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. Growing up listening to the exploits of his heroes on the radio and later glued to the TV screen, watching the Montreal Canadiens take on all comers and run the NHL table five years running in the 1950s, there really wasn’t any question what he wanted to do when he grew up.

A standout from the beginning, young Yvan practiced relentlessly, working his legs until they were pistons that propelled him from a standstill to top speed in the blink of an eye. He also spent countless hours firing steel pucks, the weighted projectiles eventually giving him wrists that effortlessly zipped pucks past goaltenders for over 1100 NHL games.

After a season with the Lachine Maroons, he joined the Habs junior affiliate and picked up 15 goals in his rookie season. He upped it to 37 markers the next season and led the OHA in 1963-64, lighting the lamp 63 times, more than such future NHL stars as Dennis Hull, Mike Walton, Ron Ellis and Ken Hodge.

Called up to the big club for five games, Cournoyer potted four goals, giving every indication that his scoring ways would follow him to the NHL. He stuck with the team the next season and picked up the next seven of his 428 career goals, used almost exclusively on the power play since coach, Toe Blake, had reservations about the 5’ 7” right winger’s ability to handle the rough and tumble of five-on-five play.

Cournoyer picked up four postseason points and had his name added to the Stanley Cup, the first of ten mentions. Only Henri Richard’s name appears more often as a player.

After picking up 18 of them in 1965-66, Cournoyer, finally seeing more ice-time away from the specialty teams, broke the 20-goal mark for the first time, beating goaltenders 25 times. He would clear that bar in each and every one of the 12 seasons to come.

Toe Blake retired after the 1967-68 campaign, Cournoyer’s third as a Stanley Cup champion, one that saw him record 28 goals and also emerge as a playmaker with 32 assists. The following year, under new coach, Claude Ruel, Cournoyer exploded, becoming the “Roadrunner,” one of the NHL’s most exciting performers. A speedster with great puck handling skills and the ability to know where to be when he didn’t have the puck, he thrilled Forum crowds while garnishing grudging admiration around the league for his foot speed, determination to win and overpowering shot, one that forced a face-off at center ice 43 times in 1968-69. The season ended with, not only the habitual Habs victory parade, but with Cournoyer attracting notice as a second team All-Star.

From 1969-70 through 1971-72, the rapid right winger proved his scoring success was no fluke. Always a fierce competitor he weaved his way around some opponents and simply blew others away with his blazing speed. He scored 27, 37 and then 47 goals and also garnished All-Star mentions in both 1971 and 1972.

At the peak of his career, Cournoyer was selected for the team that Canada sent up against the soviets in 1972. His clean, skilled game made him one of the favorites among Russian fans. His first name didn’t hurt his popularity either, many overseas hockey fans choosing to believe that at least a few drops of Russian blood flowed in his veins. Playing in all eight games, Cournoyer picked up five points on three goals and a pair of assists. The second of the two came on Paul Henderson’s series winner as the clock ticked toward the end of the final game.

Back in North America, the momentum of the Summit Series carried his through the regular season as he scored 40 goals and added 39 assists. Come the postseason, he showed no signs of fatigue and led all NHLers with 15 goals and 25 points, capping his season with both the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe. For the third year in a row, and the fourth time in five years, Yvan Cournoyer made the second All-Star team.

Year in and year out, the Roadrunner led the Habs attack. Sideburns trailing behind him led consistently placed among the team’s top scorers, even as his back began showing the effects of playing against men considerably bigger than he was for an extended period of time.

When Henri Richard hung up his skates following the 1974-75 season, Yvan Cournoyer was elected the Montreal Canadiens captain by his teammates, an honor bestowed on only 28 men in the almost one hundred years the franchise has existed. His four year tenure saw him accept the Stanley Cup from the league president at the end of every season. Cournoyer retired after playing in only 15 games in 1978-79 and was enshrined in the hockey Hall of Fame in 1982, his first year of eligibility. He put 428 pucks past enemy goaltenders and helped his teammates do so on 435 other occasions. Only Maurice Richard and Jean Beliveau scored more playoff goals in a Habs sweater than did Yvan Cournoyer, fourth in team history for postseason points.