THANKS for stopping by, I do my best to acknowledge when someone leaves a comment,you do not have to be a member here & everyone is welcome.
Ps: This site is monitored but not actively posting on a regular basis. Mostly these are stories & some photos saved from a defunct site known as Verdun Connections which was on MSN Groups initially then on a social network called Multiply.
Just a few random photos I've come across from years ago. I guess I saved these when doing searches for our old VC site.?
However here are some of the pics from the old Autostade. Some photos may appear in smaller format,just increase the size with your wheel mouse or zoomin in.
Just old memories I guess,
These young people are pretty cool,and the young guy from Winnipeg does a very nice job,recording video while walking around Verdun.
Thanks for doing that.Here is his video about Verdun,hope you appreciate his work.
The triumph of 1971: 50 years ago, the Habs shook the hockey world
The Montreal Canadiens were not expected to go far in the playoffs.
Their Stanley Cup win gave the city something to cheer about in
difficult times.
Author of the article:
Jack Todd • Special to Montreal Gazette
Publishing date:
May 15, 2021 • 2 hours ago • 7 minute read •
May
18, 1971: Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final between the Canadiens and the
Blackhawks ended in glory: Canadiens captain Jean Béliveau, left, Henri
Richard, top centre, with NHL commissioner Clarence Campbell in
Chicago.THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article content
Today, the scene is unimaginable in every detail.
It
was May 18, 1971, seven hours before the puck drop for Game 7 of the
Stanley Cup final between the Canadiens and the Blackhawks. Two men sat
chatting in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in Chicago. One had a
notebook, the other was smoking a pipe.
The triumph of 1971: 50 years ago, the Habs shook the hockey world
The
man with the notebook had sideburns as wide as his tie. He was the late
Ted Blackman, a Gazette columnist at the time. The man smoking the pipe
was Jean Béliveau — captain of the Canadiens, himself winner of nine
Stanley Cups and counting, arguably the most respected man in hockey.
Béliveau talked openly about the series and his own future. Would this near-miraculous playoff run be his swan song?
After
all, the Canadiens weren’t expected to be anywhere near where they
found themselves on that day in May. They were supposed to have been
sacrificial lambs for the mighty Boston Bruins of Bobby Orr and Phil
Esposito in the first round of the playoffs. By rights, they should have
been honing their golf games by now.
A team with a lesser
captain might have folded much earlier that season. The Canadiens were
still winding up their exhibition season on Oct. 5, 1970 when the
terrorist Front de libération du Québec kidnapped the British consul to
Montreal, James Cross, and made a lengthy list of demands for his
release, then kidnapped and murdered Quebec Justice Minister Pierre
Laporte.
There were military convoys all over the city and armed
soldiers on the corners on Ste-Catherine St. If the players somehow
managed to keep their heads through it all, it was in large part because
of the quiet presence of Béliveau. “What his presence meant to the
flock of youngsters on that club,” Blackman wrote, “cannot be fixed in
figures.”
Even so, the Canadiens season was supposed to have
ended in April. They had finished with 97 points, good for third in the
East, 24 points behind the Boston Bruins — their first-round opponent in
the playoffs.
When the playoffs began April 7, the Canadiens were given little or
no chance, even with rookie Ken Dryden in goal. The first game went
pretty much according to form, with Boston winning it, 3-1. Dryden was
superb, making 39 saves on 42 shots, but it wasn’t enough.
Going
into Game 2, Boston coach Tom Johnson made a fateful decision. Gerry
Cheevers had started Game 1 but the Bruins had rotated goalies all
season. Johnson went with Eddie Johnston for the second game.
The
Canadiens got off to a good start with Yvan Cournoyer scoring the
opening goal — but it was 2-1 Boston at the end of the first period and
in the second, the Bruins began piling it on as John McKenzie, Wayne
Cashman and Derek Sanderson scored to make it 5-1. Henri Richard got an
unassisted goal late in the period to make it 5-2 but it didn’t seem to
matter.
As the period ended, my friend John X. Cooper and I made our own
fateful decision. We decided to leave the glum Mountain St. tavern where
we were watching the game and head to the Esquire Show Bar on Stanley
St. to hear Buddy Guy. We caught the end of a set and waited for another
to begin, fiddling with our beers in the almost empty club. When the
musicians returned to the stage, Guy took the microphone and said,
“Congratulations, you Montreal fans. Your team won.”
