Habs And Hawks Always A Special Game

by Robert L on Oct 29, 2009 11:40 PM EDT Comment 18 comments

Once a year will never be enough!

Each season, one game that is always of particular interest to me is the lone Canadiens / Blackhawks tilt on the schedule. While the Habs get to play the Leafs and Bruins a half dozen times a season, and play another 4 times against the Rangers, games against Detroit and Chicago, two great old time Original Six rivals, are too few and far between.

One just doesn't do it.

While it can never be the same again, I'm in that group of fans that thought a 21 team league seemed a perfect balance. There were 20 opponents for every club, four games against each, two home and two away. Everything was even.

Players played against the same foes the same number of times as other players, and the scoring race was always fair. There's was no such thought of an elite player getting 12 to 16 games against some deadbeat club to powder their stats. The same thing went for teams, as every club played the elite and the weak equally and when it came to playoff time, the good teams tended to hang around longer with the 1 against 16, 2 against 15 format.

There's was none of this manufactured parity bullshit of today that promoted anti-hockey skills such as traps and stuff.

Ah the good old days!

Last season, the Canadiens and Hawks met in Montreal on March 31 and the game resulted in 4-1 win for the Habs. Chicago were a strong club on the rise last season, while Montreal were spitting oil. Guillaume Latendresse, Alex Kovalev, Andrei Markov and Mathieu Schneider scored for Montreal and Carey Price, who gets the start tonight, stopped 28 of 29 shots and was the game's first star. A repeat performace from Price would be sweet!

A recap of last season's game is available here from NHL.com.

Part of the reason I love Blackhawks games so much has alot to do with the 1971 and 1973 Cup finals that were battled out between the clubs. Anyone recalling either knows they were classics.

As this meeting is the sole date between the Habs and Hawks this season, this is the only opportunity I'll have to run by the 2 audio clips from games One and Six of th 1973 final that were posted here last season.

The links to the audio are contained within the three posts below.

I hope you enjoy them.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Canadiens vs Blackhawks coverage

Second City Hockey

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I played a round of golf with Bobby Hull in a charity golf tournament a few years ago. It was one of the best times of my life in terms of entertainment and laughter. Hull wasn’t very tall (nor am I), but he was built like a Sherman tank. Very open and jovial, with sense of pretense whatsoever. Couldn’t play golf worth a damn (nor can I)! I still consider him one of the top ten players of all time.

Chicago has a fabulous collection of young players. Unwise UFA salary signings and the uncertain play of Huet will keep them from winning the Cup in the near future. The team is closing in on 50 years of futility.

by 24 Cups on Oct 30, 2009 7:33 AM EDT reply actions

Blake Hull, Bobby’s second oldest son billetted a block away and went to the same high school as I. He wasn’t much of a hockey player, but he was a riot in marketing class. A total class clown all the way.

by Robert L on Oct 30, 2009 7:39 AM EDT up reply actions

Robert – that should read “with no sense”

by 24 Cups on Oct 30, 2009 10:43 AM EDT up reply actions

If the Canadiens face Cristobal Huet tonight, it won’t be the first time they face a former Habs goalie. Of course, in the seventies they always faced Tony Esposito who was briefly part of the Canadiens. I always enjoyed seeing Esposito play goal…

by Francis B. on Oct 30, 2009 10:01 AM EDT reply actions

Habs and Hawks

Robert,
Love your site. The 1971 Stanley Cup Playoffs are still, for me, and not just as a Canadiens fan, the greatest of my lifetime. Seven games versus the Mighty Bruins. Seven games versus the Hawks. I know that, like your West Coast friend, I taped (on an old-fashioned cassette recorder, both of those two memorable Game 7s. Whether the tapes are still somewhere to be found in my mother’s attic, I know not, but I intend to look for them next month when I go down for a visit. I can still see, in my mind’s eye, Pappin’s point blank shot at the end of the third period in Chicago. Dryden with the mighty leg kick. The best ever.

by JohninOssining on Oct 30, 2009 10:18 AM EDT reply actions

Habs and Hawks II

Why on earth weren’t those two games included in the Canadiens DVD sets? Surely either CBC or CBS has the tapes. It’s a very uneven set, in my opinion. While I love the late ’70s Canadiens games (Bruins and Russians), I scratch my head when I think of some of the other inclusions. Why or why, I ask myself, did they include THAT?

