1966-67 NHL season

The 1966-67 NHL season was the 50th season of the National Hockey League. Six teams each played 70 games. Since the 1942-43 season, there had only been six teams in the NHL, but this was to be the last season of the Original Six as six more teams were added for the 1967-68 season. This season saw the addition of arguably the greatest defenceman in the game's history, Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins.

Regular season

The Chicago Black Hawks, who had won three Stanley Cups, finished first overall in the standings for the first time in their history, a full seventeen points ahead of the Montreal Canadiens and nineteen ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Eddie Giacomin went from a goaltender who was bombarded with garbage by his home Ranger fansin a game with Boston to one of the best goaltenders in the NHL. The Rangers were in first place at one point, but slumped and had to be satisfied with fourth place.Giacomin went from zero to hero as he posted a 2.66 goals against average and led the league with 9 shutouts.

Final standings

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

National Hockey League	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM
Chicago Black Hawks	70	41	17	12	94	264	170	757
Montreal Canadiens	70	32	25	13	77	202	188	879
Toronto Maple Leafs	70	32	27	11	75	204	211	736
New York Rangers	70	30	28	12	72	188	189	664
Detroit Red Wings	70	27	39	4	58	212	241	719
Boston Bruins	70	17	43	10	44	182	253	764

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Stan Mikita	Chicago Black Hawks	70	35	62	97
Bobby Hull	Chicago Black Hawks	66	52	28	80
Norm Ullman	Detroit Red Wings	68	26	44	70
Ken Wharram	Chicago Black Hawks	70	31	34	65
Gordie Howe	Detroit Red Wings	69	25	40	65
Bobby Rousseau	Montreal Canadiens	68	19	44	63
Phil Esposito	Chicago Black Hawks	69	21	40	61
Phil Goyette	New York Rangers	70	12	49	61
Doug Mohns	Chicago Black Hawks	61	25	35	60
Henri Richard	Montreal Canadiens	65	21	34	55

Leading goaltenders

Stanley Cup playoffs

Despite Chicago's impressive regular season marks, it was the third seed Toronto Maple Leafs who beat the Black Hawks in the first round of the playoffs. The Leafs went on to win the Stanley Cup over the Montreal Canadiens four games to two; it proved to be the most recent time Toronto has won the Cup. The Leafs' squad was renowned as the oldest ever to win a Cup final; the average age of the team was well over thirty, and four players were over forty.

Playoff bracket

{{4TeamBracket