Dennis Kane’s Excellent Montreal Canadiens Blog

A guest writer delves into the ‘Patrick Roy’s sweater being retired’ saga. 

Take it away, Jim.

“Pro sports are sexy for a variety of reasons, but perhaps their most attractive quality is that they are so readily apprehended. Things are pretty straightforward, excluding the usual geeky obsession with stats - God bless The Schwab, a brilliant trivia geek, but frankly I have to agree with Noam Chomsky here when he says in effect that the brains of such people could be put to much better use.

A simple concept that I’m interested in touching on here is that of the relationship between team and player and championships. In all team sports, WINNING CHAMPIONSHIPS is the ultimate goal, the ultimate measure not only of the team but of the individual player. Aguably, winning the Stanley Cup is the most demanding, most arduous, most difficult championship to capture, and being a member of a Stanley Cup championship team is the crown glory of any player. This simple fact is born out by the players themselves who to a man agree that they would trade any number of individual achievements, any amount of accolades just to win one cup - to my knowledge, no player has yet declared they preferred being a star to winning a cup.

In this respect, Lanny McDonald and Dave Andreychuk spring immediately to mind.

Are individual stats relevant?

Of course they are. For example, Marcel Dionne and Mike Gartner were great players and derserved to be in the Hall of Fame even though they did not win any cups. Conversely, many players such as Mario Tremblay and Rejean Houle, who won several cups with the Habs, do not, in my mind, belong in the Hall.

In other words, membership in the Hall is very much a function of individual accomplishments in the game, although inductees who have won cups are, I believe, a cut above those who did not - the single most significant yardstick for measuring the greatness of a player is how many cups he has won. Period.

However, being inducted into the Hall is not the same as having one’s sweater retired by le Canadien. The Habs are not only the greatest team of all time, they are one of the greatest sports teams of all time. What this means is quite simply that the standards and expectations that apply to other teams and their players are not applicable to the Habs.

My point re Roy? Winning a mere two cups hardly qualifies Patrick Roy to be placed in the company of greats such as Beliveau, the Richards, Cournoyer, Plante, Lafleur, - who each has great stats as well as multiple cups. Note that they are all Hall Of Famers, unlike Houle and Tremblay. And the argument that Roy single-handedly won the two cups and therefore merits special treatment not only flies in the face of the win-as-a-team/lose-as-a-team maxim but it is insulting to the great players on those cup teams - look ‘em up!

It’s a cliche, which doesn’t mean it isn’t so, to say that teams only go as deep into the playoffs as their goalies take them. Of course goalies are crucial components on any cup-winning team, but this sure doesn’t lead to the conclusion that all cup-winning goalies should have their sweaters retired. But if we assume that Roy did literally win the cup by himself, then, applying the same logic, it’s reasonable to to assume that he therefore lost many more cups than he won. Hey, isn’t Price getting heat for ‘losing’ to the Flyers? Never mind the goalposts and poor shooting of the rest of the team. Hmmm, makes Roy a big choker rather than a big hero, n’est-ce pas?

Put him in the Hall, sure. Roy was a good goalie and he did have an impact on the game. But he definitely did NOT accomplish enough as a Canadien to warrant having his sweater retired. It’s a cynical marketing play that diverts attention from the fact that we have not won a cup in 15 years! And please, spare me the bs about the modern game and parity.  The Wings have won 3 in 11 years and could easily have won more and we’re supposed to be happy to make the playoffs. What a shameful betrayal of all the great Hab players and builders who triumphed regardless of the era in which they played. Hell, mug shots of Sammy Pollock and Scotty Bowman belong up there, not Roy’s sweater.

In Habland, cups first and persoanl stats a distant second - gotta luv Gainey and Harvey and Robinson and Savard, eh? And yes, the criteria that qualify a player of Hall of Fame induction do apply. As well, intangible considerations other than cup wins are also relevant.: leadership (suck it up, dig down, and play even better), charisma (Morenz, Richard, Beliveau, Lafleur), grit and determination (not a quitter among the sweaters up there now), loyalty (Roy? hmm..), et al.

