The 1980–81 NHL season was the 64th

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

. The Flames relocated from

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

. The

New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (N ...

were the top regular season team and the top playoff team, winning their second consecutive

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

by defeating the Minnesota North Stars in five games.

Entry draft

The 1980 NHL entry draft was held on June 11, at the

Montreal Forum Montreal Forum () is a historic building located facing Cabot Square, Montreal, Cabot Square in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Called "the most storied building in hockey history" by ''Sporting News'', it was an indoor arena which served as the home o ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. This was the first draft opened to the public. Doug Wickenheiser was selected first overall by the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal Canadiens (), officially ' ( Canadian Hockey Club) and colloquially known as the Habs, are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal. The Canadiens compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic D ...

Arena changes

The Flames relocated from the Omni Coliseum in

, Georgia to the Stampede Corral in

, Alberta.

Regular season

The season featured notable individual scoring milestones. Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers broke Bobby Orr's single season assist record, scoring 109 assists, and Phil Esposito's point record, scoring 164 points. He won his second of an unmatched eight straight Hart Trophies as the league's most valuable player Mike Bossy of the

became only the second man in NHL history to score 50 goals in his first 50 games. In the 50th game, played at his home rink, he had 48 goals going into the 3rd and final period (before the advent of overtime games). Bossy admitted being so embarrassed and upset that he contemplated not going out on the ice for the final period. However, Bossy got his 49th goal with 5:15 left to go in the game and the 50th with 1:50 remaining, sending the Nassau Coliseum into a delirium. Maurice Richard, the only other man to accomplish this feat, was on hand to congratulate him. Bossy's Islanders finished as regular season champions with 110 points with the St. Louis Blues finishing a close second at 107 points.

Final standings

''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes''
''Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold''

Prince of Wales Conference

Clarence Campbell Conference

Playoffs

Bracket

The top 16 teams in the league made the playoffs, and were seeded 1–16, regardless of division or conference. The NHL used "re-seeding" instead of a fixed bracket playoff system: in each round, the highest remaining seed played against the lowest remaining seed, the second-highest remaining seed faced the second-lowest remaining seed, and so forth. In the preliminary round, teams competed in a best-of-five series. In the other three rounds, teams competed in a best-of-seven series (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each series).

Awards

All-Star teams

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

''Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points'' Source: NHL.

Leading goaltenders

Coaches

Patrick Division

*Calgary Flames: Al MacNeil *New York Islanders: Al Arbour *New York Rangers: Fred Shero and Craig Patrick *Philadelphia Flyers: Pat Quinn *Washington Capitals: Gary Green

Adams Division

*Boston Bruins: Gerry Cheevers *Buffalo Sabres:

Scotty Bowman William Scott Bowman (born September 18, 1933) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey head coach. He holds the record for most wins in National Hockey League (NHL) history, with 1,244 wins in the regular season and 223 in the Stanley Cup ...

*Minnesota North Stars: Glen Sonmor *Quebec Nordiques: Maurice Filion and Michel Bergeron *Toronto Maple Leafs: Joe Crozier

Norris Division

*Detroit Red Wings: Wayne Maxner *Hartford Whalers: Don Blackburn *Los Angeles Kings: Bob Berry *Montreal Canadiens: Claude Ruel *Pittsburgh Penguins: Eddie Johnston

Smythe Division

*Chicago Black Hawks: Keith Magnuson *Colorado Rockies: Bill MacMillan *Edmonton Oilers: Bryan Watson *St. Louis Blues: Red Berenson *Vancouver Canucks: Harry Neale *Winnipeg Jets: Mike Smith and Tom Watt

Milestones

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1980–81 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs): * Barry Pederson, Boston Bruins * Steve Kasper, Boston Bruins * Denis Savard, Chicago Black Hawks * Steve Larmer, Chicago Black Hawks * Andy Moog, Edmonton Oilers * Charlie Huddy, Edmonton Oilers * Glenn Anderson, Edmonton Oilers * Jari Kurri, Edmonton Oilers * Paul Coffey, Edmonton Oilers * Larry Murphy, Los Angeles Kings * Dino Ciccarelli, Minnesota North Stars * Don Beaupre, Minnesota North Stars * Neal Broten, Minnesota North Stars * Doug Wickenheiser, Montreal Canadiens * Guy Carbonneau, Montreal Canadiens * Rick Wamsley, Montreal Canadiens * Brent Sutter, New York Islanders * Rollie Melanson, New York Islanders * Tim Kerr, Philadelphia Flyers * Mike Bullard, Pittsburgh Penguins * Anton Stastny, Quebec Nordiques * Peter Stastny, Quebec Nordiques * Dale Hunter, Quebec Nordiques * Paul MacLean, St. Louis Blues * Dave Babych, Winnipeg Jets

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1980–81 (listed with their last team): * Jean Ratelle, Boston Bruins * Terry Harper, Colorado Rockies * Pete Mahovlich, Detroit Red Wings * Tom Bladon, Detroit Red Wings * Phil Esposito, New York Rangers * Walt Tkaczuk, New York Rangers * Ron Ellis, Toronto Maple Leafs * Dennis Kearns, Vancouver Canucks * Bobby Schmautz, Vancouver Canucks * Dennis Ververgaert, Washington Capitals * Guy Charron, Washington Capitals * Wayne Stephenson, Washington Capitals * Jude Drouin, Winnipeg Jets

Broadcasting

Hockey Night in Canada ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, ...

'' on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

televised Saturday night regular season games and Stanley Cup playoff games. This was the first season that U.S. national broadcasts were only on cable television.

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and USA continued to carry slates of regular season and playoff games for the second consecutive season.

References

* * * * * ;Notes

External links

Hockey DatabaseNHL.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:NHL, 1980-81 1980–81 in Canadian ice hockey by league 1980–81 in American ice hockey by league