1953–54 Montreal Canadiens season explained

Team:	Montreal Canadiens
League:	NHL
Season:	1953–54
Year:	1953
Leaguerank:	2nd
Record:	35–24–11
Goalsfor:	195
Goalsagainst:	141
Goalsleader:	Maurice Richard (37)
Assistsleader:	Maurice Richard (30)
Pointsleader:	Maurice Richard (67)
Pimleader:	Maurice Richard (112)
Winsleader:	Gerry McNeil (28)
Gaaleader:	Jacques Plante (1.59)

The 1953–54 Montreal Canadiens season was the 45th season in franchise history. The team placed second in the regular season to qualify for the playoffs. The Canadiens lost in Stanley Cup Finals against Detroit Red Wings 4 games to 3.

Pre-season

"Punch Line" center Elmer Lach retired.

Regular season

Record vs. opponents

Schedule and results

Regular season results
No.	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	W	October 8, 1953	3–0	Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	1–0–0
2	W	October 10, 1953	4–1	Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	2–0–0
3	L	October 11, 1953	1–4	@ Boston Bruins (1953–54)	2–1–0
4	W	October 15, 1953	6–1	New York Rangers (1953–54)	3–1–0
5	W	October 17, 1953	5–2	Boston Bruins (1953–54)	4–1–0
6	L	October 18, 1953	0–4	@ Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	4–2–0
7	W	October 22, 1953	3–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	5–2–0
8	W	October 24, 1953	1–0	Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	6–2–0
9	W	October 25, 1953	2–1	@ New York Rangers (1953–54)	7–2–0
10	W	October 29, 1953	3–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	8–2–0
11	L	October 31, 1953	0–1	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	8–3–0
12	L	November 1, 1953	1–5	@ Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	8–4–0
13	W	November 5, 1953	4–3	New York Rangers (1953–54)	9–4–0
14	W	November 7, 1953	5–2	Boston Bruins (1953–54)	10–4–0
15	L	November 8, 1953	0–2	@ Boston Bruins (1953–54)	10–5–0
16	L	November 11, 1953	1–4	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	10–6–0
17	W	November 12, 1953	4–2	Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	11–6–0
18	L	November 14, 1953	2–3	Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	11–7–0
19	T	November 15, 1953	2–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	11–7–1
20	W	November 19, 1953	1–0	Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	12–7–1
21	W	November 21, 1953	1–0	Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	13–7–1
22	T	November 22, 1953	2–2	@ Boston Bruins (1953–54)	13–7–2
23	W	November 26, 1953	6–3	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	14–7–2
24	L	November 28, 1953	1–3	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	14–8–2
25	L	November 29, 1953	1–2	@ New York Rangers (1953–54)	14–9–2
26	W	December 3, 1953	5–1	Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	15–9–2
27	W	December 5, 1953	4–2	Boston Bruins (1953–54)	16–9–2
28	W	December 6, 1953	7–2	@ Boston Bruins (1953–54)	17–9–2
29	L	December 9, 1953	0–3	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	17–10–2
30	W	December 10, 1953	5–3	Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	18–10–2
31	W	December 12, 1953	7–2	New York Rangers (1953–54)	19–10–2
32	L	December 13, 1953	3–4	@ Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	19–11–2
33	W	December 19, 1953	7–3	Boston Bruins (1953–54)	20–11–2
34	L	December 20, 1953	1–3	@ New York Rangers (1953–54)	20–12–2
35	W	December 26, 1953	2–0	New York Rangers (1953–54)	21–12–2
36	T	December 30, 1953	2–2	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	21–12–3
37	T	December 31, 1953	2–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	21–12–4
38	T	January 2, 1954	1–1	Boston Bruins (1953–54)	21–12–5
39	L	January 3, 1954	3–4	@ New York Rangers (1953–54)	21–13–5
40	W	January 7, 1954	7–3	Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	22–13–5
41	W	January 9, 1954	12–1	Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	23–13–5
42	L	January 10, 1954	1–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	23–14–5
43	W	January 16, 1954	2–1	Boston Bruins (1953–54)	24–14–5
44	L	January 17, 1954	2–3	@ Boston Bruins (1953–54)	24–15–5
45	L	January 21, 1954	0–1	Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	24–16–5
46	W	January 23, 1954	5–1	Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	25–16–5
47	L	January 24, 1954	3–8	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	25–17–5
48	W	January 27, 1954	2–0	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	26–17–5
49	L	January 30, 1954	1–2	New York Rangers (1953–54)	26–18–5
50	L	February 4, 1954	2–4	Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	26–19–5
51	W	February 6, 1954	4–3	New York Rangers (1953–54)	27–19–5
52	W	February 7, 1954	4–1	@ New York Rangers (1953–54)	28–19–5
53	T	February 11, 1954	2–2	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	28–19–6
54	T	February 13, 1954	2–2	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	28–19–7
55	L	February 14, 1954	1–4	@ Boston Bruins (1953–54)	28–20–7
56	W	February 18, 1954	4–2	Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	29–20–7
57	W	February 20, 1954	2–0	Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	30–20–7
58	L	February 22, 1954	0–3	@ Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	30–21–7
59	T	February 25, 1954	0–0	Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	30–21–8
60	W	February 27, 1954	5–0	New York Rangers (1953–54)	31–21–8
61	L	February 28, 1954	0–2	@ New York Rangers (1953–54)	31–22–8
62	T	March 4, 1954	1–1	@ Boston Bruins (1953–54)	31–22–9
63	T	March 6, 1954	3–3	Boston Bruins (1953–54)	31–22–10
64	T	March 7, 1954	2–2	@ Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	31–22–11
65	L	March 11, 1954	0–3	Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	31–23–11
66	W	March 13, 1954	4–0	Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	32–23–11
67	W	March 14, 1954	6–0	@ Chicago Black Hawks (1953–54)	33–23–11
68	L	March 17, 1954	1–3	@ Toronto Maple Leafs (1953–54)	33–24–11
69	W	March 20, 1954	6–1	Detroit Red Wings (1953–54)	34–24–11
70	W	March 21, 1954	3–1	@ New York Rangers (1953–54)	35–24–11

