Clash of NHL Dynasties: 1970s Montreal Canadiens vs. 1980s Edmonton Oilers

These two NHL dynasties separated by a decade seem more alike than different. They were two of the most offensively talented teams ever.

Yet despite their similarities and their closeness in time, they still represent two different eras of NHL hockey and two different types of teams. 

The Canadiens dominated a smaller 18-team NHL. However, that league was a North American league, with the majority of players coming from Canada. The 1972 Summit series with the Soviet Union and the subsequent arrival of Borje Salming in Toronto to play for the Maple Leafs in the 1973-74 season marked the beginning of European players and their influence in the NHL.      

The Oilers played in a 21-team league where European players made a significant contribution. By 1980, over eight percent of all NHL players came from Europe. The Oilers featured Esa Tikkanen and Jarri Kurri on their championship teams. 

The Canadiens dominated the 1970s, winning seven cups in 10 years. They enjoyed seasons during which they lost only 11, 10 and eight games out of 80 in a season.

The Edmonton Oilers joined the NHL when the WHA folded. They were the second dynasty of the 1980s, taking over from the New York Islanders half way through the decade. They won five cups in seven years from 1984 until 1990.

Both teams were known for unprecedented skill and offensive talent. Both teams featured Hall of Fame goaltenders in Ken Dryden and Grant Fuhr. Both teams boasted the premier offensive talent of their day in Wayne Gretzky and Guy Lafleur. If the Canadiens had more depth, especially on defense, the Oilers had much better creative offensive talent.  

Which team would have won if they had played each other, in their prime, for the Stanley Cup? For the purposes of this comparison, I'm looking at the dynasty years in general (1976 to 1979 for Montreal and 1984 to 1988 for Edmonton). I'm also focusing on the rosters from the 1975-76 Montreal Canadiens versus the 1985-86 Edmonton Oilers.

The 1975-76 Montreal team was the one that won the first of four consecutive Stanley Cups. The roster at the start of the run was mostly unchanged when they won their fourth Cup in 1978-79.

The 1985-86 Oilers were the team that missed winning the Cup in between two wins in '84 and '85 and two in '87 and '88. Their regular-season performance featured career seasons from a number of their players. They had a roster that had yet to lose players to the economic distress of their owner Peter Pocklington, who would eventually dismantle the dynasty.   

1975-76 Montreal Canadiens vs. 1985-86 Edmonton Oilers : The Rosters

This is just a comparison of the rosters of the 1975-76 Montreal Canadiens with the 1985-86 Edmonton Oilers.

Wayne Gretzky	C	25		Guy Lafleur	RW	24
Paul Coffey	D	24		Pete Mahovlich	C	29
Jari Kurri	RW	25		Steve Shutt	LW	23
Glenn Anderson	RW	25		Yvan Cournoyer	RW	32
Mark Messier	C	25		Guy Lapointe	D	27
Mark Napier	RW	29		Yvon Lambert	LW	25
Craig MacTavish	C	27		Jacques Lemaire	C	30
Charlie Huddy	D	26		Serge Savard	D	30
Mike Krushelnyski	LW	25		Doug Risebrough	C	22
Raimo Summanen	LW	23		Larry Robinson	D	24
Dave Hunter	LW	28		Murray Wilson	LW	24
Kevin McClelland	C	23		Doug Jarvis	C	20
Randy Gregg	D	29		Bob Gainey	LW	22
Lee Fogolin	D	30		Mario Tremblay	RW	19
Steve Smith	D	22		Jimmy Roberts	RW	35
Marty McSorley	D	22		John Van Boxmeer	D	23
Dave Lumley	RW	31		Pierre Bouchard	D	27
Dave Semenko	LW	28		Don Awrey	D	32
Kevin Lowe	D	26		Rick Chartraw	D	21
Esa Tikkanen	LW	21		Bill Nyrop	D	23
Don Jackson	D	29		Ron Andruff	C	22
Larry Melnyk	D	25		Glenn Goldup	RW	22
Risto Jalo	C	23		Sean Shanahan	LW	24
Gord Sherven	C	22		Ken Dryden	G	28
Billy Carroll	C	27		Michel Larocque	G	23
Jeff Brubaker	LW	27
Mike Rogers	C	31
Ken Solheim	LW	24
Mike Moller	RW	23
Dean Hopkins	RW	26
Selmar Odelein	D	19
Grant Fuhr	G	23
Andy Moog	G	25

Goaltending: Ken Dryden

Ken Dryden was a legend in Montreal. The cerebral Hall of Fame goaltender burst into the NHL with one of the best playoff performances in NHL history. With six regular-season NHL games on his resume, Ken Dryden started in the 1971 playoffs versus the team that, at the time, was the greatest offensive juggernaut in NHL history—the Bobby Orr-led Boston Bruins.

