While listening to Spittin' Chiclets this morning, I heard Ryan Whitney glibly comment that this year's Bruins are the greatest regular season team in NHL history.
He's wrong. It's not even close. Here are the stats:
While Boston had five more wins and three more points, the Canadiens played two fewer games and had only eight losses.
More importantly, the Canadiens finished the 1976-77 season with 12 ties. There are, of course, no ties in the NHL anymore (Boston had an 11-0-5 record in overtime this season). If we apply a winning percentage of .750 (60 wins in 80 games), math tells us that Montréal would have wone nine of those 12 ties if league rules would have allowed for overtime or shootouts.
Therefore, under current NHL rules, the Canadiens would have had a 69-11 record in 1976-77. That would have given them four more wins and six more points (141) than this year's Bruins...in two fewer games.
And Montréal wouldn't have lost in the first round of the playoffs either.
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