We were
stunned. Early in the third period, Béliveau had scored twice to pull
the Canadiens within a goal at 5-4. Jacques Lemaire got the tying goal
at the 9:59 mark, John Ferguson put the Habs ahead with an assist from
Béliveau and Frank Mahovlich iced the cake with 1:20 left: Montreal 7,
Boston 5.
If they hadn’t known before, the Bruins did now: they were in a
dogfight. The Canadiens won Game 3, 3-1 at the Forum. The Bruins battled
back to take Game 4, 5-2, then crushed the Habs 7-3 back in Boston.
The 1971 championship marked a rebirth for the Montreal Canadiens.
Goalie Ken Dryden, seen here blocking Jim Pappin of the Blackhawks in
the finals, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP, marking his
ascendance as one of the league’s premier goaltenders.Canadian Press
The Canadiens returned the favour with an epic 8-3 beatdown at the
Forum on April 15, with Richard getting two goals, setting up a Game 7
at Boston Garden. Even the great Orr couldn’t save the doomed Bruins:
Frank Mahovlich scored twice, Dryden made 46 saves on 48 shots in a 4-2
win and mighty Boston was eliminated in the first round in one of the
great upsets in the history of the game.
After that stunning
feat, the semi-final series against the Minnesota North Stars didn’t
have the same appeal — it has faded from memory. The Canadiens won it,
four games to two, to set up a brilliant final against the Chicago
Blackhawks of Bobby and Dennis Hull and Stan Mikita, champions of the
West.
It was another series Montreal was supposed to lose. The Blackhawks
had taken a three-games-to-two lead in Game 5 in Chicago, when rookie
coach Al MacNeil, who had replaced Claude Ruel at mid-season, had
benched the fiery Henri Richard for a few shifts as he juggled lines.
Richard exploded. After the game, he called MacNeil “the worst coach I’ve ever played for.”
The
remarks roiled a city still recovering from the trauma of the October
Crisis. MacNeil received death threats and police had to take them
seriously. MacNeil was given police protection everywhere, 24 hours a
day for seven days — even behind the bench.
Richard would say
later that the incident had been blown out of all proportion. MacNeil,
for his part, never wanted to talk about it.
A team that had already been through so much was not to be distracted
by the incident or the police protection. MacNeil even had a cop behind
the bench with him as his team took Game 6 to set up that pivotal final
in Chicago, on the day Béliveau met Blackman with retirement on his
mind.
“It would be an easy decision to make if I was fed up with
it all,” Béliveau said. “But I still enjoy the practice, the travelling
with the fellows, the family atmosphere we have on our team. Nothing has
changed in my life in a year that would change the decision I made last
year to come back. One thing is different. I’ll be 40 at the end of
August. There comes a time. When is it? Does anyone know for sure?”
When the Stanley Cup parade was held along the usual route on
Ste-Catherine St., Montrealers were all linked for one sun-splashed May
afternoon, cheering on their heroes. Here, Henri Richard, front, and
Yvan Cournoyer ride in the same convertible. Photo from Montreal Gazette
files.
His GM had already said that
he didn’t believe his captain would step down. “He was the first at
practice, the last to leave,” said the brilliant Sam Pollock of
Béliveau’s season. “He had all the time for hockey. I don’t think Jean
has ever given a thought to retirement.”
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Article content
“I
almost made a decision to retire nine years ago when things were going
rough and that would have been a terrible mistake,” Béliveau told
Blackman. “When you retire, it’s for a long time. And when you stay, do
you know how long you can go? I don’t want to leave halfway through a
season or ever have the Canadiens carry me.”
No one, least of all
Béliveau himself, knew what would happen as the Canadiens took the ice
at Chicago Stadium that evening. They were facing an uphill battle:
Chicago was at home, and its stars, the Hull brothers and Mikita, could
match anything Montreal could throw at them. And their goalie, Tony
Esposito, was no Eddie Johnston.
The game started true to form,
with Dennis Hull putting Chicago up late in the first period. Danny
O’Shea made it 2-0 Blackhawks in the second period — but then came one
of the more glorious shots in the history of the game.
Canadiens centreman Lemaire took the puck in his own zone, skated to
centre ice, let rip a slapshot from 75 feet out — and beat Esposito. The
Canadiens were back in it and Richard would do the rest. First, he
pounced on an odd deflection off the base of the net to tie it at 2-2.
