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Bobby Sheehan, Rangers playoff hero and Canadiens Stanley Cup champion, dead at 77
Bobby Sheehan, the former forward whose speed helped the New York Rangers reach the 1979 Stanley Cup Final, has died aged 77. The Canadiens announced that he died at his home in Massachusetts on Saturday; no cause was given.
Sheehan had spent the 1978-79 season with the Rangers’ AHL affiliate, scoring 33 goals and providing 48 assists, before being called up after the team lost its opening play-off game against Philadelphia. He scored in the series and then in each of the first three games against the Islanders, helping the Rangers reach the Final, where they lost to Montreal in five games. Earlier in his career, he won the 1971 Stanley Cup with the Canadiens; he also played 310 NHL games and 241 games in the WHA.
In short
- Bobby Sheehan has died aged 77.
- His speed helped the Rangers reach the 1979 Final.
- He won the 1971 Stanley Cup with Montreal.
Explained simply
The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy of North American ice hockey. The NHL’s play-offs are a knockout competition: teams must win successive series to reach the final, which is played between the last two teams standing.
The New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens are long-established NHL teams. Bobby Sheehan was a forward, a player whose main role is to help create and score goals; after playing for the Rangers’ minor-league affiliate, he joined their NHL side during the 1979 play-offs.
Sheehan had also won the Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1971. His career included games in both the NHL and the separate World Hockey Association, a rival professional league that operated from 1972 to 1979.