1979 Stanley Cup Final

Paths to the Finals

Montreal defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4–0 and the Boston Bruins 4–3 (highlighted by the "too many men on the ice" game seven overtime win) to advance to the Final.

New York defeated the Los Angeles Kings 2–0, the Philadelphia Flyers 4–1 and the New York Islanders 4–2 to make it to the finals.

Game summaries

The Canadiens won the Cup in five games, winning it on home ice for the first time since . After the game Jacques Lemaire, Yvan Cournoyer, and Ken Dryden retired, while head coach Scotty Bowman left the Canadiens to join the Buffalo Sabres, which would mark the end of the Canadiens' dynasty. Montreal Canadiens scored 46 total points during the Stanley Cup Final, while the New York Rangers scored 26 points in the finals.

This Final marked the second time in four years that Bowman and Fred Shero coached against each other. In , they coached against each other, though Shero was with the Philadelphia Flyers.

|1-1-1 =Steve Vickers (5) - pp - 6:28 Ron Greschner (7) - 14:27 |1-1-2 =No scoring |1-2-1 =Phil Esposito (7) - pp - 9:30 Dave Maloney (3) - sh - 12:32 |1-2-2 =7:07 - Guy Lafleur (9) |1-3-1 =No scoring |1-3-2 =No scoring |goalie1-1 =John Davidson 31 saves / 32 shots |goalie1-2 =Ken Dryden 9 saves / 13 shots, Michel Larocque 9 saves / 9 shots

|2-1-1 =Anders Hedberg (4) - 1:02 Ron Duguay (4) - 6:21 |2-1-2 =8:34 - Yvon Lambert (4) 12:24 - Guy Lafleur (10) 16:27 - Bob Gainey (4) |2-2-1 =No scoring |2-2-2 =6:51 - Steve Shutt (3) 17:35 - pp - Jacques Lemaire (8) |2-3-1 =No scoring |2-3-2 =4:38 - Mark Napier (3) |goalie2-1 =John Davidson 27 saves / 33 shots |goalie2-2 =Ken Dryden 23 saves / 25 shots

|3-1-1 =No scoring |3-1-2 =Steve Shutt (4) - pp - 7:27 Doug Risebrough (1) - 15:44 |3-2-1 =No scoring |3-2-2 =No scoring |3-3-1 =6:06 - Ron Duguay (5) |3-3-2 =Mario Tremblay (3) - 14:48 Jacques Lemaire (9) - 17:10 |goalie3-1 =John Davidson 19 saves / 23 shots |goalie3-2 =Ken Dryden 19 saves / 20 shots

|4-1-1 =1:19 - Pat Hickey (1) 17:03 - Don Murdoch (7) |4-1-2 =Rejean Houle (1) - 2:39 |4-2-1 =No scoring |4-2-2 =Yvon Lambert (5) - 18:05 |4-3-1 =4:26 - Phil Esposito (8) |4-3-2 =Bob Gainey (5) - 6:27 |4-4-1 =No scoring |4-4-2 =Serge Savard (2) - 7:25 |goalie4-1 =John Davidson 38 saves / 42 shots |goalie4-2 =Ken Dryden 18 saves / 21 shots

|5-1-1 =Carol Vadnais (2) - 16:52 |5-1-2 =10:36 - Rick Chartraw (2) |5-2-1 =No scoring |5-2-2 =1:02 - pp - Jacques Lemaire (10) 11:01 - Bob Gainey (6) 18:49 - Jacques Lemaire (11) |5-3-1 =No scoring |5-3-2 =No scoring |goalie5-1 =John Davidson 27 saves / 31 shots |goalie5-2 =Ken Dryden 14 saves / 15 shots

Team rosters

Montreal Canadiens

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New York Rangers

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Stanley Cup engraving

The 1979 Stanley Cup was presented to Canadiens acting captain Serge Savard by NHL President John Ziegler following the Canadiens 4–1 win over the Rangers in game five.

