Today In Habs History: Canadiens Win 6th Stanley Cup In Team History

Unlike many of their future Stanley Cup victories, this version of the Habs was not part of any dynasty team. Instead, it had the makings for what could have been a dynasty but would ultimately fall short as they wouldn’t be able to win their next championship for another 7 years after the 1946 victory. Nonetheless, this team could have probably won more with how top-heavy they were as a team.

This Habs team was led by the Punch Line, which featured three of the best Canadiens players of all time: Maurice Richard, Elmer Lach, and Toe Blake. Throughout the playoffs, the Punch Line combined for 19 goals and 41 points between the three of them in 9 playoff games. Richard and Blake were tied for the lead in playoff goals with 7 each, while Lach led the entire postseason in points with 17. In the final game, it was Lach who led the way offensively, as he did the majority of the playoffs, with a goal and 2 assists.

Captain Toe Blake was the one who scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal early in the 3rd period of Game 5 to give the Habs a 4-3 lead. Little did Blake know this would be his last Stanley Cup win as a player, given that he would retire from the NHL just two years later. He would, on the other hand, win 8 Stanley Cups as head coach of the Canadiens during a 13-year span between 1955 and 1968.

Along with the Punch Line, the Habs had four other Hall Famers on the team that helped the 1946 Canadiens capture the Stanley Cup. Those four Hall of Famers were goaltender Bill Durnan, who won his 3rd of 4 consecutive Vezina Trophies during that season; Emile “Butch” Bouchard, who was one of the league’s best defenders at the time; as well as defenseman Kenny Reardon and forward Buddy O’Connor, who were less known but were solid players in their own right.

The 1945-46 regular season saw the Punch Line’s offence drop a bit from their previous year, as Blake led the way with 29 goals and 50 points in 50 games, which were down from his 29 goals and 67 points in 49 games from the year before. Followed by Richard, who scored just 27 goals and 49 points in 50 games, which was a far cry from his insane 50 goals in 50 games the year before. Meanwhile, Lach, who led the league in scoring with 80 points in 50 games during the 1944-45 campaign, had just 47 points in the 1945-46 season. With that being said, the true regular-season MVP for the Habs was Durnan, who led the league with a 2.60 GAA and also had the most shutouts with 4.

Overall, the Habs had a down year compared to both the 1944-45 (80 points) and 1946-47 (78 points) regular seasons, finishing with just 61 points as the league as a whole was just tighter during the 1945-46 season.However, when it came to coming up with results when it mattered most in the playoffs, the Habs steamrolled their way through the playoffs, starting by sweeping the Chicago Blackhawks before beating the Bruins in 5 games to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup.

This would be the final Stanley Cup with the Habs as players on this team for all except Richard, Lach, and Bouchard, who all won another championship together in 1953. At the end of the day, this Habs team walked so the dynasty of the 1950s could run off 10 consecutive Stanley Cup Finals from 1951 to 1960.