Todd Denault - The Greatest Game: The Montreal Canadiens, the Red Army, and the Night That Saved Hockey

PRAISE FOR

Jacques Plante:
The Man Who Changed the Face of Hockey

Jacques Plante was an innovator, a difference maker, and a different person, and this book has captured the essence of one of the greatest goaltenders ever. It is a fascinating read, meticulously researched, about a man who literally did change the face of hockey.

S COTT M ORRISON , hockey journalist, appears regularly on the Satellite Hot Stove feature on Hockey Night in Canada

A well-researched and thorough examination of the life of an extraordinarily talented hockey player and complex man.

A L S TRACHAN , regular panellist on Hockey Night in Canada and co-author of Don Cherrys Hockey Stories and Stuff

The Hockey Hall of Fame should have a room preserved for those very few who actually change the way the game is played. Bobby Orr would represent the defence, Wayne Gretzky the forwards and none other than Jacques Plante the goaltenders. This is a long-overdue examination of one of hockeys pivotal players and most colourful characters but Todd Denault has made the wait worthwhile.

R OY M ACGREGOR , Globe and Mail columnist and best-selling co-author of Home Game (written with Ken Dryden)

Denault draws a colourful picture of Plante as a true eccentric, an oddball who wouldnt flinch at the blur of a rubber disc heading at his face and then calmed his nerves by knitting toques in the dressing room.

Winnipeg Free Press

a complete, well-researched portrait of a complex man who truly did change the face of hockey and not just because he was the first goaltender to wear a facemask. The book is more than that. Plantes story is inextricably linked to the greatest era the Canadiens will know, the five straight Stanley Cups during the late 1950s.

Montreal Gazette

Denault does an amazing job with this biography, redefining the term exhaustive research in the process. After just a few pages into this book it was obvious Todd Denault had written an instant classic. I cannot recommend this book enough.

www.hockeybookreviews.com

While there are many sports books as anyone who delves into the subject will soon find out, Jacques Plante is a sports book like few others. Even those not enthusiastic about hockey will find this book hard to put down. It has the drama of a good mystery and the excitement of a thriller.

CM magazine

Copyright 2010 by Todd Denault

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency is an infringement of the copyright law.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Denault, Todd.
The greatest game : the Montreal Canadiens, the Red Army, and the night that saved hockey / Todd Denault.

eISBN: 978-0-7710-2637-9

1. Montreal Canadiens (Hockey team) History. 2. HC CSKA Moscow History. 3. Super Series (Hockey tournament) History. I. Title.

GV847.7.D45 2010 796.96266 C2010-901570-3

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporations Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

Published simultaneously in the United States of America by McClelland & Stewart Ltd., P.O. Box 1030, Plattsburgh, New York 12901

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010934189

McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
75 Sherbourne Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 2P9
www.mcclelland.com

v3.1

To the memory of my grandfather Ted Denault, who from the comfort of his own living room never missed a Montreal Canadiens game on the television right up until the very end, which came on the evening of December 31, 1975.

In a display of skill and sportsmanship rarely seen here in recent times, the Montreal Canadiens and the Central Red Army demonstrated to millions of Canadians that their national game reaches an art form when discipline and hard work take priority over mayhem. In recapturing their primacy as Canadas foremost sporting aggregation, the Canadiens did an incalculable favour for the youth of the nation with their exemplary conduct. It came when hockey was at its nadir, beset on all sides for its avarice, violence, and poor quality.

TIM BURKE , Montreal Gazette, January 2, 1976

The New Years Eve game is etched in my memory forever.

DANNY GALLIVAN

Montreal, Quebec, December 19, 1975. When it came to getting the best tickets for events at the Montreal Forum, Mike Boone was a seasoned veteran. The box office opened at half past nine each weekday morning and Boone knew how to time it perfectly so that he could be at the front of the line to score the best seats going for hot tickets such as concerts by Bob Dylan or the Rolling Stones.

From his experience of lineups past, Boone figured that this Friday morning would be no different, especially since the weather was biting cold. When he stepped outside his door, the wind lashed at his face, proving that the forecast of 24 degrees Celsius had not factored in the wind chill. But when he arrived at the Forum an hour and a half before the box office opened, he was dismayed to find the longest lineup hed ever seen.

In twelve days time, the Montreal Canadiens, the most successful franchise in the NHL, would play host to their Russian counterparts, the Central Red Army, the pre-eminent team in the Soviet Union. This first-ever encounter between the teams would be the key game in what was being promoted as the Super Series. The lengthening line of fans waiting in the freezing air that morning was testament to the anticipation the public held for this history-making matchup, to take place on New Years Eve.

Despite the unbearable cold, the line stretched along the face of the Forum, down Ste-Catherine Street, then north along the eastern side of the building. Boone counted at least one hundred people in line ahead of him and settled in for the long wait.

As a writer in the sports department, Boone could have asked his sports editor, the legendary Red Fisher, for complimentary tickets or media passes for the upcoming game. Fisher had spent the last two decades writing about all sports but had gained fame as the foremost English-language chronicler of the Montreal Canadiens. Like many other aspiring sports journalists, Boone had grown up reading and idolizing Fisher. Though Boone worked alongside the venerable editor, he felt intimidated in his presence. In his first year with the Star he couldnt recall a single conversation between them. And so the thought of approaching him for tickets was out of the question.

Instead, Boone chose to stand outside, in the bitter morning cold, waiting in the longest line of his experience. As uncomfortable as it might be to wait, the possibility of missing the upcoming New Years Eve game had never crossed Boones mind.