Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens, officially named the Club de Hockey Canadien, are a National Hockey League (NHL) team competing in the NHL's Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The team is the oldest existing NHL franchise, having formed prior to the forming of the NHL, and it is the only NHL franchise to have existed continuously for the entirety of the NHL's history. Based in Montreal, Quebec, the Montreal Canadiens play out of the Bell Centre, a 21,302-seat arena (the largest capacity arena in the NHL) located in downtown Montreal; it replaced the historic Montreal Forum in 1996.

The Canadiens are the winningest franchise in the NHL, having hoisted the Stanley Cup a total of twenty-four times in thirty-five appearances in the Stanley Cup finals and having more than sixty former players and personnel inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In some cases, the history of the Montreal Canadiens is the history of hockey and the NHL. The team is one of two bilingual franchises in the NHL and the only franchise to emphasize French at their home games, wearing the French logo for the NHL (or LNH for Ligue Nationale de Hockey) on their home sweaters.

Montreal's team is deeply woven into the French community of Quebec. For that reason, the franchise has had unwritten rules about persons working with the team and on the roster. These include having a bilingual general manager, a bilingual coach, and French-Canadian players.

The city has criticized the franchise when it hired an anglophone coach—Randy Cunneyworth—who took over in 2011 as interim head coach after the firing of Jacques Martin. This ignited a storm of criticism from Quebec journalists, radio hosts, and the provincial culture minister. The team has also faced criticism for giving the team captaincy to players who do not speak French, such as when young center Nick Suzuki, who at the time was not bilingual, was named captain in 2022.

Changes of the Montreal Canadiens logo through its history.

The Montreal Canadiens were a founding member of the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1917 and entered the league with new uniforms and a new crest. The crest was a stylized "C" with an "H" in the middle, symbolized to represent the team's new official name: Le Club de Hockey Canadien. The "H" in the logo stands for hockey—not, as many believe, for "habitants." This misconception, linked to one of the club's main nicknames, originated from Madison Square Garden owner Tex Rickard, who mistakenly told a reporter in 1924 that the "H" stood for habitants.

The Canadiens were first referenced as the "Habitants" in Le Devoir on February 9, 1914, in a description of a game against Toronto. The word was used as the name for land-owning settlers of New France (eventually named Quebec) and was a common nickname for the team. The terms' association with the team is believed to originate with the team's marketing toward the city's French community and billing itself as the French hockey club in opposition to Montreal's English team, the Wanderers. In the early years, Canadiens fans showed their affiliation with the club by attending games wearing traditional habitant attire, which includes tuques, moccasins, and brightly colored sashes.

The word "habitants" fell out of some favor with French Canadians, as they would come to see it as generally meaning "uncouth peasant," whereas in contemporary Quebecois French, if a person is considered to have "habitant manners," it is to say that person is a country bumpkin. The word has become, as Quebecers turned their back on the Roman Catholic church and its agricultural past, a rejected symbol once held dear. However, the abbreviation, "Habs," did not suffer the negative association of habitants and continues to be a common and popular nickname for the Montreal Canadiens.

For a franchise as old as the Montreal Canadiens, it is no surprise that they have a list of other nicknames that have enjoyed periods of popularity:

• le Grand Club
• le CH (short for Club de hockey)
• les Glorieux
• le bleu blanc et rouge
• la Sainte-Flanelle (the "holy sweater")
• le Tricolore

Regulated senior hockey arrived in Montreal thanks to students at McGill University. The students began playing hockey on Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink in 1875. The group developed a written set of rules for participants by 1880, and by 1886, they worked to organize the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC). This included four teams from Montreal, one team from Ottawa, and one team from Quebec City (which joined the league in 1892). During this period, the Stanley Cup was not the championship cup of any individual league, and any team in Canada could challenge for the Cup. During this period, the Montreal Hockey Club won the Stanley Cup in 1894 and 1895, and the Montreal Victorias won in 1895, 1896, 1897, and 1898.

