Comparing the 2022-2023 Bruins (133 points) and the 1976-1977 Canadiens (132 points)

[Fenway]

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Let me start off by saying the 1976-1977 Canadiens at worst were the second-best team I have ever seen in person and the only team that may have been better was the Soviet Red Army team of the same era.

Obviously, I am a Bruins diehard but I saw with my younger eyes how good that Montreal team was.

As Jack Todd wrote in the Montreal Gazette today
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The Mighty Bruins: So the Bruins (63-12-5 for 131 points with two games to play) now have more wins than any club in the history of the NHL. They’ve broken the previous record of 62 wins held by the Red Wings and Lightning, and they will almost certainly eclipse the Canadiens record of 132 points, set in 1976-77.

Would it be churlish to note that those 1976-77 Canadiens played 12 ties, so by today’s rules they would almost certainly have converted at least six of those games to wins either in overtime or the shootout, giving them 66 wins and 138 points? Or that a team that good might have won 10 of 12, giving them 70 wins and 142 points?

We’ll never know. In any case, this is one helluva Boston team, built in a way that is supposed to be impossible — without No. 1 picks that yield generational offensive stars.

Their one top pick, Taylor Hall, was drafted by Edmonton. With 16 goals on the season, Hall is not a key contributor. Instead, Boston has been led for years by Patrice Bergeron and Montreal favourite Brad Marchand, neither a high draft pick. Three of their top six forwards are Czechs: prolific scorer David Pastrnak (who picked up a hat trick Sunday to bring his season total to 60 goals) drafted 25th overall in 2014, veteran David Krejci, taken 63rd overall in 2004, and Pavel Zacha, drafted sixth overall in 2015 and acquired from the Devils in the off-season.

Their stud defencemen are Hampus Lindholm (sixth overall in 2012) and Charlie McAvoy (14th in 2016.) Goaltender Linus Ullmark, perhaps the main reason the Bruins set this record, was Buffalo’s 12th pick, 163rd overall, in 2012.

Jim Montgomery, the coach who put it all together, had washed out in Dallas because of personal, off-ice issues. When the Bruins reached out for him, it seemed like either desperation or madness. Yet here he is, a lock for the Jack Adams after a masterful performance that has the Beantown bunch marked as overwhelming favourites for the Stanley Cup.

If you’re a Montreal fan, not much you can do but doff your hat and say congratulations, Bruins. Well done.

Todd is correct as the 1976-1977 Habs teams did not have the bonus points in play BUT they also had an advantage in playing more games against very bad hockey teams.

They played their Norris Division rivals 6 times ( yes Norris Division )

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It is impossible to compare eras but I also said those Montreal teams of the late 70s were exceptional. The Bruins of that era was also a great team but they never beat Montreal when it counted and they never won a game against the Soviets.

What this 2022-2023 Bruins team has accomplished in the regular season defies logic. Believe me when I say even the hardcores at HF Bruins thought this team might struggle to make the playoffs given all the injuries they had to start the season.

Cam Neeley thought the team should be better and fired Bruce Cassidy and then rolled the dice on Jim Montgomery.

We all know the real season begins on Monday but for those of us who are Bruins fans this has been a remarkable 6 months.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Cool story. But if they don’t win it all, it’ll be more like comparing them to the 2007 Patriots or the 2016 Warriors.

 

[Oneiro]

I don't think their run defies logic at all really.

They are a deep, experienced team with a lot of team first contracts at a time when the rest of the league is either too young, too old or, in the case of COL and TB, lost a lot of depth due to injuries / cap. No struggling team can do anything to fix their situation from the outside because cap flexibility is at a premium.

Again: luck meets preparation. This post-COVID context won't exist in a few seasons when the cap rises and the turnover from contenders to young blood is more pronounced.

I think this is also why, to a much lesser extent, Carolina has been able to weather the storm of bad luck and NJ went on their streak. The field is pretty weak.

 

[Chips]

What was parity like in the 70s? I see a lot of people auto dismiss modern team/player accomplishments with “shootout/loser points” and other such comparisons


But on the other hand I’d think a run like the Bruins’ is especially impressive with the kind of parity we’ve had in the modern league. The goal differential too.

Crazy season by them, not too worth comparing to past eras when not too many teams in this same era have got too close to this.

