Sportsnet is turning back the clock to relive Canada’s most unforgettable best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoffs series with NHL Classics: Best of Seven Series. Game 1 of the 1993 clash between Patrick Roy and the Canadiens and Wayne Gretzky and the Kings, airs tonight, April 22, starting at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT. The full broadcast schedule can be found here.

MONTREAL — The way Guy Carbonneau tells it, when Jacques Demers walked into the first team meeting of the 1992-93 season and told his Montreal Canadiens they were going to shock the hockey world and win the Stanley Cup, no one laughed. But a lot of sideways glances were subtly exchanged.

And it’s not because this ragtag group of players couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea. The Canadiens had the consensus best goaltender in the world in Patrick Roy, a near perfectly-balanced blue line, and a good mix of talent and grit up front, so belief wasn’t too hard to come by.

It’s just that even they knew they were more so earmarked for goodness than they were greatness — especially in relation to a juggernaut Pittsburgh Penguins team that was just months removed from holding a second consecutive Cup parade, a Boston Bruins team poised to do serious damage, and a Quebec Nordiques team loaded with talent and very much rising on the backs of Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Mats Sundin among others.

And those were just a few of the teams the Canadiens had to worry about on their side of the playoff picture.

Over in the Campbell Conference, the Chicago Blackhawks had a star-studded cast and all the makings of a Cup contender. The Detroit Red Wings had a well-established superstar in Steve Yzerman and two more on their way in youngsters Sergei Federov and Nicklas Lidstrom. The Toronto Maple Leafs were a force with Doug Gilmour and Wendell Clark leading the way and a young Felix Potvin vaulting up the goaltending ranks. The Vancouver Canucks — with Pavel Bure prepared to explode in his sophomore season and Trevor Linden, Cliff Ronning, Geoff Courtnall and Petr Nedved in tow — were ready to go on a deep run.

And then there were the Los Angeles Kings, who had the best player in the world in Wayne Gretzky and a supporting cast that couldn’t be underestimated.

I may have only been nine years old at the onset of that fabled season, but even I knew what kind of competition the Canadiens were up against. I was a diehard hockey fan, the kind of fan that begged, kicked and screamed for extended bedtimes; the kind that kept up with all the stats; and the kind that spent every waking minute playing or thinking about the game (sorry my grades sucked, Mom). I had high hopes for that Montreal group, but I wasn’t delusional. Like most fans of the team, I knew all the stars would have to align for them to win their first Cup since 1986.

Whatever hope I had was fading quickly as I approached my 10th birthday in March. The team that had established a 32-18-5 record, before rattling off eight wins in 10 February games, was sputtering towards the finish line. The Canadiens went 6-7 in March and then lost four of its final six games in April.

To say a first-round meeting with Quebec had an ominous feel to it would be understating it.

And my doubt had quickly turned to disappointment once the mighty Nordiques took a 2-0 series lead. I was ready to accept that this wasn’t going to be Montreal’s year.

But, as Patrice Brisebois told me in a telephone interview on Tuesday morning, the Canadiens’ belief wasn’t close to wavering.

“We knew it was going to be a tough series, but we also knew we could beat them. Sometimes you just need luck and you need the puck to turn in your favour,” Brisebois, a 22-year-old upstart defenceman on the ’93 team, said. “It didn’t start the way we wanted it to, but we played some great hockey. And I remember Jacques Demers and (GM) Serge Savard came in the room and said they liked the way we were playing and that we just needed a little bit of luck.”

A couple of small bounces got the Canadiens to even with Quebec over the next two games, and then they put the pedal down for a 4-2 series win.

Meanwhile, the big-picture bounces were monumental. The Buffalo Sabres had pulled off a considerable upset over the Bruins to present a much more favourable second-round matchup.

The Canadiens dispatched them in four hard-fought games, three of which were settled in overtime.

And then, the mother of all bounces went Montreal’s way as they waited for an opponent in the conference finals.

“So we get through Buffalo and we’re all watching Game 7 between the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins,” said Brisebois. “I have to be honest with you: Do you want to face the Islanders, or the Penguins with Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr? It’s a no-brainer. I don’t want to say you pick your poison, and it’s not to be disrespectful, but when the Islanders scored in OT of Game 7, we were all watching the game together at the hotel and everyone was jumping in the hallway. We were going crazy. It’s only normal, it’s human nature.

“Anyway, we got prepared and we knew the Islanders were good. They had Pierre Turgeon and Ray Ferraro and guys like that and we knew it was going to be a challenge.”

But the Canadiens then rolled through the Islanders in five games and, as they rested and watched the Kings gut their way through a gruelling seven-game series with Toronto, the team earmarked for goodness suddenly appeared destined for greatness.

The Canadiens were battle-tested. In digging their way out of the Quebec series — and in winning seven games in overtime en route to the Stanley Cup Final — they had built an unshakable confidence.

Brisebois believes the foundation of that confidence came from Demers.

“I wasn’t laughing when Jacques said we were going to shock the world and win the Cup,” he said. “That proved one thing: His ambition was so high. That is Jacques Demers. That is his personality. His positivity is extraordinary. The glass is always half full with Jacques. He was saying things to you that made you feel like you were Bobby Orr. In my head it was like, ‘I can skate, I can shoot, I can hit, I can block shots,’ because he was always telling me I could do it. That was Jacques, and I was not really shocked when he said that, because that’s the goal. That’s the goal every year is to win the Stanley Cup. To mention it that first meeting, it was wild, but we all looked at each other like, ‘Okay, I’m in for that.’

“The thing is, above all, I think we had character. Yes, we were a talented team, but we had character. To win a Stanley Cup — it’s not luck. You have to deserve it; no one is going to give it to you. I think of players like Kirk Muller, and Mike Keane, and Carbo and all those guys — they had character. They gave everything every night and every shift. As a young kid, you look at a guy like Carbo — yeah, he was our captain, but he wasn’t a talkative guy. He wasn’t talking much, but every time he was jumping on the ice it was like, ‘Holy cow! He’s ready to play.’ He wanted to make a difference and would sacrifice his body for anyone on the team. That character defined the team. We all had that and that desire to win. I think that’s why we made it.”