Mike Wyman is following the Canadiens' run throughout the playoffs. In his latest entry, he takes a look at the way the Quebecois take to cultural phenomenons, and the viral excitement that's building over this year's edition of the Habs...

Mike Wyman's first game at the Montreal Forum was in 1963. Men still wore fedoras, women dressed up to go to the game, smoking wasn't an issue yet and there were still pillars that partially obstructed the view of the ice for those sitting behind them.

In the latest edition of his Canadiens playoff journal, Mike Wyman takes a look at the pre-playoff atmosphere in Montreal (is the excitement building to acceptable levels?) and Patrice Brisebois's reasonably successful return.

A playoff berth assured, the biggest challenge a team often faces is to avoid injuries as they play out the string of games that usually mean a lot more to their opponents, some of whom are still trying to extend their season.

Noted hockey historian Mike Wyman weighs in on the Montreal Canadiens, who have exceeded all reasonable expectations in rising to first place in the East, with what will be a regular journal-style column down the stretch and throughout the playoffs.

The winter of 2008 has shown little indication of loosening its hold anytime soon. More than ten feet of snow has fallen since November. Sick of waiting for spring to arrive, Mike Wyman went looking for it in British Columbia...

Uninvited, an 18-year-old farm boy from Wakaw, Saskatchewan turned up at the Prince Albert Mintos training camp in the fall of 1955. Dave Balon made the team, stayed three years and moved on up the hockey ladder.

Player, innovator and administrator were all roles that Emile Francis played during his long hockey career. The Saskatchewan native spent his entire working life in the game he loved, and was enshrined in the Hall of Fame as a builder.

The last time the Ottawa Senators contended for the Stanley Cup, Joseph Stalin was running things in the Soviet Union, Benito Mussolini was watching over Italian train timetables, and Adolph Hitler was a best-selling author.

Warren Zevon wrote a hockey song about a big farm boy from Saskatchewan. He called it "Hit Somebody," a title that pretty much sums up the career of Fern Flaman, a big, strong kid from Saskatchewan’s farm country.

Bill Mosienko was small, even by the standards of the NHL off the 40s and 50s. His speed, the tool that carried him through a 14-year NHL career that saw him enshrined in the hockey Hall of Fame, would probably stand up well in today’s NHL.

Pride, power and production are the key words when summing up Yvan Cournoyer’s career. As long as that sounds alliterative, let’s add perseverance to that list. The Drummondville, Quebec, native chose his career path as a youngster.

Potlach, Idaho’s Guyle Fielder has been labeled a hockey legend for the two decades he spent in the Western Hockey League, a slippery playmaking center who took home enough individual silverware to fill several trophy cases.

Born in what is now Kitchener, Ontario, in 1893, Frank Selke must have laced skates on at some point in his youth but he realized early on that his path lay away from the ice and began coaching at the age of 14.

Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman and Alex Delvecchio are the three names atop the Red Wings' all-time scoring list. The first is a hockey legend, the second is still fresh in our minds. But the third is often overlooked...

Certain qualities are essential to a champion, no matter the field of endeavour, among them skill, smarts, toughness and dedication. By any yardstick, Hector “Toe” Blake made the grade in the hockey world.

Norm Ullman played twenty seasons in the NHL with Detroit and Toronto, centering some of the best forward lines of his era, but never got his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup despite reaching the finals five times.

Mike Wyman takes a look back at Frank Calder, the man whose name adorns the trophies for both the AHL championship and the NHL's "Rookie of the Year." And this week's edition includes a challenging trivia question.

George Imlach was universally known as Punch, an intense, opinionated, profane man who left absolutely nobody indifferent. Either you loved him or you hated him, and there were a lot of people in each camp.

There was time when it took a single man to run an NHL bench and fedoras were the headgear of choice. Billy Reay, the winningest coach in Chicago Blackhawks history, was one of the last to fly solo with a fedora atop his pate.

By the time he was old enough to vote, Danny Lewicki had won just about all there was to win in the hockey world, but as a child, young Danny did without a lot of things. Mike Wyman takes a look back at Danny's life and career in the latest edition of "The Golden Years."

“My face is my mask,” said Lorne Worsley, who played all but six of his almost 1400 pro games barefaced. He did without instruction, goaltending not becoming an art until well after he had hung up his pads and without an agent, hockey not becoming part of “The Sports Industry” until the waning years of his career.