^[1]

Playoffs

Stanley Cup Finals

^[2]

Player statistics

Regular season

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
	RW	70	37	30	67	112
	RW	54	29	25	54	87
	LW	70	15	37	52	85
	C	67	22	24	46	64
	D	68	8	29	37	110
	C	44	13	21	34	22
	C	50	5	21	26	57
	C	48	5	20	25	28
	LW	47	10	13	23	54
	RW	70	13	8	21	22
	D/LW	67	7	14	21	95
	D	70	7	11	18	85
	C	51	5	10	15	12
	D	53	3	12	15	43
	LW	44	4	9	13	24
	LW	32	4	8	12	18
	D	70	1	10	11	89
	RW	37	6	4	10	2
	LW	13	1	4	5	12
	D	41	0	5	5	41
	RW	3	0	1	1	0
	C	2	0	0	0	2
	C	3	0	0	0	0
	C/RW	3	0	0	0	0
	G	53	0	0	0	0
	G	17	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SO
	3180	53	28	19	6	114	2.15	6
	1020	17	7	5	5	27	1.59	5
Team:	4200	70	35	24	11	141	2.01	11

Playoffs

Scoring

Player	Pos	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
	LW	11	5	8	13	8
	RW	11	6	5	11	18
	C	10	2	8	10	4
	RW	11	4	0	4	4
	C	10	0	4	4	4
	RW	11	3	0	3	22
	D	11	2	1	3	4
	D	11	1	2	3	30
	D	10	1	2	3	8
	D/LW	11	0	3	3	7
	RW	11	2	0	2	8
	D	10	0	2	2	12
	C	4	0	2	2	0
	LW	6	1	0	1	4
	C	11	1	0	1	4
	LW	3	0	1	1	0
	C	7	0	1	1	0
	LW	11	0	1	1	19
	D	3	0	0	0	4
	G	3	0	0	0	0
	G	8	0	0	0	0
	LW	3	0	0	0	0

Goaltending

Player	MIN	GP	W	L	GA	GAA	SO
	480	8	5	3	15	1.88	2
	190	3	2	1	3	0.95	1
Team:	670	11	7	4	18	1.61	3

^[3]

See also

• 1953–54 NHL season

References

• Canadiens on Hockey Database
• Canadiens on NHL Reference

Notes and References

1. Web site: 1953–54 Montreal Canadiens Games. Hockey-reference.com . 2009-06-04 .
2. Web site: Montreal Canadiens 1954–55 Game Log and Scores . Databasehockey.com . 2008-12-08 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120212160128/http://www.databasehockey.com/teams/teamscores.htm?tm=MON&yr=1954 . 2012-02-12 .
3. Web site: hockey-reference.com . 2009-05-28 . 1953-54 Montreal Canadiens Statistics - Hockey-Reference.com.