Was this the darkest day in Habs history?

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ydnarhabs

Registered User
Jan 10, 2012
17
9
Tilbury, Ontario
For me, the worst moments I've actually experienced are the following (too young for the Richard Riot):
  1. The Roy trade. It was the end for a team that had won two Cups and been to a 3rd Finals, all because of some headstrong egos.
  2. The break-up of the franchise after the '79 Cup. Sam Pollock retired, Scotty Bowman left because he didn't get the GM job, Dryden retired, Lemaire left, etc.
  3. The Chris Chelios trade.
  4. The PK Subban trade. Could swap this with #3.
Lo
For me, the worst moments I've actually experienced are the following (too young for the Richard Riot):
  1. The Roy trade. It was the end for a team that had won two Cups and been to a 3rd Finals, all because of some headstrong egos.
  2. The break-up of the franchise after the '79 Cup. Sam Pollock retired, Scotty Bowman left because he didn't get the GM job, Dryden retired, Lemaire left, etc.
  3. The Chris Chelios trade.
  4. The PK Subban trade. Could swap this with #3.
Some excellent sad moments. I concur about Sam retiring and Grundman getting the nod over Bowman. I can also remember listening to the Hawks/Habs last game of 69/70 season when we got knocked out of the playoffs for first time in my life. However my saddest moment was Guy Lafleur retiring early in the 83/84 season. We knew he was struggling but we all expected that he would turn it around. That one hurt and I’ve hated Lemaire ever since. Seeing Cournoyer pack it in when his back let go was tough, and Big Bird leaving was tough as well. Have to mention Cournoyer’s eulogy to Captain Jean Beliveau as well. As a fan from the 50’s on it’s been sad since ‘93. I thought we were moving in the right direction and then enter stage left Bergevin. He has to go before happy days return. I can only hope he doesn’t do any more damage.
 

koyvoo

Registered User
Nov 8, 2014
17,242
16,979
For me Roy is #1.

After that, the PK trade and the Bergevin era in general, but I’ll also never forget the moment I heard Chris Chelios had been traded for Dennis Savard. At opposite ends of their very impactful careers. Habs went on to win the cup but Savard had little effect, if any at all almost immediately after the trade occurred.
 
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nyhabsfan

Registered User
Jun 23, 2005
9,926
1,695
Connecticut
1. Hiring Irving Grudman over promoting Scotty Bowman (30 year impact)
2. Hiring Houle which meant hiring Trembley which lead to Roy trade by Houle
3. Hiring "the Ghost"
4. John Leclair trade killed us for so many many years
5. PK Subban trade
6. Williams high stick on Koivu.... still HATE him.
7. Price being hurt by that bastard Krieder

Yes sir, not a lot of joy in Habsland, just a lot of frustration and drinking.
 
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OneSharpMarble

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Oct 30, 2007
10,579
262
Calgary
- Hiring Gainey as anything other than water boy.
- Trading Huet. Cost us a run and possible Stanley cup for nothing and really set Price back.
- Letting Koivu and 10 others walk for nothing.
- Acquiring Gomez (worst contract in the league) for a blue chip prospect.
- Hiring Bergevin as anything other than water boy.
- Turning blue chip centre Galchenyuk into a 2nd/3rd line winger.
- Trading Subban for no reason.

All of these are reasons why this franchise has been a joke for close to 20 years now.
 
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Vlad The Impaler

Registered User
Feb 27, 2002
12,315
644
Montreal
I don't now why people are talking about the PK Subban and Roy trades as darkest days. The former was a no-brainer move after Subban made a clown of himself the previous season. It had reached a point where he'd stop playing right in the middle of the game and mouth off to linesmen and referees. There's a reason a lot of Habs players hate his guts. Notice how Gallagher, a true badass of the game, treats Subban. That dude can go poison another locker room and pimp his "brand" for all I care.

As for the Roy trade, it's more of a consequence of an even darker day: October 16th 1995. That day Ronald Corey, who was the president of the team at the time, pushed the panic button waaaaay too early after a bad season start. He fired both the general manager and coach of the team and replaced them with two people who were lacing in experience, intelligence and connections.

