When Maurice Richard died, there was a vigil in his modest bungalow in the modest neighborhood of Montreal Ahunsick, on the northern edge of the city. His lawn was covered with flowers and reverence. People who were too young to watch the Rocket game stood on the sidewalk crying in the middle of the day, on weekdays.
When Jean Belivo died, his state funeral took place amid a severe, severe snowstorm, even by Montreal standards. It sucked, with something that looked like big balls of slush coming down from the sky. A large screen was set up outside the church for the audience to see the debate. And they did. Crowds of them standing in this filth, hit by large balls of slush.
It’s hard to explain what people like Maurice Richard and Jean Beliveau mean to the people of Quebec, their people, because that’s not a typical relationship between sports superstars and fans. That’s more than that, much more. This is related to the self-confidence of the population, its ultimate potential, its place in the world as a whole.
Guy Lafleur did not play in the same era as The Rocket and took advantage of Béliveau’s guidance and leadership. But what he represented for generations of Quebec’s population was very similar. If there was Mount Rushmore of the greatness of the Canadians – with all due respect to Howie Morenz – there would have to be a stick carved into the mountain to be handed over by Richard in the 1940s and 1950s to Belivo in the 1950s and 60s to Lafleur in the 70s and 80s of the last century, Patrick Roy in the 1980s and 90s. An almost continuous line of Quebec superstars playing in Montreal for the Canadiens, which was once a public institution much more than a hockey team.
There are many legends that have played for Canadians. There are so many players who once wore Canadian uniforms to the Hockey Hall of Fame that one side of their locker room was lined with their portraits, and they ran out of room and needed a second row.
But this is different. Lafleur, who died early Friday at the age of 70, was different. The term “icon” is too loose, but it really fits with Lafleur.
What Richard, Beliveau and Lafleur have in common is how well they understand their responsibilities as pillars of the Canadian franchise, pillars of society in Quebec as a whole. Richard was more of a shy man who might not have embraced the role completely, but he understood it. However, Belive and Lafleur understood and embraced him, as Belive showed Lafleur why it was so important.
It was because of what they meant to the people, their people.
“I think the Montreal Canadiens are an integral part of the Quebec community and have always been,” said Canadiens owner Jeff Molson. “No matter what corner of the province, the feeling is that Quebecers own this team and it belongs to them.
“Guy Lafleur presented this perfectly, because no matter where he went, he represented the people who love this team. And it was so appreciated that he was like that and obviously there were others who were like that, but today we are talking about Guy and he was one of the best. “
Lafleur’s influence on the game was almost as great as his influence on his home province. He arrived in 1971-72, the season after Belivo’s retirement, and everyone understood that this was a very real torchbearer. The pressure on him was enormous, and it took Lafleur several years to endure it.
But then he did.
It was a time when banditry and intimidation threatened to take over hockey. The big bad Bruins. The bullies on the wide street.
The Canadians have won the Stanley Cup six times in a decade, but it was their series of four consecutive ones from 1976 to 1979 that was truly driven by Lafleur’s greatness and style of play that exuded grace, skill and beauty, his blond hair fluttering in the wind as he raced up the ice. He was the opposite of hockey, which seemed to be taking over.
These Canadian teams have shown that hockey can be played and won beautifully. For the past half-decade, Guy Lafleur has been the best hockey player on the world’s best hockey team.
“When the Flyers won in successive years (1974 and 1975), many teams tried to play like the Flyers,” said former Canadiens goalkeeper Ken Dryden of host Mitch Melnik on TSN 690. “The Canadians, of course, had a pair of strong boys. in the team, but the decision was made – it would have been made by Sam Pollock and made by Scotty Bowman and made by the players – that we don’t want to play this way and that we didn’t do it we have to play this way and that we can win our way. ”
Dryden called the 1976 Stanley Cup championship his favorite because he ended the management of these Broad Street Bullies teams, but also because he proved that the way Canadians played the game could lead to results. lead to success. That it was worth copying.
And Lafleur was central to that influence over the bigger game.
“Guy, as the best player on the best team, made a huge difference because it’s not easy to be the best player on the best team,” Dryden continued. “Especially when you’re at the Canadiens, when for those 25 years from the mid-’50s to the late ’70s they won Stanley’s Buy for two of three years.” And that you, like Guy, know and everyone knows that you are the next person in the line of Richard and Belivo and that you must be this next person, because the team must be what it was.
“It was a huge burden that anyone could carry around. And that’s what he was carrying around. “
Outside the ice, Lafleur was the biggest rock star in Quebec, and he lived as such. But he was always close to people, approachable, generous with his time, never saying no to asking for an autograph, a photo or attending a charity event. And in the country living rooms — and indeed in the country — every Saturday night, young boys and girls watched in amazement as Lafleur dazzled on the ice.
And he inspired greatness.
Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was born in 1975, so he was only 4 in 1979 when Lafleur won the Stanley Cup for the last time. But his memories are fresh. He named Lafleur his first hero.
“He will take the puck and you could see that he will score a goal. He had that power, that confidence, and the whole building stood up, “St. Louis said. “Even us at home – when I was young, I went to watch Canadiens live twice, but I watched every game on TV.
“So even we in the living room, when you saw Guy take off, you also stood up because you knew something exciting was going to happen.
When he retired, Lafleur became estranged from the Canadiens, but when Molson led a group that acquired the team in 2009, one of his first actions was to sign a 10-year contract with Lafleur as the team’s ambassador, a role he played with the typical his role energy, until his deteriorating health no longer allowed it. Lafleur was legendary for his work ethic, often arriving on the rink for training hours ahead of time and spending time on the ice alone, working on his game before his teammates even arrived. Molson said he was the same as ambassador, often arriving for events 90 minutes early and just sitting around Molson’s office waiting for the event to begin.
“He was dedicated,” Molson said. “He was doing things the right way all the time.”
A week before Lafleur’s death, Molson visited him and he said they had spent half their time talking to the team. Because Lafleur cared, to the end.
Sometimes this passion for the team could be quite straightforward, such as in 2016, when Lafleur said the Canadiens did not have a first line or a second line, but rather four fourth lines ahead.
At the time, he was still serving as ambassador for the Canadians. That was Guy Lafleur.
“He is a man who has been very direct in answering questions, and I think Quebecers appreciate that, too,” Molson said. “I don’t think Guy Lafleur had any clichés in his head. I think he was direct and I think our fans liked that in him. “
Quebec Prime Minister Francois Lego announced on Friday that the provincial government was in talks with Lafleur’s family to hold a state funeral, as was done for Belivo in 2014 and Richard in 2000.
“Guy Lafleur is a Montreal Canadiens,” said St. Louis. “You had great legends playing here, but there are three or four boys who were from the Montreal Canadiens. Jean Belivo, Maurice Richard.
“Guy Lafleur is part of it, the greatest of the great.”
(Photo by Guy Lafleur in 1983: Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios / Getty Images)
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