Hey, this is an article that someone posted on the boards a few years back, I just found it again. I figured considering how the team is doing now, it would be worth posting it again, especially for those who haven't seen it before. It's a great read.


A Hab-it of winning with class

By Ryan Dixon
Gazette Staff

People who live in New York City say there is no city like it on earth. While New Yorkers will surely acknowledge there are other great cities in the world, they claim that if you have ever lived in New York, you just understand.

As a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, I share that sentiment. If you're a fan of this team, you just understand.

There is an intangible aura that surrounds the Canadiens. It has been 10 years since the Stanley Cup last called Montreal home. It has been 20 years since the Canadiens have iced a team that was the envy of the league. Still, that aura resonates.

It's in the way Canadiens fans sing like soccer fanatics at home games. It's in the way Quebecers would consider it sacrilegious if the Canadiens ever contemplated adopting a trendy third jersey. The fans and the franchise aren't willing to compromise a century's worth of integrity.

The closing of The Forum is a prime example of the Canadiens' pure class. It was a perfectly choreographed night that, somehow, captured everything it means to be a Montreal fan.

The Canadiens, with their symbolic torch, passed the legacy from champion to champion. As the torch was passed from the legendary Maurice Richard to a freshly showered Guy Carbonneau – a member of the opposing Dallas Stars during the game, but a proud Canadien after the match – generations of fans were forever linked.

The night they shut down Maple Leaf Gardens, former Leafs great Dave Keon, among others, sat at home. It speaks volumes about the way a franchise treats their players when one of their greatest names from the past shuns them. So, the Leafs had to pass off the likes of Alan Bester as a hockey hero.

Note the distinction: Toronto has "heroes." Montreal has champions.

Today's Canadiens will be champions someday. José Theodore's daring play and dashing good looks make him both a coach's and a publicist's dream. Saku Koivu's inspiring return from cancer proves his worth as a leader, without even mentioning his slick skills. General Manager Andre Savard's keen eye for talent (many of Ottawa's hot young players were drafted while Savard was a scout there) should ensure there are more young guns in the fold.

The common knock on Habs fans, and the organization as a whole, is that they are too quick to point to the history books and ignore the fact they are now mired in mediocrity. That's probably a fair commentary, but what people don't understand is that it's not until Montreal fans forget about the Canadiens' glorious past that we're in real trouble.

You see, the key difference between Montreal and Toronto is expectations. Because of the precedent set over the course of a century, Montreal fans – to this day – consider nothing less than the Stanley Cup on Ste. Catherines Street a success. Leaf fans threw a parade after the team lost in the Campbell Conference final in '93.

There will never be a second-place parade in Montreal. Ever.

When you think about it, the same product Leafs fans are proud of (i.e. a team that makes the playoffs and inevitably bows out in the second or third round) is precisely the kind of performance Montreal fans have mourned for 20 years – of course, with the exception of two Stanley Cups in '86 and '93.

If you don't expect the most out of yourself, you will not get very far in this life. If you don't expect the most out of your hockey team, you're probably a Leafs fan.

Understand?