Re Morenz, okay, I’ll be arbitrary here and say 3 cups is the minimum necessary to qualify to even be considered for having one’s sweater retired. I’ll also point out that Morenz, aka the Statford Streak, was called the Babe Ruth of hockey and as such he transcended the sport in much the same way Ruth did baseball, something that Patrick can not lay claim to. Morenz was a star whose brilliance far exceeded that of Roy. Also, unlike Roy, Morenz did not quit the Habs in the throes of a hissy fit over a chilish spat with a patently hostile and incompetent coach who would have clearly been turfed in favour of Roy. Morenz was a true Hab who died well before his time from an injury sustained while wearing the bleu, blanc, et rouge.

PS  No player will ever publicy say that other players do not deserve whatever honours team and league choose to bestow on them.

A nice little Alex Tanguay move in the shootout Thursday night in Ottawa gave the Canadiens an important 3-2 win.

And it was mostly important because the team looked slightly better than they have lately. There was flow, skating, passing, shots, all the things that hockey is supposed to be, and all the things the Habs haven’t done much of lately.

Granted, the Senators played well and could have won this game. But they didn’t. One word of caution to fans going home after game. Be careful of the sidewalks. They’re usually rolled up after six o’clock in Ottawa. Don’t trip.

I saw lots of good things from the Canadiens. Not great things, but good things. It seemed everyone was ready to play. There were few whistles, few penalties, and good goaltending at either end. I even saw confidence with the puck, which has been missing lately too.

These are good signs. Is tonight’s game a turning point?

If I was a paying customer, I’d feel I got my money’s worth on this night. Which I can’t say the same for most of the previous Habs games.

Now it’s home to prepare for the Boston Bruins on Patrick Roy Night. More than any game so far, this is the one where I want to see the Canadiens simply kill. They were embarrassed 6-1 by Boston last week, something that both players and fans haven’t forgotten, I’m sure. It’ll be a beautiful thing to behold if the Habs return the favour in a big way on Roy night. 

Game Note:

A couple sitting behind the bench wore Canadiens sweaters, and the guy looked really nervous and upset because at the time, the boys were losing 2-1. The lovely young lady touched him and whispered sweet nothings in his ear to obviously make him feel better. That’s love. That’s hockey. Two young Habs fans in love.

It’ll be a very interesting remainder of November for the Montreal Canadiens. The boys are in Ottawa now, (Kanata, way to the west of the city, where the rink is), getting ready to take on the dysfunctional Senators.

Then they’re at home Saturday to beat the Bruins, and we all know what this game means. It’s Patrick Roy Sweater To The Rafters Night.

Then the boys sleep in their own beds and wait for the Islanders on Monday.

After that, it’s a two game road trip, when they travel to Detroit next Wednesday, and then swing over to Washington for a Friday game against the Caps.

They then close out the month the following Saturday when the Sabres visit.

What does all this mean? 

It means every game will probably be a struggle for our struggling guys. Let’s see - Ottawa, Boston, the Islanders, Detroit, Washington, and the Sabres. How many games will they win here?

Boston and Detroit should be tough ones. The Sabres and Washington will also be no picnic. Montreal seems to play flat in Washington. I went to a game there in the 1980’s with a bunch of guys on a beer-soaked, rented car roadtrip, and the Habs lost 5-0.  

And opening game this year in Buffalo, the Habs lost in a shootout and were flat, a sign of things to come.

If all the stars and planets are in alignment, Montreal should kick the Islanders ass.

Which brings us to Thursday night’s game in Ottawa. The Senators have stunk this year. There’s no other way to say it. It’s a team in turmoil, it seems. I don’t know why. They’ve got Alfredsson, Heatley, and Spezza, for goodness sakes. That’s a lot.

But I suppose they’re missing most everything else, although journeyman goalie Alex Auld has been better than expected.

Montreal needs to start in Ottawa, pick up steam, and make their presence felt in all these games mentioned. Their power play needs to explode. They have to quit taking ridiculous penalties, which I blame Guy Carbonneau for. A Stanley Cup contender is a disciplined team.

