1974-75 NHL Season By The Numbers

The 1974-75 National Hockey League season featured the Philadelphia Flyers finishing first overall and winning their second Stanley Cup championship in a row. It would be the end of a great run for the Broad Street Bullies as the following season would see the Montreal Canadiens enter their dynasty of four consecutive Stanley Cups.

1 – The Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals played their inaugural season in the National Hockey League. The Capitals stayed put and are a threat in the NHL today. The Scouts didn’t last long in Kansas City, moving first to Denver to become the Colorado Rockies then to the east coast to become the present day New Jersey Devils.

12 – Bernie Parent recorded twelve shutouts while leading the Philadelphia Flyers to the lowest goals against total in the NHL. The next best goaltender in the league had six shutouts. Parent earned the Vezina Trophy and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Stanley Cup playoffs MVP.

51 – The Philadelphia Flyers were the only team to achieve the 50 win plateau in 1974-75. Their 113 points tied put them in a three-way tie for first overall with the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens. The Los Angeles Kings were the only other team to cross the 100-point threshold with 105. Philadelphia was the top team in the Clarence Campbell Conference and the Patrick Division.

67 – The upstart Washington Capitals lost 67 of 80 games in 1974-75. The Capitals won just eight, the lowest total ever recorded since the league moved to a 70 game schedule for the 1949-50 season. Expansion cousins, the Kansas City Scouts, fared a little better, winning 15, losing 54 and tying 11.

135 – Bobby Orr won the second Art Ross Trophy of his career with 135 points. Orr finished eight points ahead of teammate Phil Esposito and fourteen ahead of Marcel Dionne of the Detroit Red Wings. Orr won his first Art Ross in 1969-70 and is the only defenseman to win the award.

374 – The Montreal Canadiens led the NHL with 374 goals. Guy Lafleur was tops on the team with 53. Ten Montreal players had 20 or more goals and five scored 30 or more. The league leader in goals was Phil Esposito of the Boston Bruins with 61.

1,047 – Eddie Shack, ‘The Entertainer’, played his 1,047^th and final game in the National Hockey League. Shack played 26 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1974-75 before retiring. Eddie started in the NHL way back in 1958-59 with the New York Rangers. Along the way, he also played for the Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins.

 

4 Consecutive Stanley Cup Finals Sweeps - The Only Time In NHL History

With the Los Angeles Kings winning the 2013-14 Stanley Cup championship in five games over the New York Rangers, there now hasn't been a four game sweep in the Stanley Cup finals since the 1997-98 NHL season. That National Hockey League season marked the last of four consecutive sweeps to decide the Stanley Cup champion. This four year span happens to be the only time in NHL history when there has been four consecutive years with sweeps. In fact, the only time there has been three consecutive years with sweeps in the finals came with the 1967 expansion when the St. Louis Blues were at the losing end of sweeps between 1967-68 and 1969-70.

New Jersey Devils 1994-95

The New Jersey Devils starting things off in 1994-95 by taking down the Detroit Red Wings in four games to capture the Stanley Cup. New Jersey lost just four games in the first three rounds of the playoffs and finished off the post-season with a 16-4 record. In the finals, the Devils outscored the Red Wings 16-7. This was the first championship in New Jersey Devils history. The franchise that began as the Kansas City Scouts back in 1974-75 has since won the Cup on two more occasions.

 The 1995 final was a faceoff between teacher and student. Jacques Lemaire was head coach of the Devils while Scotty Bowman was behind the bench of the Red Wings. Lemaire played a key part on the ice for the Scotty Bowman coached Montreal Canadiens in the 1970’s. The Conn Smythe Trophy was won by Claude Lemieux of the Devils with the team led defensively by Scott Stevens and rock-solid goaltender Martin Brodeur.

Colorado Avalanche 1995-96

The Quebec Nordiques built a roster with championship potential. However, it wasn’t until the franchise moved to Denver before they could reap their rewards. The Colorado Avalanche met up with the Florida Panthers in the 1995-96 finals. The Avalanche held the trap-playing Panthers to just four goals in the over the series while scoring 15 of their own. Game two of the series was an 8-1 blowout. However, Florida put up a fight, losing 1-0 in triple overtime in game four.

