The Canadian | Like mothers, like sons

(Washington, DC) David Savard was certainly one of the great stories of the Canadian’s start to the season. By taking Kaiden Guhle under his wing, sacrificing his body to block shots, he gave off the impression that it was he who held this very young defensive unit at arm’s length. A unit that has been struggling for a long time since Savard was injured.

“He’s a good person. We first need good people and then we can think about hockey,” goaltender Jake Allen said of him after the first game of the season, during which Savard blocked nine shots.

For Savard, the Canadiens locker room is simply another where his personality is appreciated. In Columbus, he had notably acted as a big brother for Pierre-Luc Dubois.

In Tampa, despite staying for a few months, he had won enough respect from his teammates to be the third Lightning player to wear the Stanley Cup in the 2021 triumph, after Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman.

Habs players’ mothers have been invited to attend the final segment of the team’s holiday trip to Washington and Nashville.

While the Canadian was being peppered by the Capitals, it was therefore an opportunity to meet Céline Lamy, Savard’s mother, one of the people who had instilled in him the values ​​of life. A discreet lady, who warns from the outset that she is “not used to giving interviews! “.

“David spent some great years in Columbus,” she told two journalists from Montreal. Even in Tampa, I was super happy for him, because the dream of all players is the Stanley Cup. He was lucky to win it and several players will play 10, 15 years without winning it. And then he was offered a contract with the Canadiens. All young Quebecers who play hockey dream of playing for the Canadiens. »

She was thrilled because her son was now a man. Savard was 30 when he agreed for four seasons with the Canadiens in the summer of 2021. He then had some 600 games behind the tie, he had experienced triumphs, failures, he had played under two coaches with diametrically different styles opposites in John Tortorella and Jon Cooper.

In short, Savard had experience, which can’t hurt for a Quebecer who plays at home.

“Like mom, I said to him: David, I’m glad you’re 30 years old. I told him: we are afraid of you, the media. It’s a cruel life. One day you are a hero. Afterwards, sometimes… “, she drops.

“That was what I found difficult, I wondered how it was going to be. But he has 10 years of experience, he has the maturity to manage it, to know that you have to take it and leave it. »

For the others

Céline Lamy has made a career in the public service. “Ministry of the Family, Retraite Québec, Secretariat for the Status of Women, she lists. So the situation of women, of poor people, I’ve always had that at heart. »

Throughout the interview, she will often repeat the word “benevolence”. A value that seems cardinal for her.

“My parents, Gervais’s parents, his father, we had the same values. We do the best we can. We are not immune to mistakes. But if you’ve done your best, that you’re kind to others, that’s essential. And in a team, when everyone takes care of the others, you’re stronger as a team. »

Values ​​that seem to stick quite well to the skin of the bearded colossus and which can explain why, without being a contender for the Norris trophy, he has marked the teams where he has passed so much.

In hockey as in life

Numbers 14 and 22 have been inseparable with the Canadian for several months. Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield have indeed played all but one of the games of the season as part of the same trio. In the mothers’ box at Capital One Arena, it was therefore amusing to see the ladies wearing these vests sitting together, side by side. In fact, it all started with the wires. When Nick Suzuki booked a flight for his mother, Amanda, he bought a ticket departing from Detroit, where Kelly Caufield was also departing. “Nick called me, he asked me for my seat, and Cole then bought Kelly’s ticket and took her a seat next to mine,” says Amanda Suzuki. It was the first time I had met her and it was as if I already knew her! She had lots of nice things to say about Nick and me, about Cole. Kelly Caufield was also grateful for the initiative, which obviously came from Suzuki. “Nick did all the work, and Cole followed. Make sure you tell it well! “, she says with a mischievous smile. A few minutes after Kelly Caufield’s joke, Nick Suzuki did his usual maneuver on the right side of the offensive zone, on the power play, before serving a perfect pass to Cole Caufield who only had to shoot into a net desert for the Habs’ first goal. Like everything is in everything.