Player Discussion Build your Habs all time team.
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Chili
En boca cerrada no entran moscas
- Jun 10, 2004
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Toe Blake, Elmer Lach, Maurice Richard
Frank Mahovlich, Jean Béliveau, Yvan Cournoyer
Dickie Moore, Howie Morenz, Guy Lafleur
Bob Gainey, Henri Richard, John Ferguson
Larry Robinson, Serge Savard
Doug Harvey, Rod Langway
Andrei Markov, Shea Weber
Jacques Plante
Patrick Roy
Georges Vézina
Frank Mahovlich, Jean Béliveau, Yvan Cournoyer
Dickie Moore, Howie Morenz, Guy Lafleur
Bob Gainey, Henri Richard, John Ferguson
Larry Robinson, Serge Savard
Doug Harvey, Rod Langway
Andrei Markov, Shea Weber
Jacques Plante
Patrick Roy
Georges Vézina
S Bah
Registered User
That is one tough lineup throughout every line, defence pairings & goalies. I would add Price to Plante & Roy, all three could win SCC's with those teammates IMHO!!!... I would add Bert Olmstead(LW) hardrock & playmaking offensive star of the 50's dynasty.
Chili
En boca cerrada no entran moscas
- Jun 10, 2004
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Good choice. It was tough leaving off a lot of Hall of Famers. One d pairing was considering was Jacques Laperrière and Chris Chelios. Another forward line of Steve Shutt, Jacques Lemaire and Bernie Geoffrion.
Could probably make an impressive second team.
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S Bah
Registered User
The Habs won fifteen SCC's in three decades, 50% will probably never be duplicated in any Professional Team Sport in our lifetimes. Habs Organization throughout those years were the template for many businesses worldwide IMHO!!!...
Go Habs Go!!!...
Certainly the Habs need some great luck in the lottery, Lafreniere the best Francophone player in this decade would be ideal for a fresh start after the Pandemic has been overcome. Habs fans should focus their energies on this outcome after the Coronavirus has been beaten, then aim for our 25th SCC and first this century. Good health to everyone reading here may we all be here to watch the Habs win the next SCC by a Canadian Team, Go Habs Go!!!...
CHwest
Talent sets the floor, character sets the ceiling.
- May 24, 2011
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S Bah
Registered User
Jeez, you guys must be older than dirt.
I was there when Adam first crapped the bed, so yeah older than dirt.
Kovalev-Gros Bill-Flower
Mahovlich-Pocket-Rocket
Shutt-Koivu-Cournoyer
Gainey-Carbonneau-Geoffrion
Tremblay
Nilan
Lapointe-Robinson
Savard-Chelios
Markov-Weber
Langway
Roy
Price
Dryden
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BenchBrawl
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- Jul 26, 2010
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OK, here it is for fun, without caring about chemistry:
GM: Sam Pollock
Coach: Toe Blake, assistant coach: Scotty Bowman
Moore-Béliveau(C)-M.Richard
Joliat-Morenz-Lafleur
Blake-H.Richard-Geoffrion
Gainey(A)-Lalonde-Cournoyer
Robinson-Harvey
Savard-Lapointe
Laperrière-Bouchard(A)
Plante
Roy/Dryden
Spares: LW: Olmstead, RW: Provost, C: Lach/Carbonneau D: Mantha/Tremblay/Reardon/Chelios/Cleghorn, G: Vézina
Did this on top of my head, might have missed someone. As you can see, no one from the post-Roy era.
GM: Sam Pollock
Coach: Toe Blake, assistant coach: Scotty Bowman
Moore-Béliveau(C)-M.Richard
Joliat-Morenz-Lafleur
Blake-H.Richard-Geoffrion
Gainey(A)-Lalonde-Cournoyer
Robinson-Harvey
Savard-Lapointe
Laperrière-Bouchard(A)
Plante
Roy/Dryden
Spares: LW: Olmstead, RW: Provost, C: Lach/Carbonneau D: Mantha/Tremblay/Reardon/Chelios/Cleghorn, G: Vézina
Did this on top of my head, might have missed someone. As you can see, no one from the post-Roy era.
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BenchBrawl
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- Jul 26, 2010
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I feel it's wrong to take guys like Rod Langway or Shea Weber, since most of their relevant career was spent with another team.
Chris Chelios is borderline, but he didn't make my Top 6 on D.
The blueline should invariably include Harvey, Robinson, Savard, Lapointe and Laperrière. Only the 6th defenseman is up for debate IMO.
Chris Chelios is borderline, but he didn't make my Top 6 on D.
The blueline should invariably include Harvey, Robinson, Savard, Lapointe and Laperrière. Only the 6th defenseman is up for debate IMO.
