MONTREAL — Among the thousands who gathered on Rene-Levesque Boulevard outside Basilique Marie-Reine-du-Monde Cathedral to pay homage to Guy Lafleur was Antoine Pejot-Charrost, age 20 — far too young to have seen the man build an everlasting legacy, but not too young to help carry that legacy forward.
“He was a giant of a player, but also a giant of a man who helped define Quebec and its culture, as our parents and grandparents told us,” said Pejot-Charrost. “Even if we never saw him play, we heard all the stories about him and consider him an example to follow.”
He hopes to one day tell his kids about Guy Lafleur—the man who scored over 500 goals and won five Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens, the Hall of Famer who rose to greatness following in the footsteps of Maurice “the Rocket” Richard and Jean “le Gros Bill” Beliveau.
He hopes to tell them about how he was there on this sunny Tuesday morning, taking part in something he knew he’d always remember, clapping and chanting Guy! Guy! Guy! as Lafleur’s casket was carried both in and out of the church.
“He marked our lives so much,” said 64-year-old Gilles Morency, who stood 20 paces from Pejot-Charrost with tears in his eyes. “He’s a part of me. He was a beautiful person, an incredible hockey player, an amazing talent. He was the greatest Quebecois of all.”
Lafleur was Guy! Guy! Guy! to Morency, and to all the fans who came out in droves donning their No. 10 jerseys to honour his memory.
Lafleur was also Guy! Guy! Guy! to his former teammates, who honoured their friend, the hockey player, with eulogies delivered so eloquently and gracefully just after 11 a.m.
“Guy once said play every game like it’s your last one,” recounted Larry Robinson. “Nobody embodied that philosophy more than Guy did. And not only did he play each game to its fullest; he tried to live his life to the fullest off the ice as well.”
Guy Carbonneau and Patrick Roy talked about being welcomed to the Canadiens by Lafleur in the early 1980s, about how a player of such illustrious status humbled himself to make them feel a part of the team.
“In the 1970s, everyone in Quebec wanted to be Guy Lafleur,” said Roy. “I wanted to be Ken Dryden, so I could play on the same team as Guy Lafleur. Guy was a player who was larger than life, who achieved limitless exploits. He was a hero, an inspiration, and living proof that we could achieve what we dreamed of.”
“In 1984, when I walked through the doors of the Forum and took the hallway to the dressing room to take part in my very first practice with the Montreal Canadiens, I took in this hero that was sitting in front of me; his stature, his presence, his charisma,” Roy continued. “No. 10 got dressed in five minutes. Intimidated, impressed, I was living a surreal moment, and before leaving the room he gave me a tap on the pads to say, ‘Hey kid, welcome to the Canadiens.’
“I think that’s who Guy Lafleur was. He had heart, a profound respect and incredible generosity. He was the guy who took the time, knowing that just a few words from him would make all the difference to you. It was his way of saying we were on the same team, that he’d be there for me even if he’d be shooting on me non-stop over the coming minutes.”
Yvan Cournoyer, the former captain of the Canadiens and winningest member of the organization still alive, thanked the late Sam Pollock—the architect of the dynastic Canadiens of the 1970s—for drafting Lafleur and said, “It allowed the fans and us to appreciate him for many years and to win five Stanley Cups.” His speech ended with, Guy! Guy! Guy!
To his 90-year-old mother, Pierrette, and to his sisters, Suzanne (71), Gisele (68), Lise (65) and Lucie (who turned 62 on Tuesday), he was just Guy.
In an interview with Sportsnet last week, Lise shared how she would forever cherish memories from well before he became a global icon—memories of how he lived to prank her and her sisters, about how he’d hide under their beds and get kicks out of scaring them at every opportunity he got.
She spoke fondly of family vacations from before Guy Lafleur became the hockey player she and her sisters would inevitably have to share with the world.
“We went to a hunting and fishing camp that our parents brought us to, and we went there via train with my grandfather,” Lise recounted. “They had those old cars, and we had a lot of fun together. We loved fishing—no electricity, just each other. We spent a week there, and those are really nice memories.”
They are the ones Lise, her sisters and her mother are holding dear to after the last ones formed with Guy were far more sobering, somber and painful.
“We saw him last Wednesday (36 hours before he died on April 22), and he was suffering a lot,” Lise said. “He was conscious, lucid; he recognized us and was able to speak with us. But that was the last time we were able to see him. He died overnight Thursday into Friday.
“It was the four of us (sisters), my mother and Guy. They said we should just go in three at a time because he was in a palliative care residence and there were COVID protocols, but Guy insisted on us being all together the five of us. He wanted all of us in his room, and we stayed with him all afternoon.”
They talked about life, reminisced, and said, “See you soon,” thinking they’d see each other again before having to say “Goodbye.”
“He was fighting. He wanted to go home, he didn’t want to stay there,” said Lise. “He told the doctor he wanted to be given something to boost his strength and the doctor told him he couldn’t do it. It was impossible, and there was nothing to do. Still, we thought he had at least a couple more weeks.”
Lafleur passed after a two-year battle with lung cancer between 1 and 1:30 a.m. that Friday, leaving everyone who knew him—or knew of him—feeling he was gone too soon.
People immediately flocked from across the country and the province to Centennial Plaza, outside the Bell Centre, to leave flowers and notes by the statue of Lafleur, which stands next to those of Richard and Beliveau.
Days later, when the team welcomed the Boston Bruins to town for the first home game to follow Lafleur’s passing, fans filled the auditorium and chanted his name and roared at full volume for 10 minutes and 10 seconds before a moment of silence was interrupted by more chants and more roars. Lafleur’s family watched from a candlelight vigil held outside the arena that bears his name in his hometown of Thurso, Que.
This past Sunday and Monday, Lafleur lay in state near centre ice under his retired jersey, with the Canadiens decorating the space as a shrine to his career. Beside the Stanley Cup and the NHL’s most prestigious awards—which he won several times—Lafleur’s wife, Lise, and their sons, Martin and Mark, greeted thousands of people who came to pay their respects and say goodbye.
Many more lined the streets for Tuesday’s funeral, watching former teammates, former opponents, many of the current Canadiens, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, Quebec Premiere Francois Legault and Montreal Mayoress Valerie Plante walk the red-carpeted steps leading to the cathedral. They chanted when the procession rolled in—and chanted just slightly louder when the casket, draped in bleu, blanc et rouge and the Canadiens logo, was carried up and into the reception.
Halfway through the service, Quebec sensation Ginette Reno sung a stirring rendition of L’Essentiel.
“It’s inspiring a feeling so strong in others,” is an English translation of some of the lyrics she sang in French, “it’s a feeling that will survive even after death.”
L’Essentiel, indeed. It captured exactly what Guy Lafleur did throughout his life, and what Guy Lafleur will continue to do forever, beyond death, in these parts.
His legacy wasn’t only being celebrated by everyone who came to say farewell; it was being taken in so it could be carried forward by those people.
“Guy was a rassembleur,” said Serge Savard, who was Lafleur’s teammate for 10 years. “He brought everyone together, made everyone feel a part of something, made everyone feel like they were with him and not beneath them. And they can take that with them today and always.”
CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.
Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.
Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.
The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.
Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.
The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.
Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.
Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.
Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.
Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.
Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.
Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.
The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.
The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.
Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).
Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.
Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.
The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.
—
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024
PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.
The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.
“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.
“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”
The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.
Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.
“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.
“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”
Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.
Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.
“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.
Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.
The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.
Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”
Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.
Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.
“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”
The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.
Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.
The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.
Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.
“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”
A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.
Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.
“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