The AHAC folded in 1898 and was reorganized into the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL). The Montreal Shamrocks won the Stanley Cup during the first two years of the CAHL's operations— 1899 and 1900. The Montreal Hockey Club won the Stanley Cup in 1902 and 1903. The CAHL was replaced in 1905 by the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA). The Montreal Wanderers became the team to beat in the new league as they successfully defended the Stanley Cup in 1907 and 1908. But, in 1909, the ECAHA dissolved and was reformed as the Canadian Hockey Association (CHA), which excluded the Montreal Wanderers from the league. As a result, the Montreal Wanderers formed their own league, the National Hockey Association (NHA), and it merged with the CHA by 1910.

Promotional material for the new Montreal Canadiens.

The Montreal Canadiens were officially formed in 1909 by John Ambrose O'Brien in the NHA. The club was formed to be a completely French club in a period when Montreal's French-speaking population mainly belonged to the working class strata of society, and many hockey teams and their players in the area were English-speaking. O'Brien wanted to capture the Francophone Montrealer's interest in ice hockey, so the team used the French spelling of the word "Canadiens" to hint at the Francophone population and history. Further, the team only accepted French-speaking players, and he promised to hand the club over to local owners as soon as there were any. O'Brien named Jean-Baptiste "Jack" Laviolette as coach and general manager, who recruited the fifteen players for the team.

After the team's inaugural season, it was sold. The story of the sale has different versions. In one story, the team was unsuccessful in its first season, and therefore O'Brien sold the team to George Kennedy, a sports promoter. The other version of the story was that George Kennedy already owned Le Club Athletique Canadien, a hockey team that entered the NHA in 1910 and traced its roots farther back. In that history, Kennedy claimed the "Canadiens" team name. The dispute, in the latter version, was settled by $7,500, for which Kennedy purchased the Montreal Canadiens. The players joined Kennedy's club, and Le Club Athletique Canadien adopted the Canadiens monicker. A new logo was introduced for the team, which had a simple printed "C" with an "A" inside, standing for Club Athletique.

The following seasons would continue to be disappointing for the new club, with the Montreal Canadiens/Club Athletique finishing in last place in the league. By the 1915–1916 season, the team earned their first playoff berth and a chance at the Stanley Cup. Led by Newsy Lalonde, Jack Laviolette, and goalie Georges Vézina, the team won the Stanley Cup for the first time, defeating the Portland Rosebuds of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association.

The 1916–1917 Montreal Canadiens.

In 1917–1918, the NHL was formed with the Canadiens as one of the founding teams. The Canadiens lost the new league's first championship to the Toronto Arenas, who went on to become the first NHL champions. However, the following year, the Canadiens won the league championship over the Ottawa Senators but again fell short in their run for the Stanley Cup. During 1919, due in part to the influenza pandemic, the series for the Stanley Cup between the Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans was interrupted, and no winner could be declared, leaving the Stanley Cup unawarded.

The Montreal Canadiens, early in their NHL history, established a reputation for flair, speed, and offensive power. The reputation was built on players such as Joe Malone, Aurèle Joliat, and Howie Morenz, who is largely considered the most exciting player of the 1920s and 1930s. The team missed playoffs from 1920 to 1922. They reached the championship in 1922–1923, but during the playoffs, the Canadiens suspended their own captain, Sprague Cleghorn, for a vicious check against Ottawa Senators player Lionel Hitchman. Ottawa went on to win the 1923 league championship and Stanley Cup. By 1924, Montreal would be at their best and win their first Stanley Cup as an NHL franchise.

They followed this with a league championship win in 1925 due to the top team in the league, Hamilton, suffering a player's strike mid-season as the players demanded they be paid for playing in the post-season. The Canadiens were unsuccessful in the Stanley Cup finals of 1925 and finished the 1925–1926 season in last place in the league. The 1926–1927 season saw the NHL expand to ten teams. The Canadiens continued to struggle to win another Stanley Cup, losing in the semi-finals in 1927 to the Ottawa Senators. They followed with a successful 1927–1928 season, which included a nineteen-game winning streak, but lost to the rival Montreal Maroons and missed the Stanley Cup finals again.

