The Games.org

Goaltenders

30 David Aebischer

39 Cristobal Huet


Defensemen

6 Janne Niinimaa

8 Mike Komisarek

25 Mathieu Dandenault

32 Mark Streit

44 Sheldon Souray

51 Francis Bouillon

52 Craig Rivet

79 Andrei Markov


Forwards

11 Saku Koivu

14 Radek Bonk

15 Sergei Samsonov

20 Mike Johnson

21 Christopher Higgins

22 Steve Bégin

27 Alexei Kovalev

35 Tomas Plekanec

42 Alexander Perezhogin

47 Aaron Downey

57 Garth Murray

73 Michael Ryder

84 Guillaume Latendresse

The Montreal Canadiens are the oldest established National Hockey League (NHL) franchise. Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the Canadiens are one of the NHL's 'Original Six' franchises. The team has won twenty-four Stanley Cups, the most championships by any team in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens play their home games at the Bell Centre, previously named Molson Centre. They played their home games in Jubilee Rink, Montreal Westmount Arena, Mount Royal Arena and the Montreal Forum before that.



The franchise is officially known as Le Club de Hockey Canadien, but is usually referred to in French as "Les Canadiens de Montréal" and in English as the "Montreal Canadiens". French nicknames for the team include Le Bleu-Blanc-et-Rouge, Le Tricolore, Les Glorieux, Les Habitants and Le Grand Club. The team jersey is referred to as La Sainte-Flanelle (the holy sweater). In English, the main nicknames are the Habs and (usually historically) The Flying Frenchmen. The Montreal Canadiens are the most recent Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup, in 1992-93.

A major announcement about the one hundred year anniversary of Les Habs was made on October 2, 2005. On October 15 of that year, to begin the Canadiens' centennial countdown, it was announced that three more jersey numbers would be retired - Dickie Moore's and Yvan Cournoyer's number 12 on November 12 before their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the number 5 worn by Bernard "Boom Boom" Geoffrion on March 11, 2006 prior to their contest against the New York Rangers, the other team he played for after a two-year retirement - the first since moving from "Le Forum" during a "Legends Night" ceremony, with one additional number to be hoisted to the rafters in each of the three following seasons. Boom Boom Geoffrion died on the day his number was to be retired.

The Canadiens also announced ambitious plans for their Centennial year of 2008-09, including plans to bid on hosting the World Junior Hockey Championships (which were since awarded to Ottawa), the NHL Draft, and the 2009 NHL All-Star Game, all to be held at the Bell Centre, although it has been widely expected that the Phoenix Coyotes are scheduled to receive the honour of hosting the NHL All-Star Game, because of the cancelled 2006 event due to the 2006 Winter Olympics.