kaos Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 I found myself very bored over the last few days with most of the good free agents signed, and waiting for the signings of Koivu, Theodore & Ryder and found myself thinking about the greatest Montreal Canadiens ever. So I thought I'd put together what I thought would be the greatest Montreal Canadiens Roster ever. I found it difficult to narrow it down and actually could have come up with 2 or even 3 teams, if I included guys who only played 1, 2 or even jsut 3 seasons. I checked through past posts and nobody has seem to have done this. Feel free to add comments, hopefully adding a team of your own. 1st Line D Moore - J Beliveau - M Richard Maybe the only way to make this line better would be to make Guy Lafleur shoot left. Size, Speed, Determination and Leadership. Jean Beliveau - really no need for explanation but - Quint Essential Big Centerman...theres a reason hes called "Le Gros Bill" . Perhaps top 3 all time center with Gretzky and Lemieux? Maurice Richard - no need of explanation much like Beliveau. From the blue line in hes the best there was. Left Wing - maybe a bit of a suprise, but he won 2 Art Ross trophies and beat Howes record at the time of 96 points. Strong 2 way player. 2nd Line Y. Cournoyer - H Morenz - G Lafleur Morenz - fastest and most talented player of his era Lafleur - a no brainer Yvan Cournoyer - only other habs?? who could possibly keep up with Morenz and Lafleur Wow, the speed and skill would be amazing. Kinda a smallish line, but incredibly talented. 3rd Line S Shutt - P Mahovlich - B Geoffrion P Mahovlich is a very underated player, with great size and hands. Guy had 150 assists in two years in the 70's. Would feed Geoffrion's cannon, and if the goalie happened to stop it, Shutt would continue making a career of picking up the garbage. 50 & 60 goal scorers on the 3rd line? INCREDIBLE. 4th Line B Gainey - Guy Carbonneau - H. Richard This is the defensive line. Guy Carbonneau - 3 Selke Trophies , 2 Stanly Cups 5 time 20 goal scorer...name a better defensive player...never mind, I will........... Bob Gainey, better than Carbonneau defensively. THis guy makes my team simply because the Russians said he was the best player they have ever seen...now thats saying something. Atleast 5 Stanley Cups, 1 COnn Smyth and 4 Selke's Henri Richard - 11 Stanley Cups....can play on my team any day. Defensmen Doug Harvey - BEst defensman of his era. Was Bobby Orr before Bobby Orr. 6 time Norris Trophy winner. Larry Robinson - Big Strong and talented. 7 time Stanley cup winner Serge Savard - 2nd of the big three from the 1970's Won 6 or soStanley Cups, first defensman to ever win the Conn Smythe, and a great leader Guy Lapointe - 3rd of the big 3 70's guys. Had a mean streak to go with his Offensive and Defensive abilities. Recored 3 20+ goal seasons. Sylvio Mantha - one of the best two way defensman of his era and 3 time Stanley CUp winner. Chris Chelios - might get booed for this one, but this guy is a true warrior, won a Stanley Cup, and Norris Trophy while with the Habs, and is a surefire hall of famer. Was my favorite habs growing up, and have always worn 24 because of him. My seventh defensman would be Jean Guy Talbot. Goalies Wow...this was the hardest choice. I don't think you could have gone wrong with any of Georges Vezina, Georges Hainsworth, Jaques Plante, Lorne Worsley, Ken Dryden, or Patrick Roy. I went with Patrick Roy because I grew up with him, and Jaques Plante. Ken Dryden was awesome, but gave up hockey for Lawyering, was the Leafs president and now is an MP which makes me sick so I ommited him. You couldn't go wrong wiht George Vezina, afterall they name the best goalie trophy after him and hey Georges Hainsworth once had 22 shutouts in a season surrendering 43 goals in 44 games..WOW. But I'll stick with Roy and Plante. OH and for a goon I'll take John Ferguson I really wanted to add Elmer Lach but couldn't fit him in at center. Bummer.... Heres some other that I thought about but didn't fit in for whatever reason. Bert Olmstead, Elmer Lach, Newsy Lalonde, Aurele Joliat, Emile Bouchard, Rod Langway, Mats Naslund, Claude Lemieux, Stephane Richer, Jaques Lemaire, Jaques Lapierre, Toe Blake, Vincent Damphouse, Mark Recchi, Frank Mahovlich, Bobby Smith, Rick Green, Craig Ludwig, Brian Skrudland, Eric Dejardins Wow, what a complete waste of an hour....I gotta find something better to do with myself So can you come up with a team? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ch_nl Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 You couldn't find a way to put Rod Langway on that team? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Puck Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Who's is your coach? Toe Blake or Scotty Bowman? someone else? I'll take Pollack as GM (although with this lineup he won't have much to do ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HabsfaninTO Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 What ever happened to Sam Pollack? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortcat1 Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Originally posted by HabsfaninTOWhat ever happened to Sam Pollack? I found this on the web. It's pretty up to date also. Check the 4th paragraph. http://www.canoe.ca/Slam030116/col_gross-sun.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortcat1 Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Now, as to the line-up and the addition of the suggested coaches and General Managers, I have no qualms whatsoever. I'd like to have seen Bobby Rousseau in there somewhere (the couldn't make it list anyways). This brings up a neverending peeve I have about my favourite team. I could never understand why they kept trading away core players, especially during the 1990s. Players like Carbonneau, Desjardins, Roy, Skrudland, Damphousse, Chelios, Kean among others... quality players, some of them who have become top players of their next teams (and future hall-of-famers), if they had stayed with Montreal would have contributed to much more success. (I'm not even counting LeClair among these because he hadn't yet shown what he could do and, maybe, he wasn't able because he didn't have the kind of linemates that he got when he went to Philadelphia. There are surely other players in that category but that same situation goes with all teams.) The next one I see possibly being traded or 'let go' is Koivu. Good grief!!! another one who is a core and heart player for this team. I hope it doesn't go that way. [Edited on 2005/8/16 by shortcat1] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaos Posted August 16, 2005 Author Share Posted August 16, 2005 Well again, I was only making a roster, but if I had to choose a coach and GM, I would choose Scotty Bowman as a coach as hes know for always getting the best out of his players, and of course Sam Pollock as GM, the guy was just brilliant. As for Rod Langway, I had thought about him, but since he only played parts of 4 seasons in Montreal, I thought Sylvio Mantha, Guy Lapointe and Chris Chelios were not only better players, but played longer for the Habs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTH Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 I'd like to see what Réjean Houle would do to this team...:D:D Give him 1 season and he'll turn this into last year's Pens... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leafs Suck Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Now for a laugh, make the all-time Leaf team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortcat1 Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Don't laugh too hard... there were some absolutely fantastic players for that team over the years. The 60's team was incredibly strong - four Stanley Cups. In the 70's with Sittler, MacDonald, Salming, etc... there was some pretty strong stuff. What really scuttled the 70's teams, in my opinion, was Harold Ballard. He kept that team off-kilter on a regular basis. If he could have kept his nose out of the day-to-day workings of the team they could have accomplished a way lot more. The team may be struggling now but there were fine years (even though I despised the team). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTH Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 OK. Chad Kilger - Clarke Wilm - Nathan Perrott Nik Antropov - Matthew Stajan - Tie Domi Darcy Tucker - Shayne Corson - Alexander Ponikarovsky Marek Menelovsky - Luca Cereda - Petr Tenkrat Karel Pilar - Carlo Colacaiovo Wade Belak - Drake Berehowsky Aki Berg - Alexander Khavanov Corey Hirsch Mikael Tellqvist :D:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Higgsfan Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Originally posted by Bulis_the_HabbieOK. Chad Kilger - Clarke Wilm - Nathan Perrott Nik Antropov - Matthew Stajan - Tie Domi Darcy Tucker - Shayne Corson - Alexander Ponikarovsky Marek Menelovsky - Luca Cereda - Petr Tenkrat Karel Pilar - Carlo Colacaiovo Wade Belak - Drake Berehowsky Aki Berg - Alexander Khavanov Corey Hirsch Mikael Tellqvist :D:D How could you forget about Alexander Steen? Simply the best Swedish forward since Peter Forsberg. :eyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTH Posted August 18, 2005 Share Posted August 18, 2005 Originally posted by Higgsfan Originally posted by Bulis_the_HabbieOK. Chad Kilger - Clarke Wilm - Nathan Perrott Nik Antropov - Matthew Stajan - Tie Domi Darcy Tucker - Shayne Corson - Alexander Ponikarovsky Marek Menelovsky - Luca Cereda - Petr Tenkrat Karel Pilar - Carlo Colacaiovo Wade Belak - Drake Berehowsky Aki Berg - Alexander Khavanov Corey Hirsch Mikael Tellqvist :D:D How could you forget about Alexander Steen? Simply the best Swedish forward since Peter Forsberg. :eyes: Oops! My bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaos Posted August 19, 2005 Author Share Posted August 19, 2005 I'll give props to Teeder Kennedy, but thats only because hes my neighbour, and my stepfather grew up working for him. Other than that, who cares Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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