The

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

(french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal) are a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

team based in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. They are members of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) and are one of the

Original Six The Original Six () are the teams that comprised the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1942 and 1967. The six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leaf ...

teams of the league. The club is officially known as '. Founded in 1909, they have played a total of 113 seasons, eight with the

National Hockey Association The National Hockey Association (NHA), officially the National Hockey Association of Canada Limited, was a professional ice hockey organization with teams in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is the direct predecessor of today's National Hockey Lea ...

(NHA) and 105 with the NHA's successor, the NHL. They are the only club to have played every season for both leagues and the only active NHL team to pre-date the founding of that league. They have won the

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

24 times, once under the NHA and 23 times since the founding of the NHL, and have also won 11

O'Brien Cup The O'Brien Trophy, or O'Brien Cup, as labelled on the trophy itself, is a retired trophy that was awarded in the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey leagues of North America from 1910 to 1950. It was ...

titles, 24 division championships, and eight conference championships. Overall they have the most games played, most wins, most ties, most points, most years in the playoffs, most division championships, and most Stanley Cup championships of any team in the NHL.

Table key

NHA (1910–1917)

From 1909–10 until 1916–17 the Canadiens played 8 seasons in the

(NHA). They qualified for the postseason three times and won two NHA championships as well as their first

title.

Notes (1910–1917)

*The Canadiens finished the 1913–14 season tied with the Toronto Blueshirts. The Blueshirts won the playoff and so the Canadiens finished in second place. *From the 1910 season to the 1916–17 season, the O'Brien Cup was awarded to the champion of the NHA. *The 1916–17 NHA season was played in two half seasons. Montreal qualified for the two-game total-goal playoff by winning the first half of the schedule.

NHL

Notes

*From the 1917–18 season to the 1920–21 season, the NHL played a split season schedule. The winners of both halves faced each other in a two-game, total-goals series for the NHL championship. *From the 1917–18 season to the 1925–26 season, the NHL had no divisions. *From the 1917–18 season to the 1926–27 season, the O'Brien Cup was awarded to the champion of the NHL. *The 1919 Stanley Cup Finals were suspended due to the 1918 flu pandemic. *The NHL declared the Canadiens to be league champions in 1925 when the Hamilton Tigers refused to play in the NHL Finals due to a dispute over player salaries. *From the 1926–27 season to the 1937–38 season, the Canadiens played in the Canadian Division. *From the 1927–28 season to the 1937–38 season, the O'Brien Cup was awarded to the champion of the Canadian Division. *From the 1938–39 season to the 1966–67 season, the NHL had no divisions. *From the 1938–39 season to the 1949–50 season, the O'Brien Cup was awarded to the NHL playoff runner-up, and was retired after the 1949–50 season. *Before the 1967–68 season, the NHL split into East and West Divisions because of the addition of six

expansion teams An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

. *The NHL realigned before the 1974–75 season. The Canadiens were placed in the

Prince of Wales Conference A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. ...

Norris Division The NHL's Norris Division was formed in 1974 as part of the Prince of Wales Conference. When the NHL realigned into geographic divisions in 1981, the division moved to the Clarence Campbell Conference, where it comprised the league's Great Lakes ...

. *Between 1974–75 and 1980–81, Conference championships were awarded to the team that finished first overall in their respective conference in the regular season. *Before the 1981–82 season, the NHL moved the Canadiens to the

Adams Division The NHL's Adams Division was formed in 1974 as part of the Prince of Wales Conference. The division existed for 19 seasons until 1993. It was named in honour of Charles Francis Adams, the founder of the Boston Bruins. It is the forerunner of the ...

. *Since 1981–82, Conference championships are awarded to the team that wins the Conference Finals in their respective conference in the postseason. *The NHL realigned into Eastern and Western conferences prior to the 1993–94 season. Montreal was placed in the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference. *The season was shortened to 48 games because of the 1994–95 NHL lockout. *Beginning with the 1999–2000 season, teams received one point for losing a regular-season game in overtime. *The season was cancelled because of the 2004–05 NHL lockout. *Before the 2005–06 season, the NHL instituted a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

for regular-season games that remained tied after a five-minute overtime period, which prevented ties. *The season was shortened to 48 games because of the 2012–13 NHL lockout. *The NHL realigned prior to the 2013–14 season. The Canadiens were placed in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. *The season was suspended on March 12, 2020 because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The top 24 teams in the league qualified for the playoffs. *Due to the

, the 2020–21 NHL season was shortened to 56 games.

Totals from all seasons

References

External links

Montreal Canadiens
official website {{Portal bar, Ice hockey, Sports, Canada

seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...