As we all know, the offseason can be a bit slow, especially during the dog days of August. So to help pass the time, I was going to highlight some of (in my humble opinion) all time best dynasty's in the modern NHL. I define the modern NHL as post 1967 ERA of hockey. Also there have been no new dynasty's in the 2000's because the last time a team repeated in the NHL was in 1997-1998. That team was the Detroit Red Wings.

So my first entry of one of the greatest teams in NHL history is the 1976-1979 Montreal Canadiens. This is the team that broke my heart the most as a kid, because I was a big Bruins fan and more recently a Hartford Whalers (Now Carolina Hurricanes) fan. The 1976 Canadiens did a great thing and got rid of the team that was the dirtiest (IMHO) team the Philadelphia Flyers of the mid 1970s. The Canadiens beat them in 4 straight in the Finals that season and all fans of good clean highly skilled hockey could rejoice. This team was stacked. They had Hall of Famers led by to me the best coach of all time in ANY sport Scotty Bowman. Bowman has won a record 10 Stanley Cups as coach and 6 of these were with Mtl in the 70s. Also playing a huge role is this team was Ken Dryden. Other notable performers were Guy LaFleur, who would regluarly score over 50 goals per season, Bob Gainey, the best defensive forward on this team, Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard, who were known as the Big 3 as is the 3 of the best defenseman in the league. The 1976-1977 team is notable as they went 60-8-12 for a league record 132 points. The 1976-1979 team won 229 games lost 46 and tied 34. This is astounding. You could never have a team this good over 4 years in the modern league.

The 1979 team also was one of the most fortunate in a sense that in the Eastern Conference Final vs Boston, entering the last minute of game 7 they were down 4-3 and looking not too good but then the infamous Don Cherry too many men on the ice penalty against Boston really hurt them. Guy LaFleur scored the game tying goal with about 1 minute left and Ivan Lambert scored in OT to win it. The Canadiens went on to smoke the Rangers in 5 games to win their 4th Cup in a Row. Since then they have only won 2 more cups (1986 and 1993).

 

Ironically the next great dynasty started the very next season. The 1980-1983 New York Islanders were just as dominant, but not necessarily in the regular season like the Canadiens were. Al Arbor their awesome coach said that it is not how you start, but how you finish. His reasoning was that in 1979 the Islanders were upset by the Rangers in the Conference Finals and Arbor felt because he pushed too hard for the Presidents Trophy, his team was tired. Well the next year the Flyers had a better record but the Islanders won the Cup in 6 games from them. Led by Bryan Trottier (42 goals 62 assists) and Mike Bossy (51 goals 41 assists) this team could score with anyone. But a lot of people say that the midseason acquisition of Butch Goring (26 goals 53 assists) and 19 points in the playoffs but this team over the top. Goring was a pest in the side of the top scorers of other teams and would always seem to come up big in the clutch. He went on to win the Conn Symthe trophy in 1981 and was a huge part of why NY became a dynasty. Billy Smith the goalie was also very good when it counted. He won the Conn Symthe himself in 1983 when posting a 13 and 3 record with a 2.68 GAA. Other excellent players from this team included Bob Nystrom, Clark Gillies, John Tonelli and Dennis Potvin. Potvin was an awesome defenseman. He had career highs in 1979 of 31 goals and 70 assists. For a defenseman that is phenomenal. He always Quarterbacked the power play and came up big as well.

The last great dynasty I am going to list is the 1984-1990 Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers did miss winning the Cup in 1986, when they were upset by the Flames in 7 games. This team was led by Wayne Gretzky, who will own record in hockey forever. In 1984 Gretzky had 87 goals and 118 Assists. Gretzky is still the only player in NHL history to score 200 points in a season. He did this 4 times. He also holds the record for most goals in a season at 92. These records (IMHO) will NEVER be broken. Other greats from this team were Jari Kurri, who played along Gretzky. 1985 was Kurri's best season when he posted 71 goals and 64 assists. Kurri was a natural fit to Gretzkys line. Mark Messier also was huge on this team, especially in 1990 when Gretzky was playing as a King and the underdog Oilers won the Cup vs Boston in 5 games. Messier won the Hart Trophy will posting 45 goals and 84 Assists without the help of Gretzky that year. Grant Fuhr also was huge for this dynasty. Fuhr did not always have the best stats, but seemed to come up big when his team needed a huge save. His best playoff was in 1988 when he was 16-2 with a 2.90 GAA. Talk about dominance. Other notable players from this team were Glen Anderson, Paul Coffey another hall of famer who scored 49 goals one season as a defenseman, Kevin Lowe and as an enforcer Dave Semenko and later on Marty McSorley. This team could lite it up on offense and was just a joy to watch.

To me we will never see any of the dominance of the above listed teams because of many factors. Most notably a salary cap that prevents teams from staying together too long and also expansion, watering down the talent level of the whole league. Remember when Montreal started their run, there were only 18 teams. Now there are 30 teams and to me the talent level is not there to have a league that can have a team win 4 Cups in a row or even 3 in 4 seasons.

Thank you for reading my humble article. It is greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.