It was the one of the few times I rode on the Canadiens’ charter to a game, back in the days before Bob Gainey gave journalists the heave-ho from the team plane.
For the long, long flight from Montreal, I was seated up front next to club president Ronald Corey. As we landed, there were none of the usual cheers. The players seated behind us began swearing like sailors. We were landing in a driving snowstorm.
Not a surprise during hockey season, perhaps — but we were landing in Phoenix on a trip that included Dallas and Nashville and almost every player on the flight had packed his golf clubs.
The weather would improve, but everything else would get worse. The Canadiens began the trip at 8-14-3 and finished it 8-16-4. The morning skate before the game against the Coyotes was held at a tiny rink 20 miles out in the suburbs, where the rusty old Zamboni belched black smoke and players staggered off the ice feeling nauseous.
Back at the team hotel that afternoon, I got a call from Mark Recchi, asking if I could come to his room. I found Recchi waiting with team captain Vincent Damphousse and Shayne Corson, another veteran leader.
The subject was the team’s depth — or lack of same. There was talent on the roster — those three players along with Saku Koivu, Martin Rucinsky, Brian Savage, the inscrutable Vladimir Malakhov. But the team’s best players were banged up and playing hurt because there was no one to take their place. Years of bad trades and worse draft picks had taken a toll and the cupboard was bare. Players were being called up who had no business playing in the NHL.
After we talked, I wrote a lengthy piece on the precipitous decline of the once-mighty Canadiens. I filed it from Dallas, where the team lost again.
The Canadiens finished that 1998-99 season with 75 points, good for 11th out of 14 teams in the Eastern Conference. That March, Damphousse was traded to San Jose. In May, Corey resigned as team president, his legacy two Stanley Cups, the Bell Centre and a floundering franchise.
Fast forward a quarter-century and here we are, about to start a new season with a team that finished last in the Atlantic Division with 76 points, its reward the considerable talent that is Ivan Demidov.
So why does this feel so different from the nadir of 1998? Superficially, we see Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Kirby Dach, Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, Lane Hutson and Patrik Laine when he’s healthy.
But the real difference is the subject of that long-ago chat with Recchi, Damphousse and Corson: depth. As the pre-season ended, there were brisk arguments as to who should go and who should stay. Joshua Roy did not have a strong camp and was sent down to the Laval Rocket on Monday, while Emil Heineman and Oliver Kapanen did and skated with the main club at practice.
So who should start on the wings with Kirby Dach? And what of centreman Owen Beck? He will be in Montreal sooner or later, but when? With Demidov and the highly regarded Michael Hage in the pipeline, where do forwards like Sean Farrell and Filip Mesar fit in?
Even with the trades of useful defencemen Johnathan Kovacevic (AKA Superstar since his performance with the Devils in Prague) and Jordan Harris, the club is so deep on the blue line that first rounders Logan Mailloux and David Reinbacher were ticketed for Laval before Reinbacher was hurt.
The depth is obvious, even in goal. The best pre-season performance was not from either Samuel Montembeault or Cayden Primeau but from young Czech netminder Jakub Dobes, while Jacob Fowler is still at Boston College.
For now, the change is visible mostly on the depth chart because pre-season is meaningless by definition. The games start to count Wednesday, when the mighty Maple Leafs come to town. (The “national” media, of course, has already awarded the Stanley Cup to Toronto, but we know how that story ends.)
In truth, the tough Atlantic Division is divided into two tiers — the Panthers, Bruins, Leafs and Lightning in first class, the Red Wings, Sabres, Senators and Habs in second. For any of the second-tier teams to climb, someone needs to fall. The team most likely to tumble would be Tampa (which had to give up both Steven Stamkos and Mikhail Sergachev.)
So if someone falls, who moves up? Detroit is closest — but I’m picking the Canadiens to get there first.
No one said it will be easy. If the regular-season special teams are as dreadful as they were in pre-season, the Canadiens are a dead lock to earn a top-5 lottery pick. Even if that’s the case, this team has come a long way from that charter flight into snowy Phoenix 26 years ago.
If nothing else, they’re way more fun to watch.
Heroes: Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels, Arber Xhekaj, Johnathan Kovacevic, Coco Gauff, Napheesa Collier, Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Bridget Carleton &&&& last but not least, Shohei Ohtani.
Zeros: Roman Rotenberg, Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins, Deshaun Watson, Aaron Rodgers, Bev Priestman, John Herdman, John Fisher, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria.
Now and forever.