1968–69 Montreal Canadiens season

NHL hockey team season (won 16th Stanley Cup)

1968–69 Montreal Canadiens
Stanley Cup champions
East Division champions
Division	1st East
1968–69 record	46–19–11
Goals for	271
Goals against	202
Team information
General manager	Sam Pollock
Coach	Claude Ruel
Captain	Jean Beliveau
Alternate captains	Henri Richard Unknown
Arena	Montreal Forum
Team leaders
Goals	Yvan Cournoyer (43)
Assists	Jean Beliveau (49)
Points	Yvan Cournoyer (87)
Penalty minutes	John Ferguson (185)
Wins	Gump Worsley (19)
Goals against average	Gump Worsley (2.26)
← 1967–68 1969–70 →

The 1968–69 Montreal Canadiens season was the club's 60th season of play. The Canadiens would defeat the St. Louis Blues to win their 16th Stanley Cup championship in club history.

Regular season

Final standings

East Division^[1]
v
t
e
		GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	DIFF	Pts
1	Montreal Canadiens	76	46	19	11	271	202	+69	103
2	Boston Bruins	76	42	18	16	303	221	+82	100
3	New York Rangers	76	41	26	9	231	196	+35	91
4	Toronto Maple Leafs	76	35	26	15	234	217	+17	85
5	Detroit Red Wings	76	33	31	12	239	221	+18	78
6	Chicago Black Hawks	76	34	33	9	280	246	+34	77

Record vs. opponents

Vs. East Division

1968–69 NHL records^[2]
Team	BOS	CHI	DET	MTL	NYR	TOR	Total
Boston	—	5–2–1	3–2–3	4–2–2	3–3–2	4–2–2	19–11–10
Chicago	2–5–1	—	3–4–1	1–7	4–3–1	3–4–1	13–23–4
Detroit	2–3–3	4–3–1	—	2–5–1	4–3–1	3–4–1	15–18–7
Montreal	2–4–2	7–1	5–2–1	—	3–4–1	4–3–1	21–14–5
New York	3–3–2	3–4–1	3–4–1	4–3–1	—	4–4	17–18–5
Toronto	2–4–2	4–3–1	4–3–1	3–4–1	4–4	—	17–18–5

Vs. West Division

1968–69 NHL records
Team	LAK	MIN	OAK	PHI	PIT	STL	Total
Boston	5–1	4–0–2	3–1–2	4–2	5–1	2–2–2	23–7–6
Chicago	5–1	5–0–1	1–5	3–0–3	4–2	3–2–1	21–10–5
Detroit	4–2	4–2	3–2–1	3–1–2	4–2	0–4–2	18–13–5
Montreal	4–0–2	5–0–1	2–3–1	5–1	4–1–1	5–0–1	25–5–6
New York	3–3	5–1	5–1	3–1–2	5–1	3–1–2	24–8–4
Toronto	3–3	3–1–2	4–2	1–1–4	3–0–3	4–1–1	18–8–10

Schedule and results

Regular season results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	T	October 12, 1968	1–1	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (1968–69)	0–0–1
2	W	October 16, 1968	4–2	@ St. Louis Blues (1968–69)	1–0–1
3	W	October 17, 1968	3–1	@ Minnesota North Stars (1968–69)	2–0–1
4	W	October 20, 1968	4–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1968–69)	3–0–1
5	W	October 23, 1968	5–2	@ Los Angeles Kings (1968–69)	4–0–1
6	W	October 25, 1968	4–2	@ Oakland Seals (1968–69)	5–0–1
7	L	October 27, 1968	2–4	@ Boston Bruins (1968–69)	5–1–1
8	W	October 30, 1968	5–0	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1968–69)	6–1–1
9	W	November 2, 1968	2–1	Detroit Red Wings (1968–69)	7–1–1
10	L	November 3, 1968	2–3	@ Philadelphia Flyers (1968–69)	7–2–1
11	W	November 7, 1968	5–4	Pittsburgh Penguins (1968–69)	8–2–1
12	W	November 9, 1968	4–1	St. Louis Blues (1968–69)	9–2–1
13	T	November 10, 1968	4–4	@ Detroit Red Wings (1968–69)	9–2–2
14	L	November 14, 1968	3–5	Toronto Maple Leafs (1968–69)	9–3–2
15	T	November 16, 1968	3–3	Oakland Seals (1968–69)	9–3–3
16	L	November 17, 1968	2–3	@ New York Rangers (1968–69)	9–4–3
17	W	November 20, 1968	3–2	Detroit Red Wings (1968–69)	10–4–3
18	W	November 21, 1968	3–0	@ Philadelphia Flyers (1968–69)	11–4–3
19	W	November 23, 1968	4–3	Minnesota North Stars (1968–69)	12–4–3
20	W	November 27, 1968	4–2	@ Los Angeles Kings (1968–69)	13–4–3
21	L	November 29, 1968	4–5	@ Oakland Seals (1968–69)	13–5–3
22	W	December 1, 1968	3–1	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1968–69)	14–5–3
23	L	December 4, 1968	2–4	New York Rangers (1968–69)	14–6–3
24	T	December 5, 1968	2–2	@ Boston Bruins (1968–69)	14–6–4
25	W	December 7, 1968	6–3	Chicago Black Hawks (1968–69)	15–6–4
26	T	December 11, 1968	4–4	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1968–69)	15–6–5
27	W	December 12, 1968	5–4	St. Louis Blues (1968–69)	16–6–5
28	W	December 14, 1968	1–0	Philadelphia Flyers (1968–69)	17–6–5
29	T	December 18, 1968	2–2	Los Angeles Kings (1968–69)	17–6–6
30	T	December 21, 1968	0–0	Boston Bruins (1968–69)	17–6–7
31	L	December 22, 1968	5–7	@ Boston Bruins (1968–69)	17–7–7
32	W	December 26, 1968	4–2	Toronto Maple Leafs (1968–69)	18–7–7
33	W	December 28, 1968	5–3	New York Rangers (1968–69)	19–7–7
34	L	December 29, 1968	1–3	@ New York Rangers (1968–69)	19–8–7
35	W	December 31, 1968	4–3	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (1968–69)	20–8–7
36	L	January 2, 1969	2–5	Pittsburgh Penguins (1968–69)	20–9–7
37	L	January 4, 1969	3–6	Chicago Black Hawks (1968–69)	20–10–7
38	W	January 5, 1969	4–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1968–69)	21–10–7
39	W	January 7, 1969	6–3	@ Minnesota North Stars (1968–69)	22–10–7
40	W	January 9, 1969	8–4	Oakland Seals (1968–69)	23–10–7
41	L	January 11, 1969	3–6	Boston Bruins (1968–69)	23–11–7
42	L	January 15, 1969	0–4	Detroit Red Wings (1968–69)	23–12–7
43	W	January 16, 1969	4–0	@ Philadelphia Flyers (1968–69)	24–12–7
44	W	January 18, 1969	3–1	Chicago Black Hawks (1968–69)	25–12–7
45	L	January 23, 1969	3–5	Oakland Seals (1968–69)	25–13–7
46	W	January 25, 1969	6–3	Philadelphia Flyers (1968–69)	26–13–7
47	L	January 26, 1969	2–3	@ New York Rangers (1968–69)	26–14–7
48	W	January 29, 1969	4–0	Minnesota North Stars (1968–69)	27–14–7
49	W	February 1, 1969	6–2	New York Rangers (1968–69)	28–14–7
50	W	February 2, 1969	6–4	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1968–69)	29–14–7
51	L	February 5, 1969	1–5	@ Oakland Seals (1968–69)	29–15–7
52	W	February 6, 1969	4–2	@ Los Angeles Kings (1968–69)	30–15–7
53	W	February 8, 1969	6–3	@ Minnesota North Stars (1968–69)	31–15–7
54	T	February 9, 1969	4–4	@ St. Louis Blues (1968–69)	31–15–8
55	W	February 11, 1969	7–3	Los Angeles Kings (1968–69)	32–15–8
56	W	February 13, 1969	3–1	@ Detroit Red Wings (1968–69)	33–15–8
57	W	February 15, 1969	3–1	Boston Bruins (1968–69)	34–15–8
58	W	February 16, 1969	4–0	@ Pittsburgh Penguins (1968–69)	35–15–8
59	L	February 19, 1969	1–5	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1968–69)	35–16–8
60	W	February 20, 1969	2–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1968–69)	36–16–8
61	W	February 22, 1969	4–1	Philadelphia Flyers (1968–69)	37–16–8
62	W	February 26, 1969	7–2	Detroit Red Wings (1968–69)	38–16–8
63	W	March 1, 1969	3–0	St. Louis Blues (1968–69)	39–16–8
64	L	March 2, 1969	2–4	@ Detroit Red Wings (1968–69)	39–17–8
65	W	March 6, 1969	5–3	Toronto Maple Leafs (1968–69)	40–17–8
66	T	March 8, 1969	3–3	Los Angeles Kings (1968–69)	40–17–9
67	T	March 9, 1969	2–2	@ New York Rangers (1968–69)	40–17–10
68	W	March 11, 1969	3–0	@ St. Louis Blues (1968–69)	41–17–10
69	T	March 13, 1969	4–4	Minnesota North Stars (1968–69)	41–17–11
70	W	March 15, 1969	3–1	Chicago Black Hawks (1968–69)	42–17–11
71	W	March 19, 1969	5–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1968–69)	43–17–11
72	W	March 20, 1969	5–3	Pittsburgh Penguins (1968–69)	44–17–11
73	W	March 22, 1969	3–1	New York Rangers (1968–69)	45–17–11
74	L	March 26, 1969	4–6	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1968–69)	45–18–11
75	W	March 29, 1969	5–3	Boston Bruins (1968–69)	46–18–11
76	L	March 30, 1969	3–6	@ Boston Bruins (1968–69)	46–19–11

Playoffs

Quarter-final

Versus New York Rangers

No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	W	April 2, 1969	3–1	New York Rangers	1–0
2	W	April 3, 1969	5–2	New York Rangers	2–0
3	W	April 5, 1969	4–1	@ New York Rangers	3–0
4	W	April 6, 1969	4–3	@ New York Rangers	4–0

^[3]

Montreal wins the series 4–0.

Semi-final

Versus Boston Bruins

No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	W	April 10, 1969	3–2 (OT)	Boston Bruins	1–0
2	W	April 13, 1969	4–3 (OT)	Boston Bruins	2–0
3	L	April 17, 1969	0–5	@ Boston Bruins	2–1
4	L	April 20, 1969	2–3	@ Boston Bruins	2–2
5	W	April 22, 1969	4–2	Boston Bruins	3–2
6	W	April 24, 1969	2–1 (OT)	@ Boston Bruins	4–2

^[3]

Montreal wins the series 4–2.

Stanley Cup Finals

Versus St. Louis Blues

No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	W	April 27, 1969	3–1	St. Louis Blues	1–0
2	W	April 29, 1969	3–1	St. Louis Blues	2–0
3	W	May 1, 1969	4–0	@ St. Louis Blues	3–0
4	W	May 4, 1969	2–1	@ St. Louis Blues	4–0

^[4]

Montreal wins the series 4–0.

Player statistics

Regular season

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG
Yvan Cournoyer	RW	76	43	44	87	31	14	0	8
Jean Beliveau	C	69	33	49	82	55	7	0	5
Bobby Rousseau	RW	76	30	40	70	59	3	0	8
Jacques Lemaire	C	75	29	34	63	29	5	0	4
John Ferguson	LW	71	29	23	52	185	2	0	7
Henri Richard	C	64	15	37	52	45	2	0	0
Ralph Backstrom	C	72	13	28	41	16	2	0	3
Dick Duff	LW	68	19	21	40	24	5	0	2
J.C. Tremblay	D	75	7	32	39	18	2	0	1
Serge Savard	D	74	8	23	31	73	0	0	2
Jacques Laperriere	D	69	5	26	31	45	0	0	1
Claude Provost	RW	73	13	15	28	18	0	1	5
Gilles Tremblay	LW	44	10	15	25	2	0	0	0
Ted Harris	D	76	7	18	25	102	0	1	0
Mickey Redmond	RW	65	9	15	24	12	1	0	0
Larry Hillman	D	25	0	5	5	17	0	0	0
Christian Bordeleau	C	13	1	3	4	4	0	0	0
Terry Harper	D	21	0	3	3	37	0	0	0
Jude Drouin	C	9	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
Bob Berry	LW	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Alain Caron	RW	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tony Esposito	G	13	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Howie Glover	RW	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Guy Lapointe	D	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Garry Monahan	LW	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Rogie Vachon	G	36	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Ernie Wakely	G	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gump Worsley	G	30	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SO
Rogie Vachon	2051	36	22	9	3	98	2.87	2
Gump Worsley	1703	30	19	5	4	64	2.25	5
Tony Esposito	746	13	5	4	4	34	2.73	2
Ernie Wakely	60	1	0	1	0	4	4.00	0
Team:	4560	76	46	19	11	200	2.63	9

Playoffs

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG
Jean Beliveau	C	14	5	10	15	8	1	0	1
Dick Duff	LW	14	6	8	14	11	3	0	1
Yvan Cournoyer	RW	14	4	7	11	5	2	0	2
Serge Savard	D	14	4	6	10	24	1	0	1
John Ferguson	LW	14	4	3	7	80	2	0	2
Ralph Backstrom	C	14	3	4	7	10	1	0	1
Jacques Lemaire	C	14	4	2	6	6	1	0	0
Henri Richard	C	14	2	4	6	8	0	0	0
Bobby Rousseau	RW	14	3	2	5	8	0	1	2
Mickey Redmond	RW	14	2	3	5	2	1	0	1
J.C. Tremblay	D	13	1	4	5	6	0	0	1
Claude Provost	RW	10	2	2	4	2	0	0	0
Jacques Laperriere	D	14	1	3	4	28	1	0	0
Ted Harris	D	14	1	2	3	34	0	0	0
Christian Bordeleau	C	6	1	0	1	0	1	0	0
Lucien Grenier	RW	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Terry Harper	D	11	0	0	0	8	0	0	0
Larry Hillman	D	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Rogie Vachon	G	8	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Gump Worsley	G	7	0	0	0	5	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	GA	GAA	SO
Rogie Vachon	507	8	7	1	12	1.42	1
Gump Worsley	370	7	5	1	14	2.27	0
Team:	877	14	12	2	26	1.78	1

