A Winning Habit
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This Week in Canadiens History: March 28th – April 3rd

By Joshua Rosa

Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin (92) skates during the warmup period before the game against the Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre. (Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports)
Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin (92) skates during the warmup period before the game against the Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre. (Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports) /
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On this week in Montreal Canadiens History: A plague, Guy Lafleur (duh), the first Stanley Cup win, Drouin, Pitlick and more!

March 28th

Happy Birthday Jonathan Drouin!

On this day, the year of our Lord 1995, Jonathan Drouin was born in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts Quebec.

Drouin had a monster career in the QMJHL with the Halifax Mooseheads, winning the Memorial Cup and CHL Player of the Year. All those accolades got him picked third overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The relationship between Drouin and Tampa wasn’t great, with Drouin refusing to report to the AHL when demoted and he was eventually traded to Montreal for former 9th overall draft pick Mikhail Sergachev.

Then GM Marc Bergevin hoped that Drouin would become the next French-Canadian superstar in Montreal, but lack of consistency and injuries have plagued Drouin’s time as a Canadiens. There’s one year left on his contract to turn it around.

Plante Puts an Exclamation Point on Career

On March 28th, 1973, Jacques Plante and the Boston Bruins beat the New York Rangers 6-3, powered by Phil Esposito’s 4 goals and a 26 save performance by Jacques Plante. It was Plante’s 437th and final win of his career.

Plante is best known for being an innovator of the goalie mask and his time as a Canadiens, but he had a long career afterwards. He played in Montreal full time from 1954 to 1963. He then played for the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins in the NHL. Plante also played with the Edmonton Oilers, but that was before they entered the NHL.

Roy Sets A Winning Record

Keeping with the theme of past Montreal Canadiens goalies setting records, Patrick Roy won his 506th career game (regular and postseason combined) as the Colorado Avalanche beat the L.A. Kings 7-2.

With that win, Roy became the most winningest goalie in NHL history. Roy would retire with 702 wins, 289 of them came with the Canadiens.

Roy would eventually be passed by Martin Brodeur for most career wins, who has 804, but Roy still has the most career playoff wins with 151.

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