Dryden won the Conn Smythe trophy that year, beating the Bruins, the Minnesota North Stars and the Bobby Hull-led Chicago Blackhawks in an amazing 20-game run. This all before he would win the Calder trophy as Rookie of the Year for the next season.

At the start of his career, the big man was the difference in Montreal becoming a Stanley Cup contender. In the 1973 playoffs, Montreal finished first in the East (52-10-16) and won their second Stanley Cup in  three years, this time defeating Gilbert Perreault and the Buffalo Sabres in six, the Bobby Clarke-led Philadelphia Flyers in five and the Chicago Blackhawks again in six games in the final.

The next season, Dryden held out in a contract dispute. The law student articled that year for Ralph Nader rather than play for the Canadiens. Montreal finished second in the East (45-24-9) and lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New York Rangers.

When Dryden returned, they were just about ready to go on their dynasty run. Dryden was a huge part of that.

By the end of it, however, as Dryden says in his book on hockey The Game, he couldn't lose a game. The Canadiens had become so good and so dominant that Dryden's great play was not only unneeded but irrelevant.

Ken had an amazing eight-season career in the NHL in which he won six Stanley Cups. He won six Vezina trophies, a Conn Smythe and Calder Memorial trophy. He lead the league in shutouts four times and was a five-time first-team All-Star. 

When Dryden left Montreal, it was another signal that the dynasty was over. The Canadiens didn't win another Stanley Cup until Patrick Roy showed up and excelled as a rookie in the 1986 playoffs.  

Dryden was a big goalie who relied on cutting off angles and his huge reach to defeat scorers. He had a miserable time playing against Russian national teams who shot little and constantly moved the puck around until they had the perfect shooting angle. He was not at his best in the 1972 Summit series versus the Russians or in the 1975 New Year's Eve game versus the Red Army. The NHL team that most resembled those early-70s Russian teams would have to be the 1980's Edmonton Oilers. Dryden never played those Oilers in an NHL game, but he would have had trouble with Gretzky and the Oilers.          

Grant Fuhr

Grant Fuhr may have simply been the greatest goalie I have ever watched play the game. He was certainly one of the fastest and most talented. A reflex goalie, he excelled at making the most spectacular saves again, and again, and again. 

Grant Fuhr entered the league a couple of years after Ken Dryden's early departure. Where Dryden was a lanky, relaxed 6'4", Fuhr was a jumpy, frenetic 5'10". Dryden was a mature, 23-year-old Cornell law student, while Grant was a youngish, 19-year-old rink rat when he joined the NHL. 

Fuhr had just about the most thankless job in hockey in his first 10 years in Edmonton. He was the last line of a defense for a team that probably gave up more odd-man rushes than any other team in hockey history. The offense-obsessed Oilers gave very little thought to what was going on back in their own zone. They did not have to. Grant Fuhr would take care of it.

A career .887 save percentage and 3.38 goals against average impresses no one, and those were Fuhr's numbers. However, it was a function of the era he played in and the team he played for more than an indication of his goaltending talent. When he won his Vezina trophy in 1987-88, he was tied for the league lead in shutouts with four! The other two goalies with four shutouts? Clint Malarchuk of the Washington Capitals and Glen Hanlon of the Detroit Red Wings. 

Grant Fuhr only made two end-of-season All-Star teams in his 19-year NHL career. He was the second-team All-Star in 1981-82 and first-team All-Star in 1987-88.

Grant Fuhr, however, was just about the best goalie I've ever watched play the game. He did more with less than any goalie in hockey. He made more ridiculously great saves than any goalie I've ever seen play the game.

He was the goalie in Edmonton for the four dynasty Cups in 1984,1985,1987 and 1988. He was chosen as Canada's No. 1 goalie for the 1984 and 1987 Canada Cup teams and was chosen as the first All-Star goalie of the tournament in 1987. Fuhr, unlike Dryden, could play the Russians. He could wait for the last moment when they finally took their perfect shot and then he would simply make the save.

