1969 Playoffs, Backstrom Scores OT Winner vs Bruins 

This is what a was going to write. Backstrom was a very good player and a great move by Sam Pollock.

Very similar. The big difference it was game 1 instead of game 7.

@@HenriLaporte-kv6qq i was at game # 4 in 78 when schmautz scored in OT. pandemonium !

@@Mike___Honcho Must be wild. In late 70's Montreal was clearly a better team, but for 4-5 years, around 1970, Boston was better but could not beat Montreal. It was very close though. In this 69 playoffs against Boston, Montreal had 3 wins in overtime.

@@HenriLaporte-kv6qq i think the habs were in the heads of the bruins in the late 60s and early 70s, but also back then teams didn't come out of no where and win a cup. it seemed to take a few years of growing pains. these days, with free agency and players moving around freely, it is much more likely for a good team to put it together in one year and win a cup. next year someone else. no more four year runs. i think i differ from many boston fans in thinking their goaltending never stole anything for them back in the 60s and early 70s. they might get some spectacular looking play from cheevers, but he could usually be beaten. ( le maire's OT goal in 77 to win the cup was a beer league goal, as was backstrom's OT goal in this video. ) in the late 70s, the bruins played a very close checking game and were a really good team. we had season tickets, so i saw them in person a couple hundred times. it took a legendary team like the late 70s habs to beat them. we LIVED for beating the habs and it really hurt to lose to them, but i always liked seeing them play. i learned about how to play from them, but also how to think. the importance of role players and game management. i was also at game 7 in 1971 when dryden shut the door on the Bs record season in boston. ouch.

my comment adds a bit to yours regarding the face off in regulation time. esposito should be watching beliveau, in addition to everything else, but specifically how he places his teammates. he should have known that beliveau was trying to draw the puck back and to the center of the ice. that is where you want to go with the puck pretty much all the time, if you are beliveau. it is beliveau's strong side ( backhand face off ) and he wants the puck back to the middle for a better shot angle after he wins the draw. that makes phil's job on the face off much easier, knowing what beliveau wants to do. taking a face off in his defensive zone and with the score in his favor, all phil should want to do is play the face off conservatively. that means phil should just jam up beliveau's stick and prevent him from doing what he obviously wants to do. phil tried to win the draw himself, back to his left wing defensive corner, and then the draw becomes a battle won by variables, such as the strength of your opponent, timing the drop of the puck, reflexes, and luck. curiously, phil didn't have a free teammate before the draw in that left wing corner to play the puck, even if he won the draw. the Dmen were both up at the hash marks. it is soooo easy to jam up a guy's stick. it is faceoff 101. phil blew that draw badly by getting greedy and he foolishly lost a draw he should have tactically won 10 out of 10 times. also on that goal, both orr and westfall went out to challenge the shot from the point, leaving a 3 vs 1 man advantage for the habs in front of the net. when the puck went past them, they both circled around in big loops toward the right wing boards and then back to the net, like it was a training camp scrimmage. we were taught to stop and turn. none of those big loops to change direction.

@@Mike___Honcho You are absolutely right. Béliveau showed his cards. The players should have discussed their positioning before the faceoff. But in these days, they relied much more on their instinct.

I looked more carefully. It seems they first planned to put Laperrière in front. At the last moment, he was sent back by Béliveau or the coach. Is it when it was sure that Esposito was taking the face off?

@@HenriLaporte-kv6qq phil made a rookie level mistake trying to win that face off clean. just play it safe and tie up the other guy's stick, especially because beliveau needs a perfect win and all phil needs is to muck it up. phil was generally pretty good on face offs , but he went in with the absolutely wrong plan. i don't think it matters that beliveau moved jacques openly because everyone in north america knew where jean wanted to go with that puck. i can only think of la perriere in front cuz he was a big body, but then that would leave only one hab back off the hash marks. la perriere was never a great shooter, but he did what he needed to do -- shoot low, get it on net, and get a rebound. BTW, i met beliveau and fergie two years after this game, when they greeted us in our locker room at the paul sauve bantam tourney. nobody really said too much because we were in awe of beliveau and the other guy. we were the only american team and we made it to the quarter finals. we knocked out the defending champs, who had just lost mike bossy. a couple of years later my town team won the tournament !

@@Mike___Honcho I guess Esposito was thinking about the empty net. You are lucky to met these two great players. Fergie was a very important part on this team. Hockey was so popular in the province of Quebec back then. It's in constant decline since.