Montreal Canadiens--The Conquering Canadiens

Dedication,
excellence ...
the Canadiens
Shared by @HockeyMagazines
To understand professional hockey one has to understand
the Montreal Canadiens. For it is Les Canadiens,
more than any other team , which personifies the dedication
, combativeness, competitiveness and excellence that
makes hockey different from all other sports.
They have consistently produced the brightest of hockey
stars-Morenz ... Vezina ... Richard ... Beliveau ...
Harvey ... Geoffrion ... Durnan ... Lach ... Reardon
... Bouchard-all of them members of hockey's hall of
Fame, many of them hockey legend.
When he assumed the presidency of the club in 1957,
Senator Hartland Molson said , " We don 't own the Canadiens,
really. The public of Montreal, in fact the entire
province of Quebec, owns the Canadiens. The club is more
than a professional sports organization. It is an institution,
a way of I ife."
That's true enough , but he might have gone even further
because the influence of the Canadiens on the National
Hockey League extends far beyond Montreal and Quebec.
The Canadiens have been the most successful of all National
Hockey League teams; they have won the Stanley Cup
17 times, more often than any of their rivals and , since
1949, have been shut out of the championship competition
only once.
The winning of the Cup in 1971 after the disastrous
1969-70 season proved once again the determined excellence
of the team . But how did 1969-70 happen? Could
it happen again?
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0
- ...... ---= ...... -"
Maurice "The Rocket" Richard,
former Canadiens ' captain.
.!
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