From NHL.com's Dave Stubbs:

The end for NHL hockey in the historic Montreal Forum came March 11, 1996, with a 4-1 victory for the Montreal Canadiens against the Dallas Stars.

It was the 2,329th regular-season game played in the building at the corner of Ste. Catherine Street West and Atwater Avenue, with 307 more in the Stanley Cup Playoffs during the arena's seven-plus decades of hockey life. The Canadiens won 12 of their NHL-record 24 Stanley Cup championships at the magnificent ice palace built in 159 days at a cost of $1.5 million.

The Forum opened with great pomp and ceremony on Nov. 29, 1924, and for 72 years it was home to myriad events of sports, entertainment and politics. But it remained most famous for the Canadiens, which explains the tears of fans, arena staff and players past and present that began to flow almost at the sound of the final siren 21 years ago.

A sellout crowd of 17,959 cheered itself hoarse and wept its eyes a puffy red during an emotional closing ceremony that featured, on a long red carpet laid on the rink, many of the greatest Canadiens to ever lace up skates, among them 21 members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Jean Beliveau, Elmer Lach, Butch Bouchard, Henri Richard and Guy Lafleur were among those for whom the fans raised the roof. But it was for the iconic Maurice Richard, introduced last, that they saved their best.

Continued