Canadiens: The Start of a Dark Age

Do you ever wonder what would have happened with the Canadiens if Mario Tremblay and Rejean Houle had never been hired as head coach and general manager?

December 2, 1995 was a night that would change the history of the Montreal Canadiens but not in a good way. The opponents were the Detroit Red Wings and the local team forgot to show up, throwing its goaltender, Patrick Roy, to the wolves in the process. 

Roy was there, he had the best possible view of the nine goals he let in before rookie coach Mario Tremblay finally pulled him. He only did it when his all-star goaltender was completely humiliated though, the man who had brought two Stanley Cups to Montreal had been booed and jeered. That night, something broke and if the coach was trying to "break" his goalie and show him who was the boss, he failed miserably. What he did break however was the Canadiens. 

When he made his way to the bench, Roy was livid and he wasted no time walking straight to team president Ronald Corey and telling him he had played his last game for the Tricolore. 

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCBWqwgbQ_0[/embed]

It only took a few days for rookie general manager Rejean "Pinotte" Houle to "fix the problem". On December 6, 1995 it was announced that the Colorado Avalanche was sending goaltender Jocelyn Thibault, forwards Andrei Kovalenko and Martin Rucinsky to the Canadiens for Patrick Roy and (because giving away your franchise goaltender isn't enough) captain Mike Keane. 

The trade return was underwhelming to say the least and Pinotte had sold two of his core players for peanuts, no offense to Thibault, Kovalenko and Rucinsky but they didn't amount to much. Years later, when Serge Savard wrote his book "Canadien jusqu'au bout" he explained that he was in talks with Colorado's general manager and Roy's former agent Pierre Lacroix to trade him the goaltender. The former GM's target was a different player, power forward Owen Nolan. Unfortunately, Corey decided to fire Savard and head coach Jacques Demers before the deal was made.

Lacroix had a keen eye for talent and had Roy on his radar even when he was a lanky teenager giving up five goals a game with the Granby Bison in the QJMHL. He became his agent and once he moved into a GM role with the Quebec Nordiques, the odds to pry his former client away from the old enemy were slim to none. Shortly thereafter however, they moved to Colorado and it became a real possibility.

It was probably a good thing for Lacroix that Savard was fired because it allowed him to acquire Sandis Ozolinsh for Nolan and Roy for three players who were by no means part of his core. The late GM made out like a bandit on the trade with Montreal and put his team on the express line for a championship.

Roy had a tough start to his career in Colorado, after 13 games he had a 6-6-1 record. Once he sat down with Lacroix and confessed he was worried about letting him down, the GM put his mind at ease and he was able to get back on track.

A few months later, the goaltender was lifting his third Stanley Cup and it was safe to say he hadn't let the GM down, far from it. Then, in 2001, Roy won his fourth and last Stanley Cup completing "Mission 16". Which is how the Avalanche players' called their quest to help long time NHLer Raymond Bourque finally win the Cup. 

Unsurprisingly, Colorado's goaltender was named as the Playoffs MVP. In the Final, he had surrendered 11 goals while Martin Brodeur from the Devils allowed 20 goals. To this day, Roy remains the only player to have won the Conn Smythe Trophy three times and the only one to win it with two different teams.

Meanwhile, in Montreal, Jocelyn Thibault only played part of four seasons with the Canadiens. He was unable to replace Roy, which was hardly surprising as he had been thrown in the very deep end without a life vest. Furthermore he had no idea how to swim in the sharks infested waters of Montreal. 

Rucinsky started his tenure in town with a bang, gathering 60 points in the 56 games he played with the Habs that year, giving him a total of 75 points on the season. He would never reach those numbers again however. Still, he was the best player Houle had gotten in the trade.

As for Kovalenko, he finished the season in Montreal picking up 34 points in 51 games and was then promptly traded to Edmonton before the start of the following season  for Scott Thornton. However, the Russian did have the honour of scoring the very last goal in the Montreal Forum when the Canadiens beat the Dallas Stars 4-1 to close the building, so I guess that's something. 

As for Mario Tremblay, the man who had lit the match that made the barrel of powder explode, he coached the Canadiens for a grand total of 159 games. Throughout his reign, he also coached Montreal in 11 playoffs games, winning only three for a success rate of .273. In other words, the Canadiens let the pride of a rookie coach lead to their breakup with Patrick Roy and the said coach had a very short shelf life. After being fired, Tremblay would never be hired as a head coach in the NHL again, he held assistant coaches positions, but always as Jacques Lemaire's understudy in Minnesota and New Jersey. 

Finally, Houle would stay in post as the Canadiens' general manager until November 20,2000 when he was fired. By then he had also traded marquee players such as Vincent Damphousse, Pierre Turgeon and Mark Recchi for questionable returns. The drafting during his regime also left a lot to be desired, he used his first round picks on Matt Higgings, Jason Ward, Eric Chouinard and Marcel Hossa. 

For me, this will forever be the worst trade not only in Canadiens' history but also a close second league wide to the Wayne Gretzky deal between the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings.