The Moments

    

     The 2025-26 NHL playoffs were a wild ride for your boys in bleu, blanc et rouge. The charged atmosphere at the Bell Centre, the excitement and youth of the players determined to push farther than they did last year and the absolute fun they offered for the whole season made this year one for the scrapbook. (As opposed to the many seasons since the last Cup that were more suited for the scrap heap.)

    You know how it is when you go on vacation or plan a big event? Your senses are like a kaleidoscope; swirling and colourful, composing a series of pictures you hold in your memory and draw down whenever you think of that vacation or event in the future. Nobody's pictures of this playoff run will be exactly the same, but the feeling they create is what joins us together as fans.

    So, for what it's worth, here are ten of the top moments to remember from this post-season:

10. Alex Newhook. The pride of St.John's, Newfoundland has shown he can put the puck in the net and moves with blazing speed but nobody really expected he'd end up being one of the heroes of the post-season for Montreal. However, with two Game Seven series winners...one in OT...Newhook proved there's some jam in his game, and he can be a clutch player. If Kent Hughes was wondering whether the deal he made for Newhook was a good one, he got some assurances from the player this spring.

9. Hutson Assists Dobes. This moment stood out because its originality and quick thinking were absolutely emblematic of Lane Hutson's game. There was Jakub Dobes in Game Seven against Buffalo, stretched out in a half split, desperately trying to hold his skate tight to the post as a couple of big Sabres hacked away at him. Hutson, recognizing Dobes was having trouble, smartly dropped down into the net behind his goalie and used both hands to push Dobes' pad and help him close the gap between skate and post. It was a unique and savvy play by a young player who's earning those descriptors anew in every game.

8. Slafkovsky Hatty. Juraj Slafkovsky was the first overall pick in the 2022 draft and was booed by some unhappy critics at the Bell Centre who wanted Shane Wright instead. Slafkovsky told everyone that day that he hoped people would like him eventually. He's been working on developing the power forward game Hughes had envisioned before committing to him, and his breakout party came in Game One of the first round against Tampa. His three power play goals, including the OT winner, marked the first time in Habs history a player has done that on the road. Slafkovsky served notice he's growing into his size and skill and and at just 22, he's already a force. Shane who?

7. Dobes Being Dobes. Jacob Fowler has been touted as the Habs goalie of the future and at 21 years of age, there's nothing to say he won't be the starter when it's time for the Canadiens to compete for a Cup. Dobes, however, has made it known the job will not be Fowler's by anointing. Dobes is one of the biggest reasons the Canadiens got as far as they did in the post season, and he did it with inimical style and humour. When he went to the wrong net in his first playoff OT, it was funny. When he play-fought with Arber Xhekaj in the crease after a win, and when he stood at centre ice wide-eyed and smiling as the Bell Centre crowd screamed his name it was entertaining. And when he gave an interview, he was spectacularly honest. He also proved he's nobody's patsy and will defend his space as needed.

6. The Wolf Hat. It was silly, it was (probably) smelly and it wasn't pretty, but it was an important talisman binding the group together. The message that the team was as tight as a wolf pack was one coach Marty St.Louis pushed all season and the players bought into it wholeheartedly.

5. Gallagher's Goal. It's never easy to see a player whose entire career you've witnessed coming down the other side of the pro hockey hill. It was very tough for him to be a healthy scratch. He's a proud player who's been a leader and contributor for more than a decade, but he tried to stay positive for the sake of his young teammates on an important playoff run. So when he finally got the call to suit up, he was more than ready. The last goal of Gallagher's Canadiens career in Game Five against Tampa opened the scoring and led to a critical win. The only ones happier for him were his teammates.

4. Hutson's Shot. Hutson has faced a lot of doubt in his young career. First he was too small to make the NHL at all. Then he was too offensively-minded and allegedly didn't play strong enough defence. Then he was okay on defence, but his shot was lacking. Well, not anymore. Hutson said he'd spend last summer working on his shot and boy, did he ever! Game Three OT against Tampa, the puck came to Hutson on the blue line and he absolutely wired it for the winner. Hutson may have arrived last September, but his shot arrived on April 24, 2026.

3. Dobes Pie. This was a silly little moment after Dobes stood on his head to close out the Tampa series. Sam Montembeault, who lost his job to Dobes this year and hadn't played since March, surprised Dobes with a post-game shaving cream pie to the face. And while it was silly, it also said a lot about the guys who only got to watch the games from the press box. That even the scratches were part of the team shenanigans was good for the morale of the whole group.

2. The Church. The Montreal fans got some flack for being crazily over-the-top in showing their love for their team, but you have to admire the Catholic church that hosted watch parties for fans. And the guy who changed the name of his restaurant to Dobes. And the 20-thousand-plus who stood outside to watch every home game and inside for every road one. Yes, Montreal fans are devoted, loud and likely a little bit crazy, but they make the Canadiens' experience different than what most other teams offer.

1. Josh Anderson. When these playoffs come to mind in the future, Josh Anderson will loom large. Very large. As in Powerhorse large. The value to a team of a player who can flip a mental switch and ramp up his game to a whole new level is immeasurable. Anderson was everywhere all post-season long. He hit everything that moved (and some that didn't...including the goal post how many times?) He scored important goals and killed penalties. He was a force and if young Florian Xhekaj wants to make an impact in the NHL, he can learn a lot from Mr.Anderson.

Honourable mention: The Aftermath. Although the players were hard on themselves during some tough losses this season, they're not letting the self-flagellation continue into the offseason. With players going to concerts and sports events together, even hanging out with St.Louis, they're nurturing the spirit they'll need when they come back next year and push to go farther than they did this season. When kids like Ivan Demidov and Alexander Zharovsky (where's Hutson and who hogtied him?) are already on the ice before June is even over, they're showing they want to be part of that climb too. The future is arriving way more quickly than we could have imagined and it is good.

Draft Day is Coming

     

    Every year, on NHL draft day, young men in new suits sit anxiously with their parents in stiff-backed arena seats, waiting for older men in more expensive suits to decide their fates. Some wait for hours before hearing their names called. Some leave in tears of disappointment. The first-rounders have been wined and dined, measured and tested, and their wait is a short one. They're the kids with the highest chance of making the pros. They're also the ones who'll forever carry the "bust" label if they don't get there. Watching at home, Terry Ryan has flashbacks.

     The draft, for him, isn't just a great memory. It's the highlight of his pro hockey career, even if it didn't work out the way he'd hoped it would.
    "A lot of people would say it's a whirlwind and they don't remember," he smiles. "I remember every second of it. I remember walking down out of my seat. The first thing I did was look over at my buddy, my linemate, Daymond Langkow, who had just gone fifth overall to Tampa Bay. I was walking up to the podium (as the eighth overall pick) and we made eye contact and nothing was really said. We were just smiling, and it was a really weird moment."

    "It was kind of like a baseball player getting drafted and going to the Yankees. I think if I'd gone to the Nashville Predators, or to Columbus...not to knock those teams, but...it wouldn't have...I didn't have time that day to accept that I was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens."

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    Ryan knew he was going to go high in the first round. His stock had been rising fast during his draft year. It was, he recalls, a perfect season. He had 110 points in 70 games, and most of the pro teams were knocking on his door.
    "I know I could have played my whole career in the NHL," he reflects now. "All those scouts weren't wrong. At the same time, I also know everything has to go right. There's a bit of luck in this. There's a lot of injuries in hockey. If you get injured in your draft year, you're behind the eight-ball right away. You have to be put with good players. You have to be in the right environment. Your schooling has to be going right. All those things went right in my draft year."
    The Bruins, choosing ninth overall, had been in contact. They assured Ryan they'd pick him in the first round. Other teams called too. The Washington Capitals flew him and some other prospects down south and put them through three hours of I.Q. tests and physical training. The Oilers flew them back up north and tested them again. There was no question Ryan would become the highest-ever NHL draft pick from Newfoundland. The only thing left to wonder about on draft day was how high he'd go, and which team would own him.
    He never dreamed he'd be chosen by his favourite NHL team, and, even as a cocky kid minutes away from hearing his name called, had no reason to think the Habs were his destiny.
    "I was in the elevator on the way to my seat with my dad and a couple of more, and Doug Robinson, who was the head scout for Montreal. Montreal was one of the only teams that didn't interview me at all. Nothing. So, I didn't really expect to talk to them. San Jose was picking twelfth and they told me they were picking me," Ryan remembers. 

