October 31 is not just a night for trick-or-treaters, but also a birthday for a few Habs player both past and present.
A Happy 50th Birthday to former Canadiens great Mats Naslund.
The cup-winning winger, dubbed “The Little Viking”, ranks 11th in career points with 612 in 617 regular season games.
Naslund was also a member of the Canadiens 1985-86 Stanley Cup winning team and won the Lady Byng Trophy in 1987-88.
Already as star player in Sweden, before joining the Canadiens, he is in the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Hall of Fame.
Former center Phil Goyette turns 76 years old.
Goyette played in seven seasons with Montreal (1956-63), playing on the last four of the Canadiens five straight Stanley Cup teams.
He played nine more seasons in the NHL, amassing 674 points in 941 games.
Current Canadiens center Tomas Plekanec turns 27.
Plekanec is having a great start to the 2009-10 season with 10 points in his first thirteen games.
Hopefully Pleky can celebrate tonight by lighting up the Maple Leafs!
and most importantly…
Though no longer with us, one of the Montreal Canadiens first superstars was born on this day in 1887.
Edouard “Newsy” Lalonde was a member of the Canadiens in their first season (1909-10) and scored 16 goals in just six games.
He would be a member of Montreal’s first Stanley Cup winning team (1915-16), and was captain on three occasions.
He was a player-coach for seven seasons (1915-22).
After retiring as a player in 1928, he returned to Montreal four years later as the team’s bench boss for two full seasons and part of a third.
Lalonde was elected to the Hockey Hall Of Fame in 1950.
Posts
1 comment:
Kevin - what a great idea for a thread. I really enjoyed looking back at some of these great players, despite the nature of this frightful, horror filled day.
Post a Comment