Graveyards are places of introspection and opportunities to discover the stories of those who rest there. Every year I travel around Canada, and in those travels I take the time to visit the resting place of those who trailblazed the path that we all travel on as fans of the Montreal Canadiens. In invoking our fandom, we should not only enjoy the present and the promise of the future, we should also pay respect to the past, and the people who made the Canadiens the most successful franchise of all time in any professional sport.
This year marks the third edition of this annual series, which is published on All Saint’s Day to match the premise of this series, a day to reflect and to give thanks to those who departed. This year takes on an especially personal meaning for me as I lost my father in February, and hence his memory will be among the ones I will be reflecting upon on November 1.
If you missed the previous editions of this series:
Graves of the Montreal Canadiens, pt. 1
Graves of the Montreal Canadiens, pt. 2
The Tragedy of 1919
“Bad” Joe Hall was already a feared defenceman when he joined the Canadiens for the first National Hockey League season in 1917. His famous clashes with the Canadiens’ Newsy Lalonde were described as “jungle brutality” in Maurice Richard’s book The Flying Frenchmen. It simply made sense to add Hall to the Canadiens roster to temper the frequent bloodshed. When the Quebec franchise folded prior to the 1917-18 season starting, the Canadiens pounced on the opportunity to bring Hall into the fold, ironically with Lalonde as his coach. Hall certainly did not slow down in his ways, getting arrested and charged with disorderly conduct following a stick-swinging duel against Toronto’s Alf Skinner that season.
Hall’s tale ended in tragedy in 1919 when he stumbled off of the ice during a Stanley Cup matchup against Seattle, and died six days later from a severe case of influenza, which affected plenty of players and caused the Stanley Cup series between the Canadiens and Seattle to be cancelled.
Hall is buried in Mountain View cemetery in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Legend and the Trivia Answer
The Chicoutimi Cucumber George Vézina doesn’t need an introduction. The legendary goaltender didn’t miss a single game from 1910 to 1926 when illness took a firm grip of him forcing him to stop playing. He would pass away a few months later from tuberculosis.
Vezina is of course the namesake for the trophy of the same name given to the best goaltender in the league every season, carrying on his legacy 100 years later. Vézina is buried in his hometown of Chicoutimi, at the Cimetière St-François-Xavier, located a block away from the Centre George-Vézina.
The name Herbert Rhéaume may not be commonly known in Canadiens lore, but the goaltender does occupy the infamous role of having to suddenly replace Vézina as goaltender of the Canadiens in 1926, after Vézina’s 14 seasons with the team. Rhéaume was called upon to step into impossible shoes, taking over from a franchise standard. He didn’t last very long in the role, as he only played for the Canadiens for the 1925-26 season, being replaced by George Hainsworth the following season. He didn’t play in the NHL again.
Rhéaume is buried at the Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby, British Columbia.
In the Shadow of a Legend
It wasn’t easy being Charlie Hodge. As a goaltender in the Canadiens organization during the late 1950s and 1960s, Hodge was constantly in the shadows of the great Jacques Plante who was one of the most iconic goaltenders in Canadiens history.
Hodge grew up through the Montreal system from the Junior Canadiens, to the Montreal Royals, to the IHL Cincinnati Mohawks, to the AHL Buffalo Bisons and Providence Reds. He eventually got his chance to be the minor league back-up for Plante from 1957-61 (teams only carried one goalie in those days), playing in a few NHL games in every of those seasons. When Plante was traded in 1963, Hodge was finally elevated to starting goaltender for the Canadiens, and subsequently earned two Vezina trophies for league’s best goaltender. By 1965 Lorne “Gump” Worsley emerged as the starter for the Canadiens pushing Hodge back to back-up, and finally with the arrival of Rogatien Vachon in 1966, Hodge was left unprotected by the Canadiens in the 1967 expansion draft and selected by the Oakland Seals, ending his 18-year association with the Canadiens organization.
Hodge is buried at the Langley Lawn Cemetery in Langley, British Columbia.
Riot Starter
Harold “Hal” Laycoe is probably another unfamiliar name for most, but he did play for four seasons with the Canadiens from 1947-51. Struggling to find consistent ice time on a deep Maurice Richard-led lineup, he was moved to the Boston Bruins in 1951, where he was fated to have a run-in with Richard in one of the most infamous incidents in Canadiens history, and perhaps even the NHL’s history. It was on March 13, 1955 where Laycoe high-sticked Richard in the head, setting off a series of escalating events that eventually unleashed what was dubbed the Richard Riot.
Laycoe retired as a player a season later, turning his attention to coaching where he would have a successful track record in the minor leagues, then found himself behind the bench in Los Angeles and Vancouver before earning four Stanley Cup rings with the New York Islanders as a scout.
Laycoe is buried at the Langley Lawn Cemetery in Langley, British Columbia.