    "So, anyway, in the elevator, the draft was just starting and I was actually late to my seat. Doug Robinson said "Congrats on a good year. Western Hockey League power forward. I like to see that." I said, "Thanks Mr.Robinson. I think a lot of your organization." And on the way off the elevator he said, "Congrats on a good Memorial Cup." 

    "And I said, "Jeez, I didn't play in the Memorial Cup." So, I went a little closer to try and get a read on him, and I said, "Okay, Mr.Robinson, I'll see you." And he said, "Okay, thanks Shane." So, fifteen minutes before they drafted me, the Canadiens thought I was Shane Doan, by appearance."

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    The team got the name right when the Canadiens staff took the podium to announce the eighth overall pick. Terry Ryan was overwhelmed. He'd been taken by his favourite team in the first round, and life couldn't have been better. He says now, that's as good as it got. 

    Ryan spent the next year back in junior where he had a decent season, despite some injury problems. During the following campaign, the second after his draft, he finally got the phone call of his dreams and made his NHL debut. It didn't work out the way dreams are supposed to.
    "The guys who drafted me got fired," he recalls. "I was a long shot for them. I wasn't the best skater. I had a lot of character. And I could score. But the times I was called up, it was because someone was hurt, it wasn't because they wanted me." 

    "I got maybe three shifts a game. In the minors, I was rookie of the year. I had 20 goals, I lead the league in fights. Everything I was doing in the minors was, if not on pace, then above expectations from what anybody thought."

    At the NHL level, Ryan ran into head coach Michel Therrien and they didn't get along.

    "Years later, I look back and I'm not as bitter as I was. At the time, I was pretty upset. I was getting called up, getting one shift and I'd fight Tie Domi. I'd do it. I'd fight these guys because I wanted to make the most of my opportunity. There were over ten games in the NHL when I didn't even get one shift, and they don't even count as a game played. That happens to a lot of people."

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    After the first few games in the NHL, injuries struck. First, concussions, then a busted ankle. Frustrated at never getting a real shot with the Canadiens, Ryan took his agent, Mike Barnett's, advice and sat out training camp. He never played in the NHL again. He's not bitter now, but getting past the feeling of being a disappointment to himself and his family was a long trip down a bumpy road.
    "It was hard at first," Ryan admits. "It's a long story. I got to see the world from the other side for a while, and it was wild. I was the biggest prospect in Newfoundland. I was talked about as the best player on the island. I had all those things going for me."

    "When I got hurt, I felt like I let the whole province down. It took a while. I got divorced the same year I was told I couldn't play anymore. I put on sixty pounds and went on a reality show and lost it. It was a long, long, long story. It was hard to deal with, but at the same time, my dad, who played pro hockey, said, "Hey, you could have got injured when you were 14 or 15. But you played in the NHL. You played for the Canadiens.""
    That's what matters to Ryan now. He regrets skipping that last training camp, but he's come to terms with the way his NHL career panned out...or didn't. And he's still a Habs fan.
    "Recently, in the last couple of years, I've flown up and gone to the Habs games, and you're reminded when you go to the building. There's six or seven hundred names there outside. The players. I was one of them. When you think about it like that, it's kind of mind blowing," he muses.
    "One thing I would tell young players is there's so much more than the NHL. There's so many opportunities, and the small percentage that make the NHL...they're to be commended and looked up to. But there are a lot of avenues that young players can take. I look at my whole experience as "Wow! This all happened to me!" And I can't believe it," Ryan marvels now, decades after he became a first rounder. "The draft ended up being the highlight of my career. That and my first NHL game. Those things still happened and they were still great."
    These days, Ryan does some acting, podcasting and stand-up comedy. He's a father and also the author of "Tales of a First Round Nothing," his autobiography. The book's title is tongue-in-cheek because Ryan knows a lot of fans write him off as a failure.

    However, when Terry Ryan watches the draft now, he can still feel those teenage emotions; the hope, trepidation and wonder of it all. The thing he feels most now is quiet satisfaction. His NHL career was short...only eight games...but in the big picture, he knows he made it after all.

Blessing For a Warrior Going Out

         

     In the ancient days of Celtic lore, a warrior leaving home to fight battles elsewhere would kneel at the feet of his elders and accept a blessing, calling on the earth, the elements and the gods to protect him and ensure his timely return. One such traditional blessing goes:

    "We bathe your palms

    In the showers of wine,

    In the crook of the kindling,

    In the seven elements,

    In the sap of the tree,

    In the milk of honey,

    We place nine pure, choice gifts

    In your clear beloved face:

    The gift of form,

    The gift of voice,

    The gift of fortune,

    The gift of goodness,

    The gift of eminence,

    The gift of charity,

    The gift of integrity,

    The gift of true nobility,

    The gift of apt speech."

    In the realm of the Montreal Canadiens, nobody has a bigger heart, more devotion to the sweater or is a tougher warrior than Brendan Gallagher. From the first time he suited up in Habs colours, he threw himself into the fray every night with everything he had. The fresh-faced kid...an undersized fifth-round draft pick...burst onto the scene with a homing pigeon's instinct for the net, a willingness to take more physical punishment than a red-white-and-blue pinata and a shit-eating grin that drove opponents crazy.

    He evolved from goofy, energetic rookie to battle-hardened, bloody-nosed competitor. He became a team leader and role model for the young Canadiens who are now trying to build themselves into a championship winner. He's been, as an Irish mom would say, "Like the capelin: all guts."

    Gallagher grew from boy to man in Montreal. His teammates surrounded him and held him up after the death of his mother. He married and became a father as a Canadien. Never did he forget the importance of the team to his adopted city.

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    A few years ago, Gallagher and the Canadiens came to Newfoundland to play in the Hockeyville exhibition game the NHL holds each year. The team had chartered three buses to transport the players and all their gear to the rink.

    Gallagher arrived on the first bus, and there was already a gang of kids there, anxiously waiting for a glimpse of their heroes. Many players smiled and waved as they passed through the crowd to the arena doors, but number 11 stopped. He signed every hand, sweater, photo and scrap of paper shoved at him. He posed for dozens of photos with young fans and took the time to ask them about their own hockey teams. He was genuinely nice to every person he met.

    Once inside, Gallagher was one of the two players (Cole Caufield was the other) who handled the media availability. Arena staff hauled out a couple of wooden boxes so the vertically challenged duo could see over the heads of all the camera people. Gally stayed until every reporter got what he or she needed before heading for the dressing room to suit up. After practice, there he was again, patiently answering some of the same questions from another group of hacks.

    There was no question, at that time, that Gallagher was the heart and soul veteran of the team who would do anything asked of him.

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    Fast forward to today. As hard as Gallagher smiled at his first training camp, he cried just as hard when announcing he's leaving his hockey home. After becoming a healthy scratch toward the end of the season, he barely saw ice in the playoffs.

    With the realization that the coaching staff obviously doesn't feel he's got anything more to give, Gally is facing a new reality he's seen up close in teammates who left before him. He thinks of himself as still having something left in the tank, even if Habs management doesn't agree. He sounds, like any warrior would, as though he still has something to prove to the people who don't want him anymore.

