He ended the series with eight points, four goals, and four assists, one behind Orr and Potvin. Those certainly weren’t dominating numbers in seven games. He didn’t score the overtime winner in the final game like Sittler did. It wasn’t his last kick at the can like it was for Hull or Orr so he wasn’t by a long stretch the sentimental favourite. Starting with the 11-3 roll up of the Finns, though, he played like a dispossessed man in search of redemption.
He created chances every time he was on the ice. He made three or four end-to-end rushes every game. He’d cut though entire teams of players and no other team on earth could deal with him.
The Swedes with Borje Salming couldn’t stop him. The quick skating Russians and the tight-checking Czechs could not deal with his speed and ability. He was always a force whenever he was on the ice.
In a lineup with Shutt and Lafleur, Hull and Dionne, Clarke and Esposito, Gainey and Leach, and Pete Mahovlich and Darryl Sittler, he was head and shoulders above the rest.
I think in the need to give Bobby Orr one more award and with the push back from the young and fabulously talented Potvin, Perreault was lost in the shuffle. Another four points and his performance probably would have been acknowledged for the great dominating effort it was.
He played that series like a force of nature creating chances wherever he went. I’ve rarely seen anyone who looked so good. In contrast, Lafleur and Dionne weren’t even noticed at that tournament.
The Sabres made the playoffs for 11 straight years during his time there. Perreault was a point-a-game player and team leader for that time. They missed the first two years of his career, the last two, and 1973-74, when he broke his leg. They were 9-12 in series with Perreault and 44-49 in games, good but not great.
His team was a force to be reckoned with every year, but other teams that were great handled his team in the playoffs. The Flyers, Bruins, and Nordiques beat them twice. The Islanders beat them in all three series they played. Buffalo did take out their other big rival Montreal and Lafleur two times out of three, but the one time Montreal beat Buffalo they won a cup. Not so for the Sabres.
Buffalo led the east in 1979-80 and Perreault finished fourth in league, scoring behind a young Wayne Gretzky and—you guessed it—Marcel Dionne and Guy Lafleur. They won a best of five series with Vancouver and then swept the Blackhawks.
They lost to the eventual champions, the New York Islanders. Perreault had an unbelievable playoff with 10 goals and 11 assists in 14 games but it wasn’t enough.
Perreault was injured for part of the 1980-81 season playing, 56 games and getting 59 points. In two playoff series he had 12 points in eight games. He was chosen for the 1981 Canada Cup team and put on the first line with Wayne Gretzky and Guy Lafleur. This was to be his moment of complete redemption.
He was at the top of his game and acknowledged for it. He was the first string center on the first line of the Canadian national hockey team.
He played an incredible four games in the tournament with nine points. Playing with Lafleur and Gretzky gave him linemates who would finish his rushes with goals. He skated with them effortlessly and that line generated most of the team’s offense.
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