Grant Fuhr was a goalie who didn't generate the statistical evidence of a great career. He just was great. The shots he tended to face, when he faced them, were almost always of the impossible-to-stop variety, and he almost always stopped them.

WINNER: Mid-1980's Edmonton Oilers       

Coaches

Scotty Bowman was the dynasty coach of the Montreal Canadiens. He joined as head coach for the 1971-72 season and won his first Stanley Cup in Montreal the next year. 

Bowman was the coach when Montreal won four Stanley Cups in a row. He won the Jack Adams award as NHL Coach of the Year for the 1976-77 season when the Montreal Canadiens posted a historically good 60-8-12 record in 80 regular-season games. That Montreal team still holds the NHL record for fewest losses in a season since the end of World War II.

The 137 points the Canadiens earned that year is still the most by any NHL team in any regular season.

Bowman left Montreal as the Irving Grundman era got underway. Along with the loss of Dryden and Jacques Lemaire, the departure of Scotty Bowman to Buffalo in 1979 marked the end of the Canadiens' dynasty. 

The innovative Bowman was known for his ability to design a game plan for any opponent. It was his plan that helped stifle the Soviet Red Army team that played the Montreal Canadiens at the forum on December 31,1975. If anyone could design a plan to slow down the offensively dominant Oilers, it would be Bowman, especially considering the depth of defensive talent he had at his disposal.

Glen Sather, on the other hand, was less well known for his creative genius and more well known for letting his players play. Glen Sather was a journeyman NHL player, but a highly regarded NHL coach. He was at the helm of the Oilers for their last two years in the WHA and for most of the next 11 seasons in the NHL. He coached his team to all four mid-80's championships. (1983-84,1984-85,1986-87,1987-88).

Interestingly enough, he won his only Coach of the Year award for the 1985-86 season when the Oilers lost in the second round of the playoffs to the Calgary Flames. That Oiler team was one of the greatest, winning 56 games and scoring 426 goals in the regular season.

Sather's teams were the highest scoring teams in history. The Oilers are the only team in NHL history to ever score more than 400 goals in a regular season, and in the 1980s, they did it five times.

Sather was the coach who decided he'd rather attack on the penalty kill. He often teamed up Wayne Gretzky and Jarri Kurri, and usually with Paul Coffey on the blue line, to "kill" the penalty. The 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers hold the all-time NHL record with 36 short-handed goals. That year the league averaged 12 short handed goals a team.  

Generally, Sather didn't have to be a master strategist or even a tactician. He just had to tap Gretzky on the back and say, "You're up." His reputation has suffered for it. 

WINNER: Late 1970's Montreal Canadiens      

The Defense

The Montreal Canadiens of the late 1970s had one of the best defenses in hockey history. It featured the big three: Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard. These three provided offense and defense in equal measure and helped make the other defensemen further down the depth chart look better.

Robinson was the youngest and eventually the most highly regarded of the trio. His offensive numbers were the best and he was the most physically imposing. Ken Dryden, in his book The Game, saved the greatest of his praise for Robinson.  

The other two, however, were arguably as valuable. Guy Lapointe quarterbacked the power play. Serge, slowed by having twice broken his leg early in his NHL career, played a more defensive role in Montreal. Still, he brought offensive skills as well, highlighted in his career-best season: 1975/76 (GP 80 G 20 A 40 PTS 60).

Savard was the man who used the Danny Gallivan-coined "Savardian Spinnerama" to escape forecheckers in his own zone a decade before Denis Savard ever entered the league. His inspiration, he claimed, had come from another great Montreal Canadiens puck-moving defenseman, Doug Harvey.

The big three were used by coach Scott Bowman in a variety of roles including as forwards in front of the net on the power play. They were big men with offensive skills and could do anything you needed done in a rink.

The Canadiens filled out their defensive depth chart with players like Don Awrey and Jim Roberts, who had been top four defensemen on other teams.

Pierre "Butch" Bouchard was a member of five Stanley Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens teams in the 1970s. He was the son of former Canadien Hall of Famer Emile "Butch" Bouchard. Pierre took over the enforcer roll in Montreal after the retirement of John Ferguson in 1971. Bouchard also took a regular shift as a third pair defenseman. Youngsters like Jon Van Boxmeer, Bill Nyrop, Gilles Lupien and Brian Engblom helped fill out the bottom of the defensive depth chart in Montreal.

