Before 41, There was 40

The jersey sits framed in a bar on St-Jacques and if you’re not paying close attention, you could easily mistake it for Halak’s old number 41.

Except it’s not, give it a few more glances and it becomes quite apparent from the smaller Habs logo, CCM badges and bright red hue that this jersey isn’t number 41.

It’s number 40 and it used to belong to another Habs goalie, Les Kuntar.

At this point someone usually turns around and says “who the f*%k is Les Kuntar?”

It was New Year’s Eve, 1994 and it was Les Kuntar’s first NHL start after joining the team on December 23^rd. The 6’2” American goaltender – full name Leslie Stephen Kuntar – had been selected by the Canadiens out of High School 122^nd overall in the 1987 Draft.

“I was a Buffalo Sabres fan growing up,‘’ said the Elma NY native. “My family had season tickets, I still remember the feeling the day Mike Ramsay joined the team after the ‘Miracle on Ice’.”

A week before that (Dec 24^th, 1993), one day after his recall, Kuntar was skating on Memorial Auditorium ice in Buffalo coming in to relieve the shelled André Racicot. Not quite the start he had imagined to his NHL career, but back to December 31st 1993, his first career start.

The Habs were on a 3-5-2 run, still atop the Northeast division but the Sabres were closing in, only 6 points back, and Jacques Demers was looking for a way to wake his players up.

“So in comes Kuntar.”

Dave King was coaching the Flames at the time and of course, he couldn’t help but smirk at the Canadiens starting goalie, I mean let’s face it…

Years later, commenting the famed Flames-Habs rivalry, Theo Fleury would bring up the New Year’s Eve game:

“The Les Kuntar Game,” he said. “Kinger (Dave King) was still coaching then. And we play the big New Year’s Eve Game against Montreal and they put somebody named Les Kuntar in the nets… and he beats us! I think we had, oh, 10 shots the whole game. I mean, afterwards the guy coulda (sic) stuck his underwear up on the pin and not even had to wash it! Anyway, Kinger storms into the room after we lose, livid, his eyes are bugging out of his head and he starts yelling ‘Les Kuntar! We just got beat by Les F*%king Kuntar! Who the hell is Les Kuntar anyway?’”

Fate would take Kuntar on a path that many would identify with career minor leaguers. He only played six NHL games, sharing the pine with André Racicot, Martin Brochu and Ron Tugnutt with the Habs in ’94.

Kuntar retired in ’97, two years after joining the Flyers’ farm system as a free agent; he still plays in Western New York with several retired players (Michael Peca, Rob Ray, Darryl Shannon, etc.)

He definitely had one of the best names in hockey.

For those who’ve never read the fantastic blurb (and inspiration for this article) on Joe Pelletier’s GHL’s, here is the link.