Original Six #1 Boston Bruins
Original Six #2 Detroit RedWings
Original Six #3 Chicago Blackhawks
Original Six #4 New York Rangers
Original Six #5 Toronto Maple Leafs
In the wake of the team’s founding on December 4, 1909, Jack Laviolette – a player who is also named coach and general manager by team owner John Ambrose O’Brien – has just one month to recruit the 15 players who will make up the first incarnation of the Montreal Canadiens.
Laviolette forms his team around Newsy Lalonde. The star player has spent the previous five seasons playing hockey all over the country, notably with the Toronto Professionals and the Vancouver Millionaires.
The Canadiens play their first game as a member of the Canadian Hockey Association on January 4, 1910. Thanks to Didier Pitre’s goal in overtime, they record a 7-6 win over the Cobalt Silver Kings at Montreal’s Jubilee Arena. The result is irrelevant, though, as just days later, the Canadiens join the ranks of a newly formed league, the National Hockey Association.
The Canadiens, however, are unable to celebrate a victory at the end of their first game in the new league. Montreal loses its official first game on January 19 by a score of 9-4 to the Renfrew Creamery Kings. Lalonde marks the occasion by scoring the team’s first goal in the NHA.
The Canadiens’ season follows the same script as their first game, recording only two wins in 12 games to finish the regular season in last place.
Montreal fans have to wait until the fifth game of the season before seeing their team win for the first time. The Canadiens beat the Haileybury Comets, 9-5, and the versatile Pitre scores the winning goal.
Prior to the start of their second season, the Club Athletique Canadien, a Montreal sporting organization that the Canadiens borrowed their name from in 1909, is awarded a National Hockey Association franchise. As a result, the Canadiens, owned by John Ambrose O’Brien are forced to cease operations and are paid $7,500 as compensation. Just the same, the Club Athletique Canadiens’ owners, including Montreal mayor James John Edmund Guerin, sign contracts with several of the Canadiens’ former players. Among them are Jack Laviolette, Didier Pitre, Newsy Lalonde, Georges Poulin and Edgar Leduc.
The Club Athletique Canadien, which retains the “Montreal Canadiens” name, adopts red as the team’s jersey color in place of blue. Before the schedule gets underway, the team welcomes goalie Georges Vezina to the fray. Vezina’s performances, along with the brilliance of Lalonde and Pitre, who has been converted into a forward, allow the Canadiens to compete as equals against the league’s other teams.
The 1916 Stanley Cup Final features the National Hockey Association champions facing the winners of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association.
After posting a regular season mark of 16-7-1, the Canadiens – led by Lalonde, a 31-goal scorer during the 24-game NHA schedule, and Pitre – match up in the final against the Portland Rosebuds, the first American team with an opportunity to win the Cup. Portland’s lineup includes PCHA scoring leader Cyclone Taylor.
Montreal enjoys home-ice advantage throughout the series with all five games played at the Westmount Arena. With the two leagues competing under different rules, Games 1, 3 and 5 are played under NHA rules, and Games 2 and 4 are contested under those of the PCHA.
In the first game, the Canadiens are shut out by the score of 2-0, the result of a brilliant performance by veteran goalie Tommy Murray and the Rosebuds’ defense, led by Ernie Johnson and Del Irvine. The home team is far from done, as the Canadiens bounce back in the next two games with 2-1 and 6-3 wins.
After the Rosebuds even the series with a 6-5 victory in the fourth game, the Canadiens raise the Stanley Cup for the first time (of 24 total!) in team history with a win in the fifth and deciding game. They wouldn't win their second until the 1923 - 24 season. The team overcomes a 1-0 deficit to claim a 2-1 victory thanks to a goal by role player Prodger midway through the third period.
Pitre drives the Canadiens’ offense with four goals in five games. Georges Vezina leads the way between the pipes, maintaining a 2.60 goals-against average.
1924-1996
THE FORUM
From Howie Morenz, Maurice Richard and Jean Béliveau to Bob Gainey, Guy Lafleur and Patrick Roy without forgetting Jacques Plante, Doug Harvey and Larry Robinson, all of their legendary stories were written on the ice at the Forum. This revered puck temple would see the Canadiens claim 22 of their league-record 24 Stanley Cups while serving as the Habs home address.
With the glorious memories enjoyed at the Forum by players and fans alike, it may seem hard to believe but the arena was not intended to even belong to the Habs but rather Montreal's other team, the Maroons. The Canadiens celebrated the Forum's inception with a 7-1 drubbing of the Toronto St. Pats on Nov. 29, 1924. About a month later, on December 27, the Forum opens its doors to the first ever "All-Montreal" contest, as the Canadiens "pay a visit" to the Maroons. Despite two 10-minute overtime periods, the game can't declare a winner as the two rivals skate to a 1-1 tie. In 1926, the Canadiens leave the Mount-Royal Arena and make the Forum their new permanent home. They would share the building with the Maroons until 1938, when the Maroons folded.
With a seating capacity of a mere 9,300 spectators to begin with, the Forum was expanded to 13,551 seats in 1949. But the arena's true overhaul would come in prior to the 1968-69 season when the Forum would balloon to now accommodate 18,200 Canadiens fans. As a sign of how far the league has come, the first goal in the refurbished Forum belonged to Jean Béliveau, in a 2-1 win over Detroit on November 2,1968, while the last one came off the stick of Russian Andrei Kovalenko in a 4-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on March 11, 1996.
