Juggling lines in hockey is common. It takes a lot of effort to find the right combination of players who mesh together and can be productive. Famous threesomes are often given a name, and sometimes that name has something to do with the players’ names themselves. But what do you think the odds are that of having all three players with the same first name? Not great, but believable. What about all three having the same name and the same birthday? Well it’s true. “Les Trois Denis” were all born on Feb. 4, 1961.

Denis Savard, Denis Cyr and Denis Tremblay played on a line together with the Montreal Juniors in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The three of them were paired together as they were all boyhood friends in Verdun, Quebec. Les Trois Denis played for two seasons together from 1977-1979, scoring 665 points combined. Tremblay would be traded in 1980, ending the once-in-a-lifetime union. Savard and Cyr would continue to dominate the QMJHL, setting personal records without their friend by their side.

Tremblay was never drafted into the NHL, but Savard and Cyr both made it. Both were taken in the first round of the 1980 Entry Draft; Savard third by Chicago and Cyr 13th by Calgary. Savard played 18 seasons in Chicago, Montreal and Tampa Bay. He scored 539 career goals and 1,513 points in 1,365 regular season and playoff games combined. He also won a Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1993. Cyr only played 193 games in the NHL, split with Calgary, Chicago and St. Louis. He scored 41 goals and totaled 84 points.

Hockey is the only sport where players can be defined as much by their own talent, but by how they and their teammates work with each other to rise above individual skills for the benefit of the team. The Kid Line, The MPH Line, The Pony Line, The Production Line…all great, but interchangeable if necessary. Something like Les Trois Denis is truly unique, and something like that may never come along again. It’s too bad these three didn’t have the chance to play together in the NHL. Their success as a unit in Junior hockey was enough to give the world notice; who knows how many red lights they could have lit in a professional jersey.