Merry Christmas To All

Merry Christmas everyone. Tobalev and I wish all of you a wonderful day and a great holiday season.

We hope you got some nice presents, better than this poor guy:


See you next game.

Sweaters on the Wall

I have been listening to Sam Roberts' great new album, Love at the End of the World, a lot recently after finally fixing my ipod. I like it a lot. And, as a fellow Habs fan, I was very pleased to see Sam's use of Canadiens memorabilia in his lead video for the album:



Apart from the timing with the "100th" season, which I think is a nice shout to his home team and home town, the video also made me think about favourite players and idols over the years as a Habs fan.

I have often wondered if I would be a Maurice Richard type of guy or a Guy Lafleur type. Even in the 50s, would it have been a number 9 for me? In the 70s, could I have done any number other than 10? Or even now, am I the big-star loving fan, donning 27 to games, or do I stick with the old 11, or maybe even 79?

Lists

At the same time as listening to Sam's album, I have been reading and enjoying many of the lists of Top 100 players going around at the moment. As someone who loves lists and debates, I say what could be better.

The lists are great, but really by the time you get to Chris Nilan in your top 100, it kind of starts to lose steam as a debate. I mean there have been many great players for the Habs over the years, but it seems one of the great things about our team has been the way the same stars (at least in the past) stayed with us for so long. Henri Richard and Jean Beliveau for example had 20 and 19 year careers with the Canadiens, 11 and 10 Cups.

Players like the Richards, Beliveau, Gainey, Harvey, Joliat occupying the star spotlight for huge chunks of the team's history make it necessary to find the Nilans to make up the 100. There's nothing wrong with that, just that the Beliveau vs. Richard debates are a heck of a lot more interesting than the Dahlin vs. Nilan ones.

That's why I thought we could have a think about who our favourite Habs player of all time would be and it could be a lot more interesting.

So, think about it. You have one Habs sweater to hang on your bedroom wall. Which number do you get on the back?

Why?

[I've added a poll to the sidebar to show where peoples' allegiances lie]


I'll start you off. After years of dithering and floating between players (I even used to like goalies once), I've come to the conclusion that 4 is the only Habs sweater that would hang from my bedroom wall.

For me, Jean Beliveau is the best Canadiens star there has ever been. 500 goals, 1200 points. Art Ross, Hart and Conn Smythe trophies. Captain for years. A goal every 2 playoff games, more than a point in each. 10 Stanley Cups. And I haven't even mentioned how much I admire the man.

The Last Legend

He may not have been the last Hall-of-Famer to play for the Habs (that'd be Gilmour in my books). There will be more, but, he is the last legend this franchise of legends has produced so far.

Now, it seems, the organisation is ready to honour his play in Montreal by retiring his number. Yes, according to reports, Patrick Roy's 33 will hang from the highest reaches of the Bell Centre – a building he never played in as a Canadien, though the team had probably hoped he would.


Personally, I think this retirement (should it indeed go ahead) will be a triumph for the younger generation of Habs fans, whose championships are constantly being slighted by nostalgics and aging journos. It can be the "Ours are as worthy as yours" (or something "yours") to the Red Fishers of Montreal fandom who seldom praise anything the Canadiens have done since 1979. For those of us with just as much passion for this team as anyone born in the 1930s, it will be nice to see a number from our less foggy memories.

I, for one, am proud of the mini modern dynasty that the Canadiens put together from 1986 to 1993. Now we know that 3 Cup finals and 2 Cups in 8 years is a difficult achievement, now that there are more than 5 (I generously include the Rangers here) challengers. Detroit is being widely praised for much the same, though they did 4 Cups and 5 finals over 15 years. In a way, the Habs once again blazed the trail for the league – putting the consecutive Cup era to bed. And, I make no mistake, that team was built on and succeeded because of one Patrick Roy. From his precocious heroics in '86 to his psych-out excellence in '89 and '93, he was masterful. His number deserves recognition, as no one else could wear it the same way again.


When will it be?

Assuming the retirement does go ahead, the next logical question is when. Robert L seems to think it will be happening on November 24 against the Islanders. I think I see the meaning there: 24th for the 24th Cup, maybe? Still that choice would leave a lot to be desired.

I thought we should consider the alternatives:

1) Considering we often lose on these ceremonious occasions, why not pick a team we are unlikely to beat anyway? I mean, we don't want to lose to the Isles, do we? I'd say Sharks, Feb. 28 for one we stack up poorly for.

2) How about the 33rd game instead of the 24th? The 33rd game of the season is a home game vs. Carolina on December 21st (Roy vs. Hartford was always key). The 33rd home game is vs. the Devils on March 14th.

3) I don't like the idea of holding on St. Patrick's Day, mainly because despite it being a much-used nickname for Patrick Roy, the day is there to honour a real saint, not a hot-head goalie. The 14th of March would be a compromise like the parade, which seldom happens on the day and has little to do with the religious feast day anymore. The parade would be the 15th.

4) Flames at home on December 9th? A very very obvious choice. Roy faced the Flames twice in Stanley Cup finals with the Canadiens. They were the Canadiens western rivals at the time (mainly because we always stumbled when the Oilers didn't).

5) Anniversaries are always fun. As it happens, the Canadiens have a long home stand coinciding with all the important dates from 1995, including Roy's last game and the day he was traded. Perhaps not the irrelevant Thrashers on the dark anniversary of the Red Wings debacle (December 2nd), but how about the Devils on the anniversary of that awful Thibault trade (December 6th)?

6) Incidentally, December 4th against the NY Rangers will mark the actual date when the centennial season begins – I'm sure they'll have something planned, but if not, how about a sweater raising?


If it's up to me, I go for the Flames game.

It seems to tick most boxes. We will probably not miss the points, as we are poor against western opposition (maybe we can arrange an OTL??). They are a relevant opponent. And, the time of year is meaningful for Roy and the Canadiens to finally bury the hatchet. Call it the anniversary of the day Roy played his next game after his cooling off (in that parallel universe where we had a qualified GM and coach).

Heck, even the headline writers will be happy to have all the flame idioms to choose from.

Habs famous numbers

A lot of Habs history coming to the surface these days as members of the 50s, 60s and 70s dynasties pass on.

I don't know much about Trader Sam Pollock, but I have of course read the "Lions in Winter" book, which gave me a pretty good idea of how shrewd a GM he was. He certainly played by his own rules and didn't let convention stand in the way of making a championship team. That Guy Lafleur story is legendary, of course. Not to be overlooked are his choices of coaches, his ability to keep the right players together (coax them from their desire to retire), and his eye for talent in the early days of thee draft. Rest in peace Mr. Pollock. Our thoughts go out to your family and friends.

Dave Stubbs and the guys at habsinsideout.com have had Habs history on the mind
lately too, even getting into when Plekanec changed his number. Big news in Montreal! Following that bombshell they published a list of all the numbers ever donned by Habs over the years. it made for an interesting read, and got me thinking about lots things number-related.

Firstly, it's crazy how many Hall of Famers wore the same numbers. Secondly, even though we've lost all those numbers to retirement, with a few more to go soon, there are plenty left – many not under any threat at all.

The other thing I noticed was number 13.

It hasn't been used on the Habs since 1922 (even though I briefly convinced myself they must be wrong about Vladimir Vujtek's number). Perhaps this fact is not that surprising, given the number's notoriety and inherent unluckiness. Obviously the Canadiens banned the use of the number, the same way the builders of many high-rises have done (come on, I'm not taking an apartment on the 14th floor, I'm not stupid).

I do remember Selanne wearing 13, and it didn't seem to do him any harm that year...


This led me to another question: which other numbers should be banned?

I have a couple of ideas as to how the banished number list should be established:


1) Any bad years for the Canadiens franchise should be banned.
This would include, among other possibilities:

67 – Though a good year for Montreal as a city and for baseball here, it was the missing year in another 5-year run. Some other team won...

94 – Missed the playoffs after the Cup, and Youppi, our new mascot, was shafted hard.



All numbers from 96-98 – The Montreal Forum is closed. No hockey and Nicholas Cage films a movie there (ugh).


2) Numbers that just aren't working for players This would include, among other possibilities:

53 – Racicot, Fitzpatrick and Sylvain Blouin. Do I need to explain?

54 – Traverse



59 – Jarventie

95 – Berezin, Olivier Michaud

I do have some reservations about these numbers being banned though, as Patrick Roy did pretty well for himself with what was up till his time a pretty mediocre number. Though number 33 with Riley and Sevigny would never have been up for complete banning.


In addition to these numbers, I also think 66 should be taken out of circulation in honour of the greatest offensive player to come from Montreal, and in my opinion, anywhere. It would be silly to see someone who couldn't wear 66 with the same presence and flair as Mario did.

I wonder if anyone had a little chat with Brisebois about the number 43 after he resigned. It's not really been a great number over the years. Brunet traded it in quickly, as did Cassels, and Brisebois ran the number out of town. I'm not sure his new choice of number (allegedly for Colorado reasons) is much better. The last sweater emblazoned with 71 didn't exactly leave a legacy of long success. We'll see if it lasts.

At least 71 has hope as it stands for beating the odds (or the Orrs). So Brisebois did well on that count.