1983–84 Montreal Canadiens season

The 1983–84 Montreal Canadiens season was the team's 75th season of play in the National Hockey League. The team struggled on the ice and, for the first time ever in the expansion era, finished the regular season with a losing record. Coach Bob Berry was fired 63 games into the season and replaced with former Canadiens great Jacques Lemaire.

1983–84 Montreal Canadiens
Division4th Adams
Conference8th Wales
1983–84 record35–40–5
Goals for286
Goals against295
Team information
General managerSerge Savard
CoachBob Berry
Jacques Lemaire
CaptainBob Gainey
Alternate captainsNone
ArenaMontreal Forum
Team leaders
GoalsGuy Lafleur (30)
AssistsGuy Lafleur (40)
PointsGuy Lafleur (70)
Penalty minutesChris Nilan (338)
Plus/minusBill Root (+26)
WinsRick Wamsley (19)
Goals against averageRichard Sevigny (3.38)

The club placed fourth in its division, which was still good enough to qualify for the playoffs ahead of the last place Hartford Whalers. The Habs then stunned their heavily favoured rivals, the Boston Bruins with a 3–0 sweep in the opening round. With the upset, Montreal recorded their first playoff series victory since 1980. Then they defeated their provincial rivals, the Quebec Nordiques in the Adams final, in a series notorious for the two bench clearing brawls before the third period of game 6. The Canadiens were finally eliminated in the Prince of Wales Conference finals by the defending Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders in six games.

Regular season

edit

Final standings

edit
Adams Division
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Boston Bruins 80 49 25 6 336 261 104
Buffalo Sabres 80 48 25 7 315 257 103
Quebec Nordiques 80 42 28 10 360 278 94
Montreal Canadiens 80 35 40 5 286 295 75
Hartford Whalers 80 28 42 10 288 320 66

[1]Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Record vs. opponents

edit
Adams Division record vs. opponents

Vs. Wales Conference

edit

Vs. Campbell Conference

edit


Schedule and results

edit

Regular season

edit
1983–84 game log

Legend:   Win (2 points)   Loss (0 points)   Tie (1 point)

[3]

Playoffs

edit
1984 Stanley Cup playoffs

Legend:   Win   Loss

[4]

Playoffs

edit

As fourth-place finishers, the Canadiens drew the division winner Boston Bruins as their first round opponent. The Canadiens upset the Bruins, sweeping the series in three straight games. The Canadiens then faced off against the Quebec Nordiques in a "Battle of Quebec" which culminated in the Good Friday Massacre. The Canadiens defeated the Nordiques four games to two to advance against the New York Islanders, the defending Stanley Cup champion. The Islanders would eliminate the Canadiens in six games.

Player statistics

edit

Regular season

edit

Scoring

edit
Player Pos GP G A Pts PIM +/- PPG SHG GWG
Guy Lafleur RW 80 30 40 70 19 -14 6 0 6
Mats Naslund LW 77 29 35 64 4 5 3 0 1
Bobby Smith C 70 26 37 63 62 -7 6 1 3
Guy Carbonneau C 78 24 30 54 75 5 3 7 2
Ryan Walter C/LW 73 20 29 49 83 -11 7 1 4
John Chabot C 56 18 25 43 13 -2 4 1 2
Larry Robinson D 74 9 34 43 39 4 4 0 1
Bob Gainey LW 77 17 22 39 41 10 0 0 3
Mario Tremblay RW 67 14 25 39 112 2 3 0 3
Pierre Mondou C 52 15 22 37 8 9 3 1 1
Steve Shutt LW 63 14 23 37 29 -18 4 0 2
Chris Nilan RW 76 16 10 26 338 -4 4 0 1
Craig Ludwig D 80 7 18 25 52 -10 0 0 1
Bill Root D 72 4 13 17 45 26 1 1 0
Alfie Turcotte C 30 7 7 14 10 -9 5 0 0
Perry Turnbull C 40 6 7 13 59 -12 2 0 1
Jean Hamel D 79 1 12 13 92 7 0 0 0
Ric Nattress D 34 0 12 12 15 -11 0 0 0
Mark Hunter RW 22 6 4 10 42 -2 1 0 0
Doug Wickenheiser C 27 5 5 10 6 1 0 0 1
Keith Acton C 9 3 7 10 4 -5 2 0 0
Kent Carlson D 65 3 7 10 73 -15 0 0 2
Gilbert Delorme D 27 2 7 9 8 -4 0 0 0
Mike McPhee LW 14 5 2 7 41 4 0 0 0
Mark Napier RW 5 3 2 5 0 0 0 0 1
Greg Paslawski RW 26 1 4 5 4 -5 0 0 0
Rick Wamsley G 42 0 3 3 6 0 0 0 0
Claude Lemieux RW 8 1 1 2 12 -2 0 0 0
Chris Chelios D 12 0 2 2 12 -5 0 0 0
Robert Picard D 7 0 2 2 0 -1 0 0 0
Rick Green D 7 0 1 1 7 -5 0 0 0
Dave Allison D 3 0 0 0 12 -2 0 0 0
Normand Baron LW 4 0 0 0 12 -2 0 0 0
Jocelyn Gauvreau D 2 0 0 0 0 -2 0 0 0
Mark Holden G 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Bill Kitchen D 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0
Larry Landon RW 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
Sergio Momesso LW 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
John Newberry C 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Steve Penney G 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Richard Sevigny G 40 0 0 0 12 0 0 0 0