In contrast, I love the old-time B&W Third Period of Game 7 versus Hawks in the Game 7 Stanley Cup Final DVD set. But why just the Third Period? The young Danny Gallivan was superb way back then.

by JohninOssining on Oct 30, 2009 10:24 AM EDT reply actions

I’m sorry but what b&w third period of game 7 are you refering to? And on what DVD set is that period on?

by Francis B. on Oct 30, 2009 11:37 AM EDT reply actions

I think I get it now. You are probably referring to the DVD The Forgotten Champs wich show the 3rd period of game 7 of the 1961 final between the Red Wings and Black Hawks. If it’s that you are refering too, they probably show only the 3rd period because that’s all that was saved. As for the 71 and 73 cup finals, apparently no games have been preserved of these finals or they have not been found yet..Unfortunately. There are only hi-lites…

by Francis B. on Oct 30, 2009 11:47 AM EDT reply actions

Habs and Hawks III

No, actually, it’s Game 7 of the 1965 Finals between Canadiens and Hawks at the Forum (May 1, 1965), included in the NHL “Game 7 Collection.” Gump Worsley versus Glenn Hall. The real treat, for me at least, was to see the play of the Canadiens checking line—Henri Richard, Claude Provost and Red Berenson (on left wing). Talk about blanketing the opposition! Richard and Berenson were flying, and Provost was all over Bobby Hull. The reason I bought the “Game 7 Collection” was the tease that Game 7 of the 1971 Finals was included. It is, for all of about 5 minutes, maybe. That part is strictly highlights. But, oddly enough, there’s this marvelous Third Period from 1965. I’d pay the money for that alone.

by JohninOssining on Oct 30, 2009 1:53 PM EDT reply actions

Thanks. I didn’t know about that set. The complete 65 Finals game 7 is available. I just saw it recently shown on NHL Network or ESPN classic Canada.
About the 71 ffinals, game 7, I’ve seen hi-lites in color with Danny Gallivan doing the play by play on a 1980’s Molstar tape called Great Plays from Great Games. Could you tell me if the short hi-lites of game 7 on that DVD are from a televised broadcast with Danny Gallivan calling the play or perhaps from an NHL film with voice over?

by Francis B. on Oct 30, 2009 2:03 PM EDT reply actions

71 Finals

Alas, not the blessed Danny; but an exceptionally poor NHL HIghlight color film (with period-piece music) narrated by the longtime NY Ranger announcer, Jim Gordon, never a fave of mine. I just put it on the DVD player, and it doesn’t even run 5 minutes, but barely 2 and, incredibly, doesn’t include Dryden’s fantastic last minute save on Pappin. It does include the famous Lemaire slapshot from his own blue line—boy, did he wind up for that one!—and the Cup winning goal, just as I remembered it, with Henri Richard turning Keith Magnuson, to the point that he fell onto the ice and watched openmouthed as Richard put the puck past Espo. Otherwise, a keenly disappointing tease.

by JohninOssining on Oct 30, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Thanks for the info. So I won’t bother buying the set then. Please let us know if you find the audio of those 71 Habs playoffs, games 7. There’s fans here who are quite interested in this!

by Francis B. on Oct 30, 2009 2:51 PM EDT reply actions

Missing Classic Games

For more on this subject, and why so many great games from the early 70’s are missing,
see Robert’s post dated Sept. 28, 2008, and additional links at that post. It’s a real shame.

by Phil L on Nov 1, 2009 6:13 PM EST reply actions