he Montréal Canadiens possess a luminous history of success and team character. Perhaps the greatest of the many legendary players who have worn the Habitant C is Howie Morenz, whose dashing play and tragic death made him a hockey immortal.

Howarth Morenz of Stratford, Ontario caught the attention of National Hockey League teams when he was in his late teens. He reluctantly left his close-knit family to accept the offer of the Canadiens in 1923, and quickly earned a place in the hearts of the Montréal fans. The Habs won five league championships with Morenz and three Stanley Cups [in 1924, 1930, and 1931]. Morenz himself was the league's leading scorer in 1927-28 and 1930-31, and winner of the Hart trophy as the league's most valuable player in 1928, 1931, and 1932.

But the records do not indicate just how great a player Howie Morenz was. King Clancy, a legendary player himself, as well as a referee and manager, called Morenz "the greatest player I ever saw." According to Clancy, "Morenz was the best of his day, the best I ever played against and the best I've ever seen since. Nobody could dig in and get moving as fast as he could; he could start on a dime and leave you a nickel change. And he could shoot a puck as hard as any player who ever performed in the NHL."

After eleven great seasons with Montréal, the management stunned Morenz and his fans by trading him to Chicago in 1934. They claimed that they did not want to subject the sensitive, aging star to fans' disappointment with his lessening skills. At any rate, Morenz was miserable in Chicago, and unhappier still when he was bumped to New York. Finally, the Canadiens bought his contract back, and Morenz returned home to Montréal for a comeback.

Then came a January night in 1937, a game against Boston. Novelist Hugh MacLennan was at the Forum that night; he remembered the joy in Morenz's play, and the accident that ended it. "He had been playing marvelously that evening and the little smile on his lips showed that he was having a wonderful time. But once too often he charged into the corner relying on his ability to turn on a dime and come out with the puck. The point of his skate impaled itself in the boards. A defenseman, big Earl Siebert, accidently crashed over the extended leg and broke it. Howie's head hit the ice with a sickening crack and he was carried out."

For the next six weeks, Morenz lay in a hospital bed, immobile and depressed. As a player whose life had been devoted to the game, he told a teammate that he would die if he could not play hockey. His words came tragically true. Howie Morenz passed away several days later; stunned Montréalers believed he died of a broken heart. Forty thousand fans paid tribute to "The Stratford Streak" as his body lay in state at centre ice of the Forum.

Many years later, sportswriter Jim Coleman described Morenz to a new generation of hockey fans. "Morenz was a dark-visaged, dashing knight. He was finely-tempered Toledo steel. When he picked up the puck, circled his own net and started for the opposing goal he lifted you right up out of your seat. His step was so light that he appeared to fly about two inches above the surface of the ice." When Morenz carried the puck down centre and burst through the defence, Montréal fans would erupt in their battle cry: Les Canadiens son là!

ockey has become such Professional Sport that it is easy to forget the game played on frozen ponds and backyard rinks. Hockey became Canada's game because it made the long, boring winter months more bearable . The game gradually became a sport, then an entertainment industry. In a way, modern professional hockey is a Canadian success story gone mad.

Like most games, the origins of hockey are vague, but it seems that the first modern rules were formulated by students at McGill University, with other pockets of interest in the university cities of Kingston and Halifax. That early game was a combination of lacrosse and rugby on ice, without forward passing or lifting of the puck. It was not very exciting to watch, but rugby and lacrosse players used it for winter recreation.

The championship system spurred the game's popularity. The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada Trophy, followed by the Stanley Cup, created natural rivalries between teams and cities. Outside of telegraph offices in Montréal or Winnipeg, fans would crowd to read the tickertape play-by-play of their local heroes competing against far-away rivals. When newspapers began covering the games, players like Cyclone Taylor and Lester Patrick became stars to people who would never see them play or even hear the games on the radio.

The industrial leagues also boosted the sport. Mine owners in places like Kirkland Lake discovered that they could round up some good local players, pay them a little, and bring in thousands of spectators. During the mining boom years of 1902-1910, those industrial leagues flourished.

All the while, rules changed to make the game faster, rougher, and more exciting. Professional leagues grew all over the country. The sedate game of amateur university undergrads became tough competition between bruisers from the backwoods of Québec, the farms of Saskatchewan, and the ranches of Alberta. With the growth of the National Hockey League, formed in 1917, the Canadian game, with Canadian players, spread across the border. The great rivalries between Toronto and Montréal and, in the glory days of Howe and Richard, between Montréal and Detroit, drew in loyal, rabid fans.

It is tempting to glamourize the years before the NHL expanded, and before the rest of the world discovered hockey. The terrific Canada-Russia series of 1972 showed that international hockey could generate the same excitement and fan loyalty as the domestic game.

And then there is the dominance of the Women's hockey team. The Canadian women have won one international title after another, with only a single [albeit painful] loss to the US in the 1998 Olympics.

As Canadian hockey fans watch the women rise undefeated through the championship rounds year after year, they remember with pride that hockey remains Canada's most significant contribution to the world of sports, and that some of its best players, female and male, still come from nearby towns and cities.