2003–04 Montreal Canadiens season

Offseason

Bob Gainey, who played his entire 16 season NHL career with Montreal, was named the team’s new general manager on June 2, 2003, and assumed the role on July 1 from Andre Savard, who was demoted to assistant general manager.

Regular season

Heritage Classic

The Heritage Classic was an outdoor ice hockey game played on November 22, 2003, in Edmonton, Alberta, between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens. It was the second NHL outdoor game and the first regular season outdoor game in the history of the NHL, and was modeled after the success of the "cold war" game between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in 2001.

The first NHL game to be played outdoors was in 1991 when the Los Angeles Kings played the New York Rangers in an exhibition game outside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The event took place in Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium in front of a crowd of 57,167, the largest number of people to ever watch a live NHL game, despite temperatures of close to −18 °C, −30 °C (−22 °F) with wind chill. It was held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Edmonton Oilers joining the NHL in 1979.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) television broadcast also set the record for most viewers of a single NHL game with 2.747 million nationwide. This was the first NHL game broadcast in HDTV on CBC.

The Canadiens won the game by a score of 4–3.

Final standings

Schedule and results

Regular season

|- |1||October 9, 2003||2–5 || style="text-align:left;"| @ Ottawa Senators (2003–04) ||0–1–0–0||0 || |- |2||October 11, 2003||4–0 || style="text-align:left;"| @ Toronto Maple Leafs (2003–04) ||1–1–0–0||2 || |- |3||October 14, 2003||5–1 || style="text-align:left;"| Washington Capitals (2003–04) ||2–1–0–0||4 || |- |4||October 16, 2003||4–1 || style="text-align:left;"| Pittsburgh Penguins (2003–04) ||3–1–0–0||6 || |- |5||October 18, 2003||0–1 || style="text-align:left;"| Toronto Maple Leafs (2003–04) ||3–2–0–0||6 || |- |6||October 20, 2003||2–1 || style="text-align:left;"| Detroit Red Wings (2003–04) ||4–2–0–0||8 || |- |7||October 23, 2003||3–0 || style="text-align:left;"| New York Islanders (2003–04) ||5–2–0–0||10 || |- |8||October 25, 2003||2–6 || style="text-align:left;"| Ottawa Senators (2003–04) ||5–3–0–0||10 || |- |9||October 27, 2003||0–5 || style="text-align:left;"| @ Philadelphia Flyers (2003–04) ||5–4–0–0||10 || |- |10||October 28, 2003||0–2 || style="text-align:left;"| Boston Bruins (2003–04) ||5–5–0–0||10 || |- |11||October 30, 2003||1–0 OT|| style="text-align:left;"| @ Boston Bruins (2003–04) ||6–5–0–0||12 ||

| Legend:

Playoffs

|- | 1 || April 7 || Montreal || 3–0 || Boston || || Raycroft || 17,565 || Boston leads 1–0 || |- | 2 || April 9 || Montreal || 2–1 || Boston || OT || Raycroft || 17,565 || Boston leads 2–0 || |- | 3 || April 11 || Boston || 3–2 || Montreal || || Theodore || 21,273 || Boston leads 2–1 || |- | 4 || April 13 || Boston || 3–4 || Montreal || OT || Raycroft || 21,273 || Boston leads 3–1 || |- | 5 || April 15 || Montreal || 5–1 || Boston || || Theodore || 17,565 || Boston leads 3–2 || |- | 6 || April 17 || Boston || 2–5 || Montreal || || Theodore || 21,273 || Series tied 3–3 || |- | 7 || April 19 || Montreal || 2–0 || Boston || || Theodore || 17,565 || Montreal wins 4–3 ||

| Legend:

Player statistics

Scoring

• Position abbreviations: C = Centre; D = Defence; G = Goaltender; LW = Left wing; RW = Right wing
• • = Joined team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, signing) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Canadiens only.*
• • = Left team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, release) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Canadiens only.*

Goaltending

Awards and records

Awards

Milestones

Transactions

The Canadiens were involved in the following transactions from June 10, 2003, the day after the deciding game of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, through June 7, 2004, the day of the deciding game of the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals.

Trades

Players acquired

Players lost

Signings

Draft picks

Montreal's draft picks at the 2003 NHL entry draft held at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Notes

References

References

1. (June 2, 2003). "Canadiens name Gainey GM".
2. "Edmonton Oilers Heritage Website - Heritage Classic".
3. "Not exactly the first time". CBC News.
4. "2003-04 Montreal Canadiens Schedule and Results".
5. "Postseason All-Star Teams".
6. "2004 NHL All-Star Game Rosters".
7. (March 2, 2004). "Habs take shine off Brodeur".
8. (March 8, 2004). "Zednik, Khabibulin earn weekly honors".
9. (March 2, 2004). "Former Mississippi Right Wing Ryder Named NHL Rookie of the Month".
10. (January 24, 2004). "2004 YoungStars Game rosters".
11. (April 1, 2004). "Bouillon receives Jacques-Beauchamp Molson Trophy".
12. (April 2, 2004). "Theodore named Molson Cup Player of the Year for a fourth consecutive season".
13. "2003-04 NHL Debuts".
14. (January 7, 2004). "Habs use early goals to extend win streak".
15. "Hockey Transactions Search Results".
16. (June 23, 2003). "NHL DRAFT TRADES".
17. (March 3, 2004). "RANGERS TRADE KOVALEV TO HABS".
18. (March 4, 2003). "Jim Dowd goes from Wild to Canadiens".
19. (March 10, 2004). "Canucks add Sanderson, Rucinsky at forward".
20. (July 4, 2003). "Canadiens sign Pierre Dagenais and Jean-François Damphousse".
21. (October 3, 2003). "20 picked in NHL waiver draft".
22. (March 19, 2004). "Habs sign goaltender Danis".
23. (July 1, 2003). "2003 NHL free agent list".
24. (July 17, 2003). "Thursday roundup: Czerkawski returns to Isles".
25. (July 1, 2003). "Kilger agrees to two-year deal".
26. {{hockey-reference. m/mckayra02. Randy McKay, retrieved May 23, 2022
27. {{eliteprospects. 24300. Matt O'Dette, retrieved May 23, 2022
28. (July 29, 2003). "DESCOTEAUX VAHVISTAA KIRVESRINTOJA".
29. (August 25, 2003). "Thrashers sign Lindsay".
30. (24 January 2004). "GINO ODJICK".
31. (January 16, 2004). "Florida signs Donald Audette".
32. (January 3, 2004). "Canadiens buy out Audette".
33. (March 9, 2004). "Kilger Claimed On Waivers".
34. (May 1, 2004). "Canadiens F Juneau announces retirement".
35. (May 14, 2004). ""Dacke" hemma igen".
36. (June 17, 2003). "Beauchemin, Fichaud and Carpentier Under Contract".
37. (July 11, 2003). "Perezhogin under contract with the Canadiens".
38. (July 22, 2003). "Ryder signs one-year deal with Habs".
39. (July 24, 2003). "Ribeiro under contract with the Canadiens".
40. (August 4, 2003). "Dwyer sous contrat avec les Canadiens".
41. (August 27, 2003). "Markov re-signs with Canadiens".
42. (September 5, 2003). "Canadiens Re-Sign Koivu".
43. (June 1, 2004). "Canadiens sign forward Michaël Lambert".
44. "2003 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com".