|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Oh, Canada Finals feature 10 ex-Canadiens in key roles
Posted: Tuesday May 30, 2000 03:24 PM
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Once the Stanley Cup Finals begin Tuesday night at the Continental Airlines Arena, you won't be able to shoot a puck without hitting a former member of the Montreal Canadiens. There are six ex-Canadiens, including three former captains, on the roster of the Dallas Stars. And that's no coincidence since general manager Bob Gainey spent his entire 16-year playing career in Montreal. New Jersey Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello came out of the U.S. college ranks but his team won a Stanley Cup in 1995 under coach Jacques Lemaire, who played and coached in Montreal. In the offseason, Lamoriello brought back Larry Robinson as an assistant coach. And with less than a month left in the season, he fired coach Robbie Ftorek and replaced him with Robinson, who won five Stanley Cup championships as a player in Montreal. Lamoriello also added former Canadiens Claude Lemieux and Vladimir Malakhov in midseason deals. "They know how to win. Simple," Lamoriello said. "They were brought up in a winning tradition. One of the most difficult things for me when I came here in 1987 was to see people accept losing, and to feel good about just working hard. You have to get people who understand how to win and will accept nothing but winning. And that's what a Jacques Lemaire, a Larry Robinson, a Claude Lemieux (bring)." Lemieux, who won his first of three Stanley Cups as a Canadiens' rookie in 1986, thinks the answer is slightly more complex. "I think we all sort of went to the same school. It was a great school, taught you a lot about winning, about competing, about the old-fashioned way of playing hockey, which still hasn't changed," he said.
It's no surprise, Lemieux noted, that this year's Stanley Cup finalists stress defense, a trademark of the great Canadiens' teams of the 1970s. And it's no coincidence they have stellar special teams and two of the NHL's best goaltenders. "You look at all the great Montreal teams, they were always led by a great goaltender, whether it was Patrick Roy or Kenny Dryden," Lemieux said. "It's kind of funny that there are going to be so many of the old Montreal Canadiens involved in this series at one level or another. I think it just shows you we went to a great school." Canadiens' alumni Guy Carbonneau, Brian Skrudland and Mike Keane won the Stanley Cup with the Stars last season. And Gainey signed former Montreal captain Kirk Muller in December before trading for ex-Habs Scott Thornton and Dave Manson in a three-week period leading up to the All-Star break. "I still carry some of the feelings and the emotions from my experience (with the Canadiens)," Gainey explained. "All the (Montreal) guys who are on these two teams, I have an idea of what's in their mind and what's in their hearts. It makes it a little more intimate than how I could relate to some of the other people who are involved." Gainey and Robinson were Montreal teammates for 16 years, but their thoughts differ on the Canadiens' influence in this series. "I think a lot has been made about the Montreal influence. I think it is more coincidental than anything else," Robinson said. "We just happen to have a lot of ex-players that are still in hockey and are still involved. I think that basically this is a new era and hockey has changed considerably since the times that both Bob and I played." But? "But certainly we do think that the game is played a certain way, and a lot of our philosophies are in the teams that he has chosen and in the way that I coach." And, as Lemieux put it, in the "school" they both attended.
© 2003 SportsTicker Enterprises, LP
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
