There are people in sports who have the ability to command respect well beyond traditional team rivalries. Baseball has men like Joe Torre. Basketball has Magic Johnson. In hockey, Serge Savard is such a man.
Many people grow to become leaders over time, or through the demands thrust upon them by circumstance. Some people were just born with a natural ability to lead and inspire, in much the same way that some hockey players were born with the ability to score goals. Hockey Hall of Famer Serge Savard is one of those rare individuals whose very presence seems get everyone around him to try a little harder, play with a little more confidence, and ultimately, win.
It's no secret to those who know me that I've never been a dyed in the red, white, and blue Montreal Canadiens fan. Au contraire, I've been fairly vocal about the fact that I'm not a disciple of Les Glorieux. But Serge Savard, is a different story. Rewind 40 years...
In the fall of 1972, Team Canada played an epic hockey series that pitted them against the hated USSR. For years the Russians had dominated hockey at the Olympic and World Championships level. The reason for this dominance was the absence of our top professional players at these competitions that were deemed "for amateurs only".
This series was supposed to be a cake walk. Eight straight wins, eight straight easy wins, was the prevailing opinion. History tells us that what ended up happening was quite different altogether.
It started with a 7-3 loss in Montreal that left the fans stunned. Surely it was just a bad dream. Surely Team Canada would bounce back and take all of the remaining games. Well not exactly. Things got so bad that at the end of the Game 4 loss in Vancouver, fans were actually booing Team Canada. Think about that... Team Canada booed off its own rink.
It was as if everything we had grown up to believe up to that point was one giant lie. My world, all of our worlds, seemed to be crumbling around us.
Well we all know the story now. Team Canada dropped the first game back in Moscow, but roared back to win the last 3 games to take the series 4-3-1.
We remember the exploits of Henderson, Cournoyer, and Esposito, to be sure. But it is also very telling that Team Canada never lost a game in that series when Serge Savard was in the lineup. A fact that was not lost on his teammates who were unanimous in stating that when Savard was in the lineup they all felt just that little extra confidence, that belief that, in the end, everything was going to be alright.
So that would be the first reason why I respect Serge Savard. Anyone who pulls on the Team Canada sweater and performs like he did, is bound to be good in my books, no matter what NHL team he plays for.
The second reason I respect Serge Savard is that he has been very, very good for the development of hockey in Quebec. Which by extension is good for Canadian hockey, and hockey in general.
It's no secret that the game of hockey is going through some very difficult times in Quebec at the minor level. Less and less kids are playing the game. Only 100,000 or so are registered in leagues this season. A quick check of NHL rosters last December revealed that there are more NHLers who hail from the state of Minnesota that do from Quebec.The number of QMJHL players drafted by NHL clubs is also in constant decline.
A few years ago, Quebec boys dreamed of becoming the next Richard, Beliveau, or Lafleur. Today they dream of becoming Alex Harvey, Mikael Kingsbury, or Alexandre Despaties. Fine athletes to be sure, but not hockey players.
Don't believe in the effect that having a homegrown hockey hero has on the long term development of players? Think Patrick Roy. During the time that he was arguably the best goalie in the game, he inspired many of Quebec's best young athletes to become goalies, the result being that a generation of top notch NHL goaltenders have hailed from La Belle Province.
Serge Savard made no secret of the fact that part of the role of the Montreal Canadiens was to nurture, encourage, and develop home grown talent. His teams not only counted on star players from Quebec such as Roy, but he also filled his roster with players such as Sergio Momesso, Gaston Gingras, Serge Boisvert, Stephan Lebeau, and Gilbert Dionne. He brought Quebec born coaches such as Jean Perron, and Pat Burns and the Montreal Canadiens hockey operations department was filled with Quebecers.
The Savard effect was felt all the way down the hockey ranks. During his years at the helm of the Montreal Canadiens, hockey flourished in this province. The QMJHL expanded at a prodigious pace. Young players were drafted into the NHL in record numbers.
By bringing in Serge Savard as an advisor to the Montreal Canadiens today, Geoff Molson showed that, yes, he understands the special responsibility that he has as head honcho of the hockey club. He also understands, that very soon, just a couple of hundred kilometers down Highway 20, there will soon be an NHL club (Quebec will return to the NHL, you can count on it) that not only is backed by one of this country's most impressive media empires, but a club that will surely go to great lengths to show that they, not the Montreal Canadiens, are Quebec's true team.
Today, Geoff Molson fired the first salvo in the Montreal-Quebec City hockey war. The big winners will ultimately be the fans, Quebec-born players, and the game.
