Dennis Kane’s Excellent Montreal Canadiens Blog

One of the most important players on the Habs of the early 1960’s, and a third and fourth line grinder at that. Dave Balon and his beautiful wife.

Sadly, Balon passed away several years back, and it was way too early.

Balon was one of those guys who was never a star, but was a hard worker, a checker, and he shone in playoff situations, scoring key goals, and was put out often in key situations against the other teams’ stars. For every Jean Beliveau, a team needs a Dave Balon.  He wore number 20, and as far as I’m concerned, he’s never gotten enough credit for what he did for the Montreal Canadiens. Tom Kostopoulos nowadays is a bit of a throwback in some ways to Balon.

Look how happy they look, especially his wife.

Ralph Backstrom and his wife Frances and kids. Isn’t she a sweetheart?

After Backstrom’s playing days were over, he ended up coaching the University of Denver team, and in 2003, founded the Colorado Eagles of the Central Hockey League, which is where he’s at now.

Backstrom was always one of my favourite players. I even got a brushcut like his once. The guy personified the Montreal Canadien teams he played on - speedy, classy, and a beautiful skater.

People used to hope that he and Henri Richard would have a race because they were both considered the fastest skaters on the team.

And what a lovely wife he has.

Canadiens goaltender Charlie Hodge and lovely wife Sheila. Charlie had the unfortunate luck of being on the same team as Jacques Plante, so he basically was a career backup goalie with the Habs. But he was a great backup. He eventually went to Oakland when expansion came into being in 1967, as each team had to surrender a goalie for the new upstarts. (the original six teams were allowed to protect only 11 skaters and one goalie.)

Charlie now lives just east of Vancouver. 

John Ferguson with wife Jean and daughter in this really nice family photo. As much as Fergie was a bruiser on the ice, he was known as a gentle pushover at home.

Fergie would go back to Nanaimo BC in the off-season to play professional lacrosse and he also had a long-time love affair with harness racing. (athletes’ wives put up with a lot, don’t they?)

Fergie’s son, John Ferguson Jr., who would grow up to become GM for the Toronto Maple Leafs until he was fired last year, wasn’t born when this picture was taken. This is from the early 1960’s, and John Jr. wasn’t born until 1967.

Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion with his wife Marlene and kids. That little gaffer is Danny, who went on to play for the Habs in the late ’70’s, early ’80’s. Marlene is the daughter of Howie Morenz, so she’s a hockey gal through and through. She looks beautiful, especially the picture of her in the white blouse.

Big Jean Beliveau doing the dishes with wife Elise. Elise said she had to do most of the driving when they were dating because Jean was a lousy driver.

Jacques Plante, with wife Jacqueline and boys Michel and Richard, singing and forgetting about flying pucks that hurt when they hit your face. Plante also liked to knit, and made his own socks and toques.

Dickie Moore and his lovely wife playing with their little baby. Such a fine looking couple. One of Moore’s daughters, and it could be the one in this photo, is dating one of Doug Harvey’s sons right now.

Bert Olmstead showing his beautiful family his scrapbook, just like the Rocket did. Scrapbooks were all the rage back then, and probably very cool when the scrapbook was about yourself. A few years back, I looked up Olmstead in the Calgary phone book, phoned him and asked him if he’d mind talking about the old days with the Habs. He hung up on me.

This is Maurice Richard, of course, just sitting around with his wife Lucille and the family. The kids are Maurice Jr., Hugette, Normand, Andre, and Suzanne. In the left photo, the Rocket shows his Rocket scrapbook to Normand and Andre. Most kids don’t have dads with a personal scrapbook. However, my dad was probably a much better sign painter than the Rocket.

Henri Richard and his lovely wife Lise, being happy and healthy at home in Montreal. We would see Lise often over the years in camera shots at games with the Pocket. She’s always looked great. Quite a handsome couple, don’t you think?

Henri was just a little kid when his older brother was becoming a star with the Canadiens.