1952–53 Montreal Canadiens season explained

Team:	Montreal Canadiens
League:	NHL
Season:	1952–53
Year:	1952
Leaguerank:	2nd
Record:	28–23–19
Goalsfor:	155
Goalsagainst:	148
Goalsleader:	Maurice Richard (28)
Assistsleader:	Maurice Richard (33)
Pointsleader:	Maurice Richard (61)
Pimleader:	Maurice Richard (112)
Winsleader:	Gerry McNeil (25)
Gaaleader:	Jacques Plante (1.33)
Stanleycup:	yes

The 1952–53 Montreal Canadiens season was the Canadiens' 44th season of play. The Canadiens placed second in the regular season, defeated the Chicago Black Hawks in the semi-final and the Boston Bruins in the final to win the club's seventh Stanley Cup championship. The last surviving member of the team was Paul Masnick, who died on March 23, 2024.^[1]

Regular season

Record vs. opponents

Schedule and results

Regular season results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	L	October 9, 1952	2–3	Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	0–1–0
2	W	October 11, 1952	2–1	Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	1–1–0
3	T	October 12, 1952	1–1	@ Boston Bruins (1952–53)	1–1–1
4	W	October 16, 1952	3–1	New York Rangers (1952–53)	2–1–1
5	W	October 18, 1952	2–1	Boston Bruins (1952–53)	3–1–1
6	L	October 19, 1952	1–6	@ Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	3–2–1
7	T	October 23, 1952	2–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	3–2–2
8	W	October 25, 1952	9–0	Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	4–2–2
9	L	October 29, 1952	5–7	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	4–3–2
10	W	November 1, 1952	4–1	New York Rangers (1952–53)	5–3–2
11	T	November 2, 1952	2–2	@ New York Rangers (1952–53)	5–3–3
12	W	November 6, 1952	3–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	6–3–3
13	W	November 8, 1952	6–4	Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	7–3–3
14	L	November 13, 1952	1–3	Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	7–4–3
15	W	November 15, 1952	2–0	Boston Bruins (1952–53)	8–4–3
16	L	November 16, 1952	1–4	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	8–5–3
17	T	November 22, 1952	2–2	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	8–5–4
18	T	November 23, 1952	2–2	@ New York Rangers (1952–53)	8–5–5
19	T	November 27, 1952	2–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	8–5–6
20	T	November 29, 1952	1–1	Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	8–5–7
21	L	November 30, 1952	1–3	@ Boston Bruins (1952–53)	8–6–7
22	L	December 4, 1952	1–2	Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	8–7–7
23	L	December 6, 1952	1–2	Boston Bruins (1952–53)	8–8–7
24	T	December 7, 1952	2–2	@ New York Rangers (1952–53)	8–8–8
25	W	December 10, 1952	2–1	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	9–8–8
26	W	December 11, 1952	3–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	10–8–8
27	W	December 13, 1952	3–0	Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	11–8–8
28	T	December 14, 1952	0–0	@ Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	11–8–9
29	W	December 18, 1952	6–2	New York Rangers (1952–53)	12–8–9
30	L	December 20, 1952	3–6	Boston Bruins (1952–53)	12–9–9
31	W	December 21, 1952	4–3	@ Boston Bruins (1952–53)	13–9–9
32	L	December 24, 1952	0–2	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	13–10–9
33	T	December 27, 1952	2–2	Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	13–10–10
34	W	December 31, 1952	2–0	@ Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	14–10–10
35	T	January 1, 1953	2–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	14–10–11
36	L	January 3, 1953	0–1	Boston Bruins (1952–53)	14–11–11
37	T	January 8, 1953	4–4	New York Rangers (1952–53)	14–11–12
38	W	January 10, 1953	5–2	Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	15–11–12
39	L	January 11, 1953	0–7	@ New York Rangers (1952–53)	15–12–12
40	W	January 15, 1953	2–0	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	16–12–12
41	T	January 17, 1953	1–1	Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	16–12–13
42	W	January 18, 1953	3–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	17–12–13
43	W	January 21, 1953	1–0	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	18–12–13
44	W	January 22, 1953	4–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	19–12–13
45	L	January 24, 1953	1–5	Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	19–13–13
46	T	January 25, 1953	3–3	@ Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	19–13–14
47	W	January 28, 1953	2–1	@ New York Rangers (1952–53)	20–13–14
48	W	January 29, 1953	5–2	New York Rangers (1952–53)	21–13–14
49	T	January 31, 1953	0–0	Boston Bruins (1952–53)	21–13–15
50	L	February 1, 1953	3–4	@ Boston Bruins (1952–53)	21–14–15
51	W	February 5, 1953	2–0	Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	22–14–15
52	L	February 7, 1953	1–3	Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	22–15–15
53	T	February 8, 1953	1–1	@ New York Rangers (1952–53)	22–15–16
54	W	February 12, 1953	3–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	23–15–16
55	T	February 14, 1953	2–2	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	23–15–17
56	L	February 15, 1953	0–1	@ Boston Bruins (1952–53)	23–16–17
57	L	February 19, 1953	1–4	Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	23–17–17
58	W	February 21, 1953	4–1	New York Rangers (1952–53)	24–17–17
59	W	February 25, 1953	2–1	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	25–17–17
60	W	February 26, 1953	4–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	26–17–17
61	L	February 28, 1953	3–4	Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	26–18–17
62	L	March 5, 1953	0–5	@ Boston Bruins (1952–53)	26–19–17
63	W	March 7, 1953	1–0	Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	27–19–17
64	L	March 8, 1953	3–4	@ New York Rangers (1952–53)	27–20–17
65	T	March 12, 1953	2–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1952–53)	27–20–18
66	W	March 14, 1953	3–2	New York Rangers (1952–53)	28–20–18
67	L	March 15, 1953	1–2	@ Boston Bruins (1952–53)	28–21–18
68	L	March 19, 1953	1–4	Toronto Maple Leafs (1952–53)	28–22–18
69	L	March 21, 1953	1–2	Boston Bruins (1952–53)	28–23–18
70	T	March 22, 1953	1–1	@ Detroit Red Wings (1952–53)	28–23–19

