The Montreal Canadiens are one of the most successful teams in the NHL, with 24 Stanley Cup victories and stars like Guy LaFleur, Patrick Roy, and Carey Price, who have all left their mark on hockey history. Author Pat Hickey, as a longtime beat writer for the Montreal Gazette, has witnessed more than his fair share of that history up close and personal. Through singular anecdotes only Hickey can tell as well as conversations with current and past players, this book provides fans with a one-of-a-kind, insider's look into the great moments, the lowlights, and everything in between. Habs fans will not want to miss this book. Pat Hickey has chronicled the Montreal Canadiens' exploits over the past 25 years for the Montreal Gazette . He covered his first Canadiens game in 1968 for the now-defunct Montreal Star. If These Walls Could Talk: Montreal Canadiens Stories from the Montreal Canadiens Ice, Locker Room, and Press Box By Pat Hickey Triumph Books LLC Copyright © 2018 Pat Hickey All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-62937-520-5 Contents 1. The Good Ol' Days, 2. The Last Time, 3. Dashed Hopes, 4. Standing Out, 5. It's Only Money, 6. Playing with Pain, 7. Wheeling and Dealing, 8. Some Russian Tales, 9. Character, 10. Characters, 11. The Tough Guys, 12. The Men Behind the Bench, 13. Habs Behaving Badly, 14. On the Job, 15. Life after Hockey, 16. Footnotes, A Few Words of Thanks, CHAPTER 1 The Good Ol' Days When a player joins the Canadiens for the first time, he talks about how proud he is to be part of the most successful franchise in NHL history. He might have grown up cheering for the Maple Leafs, the Rangers, or the Oilers, but he talks about the thrill of putting on the iconic sweater with the CH logo for the first time. You overlook the fact the kid probably wasn't born when the Canadiens won the last of their record 24 Stanley Cups. The Canadiens haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1993. This is a long-standing cause for concern among the team's large and devoted fan base, particularly the partisans of a certain age who remember when Lord Stanley's gift to hockey took up semipermanent residence in Montreal. The Canadiens won the Cup fives times in the 1950s, five times in the 1960s, and six times in the 1970s. When legendary Mayor Jean Drapeau announced that "the parade would follow the usual route," nobody had to be reminded that a cavalcade of convertibles would transport the players and the Cup from City Hall and head west on Ste. Catherine Street before finally arriving at the Montreal Forum. Those decades were filled with magic names — — Richard, Béliveau, Lafleur, Robinson, Savard, Plante, Dryden. Twenty-seven players from those three eras would be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and you can also find coaches Toe Blake and Scotty Bowman enshrined there along with general managers Frank Selke and Sam Pollock and owner Hartland Molson. Those were simpler times, and everything fell into place for the Canadiens in that golden era. For starters, the odds of winning the Cup were better because there were fewer teams competing for the Cup. Seven of those Cups were won when the NHL consisted of six teams, and there were only two rounds of playoffs. There were never more than 18 teams in the Bowman era of the 1970s, and a successful playoff run meant winning 12 games, four fewer than today. There was no amateur draft when the Canadiens began their run. Teams were assigned territorial rights, and they developed players through junior and amateur senior teams, which they owned. Montreal had access to most of the top youngsters in Quebec and also developed players on junior teams in Peterborough, Ontario, and Regina. Jean Béliveau played for the Quebec Aces, a team in the Quebec Senior League. The Canadiens owned his professional rights but Béliveau was happy to remain in Quebec. The Aces were nominally an amateur team although he was well compensated for his efforts. The Canadiens solved the problem by buying the entire league and changing its designation to that of a professional league. There was no salary cap in those days, but the players didn't make a lot of money either. "You had to find something to do to tide you over in the summer," recalled Hall of Famer Dickie Moore, who owned a Dairy Queen franchise before launching a million-dollar business renting tools, heavy equipment, and construction trailers. Bobby Rousseau was a golf professional, and it wasn't unusual to find your favorite player working on the back of a Molson beer truck. Maurice (Rocket) Richard made $50,000 in his best season. That was good money in the 1950s, but if you combined Richard's total earnings with the Canadiens, it would be less than the current NHL minimum wage of $650,000. The draft was introduced in 1963, but the effects of the draft didn't catch up to the Canadiens until the 1980s. When the league expanded from six to 12 teams in 1969, Sam Pollock had a stockpile of playe