Alex Kovalev needs to break out. Why does he feel he needs to be pretty on the ice? Pretty doesn’t usually work. Power works. And as Kovalev goes, the team goes. We saw this last year.

Carey Price needs to play at least five of the six remaining November games, preferably all six. The Kostitsyn boys, both of them, have to play like last year, although Andrei has been fairly good. Sergei hasn’t.

The defence has to tighten up. Price faced 48 shots in Carolina. That’s unacceptable.

Also, they’re showing that they’re weak clearing the puck. It can’t be that difficult to shoot the puck out. But other teams have seemed to have figured out how to stop it. Why is that? Carbonneau again, I think.

And I’ll mention it again. Quit taking stupid penalties. It kills momentum. The gunners sit on the bench while the penalty killers work. How can Carbonneau stop this insanity? Start benching those who take bad, ill-timed penaties. Do something.

In my book, the penalty-taking is the biggest killer of all. 

For some reason, Jean Beliveau has always got it. He understands his fans. Maybe Jean had his own heroes, and maybe he met them and they treated him right, and he learned from them. Or maybe he met his heroes and they treated him wrong, and he learned from them also. 

Most NHL players, or for that matter, most professional athletes in any sport, could learn from Jean Beliveau.

I love most of the comments that come here regarding the Habs and hockey in general. And this one came the other day after I’d posted recently a little story about owning a Jean Beliveau hockey stick. It’s from a Habs fan in Hamilton who uses the handle ”Retromikey,” and it made my heart soar like an eagle.

“To me, Jean Beliveau symbolizes the true Habs player on and off the ice.
There is never a day goes by where Jean will sign an autograph or spare a few minutes to talk to a fan during his busy schdedule.
I remember back in 1993, and drove with my buddies to attend the Stanley Cup final Game 5 in 1993 in Montreal from Hamilton.
We all arrived the hotel the eve of the game and while everyone was ready to go out out and party the night away, I decided to find out if it was true or not if Jean Beliveau’s number was located in the book and would meet up with my buddies at the bar later.
Sure enough, I found his name in the book and I was curious to see if he wanted to chat with a Habs fan from Hamilton.
Before you know it, Jean answered the phone and we talked a good 30 minutes. I apologized for talking so long to him on the phone and he requested my name and address.
Several weeks later, I received a package in the mail. A beautiful 8×10 personalized signed photo of Jean with several signed postcards to be given to my friends!
To end this story, I caught up with Jean at a Toronto Expo Card show 5 years later.
The look in his eyes when I told him that I spoke to him on the eve of Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final is priceless. He remembered and gave me a solid handshake and smile that I will never forget for the rest of my life.
Jean, you are a true gentleman and will alway be a part of my life as well as other Habs’ fans as well! I salute you!”

Then, if that wasn’t good enough, Retromikey comes back a day later with his Patrick Roy thoughts regarding the post about Mike in Pickering who won’t be watching the sweater being hoisted to the rafters in November.

“Mario Tremblay gave it all as a Habs wearing the CH on his jersey for almost 12 years starting as a 18 year old rookie in 1974!
I was only 9 years old when he was a rookie and looked up to him with his grit and character on the team! He had everything going for him when he played for Montreal, looks (so my older sisters tell me), playing hard game in and out, and a team leader willing to teach anyone who wanted to learn from him.
Well he brought this as a coach of the Habs and he got the shaft when Patrick Roy got traded to Colorado.
My philosophy if I were a coach would be ” I coach, you play” attitude to the players.
This is what Mario tried to preach to Patrick but being the star that he was, he got breaks more than the other hard working players on our team when Jacques Demers was the coach.
Sorry, this other “Mikey” will not be watching the retirement jersey night as well. I stand pat as well as other Habs fans.
Let the “Pepsi Generation” fans born after 1970 have their glory that night and watch their “God” Patrick have his jersey lifted high in the rafters.
I will be sad knowing that players like Joliat, Lalonde, Durnan, Lapointe, Ironman Jarvis, etc.. deserve the honour more than Patrick.”