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BenchBrawl
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For those doubting what I said above, here's the Norris record of a few defensemen during their Montreal years:
Harvey: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2*, 2*, 4
Robinson: 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5
Lapointe: 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5
Savard: 4, 5, 5, 5
Laperrière: 1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 8
JC Tremblay: 2, 3, 4, 5, 5
Chelios: 1, 6, 8
Markov: 6, 6
Subban: 1, 3
Langway: 5, 9
Weber: 6 and whatever he gets this year
*Harvey voted 2nd in AST voting (so 1st AST) behind Red Kelly before the Norris Trophy was introduced.
For pre-Norris era defensemen, Butch Bouchard was voted 1st AST three times (so 1st or 2nd), and 2nd AST once (so 3rd or 4th) (too lazy to verify which it was, but the data exists in the HoH section). OTOH, he did this during the war years during and after WWII.
Tremblay's Norris record is good but his competition was weaker - same for Laperrière. In comparison, it 's obvious Serge Savard's quiet defensive style hurt him in Norris voting, and on top of that he had to fight against Salming, Potvin, Robinson, Lapointe and Park for Norris votes; insane competition. In the playoffs Savard was golden. Does anyone doubt he was better than both Laperrière and Tremblay anyway? And does anyone doubt Laperrière was a better defenseman than Tremblay?
So yeah, then you have Ken Reardon, Sylvio Mantha, Butch Bouchard and a few others who can compete against Tremblay for the #6 spot.
Harvey: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2*, 2*, 4
Robinson: 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5
Lapointe: 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5
Savard: 4, 5, 5, 5
Laperrière: 1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 8
JC Tremblay: 2, 3, 4, 5, 5
Chelios: 1, 6, 8
Markov: 6, 6
Subban: 1, 3
Langway: 5, 9
Weber: 6 and whatever he gets this year
*Harvey voted 2nd in AST voting (so 1st AST) behind Red Kelly before the Norris Trophy was introduced.
For pre-Norris era defensemen, Butch Bouchard was voted 1st AST three times (so 1st or 2nd), and 2nd AST once (so 3rd or 4th) (too lazy to verify which it was, but the data exists in the HoH section). OTOH, he did this during the war years during and after WWII.
Tremblay's Norris record is good but his competition was weaker - same for Laperrière. In comparison, it 's obvious Serge Savard's quiet defensive style hurt him in Norris voting, and on top of that he had to fight against Salming, Potvin, Robinson, Lapointe and Park for Norris votes; insane competition. In the playoffs Savard was golden. Does anyone doubt he was better than both Laperrière and Tremblay anyway? And does anyone doubt Laperrière was a better defenseman than Tremblay?
So yeah, then you have Ken Reardon, Sylvio Mantha, Butch Bouchard and a few others who can compete against Tremblay for the #6 spot.
BenchBrawl
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- Jul 26, 2010
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The 4 best RWers are self-evident to me: Maurice Richard, Guy Lafleur, Bernard Geoffrion and Yvan Cournoyer. No one else is even close.
The 4 best centers are also straight-forward: Jean Béliveau, Howie Morenz, Henri Richard and Newsy Lalonde. Then Elmer Lach not so far behind. Then after that you get into the Guy Carbonneau, Jacques Lemaire range.
LWers are more tricky. Dickie Moore and Aurèle Joliat are the two best ones, and Toe Blake is a lock at 3rd. Then you're left with Bert Olmstead, Bob Gainey and maybe a few others. Frank Mahovlich does NOT qualify IMO. He only played 3-4 seasons here and he was past his peak. He did very good in the playoffs though, but does he really deserve to be on the Montreal team ahead of Bob Gainey? I don't think so. Also, nothing against Steve Shutt, but place him on another team and do we remember him the way we would if Gainey had played elsewhere? I don't think so.
Goalies I will always give Jacques Plante the #1 spot. Then Ken Dryden vs. Patrick Roy, flip a coin. Then Georges Vézina a clear 4th.
The 4 best centers are also straight-forward: Jean Béliveau, Howie Morenz, Henri Richard and Newsy Lalonde. Then Elmer Lach not so far behind. Then after that you get into the Guy Carbonneau, Jacques Lemaire range.
LWers are more tricky. Dickie Moore and Aurèle Joliat are the two best ones, and Toe Blake is a lock at 3rd. Then you're left with Bert Olmstead, Bob Gainey and maybe a few others. Frank Mahovlich does NOT qualify IMO. He only played 3-4 seasons here and he was past his peak. He did very good in the playoffs though, but does he really deserve to be on the Montreal team ahead of Bob Gainey? I don't think so. Also, nothing against Steve Shutt, but place him on another team and do we remember him the way we would if Gainey had played elsewhere? I don't think so.
