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Reactions
Canadiens fans remember the heartbreakersCNNSI.com looked at a few of the transactions that made Canadiens fans shout, "Say It Ain't So." Then we opened the mailbag and let users vent on those and other dirty deals from over the years. Here is a sampling of your reactions:
I grew up in Montreal and the Canadiens have always been the closest thing we have had to royalty. I remember when Scotty Bowman was behind the bench for Montreal! You just knew that they were going to win! So, filed under 'Stupid Things to do with a Hockey Team,' not offering Scotty with the coveted GM position and allowing him to walk out of the hollowed halls of the Montreal Forum was, to say the least, disgraceful ... to say the most, the beginning of the end for Montreal. Montreal needs a shaman to debug The Molson Centre to reclaim the torch from failing hands and to put the Stanley Cup where it started and where it belongs.
Having grown up in Quebec, I've been a Habs fan since the '60s. To me the single-biggest reason for the decline of Les Glorieux was when GM Sam Pollock announced his retirement from the team in 1978. The Habs have not had a good draft pick (except Roy) since, not to get into the trades ... all disasters. Sam Pollock would have not made a single one of those trades. He was the architect of the Habs' domination throughout the '60s and '70s. He was the best GM in the NHL, bar none.
Where did it all go wrong? Patrick Roy, the heart and soul of the Montreal Canadiens and one the best goalies ever, done in by the coaching inexperience of a second-rate, behind the bench schmuck like Mario Tremblay. I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched the telecast that night with my friends. I knew he'd be leaving Montreal because we could actually read his lips when he was talking to Ronald Cory and Tremblay. I put the blame for the franchises squarely on the shoulders of managerial dunderheads like Serge Savard and Rejean Houle. A 10-year-old kid wouldn't have traded Chris Chelios for an aged Denis Savard, much less emulated Houle's trade of Patrick Roy for an unproven young goalie and soft forwards like Kovalenko and Rucinsky, who go down as soon as they're leaned on and spend more time in the doctor's office than on the ice.
Let's not forget the trade in which Savard sent the troublesome, yet proven winner, Claude Lemieux packing in exchange for Sylvain "Pulled Hamstring" Turgeon. Turgeon spent so much time injured that newspapermen in Montreal used to joke that he had to ask for directions to the Forum when he regained his health.
The Roy trade destroyed me, I was born and raised in Montreal and Saint Patrick was my hero. It's by far the worst thing to happen to a sports team ever. Reading your five worst things to happen to Les Canadiens brought tears to my eyes. I'll love the Habs to the end, but, OH HOW COULD THEY?????
As far as I'm concerned, the darkest day was the day Guy Carbonneau was traded.
My heart is still crying with tiers as I remember those crucial trades which sent Roy to Colorado and Recchi back to Philadelphia. Ever since those trades, Montrealīs success has been more than terrible. Theodore looks promising between the pipes, but it seems that nobody is able to fill the empty spot that Recchi left. The Habs need a sniper and fast. At the moment, Recchiīs trade has more impact to the horrible situation in Montreal than the Roy trade. Everybody can see that Montrealīs problems are at offense, not at the goalie department. Iīm very angry and frustrated because I canīt ever again see my favorite players in that special uniform which presents the essence of winning and sportsmanship in hockey, the Montreal Canadiens uniform.
Still Iīve always been and will be a Habs fan.
I have been a life-long fan of the Montreal Canadiens. My favorite player was Jean Claude Tremblay, who played defence and was one of the best stick-handlers and playmakers in the National Hockey League. As a youngster, I wore No. 3, which was his number. J.C. Tremblay was so good with the puck that he could and often would kill a penalty without the opposition ever touching the puck. His passing was superb. He was a magician on skates. In 1972, Tremblay left the Canadiens and signed with the Quebec Nordiques of the upstart World Hockey Association. Because the WHA did not have a national television contract, I didn't see him play again. Because he defected to the WHA, Tremblay was not chosen to play for Team Canada in the famous eight-game series with the Soviet Union in the fall of 1972. The larger European ice surface would have been a great showcase for his great playmaking skills.
When he died of cancer a number of years ago, I was saddened by his passing.
The trade that sent Pierre Turgeon to St. Louis in return for Shayne Corson. That has to be the steal of the century!
A somber cloud has loomed over our fabled Canadiens and our city ever since Patrick Roy was shipped to Colorado. The walls of the Forum bled when Saint-Patrick left La Belle Province and the Molson Centre still longs for a French-Canadian superstar in nets or flying down the wing in Lafleur-like fashion.
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