Happy 80th Birthday to Jacques Lemaire

Lemaire’s career lasted 12 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, where he started as an underrated piece on the Habs’ 1968 and 1969 Stanley Cup teams. During his rookie season in 1967-68, he played in a primarily checking role where he still managed to score 22 goals and 42 points in 68 games. He also finished 2nd in Calder Trophy voting.

The next year, his offensive game started to progress as he saw some ice time centring speedy winger and fellow Hall-of-Fame Yvan Cournoyer for much of the season. In 75 games during the 1968-69 campaign, Lemaire improved to 29 goals and 63 points. He earned himself a permanent spot within the Habs’ top 2 lines going forward.

Lemaire was a great fit everywhere he was put in the Habs lineup, as he was great both offensively and defensively. Throughout his 12-year career, Lemaire’s numbers would end up averaging out to 35 goals and 80 points over an 82-game schedule. 

During the 1972-73 season, Lemaire led the Montreal Canadiens in scoring with a career-high 44 goals and 95 points in 77 games while playing with Hall-of-Fame players Yvan Cournoyer and Frank Mahovlich. In those playoffs, he would finish with 7 goals and 20 points in 17 games en route to helping the Canadiens win their 18th Stanley Cup and his 4th in 6 seasons. 

The 1972-73 season was the only year he led the Habs in scoring; however, he had his best point totals during the 1977-78 season when he centred Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt. That season, Lemaire finished with a career-high 61 assists and 97 points in 76 games. 

Lemaire also proved to be a very clutch come playoff time, as he scored two Stanley Cup-winning goals, including most notably the overtime winner against the Boston Bruins in Game 4 of the 1977 Stanley Cup Finals.

His best playoff performance came during the 1979 playoffs, where he scored the Stanley Cup winner against the New York Rangers in a 4-1 victory that clinched the Habs’ 22nd Stanley Cup in team history. During those playoffs, Lemaire scored a career-high 11 goals and 23 playoff points in 16 games. 

Following those playoffs, Lemaire actually retired from the NHL, finishing his career with 8 Stanley Cups in 12 seasons with the Canadiens. Lemaire finished his career with 366 goals and 835 points in 853 games with the Montreal Canadiens, ranking 7th all-time in team history. He also added 61 goals and 139 points in 145 playoff games, which is second in Habs history behind only the legendary Jean Beliveau. He was inducted as a player in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984.

After his time in the NHL, Lemaire went on to be a player-coach with Sierre HC of the Swiss B league for the next two seasons. He eventually got hired as an assistant coach by the Canadiens behind Bob Berry in the 1983-84 season, and ended up taking over as head coach when the team fired Berry late in the season. 

He only spent another season with the Habs as head coach before becoming assistant GM for the 1985-86 season, where he won two more Stanley Cups (1986 and 1993) with the Canadiens organization in that position. Lemaire also won a Stanley Cup as a head coach with the New Jersey Devils in 1995. If Lemaire never got in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a player, he likely would have gotten in as a coach, renowned for his strong focus on defense first.

Lemaire was an elite centreman for the Canadiens, but also proved to be an amazing coach in his post-playing career.

Happy 80th birthday once again to Jacques Lemaire!