Working in concert with some of the best checking forwards in the league and with a defense-first attitude, these Montreal Canadiens rarely gave up chances, let alone goals. The Montreal Canadiens dynasty of the late 1970s never gave up more than 200 goals in only one of their four Cup-winning seasons. With Dryden in the net, they led the league with fewest goals against five times in the 1970s.

The Edmonton Oilers dynasty of the late '80s, on the other hand, almost always gave up around 275 goals in a season. Early in the decade, they were giving up more than 300 goals a year.  

Paul Coffey was the beginning and the end of defense in Edmonton. He was one of the greatest offensive defenseman of all time. Coffey was a member on three of the four Oiler dynasty Cup-winning teams. His 37 points in 18 playoff games in 1985 is still the best offensive performance ever by a defenseman in the NHL playoffs. It was even better than Brian Leetch's incredible 34 points in 23 games when the Rangers won the Cup in 1994.

His 48 goals are the most ever in a season by a defenseman, and his 138 points (both happened in 1985-86) is second only to Bobby Orr's 139 points in 1970-71.

Most of Edmonton's defense was based on the idea of puck control. If they had the puck in the opposing team's zone, that team wasn't going to score on them. Coffey, with his world-class speed, was a master at getting the puck out of his zone and into the opponent's.

He was often derided for his defensive skills and his tendency to get trapped on the offensive side of the ice. Coffey, though, was like a speedy center fielder. He could take more risks defensively because he had the speed to get back and make up for them. He was another Oiler who excelled at the international game as this footage from the 1984 Canada Cup vs. the Soviet Union demonstrates.

Kevin Lowe was the second man on the depth chart defensively for Edmonton in the mid-1980s. He was a member of all five Oiler Cup-winning teams, including the Gretzky-less 1990 champions. He was an able enough defensive defenseman with little else to recommend him.

The Oilers featured a series of competent journeyman defensemen including Randy Gregg, Charlie Huddy and Marty McSorely. 

The best of the other defensemen they developed turned out to be the ill-fated Steve Smith, though, his role came at the end of the Oiler dynasty. He was also shackled to the series-losing own goal he scored for Calgary in the 1986 playoffs.  

WINNER: Late 1970's Montreal Canadiens  

The Top 2 Lines

It all begins and ends in Edmonton with that skinny little kid from Brantford who came along and revolutionized hockey. 

Wayne Gretzky is the greatest player ever to play the game. He scored 51 goals and 137 points as a 19-year-old NHL rookie. The only man ever to score more than 200 points in an NHL season, he did it four times. His 92 goals in an NHL season will need some sort of extraordinary NHL rule change to break, or perhaps a 140-game schedule?

Gretzky and the Oilers revolutionized the way offensive hockey was played in the NHL. The offensive explosion that started with the expansion in 1967 reached its height in the mid-1980s with those Edmonton Oilers.

Mark Messier joined the team for the 1979-80 NHL season. Jari Kurri came the next year to become the perfect finisher of Gretzky's setups. Glenn Anderson showed up at the same time, another speedy finisher for the young Oilers.

It was these four men, all 22 years of age, and a 23-year-old Paul Coffey who led the offense for an Oiler team that shattered an NHL record by scoring 446 goals in an 80-game season. They scored 89 more goals than the reigning Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders. They then finished that dynasty off in the Stanley Cup finals, beating them in five games, outscoring them 21-12 in the process.

Generally, the Oilers filled out the top two lines with Dave Semenko, who was there to fight and keep Wayne untouched, and a Pat Hughes or a Mike Krushelnyski, who would reap the benefits without contributing as much as the top four talents would.

Dave Lumley had 74 points in 66 games with the Oilers during the 1981-82 season. A talented young hockey player, Lumley was not really a top-six NHL forward.

Esa Tikkanen, though mostly used as a checker, saw some time with Gretzky and/or Messier, and along with Mike Krushelnyski, he was probably the most talented of the extra front-line forwards they employed during their dynasty years.

Craig Simpson joined the Oil from the Pittsburgh Penguins halfway through the 1987-88 season. He put up 90 points that season and had 43 goals in 59 games, playing the front end for Edmonton. He was a point-a-game player during that Stanley Cup-winning run for Edmonton. His 13 goals in the playoffs put him second behind only Jari Kurri. Of course, 19 points in 19 playoff games had him sixth on that team in playoff scoring. Gretzky lead the way that year with 43 points.     

These Oilers were a different style of team. They preferred the back pass to a forward pass. They preferred the difficult, unexpected play to the easy and predictable. You couldn't know what the Oilers were likely to do offensively.

