Table of Contents The League The Habs The Cup 4 The Originals 6 The Stanley Cup 8 The Flying Frenchmen 10 Habs History 12 Le Bleu Blanc et Rouge 14 On Home Ice 16 Habs Heroes 18 Great Goalies 20 Trophy Winners 22 Behind the Bench Celebrating Hockey's History The Original 6 24 Fan Fun Facts 26 Rivalries and Riots 28 Glossary Further Reading and Websites to Check Out 30 Test Your Habs knowledge Places to Go and About the Author 32 31 Index
THE LEAGUE THE HABS THE CUP For something so old the National Hockey League sure moves fast In fact as the league marks its eleventh decade the game on the ice is faster than ever The top stars skate with blinding speed and can fire the puck as though their sticks were launching rockets Goalies need to react with lightning-fast reflexes to make a save Les Glorieux The Montreal Canadiens are the NHL’s greatest team If you like to cheer for someone else you might not think so But throughout 100 years of NHL history the numbers don’t lie The first NHL games were played on December 19 1917 The Canadiens got their first win that night when they defeated the original Ottawa Senators 7 4 Since then the Canadiens have scored more goals won more games and won the Stanley Cup more times than any other franchise in the NHL They’ve also had many of the greatest players in hockey history in their lineup No wonder fans call them Les Glorieux meaning The Glorious 4 A mural by Charles Pachter Les Rois de l’Arène Kings of the Arena 1984 Silky Mitts Joe Malone led the Montreal Canadiens with five goals in the team’s first NHL game He’d go on to lead the league with 44 goals in just 20 games played in 1917 18
The NHL was formed in meetings at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal on November 22 and 26 1917 Canadiens goalie Georges Vezina recorded the first shutout in NHL history beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 9 0 on February 18 1918 Montreal wins the First Stanley Cup 1893 That Silver Cup The history of hockey begins long before the NHL or the Montreal Canadiens Games with balls and sticks have been popular since ancient times and have been played on ice since at least the 1500s Historians like to debate where hockey began but the game truly caught on after it was moved inside from frozen lakes and rivers to the Victoria Rink in Montreal in 1875 Hockey’s popularity really exploded after Canada’s Governor-General Lord Stanley of Preston donated the Stanley Cup in 1893 The Governor-General is Canada’s head of state The Cup was won that year by the hockey club from the Montreal Amateur Lord Stanley Athletic Association The Montreal Canadiens are actually older than the NHL but they’re not quite as old as the Stanley Cup Their history begins during the winter of 1909 10 with the formation of a league known as the National Hockey Association 5