 Claude Lemieux won his second consecutive Stanley Cup after moving over to the Avalanche from New Jersey. Joe Sakic of Colorado won the Conn Smythe with Patrick Roy and Adam Foote also playing starring roles in the victory. The Avalanche lost a total of six games in the 1995-96 post season.

 Detroit Red Wings 1996-97

Detroit was back in the finals for 1996-97 after a year away, this time on the winning end of the sweep. The Philadelphia Flyers were Detroit’s opponent in the final and outscored them 16-6 over the four games. The Red Wings lost just four games during the entire 1996-97post-season.

The series put two great captains head to head with Steve Yzerman of the Red Wings and Eric Lindros of the Flyers facing off. Mike Vernon, goaltender for Detroit, won the Conn Smythe Trophy. Hockey Hall of Famer Brendan Shanahan and Nicklas Lidstrom also led the way for the Red Wings.

 Detroit Red Wings 1997-98

The Red Wings were back for more in 1997-98. This time, their victim was the Washington Capitals. As of the end of the 2013-14 season, this is the only time the Capitals have reached the Stanley Cup finals since joining the National Hockey League in 1974-75, along with the Kansas City Scouts.

Detroit outscored Washington 13-7 in a defensive struggle. Detroit’s record throughout the playoffs was 16-6 with mostly the same cast as the year before. Steve Yzerman was the recipient of the Conn Smythe Trophy.

NHL Hockey Trivia: Wins and Losses

In the end, most NHL hockey fans remember who won the Stanley Cup and maybe which player won the scoring title. After that, it’s mostly all forgotten unless you’re a true hockey fan. Are you a true hockey fan? Test and expand your knowledge of the wins and losses columns with the following four trivia questions. Well, mostly the losses column.

Q. What team lost 67 of 80 games during the 1974-75 season?

A. A far cry from their current success, the Washington Capitals won just eight games during their first season in the National Hockey League. The Capitals joined the league for 1974-75, along with the Kansas City Scouts.

Washington was led offensively by Tom Williams with 58 points. Williams had spent the past two years in the WHA with the New England Whalers. Previous to that, he played in the NHL from 1961-62 with the Boston Bruins, Minnesota North Stars and California Golden Seals. Tom played just 34 games with the Capitals in 1975-76 before retiring from the game.

The Capitals went through a trio of head coaches in that inaugural season. Jim Anderson was behind the bench for 54 games, winning just four. Anderson was a long time member of the Springfield Indians and is a member of the AHL Hall of Fame. Next up was Red Sulllivan. The former head coach of the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins lasted just 19 games behind the Washington bench. Hockey legend Milt Schmidt coached the team for the final seven games of the season.

Q. What team was the first to lose 60 games during a single regular season?

A. The New York Islanders entered the NHL for the 1972-73 season along with the Atlanta Flames. The Islanders lost an even 60 games that season. The Flames lost just 38. Just six years later, the Islanders would win the first of four Stanley Cups in a row.

During that first season, the Islanders were coached by two former NHLers. Phil Goyette started the year behind the bench and made it through 50 games before being replaced by Earl Ingarfield. The following year, Al Arbour was brought in.

Billy Harris led the 1972-73 Islanders with just 50 points. Billy Smith backed up Gerry Desjardins in net with both posting a goals against average well over 4.00.

Q. During the 1992-93 season, what two teams became the first to surpass the 70 loss mark?

A. The Ottawa Senators lost 70 games and the San Jose Sharks lost 71 although both finished with 24 points. 1992-93 was one of the few years when the NHL had an 84 game regular season schedule. The 71 losses by San Jose stands today as a single season National Hockey League record. However, it is Ottawa that set the mark with most losses at home with 41.

Q. What was the only NHL team to surpass the 50 win mark during the 1974-75 season?

A. Eventual Stanley Cup winners, the Philadelphia Flyers, won 51 games in 1974-75. This fact is surprising considering there were two new expansion teams, Washington and Kansas City, that lost well over 50 games and the Minnesota North Stars lost exactly 50. You would think there’d be lots of wins to go around but the league was tied up in ties.

The Flyers tied for first overall with the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens, all with 113 points. Buffalo won 49 games and Montreal won 47.