The 1928–1929 season is still considered one of the most successful in team history. The team only lost seven games, won twenty-two by shutout, and ended the season with an eight-game win streak. However, come playoffs, the team lost to the Boston Bruins.

The Montreal Canadiens began the 1930s on a high, winning the Stanley Cup in both 1930 and 1931, the first back-to-back Stanley Cups for the team. However, a loss in the 1932 playoff semifinals to the New York Rangers signaled a downturn for the team. They spent significant parts of the season in the basement of the Canadian Division (as it was then known), and despite making playoffs, they lost early. This led to the Canadiens finishing last place in 1935–1936. During this period, general manager Leo Dandurand made several trades and was sold to the Canadian Arena Company, who continued to trade players in an attempt to better the team.

Montreal Canadiens vs. New York Rangers c. 1936

Howie Morenz returned to Montreal for the 1936–1937 team, to tragic results. On January 28, 1937, Morenz broke his leg during a game, and on March 8 of that year, he died from complications with the break. The Canadiens mourned the loss of their former star and were again booted from the playoffs early. They closed the decade at a low point.

The new decade saw a fanbase accustomed to disappointment. Beyond the on-ice struggles and the tragic loss of a former star player, the team would lose coach Babes Siebert ahead of the 1939–1940 season in a drowning accident. The Canadiens would fail to earn a playoff spot and finish in last place that season.

Canadiens players pictured in the mid–1940s.

In the 1942–1943 season, the NHL league was reduced to six teams, beginning an era known as the "Original Six Era" and signaling a change for the Canadiens. In this season, rookie Maurice "Rocket" Richard joined the team and replaced Joe Benoit on the famous "Punch Line" (which included Toe Blake and Elmer Lach). Bill Durnan played goalie for the season and was considered one of the better goaltenders in the league at the time. This led to the Canadiens of the mid-1940s, which enjoyed a great run of success.

The 1943–1944 season saw the Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup. During the 1944–1945 season, the team led the league with the most goals scored, the fewest goals allowed, and the most penalty minutes. Maurice Richard became the league's first 50-goal scorer, and though the Canadiens missed out on the Cup in 1945, 1947, and 1949 (missing the playoffs altogether in 1948), the club took home the Stanley Cup in 1946.

There was none of the doom and gloom of the beginning of the 1940s to begin the 1950s for the Canadiens. Despite ending the 1949–1950 through to 1951–1952 seasons in defeat, the team began the 1952-53 season with Jacques Plante making his NHL debut in goal and helping the team finish second in the league. That season the Canadiens won their seventh Stanley Cup.

They missed out on the Cup in 1954 and lost an opportunity to compete for the Cup in 1955, when star forward Maurice Richard was suspended for the remainder of the season, including playoffs, after getting into an altercation, which included Richard punching linesman Cliff Thompson. The suspension raised tensions in Montreal, with fans believing it was not only too long but was motivated by Richard's French Canadian ethnicity.

NHL President Clarence Campbell, who had given Richard the suspension, visited Montreal on March 17 of that year, which provoked a riot at the Montreal Forum (their home rink), which would go on to be known as the Richard Riot. This was also a time when the Canadiens were increasingly tied to rising ethnic tensions in Quebec and a factor in Quebec's Quiet Revolution. Richard promised the fans and the city he would return the next season and finish with a Cup.

Stanley Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens of the 1950s.

His promise would be kept. The 1955–56 season began an era of success unmatched since in the NHL, if not professional hockey. The Canadiens had a new coach in Hector "Toe" Blake; two unstoppable lines of Jean Béliveau, Maurice Richard, Bert Olmstead, Henri Richard, Bernard Geoffrion, and Dickie Moore; and the best goalie in the NHL, Jacques Plante. They led the league by 24 points and resulted in the team's first 10-point season. They followed the 1956 Stanley Cup with a Stanley Cup win in 1957, marking a league record for the most Cup wins.