Goalies I will always give Jacques Plante the #1 spot. Then Ken Dryden vs. Patrick Roy, flip a coin. Then Georges Vézina a clear 4th.
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mariolemieux66
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Adam Michaels
Registered User
Brunet - Juneau - T. Stevenson
Marcel Hossa - Perreault - S. Kotitsyn
Poulin - Chipchura - Dandenault
Laraque - Metropolit - Perezhogin
Mara - Niinimaa
Murray - Traverse
Campoli - Gilbert
Aebischer
Fichaud
Marcel Hossa - Perreault - S. Kotitsyn
Poulin - Chipchura - Dandenault
Laraque - Metropolit - Perezhogin
Mara - Niinimaa
Murray - Traverse
Campoli - Gilbert
Aebischer
Fichaud
Le Tricolore
Boo! BOOOO!
MXD
Original #4
- Oct 27, 2005
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To be honest I don't quite understand Laperrière being a lock over Bouchard or Tremblay. Might as well add Tom Johnson to this list as well. Not to say that Laperrière shouldn't make the Top-6, I'm just not sure about the "lock" aspect of it. And Laperrière's career wasn't really long. Laperrière is below all of these players in terms of raw games, with both Bouchard and Johnson being from a earlier era to boot.
Other than that, nothing to say : RW's are extremely obvious, C's are rather obvious, and really only the 4th LW is debateable.
Lafleurs Guy
Guuuuuuuy!
- Jul 20, 2007
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Very good list. However, I'd make a few changes.
Ferguson, I just can't do it. Far too many players to put in there that are simply more talented. If you want somebody to go with Gainey, Claude Provost would be an interesting grinder. Carbonneau too. I'm going with Geoffrion. Just too talented.
No way Doug Harvey is on the second pairing. He's arguably the 2nd best blueliner of all time.
Rod Langway isn't fit to clean the shoes of Chelios, Lapointe or Subban. Chelly and PK weren't here long but neither was Langway. I think Langway's Norrises are some of the worst Norris trophies ever. He never deserved to win over Coffey... Anyways, Lapointe makes my team as well as Chelios and Butch Bouchard. They are well above Langway, Markov or Weber. I'm tempted to put Subban in Chelios' space as well, but I like the physical dimension that Chelios provides. Either way, you can't go wrong there.
Dryden over Vezina for sure. He might be the best goalie of all time and is quite underrated despite his crazy resume. I have him ahead of Roy and behind Plante. I'd also take Price and Durnan over Vezina as well. Amazing that you've got Morenz on the 3rd but hey... it makes sense the way you've got your lines set up (and I agree with it.) I think line order doesn't mean anything here. The 3rd line here is absolutely sick. I'm going with Steve Shutt though.
Toe Blake, Elmer Lach, Maurice Richard
Frank Mahovlich, Jean Béliveau, Yvan Cournoyer
Steve Shutt, Howie Morenz, Guy Lafleur
Bob Gainey, Henri Richard, Boom-Boom Geoffrion
Doug Harvey, Butch Bouchard
Larry Robinson, Serge Savard
Guy Lapointe, Chris Chelios
Jacques Plante
Ken Dryden
Patrick Roy
Extras: Moore, Carbonneau, Joliat, Price, Subban, Cleghorn.
David Suzuki
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Adam Michaels
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Adam Michaels
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The Habs have so many greats, it's unfortunate because there are so many legends we have to leave out.
Le Tricolore
Boo! BOOOO!
Chili
En boca cerrada no entran moscas
- Jun 10, 2004
- 8,537
- 4,468
Montreal Canadiens Legends: Didier Pitre
He deserves to be mentioned somewhere on the thread, a star of the earliest Habs teams.
He deserves to be mentioned somewhere on the thread, a star of the earliest Habs teams.
BenchBrawl
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- Jul 26, 2010
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Fair enough. I was going by my ATD intuition, where I would never take any of those guys over Laperrière. His Norris record is somewhat better than all of them (even adjusting for AST in the pre-Norris era for a guy like Bouchard) and I thought his reputation was higher than a guy like JC Tremblay, who while more spectacular was not as steady. But maybe I'm wrong.
Also I thought Laperrière was considered the true #1D of the 1960s dynasty, but I guess a Tremblay defender would just tell me that Tremblay was the real #1D, bringing the debate back to square one. The "lock" aspect was pushing it on my part. In a sense I feel out of all those candidates, Laperrière is the least likely to get beaten by TWO other candidates.
As for Tom Johnson, I completely forgot him. He's well deserving of belonging to that group.
