1979-80 O-Pee-Chee (and Topps) Montreal Canadiens hockey cards (and that Gretzky card, too)

The 1979-80 season saw a lot of changes for the Montreal Canadiens, the NHL and hockey cards. The Canadiens' dynasty had come to an end. After winning 4 consecutive Stanley Cups, star players Ken Dryden, Yvan Cournoyer and Jacques Lemaire all retired following the 1978-79 season, while coach Scotty Bowman left the team to become the coach and general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. Four teams from the now defunct World Hockey Association joined the NHL. One of those teams, the Edmonton Oilers, had a young superstar named Wayne Gretzky. You might have heard of him. And hockey cards had bright blue borders for the first time since 1962-63, which was the only other time they had them. The Canadiens had a record of 47-20-13 and 107 points in 1979-80, which placed them 1st in the Norris Division and 3rd overall. After sweeping the Hartford Whalers in the 1st round of the playoffs, the Canadiens suffered a shocking upset in the quarter-finals at the hands of the Minnesota North Stars, losing in 7 games. That brought to an end the team's quest to match its own record of 5 straight championships, which had been accomplished from 1955-56 to 1959-60. The one Topps card in the video is the 1978-79 semi-finals card. Topps produced a card for each of the 2 semi-finals, while O-Pee-Chee opted to bypass those 2 cards and include only a card of the Stanley Cup finals. And, of course, Wayne Gretzky never played for the Montreal Canadiens, but you can't display cards from 1979-80 without showing perhaps the most famous hockey card of all-time. The music in the video is the instrumental version of "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer.