Hickey on hockey: a sad look at the forgettable Canadian teams

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The Canadiens’ legacy (24 Stanley Cups and a Hall of Fame talent parade) has been tarnished in recent years and the memory of an unlikely Stanley Cup run this year has been erased by the worst start in history. of the club.

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As we approach the new year in hopes of health and happiness, we look back on five seasons that were memorable for the wrong reasons. The list begins, and ends, with teams that enjoyed relative degrees of success.

No. 1 (1918-19, 10-8 record): The world was in the grip of the Spanish flu pandemic when the 1918-19 Canadiens headed west to face the Seattle Metropolitans in the Stanley Cup final. The series was stalled 2-2 with a draw when it was abruptly canceled because more than half the team was infected and no Stanley Cup winner was declared. Future Hall of Famer Joe Hall died two days later, while team owner George Kennedy experienced recurring health problems and died two years later at age 39.

No. 2 (1935-36, 26-11-11): The Great Depression was, well, depressing for Canadians. After winning the Stanley Cup in 1931, the team went 12 seasons without a Cup, the longest drought until the current race. Attendance was low and there were rumors that the team would relocate to the United States before Montreal Maroons owner Senator Raymond Donat bought the team in 1935. You might have wondered what he got into when the 1935 team -36 finished last with an 11-26. -11 record. The Maroons finished first in the division, but withdrew two years later.

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No. 3 (1939-40, 10-33-5): The 1939-40 Canadiens had the worst record in team history at 10-33-5, but they had two players who would be instrumental in the team’s success for the next three decades. The team’s top scorer was Toe Blake, who would win two Stanley Cups as a player on the Punch Line with Elmer Lach and Maurice (Rocket) Richard, and then go on to win eight Stanley Cups in 13 seasons as head coach. His teammate Paul Haynes was booted from the team the following season after he skipped practice in New York to attend an opera, but he made his mark as a keen judge of talent. He discovered Lach and Ken Reardon on a scouting trip to the west and was responsible for moving Richard who was shooting from the left to the right wing.

No. 4 (1998-99, 32-39-11): It would be another 59 years before the 1998-99 Canadiens finished at the end of the Northeast Division with a 32-39-11 record. This was a team with some talented players, but injuries and lack of goals, sound familiar? – were the ruin of the team. Stéphane Quintal was the only player to appear in all 82 games, as the Canadiens lost more than 300 men’s games through injury. Patrice Brisebois, Vladimir Malakhov and Benoît Brunet missed the first two months of the season. Saku Koivu needed shoulder surgery and Brian Savage was the team’s leading scorer when he suffered a fractured vertebra in his neck.

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Mark Recchi was the team’s leading scorer with 47 points, three more than Koivu. Martin Rucinsky was the top scorer at 17 and it was the first full season since 1940-41 that the Canadiens did not have a 20-goal scorer. Captain Vincent Damphousse was traded while on a charter flight en route to Edmonton. Team president Ronald Corey resigned and Molson Brewery announced a loss of $ 3.8 million, paving the way for the team’s sale to American George Gillett Jr. two years later.

No. 5 (1995-96, 40-32-10): Finally, we come to the 1995-96 season, which was a moderately successful regular season followed by a meltdown against the New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs. The Canadiens won the first two games at Madison Square Garden and then lost the next four. But results on ice were overshadowed by central office decisions that haunted the team for the next decade.

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After starting the season with four losses, Ronald Corey fired general manager Serge Savard and his right-handers André Boudrias and Carol Vadnais. Savard was replaced by former Canadiens forward Réjean Houle, who handled community relations at Molson Brewery.

Head coach Jacques Demers was fired and replaced by Mario Tremblay, another former Hab, who was called from the broadcast booth.

Demers was known for giving preferential treatment to goalkeeper Patrick Roy and it was surprising to read in Savard’s autobiography that Roy lobbied for the coach to be replaced. It’s safe to say that he didn’t get what he wanted because he and Tremblay had a difficult relationship.

Roy was 12-2-1 after Tremblay took over, but he fought Detroit on December 2 and Tremblay hung him up to dry, finally dumping him after he had given up nine goals. Coming off the ice of the Forum, Roy confronted Corey and told him that he had played his last game for the Canadiens. Four days later, he and Captain Mike Keane were transferred to Colorado.

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The trade eliminated two more pieces of the team that won the team’s last Stanley Cup in 1993. Thirty months after the victory, the only survivors were Brisebois, Damphousse, Brunet and Lyle Odelein.

Savard said he thought about trading Roy before the season because he felt the goalkeeper had gotten too big for the team. Roy became an instant hit with the Avalanche, who had moved from Quebec City in 1995. He led Colorado to the Stanley Cup in 1996 and in eight seasons he won two Cups and appeared in four conference finals. During the same span, Montreal won two playoff rounds and missed four times.

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