There’s a brand new and highly-anticipated book about Patrick Roy, written by his father Michel, on the market now, with all the details at Joe Pelletier’s site, but I know one person who probably doesn’t feel like reading it right now.

And when Patrick Roy has his sweater raised to the rafters at the Bell Centre on November 22nd, this person’s television in Pickering, Ontario won’t be tuned in either.

Mike, who has bled Canadiens colours for five decades, says he won’t watch the game that night. He doesn’t agree with what will happen, and he’s angry. Because for him, wearing the Montreal Canadiens sweater comes with a clause. A clause that says it’s an honour to wear it.

For Mike, it’s all about that infamous night on Dec. 2, 1995 when Roy allowed nine goals against Detroit, and when he wasn’t yanked by coach Mario Tremblay, skated to the Montreal bench, walked over to president Ronald Corey, and declared that he’d never play another game with the Habs.

This didn’t sit well with Mike. He’s a fan who believes wearing the sweater is so much more than about bad games, or embarrassment, or even big personal numbers. It’s about wearing the sweater, and that’s it.

And so he said recently on this site that he won’t be watching that night when Roy has the sweater go up, and I asked him why, exactly.

All he said was just go back to recent comments from him, and so I did.

“To walk out on a team as he did precludes him from any honours,” he explained. “Roy thought he was bigger than the team, even dictating when he would practice or not. Mario Tremblay had the CH tattooed on his behind, and came from an era that cherished the right and honour to be a Canadien.

“The previous players who’ve been honoured were true Montreal Canadiens, not this self-serving ego tripper.”

For me personally, it’s also hard to understand how a player can simply quit like Roy did. And maybe Mario Tremblay was completely wrong to leave him in that night like he did. But I believe Roy should’ve just sucked it up, played harder in future games, and taught Tremblay through his actions on the ice that you don’t embarrass the star goalie like that.

Roy shouldn’t have quit on his teammates and Tremblay shouldn’t have done what he did. He and Tremblay had had a volatile relationship from the beginning, with both making jokes about the other’s ability to speak English, and Roy disagreeing often on how Tremblay handled other players.

So there was a personality conflict, and I suppose fireworks were bound to happen.

The younger generation supports Roy completely through all of this. I’ve seen this by comments on this site in previous Roy stories. They believe Roy almost single handedly won both Stanley Cups for the team in 1986 and 1993. They believe his numbers outweigh everything else. They get very upset and angry. And that’s good.

They’ll be watching, and they’ll be buying the book.

But every side has their story, and Mike’s stance is clear and has its own validity.

This is a guy who watches his Habs faithfully and loyally, in every game throughout the season, and has for years. He wears his Montreal sweater, cheers loudly, drinks his beer from his Canadiens beer mug, still worships Jean Beliveau, and lives and dies with each win and loss.

But that night he won’t be watching. Or reading the book either.

Oh, I had the guts all right. Big guts. Big honkin steel-plated guts. Phoning Bert Olmstead in Calgary again was going to be a cinch. “Hello Mr. Olmstead,” I was going to say. “Can we talk hockey?”  And if he grumbled and hung up on me again, it wasn’t going to bother me.

So I got out the phone book, just like I’d done before, and I found a Kevin Olmstead, and a Pat, and a Marie, and several others. But no Bert. He was there before. But not now.

I know what happened. He probably got an unlisted number after I bothered him the last time. It’s my fault. I single-handidly made him paranoid of strangers calling. 

Sorry Bert. I didn’t mean anything by it. I just wanted to talk hockey.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Patrick Roy’s son Jonathan has pleaded not guilty of assault stemming from him skating the length of the ice to pummel the other goalie during a Quebec junior game.

I’m not sure how this might be not guilty, but anyhow, if found guilty, the young fellow could face up to six months in jail. Which means that when his father’s sweater is hung from the rafters at the Bell Centre. Jonathan could be watching it in the prison viewing room along with a couple of dozen of his newest and closest friends.

He could even kill two birds with one stone by watching his dad at centre ice while getting a nice homemade tattoo at the same time. 