During the 1957–1958 season, young star Dickie Moore, nicknamed Digging Dickie, led the NHL's point race, followed closely by Maurice Richard's younger brother, Henri, nicknamed the Pocket Rocket. The Canadiens that season would win the Cup and mark the league's second "three-peat." This would extend to a fourth straight championship in 1958–1959 and a fifth straight in 1959–1960. The 1960 Stanley Cup would see Maurice Richard retire at the end of the season.

The Canadiens' monopoly on the Stanley Cup would end in the 1961 playoffs. They lost in the playoffs again in 1962, 1963, and 1964. The loss in 1964 led the Canadiens to overhaul their management over the summer, and the Canadiens would win their thirteenth and fourteenth franchise Stanley Cups in 1965 and 1966.

Montreal Canadiens team of the 1968-1969 season.

During the 1967–1968 season, the NHL expanded with an additional six teams, one of the largest expansions in professional sports history. The expansion season saw the Canadiens at the bottom of the league in the first thirty-three games before finishing at the top of the league by the end of the season. This success was partially due to Jean Béliveau, who scored his 400th goal and reached 1,000 career points during the season. They would win their fifteenth Stanley Cup against the St. Louis Blues, one of the new expansion teams, in 1968. They repeated the defeat of the St. Louis Blues in 1969 and won their sixteenth Stanley Cup. During that final season of the decade, the team was playing in a renovated Montreal Forum under coach Claude Ruel.

Montreal Canadiens star Jean Beliveau.

The Canadiens began the 1969–1970 season with players fighting injuries that kept stars, including Jean Béliveau, Henri Richard, Jean-Claude Tremblay, John Ferguson, and Serge Savard, off the ice for various periods. Further, Jacques Laperrière and John Ferguson were suspended, and Gilles Tremblay retired due to illness. The team slipped in the standings and failed to make the 1970s playoffs.

The next season saw Guy Lapointe join the Canadiens, but it would be the final season for John Ferguson and Jean Béliveau. During the season, AL MacNeil was made the team's new coach, and along with goaltender Ken Dryden, the Canadiens won their seventeenth Stanley Cup. MacNeil was replaced by Scotty Bowman after winning the Cup.

Legendary Canadiens coach Scotty Bowman.

Bowman became a legendary coach for the Canadiens, leading a team built around speed, scoring, and defense. The team lost in 1972, future star Guy Lafleur's first playoffs, and they won their eighteenth Stanley Cup in 1973 and four straight Cups again from 1974–1975 to 1978–1979. During this run of success, Guy Lafleur would emerge as a star in the NHL, winning multiple awards, including the Conn Smythe, Art Ross, and Hart Trophies. However, the 1979 Stanley Cup final was bittersweet for the team. Despite the team winning their twenty-second Cup, it was the last game for Yvan Cournoyer, Ken Dryden, Jacques Lemaire, and coach Scotty Bowman.

Star forward Guy Lafleur.

As the NHL expanded through the 1980s, the Canadiens' domination came to an end. Despite this, the club remained competitive. They were top of the league in scoring thanks to stars like Guy Lafleur, Pierre Larouche, Steve Shutt, and Pierre Mondou, and the return of coach Claude Ruel. But the loss of previous stars and increased competition through the league led to Montreal falling to third place in the decade's first season, and they finished the season without a Cup for the first time in five years.

Team general manager Irving Grundman attempted to mix the team up through trade and drafted Doug Wickenheiser as first overall for the next season. Despite a successful 1980–1981 season, the Canadiens were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Edmonton OIlers. Bob Berry replaced Ruel as coach for the 1981–1982 season, and despite winning the division, they lost in the playoff's first round to the Quebec Nordiques.

The eight-year reign of the Canadiens as division champions came to an end in the 1982–1983 season when they finished second and failed to make it past the first round of the playoffs for a third year in a row. General manager Irving Grundman was replaced by Serge Savard. With the team falling to fourth in the division in 1983–1984, coach Berry was replaced by Jacques Lemaire. This season marked Montreal's first losing season in thirty-three years, but they managed to reach the conference final in the playoffs before falling to the New York Islanders.

Canadiens' goaltender Patrick Roy.

