- It?s possible, though unlikely, that the Chicago Blackhawks will fail to make the playoffs one season after having won the Stanley Cup.
The Windy City?s hockey mood has changed to a little ugly from a lot euphoric since last spring, when the Blackhawks were steaming toward their first championship in 50 years. Now, fingernails are chewed to the cuticles, for now nothing is guaranteed beyond Game 82.
The NHL last saw penthouse-to-outhouse with the Carolina Hurricanes, who bowed out before the 2007 postseason only 10 months after their victory parade.
The Canadiens might have felt for the Blackhawks Tuesday if they weren?t still locked in a playoff chase of their own, needing two points in their final three games to nail down a postseason berth.
They earned the precious pair before a delirious Bell Centre crowd with a 2-1 overtime victory over Chicago, though don?t expect their Eastern Conference seeding and opponent to be known before the weekend.
Only once in their century have the Canadiens won the Cup then not seen playoff ice the following year. That was in 1969-70, the season after Montreal had won its fourth title in five years. But the Habs roared back to capture the Cup again in 1970-71, the first of six titles they?d win that decade.
The Blackhawks have the champ-to-chump blemish on their record, too, Cup champions in 1937-38 who bottomed out in ?38-39. In all, Elias Sports charts seven such instances since 1926-27, when the NHL took exclusive control of the Stanley Cup.
None of today?s Canadiens was drawing a breath 41 years ago Tuesday night when the Blackhawks dealt the Habs a fatal blow on April 5, 1970, in their 76th and final game of the 12-team NHL season of 1969-70.
It was a bizarre match for the ages, the Canadiens needing a tie or at least five goals against the Blackhawks at Chicago Stadium to beat out the New York Rangers for the East Division?s fourth and final playoff berth.
Down 5-2 midway through the third period, Canadiens head coach Claude Ruel had no choice but to put goalie Rogie Vachon on a string and pull him to the bench over and over in a final 10 minutes that was equal parts comedy and tragedy.
Chicago scored five times into an empty Montreal net for a 10-2 win.
The Canadiens and Rangers finished with identical 38-22-16 records, but New York advanced on the tiebreaker, having scored 246 goals to the Habs? 244.
That afternoon in New York, the Rangers had bombed Detroit?s Roger Crozier with 65 shots for a 9-5 win. The Red Wings, with only 22 shots on Eddie Giacomin, had clinched a playoff berth the previous night with a 6-2 thumping of the Rangers.
Conspiracy theories flowed from the Canadiens and their fans.
?We can?t blame Detroit for our problems, but they didn?t work at all,? a disgusted Ruel said.
Added Canadiens forward Mickey Redmond: ?If you can?t make the playoffs in 75 games, you can?t expect another team to help you. But (Detroit) didn?t have to lay down and die.?
In the end, Chicago swept the Red Wings in a quarterfinal but lost a semi in four to Boston, who then swept St. Louis in the Cup final.
In the Blackhawks net that 10-2 night, and 24 hours earlier in Montreal for a 4-1 Chicago victory, was future Hall of Famer Tony Esposito, who that season would win both the Calder Trophy as the league?s top rookie and V?zina as its best goaler.
With the final game still close, Tony O made a stunning glove stop on Jean B?liveau, then took an Henri Richard blast off his head before Chicago pulled away.
Crazily, the final shots were 37 apiece.
?I?ve never heard a game so loud,? Esposito said Tuesday from his Florida home. ?It seemed every time we touched the puck, we were headed for an open net. The only thing nice about it was that, after a couple of goals, the pressure on us to win was off.
?We let them shoot from the outside, from 35 or 40 feet, and we kept the box tight. They kept firing and sooner or later, we?d get ahold of it and everybody would go crazy.
?When it looked like they were going to lose, they had to pull their goalie. In that situation, what?s the difference if you lose 5-2 or 10-2? I?ll remember the game forever because I never could have dreamed of playing in something like that.?
Esposito, 67, has been impressed with the play of Chicago goalie Corey Crawford, a four-season minor-leaguer who became an impact player this year with the Blackhawks.
And he?s been dazzled with the rebound season of Canadiens netminder Carey Price.
?He?s played well, boy,? Esposito said of Price. ?He makes it look easy. When I was playing my best games, I made the saves look easy. When a goalie?s doing that, he?s right on top of his game.?
Esposito is headed up to Chicago this weekend for the Blackhawks? final scheduled game, a Sunday matin?e against a Red Wings team he doesn?t suspect will roll over as it might have 41 years ago to help oust the Canadiens.
?I just hope,? he said, chuckling, ?that it?s a happy weekend.?
Read more: montrealgazette.com/
The Windy City?s hockey mood has changed to a little ugly from a lot euphoric since last spring, when the Blackhawks were steaming toward their first championship in 50 years. Now, fingernails are chewed to the cuticles, for now nothing is guaranteed beyond Game 82.
The NHL last saw penthouse-to-outhouse with the Carolina Hurricanes, who bowed out before the 2007 postseason only 10 months after their victory parade.
The Canadiens might have felt for the Blackhawks Tuesday if they weren?t still locked in a playoff chase of their own, needing two points in their final three games to nail down a postseason berth.
They earned the precious pair before a delirious Bell Centre crowd with a 2-1 overtime victory over Chicago, though don?t expect their Eastern Conference seeding and opponent to be known before the weekend.
Only once in their century have the Canadiens won the Cup then not seen playoff ice the following year. That was in 1969-70, the season after Montreal had won its fourth title in five years. But the Habs roared back to capture the Cup again in 1970-71, the first of six titles they?d win that decade.
The Blackhawks have the champ-to-chump blemish on their record, too, Cup champions in 1937-38 who bottomed out in ?38-39. In all, Elias Sports charts seven such instances since 1926-27, when the NHL took exclusive control of the Stanley Cup.
None of today?s Canadiens was drawing a breath 41 years ago Tuesday night when the Blackhawks dealt the Habs a fatal blow on April 5, 1970, in their 76th and final game of the 12-team NHL season of 1969-70.
It was a bizarre match for the ages, the Canadiens needing a tie or at least five goals against the Blackhawks at Chicago Stadium to beat out the New York Rangers for the East Division?s fourth and final playoff berth.
Down 5-2 midway through the third period, Canadiens head coach Claude Ruel had no choice but to put goalie Rogie Vachon on a string and pull him to the bench over and over in a final 10 minutes that was equal parts comedy and tragedy.
Chicago scored five times into an empty Montreal net for a 10-2 win.
The Canadiens and Rangers finished with identical 38-22-16 records, but New York advanced on the tiebreaker, having scored 246 goals to the Habs? 244.
That afternoon in New York, the Rangers had bombed Detroit?s Roger Crozier with 65 shots for a 9-5 win. The Red Wings, with only 22 shots on Eddie Giacomin, had clinched a playoff berth the previous night with a 6-2 thumping of the Rangers.
Conspiracy theories flowed from the Canadiens and their fans.
?We can?t blame Detroit for our problems, but they didn?t work at all,? a disgusted Ruel said.
Added Canadiens forward Mickey Redmond: ?If you can?t make the playoffs in 75 games, you can?t expect another team to help you. But (Detroit) didn?t have to lay down and die.?
In the end, Chicago swept the Red Wings in a quarterfinal but lost a semi in four to Boston, who then swept St. Louis in the Cup final.
In the Blackhawks net that 10-2 night, and 24 hours earlier in Montreal for a 4-1 Chicago victory, was future Hall of Famer Tony Esposito, who that season would win both the Calder Trophy as the league?s top rookie and V?zina as its best goaler.
With the final game still close, Tony O made a stunning glove stop on Jean B?liveau, then took an Henri Richard blast off his head before Chicago pulled away.
Crazily, the final shots were 37 apiece.
?I?ve never heard a game so loud,? Esposito said Tuesday from his Florida home. ?It seemed every time we touched the puck, we were headed for an open net. The only thing nice about it was that, after a couple of goals, the pressure on us to win was off.
?We let them shoot from the outside, from 35 or 40 feet, and we kept the box tight. They kept firing and sooner or later, we?d get ahold of it and everybody would go crazy.
?When it looked like they were going to lose, they had to pull their goalie. In that situation, what?s the difference if you lose 5-2 or 10-2? I?ll remember the game forever because I never could have dreamed of playing in something like that.?
Esposito, 67, has been impressed with the play of Chicago goalie Corey Crawford, a four-season minor-leaguer who became an impact player this year with the Blackhawks.
And he?s been dazzled with the rebound season of Canadiens netminder Carey Price.
?He?s played well, boy,? Esposito said of Price. ?He makes it look easy. When I was playing my best games, I made the saves look easy. When a goalie?s doing that, he?s right on top of his game.?
Esposito is headed up to Chicago this weekend for the Blackhawks? final scheduled game, a Sunday matin?e against a Red Wings team he doesn?t suspect will roll over as it might have 41 years ago to help oust the Canadiens.
?I just hope,? he said, chuckling, ?that it?s a happy weekend.?
Read more: montrealgazette.com/
