There are two hockey arenas in Canada that stand above all others.
One is Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
The other is the Montreal Forum.
Both have seen an immense amount of history and been more than hockey arenas. They have been part of the cultural landscape of the country, touching everything from politics to sports to entertainment.
They are rightfully called The Cathedrals of Hockey.
Today, I am focusing on the story of The Montreal Forum.
It was in the Forum that the Montreal Canadiens won Stanley Cup after Stanley Cup. So many Hall of Famers suited up in the Canadiens dressing room, that the Hockey Hall of Fame has that dressing room on display in its museum.
But the story of the Montreal Forum begins before any construction began.
In 1908, on the site of the future Montreal Forum, a roller-skating rink existed. The rink was incredibly popular, and on the day it opened, Nov. 9, 1908, thousands of Montrealers came out and rented the 3,000 pairs of skates available.
This first Forum circled an outdoor rink, which had been used by several hockey legends including Lester and Frank Patrick, and Art Ross.
The problem was that hockey was exploding in popularity and by the 1920s, Montreal was a part of the new NHL. The Montreal Canadiens had formed in 1910, and won their first Stanley Cup in 1916 with a roster full of future Hall of Fame players.
For all of their early history, the Canadiens played at the Montreal Arena, located on the corner of St. Catherine Street and Wood Avenue.
Opened on Dec. 31, 1898, the arena could hold 10,000 people, but less than half of those people would have a seat.
Both the Montreal Wanderers and the Montreal Canadiens used this arena, but that all changed on Jan. 2, 1918 when it burned to the ground. Both teams lost their uniforms and gear in the fire. The Kingston Daily Standard wrote,
“Fire, aided by explosions, completely destroyed the Montreal Arena, the scene of many a historic hockey match, political convention and concert.”
The explosions were caused by the boilers in the basement, which exploded three times and spread the fire further in the building.
The fire led to the end of the Montreal Wanderers, a team that had won four Stanley Cups from 1906 to 1910.
The Montreal Canadiens though, were able to move over to the Jubilee Arena, which could only hold 3,200 people. The Canadiens had briefly played here during their first season in 1909-10. Unfortunately, Jubilee Arena burned down on April 23, 1919.
Once again, the Canadiens had to move. This time they went to the Mount Royal Arena, which finished construction in 1920. This arena could hold 6,000 people, 10,000 if some were standing. It used natural ice and had no machines to freeze ice mechanically. The first game for the Canadiens there was played on Jan. 10, 1920, even as the ice was not finished, against Toronto. The Canadiens won 14-7.
The arena may have been new but its ice surface was terrible and uneven. The only option left to the team was to build a new arena.
Enter into the story Sir Edward Wentworth Beatty, the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He partnered with Senator Raymond Donat to begin to plan a new arena for the Canadiens.
The two men developed plans for a 12,500 seat rink, which was scaled back to 9,300 seats due to financial restraints.
To honour that history of that roller rink that stood on the site of the new arena, the Forum name was kept as the new structure was constructed.
Like with Maple Leaf Gardens, construction was completely incredibly quickly, taking just over three months to finish.
On Nov. 29, 1924, the Montreal Forum opened, having cost $1.5 million to build, or $26.2 million today.
When it opened, the Forum hosted the Montreal Maroons on Thursdays and Fridays, while the Quebec Senior Hockey League teams of the Montreal Victorias, Montreal Royals and the Junior Montreal Canadiens played on Wednesdays and Sundays. On Monday nights, the Quebec Junior Hockey League played there. Saturdays were reserved for the Canadiens.
In the first game played at the Forum, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Toronto St. Pats by a score of 7-1. The first goal scored in the Forum was by Canadiens right wing Billy Boucher, only 55 seconds into the game. He scored twice more that game to record the first hat trick in the history of the Forum. Legendary goalie Georges Vezina earned the first victory there.
The Ottawa Citizen wrote,
“Indications that the Canadiens are going to make a strong bid to retain the Stanley Cup and world’s professional hockey honors were manifest Saturday night when they overwhelmed the Toronto St. Patrick’s 7 to 1.”
That first game, like nearly all the games to come at the forum, was a sellout. Over 9,000 people attended the game, which was a record for a hockey game in Montreal at the time.
The Maroons played their first game at the Forum on Dec. 3, losing 2-0 to the Hamilton Tigers.
While the Forum is associated with the Canadiens, it was the Montreal Maroons who used the arena full-time. Part of the time, the Canadiens used Mount Royal Arena for another two years until they made the Forum their permanent home.
The reason that the Canadiens were the first team to play there, not the Maroons, was because the Mount Royal Arena ice was not yet playable.
The Ottawa Citizen said,
“Mount Royal Arena, which is to be the Canadiens home this winter, has not yet got its artificial ice plant in operation so that arrangements were concluded with the officers of the new forum to continue practices daily at the new artificial ice rink until the Mount Royal Arena surface is made.”
Tickets in those days cost 50 cents to one dollar, and people would line up so they could get in and get seats right behind the nets or bench.
On Dec. 29, 1924, 11,000 people came out to watch the Canadiens take on the Maroons at the Forum for the first time. This was an attendance record for the National Hockey League and showed just how much people in the city loved hockey. The Canadiens and Maroons tied 1-1 in the game.
The Maroons were the first team to win the Stanley Cup at the forum. They captured hockey’s top trophy in 1926, defeating the Victoria Cougars three games to one.
On October 8, 1925, Maria Jeritza, an international Opera star, came to the forum where she tested the acoustics of the building that many other famous musicians would also test in decades to come.
In 1930, with their superstar player Howie Morenz, the Canadiens won their first Forum-era Stanley Cup, followed by a second in 1931. There would be many, many more Stanley Cups to come on Forum ice.
The Montreal Star wrote,
“Battered and bruised from constant playing, groggy from overtime contests, reeling along on the energy supplied by unconquerable spirit, Canadians stand today as an amazing collection of athletes who have simply rendered obsolete all the canons pertaining to athletic form.”
On March 24, 1936, a playoff game between Detroit and the Maroons went into the sixth overtime. This is still the longest game in NHL history. The game was so long that by the time Detroit won, it was 2:25 a.m. and some of the fans in the stands were reading the newspaper that had just been shipped out that morning, which gave accounts of the action in the early part of the game.
On Dec. 9, 1938, the first major traffic jam in the history of Montreal occurred when thousands of people attempt to get to the forum to see Sonja Henie, the world champion figure skater, perform in the Hollywood Ice Revue at the Forum.
Three weeks later, for New Year’s Eve, Duke Ellington played a four hour show at the Forum while running a fever of 101.5 degrees.
Through all these years, the Forum continued to be the home of hockey in Montreal. The Montreal Maroons won another Stanley Cup there in 1935, their second of the Forum-era. It proved to be their last. The team folded amid financial difficulties in 1938. From this point on, the Forum was the domain of the Canadiens.
On March 11, 1937, the Forum hosted a somber event. It was the funeral for hockey great Howie Morenz. Beloved by the fans of the Canadiens, The Stratford Streak had led the team to three Stanley Cups, while winning the Hart Trophy himself three times.
On Jan. 28, 1937, while playing at the Forum, he broke his leg in a game against Chicago. Out for the rest of the season, he was recovering in the hospital when he died of a coronary embolism on March 8, 1937. On March 11, 1937, 50,000 people came to the Montreal Forum to file past his casket, which sat at centre ice, to pay their respects.
By the time the Rocket Richard era arrived for the Montreal Canadiens, the Forum was in dire need of an upgrade.
In 1949, to accommodate the growing population of Montreal, and the popularity of hockey, over 3,000 seats were added to the arena at a cost of $600,000. The new renovated arena was opened by Bob Hope on Oct. 14, 1949.
On March 23, 1951, the Harlem Globetrotters played at the Forum for the first time, but also cause a scandal in the city when they play on Good Friday.
Later that year on Oct. 29, Princess Elizabeth and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, watched the Canadiens defeat the New York Rangers 6 to 1. The Montreal Star wrote,
“While Princess Elizabeth watched with dignified approval and Prince Philip applauded each succeeding effort, the square-rigged right-wing Floyd Curry, drove three goals past reluctant Charlie Rayner.”
On Oct. 11, 1952, the first live televised hockey game was played at the Forum, broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada on the CBC.
And the Montreal Canadiens kept winning Stanley Cups. They won in 1953, and then five times in a row from 1956 to 1960. They added a few more Cups in 1965, 1966 and 1968. That year, a third renovation took place. This renovation cost $10 million and brought the structure up to 17,959 seats. The new renovated forum was opened by Premier Jean-Jacques Bertrand.
To celebrate their new arena, the Canadiens won another Stanley Cup in 1969.
The Stanley Cup wasn’t the only championship won at the Forum. The building also hosted the Memorial Cup six times in 1950, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973 and 1976. It was in 1970 that the Junior Canadiens won on home ice.
The Forum also hosted The Beatles on Sept. 8, 1964, and many, many legendary musicians including The Rolling Stones, Queen, Black Sabbath and David Bowie.
In 1972, The Forum hosted Game One of the Summit Series, which the USSR won 7-3, shocking the nation.
In 1976, the Forum was the host of various Olympic competitions during the Montreal Olympics including gymnastics and boxing.
And throughout the decade, the Canadiens added more Stanley Cup banners to the rafters of the Forum, winning in 1971, 1973 and four times from 1976 to 1979.