 

[Freudian]

Bruins have gotten 11 extra points from OT/SO. Remove them and they are far behind the other top teams in the list.

That's not to take anything away from the Bruins. The league has better parity now than ever and there is a salary cap so no doubt it's a very impressive season. Just not a best in the history of the league type of season.

 

[Fenway]

Cool story. But if they don’t win it all, it’ll be more like comparing them to the 2007 Patriots or the 2016 Warriors.

@John Mandalorian - Completly agree

The Krafts enraged the Patriots fanbase with this banner

As the weather gets warmer the ice at TD Garden ( which isn't good to begin with ) will get worse especially as the Celtics look like they will have a long playoff run.

The real season starts Monday night against somebody

 

[John Mandalorian]

What was parity like in the 70s? I see a lot of people auto dismiss modern team/player accomplishments with “shootout/loser points” and other such comparisons


But on the other hand I’d think a run like the Bruins’ is especially impressive with the kind of parity we’ve had in the modern league. The goal differential too.

Crazy season by them, not too worth comparing to past eras when not too many teams in this same era have got too close to this.

Like you said at the end, it’s hard not to wonder to what degree “tanking for Bedard” has had an effect on the amount of “easy” wins this year compared to other years.

 

[Ol' Jase]

It’s important to examine the rosters of all the best teams historically as part of the comparison, IMO, as Todd points out.

What makes the Bruins season so incredibly impressive is the fact that this isn’t a roster loaded with Hall of Famers at their peaks. It’s a collective of a couple of elite players, some really good talent, and everyone doing exactly what they are expected to do.

A “team” in every sense of the word.

 

[TheRumble]

Bruins is far for impressive. 82 game season in a 32 team league where talent is dispersed across all 32 teams instead of 3 or 4 teams having 6+ future HoFers on their squad.

Like you said at the end, it’s hard not to wonder to what degree “tanking for Bedard” has had an effect on the amount of “easy” wins this year compared to other years.

Most of the tanking teams were in the West this year. The only team that was openly trying to lose were the Habs.

Columbus was bad but given that they went out and signed Gaudreau in the off season and extended Laine, it's safe to say they didn't expect to suck this year.

 

[Reality Czech]

Bruins have gotten 11 extra points from OT/SO. Remove them and they are far behind the other top teams in the list.

That's not to take anything away from the Bruins. The league has better parity now than ever and there is a salary cap so no doubt it's a very impressive season. Just not a best in the history of the league type of season.

Yep, there is no good way to compare teams from before the shootout era and after. The Bruins have had a great year, but saying they're the best team ever doesn't really feel right to me.

 

[Chips]

Like you said at the end, it’s hard not to wonder to what degree “tanking for Bedard” has had an effect on the amount of “easy” wins this year compared to other years.

They still had roughly half as many losses as basically any other competitive team, and only 5 loser points. Also it already feels like last season, but wasn’t it this year they started hot while missing some of their most important players?


Many of those other competitive teams were roughly in line with each other.


I did genuinely mean to ask how parity in the 70s compared to now because I didn’t watch back then, but I’ve been made to believe over the years that today’s parity is so noteworthy in comparison to the past

The Bruins were still drastically better and more well rounded than many teams.


Also, the tank is real but many people exaggerate it. A bunch of the teams at or around the bottom went in the season actually expecting/hoping to improve. Certainly it was worse out west where the Bruins played the least games


I can’t imagine the parity situation today is worse than ‘equal to’ those past era, but with the cap and changes of emphasis around the league I’m pretty sure it’s particularly tough today


Pretty much every other team went on a worse streak at some point this year than the Bruins did. Consistency is probably the hardest thing. It’s a testament to the balance they’ve managed, they could outscore when their D or G faltered, their D and G could make their worst offensive games winners

 

[John Mandalorian]

Bruins is far for impressive. 82 game season in a 32 team league where talent is dispersed across all 32 teams instead of 3 or 4 teams having 6+ future HoFers on their squad.

Most of the tanking teams were in the West this year. The only team that was openly trying to lose were the Habs.

Columbus was bad but given that they went out and signed Gaudreau in the off season and extended Laine, it's safe to say they didn't expect to suck this year.

Not true. Multiple East teams threw in the towel at some point. Some earlier than others.

 

[Fenway]

Like you said at the end, it’s hard not to wonder to what degree “tanking for Bedard” has had an effect on the amount of “easy” wins this year compared to other years.

