After 60 years with Canadiens, David Mulder was honoured by team and shared some stories about star goalie, Chris Nilan and Saku Koivu.
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Dr. David Mulder is one of the nicest men I have ever met.
So I was very happy to see the Canadiens honour Mulder Thursday night at the Bell Centre with a gala event that raised more than $1.5 million for the Montreal General Hospital Foundation, the Serge Savard Fund of the Fondation de l’Université de Sherbrooke and the Centennial Emergency Fund for Montreal Canadiens Alumni.
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Mulder retired as the Canadiens’ team doctor last month after 60 years with the club, first working with the Junior Canadiens in 1963. Dr. Dan Deckelbaum is the team’s new head physician, with Mulder receiving emeritus status that will allow him to continue in an advisory role.
When Mulder met with the media at the Bell Centre before Thursday’s festivities began, he shed some light on the knee injury that has put an end to goalie Carey Price’s career at age 36.
“It was very frustrating for us and doubly frustrating for (Price) because he had two injuries,” Mulder said. “He had an injury to the meniscus, which is a cartilage in the joint. We sent him to New York. Dr. (Robert) Marx operated on him, tidied up the meniscus. And during the operation he discovered that the condylar — the important part of the femur, the big bone in your leg — had lost all its cartilage. About the size of a 50-cent piece. That was a complete surprise to us and that’s really what has ended his career.”
Price played his last game on April 29, 2022, making 37 saves in a 10-2 win over the Florida Panthers at the Bell Centre. He has two more seasons after this remaining on his eight-year, US$84-million contract and is on long-term injured reserve, meaning his US$10.5 million salary-cap hit doesn’t count on the team cap. Price will earn US$8.75 million this season and US$7.5 million in each of the next two seasons.
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Mulder also talked about how difficult it can be for a team doctor to convince a player that he can’t play because of an injury.
“I think I probably made an enemy for life almost when we were in the Stanley Cup final in Calgary (in 1986) and Chris Nilan sprained his ankle,” Mulder recalled. “It was swollen up like a balloon and he desperately wanted to play. He was ready to punch me out because I wouldn’t let him play.
“He’s forgiven me now,” Mulder added.
Mulder said he always did what was best for the health of a player, not taking any pressure from management, the media, the fans or a playoff situation.
The Canadiens also honoured members of the 1993 Stanley Cup team Thursday night at the Bell Centre.
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Chip off the Koivu block
Mulder said the most satisfying day of his career as Canadiens team doctor was when Saku Koivu returned to the lineup near the end of the 2001-02 season after receiving what the doctor called “a multi-drug chemotherapy and radiotherapy for Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”
“He was such a fighter and fought such a tough battle,” Mulder said. “The night he came back he came to see me in the little doctor’s room beside the clinic and he just said, ‘I’m so grateful to be getting back on the ice.’ And then he went on the ice and had a standing ovation for several minutes. It was unforgettable for me.”
Koivu received a nine-minute standing ovation from the Bell Centre fans before the game on April 9, 2002, and the Canadiens then beat the Ottawa Senators 4-3 to clinch a playoff spot for the first time in four years.
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Koivu’s 17-year-old son, Aatos, is eligible for this year’s NHL Draft. In 15 games this season with the TPS U18 team in Finland, Aatos has 5-10-15 totals. He has also played five games with the TPS U20 team, posting 5-3-8 totals.
Check out the shootout move below by Aatos.
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Mulder’s first hockey patient
When I interviewed Mulder a few years ago in his office at the Montreal General Hospital, he told me the story about how Bobby Orr was the first hockey player he ever had as a patient after he became team doctor with the Junior Canadiens in 1963.
“He was playing for Oshawa and he got quite a big cut in his forehead,” Mulder recalled. “Scalp wounds really bleed. In those days, the corridor to the clinic (at the Forum) was lined with battleship linoleum — red white and blue, of course. Anyways, by the time we got him to the clinic there was blood all over the floor, particularly on the white part.
“So I sutured him up, three or four stitches, stopped the bleeding, and I said, ‘Bobby you’re ready to go,’ ” Mulder added. “He said, ‘I’d like a wet towel.’ I said, ‘It’s OK, I wiped your face off.’ But he insisted on a wet towel. Then he got down on his hands and knees and washed the floor.”
Mulder and Orr would become friends over the years.
“He tells the story and says, ‘My mother always said that cleanliness was next to godliness,” Mulder said with a chuckle.
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Playing it safe
After setting an NHL record last season with 751 man-games lost to injury — breaking the record of 720 they set the previous season — the Canadiens are being very cautious this season when it comes to injured players returning to the lineup under Jim Ramsay, the new director of sports medicine, performance and head athletic therapist.
Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, who has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury, looked ready to play when he took part in Tuesday’s morning skate at the Bell Centre before a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but didn’t play. Harvey-Pinard looked ready again when he took part in Thursday’s morning skate in Detroit, but he didn’t play against the Red Wings.
