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Montreal Canadiens News and Rumors

The Montreal Canadiens play in the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference.

The club is officially known as Le Club de Hockey Canadien.

The nickname “The Habs” refers to early french settlers called habitants, the pioneers who settled in 1608 near the spot that would become Quebec city.

The Montreal Canadiens were founded in 1909, by J. Ambrose O’ Brian. The Canadiens are the oldest continuously operating professional ice hockey team and the only continuously operating club to predate the founding of the NHL.

The franchise is one of the “Original Six” teams, a description used for teams that were part of the NHL from 1942 until the 1967 NHL Expansion in 1967. With the departure of the Quebec Nordiques in 1995, the Canadiens are the sole NHL team in Quebec.

The Canadiens have won 24 ”Stanley Cups” (including their first in 1916, before the NHL existed), more than any other team. On a percentage basis, as of 2008, the franchise has won 26% of all Stanley Cup championships contested after the Challenge cup era, making it one of the most successful professional sports teams of the traditional four major sports of Canada and the United States.

The Canadiens currently play at the Bell Center (changed from the Molson Center in 2003) but most hockey fans associate the Habs with the Montreal Forum. They played for 7 decades in the Montreal Forum and won all but their first 2 Stanley Cups there.

The Montreal Canadiens won 10 Cups in 15 years from 1965 to 1979, with four straight from 1976 to 1979. In the 1976-77 season, the Canadiens set a modern-day record with a 72 wins and 8 loses season. They are also the only team to reach 3000 wins in NHL history.

The last Stanley cup won by the Canadiens came in 1993, but haven’t been able to get past the second round since. If they have aspirations of getting deeper in the playoffs this year, they’ll need young star goaltender Carey Price to return to form from his rookie year and a more consistent effort from their offensive star Alex Kovalev.