May 10, 1979: Too Many Brats On the Ice

May 10, 1979: The Montreal Canadiens play the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Semifinals. The Canadiens were going for their 4th straight Cup. The Bruins had won the Cup in 1970 and 1972, but were upset by the Canadiens in 1971, and had lost in the Finals to the Philadelphia Flyers in 1974, and to the Canadiens in 1977 and 1978.

The Canadiens -- a.k.a. Les Habitantes, or "The Habs" -- were coached by Scotty Bowman, hockey's premier psychologist. Ken Dryden was one of the greatest goaltenders ever. Les Habitantes had 4 future Hall-of-Famers on defense alone: Guy Lapointe, Serge Savard, Larry Robinson, and Rod Langway, who was early in his career, and whose Hall credentials were based mainly on what he did later with the Washington Capitals.

But the greatest defense in NHL history was surpassed by the offense, known as "the Flying Frenchmen." Speed on skates, speed of shots, speed of strike ability. Guy Lafleur was then the best player in the game. Yvan Cournoyer had been the Captain, but was injured, so Savard was the Captain at this point. Steve Shutt. Bob Gainey. Jacques Lemaire. Throw in Doug Risebrough, a future Calgary Flames star who, like Langway, was elected mainly for what he did later, and that's 6 Hall-of-Famers -- on the offense alone. And that doesn't count Pierre Larouche and Doug Jarvis, who aren't in the Hall, but perhaps should be. Put that together with the defensemen and the goalie, and that's 11 players who would be elected to the Hall of Fame.

Coached by Don Cherry, the Bruins were no longer "The Big, Bad Bruins" of the early 1970s: Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito had been traded. This was "The Lunch Pail Athletic Club," hard-working, hard-fighting, and usually good enough to win.

Wayne Cashman was a holdover from that earlier team, and would end up as the last active player from the "Original Six" era, playing from 1965 to 1983. Center Jean Ratelle and defenseman Brad Park came over in the Esposito trade. And Terry O'Reilly, Peter McNab, Rick Middleton, Don Marcotte and John Wensink were also skillful players.

But the defining players of this round of "Beantown Brats" were the scrappers, as Cherry thought the reason his Bruins lost the '74 Finals was because the Flyers out-toughed his players. So he promoted players like Mike Milbury, Al Secord, Dennis O'Brien, Bobby Schmautz and Stan Jonathan. O'Reilly and Wensink had a foot in each camp. Gilles Gilbert had replaced the retired Gerry Cheevers in goal, as he had during Cheevers' sabbatical in the WHA.

The Canadiens won the 1st 2 games at home, 4-2 ad 5-2. The Bruins won the next 2 at the Boston Garden, 2-1 and 4-3, taking Game 4 when Ratelle scored 3:46 into overtime. The home teams kept winning: The Canadiens won Game 5, 5-1 at the Forum; while the Bruins won Game 6, 5-2 at the Garden. The Canadiens would work hard enough that they didn't have to rely on the pattern holding for Game 7, but the Bruins would work hard enough to break the pattern.

Middleton opened the scoring, and Lemaire soon tied it. Cashman scored 2 goals in the 2nd period. In a 2:26 span in the 3rd period, Mark Napier and then Lapointe tied the game. With 3:59 left, Middleton made it 4-3 Bruins. Things were looking bleak for the Canadiens.

But with 2:34 to go, the Bruins screwed up a line change. In 1996, this game was broadcast on Classic Sports Network, which later became ESPN Classic before folding. As the line change was done, several Montreal fans could be seen in shadow, almost blocking the camera, pointing to the error on the ice. Montreal has always had the most knowledgeable fans in the game.

I ran the videotape back to see who the extra player was. I noted the uniform numbers of all players involved, and noticed that the Bruins had 2 left wings on the ice: Wayne Cashman and Stan Jonathan. McNab was chosen to serve the 2-minute penalty.

It may have been the dumbest penalty in NHL history. It cost the Bruins what would have been a legendary Game 7 win at the Montreal Forum, and, given how the New York Rangers played in the Finals, it may even have cost the Bruins the Stanley Cup itself.

With 1:14 left in regulation, and 40 seconds left on the power play, Lemaire made a brilliant pass to Lafleur, who slammed it passed Gilbert, tying the score. The Bruins never had a chance after that: The home crowd went into a frenzy, and, riding that, it was only a matter of time before the Canadiens won it. At 9:33 of overtime, Yvon Lambert scored the winner. Canadiens 5, Bruins 4.