^[2]

Stanley Cup Finals

Date	Away	Score	Home	Score	Notes
April 9	Boston	2	Montreal	4
April 11	Boston	4	Montreal	1
April 12	Montreal	3	Boston	0
April 14	Montreal	7	Boston	3
April 16	Boston	0	Montreal	1	OT

Montreal won the best-of-seven series 4 games to 1.

Player statistics

Regular season

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
	RW	70	28	33	61	112
	LW	69	17	28	45	83
	C	53	16	25	41	56
	RW	65	22	17	39	37
	D	69	4	30	34	67
	LW	69	9	17	26	38
	LW	69	11	13	24	26
	RW	68	16	6	22	10
	C	63	5	14	19	27
	C	56	4	15	19	26
	C	53	5	7	12	44
	D	70	3	8	11	63
	D	58	2	8	10	55
	C	59	1	9	10	9
	LW	18	2	6	8	19
	D	54	2	6	8	34
	C	3	5	0	5	0
	D	59	2	3	5	67
	LW	5	0	2	2	0
	C/RW	2	1	0	1	2
	C	2	0	1	1	2
	D	4	0	1	1	0
	C	3	0	0	0	0
	G	66	0	0	0	0
	G	1	0	0	0	0
	G	3	0	0	0	0
	D	2	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SO
	3960	66	25	23	18	140	2.12	10
	180	3	2	0	1	4	1.33	0
	60	1	1	0	0	4	4.00	0
Team:	4200	70	28	23	19	148	2.11	10

Playoffs

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
	RW	12	6	4	10	12
	RW	12	7	1	8	2
	C	12	1	6	7	6
	LW	12	3	2	5	13
	C	7	3	2	5	4
	D	12	2	3	5	8
	D	12	0	5	5	8
	D/LW	7	2	2	4	11
	LW	12	2	2	4	4
	LW	7	1	3	4	10
	RW	12	2	1	3	2
	LW	5	1	2	3	4
	D	12	0	3	3	4
	D	12	1	1	2	6
	RW	7	1	1	2	2
	C	11	0	2	2	4
	LW	5	1	0	1	2
	C	6	1	0	1	7
	D	4	0	1	1	9
	C	2	0	0	0	0
	C	9	0	0	0	0
	G	8	0	0	0	0
	G	4	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	GA	GAA	SO
	486	8	5	3	16	1.98	2
	240	4	3	1	7	1.75	1
Team:	726	12	8	4	23	1.90	3

^[3]

Awards

Stanley Cup (NHL Playoff Champions)

All-Star teams

First team	Position
Doug Harvey	align=center	D
Second team	Position
Gerry McNeil	align=center	G
Maurice Richard	align=center	RW
Bert Olmstead	align=center	LW

Transactions

The following is a list of all transactions that have occurred for the Montreal Canadiens during the 1952–53 NHL season. It lists which team each player has been traded to and for which player(s) or other consideration(s), if applicable.

September 22, 1952	To Montreal Canadiens cash	To Chicago Black Hawks Gerry Couture	^[4] ^[5]
October 8, 1952	To Montreal Canadiens rights to Frank Eddolls	To New York Rangers cash	^[6]

References

• Canadiens on Hockey Database
• Canadiens on NHL Reference

Notes and References

1. Web site: The oldest living Canadiens Stanley Cup champion has passed away Offside . 2024-03-27 . dailyhive.com . en.
2. Web site: 1952–53 Montreal Canadiens Games. Hockey-reference.com . 2009-06-04 .
3. Web site: hockey-reference.com . 2009-05-28 . 1952-53 Montreal Canadiens Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com.
4. Web site: NHL trades for 1952-1953 . 2021-12-08 . NHL Trade Tracker.
5. Book: Diamond . Dan . Total NHL . 2003 . Triumph Books . Chicago . 521 . 978-1-57243-604-6.
6. Book: Diamond . Dan . Total NHL . 2003 . Triumph Books . Chicago . 548 . 978-1-57243-604-6.