During the summer of 1984, Savard picked goaltender Patrick Roy in the NHL Entry Draft. The 1984–1985 season saw Guy Lafleur announce his retirement. The team recorded a mediocre 1985–1986 season, but before the playoffs began, coach Jean Perron sequestered the team in a hotel in Montreal in a bid to focus the team's energies. The gamble worked as the Canadiens won their twenty-third Stanley Cup in 1986, led by rookie goaltender Patrick Roy, who would also win the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP, becoming the youngest player at that point to win the honors. The team reached the finals again in the 1988–1989 season but fell short of the win.

Canadiens face the Kings in the 1993 playoffs.

The Montreal Canadiens began the 1990s as a top team in the NHL, but coach Pat Burns left to coach the rival team, Toronto Maple Leafs, at the end of the 1992 playoffs. Jacques Demers took the reins as the coach in the 1992–1993 season, and the club went on to win an unexpected twenty-fourth Stanley Cup in that season, defeating Wayne Gretzky's Los Angeles Kings in five games. The team was once again led by the goaltending of Patrick Roy, who won a second Conn Smythe Trophy.

The Montreal Forum, home of the Canadiens until 1996.

The Cup was the team's last at the Montreal Forum. They made it to the playoffs in the preceding season, and the 1994–1995 season was shortened by a lockout, with the Canadiens missing the playoffs for the first time in twenty-five years. After failing to improve in the 1995–1996 season, team management was overhauled, with Rejean Houle and Mario Tremblay brought on as general manager and head coach, respectively. A few months into the season, star goaltender Patrick Roy was traded to the Colorado Avalanche.

The team's last game in the Montreal Forum came on March 11, 1996. They had played in the arena since 1924. Their next home game, five days later, was played in the new Molson Centre (since renamed the Bell Centre). The team lost in their next playoff series in 1996 and 1997. By December of the 1998–1999 season, the team went on an eleven-game winless streak and finished the season out of playoff contention and with the lowest team point total in forty years.

The team's troubles continued into the new millennium. In May of 2000, Maurice Richard died, and more than 100,000 people attended a public memorial held at the Molson Centre. In 2001–2002, the Canadiens made it to the playoffs for the first time in four years, but they lost in the second round. They missed the playoffs in the next season. With a view of reviving the struggling team, Bob Gainey was hired as the team's new general manager, beginning what some have called the Gainey era.

The first NHL outdoor game.

The era began with a slow start. Montreal played in the first outdoor NHL game against the Edmonton Oilers on November 22, 2003, and would even be back in playoff contention at the end of that season, but lost in the second round to eventual Cup winners Tampa Bay Lightning. This fate would be repeated in 2006.

In the 2008–2009 season, the NHL paid tribute to the team's centennial season, with Montreal playing host to the 2009 All-Star Game and the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. But for the team on the ice, the season was only marginally successful, reaching the playoffs and being swept in the first round by the Boston Bruins.

In the following season, the 2009–2010 season, the Canadiens hoped that hiring Jacques Martin and retooling the roster through several trades would build the team back to glory. The team made history when forward Mike Cammalleri scored Montreal's 20,000th goal in a game against the Ottawa Senators. After squeaking into the playoffs, the Canadiens shocked by defeating the Washington Capitals in the first round after forcing a game seven. They repeated the trick against the defending Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh Penguins, forcing a game seven and reaching the Conference Finals for the first time since 1993. However, the run ended, and the Philadelphia Flyers eliminated the Canadiens in five games.

After falling short in the 2009–2010 season, the Canadiens began the next decade by trading away goaltender Jaroslav Halak, despite his brilliance in the playoffs, and crowning Carey Price as their franchise goaltender. Despite this, the 2010–2011 season had few highlights. The Canadiens participated in the NHL's second-ever Heritage Classic, where they lost to the Calgary Flames in an outdoor game.

Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty.

Forward Max Pacioretty suffered a severe concussion and fractured vertebrae after a hit that sent him colliding into a stanchion. Pacioretty missed the remainder of the 2010–2011 season but returned in the 2011–2012 season that had few other bright spots. The general manager and coach were fired after the team finished last in their division and conference.