Cherry went on to become an analyst on hockey broadcasts on CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. With the white hair, white goatee, and loud suits that made him look like a real-life Batman villain, he was the world's foremost advocate for violence in hockey, frequently citing the toughness of Canadians and the lack thereof in European players, especially Swedish ones.

Once, in an article for Hockey Digest magazine, Cherry listed his favorite players that he'd ever coached. Number 1 was Stan Jonathan, whom he claimed he never saw lose a fight. Therefore, if this was, as I suspect, Cherry's best shot at winning the Stanley Cup, then it was appropriate that it was blown by his favorite player, who played 411 games in the NHL from 1976 to 1983, all with the Bruins except for his last season, with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and scored 91 goals, peaking at 27 in 1977-78, so he wasn't just a thug; but racked up 751 penalty minutes, or an average of 53 penalties per 80-game season.

After the Beantown Brats got called for too many Brats on the ice, they didn't get back to the Finals for another 9 years, and ended up going 0-5 in Finals after 1972. The finally won again in 2011, but have now gone 1-7 in Finals since 1972. The Canadiens' run of 4 straight ended the next season. Although they won the Cup again in 1986 and 1993, they've only been to the Finals once since then, losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2021. Their total of 24 Stanley Cups remains far and away a record, but it's been 24 since 1993.

*

May 10, 1979 was a Thursday. This was also the day the film Apocalypse Now premiered. I have a separate entry for that event.

The World Hockey Association's last Finals, as it turned out, began the next day. The Winnipeg Jets beat the Edmonton Oilers in 6 games.

Football was out of season. The NBA's Conference Finals were in progress, but no games were scheduled for this day. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-1 at Yankee Stadium. Tommy John went the distance for the win. Mickey Rivers hit a home run. Reggie Jackson went 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The New York Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 14-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Andy Messersmith was the winning pitcher, but injury ended his career after 4 more starts. This was the 130th and last win of his career, only 33 years old. His place in baseball history was secure, however, not because he a 4-time All-Star and a 20-game winner for a Pennant winner (the 1974 Dodgers), but because he was the free agent whose arbitration broke the reserve clause after the 1975 season.

Ron Cey, Bill Russell and Steve Yeager hit home runs for the Dodgers. Lee Mazzilli hit one for the Mets.

* The California Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Don Aase outpitched Dennis Eckersley. Rod Carew went 2-for-5. Brian Downing hit a home run for the Angels, Jim Rice for the Red Sox.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Gary Roenicke hit a home run. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4.

* Unusually, both Chicago teams were at home on the same day. The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-2 at Comiskey Park. Claudell Washington hit a home run. George Brett went 0-for-4.

* And the Chicago Cubs played the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field. The game went to extra innings, and, because Wrigley did not have lights, it was called due to darkness in the top of the 10th, with the score 7-7. It was resumed on July 23.

Each team scored a run in the 11th. Ken Henderson led off to the bottom of the 18th inning with a single, and was bunted over to 2nd base by relief pitcher Lynn McGlothen. Dave Kingman was intentionally walked to set up the double play. It didn't work, as Steve Ontiveros singled Henderson home, and the Cubs won, 9-8. So, while both Chicago teams were at home on the same day, and both won, they did not both win at home on the same day.

Kingman hit a home run, surprising few people. Barry Foote and Ted Sizemore also hit home runs, surprising nearly everybody. Johnny Bench went 2-for-8 with 3 RBIs, but Dave Concepción hit the only Cincy homer.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 1-for-3 with a walk. Paul Molitor went 1-for-5.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium.) Pete Rose went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4. Dave Winfield went 1-for-3 with a walk.

Nino Espinosa outpitched Gaylord Perry. Perry did, however, hit a home run, the 5th of 6 he would hit during his career. Legend has it that, early in his career, Giants manager Alvin Dark saw Perry take a pathetic batting practice, and said that a man would be on the Moon before he hit a home run. Was Dark right? Sort of: Perry did indeed hit his 1st major league home run on July 20, 1969, apparently just a few minutes after Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, but a few hours before Armstrong stepped onto its surface. 

* The Montreal Expos beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Steve Rogers (not the fictional superhero of the same name, a.k.a. Captain America) pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* And the Detroit Tigers, the Minnesota Twins, the Texas Rangers, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Atlanta Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled.