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The Heights Team - Hockey's Best Team Ever: The Three Greatest Consecutive Seasons in Hockey History 1975-78 Montreal Canadiens
Hardcover
ISBN13: 9781926716855
Publisher: 8th House Publishing
Published: Sep 25 2026
Pages: 382
Weight: 1.46
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The Heights Team: Hockey's Best Team Ever
- The Three Greatest Consecutive Seasons in Hockey History: 1975-76 - 1976-77 - 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens
By Jeff Olson
What if the greatest hockey team ever assembled has been hiding in plain sight for fifty years?
Between 1975 and 1978, the Montreal Canadiens - nine future Hall of Famers, guided by Scotty Bowman - completed three straight seasons of dominance never equalled. 240 regular-season games. 42 playoff games. 282 games of greatness. Point totals of 127, 132, and 129 that no NHL team before or since has approached.
The Heights Team: Hockey's Best Team Ever is the first book to tell the complete story of this dynasty. Jeff Olson reconstructs every season - from opening night at the Montreal Forum when the torch passed from Henri Richard to Yvan Cournoyer, to the championship-clinching victory in Boston Garden 282 games later. Game by game, player by player, Olson brings you into the locker room, behind Bowman's bench, and onto the ice with the men who set a gold standard that endures fifty years later.
Three Seasons, One Dynasty
- 1975-76: 58 wins, 127 points. A 12-1 playoff run capped by a four-game sweep of the two-time defending champion Philadelphia Flyers. Lafleur's 56 goals and 125 points announced a new era. Dryden's 2.03 GAA.
- 1976-77: 60 wins, 8 losses, 132 points. The single greatest regular season in NHL history - and 2026-27 marks its 50th anniversary. Only one home loss in 40 games. Dryden's Vezina. Lafleur's Art Ross and Hart (136 points). Shutt's 60 goals. A 216-goal differential. No team in any era has matched these 132 points in an 80-game schedule.
- 1977-78: 59 wins, 129 points. Lemaire's career-best 97 points. Lafleur's 60 goals. A third straight Stanley Cup - the quietest masterpiece, and the capstone of a run unmatched in any team sport.
Inside the Book
Olson profiles all nine Hall of Famers in dedicated chapters: Ken Dryden, the cerebral giant in goal; Guy Lafleur, the electrifying Flower at the peak of his powers; Larry Robinson, the 6'4 cornerstone of the legendary Big Three defense; Serge Savard, the Conn Smythe-winning leader; Guy Lapointe, the offensive defenseman; Yvan Cournoyer, The Road Runner - the 5'7 captain with 10 Stanley Cups; Jacques Lemaire, the two-way center who later coached the Devils to a Cup; Bob Gainey, the checking-line pioneer with four straight Selkes; and Steve Shutt, the left wing who scored 60 goals off Lafleur's passes.
The book illuminates the supporting cast - Jarvis, Risebrough, Tremblay - and traces the extraordinary legacy these players left behind: six became NHL head coaches, four became general managers, one served as team president. Decades later, the fingerprints of these 282 games were still visible on champions from New Jersey to Dallas to Detroit.
Why This Book, Why Now
The 2026-27 season marks the 50th anniversary of the 1976-77 Canadiens. No book has ever told the full story of these three seasons as a unified work. Olson fills that gap with meticulous research and the passion of a lifelong hockey historian. Archival photography, season-by-season breakdowns, and head-to-head comparisons with every NHL dynasty make this the definitive account. Available in English and French editions.
For readers who loved: The Game* by Ken Dryden - Searching for Bobby Orr by Stephen Brunt - The Boys of Winter by Wayne Coffey
For fans of: Montreal Canadiens history - NHL dynasties - 1970s hockey - Scotty Bowman - Guy Lafleur - Ken Dryden - sports history gift books - Quebec sports heritage
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