Legends

NHL players of the distant and recent past teamed up with and against each other this afternoon at the Air Canada Centre in the Legends Classic, a fundraiser that's part of the Hockey Hall of Fame induction festivities.

The Canadiens today announced their tribute to their three most successful general managers – Tommy Gorman, Frank Selke Sr. and Sam Pollock – with celebrations of their tenures to be displayed in the club's Builders Row at the Bell Centre.

Plante's first mask, a crude fibreglass model fashioned in Montreal, is held in the hand of the goaler himself.
Gazette Files

Thursday marks the 48th anniversary of Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante wearing a face mask into an NHL game for the first time, having been savagely cut by a backhander off the stick of New York Rangers' Andy Bathgate. Plante simply told his coach, Toe Blake, that he wasn't returning to action without it.

Plante revolutionized the game, while seriously getting under the skin of Blake, and goaltenders to this day, from the NHL to house leagues and even ball hockey, owe Jake the Snake a huge debt of thanks. Who knows how many injuries his trail-blazing prevented?

Below is a tribute to the historic event of Nov. 1, 1959 that took place on the ice of New York's Madison Square Garden. Thanks to the National Hockey League's public relations department for producing it:

Maurice (Rocket) Richard celebrates his 500th NHL goal on Oct. 19, 1957 with adoring fans.
Courtesy Montreal Canadiens

Fifty years ago last Friday, Maurice (Rocket) Richard scored his 500th NHL goal.

Lost in the glow of the achievement was the role played by Paul Haynes, a former Canadien and later coach of the senior-league Montreal Amateurs, who saw in the future Rocket a great ability on the right wing – the opposite side of Richard's natural left wing.

Here is how Haynes helped to shape one of the greatest talents in hockey history – aided in part by Haynes's love of the opera.

Friday is the 50th anniversary of Canadiens legend Maurice (Rocket) Richard's historic 500th goal, the first time an NHL player reached this magical plateau. Our friends in the media relations department of the NHL have prepared an information package on the event and what it's meant to hockey, featuring some of the words of The Gazette's Red Fisher (who covered No. 500). We reproduce some of that package here, and direct you to this terrific civilization.ca site, as well.

Canadiens legend Didier Pitre
Courtesy legendsofhockey.net

The Canadiens lost their 2007-08 home opener at the Bell Centre Saturday night, dropping a 3-1 game with an effort far outclassed by the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.

It was on Jan. 5, 1910 that the newborn Canadiens of the pre-NHL National Hockey Association played their first game in franchise history, a 7-6 overtime win over the Cobalt Silver Kings on the natural ice of Montreal's Jubilee Rink.

Didier (Cannonball) Pitre, Jean Baptiste (Jack) Laviolette and Édouard (Newsy) Lalonde were on on the ice for the Canadiens that night, a trio soon to be nicknamed the Flying Frenchmen by sportswriters. On Saturday, it was very clear that the Flying Frenchmen concept is one that is gone in Montreal.

So from Monday's Gazette, let's revisit Cannonball Pitre, the first man to sign a playing contract with the Canadiens, and that first historic game that changed Montreal forever.

Last night, Leafs Television chose Toronto captain Mats Sundin as all three stars of his club's 8-1 victory over the New York Islanders. Sundin had become the all-time leading Leafs points-getter with an assist, giving him 917 career points, one more than Darryl Sittler.

On March 23, 1944, Canadiens icon Maurice (Rocket) Richard was named all three stars of his team's 5-1 victory over the Maple Leafs, having scored every one of Montreal's goals. In several games toward the end of his career, Wayne Gretzky also was named all three stars in a tribute recognizing his record-breaking brilliance.

So now it's Sundin's turn. Agree or disagree that this is a good thing?

Red Fisher at the Jean Béliveau Gala, Bell Centre, March 29, 2007
Courtesy Bob Fisher (no relation), Montreal Canadiens

A good point made by an Inside/Out reader: why not a story on The Gazette's Red Fisher, the dean of hockey writers who's heading into his 53rd season of covering the Canadiens?

Red's first game was the infamous Richard Riot on March 17, 1955. He's covered thousands since, and on Oct. 13 will be in the Bell Centre press box, in his seat high above centre ice, to begin yet another season.

The story below appeared on the front page of The Gazette on April 17, 2006, two days after the Canadiens had paid tribute to Red for his 50 years (plus one, counting the lockout) of covering the club.

How can we have a website dedicated to the Canadiens without a look at the writer who has defined the art of sportswriting for at least a couple of generations of fans? Red will hate me for posting this, but you know what? Tough.

