Canadiens’ legend grows with each Cup victory

By defeating the Los Angeles Kings to win the Stanley Cup for the 24th time, the Montreal Canadiens broke their own NHL record for most championships.

The previous mark was set in the spring of 1986, when the Canadiens’ defeated the Calgary Flames. That victory had also established the Canadiens as the professional sports champions of North America.

Previously, they had been tied with baseball’s New York Yankees, a team that had won the World Series on 22 occasions. Now the Canadiens stand alone at the top of professional sports.

With another Stanley Cup, the Montreal hockey is literally in a class all by itself. Although much has been written about other teams with winning traditions — the Green Bay Packers in football, the Boston Celtics in basketball — no other franchise other than Yankees even comes close to the Canadiens. The winning tradition in Montreal is a unique phenomenon.

Within the NHL, the record of the Canadiens is even more impressive. Their achievement of garnering 24 Cups will not be challenged in this century. If the Canadiens’ success continues, it will be difficult for any team to catch up, even after 2000.

The second-ranked team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, won the Stanley Cup 11 times — less than half the Montreal total. The Detroit Red Wings, third overall, have been NHL champions seven times, the last in 1955.

The New York Islanders, after winning four consecutive Cups at the start of the 1980’s, faltered and their “dynasty” collapsed. The bubble burst as well for the Edmonton Oilers when their hard-pressed owner traded away superstar Wayne Gretzky and other quality players on the team.

At this point, the Canadiens are so far ahead of the competition that their record will not be threatened for decades to come.

The Canadiens are also the oldest hockey team in North America, having been founded in 1909 by J. Ambrose O’Brien. For the first few years of their existence, the team utilized only French-speaking players and that historical fact formed the basis for much folklore that later evolved.

The legend of the so-called “Flying Frenchman” dated to the early era, even though the Canadiens began to sign English-speaking players for the 1912-13 season. Nevertheless, the team continued to be perceived as the representatives of French Canada. Indeed, for many years the Canadiens were considered by many to be the standard bearers for all of francophone Quebec.

Certainly, the team was a great source of cultural pride during the 1940s and through the 1960s, for the hundreds of thousands of French-speaking Canadians who followed Montreal’s fortunes on radio and television.

Some writers have called the Montreal story an epic cycle — which may not be an exaggeration, if one considers the heroic figures who have emerged with striking regularity. Today, the team remains a unique institution, even though the current Canadiens do not have a superhero with the status of Howie Morenz, Maurice Richard or Guy Lafleur – legendary players whose status added to the romantic aura of the team. Such stars, along with inspired supporting players, helped to create the Montreal mystique.

The myth that has grown around the Canadiens is based on the stunning accomplishments of the hockey team. Without the matchless record of success, the power of the legend would be diminished (as it has been, for example, in Toronto). But the Montreal story continues because the club is able to feed on its own victories.

Over the years, the Canadiens have had an effect on the way Montrealers perceive themselves and on the way they have behaved. As was seen in Montreal last week after the Canadiens clinched the Cup, extreme high and low moments in the team’s history have spawned major public responses — jubilant victory parades, angry rioting, grief stricken mourning.

Those emotion-laden responses demonstrated the remarkably powerful impact of the team on the Canadian culture and revealed the scope of the city’s commitment to its hockey club. Those who would write off sports as trivial might ask how many political leaders could touch the community so deeply.

The death of Canadiens’ first real superstar, Howie Morenz, illustrates the point. In early 1937, Morenz broke his leg in a game against Chicago and was taken to Montreal hospital for treatment. Complications developed and Morenz remained hospitalized for more than a month. On March 8, 1937, to the shock of the hockey world, Morenz died in his sleep at age 34. His untimely demise stunned hockey fans all over North America.

Floral tributes poured into Montreal. To accommodate the throngs of mourners, Morenz’ remains were moved to the Montreal Forum. The casket was placed at center ice, and during the first four hours of visitation, officials estimated that 50,000 mourners filed past. During the funeral service, the Forum was filled to capacity with 15,000 in attendance, with as least as many huddled outside in the streets.

Obviously, Morenz had become more than just a popular player. He was a genuine hero to many, even though he was not even a Quebec native. Morenz was from Ontario, a Protestant with a Swiss-German background, but he had become an adoptive son, beloved by loyal Montreal fans.

More than 40 years after the funeral, Senator Hartland Molson (patriarch of the family that owns the team) told me that Morenz seemed to have an almost magical quality around him. Speaking of the funeral in the Forum, Senator Molson marveled at the fact that thousands of French-speaking Canadians had attended a Protestant service conducted in English. As he suggested, this reflected the power of Howie Morenz — even in death — to transcend differences and unite people in a common cause.

During the following decade, the great Maurice Rocket Richard arrived on the scene with a similar magic. The French-speaking Richard was immensely popular with the English fans in Montreal, just as Morenz was with the francophone population.

Other heroic figures came later: great scorers like Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur, superb defensemen like Doug Harvey and Larry Robinson, stellar goalies like Bill Durnan and Ken Dryden. They and their dedicated teammates all contributed to the growth of Canadiens’ legend.

The 1993 Canadiens have added another chapter to the success story of this prestigious franchise. In some ways, the saga of the Montreal Canadiens is a sort of collective love story, a tale of admiration between players and fans, carried on over the generations. The legend of the Canadiens remains open-ended because the team, like a family, has a life of its own and the story will continue to unfold as long as hockey is played.

(James Herlan of Orono is a teacher of French-Canadian studies at the University of Maine and a longtime Montreal Canadiens fan.)