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It was a similar situation with Kaiden Guhle, who missed four games earlier this season with an upper-body injury that Eric Engels of Sportsnet reported was a concussion. Christian Dvorak was kept out of the lineup until last Saturday’s game against St. Louis after having knee surgery in March.
The Canadiens hired Ramsay in June to replace Graham Rynbend, who was fired after spending 19 seasons with the club. Ramsay spent more than 28 years as head athletic therapist with the New York Rangers and for the last six seasons also held the role of director of sports medicine.
“I have full trust in how they’re conducting themselves and the decisions they make,” head coach Martin St. Louis said about the Canadiens’ medical staff. “I had Rammer on multiple Team Canada stuff (as a player) and I was with him for the Rangers for a year and a half, so I had him. I experienced having him and for me it was always an experienced guy that makes the best decision for the player. So I’m not surprised and I fully trust how he decides the decisions that he makes.”
Proud papa
St. Louis’s father, Normand, grew up on a family wood mill in Mont-Laurier, the 10th of 14 children.
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“My dad didn’t have time to be an athlete,” St. Louis told me during a one-on-one interview last season in his Bell Centre office. “My dad started working at 8 years old on the wood mill. He played hockey on Sunday outdoors with his brothers and other families. But they worked.
“So if anything that my dad passed down to me is the work ethic but, more importantly, how you treat people with respect no matter who you are, what you are. My dad really helped me to be a good human, not a good hockey player. I think that’s more important than anything to have success.”
St. Louis’s mother, France, passed away in 2014 from a heart attack at age 63.
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After getting hired as head coach of the Canadiens, St. Louis spoke about how his father’s family would listen to Canadiens games on the radio because they didn’t have a TV.
“They went to the TV store and the TV store would put the third period on through the window,” St. Louis said. “Nobody’s inside … everybody’s outside watching, freezing, and my dad’s on top of his brother’s shoulders.”
Monday was team-photo day at the Bell Centre and afterward I asked St. Louis what it means to him — and also his father — to be in a Canadiens team photo as head coach.
“It’s an honour,” St. Louis said. “But I don’t think my dad needs a team photo to be really happy with what his son is doing. But it’s a reminder that I’m very blessed, fortunate to have this job and I don’t take it for granted. I know my dad is very excited.”
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Hockey Moms
The Canadiens’ Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield had their mothers in attendance at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit for Thursday night’s game against the Red Wings. They gave their moms plenty to cheer about with Suzuki scoring a goal and adding an assist and Caufield scoring in overtime for a 3-2 win over the Red Wings.
The two hockey moms met for the first time last year when the Canadiens had a mother’s trip with games in Washington on New Year’s Eve and Nashville on Jan. 3. Amanda Suzuki, who lives in London, Ont., and Kelly Caufield, who lives in Wisconsin, became fast friends.
On the mother’s trip, I asked Amanda if she had any advice for other hockey moms with young sons dreaming of one day playing in the NHL.
“I just think you just let the boys play the game and don’t put pressure on them,” she said. “If they love the game, they’ll succeed if the kids put in the time and effort. A little bit of luck comes into play as well. There is no magic formula, there’s no special school you go to, no special training you need to do. It’s just if the kid’s talented, he’ll make it.”
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Catching up with the Petrys
Boyd Petry’s favourite two players when his father, Jeff, was playing for the Canadiens were Suzuki and Brendan Gallagher.
So Boyd must have been thrilled when Suzuki, Gallagher and Jake Evans had dinner at the Petry house in Detroit the night before Thursday’s game against the Red Wings.
Canadiens GM Kent Hughes reacquired Petry from the Pittsburgh Penguins this summer and then traded him to the Red Wings. Petry is wearing No. 46 with the Red Wings — the same number his father, Dan, wore as a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers for 11 seasons, helping them win the World Series in 1984.
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Three years ago, when Boyd was 4, the Canadiens put a microphone on him and followed him with a camera during a Canadiens game against the Florida Panthers at the Bell Centre. It was very cute.
“I wanted Suzuki to score, so he scored,” Boyd tells his mother, Julie, in the video. “I love Suzuki.”
“He always talks about (Suzuki) at home,” Petry said about Boyd after the video came out. “Last year, it was Gally … he still likes Gally, but I think he got knocked down a peg. Even when we come out after the games and we’re walking out and Suzuki walks by, he always says: ‘That’s Suzuki!’ I think it’s fun. He’s recognizing players.”
When asked where Boyd’s father ranked on his list of favourite players with the Canadiens at the time, Petry chuckled and said: “I don’t know? You ask him, sometimes he’ll say me first. But it’s Gally and Suzuki.”
Last year, Julie gave birth to the couple’s fourth son, Blake, who joined brothers Boyd, Barrett and Bowen.
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Kassian hangs up skates
Arber Xhekaj’s first fight in the NHL came in only his fifth game last season as a rookie with the Canadiens when he manhandled veteran Arizona Coyotes tough-guy Zack Kassian.