^[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

Prince of Wales Trophy
Conn Smythe Trophy: || Serge Savard, Montreal Canadiens
Jean Beliveau, Runner-Up, Hart Trophy^[6]
Jean Beliveau, Center, NHL Second All-Star Team
Yvan Cournoyer, Right Wing, NHL Second All-Star Team
Ted Harris, NHL Second All-Star Team

Transactions

Trades

May 21, 1968	To Oakland Seals Norm Ferguson Stan Fuller Francois Lacombe Michel Jacques	To Montreal Canadiens Wally Boyer Alain Caron rights to Lyle Bradley
June 6, 1968	To Oakland Seals Bryan Watson cash	To Montreal Canadiens 1st round pick in 1972 (Michel Laroque)
August, 1968	To Oakland Seals Len Ronson	To Montreal Canadiens cash

Draft picks

Montreal's draft picks at the 1968 NHL Amateur Draft held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.

Round	#	Player	Nationality	College/Junior/Club team (League)
1	1	Michel Plasse	Canada	Drummondville Rangers (QJHL)
1	2	Roger Belisle	Canada	Montreal North Beavers (LHIQ)
1	3	Jim Pritchard	Canada	Winnipeg Jets (WCHL)
3	23	Don Grierson	Canada	North Bay Trappers (NOJHL)

Citations

^ "1968–1969 Division Standings Standings - NHL.com - Standings". National Hockey League.
^ "All-Time NHL Results". NHL.com. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
^ ^a ^b "1968–69 Game Log and Scores". Databasehockey.com. Archived from the original on February 20, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
^ "New York Rangers 1968–69 Game Log and Scores". Databasehockey.com. Archived from the original on February 20, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
^ "1968-69 Montreal Canadiens Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com". hockey-reference.com. Retrieved May 28, 2009.
^ National Hockey League Official Guide and Record Book 2006, p. 220, Dan Diamond & Associates, Toronto, Ontario, ISBN 0-920445-98-5.

References

Canadiens on Hockey Database
Canadiens on NHL Reference

v t e Montreal Canadiens seasons
1900s	1900–01 . 1901–02 . 1902–03 . 1903–04 . 1904–05 . 1905–06 . 1906–07 . 1907–08 . 1908–09 . 1909–10
1910s	1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20
1920s	1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30
1930s	1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40
1940s	1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50
1950s	1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60
1960s	1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70
1970s	1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80
1980s	1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90
1990s	1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00
2000s	2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10
2010s	2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20
2020s	2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
Highlighted seasons indicate Stanley Cup championship

v t e Montreal Canadiens
Founded in 1909 Based in Montreal, Quebec
Franchise	Team General managers Coaches Players Captains Draft picks Seasons Current season
History	History Original Six Centennial Records Award winners Retired numbers Broadcasters
Personnel	Owner(s) Molson family (Geoff Molson, chairman) General manager Kent Hughes Head coach Martin St. Louis Team captain Nick Suzuki Current roster
Arenas	Jubilee Arena Montreal Arena Mount Royal Arena Montreal Forum Bell Centre
Rivalries	Boston Bruins Quebec Nordiques Toronto Maple Leafs
Affiliates	AHL Laval Rocket ECHL Trois-Rivières Lions
Media	TV TSN2 (English) RDS (French) Radio TSN Radio 690 (English) 98,5 FM (French)
Culture and lore	Youppi! The Hockey Sweater Pour toujours, les Canadiens! Ginette Reno Tour des Canadiens The Punch Line Richard Riot 1938 European tour "Fix You" Good Friday Massacre 2003 Heritage Classic 2011 Heritage Classic 2016 Winter Classic NHL 100 Classic Bell Sports Complex
Category Commons

v t e 1968–69 NHL season
East	Boston Chicago Detroit Montreal New York Toronto
West	Los Angeles Minnesota Oakland Philadelphia Pittsburgh St. Louis
See also	Amateur Draft Intra-League Draft All-Star Game Stanley Cup Finals