The Montreal Canadiens were a great offensive team in the mid-1970s. They didn't always lead the league in scoring, but they were always among the league leaders.

The Canadiens did lead the league in scoring in 1974-75, 1976-77 and 1977-78.   

They were lead by Guy Lafleur, who for a five- or six-year period was the best player and most prolific scorer in the league. He scored 50 goals or more for six straight years and 125 points or more for five straight seasons. He won the league scoring trophy three years in a row, the league MVP trophy twice, the players association MVP award three times and the Conn Smythe trophy once, all in that short period of time.

The Montreal Canadiens' dynasty team played in a smaller NHL than the Oilers' dynasty did. They  had a deeper lineup than the Oilers could manage to put together. Lafleur, Steve Shutt, Yvan Cournoyer, Jacques Lemaire, Peter Mahovlich and then often a young quick forward like Murray Wilson would make up the first two lines.  

Young center Pierre Mondou came on to replace Mahovlich but generally the lineup, especially at the top, was the same for the four-Cup run.

The Montreal forwards were offensively gifted. The old man of the group, Yvan Cournoyer, had started his career as a power-play specialist. He was one of the fastest men in the league and had one of the hardest shots, which makes for a great combination.

Jacques Lemaire was another strong skater with a great shot. He was also a defense-first center and winger on the lines that had a few guys like Steve Shutt and Guy Lafleur, who often needed a back checker to play with. 

The Canadiens were a great offensive team and a deeper offensive team than the Oilers.

Still, the Oilers were a different kind of offensive team. They scored on the penalty kill. They scored so often four-on-four that the NHL stopped making teams play a player short with offsetting minor penalties. Instead, the teams continued to play five-on-five in those situations, the same way they did for fighting majors. This Gretzky rule was put in place to combat the fact that the Oilers top-four players were just too much better with more open ice than any other teams' top-four players. The rest of the NHL could not compete against Edmonton's top four. 

The Edmonton Oilers' offense was the greatest NHL team offense ever. It all revolved around their top-five players.

WINNER: Mid-1980's Edmonton Oilers                  

Bottom 2 Lines

The Montreal Canadiens' depth was definitely a team strength. During the 1970s and beyond, they put together some of the best checking lines in hockey to augment their scoring on the first two lines.

Bob Gainey joined the Habs in 1973 and was soon one of the best checking wingers in hockey. Faceoff savant Doug Jarvis joined Montreal as a 20-year-old in 1975-76. He and Gainey were the best penalty-killing duo in the league. Often playing with former defenseman Jimmy Roberts, they formed a relentless checking line.  

Doug Risebrough joined the team for the 1974-75 season. He, Yvon Lambert and Mario Tremblay formed one of the most annoying lines in hockey. Playing as a third or fourth line, they provided secondary scoring and defensive grit.

Rejean Houle returned from the WHA in 1977 and was used throughout the lineup, though, mostly on the bottom two lines.  

The Canadiens managed to get quality secondary scoring and world-class checking from their bottom two lines of forwards.

The Edmonton Oilers of the mid-1980s saw a great deal more turnover in the bottom half of their roster. Generally there were fewer contributors among this group for them. It was often energy players, fighters and some checkers that made it to the last two lines in Edmonton. They were lucky to get on the ice as Sather simply rolled his top six as often as he could.

Esa Tikkanen was perhaps the most annoying player ever to make the NHL. He was a tireless skater and a tenacious checker of the caliber of a Gainey or a Jarvis. He provided the added bonus of more offensive talent. At times Tikkanen got a spin on the top two lines. Otherwise, he was checking the opponent's best player. He was part of the most aggressive, fore-checking, offense-oriented penalty kill in the history of hockey.

When Wayne Gretzky left Edmonton for Los Angeles, signalling the end of the Oilers' dynasty, it was Tikkannen who was called on to check him. 

Craig MacTavish came to the Edmonton Oilers for the 1985-86 season. He had limited offensive skills but was strong in the faceoff circle and an able back checker. He was one of the better defensive forwards the Oilers put on the ice during their late-'80's Cup runs.

Young veterans Kenny Linesman and Dave Hunter helped fill out the Oilers' depth chart at the beginning of their Cup run. Pat Hughes, and fighters Dave Semenko and Kevin McClelland were among the others who contributed during the dynasty.

