Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis was born on June 18, 1975.
Less than four months later, the Canadiens kicked off the 1975-76 NHL season with a 9-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings at the Forum. They followed that up the next night with a 9-4 win over the Bruins in Boston.
The Canadiens would go on to finish the 1975-76 season with a 58-11-11 record while outscoring the opposition 337-174. Guy Lafleur led the NHL in scoring with 56-69-125 totals and the Canadiens would go on to win their first of four straight Stanley Cups. During those four championship seasons, the Canadiens had an overall regular-season record of 229-46-45.
There will never be another dynasty team like it in today’s salary-capped NHL.
There’s no way a team in today’s NHL would be able to fit the likes of goalie Ken Dryden, defencemen Serge Savard, Larry Robinson and Guy Lapointe, and forwards Lafleur, Bob Gainey, Steve Shutt, Yvan Cournoyer and Jacques Lemaire under the US$88 million salary cap for one season, never mind four straight years.
Before Tuesday night’s game between the Canadiens and New York Rangers at the Bell Centre, there will be a pregame ceremony to honour the 1970s dynasty team.
“They were good years for my father,” St. Louis said with a grin after the Canadiens held their morning skate Tuesday at the Bell Centre.
St. Louis added that it’s important for the Canadiens to celebrate the history of the franchise and give the players from those glory years the respect they deserve.
“To me, whenever I see the older guys there’s a sense of pride,” St. Louis said about the former Canadiens. “They’re very proud that they wore that jersey. You can see it, you can feel it. It’s in their blood. To me, I want my players to have that pride. And it’s a lot easier to be proud of something when you’ve had success, right? So for me, we’re chasing that.”
There’s still a long road ahead in the Canadiens’ rebuilding process, which is only in its third full season. The team understandably wants to focus more on the present and the future, but kudos to Jeff Gorton, the executive vice-president of hockey operations, and general manager Kent Hughes for still wanting to honour the past after former GM Marc Bergevin had made the former players feel unwelcome at the Bell Centre.
None of the players on the current Canadiens are old enough to remember the glory days. David Savard, the oldest player on the team, celebrated his 34th birthday on Tuesday. Savard was four months shy of his third birthday the last time the Canadiens hoisted the Stanley Cup, in 1993, but he grew up in St-Hyacinthe as a huge fan of the team.
“We have talked about how crazy this city gets when it’s playoff time,” Savard said about sharing some of the team’s history with his younger teammates. “I was a big fan growing up and this team is a winning culture and we got to get back to winning Stanley Cups and I think that’s what (management’s) doing. We’re building something really solid so the team can win many Stanley Cups in the next few years and that’s the plan.”
The Canadiens’ Michael Pezzetta grew up in Toronto as a big Maple Leafs fan. He was born five years after the Canadiens’ last Stanley Cup victory and — to make Montreal fans feel better — 31 years after the last time the Leafs won the Cup.
Pezzetta said he enjoys seeing the former Canadiens players around the Bell Centre and getting a chance to chat with them.
“You see guys walking around — especially at first when I was first getting here,” said Pezzetta, who first joined the Canadiens in the 2021-22 season. “You see them walking around and maybe you don’t recognize them as much. Then you’re like: Wait a minute — you ask Dave (Savard) or one of the French guys, ‘Hey, who’s that?’ And it’s, ‘Blah-blah-blah, he’s got 10 Stanley Cups or eight Stanley Cups.’ You’re like, ‘Oh, my God! What?’ It’s like everyone’s got fingers covered in rings. It’s definitely special and it just goes to the history here and you just want to add to that.”
Personally, it’s crazy to think back that during my five years at Centennial Regional High School in Greenfield Park from 1976-80, the Canadiens won four Stanley Cups. Skipping school for a day to attend the Stanley Cup parade was like an annual event. One year, one of my buddies said he couldn’t make it to the parade, but added: “I’ll go next year.”
He did.
“We have such a rich history here,” Pezzetta said. “You look on the walls back here (in the locker room) and the names of all the people who have come before you. It’s definitely cool whenever they’re all in the building and you get to see them on the ice. It’s definitely special for everybody.”