Tops on Ice

It was almost like the old days when Howie Morenz roamed the ice, and the loyal hockey fans, who called themselves les millionaires, sat in the Montreal Forum's cheap seats, wearing white woolen caps, drinking whiskey blanc and chanting piously, "Les Canadiens sont l`a" (The Canadiens are right in there). Now the cheap seats had gone and with them les millionaires, but Montreal showed last week that it still knew how to encourage its heroes.

Les Canadiens were tied with the New York Rangers, 0-0. During a melee around the Ranger cage, in slid the puck. But the goal was disallowed; the referee had blown his siffleur (whistle). "Sacre maudit!" (damn it all) groaned the fans, holding their heads in agony. Cried one to the referee: "Gros jambon, tu pues!" (you big ham, you stink).

Between periods, the organ lustily pumped out a chorus or two of Alouette. That seemed to inspire Les Canadiens. With two minutes to go, Forward Buddy O'Connor lashed in the winning goal. In Manhattan next night, Les Canadiens brought their local color along. While winning again and clinching first place, they engaged in Madison Square Garden's liveliest hockey riot in many a year (partial score: three misconduct penalties, an obstreperous fan's bald pate creased).

With one week of play left, the teams in the National Hockey League ranked, roughly, in the order of their distance from the North Pole: Montreal, Toronto, Boston, Detroit, New York, Chicago. Next week the top four will meet in the profitable (up to $2,000 bonus per player) but anticlimactic Stanley Cup playoffs. Whether or not they keep the Cup, Les Canadiens are the icemen of the year. By clinching the regular-season top spot for four consecutive years, they have won a position comparable to that of baseball's New York Yankees of the 1930s.

Tribute from Toronto. Silver-haired Dick Irvin, le coach of Les Canadiens for the past six years, is not modest about them. He calls them "the greatest ice hockey team the world has ever seen." From Conn Smythe, rough-&-tumble manager of the rival Toronto Maple Leafs, recently came a less biased tribute: his all-star sextet had five of Les Canadiens on it. Most of their players were homegrown kids who learned the game on Montreal's frozen ponds.

Les Canadiens get their punch from the "punch line" composed of Maurice Richard (TIME, Mar. 3), Toe Blake and Elmer Lach (out for the rest of this season with a fractured skull). Ten years ago Blake was a leading tenant of what Montrealers call le penitencier (penalty box). But last year, a reformed character, he won the Lady Byng Clean Play Trophy.

A bulwark on defense is Goalie Bill Durnan, practically assured of his fourth straight Vezina Trophy (for the goalie who averages the least goals per game). Last year he blocked all but 104 shots in 40 games. In front of Durnan is Les Canadiens' "bachelor defense"--rocklike Emile ("Butch") Bouchard, 26, an offseason beekeeper, and fiery Irishman Kenny Reardon, 25. Bachelor Bouchard plans to marry at season's end. Bachelor Reardon is the confessed favorite player of figure-skating champion Barbara Ann Scott.

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