How the world looked like last time Habs/Leafs faced each other in the playoffs!

[Artorius Horus T]

OJ Simpson was 31, still playing in the NFL

 

[Artorius Horus T]

1978 NHL Draft had 22 rounds. 234 players were drafted
2020 NHL Draft had 7 rounds. 217 players were drafted

 

[hamzarocks]

I was -20 years old lool. Hope this series has the intensity and nastiness that people are hyping it to have.

Leafs vs Habs should he a fun series

 

[Artorius Horus T]

The first mandatory helmet season was 1979-1980 and that was for the players who were first year players
veterans had the option to choose to use a helmet or not to use.

 

[hoglund]

The average age of the Baby Boomer generation was only 24 years old last time Leafs/Habs met, today it's 66!

1979 was so long ago that it's closer to the first year of WWII than the present day

my dad is a baby boomer and he was 37 and my mother was 36 and they were the typical baby boomer.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Phil Esposito held the most goals by a player in a single season record : 76
and most points by a player in a single season record : 152.

 

[Artorius Horus T]

Only 19 different players had reached the 50 goal plateau. (in a single season)
That number today is 91...

I think the 80's and early, mid 90's broke the NHL...

 

[thewall]

Imagine doing 1967 to honnor the failures of the Laughs.

 

[c9777666]

Mike Gartner was in the WHA

 

[notDatsyuk]

Mike Gartner was in the WHA

So were Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, and Wayne Gretzky.

Also Dave Keon, Rick Vaive, Michel Goulet, Paul Henderson, Rob Ramage, and J C Tremblay.

Goalies included Dave Dryden, Mike Liut, and Richard Brodeur.

 

[c9777666]

NBA Finals games were on tape delay

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

The first mandatory helmet season was 1979-1980 and that was for the players who were first year players
veterans had the option to choose to use a helmet or not to use.

Craig MacTavish always annoyed me for not wearing a helmet. He looked like an Easter Island head if it had a mullet.

 

[Maestro84]

I was -20 years old lool. Hope this series has the intensity and nastiness that people are hyping it to have.

Leafs vs Habs should he a fun series

Wow you're a youngster!

 

[Maestro84]

Imagine doing 1967 to honnor the failures of the Laughs.

Last time Leafs won was the height of British Beatle Mania, Civil Rights Movement, and counterculture era.

Moonlanding didn't happen yet, it was the inaguaral season for the Super Bowl, England was the reigning WC champs (lol), MLK was still alive, and only the O6 were in the NHL

 

[hamzarocks]

Wow you're a youngster!

Yeah lol. The oldest leaf player I've seen play is Mats Sundin and even that was like 5/6 games in 2007 and another dozen in 2009 (became a leaf and hockey fan full time in 2011).

A lot of the legendary playoff series people talk about the 80s/90s/early 00s never got to experience. Thankfully YouTube has highlights but overall missed most legends career.

Still happy got to see Sid, Malkin, Ovy, Kane and now Mcdavid, Mack, Drai, and Matthews

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

"Different" is a vast understatement. The internet brought a new "normal".

 

[Eisen]

It's been 42 years since this iconic match-up actually budded heads in the postseason and for many fans like myself, this is the first time its happened in my lifetime. The world was an unrecognizable place the last time these two Canadian O6 teams squared off in the playoffs way back in spring 1979.

In hockey:
- There were only 17 teams in the league
- Only one active NHL player (Chara) was alive then
- Gretzky had yet to play his first NHL game
- The WHA was still its own entity

In sports:
- ESPN did not exist
- The 3-point shot in basketball did not exist
- Pro athletes couldn't compete at the Olympics
- Moses Malone was the NBA MVP
- Kevin Keegan won Ballon D'Or
- New York Cosmos with Pele, Cruyff and Beckenbauer were still in existence
- Steelers won their third SB in 5 years
- Muhammad Ali was still an active boxer
- Bjorn Borg was the number one men's tennis player

In entertainment:
- Heart of Glass by Blondie was the number one song
- "Alien" was the top grossing movie
- The Matarese Circle by Robert Lundlum was the top selling book
- Jon Voight and Jane Fonda won best actors and actresses, respectively
- Michael Jackson released his first solo album
- Wheel of Fortune and The Price is Right were in its early seasons; Jeopardy with Alex Trebek was still years away from launching
- Three's Company was the most popular TV show in America

In business/technology:
- Apple II discontinued 2 years after release (this company will never make it )
- Space Invader's was the top selling video game
- Toshiba Blackstripe was the most popular TV model
- Oldsmobile Cutlass was the top selling car in America
- Typewriters were still commonly used (way more than a personalized computer which was a rare luxury)
- Cell phones, internet, and social media was not even in the picture (the only phone available was the one hanging on the wall)
- DNA testing was in its infancy

World news/politics:
- Only 8 countries were in the EU
- China passed the one child policy
- Jimmy Carter was the US President
- Voyager I captures Jupiter
- Smallpox was declared as fully eradicated
- HIV had yet to be discovered
- Canada's Charter of Rights & Freedoms was still 3 years away from being established
- USSR goes into Afghanistan
- Thatcher elected as first female prime minister in UK

It's quite literally been several generations in the making, hopefully this will be an entertaining series despite no fans being in the building!

Ahhh, good times.

 

[Eisen]

Checked if anything notable or wild happened in soccer that year and wasn't disappointed

1979 is so long ago that...

...Nottingham Forest were Champions of Europe after beating Malmö FF(!) 1-0 in the final

...Barcelona won their first ever European trophy, beating Fortuna Düsseldorf 4-3 after extra time to lift the european cup winner's cup (entire match available on youtube)

...for the sake of completeness, Borussia Mönchengladbach lifted the UEFA Cup, beating Red Star Belgrade 2-1 on aggregate.

Before footy became a money pit.

 

[Maestro84]

Yeah lol. The oldest leaf player I've seen play is Mats Sundin and even that was like 5/6 games in 2007 and another dozen in 2009 (became a leaf and hockey fan full time in 2011).

A lot of the legendary playoff series people talk about the 80s/90s/early 00s never got to experience. Thankfully YouTube has highlights but overall missed most legends career.

Still happy got to see Sid, Malkin, Ovy, Kane and now Mcdavid, Mack, Drai, and Matthews

Honestly you picked a pretty good time to start watching. There was a new generation of stars (Sid, Ovi, Geno), salary cap was introduced, and scoring went up for the first time since the mid 90s.

Late 90s up until the lockout was pretty unwatchable with all the trapping if I’m being honest

 

[Dog]

I was -5 years it was hard existence.

 

[Confused Turnip]

This song itself is 26 years old by the way.

 

[Confused Turnip]

Berlin, Germany is another interesting one. It was virtually destroyed after WWII and today, it's one of the most robust cities in Western Europe

A better example might be Warsaw, which actually had no intact buildings at the end of the war at all. Or Hiroshima, where one side was totally levelled but the other side of the mountain stayed up, and you can see the contrast.

 

[Jive Pawnbroker]

Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park - what a night that was.

 

[c9777666]

The St. Louis Blues missed the playoffs- something they would not do again until 2006

 

[Gnova]

Everyone is forgetting the most significant fact of 1979.
London Calling was released.