Habs honour greats Elmer Lach and Dollard St. Laurent, RIP

Poor Len here. Dave Stubbs, of the Montreal Gazette, thinks I am racist, because I have no time for P.K. Subban, who Mr. Stubbs maintains is "transcendant". He is wrong about Subban, and wrong about me. I am not a racist, just a realist.

However, Mr. Stubbs is quite correct when he writes, today, that "No one does history better than the Canadiens, in part because theirs is so rich; no one does these farewells more elegantly, in part because the Habs sadly have too much experience recognizing their lost heroes."

He was referring to memorial moments planned by Canada's team for former players Elmer Lach and Dollard St. Laurent, both of whom passed away earlier this week. Sadly, the pre-game tributes planned for Thursday night were nixed by the National Hockey League (New York lawyer G. Bettman, Prop.) because they would take up too much time, in a game of great importance to at least one of the competing teams.

The magnanimous Mr. Bettman allowed the Habs two (2) minutes before the national anthems in which to say a few words. Very few, since it works out to one minute for each of the departed. But the Canadiens' management didn't let their lovingly prepared video tribute to Elmer Lach go to waste. It was screened during the first intermission, and posted on the team's website. Ed. was unable to get to the embed code to work [Désolé. Ed.] so click here to see it.

Elmer Lach played for les Glorieux from 1940 to 1954. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living member of the NHL as well as the Hockey Hall of Fame. When Mr. Lach's was born, the NHL itself had been in existence for a mere 57 days, and the Montréal Canadiens for some eight years.

Mr. Stubbs calls Dollard St. Laurent "a template for the blue-line pillars of his Original Six era, part of the bedrock of the Canadiens’ glorious clubs of the 1950s and a beloved member of the hockey community long after he’d hung up his skates." He was all of that, for sure, and also a model stay-at-home defenceman, the kind who (unlike certain present-day players who shall remain nameless) could be counted on to play his position and put the team ahead of himself.

CONGRATULATORY FOOTNOTES: A tip of Len's toque to:
Carey Price, the best goalie in the world, who won his 43rd game last night, breaking the old club record shared by Jacques Plante and Ken Dryden, and
Habs coach Michel Thérrien, inducted this week into the Québec Major Junior Hockey League Hall of Fame, and
Carey Price (again) for winning, for the fifth time in a row, the Molson Cup, awarded to the player most often selected as one of the three stars of the game, and
Dale Weise, winner of the Jacques Beauchamp Trophy as the team's "fourth star" -- the unsung hero.
Ils ont gagné leurs épaulettes!