Over the mid and late 1980s, players like Mark Napier, Willy Lindstrom and Jaroslav Pouzar were on the bottom half of the depth chart of these teams. Former Flame talent Kent Nilsson joined the Oilers for the 1986-87 Cup-winning run and was fifth on the team in playoff scoring with 19 points.

Generally, though, the Oilers were all about the contributions the core players made. Most every one else seemed relatively incidental or easily replaceable.

Winner: Late 1970's Montreal Canadiens    

Special Teams

The Montreal Canadiens of the late 1970s had great special teams. The power play topped out in 1977-78 with a 31.88 percent success rate. This was the most successful power play in NHL history. Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt, Guy Lapointe, Larry Robinson, Jacques Lemaire, Yvan Cournoyer, Peter Mahovlich and Serge Savard were all interchangeable parts on this power play. 

Scotty Bowman loved to fiddle with the power play, on occasion putting his big three defenseman on the ice so one of those big bodies could be in front of the net. Yvon Lambert was often called in to play that same role. 

The Canadiens were among the league leaders in power-play opportunities and also one of the least penalized teams in the league. They invariably lead the league in the differential between power-play goals for and against. They were plus-33 during the 1977-78 season.

During the time the Montreal Canadiens were dominating the NHL, they never lead the league in power-play goals or shorthanded goals.

The Canadiens' penalty kill was an aggressive one that liked to forecheck strongly and then play keep-away from the attacking team. When all else failed, goalie Ken Dryden was the perfect penalty killer, big and unmovable.

The 1980's Oilers, however, were an entirely different type of team. They were always best served by having their four or five top players working in concert with more ice. As mentioned before, their four-on-four and at times three-on-three play was so strong the NHL had to modify their rules.

It was when they were short handed that the Edmonton Oilers' incredible skill really shined. The Edmonton Oilers first lead the NHL in shorthanded goals during the 1982-83 season with 22. After that, they scored an unprecedented 36, 25, 27 and 28, usually far outstripping any other team in the league. Paul Coffey's departure before the 1987-88 season coincided with the end of that run.

The Oiler power play lead the league in efficiency during the 1985-86 and 1982-83 seasons. Surprisingly enough, they never lead the league in power-play goals scored while they were winning their Cups.

The Oilers were a much more highly-penalized team than the late-1970's Montreal Canadiens. From 1982-83 on, the Oilers accumulated 1,743, 1,559, 1,555, 1,900, 1,693 and 2,151 penalty minutes in those six regular seasons. The Montreal Canadiens, on the other hand, were given 1,141, 963, 754, 735 and 797 minutes during the period of their greatest success from 1974-75 until 1978-79.               

Their power-play goals for and against differential never approached that of the 1970's Canadiens. However, once the differential in shorthanded goals for and against is included, the Oilers usually generated a better number than Montreal.

This is a closer call than many, but in the end, I have to take the Edmonton Oilers' special teams over the Montreal Canadiens' special teams. Their ability to score shorthanded and deal with the huge number of penalties they drew has to be the deciding factor. That Montreal Canadiens' power play at its best was the most successful ever. The penalty kill was dauntingly strong. The Oilers with Coffey just seem a little bit more dangerous.

WINNER: Mid-1980's Edmonton Oilers

The Dynasties Clash: 1981 Playoff Matchup

The Montreal Canadiens and the Edmonton Oilers actually met once in the playoffs between the reign of the two dynasties.

By 1981, the Canadiens were missing key dynasty members Ken Dryden, Scotty Bowman, Jacques Lemaire, Peter Mahovlich and Yvan Cournoyer. Still in the lineup were dynasty members Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe, Serge Savard, Steve Shutt, Yvon Lambert, Doug Risebrough, Bob Gainey Doug Jarvis and Brian Engblom.

The Oilers, on the other hand, had Gretzky, Messier, Anderson and Kurri all playing. Eddie Mio and Ron Low were carrying the load in nets, though Andy Moog played in all nine playoff games that year. The Oiler defense, such as it was, featured a 19-year-old streak on skates, Paul Coffey, along with Kevin Lowe, Charlie Huddy and Lee Fogolin.

The Canadiens looked old and slow next to the baby Oilers.

Edmonton handled the Habs in the best of five series, beating them three straight. They outscored Montreal 15-6 in the three game series.

They showed no respect or reverence for Les Glourieux. Mark Messier certainly gave Larry Robinson none of the awed regard Ken Dryden felt he received in the 1970's playoff series from the likes of the Flyers and the Bruins.   

