Tales from the Montreal Canadiens Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Canadiens Stories Ever Told

by Robert S. Lefebvre

When most sports fans hear the stat 3,000, they immediately turn to baseball. But for those fans whose breath comes out in frosty puffs, and who bleed ice and snow, 3,000 can only mean one thing—the glory of Montreal Canadiens hockey. The “Original One” of the “Original Six,” the Montreal Canadiens hockey team is practically synonymous with superlative: The most Stanley Cup championship victories, with 24? The Montreal Canadiens. The highest number of regular-season wins? The Montreal Canadiens. The oldest active franchise in the NHL? The Montreal Canadiens.

Now the hundred-plus years of Canadiens triumphs, tragedies, and times like no other are captured in Robert Lefebvre’s Tales from the Montreal Canadiens Locker Room. In this unique compendium, Lefebvre brings to life both the history and the anecdotes of this incredible franchise. Stories of Maurice “Rocket” Richard’s incredible skills on the ice are paired side by side with locker room yarns and off-the-ice tales of Jean Beliveau, Dickie Moore, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Patrick Roy, and more. With humor, wit, and a lot of adrenaline, Robert Lefebvre has compiled a collection of Montreal Canadiens stories sure to please any hockey fan.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2012

Reviews

[Marshall Chapman]

A fun and light read but really difficult to detail the history of the Montreal Canadiens in 187 pages. 1917-1944 was covered in depth, while the 50s/60s were hardly talked about. The 1970s consisted of mostly just Sam Pollock’s moves and then quickly turned into a very interesting detail on how the Canadiens quickly lost all their championship winners post-1979. I found the focus in the 80s and 90s very interesting albeit brief. A cool note from the author is how he focuses on how the Canadiens went from a dynasty in the late 70s to a completely and totally different organization 15 years later. Once Roy is traded, their last connection to glory is gone and they never really get it back. Even today in the 2025 offseason they’re still trying to get back to what they were. An interesting read.

[Malcolm]

Less locker room talk, more of a management history.

Should have been titled different, still an interesting listen except for one glaring issue. It seems as though the speaker went out of his way to mispronounce as many names as possible. Some names were pronounced up to three different ways. Very annoying. Shows how little preparation was taken by anyone involved in this production.

[Marc Leroux]

This wasn't at all what I was expecting. I picked this up on impulse, thinking that it was a set of stories about the Canadiens. Instead it is an analysis of the development of the organization, focusing on the owners and General Managers and the decisions that they made. It describes the evolution of the team, and looks at all the trades and signings made, and what the net outcome of each was. Overall, it was a good read, once I got my head around the fact that it was reall "Tales from the Montreal Canadiens board room, not the locker room.