They don’t make Montreal Canadiens the way they used to.
Three seasons before the Blackhawks came into existence in 1926, the Canadiens won the first of their 23 Stanley Cups. In their heyday, they were to hockey what the Yankees are to baseball, what Notre Dame once was to college football–and a whole lot more.
These were “the Flying Frenchmen,” a team that wore its ethnic identity with pride and passion. Starting in the ’20s and continuing into the ’90s, when the Canadiens came to Chicago it was a happening. Sports aficionados went to see not only a team steeped in tradition but also one that showcased such brilliant players as Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Boom Boom Geoffrion, Dickie Moore, Yvan Cournoyer and Guy Lafleur.
Times have changed. When the Canadiens visit the Hawks Wednesday night, it will be just another game between a couple of teams who wouldn’t be in the playoffs if they began today.
The Montreal mystique isn’t there anymore. “No, it’s not,” agreed Red Fisher, the Montreal Gazette columnist who has covered the Canadiens for 45 years. “Not at all. Not in Chicago and not in most of the cities they’re in once a year.
“They’re not the Flying Frenchmen anymore.”
“They’re no longer controlling the French-Canadian players,” said Bob Pulford, the Hawks’ senior vice president and acting head coach. “They used to get the first two French-Canadians in every draft.”
When the draft rules were changed and became the same for every team, the basic ethnic fabric of Canadiens slowly began to change.
“Not having Marcel Dionne and Gilbert Perrault probably was the first thing,” said Pulford. “The next was Denis Savard–they had the first pick in the [1980] draft and they took Doug Wickenheiser instead of Savard.”
Savard eventually was traded to Montreal after 10 seasons with the Hawks and he was a member of the Canadiens’ last Stanley Cup championship team in 1993. But Chicago had won his heart and he returned via Tampa Bay to end his playing career and now is in his second season as an assistant coach.
Goaltender Jocelyn Thibault and right wing Eric Daze also grew up in Montreal with dreams of playing for the Canadiens and wound up in Chicago.
Thibault was traded by Colorado to the Canadiens in December of 1995 and stayed with them until November, 1998, when he was traded to the Hawks. “I wanted out of Montreal,” said Thibault. “In the last year I could feel my future was somewhere else.
“What I would like to change about my time in Montreal is getting there right after Patrick Roy left. I was playing pretty well but the fans were expecting more, and it was the same season that Patrick won the Stanley Cup in Colorado.”
Since coming to the Hawks, Thibault has recorded shutouts in his two meetings with Montreal. “It’s very easy to get my emotions up for that team,” he said. “For me, beating Montreal always will be special.”
The same holds true for Daze, who was drafted by the Hawks in 1993. “In our last game in the Forum [which has been replaced by the Molson Centre], I scored a goal against Patrick Roy and my parents were there watching,” he remembered. “I always will remember that goal in the Forum.
“I grew up wanting to play there. But now, I see what the pressure is in Montreal and what the expectations are. I think it is much better that I went away to Chicago where the people didn’t know me.”
