It almost seems that it’s destiny, that every decade or so, there will be a Montreal Canadiens goalkeeper, who performs the seemingly miraculous in a playoff series. No team in NHL history, has been quite as prolific as the Canadiens have, when it comes to goalies who steal the show, by stealing a game, a series, or several of them. Jaroslav Halak has continued that Habs tradition, in stifling Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, and forcing a game 7 Wednesday night in The District of Columbia. Halak’s 53 save performance against the league’s best regular season team, reminded me of another game stealer, turned into a series stealer, in the form of Ken Dryden. ( obviously Patrick Roy is at the top of the list for most Montreal fans. )Halak’s heroics seem very similar in several ways, to that of the soft spoken,and very verbose Cornell University alumnus. At this stage, it still remains to be seen, if Halak can help his Habs complete the coup, by overthrowing the “Ovie” ( Ovechkin ) led wunderkinds from Washington, in the series finale.
In 1971, not a whole lot was expected of the Montreal Canadiens. They had missed the playoffs in 1970, along with their traditional hated rivals in Toronto. It was a rarity for both marquee franchises to miss the playoffs at any time, and especially in the same year. The Maple leafs were rebuilding, but also in decline under the leadership of Harold Ballard and Stafford Smythe. Although they still had star players, like Dave Keon, Norm Ullman, Paul Henderson, Ron Ellis,Jacques Plante, Bernie Parent, and a nearly retired Bob Baun, the blue and white were slowly beginning a downhill slide away from from being a dominant franchise, unlike their fellow original six counterparts in Quebec, who were retooling for another decade of domination. The Scotty Bowman coached Canadiens, conquered the NHL and became the leagues next dynasty, winning Stanley Cups, in 1976 through and including 1979. It was a team stacked with future Hall Of Famers,( Robinson,Savard, Lafleur, Lemaire, Shutt, Dryden,Cournoyer and Gainey ) and the dynasty started to show some of it’s potential in the 1971 Stanley Cup playoffs, and eventual championship, led by the periphrastic future politician, Ken Dryden.
The 1971 Canadiens, faced the Boston Bruins in the first round of playoffs, and the “B’s”, were an armada of offence, authored in large part by all time greats, Bobby Orr, and Phil Esposito. They won the 1970 Stanley Cup, and would do the same in 1972. It was also expected, that they would take the trophy in 1971. What interrupted the back to back, to back Cup championships, was the Canadiens. The Bruins had established league records for offense that year, but Dryden almost singlehandedly, stymied the “Big Bad” Bruins, as they were referred to at that point of time, a somewhat more subtle precursor of the “Broad Street Bullies”,the Philadelphia Flyers,Stanley Cup winners in 1974 and /75. The Canadiens went on to win the 1971 Stanley Cup,after defeating the Chicago Blackhawks in the final, stealing game 7 at the Chicago Stadium, after trailing on the scoreboard. It was the upset of the Bruins however, that was the most storied, and dramatic dynamic of that decades first triumph, and it was Dryden’s show stopping saves, including 49 in a regulation time playoff game, that were the most memorable moments of Montreal’s magical march to supremacy.
It remains to be seen, if Halak can continue the elevation of his reputation, by helping his Habs win one more match, in Washington on Wednesday. His 37 stops on Friday, followed by fifty –three on Monday, have him included in the conversation of legendary Montreal net minders. He may not reach the stratospheric stuff of other puck stoppers, that include Dryden, Patrick Roy and Jacques Plante, but for the moment, he has brought up some early comparisons to these magnificent masked men, with the possibility of adding more chapters to the Canadiens conquests.