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Last week the 1984-85 Edmonton Oilers team was voted the best NHL team of all time. Obviously as a Montreal Canadiens’ fan I beg to differ.

I’m old enough to vividly remember the 1976-77 Canadiens who lost a measly eight games that year, while winning 60. The Canadiens totalled 132 points, still an NHL record.

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The Habs scored 387 goals while allowing only 171. They scored a ton of goals while allowing few. The Oilers of 1984-85 scored 14 more goals in an 80-game schedule but allowed nearly 300 (298).

Guy-Guy-Guy Lafleur, Steve Shutt, Jacques Lemaire, Peter Mahovlich, Yvan Cournoyer, Réjean Houle, Bob Gainey, Yvon Lambert and the great Ken Dryden in nets (41-6-8) with the big three of Larry Robinson, Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe, who formed arguably the best trio of defencemen ever.

Don’t just take my word for it. In 2014, the Hockey News also ranked the best NHL teams and for them it wasn’t even close — the 1976-77 Canadiens were the clear winners. Here’s one paragraph from their assessment.

“The Canadiens opened that season with a 10-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, finished it with a 2-1 overtime win over the Boston Bruins in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup final and in between they were the most electrifying, dominant and unstoppable team the NHL has ever seen.”

The Sporting News and Bleacher Report are two other well-known publications to weigh in on this debate in favour of the 76-77 Habs.

Let us know what you think.