GM Serge Savard was a sort of complete package general manager in that he had that aura as one of the former on-ice legend of the game and his aura, charisma and strong presence was recognized league wide. Picture Steve Yzerman and multiply the badassness by 2 because Serge Savard was also recognized as someone with incredible smarts and a passion for business (he wisely invested his money as far back as during his career). His only flaw was an outdated philosophy on scouting which made the Habs the only team in the league that didn't formally interview players before the draft and during the last few years, a propension for drafting huge, useless and talentless WHL players instead of skilled QMJHL guys. He nonetheless packed the team with amazing players and brought two Stanley cups in two different decades and kept the team competitive and with a strong local identity. He was replaced by a bumbling idiot who had been selling beer since retiring, Reggie Houle.

The fired coach was Jacques Demers. Demers had replaced the methodical and harsh Pat Burns and brought more passion and renewed energy. Demers was usually seen as less of a strategist than the wave of defense-first coaches that were the new trend of the time in the NHL. But he was an underrated hockey mind. And more importantly, I believe Demers is one of the first coaches to truly understand the post Gretzky trade era of "hockey as a business". The late 80s early 90s is when players became huge individual economic entities with enormous leverage. Demers became a master at forging alliances with franchise players. He was so good at it that everything else fell into place. Rarely were players unhappy with Demers, who could have probably even dealt with the Ovechkins and Subbans of this world. He was replaced with Mario Tremblay. I don't even feel I have to say something about that.

With Tremblay and Houle, everything turned to crap quickly after a few early wins. Players were clearly unhappy, confused and eventually angry, which led to trades that were awful. The Roy trade is the ultimate exhibit A of this. In addition, because the overhyped Saku Koivu was unable to earn better ice time to the infinitely superior Damphousse and Turgeon, the team had the strange idea that having too many quality centers was A BAD THING and started getting rid of them and making room for the team to become Koivu's. The dude was handed everything on a plate and couldn't have led
couldn't have led a bunch of boyscouts out of the wood if his life had depended on it, yet was asked to lead them to a championship when his only two skills were above average passing and uncanny ability to get injured.

It didn't take long after that day in October 95 for me to stop being a hardcore fan. Seeing great players leave one after the other. The franchise never recovered from that.
 

Maitz

Registered User
Aug 3, 2006
3,323
2,021
Montreal
That game tonight was like watching a bunch of 8 years old kids playing outdoor. It is the darkest day of habs history.
 

Runner77

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Jun 24, 2012
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1 - hiring MB
2 - trading PK
3 - resigning Price
4 - hiring CJ

those are my darkest days

Your no. 1 has to be in retrospect.

Did you really know in 2012, that Bergevin was going to be the disaster we have now? I can't honestly remember anyone here predicting that even if like any other Hab nomination, we don't always have unanimity.
 

Runner77

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when Price got hurt against the Rangers :(

And how predictably, no teammate stood up for him. Price had to do it himself, upon his return:

26qp5z.gif


Kreider knew that what he'd done was accidentally-on purpose -- he didn't dare retaliate to Price's check, which was followed by a prolonged staredown across the ice, like so:

26qpdb.gif
 

Grate n Colorful Oz

Hutson Hawk
Jun 12, 2007
35,310
32,163
Hockey Mecca
And how predictably, no teammate stood up for him. Price had to do it himself, upon his return:

26qp5z.gif


Kreider knew that what he'd done was accidentally-on purpose -- he didn't dare retaliate to Price's check, which was followed by a prolonged staredown across the ice, like so:

26qpdb.gif

Still crazy and total show of bias that the league didn't suspend Kreider for the rest of the playoffs. The intention is flagrant.
 
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Runner77

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Still crazy and total show of bias that the league didn't suspend Kreider for the rest of the playoffs. The intention is flagrant.

Kreider's reaction is the most telling part. He knows what he did ... that spring.
 

Runner77

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It's one of the reasons I hate Bettman so much. How many times have Habs player been taken out by an opposing player and the latter doesn't get suspended? Chara, Kreider, McLaren, Cooke.. who else?

