Montreal Canadiens

No visit to the home of the Montreal Canadiens would be complete without a look at Montreal's Stanley Cup and retired jersey number pennants. Although the quality of this photo isn't the greatest, it's still an impressive sight - TWENTY FOUR Stanley Cups! Wow!

Here's a closer and in-focus look at some of the Stanley Cup pennants and pennants commemorating retired jersey numbers. The full list of retired Montreal Canadiens numbers is: 1 - Jacques Plante 2 - Doug Harvey 4 - Jean Beliveau 7 - Howie Morenz 9 - Maurice Richard 10 - Guy Lafleur 16 - Elmer Lach and Henri Richard The Habs won the Stanley Cup in 1916, 1924, 1930, 1931, 1944, 1946, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960 (five in a row!), 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1986 and 1993! The next highest number of Stanley Cup wins by a team is 13 by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Note that the National Hockey League was formed in 1917 (i.e. after the first Montreal Stanley Cup win).

Here's some fast action down in the Montreal end with the Rangers trying to put something together (note Mark Messier in jersey #11).

Anyone who's watched a lot of hockey knows what just happened here . . .

Montreal scores! (click on the image if you can't find the puck in this photo)

Here's a faceoff down in the Montreal end. At this point in the game (near the end of the first period), I decided that I'd rather watch the game than take photographs so I put my camera away and "got into the action".

P.S. Although I was a Boston fan back in the days of twelve teams and I'm now an Oiler fan, I can't help but feel a certain sense of "awe" when I get a chance to watch the Canadiens in action (even though Stanley Cup number 25 isn't likely to happen anytime soon).