley Cup coverage preempted a sports anthology series called NBC Sports in Action, hosted by Jim Simpson and Bill Cullen, who were between-periods co-hosts for the Stanley Cup broadcasts.

Aftermath

The next season, the Red Wings finished a distant fifth, 24 points out of the playoffs, marking the beginning of a 20 year slump known as the "Dead Wings" era. The Red Wings only made the playoffs four times in the next 20 years between 1967 and 1986, and would not return to the Stanley Cup Final again until 1995, where they were swept by the New Jersey Devils.

The Canadiens would return to the Stanley Cup Final the next season, but lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in six games. However, the Canadiens would eventually become a dynasty, winning the Stanley Cup in 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979.

Notes

References

References

1. (April 10, 1966). "Stanley Cup Hockey Playoffs on Today". [[Hartford Courant]].
2. (February 27, 1966). "NBC May Televise Stanley Cup Play". Hartford Courant.
3. (February 27, 1966). "NHL Near Deal for TV of Cup Games". [[Chicago Tribune]].
4. (February 28, 1966). "NBC Makes Plans to TV Stanley Cup Playoffs". [[Los Angeles Times]].
5. Don Page. (April 9, 1966). "Let's Ear It for Transistor Man". Los Angeles Times.
6. (April 16, 1966). "More Than Feelings Hurting—As Black Hawks Limp Back Home". Hartford Courant.
7. (April 24, 1966). "TV News Notes". Chicago Tribune.
8. (March 29, 1966). "NBC to Carry Stanley Cup Games on TV". Chicago Tribune.
9. Bob Gates. (April 29, 1966). "Abel's 'switcheroo' works". [[The Christian Science Monitor]].
10. Stan Issacs. (January 19, 1990). "TV SPORTS Hockey Gets Network – for a Day". [[Newsday]].
11. Ted Damata. (April 10, 1966). "Black Hawks in Colorful Color". Chicago Tribune.