I wonder if a different ownership group might have been able to exercise greater pull in limiting these kinds of excesses. I know several teams have suffered a similar fate but somehow, I don't regard the Habs as the most influential of ownership groups in the league -- maybe that plays for something, I don't know.
 

optimus2861

Registered User
Aug 29, 2005
5,044
531
Bedford NS
I don't now why people are talking about the PK Subban and Roy trades as darkest days. The former was a no-brainer move after Subban made a clown of himself the previous season. It had reached a point where he'd stop playing right in the middle of the game and mouth off to linesmen and referees. There's a reason a lot of Habs players hate his guts. Notice how Gallagher, a true badass of the game, treats Subban. That dude can go poison another locker room and pimp his "brand" for all I care.
Yeah, Nashville looks like they're in such turmoil over there, what with a Finals appearance last year, a first-place finish all but sewn up, PK in Norris form, and a deep team looking like a favourite to go to the Finals again this year.

Want some cheese to go with your whine?

Ugh.

I had a morbid thought this morning that Koivu's cancer diagnosis could have been a very dark day indeed if the current medical staff had been in charge of him and not Dr. Mulder. Back when the team seemed to at least employ competent doctors.
 

Habs 4 Life

No Excuses
Mar 30, 2005
41,015
4,793
Montreal
Roy trade
leaving the Forum, Bell Centre is a much easier building to play in for visiting teams now compared to back then

In this era, it's got to be since Molson came back and purchased the team from Gillett. I feel that Gillett was much closer to the fans base.
Molson doesn't give a shit, hires morons and then blames everyone else but himself even if he named himself team President
 

beowulf

Not a nice guy.
Jan 29, 2005
59,361
8,958
Ottawa
Roy trade
leaving the Forum, Bell Centre is a much easier building to play in for visiting teams now compared to back then

In this era, it's got to be since Molson came back and purchased the team from Gillett. I feel that Gillett was much closer to the fans base.
Molson doesn't give a ****, hires morons and then blames everyone else but himself even if he named himself team President

Problem with the Old Forum was just that, it was old and small. There would have been little chance of making it bigger and with today's NHL the more seats you have and fill, the more money you have to pay players etc. I loved the Forum, got to see over 100 games there including all but a couple during the 1993 Cup run but alas all good things must come to an end.
 
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Habs 4 Life

No Excuses
Mar 30, 2005
41,015
4,793
Montreal
Problem with the Old Forum was just that, it was old and small. There would have been little chance of making it bigger and with today's NHL the more seats you have and fill, the more money you have to pay players etc. I loved the Forum, got to see over 100 games there including all but a couple during the 1993 Cup run but alas all good things must come to an end.

I agree it was too small. I just loved the fact that the building was a lot more intimate
 

waffledave

waffledave, from hf
Aug 22, 2004
33,417
15,736
Montreal
There is a big difference in the team since we lost Pierre Boivin and his marketing team. This guy made it his priority to make the BC a fun, exciting place to be. And it was, for a long time. I used to have season tickets and even if the Habs were a 5th-8th place team at the time I still went to and enjoyed every single game. It was an exciting team and the atmosphere was awesome.

Now it's just so generic. The team stinks. They're a good AHL team at this point, and they are super boring to watch. But the atmosphere in our home arena is horrible. It's boring to be there and extremely vanilla. Nobody cheers, nobody even wants to be there.

Getting tickets to the Habs now is more of a burden than anything else. Nobody is really stupid enough to actually PAY to go to the game for themselves. It's really just people buying tickets as a gift for someone else, and when you get that gift, it creates a sense of obligation like you HAVE to go.

So you go, and you hate every second you are there. The stupid f***ing music, the $17 beer (not an exaggeration), the dumb f***ing POM bread bongo games that we're supposed to enjoy as if we're all as brain damaged as Shaw with his concussions... It's so sad. It's so cheesy and corny and even kids think it's stupid. And I haven't even mentioned having to watch this disgusting team disrespecting the jersey night in night out. Every time Benn falls into Price, or Alzner does a slip and slide on his stomach, or Drouin gives the puck up and they score before he's even able to backcheck to the redline, or Galchenyuk dekes himself into the corner, or Shaw literally knocks himself out by trying to bodycheck someone... Every time these things happen it's like they are taking a hot steaming dump on the Rocket's grave.

So, yeah. The BC is shit now and it's been that way since Molson took over.
 

Kimota

ROY DU NORD!!!
Nov 4, 2005
39,188
14,060
Les Plaines D'Abraham
People underrate the Radu departure cause he was with us only one year but this could set us back into the abyss. We are on our way to darker years.
 
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