@John Mandalorian - oddly the Bruins have lost in regulation to Arizona and Chicago this year.

We all know the playoffs are another kettle of fish.

The 1970-71 Bruins relaxed in Game 2 of the first round after building a 5-1 lead against Montreal. It was a fatal mistake.



The 2019 Lightning never recovered from this



No sport on the planet has a better first round than the NHL

 

[John Mandalorian]

@John Mandalorian - oddly the Bruins have lost in regulation to Arizona and Chicago this year.

We all know the playoffs are another kettle of fish.

The 1970-71 Bruins relaxed in Game 2 of the first round after building a 5-1 lead against Montreal. It was a fatal mistake.



The 2019 Lightning never recovered from this



No sport on the planet has a better first round than the NHL

The team that I find interesting is Tampa. I’m not sure if they’re tired or conserving energy. They might be on a level where they can coast through a season while never giving more than 90% of their best so they can have enough gas in the tank for the playoffs. I’m not sure this type of load management (if that’s what it is) existed back in the day.

 

[snag]

I dunno. Bruins are good. The 76-77 Habs were still better. Like That goal differential? Wow.

 

[PastaBaked]

A well written article in the OP. Fan's find it so hard to give credit to the performance of opponents it just looks childish (the constant "yeah, but...").
That Montreal team was ahead of my time; relatively speaking they're likely to remain the most talented team ever.
This year's Bruins are special because of the make-up of the team - reminds me of the 2004 Patriots - everyone doing their job and doing it at an exceptionally high level.

Hopefully, they finish the job and take home the ultimate prize.

 

[Fenway]

The team that I find interesting is Tampa. I’m not sure if they’re tired or conserving energy. They might be on a level where they can coast through a season while never giving more than 90% of their best so they can have enough gas in the tank for the playoffs. I’m not sure this type of load management (if that’s what it is) existed back in the day.

@John Mandalorian

It has been apparent that Toronto and Tampa will collide in Round 1 for a couple of months.

On paper, Toronto should advance to Round 2 this year but...............

That is what makes the first round a delight

 

[John Mandalorian]

@John Mandalorian

It has been apparent that Toronto and Tampa will collide in Round 1 for a couple of months.

On paper, Toronto should advance to Round 2 this year but...............

That is what makes the first round a delight

Indeed. Toronto vs Tampa: who’s not there for that?

Do you have a first round preference for the Bruins?

 

[Over the volcano]

If you figure in the bruins doing it 20ish years into the salary cap era while that Canadiens team was stilll cashing in on guys they had exclusive rights to from their feeder teams, there's no contest.

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

Salary cap era actually benefits modern teams.

Look at the highest salaries back in the 70s...the best players were making peanuts compared to modern players. A person making the equivalent of 3-4.5 million in today's money was a top 5 earner in the late 70s.

 

[Over the volcano]

Salary cap era actually benefits modern teams.

Look at the highest salaries back in the 70s...the best players were making peanuts compared to modern players. A person making the equivalent of 3-4.5 million in today's money was a top 5 earner in the late 70s.

Helps players and teams make money, but by design it, and the draft, are there to create parity.

 

[KnightofBoston]

I dunno. Bruins are good. The 76-77 Habs were still better. Like That goal differential? Wow.

True, but not for nothing, the defense of teams along with goalie equipment and training style definitely left a lot of holes open that would make your average NHL 4th liner look like a viable 2nd line option.

The most impressive thing to me is that the bruins are the only team in the cap era to have such a high GF/Ga %, I think it was also fenway that posted it but the top something like 20 teams are all from the 70’s and pre cap era. This year’s bruins we’re something like 7th and stuck out like a sore thumb when scanning the year


I’ve watched every game this year and the bruins have just been able to roll out any guy in any situation and succeed. They’ve stumbled here and there, even in their wins there have been some bad habits that caught up with them and lead to stinker losses like their only 3 game losing streak and their 6-3 loss to Chicago which lead bergeron to lead a player’s only meeting (which I personally take to mean him saying this isn’t on Monty it’s us that need to step it up rather than being frustrated with the coach)

The biggest thing for me going into the playoffs is that I’ve never watched a better bruins team on ice

I’ve been watching since 94 and the stretch between 94 and roughly 2008 I wasn’t analyzing hockey the way I do now, so for me the real intense fandom came with the chara, bergeron, Lucic, Krejci, thomas, sturm bruins.