Goaltending

edit
Player MIN GP W L T GA GAA SO
Rick Wamsley 2333 42 19 17 3 144 3.70 2
Richard Sevigny 2203 40 16 18 2 124 3.38 1
Mark Holden 52 1 0 1 0 4 4.62 0
Steve Penney 240 4 0 4 0 19 4.75 0
Team: 4828 80 35 40 5 291 3.62 3

Playoffs

edit

Scoring

edit
Player Pos GP G A Pts PIM PPG SHG GWG
Mats Naslund LW 15 6 8 14 4 3 1 3
Chris Chelios D 15 1 9 10 17 1 0 0
Steve Shutt LW 11 7 2 9 8 2 0 0
Pierre Mondou C 14 6 3 9 2 1 0 1
Mario Tremblay RW 15 6 3 9 31 0 0 1
Bobby Smith C 15 2 7 9 8 1 0 1
Guy Carbonneau C 15 4 3 7 12 0 0 1
Bob Gainey LW 15 1 5 6 9 0 0 0
John Chabot C 11 1 4 5 0 0 0 1
Larry Robinson D 15 0 5 5 22 0 0 0
Mark Hunter RW 14 2 1 3 69 0 0 0
Ryan Walter C/LW 15 2 1 3 4 1 0 1
Rick Green D 15 1 2 3 33 0 0 0
Perry Turnbull C 9 1 2 3 10 0 0 0
Guy Lafleur RW 12 0 3 3 5 0 0 0
Craig Ludwig D 15 0 3 3 23 0 0 0
Jean Hamel D 15 0 2 2 16 0 0 0
Steve Penney G 15 0 2 2 2 0 0 0
Mike McPhee LW 15 1 0 1 31 0 0 0
Chris Nilan RW 15 1 0 1 81 0 0 0
Normand Baron LW 3 0 0 0 22 0 0 0
Rick Wamsley G 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Goaltending

edit
Player MIN GP W L GA GAA SO
Steve Penney 871 15 9 6 32 2.20 3
Rick Wamsley 32 1 0 0 0 0.00 0
Team: 903 15 9 6 32 2.13 3

[5]

Note:
Pos = Position; GPI = Games played in; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/- = Plus/minus; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals
Min, TOI = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T,T/OT = Ties; OTL = Overtime losses; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Awards and records

edit

Transactions

edit

Draft picks

edit

Montreal's draft picks at the 1983 NHL entry draft held at the Montreal Forum in Montreal.

Round # Player Nationality College/Junior/Club team (League)
1 17 Alfie Turcotte   United States Portland Winter Hawks (WHL)
2 26 Claude Lemieux   Canada Trois-Rivières Draveurs (QMJHL)
2 27 Sergio Momesso   Canada Shawinigan Cataractes (QMJHL)
2 35 Todd Francis   Canada Brantford Alexanders (OHL)
3 45 Daniel Letendre   Canada Quebec Remparts (QMJHL)
4 78 John Kordic   Canada Portland Winter Hawks (WHL)
5 98 Dan Wurst   United States Edina High School (USHS-MN)
6 118 Arto Javanainen   Finland Pori (Finland)
7 138 Vladislav Tretiak   Soviet Union Moscow CSKA (USSR)
8 158 Rob Bryden   Canada Henry Carr Crusaders (MetJHL)
9 178 Grant McKay   Canada University of Calgary (CIAU)
10 198 Thomas Rundqvist   Sweden Karlstad (Sweden)
11 218 Jeff Perpich   United States Hibbing High School (USHS-MN)
12 238 Jean-Guy Bergeron   Canada Shawinigan Cataractes (QMJHL)

Farm teams

edit

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Dinger, Ralph, ed. (2011). The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2012. Dan Diamond & Associates. p. 152. ISBN 9781894801225.
  2. ^ "All-Time NHL Results". NHL.com. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  3. ^ "1983–84 Montreal Canadiens Games". Hockey-reference.com. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
  4. ^ "1983–84 Montreal Canadiens Games". Hockey-reference.com. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
  5. ^ "1983-84 Montreal Canadiens Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com". hockey-reference.com. Retrieved May 28, 2009.