    Canadiens fans wish the player and the person a chance to give it one more shot. If anyone deserves a new start, it's Gallagher.

    "Gallagher is a player on Montreal that I admire," said the late Claude Lemieux. "He plays a lot of the same game I played. Especially for a player of his size he plays with tenacity. He's physical, he's in your face and he won't back down. Players that have that character will go far in the playoffs."

    Gallagher didn't get to repeat the Habs run to the Finals in 2021 and, if he goes to Vancouver as he's suggested is a possibility, a Stanley Cup is probably not in his future. Still, for a guy who statistically should never even have seen 14 NHL regular seasons, he's got of lot of which to be proud.

    As he walks away from the Canadiens' room for the last time, he should know all of Montreal and fans everywhere send him off with a warrior's blessing.

Regular Season Beauty and the Playoff Beast

          

    When you think about Claude Lemieux, you think about the playoffs. From very early in his hockey career, he was the kind of player who somehow performed on a higher plane when the pressure was on and the games really meant something. In 27 junior playoff games, Lemieux racked up 61 points. In 1985 he was the playoff MVP in the Q, which foreshadowed his future NHL post-season dominance.

    And, Lemieux didn't just raise his own game when it counted most. His passion inspired the players around him to be better too, which was reflected in the world junior gold-medal team, the Canada Cup winner and four Stanley Cup champions for which he's played. In later years with his playing days behind him, he spent springs watching others try to do what came so naturally to him. 
    "There's a lot of really good teams," he acknowledged. "Unfortunately, only one can win. In the East, it's gonna come down to goaltending...always. It'll come down to the team that is great on special teams and stays healthy. I like the Canadiens right now because they're one of the healthiest, and they've got great goaltending. They could go a very long way."

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    Lemieux knew well the feeling of winning in Montreal. As a 20-year-old rookie in 1986, he scored 10 goals in 20 games to play a vital role in securing the franchise's 23rd Stanley Cup. 
    "I played, I believe, the last 8 or 10 games of the regular season. People ask if I felt the pressure of playing for the Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs. I was just numb. I was just happy to be there. I was excited about the opportunity. I was always a pretty good tournament performer in my youth hockey career and that translated really well to the next level. Obviously, we had a wonderful run and ended up winning the Stanley Cup in my first year," Lemieux recalled.
    He won three other Stanley Cups, with New Jersey and Colorado, taking home the Conn Smythe trophy as the MVP of the 1995 playoffs. His 19 game-winning playoff goals are third all time, behind only Wayne Gretzky and Brett Hull. 

    He was unusual in that his average point production over his career was higher in the playoffs than in the regular season. 
    "It becomes a real true war of physical play, mental strength and just how bad you want it," he said. "And that's why I think my game suited playoffs a little bit better than regular season play. Other guys just disliked me even more, so mentally I was probably a pain to be facing for a six or seven game series, so they probably were glad to go home and not face me any more," he said with a wry laugh, referencing his chippy, abrasive, irritating style.
    With all those Cup wins and special moments over 18 playoff seasons, you'd think it would have been tough for Lemieux to pick a personal favourite. When asked though, he immediately recalled a goal most Habs fans of a certain age will remember as well, scored in Montreal during that very first run to the title.
    "I always say the biggest goal I ever scored was against Hartford in, I think it was double overtime, Game 7," he explained. "I'm always going to remember that goal as my most exciting, memorable goal. I still remember scoring it and skating toward the bench and diving on the ice with all my teammates on top of me."

     "It really struck me what it meant to win in Montreal when Larry Robinson was the last guy to congratulate me and he was hugging me and he wouldn't let go. It was just he and I pretty much left on the ice and he just kept hugging me, then he let go and I saw he had tears in his eyes. He was crying. I thought, this is crazy. This man has won so many Stanley Cups already and he's been around forever. But that is what winning does for you, and that's what it means to be a Montreal Canadien. It's quite special."

