Greatest Team of All Time: Montreal Junior Canadiens – Hockey Writers – Canadiens History

Former NHL player Bob Sirois wrote a book examining the NHL’s treatment of French Canadian players called. Le Quebec is dignified: discrimination goes beyond Quebecois and LNH (Quebec theme examined: discrimination against Quebecers in the NHL.) This book asserts that discrimination is alive and well in the NHL. The author uses many statistics to show that French players are not respected as Anglophone peers.

In support of the letter, some Quebec fans can cite a history of questionable dealings, from the suspension of Clarence Campbell who started the Rocket Richard Riot of 1955, a change in the NHL’s rules governing power plays and the elimination of that exception. allowed Montreal to select the top Quebec-born player year after year without interference from every NHL team. In the book, Sirois also talks about Mario Lemieux’s refusal to play for the Canadian Olympic team and Shane Doan’s allegations against France.

Anyone who saw the movie “The Rocket” or studied that period in Canadian history knows very well that there was racism in the early 1950s but, despite that fact, twenty years later Quebecers had a chance to be very proud and saw it overthrown. many legends about Canadian hockey players. The source of that pride was not the dreaded NHL Canadiens but the Montreal Junior Canadiens.

Junior Canadiens: Pride of Canada

In 1969-70, the Montreal Juniors became the most successful and dominant team in all of juniors, beating Darryl Sittler’s London Knights, Denis Potvin’s Ottawa 67, the St. Marcel Dionne’s Catherine Black hawks, and Guy Lafleur’s Quebec Rempart’s Fbbylin Bomber’s F. The Junior Canadiens played in a tougher test, OHA (Ontario Hockey Association) tougher than the Quebec League.

The Junior Canadiens were loaded with talented young French players including Gilbert Perreault, Richard Martin, Marc Tardif, Rejean Houle, Ian Turnbull, Andre Dupont, and Jocelyn Guevremont. Many such as Perreault, Martin, Tardif and Houle had played a few seasons together for Thetford Mines before signing with the “Baby Habs.”

The Junior Canadiens soon had fans from all over Quebec who flocked to the Montreal Forum to see them play. It’s amazing that sometimes they would bring out a team of parents who would sell out the 18,000 seater stadium with happy fans. In comparison, many small groups consider it respectable to draw 2000 or more paying customers.

The speed and finesse of the “Baby Habs” combined with the running of the end of the flash Gilbert Perreault had the media to think that they can beat many NHL teams of the second division.

The Junior Canadiens won back-to-back Memorial Cups dominating the competition. The 1969 series was very physical and the Junior Canadiens proved they could take it and gave the Regina Pats 25 goals in 13 of the four contests.

Continued Success of Junior Canadiens

After the 1969 season, Tardif and Houle were both drafted in the first round by the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. Houle, who is the captain with 108 points, won the Eddie Powers Trophy as the leading scorer in the league and Perreault is in second place with 99 points.

In the next playoff season Montreal started where they left off winning the first game 6-2, but the Greyhounds won the second game 5-4. It was the first time in history that a NOHA team beat an OHA team in the playoffs. Montreal quickly responded by winning the next three games 10–1, 9–2 and 20–1 with Perreault, Turnbull and Martin scoring key goals.

For the Richardson Cup, the Canadiens will play the Quebec Junior Hockey League champions, the Quebec Remparts. Remparts had Guy Lafleur, Michel Briere, Andre Savard and Jacques Richard. The Canadiens won the 3-game sweep in front of crowds of over 14,000 in Quebec City, and over 18,000 in Montreal.

Their opponents in the 1970 Memorial Cup will be the Weyburn Red Wings of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. Coached by Stan Dunn, the Red Wings were a tough team to watch. The games got closer as the series went on, but the Junior Canadiens swept the series, winning on home ice at the Forum.

Junior Canadiens and Memorial Cup

Gilbert Perreault, a crowd favorite, was drafted by the Buffalo Sabers after scoring 51 goals and 70 assists for 121 points in 54 games. Perreault moved into second place in the OHA scoring race to Marcel Dionne in the final week of the regular season. Dionne beat Perreault with 4 goals and 7 assists to finish the season with 132 points. The Canadian Juniors won two Memorial Cup games with a 9-2 defeat of the Soviet National Team featuring goalkeeper Vladislav Tretiak.

The End of the Junior Canadiens

In 1972 the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League had been in operation for three years, giving the province its first major junior tournament. The Quebec League apparently wanted a team in the province’s largest city, and was threatening a lawsuit to force the Junior Canadiens to return to the Quebec-based league.

In the summer of 1972, the OHA gave the Junior Habs a “one-year suspension” of operations, while team ownership transferred the team and players to the QMJHL, renaming themselves the Montreal Bleu Blanc Rouge in the process. The OHA then revived the established franchise for the 1973–74 season in Kingston, Ontario, under new ownership and new players, naming the team the Kingston Canadians. The new Kingston team had little connection to the old Junior Canadiens, but in the annual Media Guide, the Kingston team is still shown as the official successor to the Junior Canadiens legacy.

The legacy of the Junior Canadiens

Although the Montreal Junior Canadiens team that won two Memorial Cups and completely dominated Junior Hockey hasn’t played in more than 50 years, its legend has endured. It is doubtful that any team will ever be as strong or will ever have a stable full of French Canadian stars all on the same team.

This post was originally published October, 2009.