# 1969 Stanley Cup Finals

The 1969 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1968–69 season, and the culmination of the 1969 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested between the defending champion Montreal Canadiens and the St. Louis Blues, a rematch of the previous year's finals. As they did in the previous matchup, the Canadiens won the series in four games.

## Paths to the Finals

Montreal defeated the New York Rangers 4–0 and the Boston Bruins 4–2 to advance to the finals.
St. Louis defeated the Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings in four games each.

## Game summaries

This was the second playoff series between these two teams. Their only previous meeting came in the previous year's Stanley Cup Finals. In this year's six-game regular season series, there were five wins for Montreal and one tie.
Claude Ruel became the eleventh rookie coach to win the Stanley Cup. Montreal goaltender Rogie Vachon limited St. Louis to three goals in four games. In the process, he earned his first career playoff shutout.
* Montreal won series 4–0

## Stanley Cup engraving

The 1969 Stanley Cup was presented to Canadiens captain Jean Beliveau by NHL President Clarence Campbell following the Canadiens 2–1 win over the Blues in game four.
The following Canadiens players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup
1968–69 Montreal Canadiens

### Players
#### Centres

* 4 Jean Beliveau (Captain)
* 6 Ralph Backstrom
* 16 Henri Richard (A)
* 23 Christian Bordeleau
* 25 Jacques Lemaire

#### Wingers

* 5 Gilles Tremblay
* 8 Dick Duff
* 12 Yvan Cournoyer
* 14 Claude Provost (A)
* 15 Bobby Rousseau
* 20-21 Lucien Grenier
* 22 John Ferguson Sr.
* 24 Mickey Redmond

#### Defencemen

* 2 Jacques Laperriere
* 3 Jean-Claude J. C. Tremblay
* 10 Edward Ted Harris
* 17 Larry Hillman
* 18 Serge Savard
* 19 Terry Harper

#### Goaltenders

* 30 Rogatien Vachon
* 1 Lorne Gump Worsley
* 1-29 Amthony Tony Esposito

### Coaching and administrative staff

* J. David Molson (President/Owner), William Molson (Vice President/Owner)
* Peter Molson (Vice President/Owner), Sam Pollock (Vice President/General Manager)
* Claude Ruel (Head Coach)
* Larry Albut (Trainer), Eddy Palchak (Asst. Trainer)
* Floyd Curry (Asst. General Manager)^

### Stanley Cup engraving

* Anthony "Tony" Esposito's name was misspelled on the Replica Stanley Cup created in 1992–93 as P. FSPOSITO instead of A. ESPOSITO. Tony Esposito only played 13 regular season games, but qualified to be engraved on the Stanley Cup. Tony dressed for every game in the finals due to Gump Worsley being injured. Tony then won the Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year) with Chicago in 1970. He was 4th player to accomplish the feat of winning the Stanley Cup before winning the Calder Trophy.
* Claude Ruel was the 10th NHL rookie coach to win the Stanley Cup.
* &-Gilles Tremblay missed the playoffs with a career-ending injury. His name was still included in the Stanley Cup.
* &-Lucien Grenier played 2 semi-final games, but his name was left off the Stanley Cup even though he qualified to be engraved on it. He was left off for playing the whole regular season in the minors.

### Won 4 Stanley Cups in 5 Years with Montreal 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969

Ralph Backstrom, Jean Beliveau, Yvan Cournoyer, Dick Duff, John Ferguson, Terry Harper, Ted Harris, Jacques Laperriere, Claude Provost, Henri Richard, Bobby Rousseau, Gilles Tremblay, Jean-Claude Tremblay, Gump Worsley (14 players), David Molson, Sam Pollock, Larry Aubut (3 non-players).