Stratford’s Second Son
When Joffre Desilets was 18 years old growing up in Stratford, Ontario, he was dubbed as the next Howie Morenz. He took part in his first training camp with the Canadiens in 1933, and again in 1934. Leo Dandurand once called him the most promising amateur player in Canada. But Desilets was happy in amateur hockey and turned down contract offers from the Canadiens. Instead, he decided to go from Stratford juniors to play hockey in the Maritimes. Canadiens head coach Sylvio Mantha tried in vain to get Desilets to sign, so Mantha did the next best thing. Knowing from sources that Desilets had already arranged a deal to join the London Tecumsehs of the International Hockey League should the Martimes hockey league fold due to their dubious finances, Mantha made a deal to make them a Canadiens farm team. And so when Desilets did eventually join London, Mantha wasted no time recalling him to the NHL in December 1935, forcing Desilets’ hand. Desilets came in third place in Rookie of the Year voting that season with 13 points in 38 games.
But Desilets never lived up to the billing. Despite his excellent skating and blistering shot, he was deemed too soft on the puck and unwilling to get into physical situations. And so, at the start of his third pro season, 1937-38, he was sent to New Haven of the International-American Hockey League. He would eventually get recalled to Montreal, but his star had faded. He was traded in 1938 offseason to the Chicago Black Hawks. Ironically he shone with this new opportunity, especially when it came to playing against his old team.
Desilets is buried in Rosebank Cemetery in Renfrew, Ontario.
The Pioneer
Skene Ronan only played one season with the Canadiens, 1915-1916, but that one season culminated with the team’s first-ever Stanley Cup conquest. Prior to joining the Canadiens, Ronan was one of the first stars of the budding National Hockey Association, playing for Haileybury, Renfrew, Ottawa, and Toronto. Upon refusing to continue playing for Toronto’s controversial owner E.J. Livingstone, he was traded to the Canadiens in January 1916, and was promptly arrested for aggravated assault in his first game with the team for jabbing Toronto player Alf Skinner in the eye with the butt-end of his stick (back then “what happens on the ice stays on the ice” wasn’t a thing). He was eventually acquitted. In March, the Canadiens would defeat the Portland Rosebuds to win their first Stanley Cup in five games, with Ronan scoring the all-important first goal of the deciding game that the Canadiens would eventually go on to win 2-1.
He retired in 1918 to enlist in the Canadian military and traveled across the Atlantic to honourably serve during the Great War. Upon returning from Europe he briefly played for the Ottawa Senators before he began a successful career in automotive sales in Ottawa. At the time of his death at 51 in 1937, he was remembered as one of the best stick-handlers of all time.
Ronan is buried in Pinecrest Cemetery in Ottawa.
Billy vs. Billy
William “Billy” Bell joined the Canadiens in January 1918 when the Montreal Wanderers of the National Hockey Association ceased operations following the fire that burned down the Westmount Arena and all of the Wanderers and the Canadiens equipment, which was uninsured. Bell’s role was that of a substitute for Didier Pitre, and rarely got much playing time over the course of the next four seasons.
In January 1922 Bell was sent to the Ottawa Senators as compensation for them losing Sprague Cleghorn to the Hamilton Tigers in a messy league situation tied to the dissolution of the Wanderers, but Bell returned to the Canadiens in December 1922, staying until the Stanley Cup conquest of 1924 after which he retired as a player he became a referee. It was as referee that Bell perhaps had his most infamous moment during the 1927 Stanley Cup finals, as he was involved in the altercation with Boston defenceman Billy Coutu that got the latter banned for life from the NHL for tackling Bell to the ice in a shocking act of open aggression against a referee by a player.
Bell is buried at Lakeview Memorial Gardens in Pointe-Claire neighbourhood of Montréal.
The All-Star Defector
Jean-Claude Tremblay is a five-time Stanley Cup champion and seven-time NHL All-Star with the Canadiens, and in 1960, after proving himself, was bestowed the honour of wearing jersey number 3, out of circulation since Butch Bouchard retired in 1956. These are already impressive career highlights, however that’s not what Tremblay will be best remembered for. Tremblay’s biggest impact on professional hockey is probably being one of the first major defections from the NHL to the upstart World Hockey Association in 1972, becoming the first Québec Nordiques superstar. He was voted best defenceman in the WHA in 1973 and 1975, and helped the Nordiques win the AVCO Cup in 1977. He retired in 1979 and had his jersey retired by the Nordiques, who maintained the retirement when they moved to the NHL.
Tremblay is buried at the Cimetière St-Alphonse de La Baie in Saguenay, Québec.
The Voice
Rene Lecavalier was the first radio and television voice of the Canadiens, hosting the French-language version of Hockey Night in Canada, la Soirée du hockey. His famous calls “Il lance… et compte!” and “…Et c’est le but!” are synonymous with the French-language description of hockey, the majority of which he is credited with inventing. Terms like “mise en échec” and “baton élevé” were pioneered by Lecavalier. His career as a sports broadcaster spanned from 1956 to 1983, also acting at times as the master of ceremonies for pre-game events, such as the jersey retirement of Jean Béliveau in 1971.
Lecavalier is buried Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in his family burial plot.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord
