Plekanec less than half the player he was – jersey-wise

Plekanec really would have loved to be wearing No. 14, his jersey with the Hamilton Bulldogs during his farmhand days and, earlier, in his native Czech Republic. "But Bonkie has it here, so it doesn't matter. I'm happy to keep 35 for as long as I can."

Colour it gone, and not yet picked up by anybody. Plekanec becomes the 49th Canadien to wear the No. 14.

As flagged today by Inside/Out reader Sidhu, the Canadiens roster this year will include these jersey numbers, at least, all on the backs of incoming free agents. In parentheses: the last player who wore these numbers for Montreal:

6: Tom Kostopoulos (Janne Niinimaa)
20: Bryan Smolinski (Mike Johnson)
44: Roman Hamrlik (Sheldon Souray)
71: Patrice Brisebois (Mike Ribeiro)

And because it's a slow news day, here's the feature that ran on Canadiens jerseys, published Oct. 29, 2005. (Obviously, it's a little out of date.)

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The great Jean Béliveau in a rare photo, wearing No. 12 against the New York Rangers, during his three-game, five-goal tryout with the Canadiens in the 1952-53 season. The following season, Le Gros Bill was in Montreal to stay.
Courtesy Montreal Canadiens

WHAT'S IN A NUMBER?
To some on the Canadiens, past and present, the number on their back is nothing more than a digit or two. But to others, it is much more, a real part of their identity

DAVE STUBBS
The Gazette

Canadiens goalie José Theodore has used some ancient history this season to modernize his mask: he's had LX, his sweater number 60 in Roman numerals, painted on both sides.

He's also got an LX tattooed inside his left bicep.

Good thing for Theodore that his jersey number isn't 38, or his XXXVIII tattoo would wander down his forearm.

Dickie Moore and Yvan Cournoyer, two Canadiens Hall of Famers, will see their No. 12 retired next month - on the 12th, of course - and hung from the rafters of the Bell Centre.

Moore believed the number he wore from 1951-63 brought him so much luck that when he founded his equipment rental business, he wanted 12 to be part of his telephone number.

So he began randomly dialing numbers that contained 12, looking for something catchy that someone might be willing to sell him. Many, many calls later, he hit the jackpot at (514) 333-1212, which today is the distinctive ring for his company.

Moore paid its owner a sum that contained a 12. You'll find 12 in eight of the 10 phone and fax numbers at his St. Laurent headquarters and branches on the South Shore and in Ottawa and Toronto.

"But in none of my addresses," he jokes. "I couldn't fix that."

Naturally, 12 is part of his cellphone number. It's also on his licence plate, and he reconfigured Arundel Golf Club, the course he owns north of Montreal, to make No. 12 the signature hole.

It's a gorgeous par-3, on which Moore has never shot 12.

To some on the Canadiens, past and present, the number on their back is nothing more than a digit or two.

To others, like the fiercely proud Moore, it is much more, a very real part of their identity. The legendary Maurice Richard signed autographs with a carefully circled 9 beneath script so precise that it belonged on a grade-school blackboard.

Incomparable Jean Béliveau was and always will be No. 4 - if you don't consider the 12, 17 and 20 he wore for five games in 1950-51 and '52-53, called up from Quebec City for tryouts.

Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy's No. 33. No Canadien has worn it since Roy took it off for the last time in Montreal in 1995-96, and when it finally is retired, basking in the glow will be the names of the only other two Habs who have worn it: forward Jack Riley (1934-35) and goalie Richard Sévigny (1979-84).
Courtesy Classic Auctions

Uniform numbers are governed by Rule 13(b) of the NHL Official Rules. They can be one or two digits only and must be 10 inches in height on the back. Fractions, decimal points and 00 are prohibited.

Additionally, No. 99 was retired league-wide when Wayne Gretzky quit the game in 1998-99.

(Three Canadiens wore 99 for a total of 16 games in 1934-35: Joe Lamb, Des Roche and Leo Borgeault. "Unlucky" 13 has also been worn by three Habs, but not since Billy Boucher in 1922.)

There's been no ruling yet on Youppi!'s exclamation mark.

Nine numbers are or soon will be retired in Montreal, which further limits a Canadien's choice: Nos. 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 16 and, this season, 5 and 12. Others likely to follow by the club's 2009 centennial are 18, 19, 23 and 29.

In the six-team NHL, players wore No. 1, 30 or something in between. But the modern roster looks ready for football; 21 of 30 clubs this season have players numbered in the 70s, 80s or 90s.

"I didn't like my 71 at first," said the Canadiens' Mike Ribeiro, who was tossed the sweater at his first training camp. "People sometimes talk (disparagingly) about a big number. But I've gotten used to it. I like it now."

A recent sampling of Canadiens showed a clear devotion to their numbers, or a shrug.

Forward Michael Ryder was given No. 73 at his first camp. For him, there's little emotional attachment.

"The crest on the front is more important than your number," said Pierre Dagenais, No. 26.

Then there's Alex Kovalev, who wore 27 for the first time as a boy in Russia. He switched to 10 and 14 with Moscow Dynamo, No. 27 already taken there and on the Russian national team, but has it again in Montreal.

