POLL: MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT IN CANADIEN HISTORY POST 1967

[yave1964]

Some like Jammer may wax poetic about Howie Morenz scoring on a breakaway after busting past Eddie Shore or catching Hap Holmes flatfooted, but for most of us, the post expansion era is a good place to start when talking about defining moments in a franchise history. (Sorry Jammer, we are the same age, just busting your chops, Anyway, here are, in my mind anyway the greatest moments in the history of the Hab organization post expansion.

 

 TOE BLAKE WINS 8TH CUP AS COACH AND HANGS THEM UP

 

Scotty Bowman still refers to his mentor Blake as the greatest coach of all time, and when Bowman led the upstart expansion Blues to the Cup finals against his idol, losing to Blake and the Pocket Rocket was no shame, Blake won his 8th cup as coach in only 13 years behind the bench. Bowman eventually ended up breaking Toe's record but it took him nearly 30 years of bench bossing to do so. 8 cups in 13 years. One hell of a record.

 

 KEN DRYDEN FROM CORNELL TO CONN SMYTHE IN 1970-71

  Claude Ruel deserves credit for guts, the Canadien club had missed the playoffs the year before, they were staring down a series against the big bad Bruins with Rogie Vachon in net, and instead went with pre-rookie Ken Dryden who had started and won 6 games in March after a late season call up. Dryden won the Conn Smythe as the post season MVP as the Habs won the cup, and then the following year he won the Calder as rookie of the year. Overall, Dryden wwon 6 cups in his 8 year hall of fame career.

 

PATRICK ROY CHANNELS HIS INNER DRYDEN, WINS CUP AS ROOKIE IN 885-86

 

  The legend began when Roy was given the reins of the team by coach Jean Perron (on the advice of his wife Eva) and Roy who turned 20 on opening night led the team to a cup along with a strong postseason from rookie Claude Lemieux and a final hurrah from dynasty holdovers Gainey and Robinson.

 

DYNASTY!! CANADIENS WIN 4 IN A ROW UNDER SCOTTY BOWMAN

 

 Many argue this was the greatest team of all time, the late seventies Habs who went on to win 4 consecutive Stanley Cups, loaded with Hall of Famers such as the incomparable Guy Lafleur, Sniper Steve Shutt, Jacques Lemaire, the tail end of HOFer Yvon Cournoyer, Bob Gainey who the soviets tried to model their players after, saying he was the perfect hockey player, goalie Kenny Dryden, three hall of fame d-men in Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard, and of course Scotty Bowman who is the greatest coach in my lifetime. Of the four year run,

the 1976-77 Canadien team went 60-8-12 for 132 points, the all time record. In fact, they lost only one home game all year.

 

1992-93 CANADIENS WIN THEIR FINAL CUP- SO FAR

 After losing to the Lanny Macdonald Flames in 1988/89 the Habs slipped a bit, in 1992-93 not much was expected. Jacques Demers took a bunch of young hungry players led by Vinnie Damphousse and Kirk Muller and of course the incomparable Roy in net. They fell behind 2 games to none in the first round against the hated Nordiques, Pierre Page declared that his young team had solved Roy. From there the Canadiens swept the Nords in the next 4, overall going 16-2 after the first two losses to Quebec. One of roy's finest moments ever, after being rather ordinary in the regular season he shaved over a goal a game off in the postseason and had a .929 save pct versus his regular season pct of .894.

 

UPSET SPECIAL! DAVID VS GOLIATH AS HABS UPSET MIGHTY CAPITALS AND PENGUINS ON WAY TO CONFERENCE FINAL IN 09-10

 

Okay, no cup here, but a great run, the Capitals fired shots from everywhere at Halak who had deservedly earned the starting assignment over Carey Price in the postseason, Halak was nothing short of spectacular as his team upset an offensive juggernaut. They followed it up by upending the Stanley Cup Champion Penguins in seven hard fought games before running out of steam and losing the conference finals to the equally upstart Flyers. The team was a one trick pony, all the scoring came from one line, in fact Gionta and Cammelleri banged in 22 of the 46 goals that the team scored in the playoffs with 9 and 13 respectfully, the next closest scorer was 4.

 

  That is it, my list of greatest Hab moments, please vote and comment, i am sure i missed some in the history of this great franchise there are just so many.

 

 

 

[flyercanuck]

Four in a row...those teams were a juggernaut. God I hated those teams! 

[yave1964]

Four in a row...those teams were a juggernaut. God I hated those teams! 

My God were they good. Even their lower tier players like Bouchard, Tremblay, Bunny, Peter Puck, Peter Mahovlich, my god those guys were first line players on any other team. Rejean Houle is a FB friend, i get some of my WHA stories from him, hell he scored 30 a time or two for the Habs. Doug Risebrough. Yvvon Lambert. Iron man Doug Jarvis. THIS was the absolute no doubt most complete and best built team of all time, IMHO. I think they toyed with teams just to stay interested in the game. Drydens wonderful book, The Game about the 78-79 Canadien team is the best book about Hockey ever written in my opinion.

 So long story short, they got my vote too. The greatest Dynasty of all time, with apologies to tthe 80s Isles, the early fifties Wings, the late fifties Habs and the Gretzky led Oilers. This team was as close to perfect as any team could possibly be.

[flyercanuck]

@yave1964

 

 EIGHT losses in an entire season. Probably due to boredom.

[jammer2]

  For myself, growing up, everything revolved around the "Big 3" of Robison, Savard and Lapointe. There were also other awesome defenders in their 4 year run...Brian Engblom, Rod Langway....they were not all there at the same time, but WOW....those 2 in addition to the Big 3....then throw in Dryden....no wonder they won so much!!