Star goaltender Carey Price.

The general manager and coaching positions were filled by Marc Bergevin and Michel Therrien, respectively. During the 2012–2013 lockout-shortened season, Canadiens' star defenseman P.K. Subban win the James Norris Memorial Trophy (for best defenseman). The NHL returned to a full season in 2013–2014, and the Canadiens advanced to the Eastern Conference finals before losing to the New York Rangers. In the following year, in part due to the performance of goaltender Carey Price, the Canadiens won the Atlantic Division and finished with 110 points, the most for the franchise since 1988–1989. However, the team fell in the second round of the playoffs to the Tampa Bay Lightning. For his efforts, Price was awarded the Vezina, Hart, and Ted Lindsay trophies.

The 2015–2016 season saw Max Pacioretty named the twenty-ninth captain in franchise history. But early in the season, Carey Price was injured, suffering a knee injury, which would be aggravated soon after his return and cause Price to miss the remainder of the season—a season in which the Canadiens would miss the playoffs. In the 2016 off-season, the Canadiens make a stunning move in sending their star defenseman P.K. Subban to the Nashville Predators for defenseman Shea Weber. Controversy followed the trade, as P.K. Subban was a popular figure in Montreal, especially for his charisma and charitable work.

The 2016–2017 season included Carey Price's return, and with that, the competitive Montreal Canadiens won the Atlantic Division, but the team faltered in the first round to the New York Rangers. The season to follow, the Canadiens struggled with their defense, and they would make changes in the resulting offseason, including trading captain Max Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden Knights for Tomas Tatar and prospect Nick Suzuki. The 2018–2019 season was equally deflating, as the team once again failed to reach the playoffs.

The 2019–2020 season was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing a pause in March 2020. The Canadiens, at the pause, were outside of the playoffs, ranked twelfth in the Eastern Conference. But given the modified post-season tournament, intended to give those teams just outside the playoffs a chance to play-in, the Canadiens were able to defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins in the best-of-five qualifying series. They ultimately lost against the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round.

The momentum of the bubble playoffs—as the 2020 season would be known—carried into the odd 2021 season. Due to the pandemic and the border between the U.S. and Canada, the teams only played against division rivals, with the divisions remixed to see all seven Canadian teams playing against each other. The Canadiens, despite their struggles through the season, made it into the playoffs after coach Claude Julien was fired and Dominique Ducharme was hired.

Canadiens defeat Cup favorites Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Canadiens beat the much higher and Stanley Cup-favored Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games, after falling three games to one and being put on the brink of elimination. In the second round, the Canadiens swept the Winnipeg Jets, and in the conference finals, the Canadiens defeated the Vegas Golden Knights. The Canadiens went on to lose in the Stanley Cup Final but became the first Canadian NHL team to reach the finals since Vancouver reached them in 2011. The playoff run became a last gasp for the group, which had been largely assembled during the previous decade.

The 2021 offseason included some controversy for the Canadiens, as the general manager announced the Montreal Canadiens selected Logan Mailloux as their first-round pick in the NHL Entry Draft. This was despite Mailloux pulling himself out of the draft (which he could not do officially but had made it known he would prefer not to be selected) following a conviction and fine in a Swedish court on a count of sexual misconduct after sharing an intimate photograph of himself with a young woman without her consent. This was public knowledge at the draft, and the Canadiens' decision to select the player led to fierce backlash. Owner Geoff Molson issued a public apology, and Mailloux would not be invited to the Canadiens' training camp but remained the team's property.

Through the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 seasons, the Canadiens committed to rebuilding. The general manager, Marc Bergevin, and the club parted ways, and Kent Hughes came in as the new general manager under executive vice president Jeff Gorton. Gorton previously guided the New York Rangers through a rebuild as general manager, but he would not be named general manager of the Canadiens because he does not speak French. Dominique Ducharme was replaced as head coach, as the club felt he was not the right person for developing the young team. Martin St. Louis took over coaching duties.