"People say that seven is lucky, and two is a double. So I'm double lucky seven," said Kovalev, the, um, 13th player in franchise history to wear 27 since Frank Mahovlich, its first owner from 1970-74.

Plekanec said his No. 35 is a goalie's number. He's not wrong, but he should know that his new No. 14 was also worn in 1926-27 by netminder George Hainsworth.
Courtesy Montreal Canadiens

(Mahovlich also wore No. 10 in 1970-71, warming it up for a decent talent named Guy Lafleur.)

Niklas Sundstrom took 37 when he arrived in 2003 to find fellow Swede Andreas Dackell already wearing "his" No. 24.

Theodore chose 60 at his first camp a decade ago, having worn Patrick Roy's No. 33 in junior.

"Roy was still here when I arrived, and besides, another goalie doesn't want to wear 33 in Montreal," Theodore said, smiling.

"No. 1 was retired, they didn't give a goalie 29 because of Ken Dryden, Turner Stevenson was in 30 and Donald Brashear wore 35. So 60 was the best of what was available, and I've had some pretty good moments in it."

In fact, rookies often don't have a choice, taking whatever's given them at camp. Defenceman Mark Streit would love to be in No. 7, which he's worn most of his career, but it was hung here forever in 1937 upon the tragic death of the brilliant Howie Morenz.

"I picked 32 because I wore it back home (in Switzerland) one year and we won the championship," Streit said. "I hope it brings me luck again."

Players often don't like a single number, believing they don't seem as large on the ice. That's likely not a concern for this season's two one-digit Canadiens: No. 3 Raitis Ivanans, a bungalow on skates at 6-foot-4 and 263 pounds, and Mike Komisarek, 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, who's worn 8 since his days in junior.

"That's the first time anybody's asked me if a single number makes me look small," Komisarek said, clearly amused.

"And mine is one of the very few low numbers in this organization that hasn't been retired."

If you put, say, No. 6 on 5-foot-8, 195-pound defenceman Francis Bouillon, he'd probably look his size. The rugged Bouillon plays much larger than that, however, and the broad span of 51 on his back seems to add weight, even if it's an optical illusion.

But some double numbers still do little to provide desired bulk. Saku Koivu's 11 is two thin digits, side by side.

"Good thing I'm a big guy and I don't have to think about it," joked Koivu, 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, half of that in his redwood legs, the rest his heart.

The captain inherited Kirk Muller's number when he arrived from Finland in 1995, No. 9 as a junior, 17 as a senior.

"To be honest, I didn't know all the history behind No. 9 when I got here," said Koivu, who would have had to climb to the arena ceiling to yank down Richard's sweater. It was retired in 1960, 14 years before Koivu was born.

Versatile Mathieu Dandenault was ready for a change when he arrived this season, having worn 11 for nine seasons in Detroit.

"This is a new page, a new chapter in my life," said Dandenault, who's happy with the 25 he wore successfully in junior.

"Hey, if I'd taken Saku's number, there'd be a lot of fans with Koivu jerseys who'd be pretty upset with me."

Two rookies - goalie Yann Danis, 75, and forward Tomas Plekanec, 35 - would have switched numbers had the team's media guide and promotional material not already been on the press.

"I kind of like it now," Danis said. "First game, first shutout. I like 35, which I had in college and last year in Hamilton (with the farm-team Bulldogs)."

Plekanec gladly would have made the trade.

"Give me pads, a blocker and a mask," he said. "I'm wearing a goalie's number."

Plekanec coveted 14, his number in Hamilton and earlier in his native Czech Republic, "but Bonkie (Radek Bonk) has it here, so it doesn't matter. I'm happy to keep 35 for as long as I can."

Some seek out and swear by repeating digits.

"I was going to pick 20 in junior, but a guy told me to take 22," said Steve Bégin, who wore 57, 7, 26 and 33 through five NHL seasons in Calgary. "Nobody had 22 here, so I jumped on it. My agent says it looks good on me, that it makes me look bigger."

Sheldon Souray, wearing 44, doesn't need the illusion of size, being 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds.

"I always liked No. 4 - Scotty Stevens, Bobby Orr," he said. "I thought it was kind of a defenceman's number. It looks classic."

So much so that 44 figures in Souray's life away from the rink, too. It's his locker number at his gym in Los Angeles and part of two of his phone numbers.

Where it wasn't available during his career, Souray would take a 4 in combination, say a 14 or 24. Arriving in the NHL as a rookie in New Jersey, he wisely didn't expect Stevens to hand over 4, so he sized down to No. 2.

"But two plus two equals four, right?" Souray figures.

"When I came to Montreal, they gave me 44, the number I wanted. Besides, I wasn't going to ask Mr. Beliveau if he'd mind if I took down his banner and let me wear his No. 4."

When the Canadiens finally do run out of numbers, Dandenault suggests the NHL allow three-digit sweaters.

"Just imagine a big guy," he said, "with 747 on his back."

Canadiens captain Saku Koivu tugs on a vintage 1940s Canadiens jersey, a little too snug for today's NHL. Koivu had worn No. 9 as a junior in Finland, No. 17 as a senior. He inherited No. 11 from Kirk Muller, now an assistant coach in Montreal, when he arrived here in 1995.
Pierre Obendrauf, Gazette