Unless you were around at the time and can remember it (which would make you at least 55), you really can't understand how important he was to the early years of this franchise.
I will go far as to insist that we could have won the Cup if he had been coach instead of Floyd Smith in 1974-5. And, as the only team that the Habs really feared in the late 1970's, it is unlikely but possible that the Sabres could have stolen a Cup from them.