It ended up being the second-to-last fight of Kassian’s career. The 32-year-old announced his retirement last month after 12 seasons in the NHL, during which he posted 92-111-203 totals in 661 games while racking up 913 penalty minutes.
“That obviously helped me take off a little bit and get my name out there after that one,” Xhekaj said about his fight with Kassian. “He was a great player. He played 600 or 700 games in the NHL. He had a great career and I wish him all the best.”
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Kassian was recently a guest on Frank Seravalli’s Frankly Speaking podcast and talked about his very brief stint with the Canadiens after former GM Marc Bergevin acquired him from the Vancouver Canucks on July 1, 2015, in exchange for Brandon Prust.
Kassian never played a game with the Canadiens after he was involved in an accident in which a 20-year-old woman driving his pickup truck ran into a tree in Montreal around 6 a.m. on Oct. 5, 2015, two days before the first regular-season game. The NHL and NHLPA placed Kassian in Stage 2 of its substance-abuse program after that, meaning he had previously violated Stage 1 of the four-stage program. After completing Stage 2, the Canadiens traded Kassian to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for goalie Ben Scrivens.
Kassian was able to get sober and play eight more seasons in the NHL.
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The sad fall of Galchenyuk
Alex Galchenyuk looked like he had a bright future when he scored 30 goals for the Canadiens in 2015-16 after they selected him with the No. 3 overall pick at the 2012 NHL Draft.
It all went downhill after that and Galchenyuk’s NHL career is almost certainly over at age 29 after he was arrested on July 9 in Scottsdale, Ariz., on charges of private property hit and run, disorderly conduct, failure to obey, resisting arrest and threatening or intimidating.
Galchenyuk ended up playing for seven teams during 11 seasons in the NHL — the Canadiens, Arizona Coyotes, Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche. His father was a constant presence around Galchenyuk when he was with the Canadiens and he was also with him when he got arrested in Arizona.
Galchenyuk ended up pleading guilty to one count of threatening and the other charges were dismissed. He was ordered to spend two days in jail, complete an alcohol treatment program in exchange for not getting more jail time, and pay a fine of US$563.
The Coyotes released Galchenyuk from his one-year, US$775,000 contract after the arrest and he joined SKA Saint Petersburg in the KHL, where he has 9-9-18 totals in 26 games this season.
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A disturbing video of Galchenyuk in the back seat of the police car in Arizona was released Thursday in which he threatens the lives of the families of the police officers and uses the n-word multiple times toward a Black officer.
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Lehkonen taken to hospital
There was a scary moment in Thursday night’s Avalanche game when former Canadien Artturi Lehkonen crashed head-first into the boards after colliding with Seattle Kraken defenceman Jamie Oleksiak.
Lehkonen was helped off the ice by trainers and taken to a Denver hospital. The Avalanche reported that Lehkonen was alert, responsive and had full movement in the hospital. Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar told reporters in Colorado that Lehkonen “got caught in a bad spot and ran into a big guy.” Oleksiak is 6-foot-7 and 257 pounds.
Bednar added that the “level of concern is high” for the organization because Lehkonen’s injuries were serious enough that he needed to go to a hospital. In 12 games this season, Lehkonen has 3-5-8 totals.
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Bonjour, mon ami
There was a cool scene during the pregame warmup at Madison Square Garden Thursday night when Minnesota Wild goalie Marc-André Fleury skated over to talk with Rangers goalie Louis Domingue.
After the game, Jonny Lazarus — who covers the Rangers for The Hockey News and The Blue Crew — asked Domingue what they talked about.
“It’s actually something that everybody should listen to,” Domingue said. “He said, ‘It’s pretty rare that two French guys get to play against each other nowadays in the NHL, so let’s give them a good show.’”
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Fleury is from Sorel, while Domingue is from Saint-Hyacinthe.
Domingue stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced in the game as the Wild beat the Rangers 4-1. Fleury allowed three goals on 27 shots with the final goal an empty-netter.
For the 31-year-old Domingue, it was his first game in the NHL since the 2022 playoffs with the Pittsburgh Penguins after getting called up from the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, where he had a 3-1-0 record this season with a 1.75 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage.
Fleury, 38, has 547 career wins and needs four more to tie Patrick Roy for second place on the all-time list for goalies behind Martin Brodeur, who won 691 games.
Habs prospect Hutson shines
For the second time this season, Canadiens prospect Lane Hutson was named the Hockey East player of the week on Monday.
The 19-year-old sophomore defenceman with Boston University scored four goals in two games against North Dakota last weekend, including his first collegiate hat trick. In seven games this season, Hutson has 6-3-9-totals.
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As a freshman last season, Hutson posted 15-33-48 totals in 39 games and had a plus-25 differential while becoming the first defenceman in Hockey East history to win the league scoring title. Boston University won the league championship with Hutson scoring two goals — including the winner in overtime — in a 3-2 victory over Merrimack in the championship game.
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