Last year, in a moment of hard reflection and sad regret, I wrote about how I should have at least tried to get a job at the Montreal Forum when I was a teenager, doing odd jobs, cleaning gum off seats, taking out the garbage, and thereby working my way up from there to become zamboni driver [...]

Through the turmoil of recent days – the dismal losses, George Laraque being released and calling Bob Gainey and Jacques Martin “classless”, big Jean Beliveau suffering a stroke and taken to hospital, and Mike Cammalleri and Maxim Lapierre jawing at each other in practice, the Canadiens went in to New Jersey in a miserable state [...]

The New Jersey Devils are at the Bell on Saturday night. I wonder if they’ll bring their smoke and mirrors with them.
It’s a team, these Devils, that doesn’t believe in flashiness or full-throttle offence or giving the paying customers their money’s worth. They just seem to get it done, although it doesn’t look like it while they’re [...]

It seemed at the time like some reasonable requests to make.
About 15 hours before the Habs stepped on the ice in New Jersey, I suggested they do this: Other guys chip in a little more with some points; take less penalties; Carey Price to quit letting in easy goals; no one gets hurt; shoot more; [...]

Yvan Cournoyer, Jacques Lemaire, Guy Lafleur, Doug Risebrough, Pete Mahovlich, Larry Robinson and Gaston LeBois celebrate after winning the Stanley Cup in 1976.
“Gaston was our best player,” admitted Jacques Lemaire. “He was a bit long-in-the-tooth, but at least he wasn’t a puck hog like big Pete, or a chain smoker like Flower, or a moody [...]

Jacques Lemaire has quit the Minnesota Wild, GM Doug Risebrough was fired from the Minnesota Wild, and Serge Savard is interested in buying the Montreal Canadiens.
With Bob Gainey and Doug Jarvis already there, and Guy Lafleur and Yvon Cournoyer working as team ambassadors, Montreal could have a 1970’s team all over again. If they could [...]

It’s interesting and curious that Jacques Lemaire says he’s stepping down as coach of the Minnesota Wild, wants to stay in hockey, says he won’t remain with the Wild in another capacity, and side-stepped the question of whether he’d be interested in coaching the Canadiens.

This came out in the Edmonton Journal, written by John MacKinnon, and it’s quite amazing. Somehow, some place, the TSN gang must have got together and dropped some acid. MacKinnon’s story is entitled…
“Habs’ Dream Team Falls Flat With Imagination Shackled”  
So, in honour of the Montreal Canadiens centenary, TSN has assembled the “Ultimate Canadiens Team,” and [...]

If I had paid a hundred bucks or so, or more, for a ticket tonight in Minnesota, I’d ask for my money back. Because even though the Canadiens won 2-1, this sad excuse for a game was a combination of sloppy play by the Habs, boring hockey by the Wild, and a never-ending amount of penalties called by [...]

The Canadiens ended their pre-season games with a 3-0 loss to Jacques Lemaire’s quite boring Minnesota Wild. So the final tally for the Habs was six wins and three losses.
 
And if you think 6-3-0 is okay, you’re right. But it really doesn’t say much about the upcoming regular season. These games, of course, are all about seeing prospects, [...]