For 1976-77, both O-Pee-Chee and Topps included a series of hockey cards that featured some of the NHL’s top lines. The most valuable is the Long Island Lightning Company of the New York Islanders that features Bryan Trottier, Clark Gillies and Billy Harris. The second most valuable is the LCB Line of the Philadelphia Flyers, featuring Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber and Reg Leach. Right behind is the French Connection of the Buffalo Sabres.
The card was titled ‘Top Scoring Line’ and ‘The French Connection’. On the front were Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin and Rene Robert. The card is number 214 in both the O-Pee-Chee set and Topps set, valued at three times that of a common card.
All three were later inducted into the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame in 1989. Just Gilbert Perreault has a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame, inducted in 1990.
1975-76 Buffalo Sabres
Rick Martin
Gilbert Perreault
Rene Robert
1975-76 Buffalo Sabres
Of course, the 1976-77 hockey card celebrates the achievements of the previous season. The 1975-76 Sabres finished the season with 46 wins, 21 losses and 13 ties for 105 points over 80 games. Buffalo placed second in the Adams Division, behind the Boston Bruins and fourth overall in the 18 team National Hockey League.
The Floyd Smith coached Sabres beat the St. Louis Blues in the preliminary round but it was no easy task. Buffalo won the best of three series, two games to one. However, the Blues outscored the Sabres on the series, 8-7. The final two games were decided in overtime. Buffalo moved on but lost in the quarter-finals to the New York Islanders in six games.
1975-76 was Buffalo’s sixth year in the NHL and was a tough follow-up to their 1974-75 appearance in the Stanley Cup finals. In the previous season, the Sabres bowed out to the Philadelphia Flyers, narrowly avoiding a championship.
The French Connection produced, although not quite as much as they had the year before. Gil Perreault led the way with 44 goals and 69 assists for 113 points over 80 regular season games. He placed ninth in the NHL for goals, tied for third with Jean Ratelle and Guy Lafleur for assists and third in the race for the Art Ross Trophy behind Lafleur and Bobby Clarke. In the playoffs, Perreault added four goals and four assists over nine games.
Rene Robert played 72 games during the regular season, scoring 35 and assisting on 52 for 87 points. He was out of the top ten in all three scoring categories. In the playoffs, Rene scored three and assisted on two over nine games.
Rick Martin scored 49 and assisted on 37 for 86 points over the full 80 game schedule. His goal total placed him seventh in the NHL. Rick led the team in the playoffs with eleven points over nine games.
The French Connection combined for 128 goals and 158 assists for 286 points. The Sabres as a whole scored 339 goals on the season.
Rick Martin
Martin played with the Sabres from 1971-72 to 1980-81. All but four of his 685 NHL regular season games were played with Buffalo with the other four coming with the Los Angeles Kings at the end of his career. Over his 685 games, Rick scored 384 and assisted on 317 for 701 points. Over 63 Stanley Cup playoff games (62 with Buffalo), Martin added another 53 points.
At the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft, Rick was taken fifth overall by the Sabres, behind Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dionne, Jocelyn Guevremont and Gene Carr. The high draft position came on the heels of a 71 goal performance with the Montreal Junior Canadiens over 60 games in 1970-71.
Martin jumped to the Sabres with no time spent in the minors. He 1971-72 rookie season was nothing short of outstanding with 44 goals and 30 assists for 74 points over 73 games. He led the team in goals and tied for the team lead in points with Perreault. His 44 goals placed him sixth in the NHL. However, there was this guy playing net with the Montreal Canadiens named Ken Dryden that beat out Martin for the Calder Trophy. That year, Rick was also named to the roster of Team Canada for the Summit Series but he did not play.
In the previous two seasons, 1973-74 and 1974-75, Martin topped the 50 goal plateau for the only two times in his NHL career. In each season, Rick put 52 pucks in opponent’s nets.
Gil Perreault
Perreault played his entire National Hockey League career, from 1970-71 to 1986-87, with Buffalo. In their first ever shot at the NHL Amateur Draft, Buffalo took Gilbert first overall in 1970. Perreault was also out of the Montreal Junior Canadiens and was teammates with Rick Martin in 1968-69 and 1969-70.
Gil was also added to the Team Canada roster for the Summit Series against the Soviet Union and Perreault played in two of the eight games. He was awarded the Calder Trophy in 1970-71 and won the Lady Byng Trophy in 1972-73, his only two personal accolades in the NHL.
Over 1,191 NHL regular season games, Perreault scored 512 and assisted on 814 for 1,326 points. He added 103 points over 90 Stanley Cup playoff games. 1975-76 was the first of Gil’s two 100+ point seasons in the league, totaling 106 in 1979-80. Perreault served as team captain with the Sabres from 1982-83 to 1985-86. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990.
Rene Robert
Robert played in the NHL from 1970-71 to 1981-82 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabres and Colorado Rockies. His career started with five games for Toronto in 1970-71 and ended with Toronto.
Over 744 regular season NHL games, Rene scored 284 and assisted on 418 for 702 points. he added 41 points over 50 playoff games. Robert was traded to the Sabres from Pittsburgh midway through the 1971-72 season. He played for Buffalo until the end of the 1978-79 season. Rene was captain of the Colorado Rockies for 28 games in 1980-81 before being traded to Toronto.
1974-75 was Robert’s best offensive season in the NHL. He scored 40 and assisted on 60 for an even 100 points for the Sabres.