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

1978–79 Montreal Canadiens

• 8 Doug Risebrough

• 21 Doug Jarvis

• 25 Jacques Lemaire

• 28 Pierre Larouche

• 5 Guy Lapointe

• 17 Rod Langway

• 18 Serge Savard

• 19 Larry Robinson

• 24 Gilles Lupien

• 27 Rick Chartraw

• 29 Ken Dryden

• 33 Richard Sevigny †

• 11 Yvon Lambert

• 12 Yvan Cournoyer* (Captain)

• 14 Mario Tremblay

• 15 Rejean Houle

• 20 Cam Connor

• 22 Steve Shutt

• 23 Bob Gainey

• 30 Pat Hughes

• 31 Mark Napier |player-notes=

• • Did not play or dress in the Final. Name engraved on Stanley Cup despite not officially qualifying.

• † Did not play in the Final. Spare dressed in the Finals due to an injury to the regular backup goaltender. |non-players=

• Jacques Courtois (President), Sam Pollock (Director)

• Irving Grundman (Vice President/General Manager), Jean Beliveau (Vice President - Director of Cooperate Affairs)

• William Scotty Bowman (Head Coach), Claude Ruel (Director of Player Development)

• Al MacNeil (Director of Player Personnel), Morgan McCammon (Director)

• Ron Caron (Asst. General Manager/Director of Communication), Eddy Palchak (Trainer)

• Pierre Meilleur (Asst. Trainer) |engraving-notes=

• #12 Yvan Cournoyer played only 18 regular season games. He missed the rest of the season due to a back injury. His name was still put on the cup, even though he did not qualify. Serge Savard served as interim captain while Cournoyer was injured.

• #33 Richard Sevigny (G) – had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup, before he played his first NHL game. He was dressed in the finals when Michel Larocque was injured in pre-game warm-up for game two. Sevigny joined Montreal full-time, the next season after Ken Dryden retired.

• #26 Dan Newman played 16 regular season games, but did not qualify to be on the cup. He was dressed for one game in the quarterfinals, but did not play

• Floyd Curry changed roles from Assistant Manager to Director of Scouting. Name was left off the Stanley Cup.

• American Rod Langway was born in Taiwan. This makes Langway first and only player to win the Stanley Cup born in Taiwan (Republic of China).

Members of Montreal Canadiens 1976 to 1979 dynasty

• Players: Rick Chartraw, Yvan Cournoyer, Ken Dryden, Bob Gainey, Doug Jarvis, Guy Lafleur, Yvon Lambert, Guy Lapointe, Michel Larocque, Jacques Lemaire, Doug Risebrough, Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, Steve Shutt, Mario Tremblay
• Non players: Jacques Courtois, Sam Pollock, Jean Beliveau, Scotty Bowman, Claude Ruel, Eddie Palchak, Pierre Meilleur, Ron Caron, Floyd Curry

Broadcasting

The Stanley Cup Final were produced by CBC, who carried the game in Canada and were shown in the United States on the NHL's syndicated package. Dan Kelly called the play-by-play for Games 1, 3, 4, and 5 entirely and split game 2 with Danny Gallivan. Gary Dornhoefer served as color commentator for Games 1 and 5, Gerry Pinder served as color commentator for Game 2 only, Bobby Orr served as color commentator from Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, Dick Irvin Jr. served as color commentator for the entire Finals and hosted the games in Montreal, Dave Hodge and Howie Meeker hosted the games in New York City. ABC was contracted to televise game seven. Since the Finals ended in five games, the contract was void.

References

;Bibliography

before = Montreal Canadiens 1978 | after = New York Islanders 1980 | title = Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup champions | years = 1979|

References

1. Due to injury, Cournoyer didn't play in any playoff games. [[Serge Savard]] served as acting captain.
2. (May 22, 1979). "Canadiens do it again". St Petersburg Times (Page 21).
3. Jenish, D'Arcy. (2009). "The Montreal Canadiens:100 Years of Glory". Doubleday.
4. "1979 NHL Stanley Cup Final: MTL vs. NYR".
5. (May 13, 1979). "NHL, ABC-TV Agree". Reading Eagle.
6. (1979-05-13). "May 26 Selected For a 7th Game". [[The New York Times]].
7. Ramsay, Donald. (May 22, 1979). "Montreal win kills ABC TV deal but Ziegler feels pact is on way". The Globe and Mail.