Unless the league changes its rules regarding player selection, Armand 'Bep" Guidolin's name will live forever in the record books as the youngest man to ever play in an NHL game. The left winger began the 1942-43 season with the Boston Bruins, a month before he turned 17.

Born in Platsville, Ontario in 1904, Albert “Babe” Siebert was one of the outstanding players in the NHL’s early years, playing a vital role on the ice for several clubs before an untimely death robbed him of furthering his years in the game as a coach. Mike Wyman takes a look back at Siebert in the latest edition of "The Golden Years."

One of the sporting world’s greatest hustlers and promoters, Tommy Gorman spent a lifetime offering up entertainment for the paying public, generally satisfying his customers and almost invariably making a good bit of money at the same time. Mike Wyman takes a look back at Gorman in the latest edition of "The Golden Years."

While he played for both the Blackhawks and the Blues, it is as a member of the New York Rangers that Camille Henry spent most of his NHL career, playing over 600 games as one of the most popular stars in team history. Mike Wyman takes a look back at Henry's career in the latest edition of "The Golden Years."

There's a reason why the NHL's top scoring award is named after a defenseman who played three games in the league and amassed a grand total of one goal. Art Ross donated the trophy that bears his name. Mike Wyman takes a look back at Art Ross in the latest edition of "The Golden Years."

At one time, there was a pipeline from the mining districts of northern Ontario to the NHL. For many boys it went from the Canadian Shield to Toronto’s St. Michael’s College to hockey's upper echelons. And so it was for Hall of Famer Dick Duff, who hung up his skates 35 years ago.

They didn’t come much tougher than Murph Chamberlain. He played 12 NHL seasons with four different clubs and was one of the hardest hitters in the league, no matter what team he suited up for. Mike Wyman takes a look back at Chamberlain's career in the latest edition of "The Golden Years."

Joe Boyle didn’t do anything in a small way. Born in 1867, he had love for adventure and found himself in the middle of the Yukon Gold Rush. Boyle was also a rabid hockey fan, and decided that he could put together a squad that could capture the Stanley Cup.

Most men of Harold March’s stature didn’t choose professional hockey as a career. At 5’ 5” and 155 pounds, his was not a physique that generally lent itself to the rough and tumble of the hockey world in the days before the dawn of the “Original Six.”

For 20 years after his hockey career ended, Carl Brewer was hockey’s best-known kook, a guy who made wild accusations against some of the most respected figures in the game, a publicity-hungry malcontent biting the hand that bred him, fed him and made him a star with the Maple Leafs.

Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Gardens was one of the first artificial ice surfaces built in the United States. Six years after being built as a place for streetcars to sleep, it became a 5000-seat arena, hosting all manner of public entertainment. If it drew a crowd and happened indoors, it was probably held at the Gardens.

While Lester Patrick is the most celebrated of the Patrick clan, there are a number of others from the family who have brought their influence to bear on the game of hockey over the last century. Mike Wyman takes a look back at the Patrick family and their incredible contributions to the hockey world.

Not many men have played two sports at a professional level. Even fewer have combined baseball and hockey. Manny McIntyre is the only professional hockey player to have also played in baseball's Negro Leagues. Mike Wyman pays homage to McIntyre in the latest edition of "The Golden Years."

It’s been around for over a century, the oldest team award in North American professional sports. The chase for the Stanley Cup begins this week, and in the latest edition of “The Golden Years,” Mike Wyman takes a look at the coveted trophy’s incredible history.

The younger brother of the greatest sibling act to ever lace up skates, Henri Richard wasn’t given much of a chance to make the team when he appeared at the Montreal Canadiens training camp in 1955. But though he was only 5’ 7” tall and 160 pounds, Henri was no lightweight when it came to hockey talent.

At an NHL training camp, veterans try to reclaim their roster spots and youngsters do their best to supplant them. Team management evaluates the talent on hand and decides who stays and plays the game at the highest level, who gets sent down to the minors for seasoning and who is counselled to look for honest work outside the game.

In the days when the Boston Garden was a modern, state of the art hockey palace, Bill Cowley was one of the game’s top performers. A standout center with the Bruins for a dozen years, he was one of the greatest to ever play the position

The Oakland Seals were the only modern NHL team to go completely belly-up, doing so after a largely unsuccessful nine-year run marked by constant financial distress, continual ownership changes and very few playoff appearances. Mike Wyman takes a closer look in this special edition of "The Golden Years."