On April 7, 1980, the largest crowd of women to gather in Quebec, 15,000 in total, went to the Forum to voice their opposition to Quebec separatism as the referendum approaches. The event helped turn the tide in the vote, keeping Quebec in Canada.
In 1980, the first NHL Entry Draft to be held in an arena was held in the Forum. That draft saw the selection of four Hall of Famers, Denis Savard, Larry Murphy, Paul Coffey and Jari Kurri.
The Canadiens won two more Stanley Cups in the Forum era, in 1986 and 1993.
Montreal Forum hosted an astonishing 31 Stanley Cup Finals, including every year from 1952 to 1960. Only two visiting teams ever won the Stanley Cup on Forum Ice. The New York Rangers did it in 1928, and the Calgary Flames did it in 1989.
In the historic Montreal Canadiens locker room, the images of players from the past lined the wall and the line from the poem In Flanders Field, which says “To you with failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high.” Is written on the wall.
Ab McDonald said,
“When you hit the dressing room for the first time, you are in awe of what you see up there. They had all the plaques up on the wall from the Stanley Cup teams from years past. You think to yourself, Geez, I better do something if I’m going to be in the room with these guys.”
Some players said that the Canadiens were helped by the Ghosts of the Forum, while new players said they were simply in awe of the place, which impacted their play.
Howie Meeker said,
“You walked into the place, and you knew you were in for a hell of a hockey game. You never had a night off and you never had an easy game in the Forum unless you quit.”
Lloyd Gilmour said,
“When you were in there, you were in awe of the place. It made you a better player and it made you a better official.”
But the end was coming.
The NHL was expanding, salaries were increasing, and arenas were getting bigger to increase ticket sales.
On Aug. 24, 1989, team president Ronald Corey announced that a study had been done on whether to renovate and expand the forum. The decision had been made not to expand the forum, and instead look at building a new arena.
On Feb. 6, 1993, the All-Star Game is played in the Forum, the 11th and last time it would be held there. That game saw Mike Gartner of the New York Rangers win the All-Star MVP award as Western Conference won 16-6 over the Eastern Conference. A total of 10 different NHL All-Star Game scoring records were set that game.
On June 9, 1993, the Canadiens won their last Stanley Cup at the Forum, their last Stanley Cup and the last Stanley Cup won by a Canadian team to date.
By 1996, the final game for the Canadiens was approaching at the Forum.
Prior to the last game played at the Forum, the legends of the Canadiens shared their most memorable memories.
Maurice Richard cited the time he scored five goals and three assists against Detroit. That was turned into a Heritage Minute in the 1990s.
Gump Worsley said it was when he won his first Stanley Cup in 1964-65 and when he had a shutout in the last game of the Final.
Jean Beliveau said it was the first time he played in the Forum, when he was still playing in the junior leagues in 1948. He said.
“My knees were shaking in the first period. I was 17 and had always listened to the Canadiens on Hockey Night In Canada on the radio.”
For Larry Robinson, it was his first game at the Forum on Jan. 8, 1973.
On March 11, 1996, the Forum hosted its last game as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Dallas Stars 4-1. The opening faceoff had been performed by Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur.
After the game was over, the great Canadien players of the past were presented to the crowd as a symbolic torch was passed between the Canadiens captains. When Maurice Richard came out, he received a 16-minute standing ovation that caused him to break down in tears.
Also in the stands were former players like Serge Savard and Jacques Lemaire, and hockey icons such as Vladislav Tretiak.
In the 2,367 games the Canadiens played at the forum, they finished with a record of 1,492-529-346, with a .703 winning percentage. Along with winning 22 Stanley Cups at the Forum, they also won seven Conference Championships and 20 Division Championships. In the playoffs at the Forum, the Canadiens had 215 wins, 88 losses and four ties. The Canadiens had also scored 8,893 goals and gave up 5,610 goals. Over 90 million spectators had come through its doors by the time the last puck was dropped.
As soon as the last game finished, fans began to buy pieces of the forum. One man paid $550 for a pair of red seats and had them inscribed with that line from In Flanders Field, which was written in French.
After the forum closed to hockey, it was converted into an entertainment centre called The Pepsi Forum. Centre ice has been recreated in the centre of the complex with a small section of a grandstand and several original seats are found throughout the building. A statue of Maurice Richard can be found next to the grandstand. The street entrance also features 24 bronze Stanley Cup banners cemented in the sidewalk.
In 1997, the building was declared a National Historic Site of Canada.
Information from Canadian Encyclopedia, The Hockey Writers, ProStockHockey.com, CBC, Wikipedia, Arena Digest, CTV, Canadiens.com, Macleans, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Winnipeg Sun,
