It was never the building itself that made the Montreal Forum so special. It was simply the perfect stage, over seven decades, for North America's greatest pro sports dynasty to build its legend.
Sometimes there was heartbreak - a funeral at center ice for the Montreal Canadiens' first superstar, Howie Morenz, after he died from a mid-season injury in 1937. There was a searing riot in 1955 protesting the suspension of Maurice "Rocket" Richard.But mostly the Forum will be remembered for the parade of Canadiens heroes responsible for the 24 Stanley Cup banners hanging from the rafters. Rocket and Henri Richard, Jean Beliveau, Jacques Plante, Guy Lafleur and dozens more.
On Monday night, against Dallas, the Canadiens play their final game at the Forum, 72 years after their first. There will be a ceremony Friday moving the Cup banners 15 blocks to the east, and on Saturday, against the New York Rangers, the Canadiens inaugurate the state-of-the-art Molson Center.
The club hopes the new arena will breed legends of its own, but it is carefully transferring all the Forum's mementos, and recreating the home-team locker room with its portraits of Canadiens' 40 Hall of Famers.
"I want them all to look at the past," said Canadiens president Ronald Corey, speaking of younger players present and future.
The Forum opened Nov. 29, 1924, at the corner of Atwater and St. Catherine streets just west of downtown Montreal. Seating 9,000, it was the first building in North America erected specifically for hockey.
The Canadiens routed the Toronto St. Patricks 7-1 in that inaugural match, although they didn't move to the Forum permanently until 1926.
Many old-timers considered the ensuing 12 years the glory days of Montreal hockey because of the crosstown rivalry between the Canadiens, whose fans were mostly French-speaking, and the Maroons, backed by English-speakers. The Maroons folded in 1938.
During that era, the Canadiens produced hockey's first genuine superstar in Morenz, a fearless center known for hurtling airborne through defensemen who tried to double-team him.
In 1937, he fractured his leg against the Chicago Black Hawks and died of complications in a Montreal hospital March 8. Grief-stricken Montreal virtually shut down - 15,000 mourners packed into the Forum for his funeral, and 50,000 more gathered outside.
The 1940s marked the advent of the Rocket - considered by many the most electrifying player in hockey history. Some of his feats were boggling: scoring all his team's goals in a 5-1 playoff victory over Toronto in 1944, coming back the next season to score an unheard-of 50 goals in 50 games.
In 1955, the fiery Richard was suspended for punching a linesman. Montreal fans were infuriated that the suspension included not only the last three games of the regular season, but also the playoffs.
When the commissioner who ordered the suspension, Clarence Campbell, showed up at the Forum for the Canadiens' next game March 17, fans went berserk, and street battles erupted around the arena. It was such a traumatic event that some Quebeckers believe it helped fuel the province's still-flourishing separatist movement.
The Canadiens got revenge starting in 1956, winning the first of five straight Stanley Cups with perhaps their greatest group of players - the two Richards, Plante, Beliveau, Doug Harvey, Boom Boom Geoffrion, Dickie Moore, Tom Johnson, all Hall of Famers.
Beliveau, who helped win 10 Stanley Cups in his 18 seasons, said the Forum was distinguished by its passionate, knowledgeable fans.
"They let you know when you were dragging your feet," he said.
The Forum was expanded to 13,500 seats in 1949, and renovated into a modern, 16,500-seat arena in 1968. It was never just a hockey rink - showcasing performers from Lawrence Welk and Louis Armstrong to the Beatles and the Bolshoi Ballet. At Canadiens' practices the morning after big rock concerts, the smell of marijuana would still pervade the air.
At the 1976 Olympics, the Forum accommodated the basketball and boxing finals, as well as Nadia Comaneci's riveting series of perfect scores in gymnastics.
The Forum's fate now is uncertain. The Molson beer company, which owns the Canadiens and built the new 21,361-seat arena, may buy the old building from the Bronfman family and sell it to the city for use as a recreation center, but the deal is not final.
The local press is upbeat about the move, depicting the Molson Center as a match for any hockey arena anywhere. Canadiens players, past and present, are philosophical.
"It doesn't bother me," Rocket Richard told The Montreal Gazette. "The only thing that makes me mad is that people who love hockey will have to pay so much more money to see the game."
The Canadiens have been practicing at the Molson Center, and are impressed by the new facilities, including a much more spacious training area.
"It will be sad to leave the old Forum, but we've got to see the new arena as positive for the team," said Pierre Turgeon, the captain.