the breezer's pre-beliveau trophy press conference to announce his retirement. now vancouver's matthew schneider is the only active 1993 cup champion Hab.
in the dark days, i did not boo the breezer. i do not heckle locals, but i sure did want to. the money wasn't important to me--the difference between $2 million and $4 million is not as great as it appears to be--but brisebois #43 made me so mad that if i Could possibly boo the habs, he would be the one. it was as if he was only playing half the game: he could pass the puck and shoot the puck, but he couldn't Get the puck and indeed often gave up the puck. but when hockey returned after the lockout, his salary became a problem to management and when he was released during the post-lockout mega-clearance window, i was less moved or nostalgic than when brian savage was traded. it was, in the end, a huge pity he signed that huge contract because we probably would have kept him otherwise, and he could have played his whole wishy-washy eighteen year career right here in the 514.
brisebois #71 was a player i appreciated more than brisebois #43. he did less but did it better, and was more accountable. when #43 appeared in paris when he was a scratch with the cold angers and baffles me even now, almost ten years later. i don't remember #71 upsetting me at all, possibly because he was almost never a regular player. when he dressed for only one playoff game in the spring of 2009 it was clear he had reached the end.
until his release to free-agency in 2005 brisebois #43 was the last remaining 1993 cup champion with the team--including management, organist, skaters and trainers. this departure is an important and historic juncture in the MTL organization, the exact point of disjunction between Nos Glorieux and the Bleu-blanc-rouge, the RBK spaceage jersey squad, the sexiest brand in hockey and the immortal legends of seasons past, when the past became more and more oblique and irrelevant and the future became more and more uncertain and unknowable.
in 1993, brisebois played with patrick roy & guy carbonneau and OTHERS, who had played in 1986 with bob gainey and larry robinson and OTHERS, who had played in 1976-1979 with guy lafleur and serge savard and yvan cournoyer and OTHERS who had played in 1967-71 with henri richard and jacques plante and OTHERS who had played in 1950-60 with jean beliveau and maurice the rocket richard who had played and so on and so on right back to Aurial Joliat and Howie Morenz, the continuity of championship remained intact right up until 2005, when it slowly began to unravel.
post-1993 pre-2005 brisebois shared the ice with (possible? ostensible?) future un-winners saku koivu, jose theodore & mike ribeiro, as well as imports tervor linden and sheldon souray and mark recchi, and countless others, unnamable and unimportant. some of these players went on to win the stanley cup--elsewhere, of course--and some didn't: is that our habs mojo working the recchi-tranding-deadline deal to carolina? shocker.
in 2004 brisebois #43 was the living, skating, dressing room link to XX hockey hall of famers. when he was gone, so too was that link. it can never be reconnected, and none like it will ever occur again.
there was hope though, in bob gainey and his first five-year plan, which looking back was more like a 5-year cocaine partyboy pogrom, a cleansing. a resetting of the clock. but the idea was certainly win the cup with the players we have.
in 2004 brisebois #43 "passed the torch" to top players and potential winners saku koivy, mike ribeiro, jose theodore, michael ryder, christopher higgins, sheldon souray, mike komisarek, alexi kovalev, steve begin, francis bouillon and andrei markov, who didn't play the next year and today 2009 only markov remains. if the habs do not win the stanley cup with markov, the link will be totally severed.
and it's a flimsy fake-link, a parlour game trivia nothingness, that markov and brisebois shared the ice in a habs sweater. to share the ice as cup champions is now impossible, and the only shreds of living legacy left are the cup prospects of the quietest russian en ville.
brisebois #71, however, (and schneider #24) while not exactly direct continuity of champion foreverness, also gives meager quarter-lives of sustained glory to many of our current roster, everyone left from last year. maybe this was the witchcraft gm bob gainey was up to when he brought beleaguered brisebois back from the rockies to the pleasure of almost everyone, at a contract no one would barf on, and traded for MS24 when the 2009 powerplay when to shit, to atleast infuse the youngsters with a taste of history before jetisoning the KKK + higgins old guard and plowing bravely into the future aloft from the unconquerable legacy around the logo.
bob gainey: blackmagik hockey sorcerer?
stay tuned.
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