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    Lemieux said with his post-season record, he was often asked what it takes to be a winner. 
    "I say a lot of guys are born winners and they won't take no for an answer. Others can be converted. They can learn. It's something you can teach," he said. "It's easier to teach young players than older players, but then, I knew older players who didn't have the opportunity to win when they were younger. Bobby Carpenter, for example. He was a gifted goal scorer who'd lost a bit of speed and touch, and he learned to take on a different role as a checker. He took on a different role and became a winner, and he's forever a winner," Lemieux said.
    Before his sudden death just three days after carrying the torch into the Bell Centre, he was hoping the Canadiens could surprise the hockey world like they did during his rookie season. He knew good goaltending, good health and a solid lineup are important, and the Habs have those things, but the real secret ingredient to a long run is something he never lacked: belief.
    "I don't think it's magic. I think everything runs downhill. From the top down, if you have winners at the top, it starts to spread. Losing spreads through your locker room quickly, but so does winning," he said. "Playoffs are always very exciting. There are surprises and players nobody knows about who play really well, and goaltenders and players who make a name for themselves. Playoffs are great."
    If anybody knew the truth of that, it was Claude Lemieux.

Heartbreak

     

    There are many times in the course of a Stanley Cup playoff run when your heart breaks a little: Losing a tight game you deserved to win. Failing to play your game when you really need to bring it. Having a goal called back because the refs take out the tape measure on an offside review. Getting blown out at home in a potential series clincher.

    The Canadiens have lived through every one of those situations this spring and managed to find a way to fight back. They have every opportunity to do it again in this Carolina series.

    However, perhaps the most heartbreaking moment of these playoffs was watching Lane Hutson stand there after the game and say "It would be nice to be up 2-1, but we’re not because of me, so it’s frustrating." He followed that brutal self-assessment with an apology to goalie Jakub Dobes, saying "Sucks that I just blew it for him."

    Hutson is keen to be accountable for the loss, but it was far, far from his fault. There would have been no overtime at all if he hadn't scored on the power play to even things at two. If his teammates had more than 13 shots or could bury a breakaway, Hutson might never have been in a position to make the play that led to the game winner for Carolina. They didn't and they couldn't, and that left the team's best player (aside from maybe Dobes) feeling like he should have done more. It's hard to imagine how he could.

    The 22-year-old has 15 points in 17 playoff games. He plays almost thirty minutes a game (28:55 in Game Three) and he defends brilliantly against the other team's toughest players. He's been a target all playoffs, his 162 pounds absorbing hit after hit, including a terrible knee-on-knee collision with Taylor Hall in Game Two that obviously really hurt. Still, watching him work his skating magic, you'd never know it.

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    If Hutson doubts himself, he can make an exercise of imagining the Canadiens without him. It's hard to believe it's been only two years since he signed his first NHL contract because he's such an entrenched part of the team now. He's the first Calder Trophy winner the Habs have had since Ken Dryden in 1971. His 78 points this season were a major reason why the team made the playoffs in a squeaky-tight Atlantic division. He's mature for his age, a visionary and creative genius on the ice. He's the only one on the team who'd think to crawl in behind his goalie to help him protect the post during a scrum. 

    Other teams target Hutson because they know he drives the Canadiens' offence more than any other player. Even when he doesn't record a point on a play, he's constantly moving the puck out of danger, making impossible passes or stripping an attacker to prevent a scoring chance. If the team can't muster up more than a handful of shots, it's certainly not down to Hutson.

    No, there are many issues with the way the Canadiens are playing, especially at home, but Lane Hutson's performance is definitely not one of them. He's probably the hardest worker on the team, first on the ice every day even during optional practices. There's little more he can do to drive his team forward.

    Hopefully, today, Hutson's teammates will listen to their superstar blaming himself for the loss and realize how little they did to help him. Perhaps a little introspection might help them focus on playing their best instead of just watching him play his game. If the Canadiens are to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, a lot of players will have to be better in Game Four.

