Denis Savard Reminisces 1993 Stanley Cup Victory

Current generation of fans either sit in envy or are just plain annoyed to have to listen to the stories of old. It is how it is. It’s been 29 years since not just the last time the Montreal Canadiens hoisted the Stanley Cup, but since a Canadian team won the Cup at all.

Next season will be three decades. Let that sink in for one moment.

Many of you reading this are were children the last time the Habs hoisted Lord Stanley’s illustrious trophy. Some of you are grandparents today. Some of you weren’t even born!

For Denis Savard though, he remembers it as if it were yesterday. The Pointe Gatineau, QC native was traded from the Chicago Blackhawks to the Canadiens on June 29th 1990 in return for Chris Chelios and a second round pick.

The trade made no sense at the time. Chelios, already a Norris Trophy winner and who was co-captain of the Canadiens along with Guy Carbonneau at the time, was booted out of Montreal for a myriad of inappropriate rumored reasons that we’re not going to get into. In return, an already declining Savard, but one that still had the fire to play and a natural born leader.

Fans were happy to bring in a local and exciting player in Savard. The media however, questioned why the Canadiens would ship out a Norris Trophy winner in return for yet another diminutive forward with knee issues who’s best years seemed behind him.

A narrative that seems all too familiar 30 years later.

The Hall of Famer who spent three seasons with Montreal sat down with Guy Giles from Betway Insider and still remembers the emotions from the last Stanley Cup victory vividly.

“When I talk about it now, I still have goosebumps,” he says. “It’s an amazing feeling. Especially being a kid that grew up in Montreal.“Just to lift it – and it’s heavy, believe me. It’s the ultimate goal for any player to get to the final buzzer and to raise it up. It’s something that can never be taken away from you and something that as I watch the playoffs right now, it brings back a lot of great memories.“That whole time, that whole summer was just incredible, just crazy. There were a lot of parties, I won’t lie to you, but rightly so. You can’t duplicate that, you can’t make that up.”

Since 1993, a Canadian team went to the Stanley Cup finals a grand total of six times. The Canucks fell the Rangers in 7 games in 1994 in the now famous “guaranteed victory” by Mark Messier.

It then took until 2004 to see the Calgary Flames make it to the finals in the first of three consecutive seasons where a Canadian team had a chance to hoist the Stanley Cup. The Flames lost in 7 games to the Lightning in ’04, the Oilers lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, also in 7 games, in 2006, and the Ottawa Senator lost in 5 games to the Anaheim Ducks in 2007.

There was no Stanley Cup winner in 2005 due to the lockout.

The Vancouver Canucks once again came oh-so-close in 2011 when they once again lost in seven games this time to the Boston Bruins. The series created a rivalry so heated that the mere mention of this series to any Canucks fan fuels strong emotions even over a decade later.

Then of course, finally, we all remember our Canadiens’ Cinderella run to the Stanley cup finals in 2021 where they fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 5 games.

To Savard however, he isn’t worried. He strongly believes the Stanley Cup will return to Canada and soon too.

“Toronto is not far off, they possibly could do it next year, or in the next two, three years. They have a great leader and a great player in Matthews, and a bunch of other stars.“The best player in the world, Connor McDavid, is with the Edmonton Oilers and, sooner or later, if they surround him, they get him more help, there’s a chance that they could go on and win a few Cups in a row. That’s how good he is.”

He also adds that although there has been expansion and rule changes and salary caps which has created parity throughout the league, all additions that he is a fan of, the Canadian drought won’t last.

“Canada’s the game. Hockey is our game,” he says. “I don’t think it’s ever going away. Ever. Sooner or later, it’s going to happen.“You look at all the Canadian teams right now, Edmonton is close, Calgary’s close, Toronto is very, very capable of winning it in the next two or three years. I think they’ve learned a lot over the last two years. It’s a learning process.“I don’t think [the drought] is going to hurt our game at all. As long as the teams stay competitive, which they will, we’re going to be fine.”

Us older fans might grunt and scowl at the idea of our neighbors west of the Trans-Canadian Highway winning the Stanley Cup while we’re still alive and paying our taxes, but the younger generation seem ok as long as any Canadian team wins hockey’s Holy Grail.

What say you hockey fans? Who’s the next Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup?

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