The 1977–78 NHL season was the 61st season of the National Hockey League. The Montreal Canadiens won their third Stanley Cup in a row, defeating the Boston Bruins four games to two in the Stanley Cup Finals. League business Prior to the start of the season, Clarence Campbell retired as NHL President. John Ziegler succeeded him in that capacity. A trophy for the top defensive forward, the Frank J. Selke Trophy, made its debut this season and went to Bob Gainey, who played left wing for Montreal. On June 14, 1978, the league approved the merger of the financially struggling Cleveland Barons and Minnesota North Stars franchises, reducing the number of teams to 17, with the North Stars (now the Dallas Stars) assuming the Barons' place in the Adams Division. It was the first instance of a franchise dissolving since the Brooklyn Americans ceased operations in 1942. The next time the NHL had a team in Ohio would be the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2000–01 season. The league changed the playoff qualification format for this season. Whereas before the top three teams in every division qualified, the format was changed to guarantee the top two teams in each division a playoff spot. The last four qualifiers were from the next-best four regular-season records from teams finishing third or lower. Teams were required to place the last names of players on the back of all jerseys starting with this season, but Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard initially refused, fearing that he would not be able to sell programs at his team's games. The NHL responded by threatening to levy a fine on the team in February 1978, so Ballard complied by making the letters the same color as the background they were on, which for the team's road jerseys was blue. The League threatened further sanctions, and despite playing more than one game with their "unreadable" sweaters, Ballard's Maple Leafs finally complied in earnest by making the letters white on the blue road jerseys. (Blue letter names would not come to the white home jerseys until the following year.) Officials began wearing their surnames on the back of their sweaters instead of being identified by numbers, as they were previously. The NHL returned to using uniform numbers for officials for the 1994-95 season. Regular season Bobby Orr sat out the season to rest his oft-injured knee in the