Conn Smythe Tournament (1977-00) Round 1: 1980 Trottier vs 1977 Lafleur

[blundluntman]

MATCHUP #12 (Round 1): Bryan Trottier (1980) vs Guy Lafleur (1977)

Bryan Trottier (1979-80):
21 GP 12 G 17 A 29 Points

Guy Lafleur (1976-77):
14 GP 9 G 17 A 26 Points

Round 1 Matchups:
Stevens 00 vs Leetch 94 Thread
Nieuwendyk 99 vs Roy 86 Thread
Yzerman 98 vs Gainey 79 Thread
Vernon 97 vs Gretzky 88 Thread
Sakic 96 vs Bossy 82 Thread
C Lemeiux 95 vs Lemieux 92 Thread
Roy 93 vs Smith 83 Thread
Lemieux 91 vs Goring 81 Thread
Ranford 90 vs Hextall 87 (Still Active) Thread
MacInnis 89 vs Robinson 78 Thread
Gretzky 85 vs Messier 84 Thread
Trottier 80 vs Lafleur 77

Click to read more...

 

[DitchMarner]

@blundluntman: Wrong thread title.

 

[blundluntman]

@blundluntman: Wrong thread title.

Smh I have to remember to double check that stuff. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[bobholly39]

Based on the stats Lafleur seems better on a per game basis - but I'll be honest I'm not overly familiar with either/or.

Both are dynasties - both teams were loaded.

I voted Lafleur. Open to hearing different takes.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

I haven't done a deep dive, but I'm leaning towards Trottier.

Lafleur scored more per game, but that starts to look much less impressive once you realize that he scored almost half his points in a sweep of the St. Louis Blues (the worst opponent that either of these teams faced). 12 points in four games is crazy (but it was an incredibly one-sided series, with Montreal outscoring the Blues 19-4).

In Lafleur's defense, he still scored 1.40 PPG after the destruction of St. Louis. Still, that's less than what Trottier produced (1.47 PPG) in his three series against the Bruins, Sabres and Flyers (all of which were 100+ point teams). And Trottier was a far better defensive player and physical force.

 

[tabness]

I haven't done a deep dive, but I'm leaning towards Trottier.

Lafleur scored more per game, but that starts to look much less impressive once you realize that he scored almost half his points in a sweep of the St. Louis Blues (the worst opponent that either of these teams faced). 12 points in four games is crazy (but it was an incredibly one-sided series, with Montreal outscoring the Blues 19-4).

In Lafleur's defense, he still scored 1.40 PPG after the destruction of St. Louis. Still, that's less than what Trottier produced (1.47 PPG) in his three series against the Bruins, Sabres and Flyers (all of which were 100+ point teams). And Trottier was a far better defensive player and physical force.

Yes, the first Islanders cup seems to be the toughest road they had, and Trottier seemed to be a pretty obvious choice as well.

I haven't watched anything of Lafleur in these playoffs (beyond like highlights) so I can't really have a firm comparison opinion, but I always admired Bryan Trottier's game.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Going with Trottier.. the Isles had a much tougher run and he did a lot more on the ice than Lafleur.

 

[tabness]

It should also be noted that the 1980 run saw Mike Bossy miss time during the playoffs, he missed the last two games against LA (first round best was of five back then until 1987) and then the first three against Boston. I consider Bossy to be the main offensive driver of his line over Trottier in general (not to the degree of the underrated Lemaire and Lafleur for example but it seems fairly clear to me), so how did Trottier do?

He seemed to have taken a back seat to the Islanders renowned depth to dispatch LA, but then he really came on and meshed with them (who else but the underrated Bourne and Nystrom?) to help the Islanders take a stranglehold against Boston in games 2 and 3 without Bossy so that's a big feather in the cap.

Rest of the way Bossy slightly outscored Trottier which is generally what you'd expect.

Also I was not as impressed with Trottier's (or Potvin's for that matter) defensive game that run as compared to later runs and the general reputation he has, but again, by reputation, it wasn't Lafleur doing the Trottier thing for his line it was Lemaire.

Would love to hear from a Habs fan or anyone who watched the 1977 run to hear more about Lafleur's run.

Couple games from that run (be warned first one absolutely sucks quality wise lol). I don't have the biggest interest in seventies hockey in general or the Habs dynasty then, but I guess I gotta find some time to watch these:

 

[JackSlater]

Hard to separate, two fairly strong ones. I went with Trottier since he was good defensively and Lafleur did nothing defensively, but it's hard to judge overall. I do think that Lafleur sometimes gets shortchanged for his role, in that as loaded as those Montreal teams were (and I think that Lemaire in particular is underrated) it wasn't full of dynamic scorers.

 

[Staniowski]

I'm not sure who I'd vote for here. I like Trottier better as a player, but Lafleur was probably more important to his team. Both players were very close to their respective bests during these years.

Also not sure other players who were in the Conn Smythe conversation in '77 and '80, but possibly Robinson, Dryden, Lemaire, and Smith, Goring, and Bossy, although Bossy missing five games probably took him out of it.

By the way, I'd consider Robinson and Bossy the best and most important players of these dynasties overall.

The Habs Big 3 was the heart of the team, followed by the team's overall speed. For the Islanders, it was their depth, especially at forward.

 

[Bouboumaster]

The better player between the two was Lafleur, and confortably so

However, I'm not sure about who was more deserving for their Conn Smythes