Season 15: 1990-91
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Season 15: 1990-91 |
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The Ritual
Excerpted
from Home
Game by Ken Dryden and Roy McGregor
In the Canadiens’ dressing room,
Carbonneau watches the clock and waits. One minute to go till
warmups. The Canadiens take their positions. Carbonneau stands
like a sentinel, his eyes fixed on the clock. Finally Roy stands
up, Carbonneau turns and taps the metal clothes rack above him
with his stick, then the bench in front of him, and the Canadiens’
ritual begins. Every word, every stick tap, every punch and slap
is part of the routine they need to win. The final trigger is
Roy. He moves toward the door, stops, crouches, and Brian Skrudland
slams both his pads hard with his stick. Backup goaltender Brian
Hayward moves up into Roy’s position, crouches, and Skrudland
does the same to him. The whole team now moves into action. The
players file by each other with taps and slaps and punches, in
different patterns for different people. Like the inner works
of some intricate machine, gears turn and interlock with other
gears, trip switches…Everyone has his place, everyone has
a role to play. Then the machine grinds to a halt. Naslund is
next but Naslund has his sweater half off, his gloves and stick
and helmet lie on the floor in front of him. Three of his teammates
stand and wait. Naslund quickly gathers up his things to finish
getting dressed on the ice. The machine cranks up again. Carbonneau
slips into line behind Naslund, then Rick Green. Ludwig is last.
Later, after warmups, back in the dressing room: Eight minutes
to show time. The energy of the room implodes in silence, then
explodes in sound and muscle-clenched bodies. The buzzer goes,
the rituals begin again. Carbonneau taps high and low, Skrudland
slams Roy’s pads, then Hayward’s, every punch and slap
just like before. Naslund is dressed this time but still he keeps
them waiting: Carbonneau, then Green, then Ludwig is last.
And finally, on the ice: Patrick Roy, his long neck
bobbing, moves to his net and begins roughing the crease area.
His teammates mill around, at random it seems. Yet just as in
the dressing room, for every period and every game, every move
is orchestrated. Carbonneau and Ludwig stand along the goal line
just outside the goal post to Roy’s right, Larry Robinson
to his left. With Roy they form a receiving line. Players move
in and out of the scene, tapping sticks and shin pads, punching
in their own personal way. Naslund comes late, as usual, and stand
about fifteen feet in front of the net facing Roy. From Roy’s
right, Chelios and Shane Corson enter the receiving line. Robinson,
to his left, looks around for Green to bump him from behind, which
he does, then like a domino, Robinson trips into action. Corson,
now through the receiving line from right to left, turns around
and joins Robinson, going back through the line. Robinson, finished,
turns up ice toward Naslund, who greets him, then swoops in on
Roy. This frees Ludwig from the goal line, then Carbonneau. Carbonneau
taps Roy on his leg pads, blocker, and arm and skates up the ice.
Their demons tamed, the Canadiens can get on with the game.
"I believe
that many hockey players are superstitious," Carbonneau told
Les Canadiens magazine. "The story of our ritual begins
in 1986. At that time Craig Ludwig wanted to be the last one to
go out on the ice. As for me, I would go just before him. Then,
gradually, all the players entered into the game. And since we
won the Stanley Cup that year, we decided to maintain the custom.
Today, I’m convinced it does a lot to affirm team spirit."
Of the group of Habs described by Ken Dryden, Carbonneau, Ludwig, and Skrudland were reunited on the Dallas Stars team that would win the 1999 Stanley Cup. The ritual moved with them from one team to the other, along with many of the values that made the Canadiens great. Particularly poignant to consider is a game halfway between those two seasons, the final game at the Montreal Forum, when the Stars and Canadiens performed the ritual under the same roof. Carbonneau and Ludwig can be seen standing to the goaltender's right, just as they did years before.
(Forum photo thanks
to Cindy Beck)
See also: 1991:
Our own Carbo appears on a comic book cover! (in our "Little
Known Facts" section)
Resources:
Les Canadiens, 1991-92, Issue #3
Ken Dryden and Roy MacGregor, Home Game, McClelland &
Stewart, 1989
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