Top 100 Habs By Decade: 9. 1989-1999

In recognition of the Canadiens Centennial next Friday, we at Lions in Winter have been doing what we like best – making lists. As a precursor to publishing the definitive LIW top 100, we will be counting down the decades from least successful to most successful and naming our LIW top 10 players for the ten-year span. You should expect a few each day for the next few days.

Though this celebration has inevitably lost some steam due to relentless marketing and pre-game ceremonies for all of living memory, it would be a shame to let it pass unnoticed just because Mr. Gillett wanted to cash in before he cashed out.

1989-1999

An objective look reveals what we all fear – that we became fans of this team just as its fortunes began to turn. From a Cup final to end the decade previous, these ten years took the team to its lowest in 1999.

There were good years, of course, and a Stanley Cup. But after that amazing run of 1993, the years were not kind to the Canadiens, as they went from perennial contender for league and playoff crowns to being just one of 24 odd teams.

Thanks to the early years, there were good players on the team and good players to trade for other good players. One trade chain (the Richer chain) provided 4 players for our top 10 from the 1990s.

[Note: Each player only appears in one decade's top 10 – so Brisebois fans, hold on to your hats]


10. Shayne Corson (Top 100 all-time, Profile)

	Years(s)	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	GWG	Awards*
Habs career (Season)	1985-2000	662	168	255	423	+70	26	AS
Decade best (Season)	1989-90	76	31	44	75	+33	6	AS
Habs career (Playoffs)	2002-06	90	28	35	63	+16	7
Decade best (Playoffs)	1990-91	13	9	6	15	+5	3

A good solid player from the 1980s who had his best offensive seasons with Richer. Came back for a stint where he was captain and all-star again.


9. Eric Desjardins (Top 100 all-time, Profile)

	Years(s)	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	GWG	Awards*
Habs career (Season)	1988-95	405	43	136	179	+55	7	AS
Decade best (Season)	1992-93	82	13	32	45	+20	1
Habs career (Playoffs)	2002-06	71	9	20	29	+6	1	SC
Decade best (Playoffs)	1992-93	20	4	10	14	+2	1	SC

A player who would have held his own in the dynasty years, I bet. He saved his best year for when it counted, and his 1 playoff GWG, well we all know that...


8. Denis Savard (Top 100 all-time, Profile)

	Years(s)	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	GWG	Awards*
Habs career (Season)	1990-93	210	72	107	179	+6	7	AS, HOF
Decade best (Season)	1991-92	77	28	42	70	+6	5	AS
Habs career (Playoffs)	1990-93	38	5	25	30	-3	0	SC
Decade best (Playoffs)	1991-92	11	3	9	12	+1	0

Came to Montreal under immense pressure to be THE star. Wasn't the dominant force, but still a big contributor over his 3 seasons in town.


7. Mathieu Schneider (Top 100 all-time, Profile)

	Years(s)	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	GWG	Awards*
Habs career (Season)	1987-2009	383	68	148	216	+36	13
Decade best (Season)	1993-94	75	20	32	52	+15	4
Habs career (Playoffs)	1990-2009	46	5	16	21	+5	0	SC
Decade best (Playoffs)	1990-91	13	2	7	9	+2	0

Learned to play offense from the back in Montreal. Was a pretty good option for D as well.


6. Pierre Turgeon (Top 100 all-time, Profile)

	Years(s)	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	GWG	Awards*
Habs career (Season)	1994-96	104	50	77	127	+35	8	AS
Decade best (Season)	1995-96	80	38	58	96	+19	6	AS
Habs career (Playoffs)	1995-96	6	2	4	6	+1	0
Decade best (Playoffs)	1995-96	6	2	4	6	+1	0

The best season from a Canadiens player since Naslund, and it still stands.


5. Mark Recchi (Top 100 all-time, Profile)

	Years(s)	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	GWG	Awards*
Habs career (Season)	1994-99	346	120	202	322	+23	18	AS
Decade best (Season)	1995-96	82	28	50	78	+20	6
Habs career (Playoffs)	1996-98	21	11	13	24	+5	2
Decade best (Playoffs)	1997-98	10	4	8	12	+2	2

Like clockwork, both in being healthy for games and scoring.


4. Kirk Muller (Top 100 all-time, Profile)

	Years(s)	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	GWG	Awards*
Habs career (Season)	1991-95	267	104	143	247	+1	15	AS
Decade best (Season)	1992-93	80	37	57	94	+8	4	AS
Habs career (Playoffs)	1992-94	38	20	12	32	+3	6	SC
Decade best (Playoffs)	1992-93	20	10	7	17	+4	3	SC

Could find a new gear in important games and was pivotal in helping the whole team to do just that in several consecutive OTs.


3. Stephane Richer (Top 100 all-time, Profile)

	Years(s)	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	GWG	Awards*
Habs career (Season)	1984-98	490	225	196	421	+65	36	AS
Decade best (Season)	1989-90	75	51	40	91	+35	8
Habs career (Playoffs)	1986-97	77	36	21	57	+1	9	SC
Decade best (Playoffs)	1990-91	13	9	5	14	E	1

The last 50-goal season from a Canadiens player, a link to Lafleur. Richer was a serious threat in the first few years of the decade.


2. Vincent Damphousse (Top 100 all-time, Profile)

	Years(s)	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-	GWG	Awards*
Habs career (Season)	1992-99	519	184	314	498	+26	35
Decade best (Season)	1992-93	84	39	58	97	+5	8
Habs career (Playoffs)	1993-98	48	19	24	43	E	5	SC
Decade best (Playoffs)	1992-93	20	11	12	23	+8	3	SC

The most unheralded scoring machine, captain, cup-winning, hometown hero you could imagine. Going out on a low note shouldn't eclipse what he managed in the mid-90s.


1. Patrick Roy (Top 100 all-time, Profile)

	Years(s)	GP	W	L	T	GAA	S%	SO	Awards*
Habs career (Season)	1984-2005	551	289	175	66	2.78	0.904	29	3 V, 4 WJ, AS, HOF
Decade best (Season)	1991-92	67	36	22	8	2.36	0.914	5	V, WJ, AS
Habs career (Playoffs)	1986-94	114	70	42	0	2.46	0.914	5	2 SC, 2 CS
Decade best (Playoffs)	1992-93	20	16	4	0	2.13	0.929	0	SC, CS

He finds himself in the 1990s, but could head the 1980s list. Patrick was the source of most success in this decade – winning most individual honours and taking the team for a nice ride to LA to receive the silverware.


* Awards: V = Vezina trophy; WJ = William Jennings trophy (GA); AS= All-star; HOF = Hall of Fame; SC = Stanley Cup; CS = Conn Smythe.

Stanley Cup Heroes: Gary Leeman – Critical Piece?

Of all the stories passed down over the years about the 1993 Stanley Cup win, very few cast Gary Leeman as a central character. This is right. Gary was not a central character – he was benched in many playoff games and relegated to fourth line on many others. But at the time, Gary Leeman was a very important and significant player to me.

My first acquaintance with Gary Leeman was made in 1989-90. I had recently begun taking hockey very seriously and Stephane Richer was my favourite player. Back then, it was customary to think that the Canadiens would be in the running for awards and league leads in various categories. 1989 was laden in trophies for the Canadiens and Patrick Roy was setting standards.

For me the race to watch was the goalscoring lead. Gretzky could shut down the Art Ross competition in December, but since he wasn't a goal man, that race seemed open to me. What's more we had a horse, and his name was Stephane Richer. He'd done 50 goals before, so he was legit. Anyway, as the season went on and I watched for Richer goals and Habs wins on HNIC, it became clear that Stephane was going to have a little rivalry going with Gary Leeman.

Though I certainly kept tabs on Gary from that point (thinking back, I was probably unlucky enough to have picked him in the pool the next year), his career didn't really make that big an impression on me. The Leafs back then were in the West and I wasn't even aware that I was supposed to dislike them. They were sufficiently bad anyway, so there seemed little point. Any hockey fan would certainly cite the 10 player holiday season swap announced during HNIC as a big moment, but again it was Campbell conference fodder (Leafs:Flames), I was immersed in Habs:Bruins.


The next big Leeman moment in my life came on January 28, 1993. That was the day Serge Savard traded Brian Skrudland to the Calgary Flames for the now severely fading star.

Brian Skrudland, you see was a special player in my household. For one thing, he was my younger brother's favourite player. But for another, he happened to be the only NHL player I knew personally, as he was the only one on my paper route. I wouldn't say that Brian and I were friends or anything, but he was my best tipper and probably the best house to go collecting money from on a cold January afternoon. He'd always invite me in to warm up and talk about hockey, his car, or the very cold weather of course. He was a nice guy.

By 1993 I was no longer a paper boy, but the Leeman trade was a full dose of reality for a young impressionable fan. I knew that players were traded – I'd seen my favourite Richer traded and a few more. But I thought that certain players were Canadiens for life, players like Brian. Now I knew the truth.


