High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club, formally Le Club de Hockey Canadien, was founded on December 4, 1909. It is the oldest professional hockey franchise in the world, and one of the four founding teams of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup 24 times: once while part of the National Hockey Association (NHA), and 23 times as members of the NHL. With 25 NHL titles overall, they are the most successful team in league history. Created with the aim of appealing to Montreal`s francophone population, the Canadiens played their first game on January 5, 1910, and captured their first Stanley Cup in 1916. They returned to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1919, but their series against the Seattle Metropolitans was canceled without a winner due to the Spanish flu pandemic that killed defenceman Joe Hall.