Through those 74 storied years, the Forum was the site of many great moments, most of them festive, some other sad and dramatic. On March 11, 1937, this sports temple became a giant funeral home, where over 50,000 people walked before the coffin of the straford streak, Howie Morenz.
But arguably, the greatest symbol of the Forum remains Maurice Richard. In the fame building, the electrifying right winger went on to register the first 50-goal season in NHL history, a feat he accomplished in 50 games in 1944-45. On December 28, 1944, he had become the first NHL player to register an eight-point night, in a 9-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings.
On March 24, 1928, in the final game of the regular season, Howie Morenz broke new NHL ground in a 4-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators. Going into the game with five hat tricks to his credit, he had already piled up 33 goals in 43 games. Picking up two assists in the final encounter, his 17th and 18th of the campaign, the “Stratford Streak” became the first NHLer to break the 50-point barrier. His 18 assists were also enough to tie the league record set the previous year by Chicago Blackhawks forward Dick Irvin
On March 23, 1944, Maurice Richard took matters into his own hands during the second game of the semifinals against Toronto at the Forum.
After a first period that elapsed without a goal from either side, “The Rocket” blasted off to begin the second frame. He scored the evening’s first two goals in a 17-second span, the first coming at 1:48 and the next at 2:05. After Reg Hamilton put the Leafs on the board, Richard completed his hat trick at 16:46.
His night was far from over, though, as Richard potted his fourth marker in the final period’s opening minute and put a fifth and final puck behind Toronto netminder, Paul Bibeault, at the 8:54 mark. Coach Dick Irvin, who needed his superstar for the rest of the series, felt it safer to keep Richard on the bench for the rest of the game.
Richard's five-goal playoff performance tied the NHL record set by Canadiens star, Newsy Lalonde, in March of 1919. Only three other players have found the twine five times in a postseason encounter since then. Linemates Toe Blake and Elmer Lach provided indispensable support to Richard on his record night, contributing five and four assists respectively.
Following the 5-1 victory that evened the series at a game apiece, Richard was picked as the evening’s first, second and third star, the first time any player had swept the post-game honors. The next day, newspaper headlines in both Toronto and Montreal read “Richard 5 - Toronto 1”.
The following season, going into Montreal’s final regular season game in Boston, on March 18, 1945, Maurice Richard, with 49 goals in as many games already in the book, the right winger had one more chance to become the first NHLer to light the lamp 50 times in a single season.
The night before, referee King Clancy, had prevented Richard’s ascension to the lofty plateau, disallowing a goal against Chicago and causing great dismay among the Forum faithful in the process.
Determined that Richard would not hit the milestone at their expense, the Bruins gave him very little room to manoeuvre. After two periods, the score was tied at a goal apiece with Richard’s name still missing from the score sheet. Boston’s second goal gave the Bruins a lead and threatened to cancel Richard’s date with destiny.
However, with 2:15 to play, "The Rocket" made the rendez-vous, firing the puck into the net behind Harvey Bennett. The single-season scoring record holder since potting his 45th, Richard became the first NHL player to score 50 goals in a single season and the first to do it in only 50 games. It would be 16 years before another NHLer joined Richard in the 50-goal club and 30 before anyone hit the mark in as few games.
On November 1, 1959, at Madison Square Garden , Jacques Plante gave hockey a a facelift when, three minutes into the game, he was struck in the face by a shot off the stick of Rangers forward Andy Bathgate. Bleeding profusely, Plante retreated to the dressing room where it took seven stitches to close the gash on the left side of his nose. Meanwhile, Canadiens coach Toe Blake went looking for a substitute to replace his star Goaltender for the rest of the evening. Plante, who had already worn a fibreglass mask in practice, managed to convince Blake to let him use it to finish the game. Twenty minutes after leaving the ice, Plante returned to an ovation from New York fans, taking his place between the pipes wearing his self-fashioned facial protector. With his teammates giving him a three-goal cushion, Plante turned aside 27 of the 28 shots the Rangers sent his way, with Camille Henry spoiling the shutout bid. The 3-1 win was only the beginning for hockey’s newly masked man. Over his next 10 outings, Plante, who would never play barefaced again, backstopped the Habs to a 9-0-1 record, posting two shutouts and allowing only a dozen goals before suffering his first setback wearing the mask, a 1-0 loss to Toronto on December 2.
The Habs closed out the Original six era, lining up for the opening face-off against the Red Wings at Detroit’s Olympia on May 5, 1966, the Canadiens were one win away from ending their season by repeating as Stanley Cup Champions. Thanks to goals from Jean Béliveau and Léon Rochefort, the Canadiens held a two-goal cushion at the midpoint of the second period. Led by Gordie Howe, the Red Wings showed they still had some fight left in them. Determined to force a seventh and final game at the Forum, Norm Ullman and Floyd Smith both scored against Lorne Worsley to tie the game, which is how it remained at the end of regulation play. The overtime was a brief one. At the 2:12 mark, Henri Richard got the winning goal on a controversial play that saw the “Pocket Rocket” lose his balance while coming in on Red Wing goaltender Roger Crozier and slide into the net with the puck under his arm. The Red Wings protests were to no avail as the goal stood and the Canadiens won the 14th Stanley Cup title in their history. Defenseman Jean-Guy Talbot hoisted the Stanley Cup for the seventh time in his career, setting a new record for NHL rearguards.
The coords (according to google earth) are about 30 feet off to the north.