Leeman as a Hab

My memory of Leeman as a Canadiens player is patchy at best. I'd be lying if I told you I remembered his storming 0.9 point-per-game introduction to the Canadiens faithful. And he doesn't figure greatly in my memories of the Stanley Cup run. Certainly not in the way that Lecalir, DiPietro, Dionne, Lebeau, and the star players did.

My lasting memory of him, if I'm honest, came during the Stanley Cup parade. When I got the chance to touch the Stanley Cup that day and get every Canadiens hockey card I owned signed by the corresponding new champion, it is Leeman I remember best. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that as the mob moved towards Roy and Damphousse that Gary was one of the less popular Canadiens autographs that day. When it came time for him to sign the card I gave him (a Leafs card as it was), he seemed to relish the occasion. With my permission, he took the card and promptly showed the back of it to everyone on his float that day. There was real glee on his face when combined with the Stanley Cup winner's aura he could now verify his 51-goal season to his teammates. Signed and handed back to me, Gary Leeman thanked me for the chance to show off a bit. It was a cool moment for me – even more so looking back.

As quickly as Gary came, he seemed to be gone. Obviously not a Demers player, Leeman was marginalised and then allowed to leave after the original lockout of 1994.


The 1993 Cup: the Leeman effect

Now, I wouldn't normally have been writing a section about the Leeman effect regarding a Stanley Cup run; but in my summer rambles I came across a very interesting piece that was lost in time about the Gary Leeman award (no, not the award for the least deserving 50-goal man).

The award (a bit of fun proposed by Chris Fell and his friends at the Meaford Express) is given to:

"recognize the season’s luckiest player, most fortunate player, or player that was in the right place at the right time."

Every year since 1993, the reporter and his friends have been picking a player who emulates Leeman's run of luck and every year, sure enough they find one.

It got me thinking that there may be something to it. Perhaps a requirement of winning the Stanley Cup is to bring along a player who might not otherwise have had the chance. Perhaps it's the hockey gods' way of doling out some good will here and there.

It certainly can't just be coincidence, can it, that every Stanley Cup winner back to 1987 has had their very own version of Gary Leeman on the squad. A player from a team with no shot who suddenly lands on his feet to get his name engraved. It would be hard to prove the opposite, with so many trades in the league, but there are examples of good teams falling to lesser ones, perhaps all because of their flaunting of the charity Cup winner tradition. The 1994 New Jersey Devils come to mind, as do the 2007-08 Montreal Canadiens.


My Gary Leeman award winners

Unfortunately, Chris Fell and his friends don't publish their rulings anywhere I can find them, so we don't know who has won the award officially each season. Instead, I have gone through all the seasons back to 1986 (the last one without a trade-in winner) to pick out a winner:

1987 Edmonton Oilers: Moe Lemay (from Vancouver)
1988 Edmonton Oilers: Dave Hannan (from Pittsburgh)
1989 Calgary Flames: Brian MacLellan (from Minnesota)
1990 Edmonton Oilers: Petr Klima (from Detroit)
1991 Pittsburgh Penguins: Peter Taglianetti (from Minnesota)
1992 Pittsburgh Penguins: Ken Wregget (from Philadelphia)
1993 Montreal Canadiens: Gary Leeman (from Calgary)
1994 New York Rangers: Nick Kypreos (from Hartford)
1995 New Jersey Devils: Danton Cole (from Tampa Bay)
1996 Colorado Avalanche: Dave Hannan (from Buffalo)
1997 Detroit Red Wings: Tomas Sandstrom (from Pittsburgh)
1998 Detroit Red Wings: Dimitri Mironov (from Anaheim)
1999 Dallas Stars: Derek Plante (from Buffalo)
2000 New Jersey Devils: Vladimir Malakhov (from Montreal)
2001 Colrado Avalanche: Steven Reinprecht (from LA)
2002 Detroit Red Wings: Jiri Slegr (from Atlanta)
2003 New Jersey Devils: Richard Smehlik (from Atlanta)
2004 Tampa Bay Lightning: Stanislav Neckar (from Nashville)
2006 Carolina Hurricanes: Doug Weight (from St Louis)
2007 Anaheim Ducks: Richard Jackman (from Florida)
2008 Detroit Red Wings: Brad Stuart (from LA)
2009 Pittsburgh Penguins: Mathieu Garon (from Edmonton)


To Gary Leeman.