Late in the third period, he broke in alone past a falling Keith
Magnuson, sent Esposito the wrong way with a deke — and scored the
Stanley Cup winning goal.
When the parade was held along the
usual route (on Ste-Catherine St., heading east from the Forum),
Westmount matrons, wandering hippies, downtown businessmen and fiery
separatists were all linked, for one sun-splashed May afternoon, in
cheering on their heroes, who were notable for their pallid winter
complexions and the welts and bruises visible on their faces, necks and
forearms.
Today, the whole passing-the-torch business is mostly a marketing
gimmick — but the 1971 championship marked a renewal and rebirth. First,
Dryden won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the outstanding player in the
playoffs, marking his own ascendance as one of the league’s premier
goaltenders.
On June 9, MacNeil, faced with an untenable
situation, resigned — his resignation eclipsed by much bigger news:
Béliveau had made his decision. He was retiring. At the Queen Elizabeth
Hotel the following day, the Canadiens drafted Guy Lafleur with the No. 1
pick. Richard, the firebrand who had made it impossible for MacNeil to
remain as coach, was named captain and Scotty Bowman was hired to
replace MacNeil.
Just remembering Expo 67's American Pavilion with it's Apollo Spacecraft hanging from the roof of the geodesic dome ,and a lunar lander module on display the same type that would carry men on the moon two years later..........it was an incredible time ,we were lucky to see all that Expo 67 showcased for us. The world was changing for sure.
It's been a while since I posted anything,but it has also been a strange year for all of us. Hopefully more posts to come ,and maybe I will finally dig out some old external hd's that I think have a lot of the old photographs we shared years ago on the VC sites that culminated into this one. Cheers ! Les
This is an excerpt from the following website:
From the roof of the dome were suspended several actual Apollo and
Gemini capsules, models of weather and communications satellites
Before
the high rises, before the skyline we know and love today, Montréal
looked quite different. Let’s take a walk down memory lane, and revisit
our city in the 1960s.
Finally and end to a very strange year,goodbye and good riddance 2020
Happy New Year to all who surf by here,let's hope 2021 is a fantastic year for us all,
Cheers ! Everyone and Happy New Year to all of you,put out the old year and make the best of the new.Remember to appreciate your true family and friends.
I'm a ghost Living in a ghost town I'm a ghost Living in a ghost town
You can look for me But I can't be found You can search for me I had to go underground Life was so beautiful Then we all got locked down Feel a like ghost Living in a ghost town, yeah
Once this place was humming And the air was full of drumming The sound of cymbals crashing Glasses were all smashing Trumpets were all screaming Saxophones were blaring Nobody was caring if it's day or night
Whoa, oh, whoa, oh
I'm a ghost Living in a ghost town I'm going nowhere Shut up all alone
So much time to lose Just staring at my phone
Every night I am dreaming That you'll come and creep in my bed Please let this be over Not stuck in a world without end
When the pandemic hit, this southern Montreal
arrondissement was four days away from rolling out the tenth edition of
one of its biggest parties: the urban lumberjack and sugar-shack
festival Cabane Panache et Bois Rond. Instead, large banners announcing
the event were left to dangle above the cold, empty streets. But when
the time came for locals here to dust themselves off and go out again? Les Verdunoises did it with a massive display of local pride, making the most of the place they call home.
Crowds flocked as the main thoroughfare of Wellington Street was
pedestrianised, allowing comfy perusals of restaurants’ long,
street-side patios and independent retailers’ giant, summer-long outdoor
sales. The opening of Verdun’s new urban beach made it a destination
for people from across the city to escape blistering heatwaves. If a new
business arrived, it was embraced with open arms – and, amazingly, more
opened than closed. The street’s non-profit economic development
organisation invited local musicians to play hot jazz and performers to
put on dazzling marionette dances by day and by night. Even the street’s
public parking garage found space on its top floor for a responsible
open-air party spot.
If it wasn’t for masks, hand-sanitiser stations at every doorway and
folks staying two metres apart from one another, a visitor would never
have guessed that a pandemic was happening in the first place. Despite
renewed lockdown restrictions hitting the city in October, Verdun’s
continued rallying cry of local flavours, sights and sounds in the face
of uncertainty demonstrates how Montreal – and cities everywhere – can
and will get through this.—Jean-Pierre Karwacki, Time Out Montreal