    Lane Hutson does not.

    

    

For the Good of the Game

    

    On May 16, 1976, Montreal Canadiens captain Yvan Cournoyer emerged from a celebratory throng, lifting the Stanley Cup over his head, grinning big enough to put the Cheshire Cat to shame. He circled the ice at the Philadelphia Spectrum, trailed by teammates awaiting their turn to touch the coveted chalice. The win completed a sweep of the Flyers, who'd won the previous two Cups in their then-incarnation as the Broad Street Bullies.

    Philly had some good players in Bobby Clarke and Reggie Leach, but they made their reputation for fierceness on the fists of Dave Schultz, Battleship Kelly and their fellow goons. They won because every other team in the league was afraid to play them. That is, until the Canadiens turned the tide by developing a very different game and imposing their will on the truculent Flyers. In the months and years since that victory of skill, speed and sportsmanship over bullying and intimidation, more than one observer has credited the Canadiens for saving the game from an overall descent into Philly hockey.

    "This is not only a victory for the Canadiens; it is a victory for hockey," Serge Savard said that night at the Spectrum. "I hope that this era of intimidation and violence that is hurting our national sport is coming to an end. Young people have seen that a team can play electrifying, fascinating hockey while still behaving like gentlemen."

    "And if they had won the third Stanley Cup in a row, then we could see that it was going to revert back into a lot more fighting," recalls Steve Shutt years later. "And I think it would have put the game back 5 or 10 years. So us going in there and winning that particular series, I think really, really benefited the game in general."

    "We wanted to win the Cup in Philadelphia and I think that was a real legacy for that hockey team; the start of something that took it to a new level," Doug Risebrough remembers. "The Flyers won with that kind of aggressive, fighting, beat-you-up-for-checking type game. And I don't think people in our room believed that that was the way the game should have been played."

    "And I'm not belittling what the Flyers did because they won Cups, but the Montreal Canadiens were going to win it different than that. We weren't going to win it the way they had won it. We didn't adjust to their style. We were going to win it differently with skating, offence, attention to the detail and defence."

    "Everybody follows the champion and every team wants to be like the champion," said Ken Dryden.

    "And as the Flyers were winning, everybody wanted to be like the Flyers. And I think it was important that we won."

    "I mean there there are good teams, there are great teams and there are important teams and there are a lot of Stanley Cup winners and a lot of them are great teams or near-great teams. There are not very many that are also important teams. And I think the Montreal Canadians of that time were also a very important team."

    The Canadiens of that era, essentially, saved NHL hockey from itself.

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    Now, fifty years later, the Canadiens face a similar challenge. 

    These days, the NHL is a business more than at any other time in its history. Between constant gambling ads, players' outside business interests, pointless franchises in pointless markets and inequitable officiating (including from the so-called office of player safety), the game is at risk of losing its soul once again.

    It's especially true this year with the Vegas Golden Knights one game away from making the Stanley Cup Final on the back of goalie Carter Hart. Hart is one of the 2018 Canadian World Junior players who were charged with sexual assault against a young woman in London, Ontario. The players ended up being acquitted because the judge didn't believe the complainant, despite compelling evidence.

    A team with a soul would look at the situation and question the wisdom in signing a guy with that background hanging over him. At the very least, it would put his judgement at being in that position and failing to stop it into question. A team with a soul doesn't hire Carter Hart.

    The NHL today is willing to ban rainbow stick tape to appease a few homophobic critics. It's willing to sell itself to the highest sports-betting company. It allows the Stanley Cup to visit the fascist US White House. And it's willing to give players who are involved in abusive situations second chances to restart lucrative hockey careers.

    These Canadiens are not today's NHL. 

    The first thing Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes look for is character. Logan Mailloux got into trouble in Sweden as a 17-year-old by taking and sharing non-consensual photos of a sex act with a young woman. He played a total of eight games for the Habs before they shifted him to St.Louis. Even if he paid a price for his past, he didn't belong with this group. Hughes wants to know the players he hires are good people, unlikely to get caught up in scandal. He wants them to have a soul.

