It's Been a While... (Canadiens)

Canadiens

It's Been a While...

By Karine Hains

Jun 9, 2020 • 12:12 pm

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On this day 27 years ago, Kirk Mueller scored the Stanley Cup winning goal to allow the Montreal Canadiens to claim Lord Stanley’s Cup for the 24th time. Today, RDS asks its readers/viewers what is their best memory of that conquest. Many answer that they have none since they weren’t born the last time the Sainte-Flanelle raised the Cup which is frankly a sad state of affair but it doesn’t look like it’s likely to change anytime soon. Personally, I was born the last the Tricolore was at the top of the hockey world and I have a few favourite memories. As a 13 years-old living on the south shore of Quebec city, I very much felt like I was living in enemy territory during that Spring, especially since the Canadiens had to go through the Nordiques in the first round of the playoffs. That series will forever remain one of my favourite ever, the incessant bickering with my dad, a die hard Nordiques fan, was just so much fun. Well, it was for us in any case, my mother and sister were sick and tired of us talking about hockey every minute of the day... But long after the Nordiques hit the golf course, the Habs were still playing in the cup final taking on the Great one, Barry Melrose and its mullet and of course, the LA Kings. Here are my top 3 souvenirs from that series.

The Desjardins hat trick Before the Habs got to raise the Cup on June 9th, Eric Desjardins in the 5th year of his career became the 1st ever defenseman to score 3 goals in the Stanley Cup final on June 3rd, 1993. The then 23 years old scored all 3 goals of the Habs 3-2 OT victory to allow the Canadiens to tie up the series. Of course, this 2nd game is first and foremost remembered for the illegal stick penalty to Marty McSorley which turned the tide but if no one score on that power play, nothing happens. It’s at 18:47 of the 3rd period that Desjardins scored his second of the game on the man advantage to bring everyone back to square 1 and force the team to play an overtime period. Except period might be too big a word since it only took 51 seconds of extra time hockey for Desjardins to score his 3rd goal of the game and give the win to the Habs. I don’t think I’d ever jumped for joy as high as I did at that moment, waking up my mother in the process because of course, the jump was accompanied by joyous cheers. As for my dad, well, he didn’t celebrate he hated the Canadiens but the way he looked at me then, I could see he was glad that I loved the greatest game on earth so much.

THE Wink For me, this is THE defining moment of that cup final and it’s also the moment in which I knew that Patrick Roy would forever be my favourite hockey player. It takes a special breed of people to enjoy the role of goaltender, the pressure that comes with being the last line of defence and having so much rest on your shoulders can take its toll but in these playoffs, and in most playoffs to be fair, Roy was as cold as ice. Completely in control and oozing confidence, there was no shaking him. To win 10 games in overtime in a single playoffs tournament you just have to be supremely confident and that’s what he was. Think about it 10 wins out of the 16 needed were grabbed in OT, 63% of the Canadiens’ wins that Spring came when there was no tomorrow, when each shot could be the deciding one. It’s only fitting that it’s in overtime that a dialed-in Roy would stop a Luc Robitaille shot and a Tomas Sandstrom rebound before winking at the later as if to say, “yeah forget it buddy, nothing’s going in…. The winner of the Conn Smythe trophy that year cemented his legend as a Canadiens’ great forever with those playoffs.

Denis Savard’s celebration Savard wasn’t playing when the Canadiens reached the cup on the 9th of June, he had suffered a knee injury in the first game of the final and didn’t get to come back but he was very much present on the ice celebrating the championship alongside his teammates. That was a very much deserved championship for a player who is currently 30th on the all time scoring list in the league’s history with 1338 points in 1196 games which is pretty impressive. Only 3 players have more points than him in less games (Hawerchuk 1409 points in 1188 game, Lafleur 1353 points in 1126 games and Lemieux with 1723 points in just 915 games). Furthermore, seeing Savard raise the cup as a member of the Habs was rather sweet after they ignored him at the 1980 draft picking Doug Wickenheiser first overall while Savard went 3rd to Chicago. Of course, Savard would have liked to have a bigger role in the team’s success but at that stage of his career, he had become, from his own admission, a role player with 10 to 15 minutes of ice time and he fell like the Canadiens didn’t win the Chelios trade so to speak. Still though, Savard was a great hockey player and he no doubt deserved to see his name etched on the most famous trophy of them all. It’s a shame that it took a falling out with Mike Keenan in Chicago for him to be moved to Montreal with a shaken confidence to booth but in the end, he achieved every single hockey player’s biggest dream.

There you have it, those are my 3 best souvenirs from the Habs 24th Stanley Cup…Hopefully, we all get to make some new cup winning memories sooner rather than later. In other news, the team announced today that captain Shea Weber was its Bill Masterton trophy candidate no doubt because of the injuries he’s had to deal with in the latest seasons. Oh and June 9th is not only the date on which the Habs won cup 24, it’s also the date on which another great, Raymond Bourque, won his one and only cup. I cannot help but share this video of Joe Sakic refusing to raise the cup and just handing it over to Bourque instead, a moment which always gives me goosebumps:

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