Dennis Kane’s Excellent Montreal Canadiens Blog

As you read this I’m probably in Calgary now visiting my two kids, getting bounced on by my two granddaughters, and bonding with the Montreal Canadiens 2027 first round draft pick, my new baby grandson, Cameron.

And while I’m here, I’m trying to get up enough guts to phone Bert Olmstead again.

A few years back, I did just this. I knew the old Habs’ great lived in Calgary and I phoned him then. He picked up the phone and I told him I loved the Habs and would he mind just chatting to me about his playing days.

It was like I’d asked him to walk ten miles and lend me some money. He got really gruff, told me to quit bothering him, and hung up on me.

And that ended my 30 second friendship with Bert Olmstead.

But Bert Olmstead was a great player. He originally replaced Toe Blake on the Punch Line, and spent seven solid years with the Habs before heading to the Leafs.

And do I have enough guts to phone him again? Maybe he doesn’t want to be bothered.

 For seven years, between 1943 and 1950, Bill Durnan was Montreal’s star goalie. He was such a great goalie, and also such a great team player, that by the end of the 1940’s he was even wearing the captain’s ‘C’, which, of course, is quite unusual. And he was also ambidextrous and wore a sort of combined catching glove and stick glove on both hands.

Durnan retired in 1950, claiming his nerves were shot, which opened the door for his backup goalie, Gerry McNeil. McNeil had been around since 1943 but never got a real chance until Durnan retired. McNeil was in goal the night Toronto’s Bll Barilko scored the Leafs’ famous Stanley Cup winning goal in 1951. (Barilko would die later that summer in a Northern Ontario plane crash.)

McNeil tended goal for Montreal until the mid-fifties, when his backup goalie, Jacques Plante, took over.

So Bill Durnan begat Gerry McNeil, who begat Jacques Plante, who begat Charlie Hodge, who begat Gump Worsley. And then Ken Dryden appeared like a gift from God, and Patrick Roy followed several years after that.

And now we’re at Carey Price. Ain’t life grand? 

Another Beehive from group 2 (1944 to 1964). I have 55 of these from group 2, all Habs. There’s 77 Montreal players in total from this group.

One of my sisters lives in Ottawa and works at Chapters book store downtown. In her letter the other day, she wrote, “I had a customer one day…his name is Jacques Plante. I asked him if he’s related to THE Jacques Plante. He smiled and said, “We’re ALL related to him.”

 From 1934 to 1967, if you mailed in a  Beehive Corn Syrup coupon, they would send you a free photo of most any player you requested. They were divided into three groups over the years, and this photo of Hal Laycoe comes from Group 2, which covered the years between 1944 to 1964.  Beehive photos were fun to collect and because everyone asked for the Rocket or Beliveau or Horton  or Armstrong etc, the lesser players like the Habs’ Tod Campeau and Vern Kaiser and others are extremely rare and valuable. 

Hal Laycoe had been a friend of Rocket Richard’s when both played for Montreal, but after Laycoe was traded to Boston, he and the Rocket took centre stage one night in what led to a big-time piece of hockey history. 

It happened like this. Laycoe had highsticked Richard one night in Boston, but play continued with no penalty called. This upset the Rocket very much. He skated up to Laycoe, smashed him in the face and upper body with his stick, and was soon subdued by the officials. But this didn’t stop Richard. He kept breaking away from the linesmen to get at this former friend, Laycoe, and he even broke his stick over the Bruin player’s back.

Linesman Cliff Thompson got hold of Richard again, but the Rocket broke loose and punched Thompson twice, which wasn’t the greatest idea. It simply wasn’t a good situation all round.

All of this led to Richard’s suspension of the remaining games in the season, plus the entire playoffs, and you know the rest of the story.

Of course it was the 1955 Richard Riot on St. Patrick’s Night In Montreal.

This has been a brief Beehive moment!