While not a true meeting of the two dynasties at their best, it still is the one meeting between a lot of the players who made up these two dynasty teams.

WINNER: Mid-1980's Edmonton Oilers               

The Eras

Despite their similarities and their closeness in time, they still played in two different eras of NHL hockey.

The Montreal Canadiens were the cream of an 18-team mostly Canadian-supplied league. The Edmonton Oilers joined the NHL when the NHL absorbed the three remaining teams from the failing WHA in 1979. They came to dominate a 21-team NHL that was just starting to incorporate not only more, better American players, but it was to also see a significant increase in the number and quantity of European-born players in the league.    

The offensive side of the game had taken a huge step forward with the expansion to 12 teams in 1967. This coincided with the emergence of Bobby Orr as he joined the NHL the year before expansion.

The NHL also engaged in an eight-game series with the national team of the Soviet Union in 1972. By only the thinnest of margins, the NHL won the series but had their eyes open to the hockey being played by the Soviets and, by extension, the rest of Europe. Inga Hammarstrom and Borje Salming joined the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1973. Salming went on to excel for 17 seasons in the NHL and dispel the belief that Europeans couldn't play NHL hockey.

The influx of Europeans into the NHL was slow. By 1980, the NHL was still over 80 percent Canadian with approximately 10 percent American-born players and eight percent European players making up the NHL. As the 1980s went on, more and more Europeans joined the NHL and helped improve the level of talent in the league. Players like Jarri Kurri, Kenta Nilsson, Hakan Loob, Petr Stasny, Anton Stasny, Marian Stasny, Peter Bondra and Bengt Gustafsson all helped raise the quality of offensive play in the NHL.

When the Soviets finally started being allowed to join the NHL in the late 1980s, the European influence was completely incorporated into the North American game.       

The Canadiens dominated their NHL, playing only one tough playoff series in four Cup-winning seasons. The Oilers had a much tougher time winning their four Cups in five years. The Flyers took them to seven games in the finals in 1987. Calgary beat them in seven games in the second round of the 1986 playoffs.

The Oilers had to play an entire extra playoff round every year they won their Cup. The first round was a best-of-five series, but it still made it that much harder to win the Cups that they did.

I have trouble deciding which NHL was actually deeper in talent. I have to say I think there was more creative offensive talent drawn from all around the world in the 21-team 1980's NHL. However, there was a lot of teams at the top of the NHL in the 1970s that seemed to sport a greater depth of talent on their rosters in the 18-team league. There was probably more disparity among teams in the 1970s with the talent that existed concentrated at the top. By the 1980s, another decade of distribution had made more teams competitive. The Canadiens were a deeper team and generally had to play some tougher teams to win their Cups.

WINNER: DRAW       

The Winner ?

The Montreal Canadiens won four Cups in a row from 1975-76 to 1978-79. The Edmonton Oilers won four Cups in five years from 1983-84 until 1987-88. These were two of the greatest dynasties in hockey history.

Who would win a seven-game series between these two great teams? 

The Canadiens were certainly a deeper club. They had more scoring, better checkers and better defensemen. The Oilers were a team that depended on a few all-time great players to lead the way. Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Jarri Kurri, Glen Anderson and Grant Fuhr were the core of that Oiler dynasty. A few key players like Esa Tikkanen, Kevin Lowe and Craig Mactavish made large contributions, but the team revolved around and lived and died on those first six.

The rest of the cast were fighters, role players and usually an interchangeable offensive player.  

Despite those weaknesses, the Oilers were an unstoppable offensive juggernaut of a squad. When they were winning Cups, they were outscoring the rest of the league by 40 to 80 goals. The Oilers lead the NHL in scoring from 1981-82 to1986-87, six straight NHL seasons. Those teams scored over 400 goals in a year five times. The next best offensive performance by an NHL team during a regular season was made by the 1970-71 Boston Bruins, who scored 399 goals. That was a pretty good offensive team in its own right, featuring record-setting performances by Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr.   

As players were peeled out of the lineup and sold by the financially bereft Peter Pocklington, the Oilers could no longer do that. Coffey was traded away to the Pittsburgh Penguins before the 1987-88 season and went on to win a Stanley Cup with them. Wayne Gretzky was traded the next year to LA. The Oiler team that won the Cup in 1989-90 was only sixth in league scoring that season. Without Gretzky and Coffey they were a different kind of Cup champions than the dynasty team.  

