1971 Stanley Cup Playoffs Between Montreal Canadiens And Chicago Blackhawks

By Author: Isiah Dunlap
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The playoff format would undergo a change for the 1971 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The system change allowed cross-over between the divisions during the playoffs. The Montreal Canadiens would eventually win the Stanley Cup after beating the Chicago Black Hawks in seven games.

The NHL made the change to its playoff format as a result of three straight years of non-competitive finals. In previous years, four teams from the Eastern Division would play on one side of the bracket and four teams from the Western Division would play on the other side, and the two divisions would not meet until the Finals. The Western Division-winning St. Louis Blues won the West for three straight years in the three years prior to the format change, and they were subsequently swept in the Finals all three times by an established Eastern Division team.

The new format made it so the winner of the series between the 1st and 3rd Eastern Division teams would play the winner of the 2nd and 4th Western Division teams in the semi-finals. Similarly, the winner of the 1st and 3rd Western Division teams would play against the 2nd and 4th Eastern division ...
... teams in the other semi-final matchup. The NHL also transferred the Chicago Black Hawks to the Western Division (which was previously made up of expansion teams) in an effort to make the Stanley Cup more competitive.

During the regular season, the Boston Bruins won a league-high 57 games and was given the Eastern Division's number one seed. They would go on to lose in the first round to the Montreal Canadiens in a seven-game series. The Canadiens would play against the Minnesota North Stars in the semi-finals after Minnesota beat the St. Louis Blues four games to two. Montreal would beat the North Stars in a six-game series to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the sixth time in seven years.

In their first season as a Western Division team, the Chicago Black Hawks won a division-high 49 games to get the West's number one seed. They would sweep the Philadelphia Flyers to go on to the semi-finals. They would be up against the New York Rangers who had just won a six-game series against Toronto. The Black Hawks would beat the Rangers four games to three in the semi-finals to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1965.

As was hoped, the 1971 Stanley Cup Finals were much more competitive than in previous years. The series got off to a good start with a 2-1 Chicago overtime win. From there, each game was won by the home team to set up a deciding seventh game in Chicago. The Canadiens came through with the first road victory of the series in Game 7 for a 3-2 win and went home with the Stanley Cup for the 17th time in franchise history. It was the second time in Finals history that the road team won a Game 7. It would not happen again until 2009.

AUTHOR:-
Isiah Dunlap writes reviews on various sporting events including the online sportsbook. In this piece of write up, the author highlights one of the most popular sports NHL and NHL betting. The author also takes the readers opinion on how hockey betting online occurs.