Sharks Reinstate Claude LemieuxWilson: "Thinking How To Mess Up The Season Is Hard"

Thinking of ways to keep people interested while winning streaks drag on is the burden of the San Jose Sharks. Unaccustomed to actually starting well as finishing well, the Sharks have found their minds wandering to keep themselves occupied. Their most recent move cannot be described any other way:

The NHL-leading Sharks recalled the four-time Cup winner Monday from their minor league affiliate in Worcester, Mass. Lemieux practiced in San Jose, and he's likely to play Tuesday night against Vancouver in the Sharks' final game before the All-Star break.

Claude Lemieux should add an interesting piece to an already interesting team – one that already has two elite centres and Jeremy Roenick.

But is there anything beyond an interesting story here? Can Claude Lemieux help this team be better – in the playoffs that is.

One would have to think that was Doug Wilson's actual logic. But can we really attribute logic to a man who invites a 43-year-old, 5.5 years into retirement, to come back and play for his stacked team? Can we really say that Doug Wilson is doing anything other than rolling the dice? After all, he built a team he hopes will win the Cup around Joe Thornton (not to mention Patrick Marleau).

I get the thinking too:

My players = All chokers
Claude Lemieux = Has always found ways to win (even Conn Smythes!)

Despite that, in my humble opinion, Claude Lemieux will not help the Sharks. You can't expect a reclamation project like him to come in and turn a team's stomachs around. Nor could you expect him to fare very well in the new faster NHL. He didn't help Phoenix at the end of his real playing days, did he? His effectiveness was spent more than 9 years ago.

If anything, with Thornton and Roenick already crowding the dressing room; I think he's a personality too far. What's more, some poor youngster who could be learning the ways of winning will now be relegated back down so Claude can exorcise his whim.

I wish Claude all the best, but I'm infinitely glad we didn't sign him. Normally, I'm the first to criticise Bob Gainey for canny manouevres he missed out on. But this is not a canny manoeuvre in my book, and I wholeheartedly disagree with JT's fanciful take on the matter:

If Gainey passed over Lemieux without at least considering making him an offer, I worry the Habs GM is too conservative or unimaginative to give his team a leg up on the other teams scrabbling to be the best...

And, what is it about the late 80s Habs that just won't retire. Chelios, Richer and his repeated attempts at comebacks and now this. If Larry Robinson wants back in, we have a gaping place open for him at 6th defenceman...

Halak shoulld start; Lemieux should sit

Tomorrow's game is against the (once and still) Mighty Red Wings.

Want a change to the way things have been going? How about starting a goalie that has never lost at the Bell Centre...

No not Brodeur, Jaroslav Halak.


In 7 starts at the Bell Centre (or Molson Centre if you're the editor of Yahoo), Halak has won every time out. He also has 2 shutouts on top of everything else. His stats in Montreal are sensational in fact (see here).

In other news, the Canadiens feel they need to prolong a Tuesday game by honouring the rivalry with the 81-year Red Wings. Apart from the timing being completely strange (will we do this every time a square number comes around?), the ceremony stands to be very strange. According to Habs Inside/Out:

The Red Wings are expected to be represented by legends Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio, Marcel Pronovost and Marcel Dionne. The Canadiens are expected to have icons Jean Béliveau and Dickie Moore taking part, with Jean-Guy Talbot, Stéphane Richer and Claude Lemieux.

Now, I may not remember the rivalries of Gordie Howe, Pronovost, Beliveau and Moore, but I'm pretty sure the Habs are stretching when they ask Richer and Claude Lemieux to come along. In Richer's heyday (that would have been his first time here), the Red Wings were an awful outfit, only making the playoffs because Yzerman was putting up 120+ seasons and the North Stars and Maple Leafs couldn't get their acts together either. Lemieux was here during that time too, and left Montreal well before Sergei Fedorov and Niklas Lidstrom arrived to turn the RWs around.

Ironically though, of the post-expansion players. Claude Lemieux would probably be classified as Red Wing rival (maybe even enemy) #1. His hit on Kris Draper at the Avalanche-Red Wings back-and-forth was the powderkeg that set that (probably more tangible) on fire.

Besides the fact his hit was dirty. And that Draper will be on the ice. I don't see many good reasons for Lemieux to be at a ceremony with guys like Howe, Beliveau, Dionne and Delvecchio. I think Lemieux should call up tomorrow morning and excuse himself from this one.



His ceremony will come the day they reinstate the Hartford Whalers.