The Oilers were the most dominating offensive squad in NHL history. They were innovative. They incorporated many features of the European puck movement and puck possession game into their own. Their defense consisted of keeping the puck in their opponent's zone. When that failed, Grant Fuhr came to the rescue.

Grant Fuhr didn't lead the league in many categories at any time in his career, but he seemed to own the patent on heroic saves against odd-man rushes. One of the greatest reflex goalies of all time, Fuhr was a ball of energy who was a key component of the four Cup-winning teams in five years.

The Montreal Canadiens from 1976 to 1979 were an offensively talented squad that played a more conservative defense-first style. They had three scoring lines and one of the best checking lines in hockey. Throw in the big three on defense and Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden and it's hard to imagine this squad losing to anyone.

Coach Scotty Bowman could-game plan against anyone. He designed a defensive game plan against the Soviet Red Army team for the New Year's Eve game in 1975 that clogged up the middle against that juggernaut of an offensive team and kept the play and puck possession hugely in the Canadiens' hands. Bowman was an innovator in his own right, and the 1977-78 power play was the most successful in NHL history.

All that said, the Edmonton Oilers of the mid-1980s played a new style of offense that the Montreal Canadiens, who dominated in a slightly more static NHL, would have trouble adapting to. The Montreal Canadiens team that played the Oilers in 1981 still had 17 players left over from their late-1970's dynasty team. At that age, with that group, and with Richard Sevigny in nets, they were dominated by the younger, faster Oilers. Certainly the team in its prime with all its members in place would have done better than that squad managed to.  

The Oilers were a much more penalized team than the highly-disciplined Montreal Canadiens. Their aggressive penalty kill and unmatched four-on-four and even three-on-three play balanced that deficit out.

The 1980's Edmonton Oilers were a beatable squad. The Calgary Flames, with their coach "Badger" Bob Johnson, designed a team and a game plan to do just that. They used their big center and faceoff specialist Joel Otto to lean on Mark Messier, well, basically for his whole career. They banged the Oilers as much as they could. Their talented depth was always ready to outplay and outscore the Oilers' third and fourth lines. The Flames' power play made the Oilers pay for their indiscretions.

The Flames had been facing the Edmonton Oilers and Gretzky for years in the Smythe Division. That familiarity allowed them to better anticipate the unpredictable things those Oilers might do.

The Canadiens didn't really have the physical center to match up with Messier. Their power play would get burnt by Gretzky, Kurri, Tikkanen and Anderson until Bowman learned he couldn't use Lafleur or Shutt on the point as he occasionally liked to do.

Ken Dryden was a great goalie, but again, a great positional goalie whose big body cut off the angles. The Oilers, like the Russian national team in the mid-1970s, liked to move the puck past the angles. The instant the goalie got set, they moved the puck again. Dryden had huge problems versus the Russians during the 1972 series. The Canadiens dominated the Red Army team during their New Year's Eve game, but the game ended in a 3-3 tie, mostly because Dryden wasn't as good as the opposing goalie, Vladislav Tretiak. I'd expect a similar dynamic if he was matched against Grant Fuhr, whose greatest success always came in the biggest games. Fuhr was hugely successful versus the Russians in the Canada Cup tournaments in 1984 and 1987. He was also obviously always coming up big for Edmonton in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

I believe Scotty Bowman could design a game plan to beat the Oilers just like Badger Bob did. The question has to be how many runs at it would the hugely talented Canadiens have to take before they were successful with it? Familiarity certainly would have helped those 1970's Canadiens beat the 1980's Oilers, but it was obvious as late as 1981 they had no idea how good Gretzky and the Oilers were and would become.  

I believe the new style of offense the mid-1980's Oilers brought to hockey would generally have been too much for those 1970's Canadiens.

I see the Oilers beating Montreal the first they would meet in a six- or seven-game series. If they played year after year, I think Gainey, Robinson et al would figure out the Oilers. Lambert, Tremblay and Risebrough would always outscore the Oiler third or fourth lines. Gretzky and company would bring too much offense from too many unexpected angles for the Canadiens to deal with. Once the Canadiens became familiar with these Oilers, I believe they could win one seven-game series against the Oilers. But I have to say, I believe in my heart of hearts that the offensive core and goaltending of the mid-1980's Oilers would be too much for the late 1970's Canadiens.

WINNER: Mid-1980's Edmonton Oilers