I lived a sometimes tormented childhood, marked by insecurity and anxiety.
Posted at 12:46 p.m.
But when this little boy went to watch hockey on Saturday nights at his grandparents’ in Saint-Lambert, there were never any bad surprises: my favorite little dish of macaroni always arrived at the same time, I was seated same place between my grand-moms and my grand-pops, the Canadiens always won and Guy Lafleur, my blonde-haired hero, almost inevitably scored.
Guy Lafleur was not just a hockey player. He soothed the child in me. Reassured him. He transcended sport.
If I practice this profession today, it is undoubtedly because of him. Because of these soothing childhood memories, which I no doubt wanted to keep alive in me to guide me for the rest of the road.
I didn’t have many opportunities to rub shoulders with my childhood idol during my first quarter of a century in the business at The Press.
A few years ago, however, Réjean Tremblay gave me the extraordinary gift of allowing me to recount the life of Guy Lafleur in the “Raconte-moi” youth collection.
I thought I was getting my first real date with this larger-than-life character when it launched in February 2020, but his medical condition thwarted his plans at the last moment.
A few weeks later, a book signing session had been scheduled, but the pandemic canceled the meeting.
I was finally able to share a moment with him in August 2021, during the filming of a documentary series.
At the very end of the interview, one of his last, I innocently asked him what he wanted people to remember about the hockey player he was.
Guy Lafleur already knew he was at the end of the course. He burst into tears for such a long time that time stood still. I had shivers, the film crew was moved to tears, the walls of the hotel room wept for compassion and affection.
There was no more journalist, only this kid, very small in front of this now fragile giant. I had just experienced the most moving moment of my career.
Once the cameras were off, recovered from our emotions, I was able to tell him, finally, how important he had been in the life of this vulnerable little boy…
Thanks Guy.
A memorable performance…
Guy Lafleur is the best player in the National Hockey League in May 1977.
That year, the Canadian reached the Stanley Cup final for the second year in a row. Lafleur won a second scoring championship with 56 goals and 136 points.
The Canadian faces the Boston Bruins. In the 1970s, the Bruins, nicknamed the “Big Bad Bruins”, and the Flyers, the “Broad Street Bullies”, intimidated many teams with excessive violence.
Fights and heavy beatings are much more tolerated back then, and players have less gear to protect themselves. Free-for-alls, and even fights in the stands, between players and spectators, are not uncommon.
When a Flyers or Bruins gorilla attacks you on the ice, you can’t always count on the linesmen to defend you, and the opposing star can be punched in the nose as well as kicked. stick in the teeth. This is the avowed goal: to hurt you, to injure you, even if it bleeds a lot, but above all, to scare your stomach.
The Canadiens won their first two games of the series at the Montreal Forum without overflowing with violence. But Guy Lafleur does not play to his liking, and he has a roofer named Don Marcotte who follows him like his shadow.
Not to mention the other Bruins players who never fail to kick Lafleur in the flanks or even behind his neck after the whistle.
Towards the end of the second game at the Forum, Lafleur, disgusted by the vicious blows of the Bruins, fired a shot in the direction of Mike Milbury, one of the Bostonians’ most detestable players.
Goalkeeper Gerry Cheevers leaves his position in front of the net to attack Lafleur. He raises his mask and looks at Lafleur menacingly.
The series is transported to the very unfriendly Boston Garden. Not only are the Bruins players intimidating, the layout of the stands makes the hostile and aggressive spectators seem glued to the ice.
A player with the slightest bit of fear had better keep quiet and not cause any scoring chances so as not to have the clumsy Bruins chasing him. Lafleur, he already knows that we are going to target him.
On the morning of that third game in Boston, Lafleur’s teammate, Jacques Lemaire, noticed that his right winger seemed lost in thought at breakfast at the hotel.
Lafleur did not touch his plate. Lemaire finally understands what is bothering Lafleur when he reads the Boston newspapers lying around on the table.
The night before, the Bruins’ most terrifying player, John Wensink, told reporters that Lafleur needed to skate with his head held high the next night because he was going to rip his head off. His statement had made the front page of all the newspapers.
Wensink, moreover, has a reputation for being unpredictable. He can lose his card on the ice and subject his opponent to the worst madness, which is not reassuring for Lafleur.
Players usually take a nap at the hotel the afternoon of a game, but Lafleur is not sleepy. He decides to take a long walk through the streets of Boston, a city that is always beautiful in the spring and much less hostile than its amphitheater.
On his return to the hotel, he manages to convince the trainer Pierre Meilleur and the equipment attendant Eddy Palchak to take a taxi to go directly to the arena without waiting for the team bus… three hours before the game. Lafleur wants to get rid of his fear by going to the Boston Garden as soon as possible.
The warm-up period is painful. The crowd howls its hatred towards Lafleur. Wensink doesn’t take his eyes off him. You could understand any athlete wanting to hide or go home. But Guy Lafleur is no ordinary athlete.
His nervousness seems to disappear from his first skating strokes. The game is only a few minutes old when he recovers a puck in the opposing zone and his powerful shot beats Cheevers on the side of the stick, it’s 1-0 Canadian and the Garden is suddenly silent.
Guy Lafleur finished the game with two goals and two assists and the Canadiens won 4-2 and found themselves just one victory away from the Stanley Cup.
He obtained two assists in the following match, still at the Garden, including the assist on Jacques Lemaire’s winning goal, and the Canadian won the 20and Stanley Cup in its history.
Bruins coach Don Cherry, thirsty for violence like his troops, pays a surprising tribute to Lafleur after the final.
“In an extraordinary way, Lafleur let us know what a great player he was,” he told reporters. The situation must have been suffocating for him, but he behaved like a real pro and he made us pay…”
That was it, Guy Lafleur. Not only the best player in the world. But the bravest too.
Russians eligible for draft
The National Hockey League does not intend to refuse the eligibility of Russian hopefuls in anticipation of the draft, July 7 and 8 in Montreal, despite the measures taken by certain major sports bodies, such as Wimbledon for example, teaches us the distinguished colleague Pierre Lebrun .
“We asked the question at the meeting of general managers in Florida and we just received the same answer today from the authorities of the League, the NHL will not imitate Wimbledon, declared Lebrun on the airwaves of TSN. On the other hand, it will be necessary to see if the Russian players will lose value in the eyes of the organizations, but the few recruiters surveyed say that this does not seem to be the case. »
Forwards Danila Yurov, Ivan Miroschnichenko, Paavel Mintyukov, Gleb Trikozov and Alexander Prevalov are among Russia’s top prospects.