1959-60 Habs greatest ever
Unfortunate NHL resorted to fan voting; very few who voted old enough to remember Original Six dynasties
This week, as part of its 100 centennial celebration, the National Hockey League announced that the 1984-1985 Edmonton Oilers had been selected by fans as the greatest NHL team of all time.
With the greatest respect to Wayne Gretzky and the 19841985 Edmonton Oilers and the 3.6 million fans who voted, a careful study of the NHL record book would show that the 1959-1960 Montreal Canadiens had a more talented and distinguished roster and a superior record than the 1984-1985 Edmonton Oilers.
The 1984-1985 Edmonton Oilers were unquestionably a great team. The Oilers swept the Los Angeles Kings and the Winnipeg Jets in the first two rounds of the playoffs and defeated the Chicago Blackhawks in the conference final. The Oilers then defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in the final to win its second consecutive Stanley Cup. The team had six future Hall of Famers -Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr and Glenn Anderson.
The 1959-1960 Montreal Canadiens breezed through the regular season with the NHL’s best record of 40 wins, 18 losses and 12 ties in a 70 game schedule and had the most goals for (255) and fewest goals against (178) of the league’s six teams. The Canadiens then went undefeated in the playoffs, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in the semi-final and the Chicago Blackhawks in the final for its fifth consecutive Stanley Cup.
No other team in the 100-year history of the NHL has won five consecutive Stanley Cups.
The 1959-1960 Montreal Canadiens had eight future Hall of Famers on its roster — Maurice Richard, Henri Richard, Doug Harvey, Bernie Geoffrion, Dickie Moore, Jean Beliveau, Tom Johnson and Jacques Plante.
The only other NHL team to have more Hall of Famers on its roster in one year was the 19661967 Toronto Maple Leafs with nine.
(The 1978-1979 Montreal Canadiens also had eight future Hall of Famers on its roster.)
In my view, it is unfortunate that the NHL resorted to a fan vote to select the NHL’s greatest team.
Very few of the fans who voted would be old enough to remember or be aware of the great teams and players who played in the pre-expansion era of the NHL Original Six, particularly the great Montreal Canadiens dynasty which won five consecutive Stanley Cups from 1956 to 1960.