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season card
nhl
| TEAM |
GP
Games played - Number of games the team has played
|
W
Wins - Games the team has won, either in regulation or in overtime
|
L
Losses - Games the team has lost in regulation
|
T
Ties - Games that have ended in a tie
|
PTS
Points - Team points, calculated from W, L, T, OTL and SOL; used to determine standings
|
GF
Goals for - Number of goals the team has scored
|
GA
Goals against - Number of goals scored against the team
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montreal Canadiens | 70 | 45 | 15 | 10 | 100 | 222 | 131 |
| Detroit Red Wings | 70 | 30 | 24 | 16 | 76 | 183 | 148 |
| New York Rangers | 70 | 32 | 28 | 10 | 74 | 204 | 203 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 70 | 24 | 33 | 13 | 61 | 153 | 181 |
| Boston Bruins | 70 | 23 | 34 | 13 | 59 | 147 | 185 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 70 | 19 | 39 | 12 | 50 | 155 | 216 |
Season's leaders
see the complete stats
| # | SKATERS |
GP
Games played - Number of games the player has set foot on the ice
|
G
Goals - Number of goals the player has scored
|
A
Assists - Number of goals the player has assisted in
|
PTS
Points - Scoring points, calculated as the sum of G and A
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Jean Béliveau | 70 | 47 | 41 | 88 |
| 9 | Maurice Richard | 70 | 38 | 33 | 71 |
| 15 | Bert Olmstead | 70 | 14 | 56 | 70 |
| 5 | Bernard Geoffrion | 59 | 29 | 33 | 62 |
| 12 | Dickie Moore | 70 | 11 | 39 | 50 |
| # | #1 GOALIE |
GP
Games played - Number of games the player has set foot on the ice
|
RECORD
Record - Goalie record (W-L-T)
|
SO
Shutouts - Number of games where the goaltender has not allowed a goal
|
GAA
Goals against average - Mean goals-per-game scored on the goaltender
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacques Plante | 64 | 42-12-10 | 7 | 1.86 |
Season results
| DATE | AWAY | HOME |
|---|
THE REGULAR SEASON
A year filled with changes and success, the 1955-56 season features a new hand on the tiller as former Canadiens star, Toe Blake, takes over behind the bench, replacing a departed Dick Irvin who has moved on to Chicago.It is also the season that Jean Beliveau became angry. After tolerating all kinds of illegal tactics by his opponents since entering the league, he decides that he is no longer going to turn the other cheek and begins to give back as good as he gets.
Beliveau’s new mindset results in143 penalty minutes but it also gives him a bit more room to operate on the ice. Ably flanked by Maurice Richard and Bert Olmstead, that season’s NHL assists leader, he makes the most of it, scoring 47 goals, topping both the team and the league, while setting a new record for NHL centers.
Initially considered as simply The Rocket’s kid brother, Henri Richard becomes an instant sensation, nailing down a starting job centering Bernard Geoffrion and Dickie Moore, and giving the Habs a second trio that any other NHL coach would have gladly named as his first.
Losing only 15 of the 70 games on the regular season schedule, the Canadiens finish the season with a 24-point lead on Detroit, dethroned as regular season champs after a record seven-year run.
Jacques Plante is the NHL’s top netminder, losing only twelve of the 64 games he plays in to lead the league with a 1.86 goals-against average. At season’s end, he also takes home the first of five consecutive Vezina Trophies. Doug Harvey repeats as Norris Trophy winner and Beliveau wins the Art Ross and Hart Trophies while six Habs were named to NHL All-Star teams.
Only one honor remained to be captured: the Stanley Cup.
THE PLAYOFFS
Going into the postseason as a favorite for the first time since the beginning of the decade, Montreal gets the ball rolling in the semifinals against the New York Rangers, a team playing postseason hockey for the first time since 1949-50.Third-place finishers under fiery new coach Phil Watson, the youthful Rangers are no match for the new NHL powerhouse, winning only the second game of the series. Meanwhile, Montreal puts seven pucks past Gump Worsley in both the opening and fifth games to head into the Finals for the sixth straight year.
Detroit’s wave had crested and their seven-year domination of the NHL was at an end, a fact driven home by Montreal’s domination in the Stanley Cup Finals. Taking the first two games at The Forum, Montreal drops the third game in Detroit before coming back home with a 3-1 stranglehold on the series after the second game at The Olympia had been completed.
Fifteen minutes into the second period of the Game 5, with the score tied at a goal each, Maurice Richard, trailing only Beliveau among Montreal’s playoff marksmen, finds the mesh behind netminder Glenn Hall with his fifth postseason marker.
Detroit fails to reply and, after Montreal adds an insurance marker, league president Clarence Campbell meets Butch Bouchard on The Forum’s surface, presenting him with the second Stanley Cup of his captaincy and the eighth earned by the Canadiens in franchise history.
It would be some years before Montreal would relinquish hockey’s holy grail.
The playoffs roadmap
| Semi-finals - New York Rangers | ||||
| Date | AWAY | HOME | ||
| March 20th, 1956 | NYR 1 | MTL 7 | ||
| March 22nd, 1956 | NYR 4 | MTL 2 | ||
| March 24th, 1956 | MTL 3 | NYR 1 | ||
| March 25th, 1956 | MTL 5 | NYR 3 | ||
| March 27th, 1956 | NYR 0 | MTL 7 | ||
| Canadiens won best-of-seven series 4-1 | ||||
| Stanley Cup Finals - Detroit Red Wings | ||||
| Date | AWAY | HOME | ||
| March 31st, 1956 | DET 4 | MTL 6 | ||
| April 3rd, 1956 | DET 1 | MTL 5 | ||
| April 5th, 1956 | MTL 1 | DET 3 | ||
| April 8th, 1956 | MTL 3 | DET 0 | ||
| April 10th, 1956 | DET 1 | MTL 3 | ||
| Canadiens won best-of-seven series 4-1 | ||||
