What happened?

Many people consider the Montreal Canadiens dynasty of the 1970’s to be the greatest hockey team ever. The stats sort of agree. The curious thing about the team is that they lost several players that could have probably made the dynasty even more omnipotent and maybe led to 8-9 cups in the decade rather than the 6 won. Here are a few players that left the team. Marc Tardif played on one of the greatest junior teams of all time. The junior Canadians were sensational in the late sixties led by future NHLers Rejean Houle , Gilbert Perreault, Richard Martin, Jocelyn Guevremont, and Andre Dupont among others. Tardif was considered to be a future superstar when he joined the habs with his buddy Reggie Houle. Tardif won the cup with the habs in 1971 but was used sparingly on the talent laden club. In 1973, he won again with the habs and he scored 6 goals and 12 points in 14  playoff games outscoring Guy Lafleur who only had 8 points. The following year Tardif  joined the WHA.  I...

I have heard this more than once in the last few weeks that newly hired Habs VP Jeff Gorton should speak the language of Beliveau. I agree. However, the language of Beliveau was never french. The language of Beliveau was exciting hockey that included nifty stickhandling, great passing, smooth skating, and leadership that led to 10 stanley cups during his career. Beliveau loved hockey and his class on the ice was the true language he spoke. He had english players on his line throughout his career from Dickie Moore to Dick Duff and finally in his last year John Ferguson.  Marc Bergevin spoke french. His favored brand of hockey was not reminiscent of Beliveau and the flying frenchmen but of Bobby Clarke and the broad street bullies. The habs made the stanley cup final last year because of man-handling, cross checking defencemen and forwards and Bernie Parent goaltending. It was not the game Beliveau played and the 1976 habs tried to put an end to when they eliminated the ugly hockey t...

What in tarnation. Has a franchise had a more bizarre few months than the habs? It has been so weird making it to the Stanley Cup final seems like a distant secondary memory. It started even before the end of last season when Jonathan Drouin decided to take a leave of absence during a playoff race. The team made the playoffs and went to the stanley cup final not knowing what was ailing one of their star players.  Once the season ended things took a more twisted turn as the main pillars of the stanley cup run began to crumble or disappear.  I am not sure if I am chronologically listing the twists and turns correctly but here is what happened. Rumours began that Shea Weber was chronically injured and would probably retire.  These rumours have been proven to be true since Shea Weber never showed up for training camp and apparently is still at home in BC. The key word is apparently because all we have had are vague statements from Bergevin as to Weber’s status and zero commun...

Well your move Bergy. Have to admit Carolina has pulled off a brilliant chess move in their feud with the habs.  The history of this feud as most people recall started a few years ago when Bergevin offer sheeted Sebastian Aho. Since the offer sheet stratagem had been shelved by most GMs, it startled the hockey  world and Canes management. In hindsight Bergevin saw the value of Aho and the offer was at fair market value and the Canes were smart to match.  However, Bergevin also made some comments at the time about the financial solvency of Canes ownership. I knew this would not go down well. Some of the habs fanbase then got on social media to ridicule the canes franchise and went so far as to attack some canes journalists. This was not going to end well and now we have the vengeance of Canes ownership two years later. The timing could not come at a worse time for the Habs who have lost Danault to free agency and are limited as to their salary cap.  The only reason Ca...

Do I really need a vacation after the sports euphoria I just incurred being an azzurri and hab fan. Some of it I barely believe even now it was all so surreal. The Azzurri are Emperors of Europe and the Habs are Kings of the North. I was feeling positive about both teams as early as January (see some of my tweets back then) but my faith started to crumble a bit especially with the habs. The habs barely made the playoffs. Some of it was due to Covid and their tortuous schedule when some  of the games had been cancelled due to Armia testing positive. Some of it was also due to their collapse during the year which led to Julien’s ouster.   Bergevin and Molson were finally able to sign free agents when American owners decided not to spend after losing money in empty arenas. The cap space Bergevin had left unused for several years helped as well.  The new habs players brought enthusiasm and a winning culture. Corey Perry was a revelation as he symbolically stood in front of th...

The habs are once again in disarray . Is it time for our collective primal scream...Yes they were in disarray last year when the pandemic hit. There were few bright spots, players having good years could be counted on one hand. Tatar, Gallagher, a revitalized Weber, and the improving Suzuki were the only positives. On the negative side  Carey Price was a shell of his former self. Kotkaniemi was in the AHL, Drouin was recovering from an injury and unable to keep up, and Max Domi decided he was going to play like his Coyote days. Well the NHL resumed the season with an improvised playoffs, the habs played like gangbusters for one series and then gradually receded back to reality against the flyers.  Once again the habs came out like gangbusters this year with several new players. The new players produced and there was eternal hope. However, things started to fall apart at the 10 game mark and now the habs are in eternal freefall. They have changed coaches the conservative Julien...

2020 has been a horrendous year for many of us. Hopefully the vaccines coming in 2021 will erase  this miserable year from our memory banks...anyways back to hockey There has been some talk about the five best trades in Canadiens history. Canadiens' history include a myriad of cups and a myriad of hall of famers. Nope the Weber or the Danault trade are not even in the top ten using any objective measure. Of course if any championships happen in the following years led by Weber and/or Danault there could be a revision of this list. Some of the criteria that should be used is whether there was a marked improvement with the team after the trade and did it lead to playoff or championship success.  We should also consider how lopsided the trade was. The Frank Mahovlich trade was a great trade for the habs and he did win 2 Cups with the habs. However, the red wings received Mickey Redmond in the exchange and Redmond scored 50 goals twice for the wings. The wings also received...