This was the Letter of the Day in the Edmonton Sun on Sept 9th. And except for the part about the Montreal Canadiens not having self-respect, I pretty well agree with what Mr. Martin has to say. I’m not a big fan of Patrick Roy, and I’ve said before his sweater shouldn’t be hung from the rafters at the Bell Centre.

So I enjoyed this letter.

Here it is, entitled “Sweater Honour A Roy Deal.”

The ineffable Harold Ballard forever alienated Maple Leaf legend and Hall of Famer Dave Keon.

Keon wants his number retired, not just honoured, by the franchise. Call it a grudge, call it principle, but Keon is not going to kowtow to the blue and white.

Conversely, Canadiens hero Patrick Roy tells his organization to scram - skating off in the prime of his career - and yet the fans and management of hockey’s so-called greatest franchise now are down on their knees to St. Patrick, praying that they can have the privilege of retiring his No. 33, as Roy’s Colorado Avalanche has done.

Howie Morenz, Georges Vezina, and the Rocket, Maurice Richard, who all bled the red C, would not be pleased.

This is not about character or off-ice antics. It’s about self-respect. If the Canadiens retire No. 33 they will have shown they do not have any. It will be truly pathetic.

All the greatest players have understood that the game is bigger than them, and the Montreal Canadiens, with their rich history, are surely bigger than one man.

Imagine No.33 being raised to the rafters as Roy receives a standing ovation - a man who turned his back on the uniform and his fans in their most dire need. With heroes like Roy, who needs villains?

Daniel Martin

I got home from work and saw this article from CBC Sports. I suppose he deserves it, although he’s in my bad books right now. Somehow I can’t shake the notion that he bailed out on the Habs when the going got tough. I’m also not impressed about the brawl he and his son were involved in.

But he was a great goalie and probably deserves his sweater retired, both in Montreal and Colorado. The big fear I have, however, is that he’ll end up coaching in Montreal some day. This doesn’t sit well with me at all. 

Actually, it scares me.

CBC Sports

 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? 

Marc Crawford Joins Hockey Night In Canada

Marc Crawford is joining the Hockey Night In Canada crew as a between-period analyst. This comes just after the announcement of Mike Milbury joining the show and doing the same job. Both former players and coaches are expected to give important tips about what conditioners to use, how to detangle, and how to apply lemon juice for natural highlights. 

Scotty Bowman Leaves Red Wings For Blackhawks

Scotty Bowman is leaving the security of his job in Detroit for a new one in Chicago. A Detroit spokesman said the team was sad to see him go, and that he had done a great job with the Wings. When asked what Scotty had actually done for the Wings, the spokesman replied that Scotty had done, uh, well, uh…”he sat in the owner’s box and offered advice about, uh, well …..he told us to play Nick Lidstrom quite a bit and he also told us to play Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk quite a bit also, and we really appreciated that.”

Patrick Roy’s Son Faces Assault Charge

Patrick Roy’s 19 year old son Jonathan will appear in court in September to face assault charges stemming from the on-ice incident where the goalie skated the length of the ice and pummelled the other goalie after it appeared that coach Patrick had waved his hands to motion his kid to do this. It’s expected that Patrick will be in the courtroom on this day, and so the judge, obviously worried for his own safety, has ordered that Patrick sit on his hands during the proceeding. Jonathan has also been warned to refrain from giving the finger to the judge, police officers, defence counsel, prosecution, clerk, reporters, and friends and family of both his and the other goalie, Bobby Nadeau. Speculation is that young Jonathan will also be ordered to sit on his hands.

Senators Re-sign Antoine Vermette

Antoine Vermette has agreed to continue playing for the Ottawa Senators after interest was shown for him by the Vancouver Canucks. This normally wouldn’t be a big news item, but the Canucks had strongly felt that with Vermette in the lineup, it would’ve made the team a legitimate Cup contender. As soon as the Canucks’ statement regarding being a contender was made, the hit series Last Comic Standing was quickly cancelled. “None of our comics could compete with such a hilarious line as that,” a Comic spokesman said.