As I spoke to a number of Canadiens after practice on Tuesday, their comments to be heard in an audio post here, the same theme was replayed: NHL players arrive at training camp today in virtually game-ready shape, having trained most of the summer to arrive in peak condition.

(And they'd better be; the Habs were in camp for exactly three days last weekend before they hit the ice for five exhibition games this week, including three in three nights.)

That's not always been the case, and it reminded me of a story I wrote about Canadiens legend Jean Béliveau nine Septembers ago. I recycle it below, and hope you enjoy the words, and especially the photo that runs with it.

ROGIE VACHON
Stanley Cup and Vézina Trophy winner
David Bier photo, from Gazette files

Former Canadiens goalie Rogie Vachon, the best netminder not in the Hockey Hall of Fame, turns 62 today. I've argued long and loud that Vachon should be enshrined in the Hall, and a number of others have tried to organize campaigns to have the most famous citizen of Palmarolle, Que., inducted. (You've not heard the end of this...)

In the meantime, Happy Birthday, Rogie! Read on for more on at least one Habs Inside/Out writer's first Canadiens hero.

Bob Gainey and Larry Robinson will join a very select group this coming season when their No. 23 and No. 19 jerseys are retired. Courtesy of the Canadiens' 2006-07 media guide, here's a look at all of the Habs – save No. 18 Serge Savard and No. 29 Ken Dryden, whose jerseys were retired last season – who have been so honoured by the club. We'll add Serge and Ken to this post when the new guide is available.

Canadiens collector Erle Schneidman, he of the fine www.canadiensmemorabilia.com, shares these official Canadiens picture postcard images of Larry Robinson and Bob Gainey from 1973-74 and 1974-75.

Canadiens greats, including former coach Scotty Bowman (left) and Dickie Moore, two Hall of Famers, gathered in the Eastern Townships yesterday for a memorial service honouring the life of the late Habs GM Sam Pollock. Click on the photo above to read Red Fisher's report.
Dave Sidaway, Gazette

Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey's NHL journey was put on the rails by the late Sam Pollock, who drafted him as the Habs' first pick (No. 8 overall) in the 1973 amateur draft held in Montreal.

I spoke a half-hour with Gainey on Thursday afternoon about Pollock – always "Mr. Pollock" to Gainey – and his relationship with one of pro hockey's greatest minds, a man he has followed into the Canadiens' GM chair. What follows is that feature, which appears in Friday's Gazette:

The late Sam Pollock's managerial prowess built many of the NHL's greatest clubs.

The Hockey Hall of Fame's website offers a nice look at the Canadiens dynasty of 1964-69 and that of 1975-79.

Roch Carrier
A genius of his craft

Any serious Montreal Canadiens fan knows, and loves, novelist and and short-story writer Roch Carrier's timeless 1979 classic The Hockey Sweater.

Carrier's romantic, autobiographical tale of a young, rural Quebec boy and his love of the Canadiens – and equal distaste for the Toronto Maple Leafs – is, in a way, a love story written for Maurice (Rocket) Richard.

Six years ago, Carrier published Our Life With The Rocket: The Maurice Richard Story. It, too, is a delightful look at one man's fascination with arguably the most exciting hockey player of all time, certainly the most compelling of his generation.

Inside/Out reader Larry Purdy of Paradise, Newfoundland, sends along this cherished clipping he's had for years, probably from Star Weekly, a Saturday supplement in the Montreal Star. For all of the rough stuff for which John Ferguson was famous, he also had a butter-soft heart. Larry's photo shows the Canadiens great with his son, John Jr., in a photo taken not long after the lad arrived in 1967. Rest in peace, Fergy.

John Ferguson: The one and only, battling in front of New York Rangers goalie Gilles Villemure.
Courtesy B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame

Hardrock Canadiens forward John Ferguson, a five-time Stanley Cup winner with Montreal, died today at his home in Windsor, Ont., following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 68.

To his opponents, Fergy was the fiercest competitor who could lay you out with a look, no less a hook. He was a towering presence on the Canadiens of the 1960s, a role player who also had a surprisingly nice touch around the net, scoring 145 goals in 500 regular-season NHL games. (He'd likely have scored more, of course, had he not also earned 1,214 penalty minutes.)

And to those who were privileged to call him a friend, including one of his dearest friends, Serge Savard, Fergy was a man with a heart as big as the race horses both men loved, a player to whom the game was everything, the template for the policeman that every NHL team would employ to keep the peace, or stir it up, as the case may be.

There was only one Fergy. He lived his life to the fullest, and enriched those who crossed his path. The Canadiens, and hockey, have lost a great one today.