Robinson et Gainey Honoured

The Habs will honour two of it's greats.Larry Robinson's number 19 and Bob Gainey's number 23 will be retired in ceremonies to take place during the season.

Robinson and Gainey played in Montreal during the last dynasty, under the smothering hand of William ''Scotty'' Bowman. They were the leaders on the team when the Canadiens won the cup in 1986.

Both were draft choices of the late Sam Pollock.Robinson along with two other hall of famers, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard became the best trio of defencemen thru out the NHL in the 1970's, and got the nickname of ''big three''.Robinson due to his size, got nicknamed ''Big Bird'' after the affectioned character from Sesame Street,the fans in Montreal loved Robinson as they did Big Bird as you could say and the opposite may have also been true.

Gainey in his role, redefined the job description of defensive forward, that forced the league to name a trophy to honour him.The Frank Selke award was created for that matter, he won won it four times, and the actual coach of the Canadiens,Guy Carbonneau also won it. Victor Thikonov of the Soviet Red Army team,called him ''the best technical player in the world''.Gainey was elected to the Hockey hall of fame in 1992, and Robinson got the call in 1995.

Gainey went to coach the Minnesota North Stars and won the Stanley cup in Dallas in 1999 as Gm.Robinson won the Stanley cup twice in New Jersey,in 1995 as an assistant coach to Jacques Lemaire, and won it as coach in 2000.

Thank you Bob and Larry for the great memories,and for all that you have did to make the organization proud.