    If the Canadiens are lucky enough to make the Finals this year, it'll be on them to show the league what a real, tight, clean-cut team looks like. They'll show that even in this age of social media and so many outside influences, a group of young men can come together in sincerity and with a common purpose to beat out the glitzy, controversial, Bettman-sponsored McTeams he's foisted on the league.

    It's time for the Canadiens to save hockey, again.

    

Wolves

     

    Just after Game Seven against the Lighting in the first round of the post-season, the Montreal Canadiens were in their dressing room, happy and exhausted. The Habs had come in as underdogs against the playoff-hardened Bolts and the series was a tight-checking slog. Most of the players were sitting in their stalls getting undressed when coach Martin St.Louis walked in. The room was quiet as he began his postgame speech. That didn't last long. Channeling Leonardo DiCaprio from the Wolf of Wall Street, he injected a dose of his own joy and passion into the guys in the room.

    It was an appropriate choice. 

    "I just feel like they’re a pack, they’re so together," St.Louis said just before the playoffs. "They just love each other. They got each other’s backs. They celebrate everyone. It’s a very selfless group."

    "Marty talks about having a pack mentality, so wolf’s a big theme," says captain Nick Suzuki. That theme inspired him to buy the now-infamous wolf head hat the players award to each win's MVP.

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    Ten years ago, Jeff Gorton was general manager of the New York Rangers. St.Louis was newly retired from the team, but Gorton thought he had the makings of a future coach and wanted to keep him around. He offered St.Louis the head coaching job of the Rangers AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. St.Louis declined. Hartford didn't appeal to him, but the "wolf pack" idea certainly did. The pack mentality concept underpins his coaching philosophy. 

    Shane Mahoney has been a wildlife biologist for decades, and he knows pack behaviour intimately.

    "So the pack becomes essentially an extended family," he explains. "It's the pups of previous years and the pups of this year and so on that work together as a cooperative unit. So they have this very strong genetic tie but they also have an extraordinary range of cooperative behaviour and communication abilities."

    The pups of previous years...cooperative behaviour...communication. Sound familiar?

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    "This communication allows wolves to capture prey species that are much larger than themselves and which would be just impossible for a single wolf to to kill," Mahoney continues. "The wolf pack is so successful because it is so coordinated. They have enormous intelligence and they have developed these extraordinary behaviors for cohesion, cooperative behavior and also hierarchies."

    Just like a hockey team, the wolf pack has individuals that play different roles within the group.

    "Some of the of the wolves tend to be the individuals that may do more of the hard-on attacking when they finally close in on prey," Mahoney says. "Because with the extended family structure, you have some that are small in that given year, right? They were only born in that year. They don't have the size, the body mass and so on to be the real attack animals. But they can harry. they can chase, they can wear down the prey."

    "You also have the mature animals that are much more capable in terms of dispatching the prey through chokeholds or whatever other kind of particular killing technique that they are actually using. So there's no question that there is a hierarchy of behavior and different roles played by the wolves. The more experienced, larger bodied, more capable wolves are at the front and centre of the actual physical engagement with the prey"

    Wolf packs don't just communicate and cooperate while hunting, either. Just like a hockey team should, they also defend together. 

     "Of course the pack defends itself as a pack and it defends just as importantly, its prey as a pack," Mahoney says. "And there's just not that many other animals that are really capable of stealing prey from a wolf."

    "You have this really quite extraordinary kind of emotional and physical link that we could call loyalty. We could call it many things, but the truth of the matter is they stick together. They work together, they fight together and essentially they live entirely like a little moving community across the landscape. In terms of the big fundamental aspects of behaviour and capacities like intelligence or empathy, wolves are a lot like us."

    And we are a lot like them.

    Shane Mahoney calls the Canadiens a wolf pack on skates. Turns out Marty St.Louis doesn't just know hockey. He understands nature as well.