Skip to content
Your daily dose of hockey
Canadiens

Serge Savard’s 1993 speech would have led the CH to the Stanley Cup

 Manuel Sperandio-Lemay
Share : facebook icon twitter icon
Serge Savard’s 1993 speech would have led the CH to the Stanley Cup
Credit: He still resents Ronald Corey's lack of professionalism.
Many are among those who missed the last Stanley Cup in 1993.

I’m one of them, and I must say I’d love to see a Cup parade through the streets of Montreal.

The array of prospects in the organization and a talented young core at a reasonable price leads me to believe that it could happen in about 5 years. A lot can happen between now and then, and for the moment, I’m preoccupied with enjoying the club’s history and the youngsters in the current organization.

In 1993, the Tricolore’s general manager was Serge Savard, and the core of the team consisted of Patrick Roy, Vincent Damphousse, Brian Bellows and Guy Carbonneau, among others.

Carbo wasn’t a player who filled the net like Bellows or Damphousse, but he was one of the cornerstones of the Sainte-Flanelle’s triumph with his excellent defensive play.

He was the man whose job it was to slow down, or at least slow down, La Merveille, Wayne Gretzky.

However, the club’s captain at the time believes that Serge Savard changed all that with a speech he made during the series against the Quebec Remparts.

Carbo was joined by Damphousse, Savard, Benoît Brunet and Ronald Corey for the Sports Celebrity Luncheon at Montreal’s Cummings Sports Centre, and it was there that he spoke with Montreal Gazette‘s Herb Zurkowsky.

“Serge came into the dressing room after the second game, talked to us a bit and was very calm. I think he wanted to calm everyone down.” – Guy Carbonneau

With the CH trailing 2-0 in the series against the Remparts, the pressure was on.

Carbonneau also mentioned that Savard had lived through that situation as a player, and that he had managed to make up the deficit afterwards.

“I don’t know if his speech started it all, but since that day, the momentumasort of changed. – Guy Carbonneau

The Canadiens had luck on their side throughout their playoff run, winning no fewer than 10 games in overtime.

Benoît Brunet also had something to say about this 24th Stanley Cup.

Beating Quebec City was the main goal. A lot of people talk about the Cup, but there was the final and the series against Quebec. Buffalo and the Islanders were very good teams, but we had to beat Quebec first. – Benoît Brunet

It remains to be seen how many years we’ll have to wait before we can relive a Stanley Cup in Montreal.


Breaking news

– You can’t change a tradition.

– Congratulations to Wyndham Clark on his first major title.

– Things aren’t going well for Canada.

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!
More Content