The incomparable tradition of the Montreal Canadiens is part burden and part inspiration.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell which is the greater part.
You know you’re an iconic franchise when a children’s story about your hockey sweater is in itself iconic. Every Canadiens fan learns it from the moment she gets her first José Theodore tuque: The 24 Stanley Cups. The Hall of Famers. The great coaches. Three separate dynasties, those of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, when most teams would be hard-put to claim one.
The Rocket. The Pocket Rocket. Le Gros Bill. Boom-Boom. The Roadrunner. The Flower. Big Bird. St. Patrick.
The Forum, and the Forum ghosts. The Miracle Cups: 1971, 1986, 1993. Dick Irvin Sr., Toe Blake, Scotty Bowman. Frank Selke and Sam Pollock.
With the beginning of each new season it’s there, a vibrant presence even with a history that reaches back to Newsy Lalonde and Howie Morenz, to Georges Vézina, George Hainsworth.
Not only does Montreal have more star players, more dynasties and more Stanley Cups than any other franchise in the NHL, they also have more names, in two languages: le Club de hockey Canadien, the Canadiens, the Habs, le tricolore, les Glorieux, le bleu-blanc-rouge, la Sainte-Flanelle.
From the closing of the Forum in 1996 to the centennial celebrations during the 2009-2010 season, the organization fairly wallowed in its glorious history, perhaps as a distraction from an inglorious present. It came to seem that the torch, when it was passed, weighed more than the increasingly high-tech scoreboards at the Bell Centre.
I was reminded of the weight of that tradition this week when hockey writer Ken Campbell, in a series for the Hockey News, posted his ranking of each team’s Mount Rushmore of four great players with the Edmonton Oilers ranking first and the Pittsburgh Penguins second.
When Campbell went with Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri and Connor McDavid, I responded: Rocket Richard, Jean Béliveau, Guy Lafleur, Doug Harvey. But I had not listened to Campbell’s explanation of his criteria — one of those iconic gentlemen had to be a current player.
Much as we admire what the Canadiens are building today, no sensible fan can argue that any player on the ice this season is up there with McDavid, or with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in Pittsburgh.
That didn’t stop fans from weighing in en masse with lists of great Canadiens players from seasons past. When the name Sprague Cleghorn popped up, I opted out.
The Habs, however, have it all when it comes to sheer depth. “The Canadiens,” Campbell said, “have had so many iconic players over the years that their fourth and fifth iterations of Mount Rushmore would be high on this list.”
By taking a player who is technically on the current roster, Campbell ranked the Canadiens third with Rocket Richard, Jean Béliveau, Guy Lafleur and Carey Price. But Price, who never won a Stanley Cup, ranks no better than third on Montreal’s own goaltending depth chart, after Patrick Roy and Ken Dryden.
That’s what life is like with this franchise. Every Canadiens team operates in the shadow of what is now 115 years of tradition. Wisely, current management has edged away from the constant drumbeat of the past. The rebuild is all about winning now — or at least in the near future.
That tradition can drag you down or lift you up. On balance, it still operates in the team’s favour, especially against Original Six rivals like Boston and Toronto. How was it that the Canadiens were able to overcome a 3-0 deficit against what was clearly a more talented Maple Leafs team in the 2021 playoffs?
Well, the Canadiens have won 10 Stanley Cups since 1967, while the Leafs haven’t made it to a single final over that same span. Decades of winning conditioned Montreal fans to demand more; decades of losing have led Toronto fans to expect less. Both teams fulfilled their expectations.
And what of the immediate expectations in Montreal?
Against Ottawa Tuesday night, Kirby Dach was the best player on the ice. He looked big, fast and dangerous. Healthy, Dach makes this team better all by himself. Paired with Patrik Laine (assuming Laine is indeed completely healthy and ready to go by Christmas) Dach is one of those players who move the needle, raising expectations.
So is Laine, obviously, and Lane Hutson, although it’s a lot to expect a 165-pound rookie defenceman to fix your ailing power play by his lonesome.
There’s more. Ivan Demidov, a season away, was named the KHL’s rookie of the month. With Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Alex Newhook, Kaiden Guhle, Joshua Roy, Owen Beck, Oliver Kapanen and Arber Xhekaj to protect them all, the Canadiens have something going on in the present.
So what’s our prophecy? “In the mix” is a meaningless phrase, when 20 to 25 teams are in the post-season hunt every year. It’s a cop-out, so let’s go with a real prediction:
The Canadiens are going to make the playoffs this season.
Next season, it’s time to start homing in on that elusive 25th Stanley Cup.
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