2009 was a team that could have gone all the way and that loss to Carolina really stung. But they didn’t have enough game breakers and that was the hole

2010 they lost a lot of guys to injury and it was impressive they beat Buffalo let alone almost swept the flyers.

2011 they were a great 5 on 5 team that could grind you down, but again, no game breakers and a weak PP. thomas (and Ryder lol) had to pull of miracle saves at times to keep them in it. Horseshoe team. A good team, but the fates were on their side that year. Sometimes they played too much of a trap and grind style that left them vulnerable to speed

The 2012 team left some things on the table but once again, no true game breakers as Seguin hadn’t blossomed yet and as it turned out he was never really that guy to begin with. Our defense that year wasn’t anything wild either


2013 that team almost swept the hawks and Rask really didn’t deserve the ending we got there, but we had guys like bartkowski and wade redden playing defense and bergeron broke his ribs in the hawks series and then punctured a lung. Still no game breakers and still Julien style coaching where he kept a one armed Horton on the first line and relegated a pointless Seguin on the third line. Monty likely rests Horton for a few games and puts Seguin up, or at the very least moves Horton down to change match ups

2014 was a great team that assembled some game breaking talent in Iginla and they seemingly had no holes, but going into the playoffs I thought we needed to do more on defense and they laid an egg in game 7 against montreal


2015-18 they were retooling and getting their mojo back

2019 was for me the most heartbreaking loss and I put a lot of it on the coach. He showed zero fire on the bench and allowed Berube to game the refs with no push back. Then in game 7 when it was obvious Binnington was overselling down low, they didn’t change up their strategy after going down 2-0 in the first to pick corners and go for crash n rebound goals. Cassidy also never split up pasta from bergeron and Marchand and put him with Krejci. The first line was struggling in thag series and Krejci had a revolving door of players. The answer was right there and Cassidy refused to do it (until subsequent seasons when his job was on the line, go figure) The bruins that year should have won, but there was something just missing there and it started with the coach.


This bruins team, they pass the stats test, the advanced stats test, and the eye test. They play very differently from past teams and yet they play the same in the ways they were always effective. I’ve never seen a bruins team so effectively move across all three zone with supportive layers. Everytime the opposition gets the puck there’s someone to swoop in and strip the puck and another person to take the body and Vice versa. They constantly are able to hold onto pucks and find a way to keep possession even when falling or just being hit. They have defense moving constantly and jumping into the play. Orlov on any given night can play like a number one defensemen and yet the bruins also have McAvoy and Lindholm. That’s nuts. And then they also have Carlo, Clifton, Gryzz, and serviceable reserves after that

The biggest overall difference in years past is the layered attack. It’s no longer a one line team with lots of jags below

You’ve got a resurgent DeBrusk on the top line, a taking the next step Zacha on the second line, Krejci finally has a game breaker in pasta, bertuzzi who is as it turns out extremely underrated and a perfect fit (3 goals and 6 assists in his last 7 with pasta by the way, they look excellent together, great passer)

And the third and 4th line’s are unreal

Hall - Coyle - Frederic/Bertuzzi

Hathaway - Nosek - Greer/Lauko

That third line can pass as a second most nights, and the 4th a 3rd.

That’s just insane depth the bruins haven’t had in a long time. Maybe since that 2011 team. But they have a better mobile defense, style, and powerplay than that team.

They absolutely could run into a wall if any of their nemesis teams get hot, but for now if I’m looking at it objectively, they are going to be an extremely tough out for anyone.

 

[Ulysses31]

95 96 DRW 62 wins > bruins 53 RW IMO

 

[Score8]

Like you said at the end, it’s hard not to wonder to what degree “tanking for Bedard” has had an effect on the amount of “easy” wins this year compared to other years.

You have a list of teams that were acvtiely tanking that the bruins faced this year? I’d be curious to learn just how many wins the bruins picked up from tanking teams.

 

[Canadiens Ghost]

If you figure in the bruins doing it 20ish years into the salary cap era while that Canadiens team was stilll cashing in on guys they had exclusive rights to from their feeder teams, there's no contest.

You should brush up on your hockey history. Réjean Houle and Marc Tardif were not the reasons the Habs were a powerhouse.

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