'Even when he just said Hi, it made me feel special'
On the day the hockey world said its final farewell to Guy Lafleur, teammates remembered Le Demon Blond as a superstar on and off the ice
MONTREAL – As Frank Sinatra’s My Way played in the background outside the Basilique-Cathedrale Marie-Rienne-du-Monde the hearse carrying Guy Lafleur’s body drove away. And the people who lined the streets chanted, “Guy! Guy! Guy!” The Flower, Le Demon Blond, Le Turbo de Thurso was given a final farewell Tuesday morning. The Prime Minister of Canada and Premier of Quebec were there, as was the commissioner of the NHL, the owner of the Montreal Canadiens. Ginette Reno sang L’Essentiel and a Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter jet flew over the funeral procession, all of which makes you a Really Big Deal.
But it was toward the end of the service, during Communion, when four members of the clergy walked out of the church, each carrying a large, shiny chalice with the Eucharist. They crossed Boulevard Rene Levesque and proceeded to administer the Eucharist to those who were not invited to sit in the church. These were the regular folk who came and stood outside because of their love for Lafleur. And they were made to be part of the service, presumably because Guy Lafleur and his family wanted it that way.
For what is a man, what has he got
If not himself, then he has not
To say all the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows, I took the blows
And I did it my way
Even Canadiens’ owner Geoff Molson, one of the speakers at the service, acknowledged that he didn’t like everything that came out of Lafleur’s mouth when it came to his team, and that Lafleur was usually right. Speaking before the service, former teammate Larry Robinson delivered this gem of a story: “I remember we had a big game and he was in the locker room. He slammed his stick on a pop can to make noise and get our attention. Then I remember him saying, ‘OK everyone, listen up. We know why we’re all here, don’t we? And I was waiting for him to say something philosophical, but instead he said, ‘It’s because we didn’t want to go to school.’ ”
Those who played with Lafleur insist that, while Lafleur embraced the responsibility – and the perks – that came with being a superstar, he refused to be treated like one. To them, he was just The Flower, a guy who would be on the ice 45 minutes before practice, by himself in his happy place, shooting pucks from the top of the circle on the right side with precision and filling the rink with “ping, ping, ping” as he deliberately hit the crossbar and the posts. But as soon as practice ended and the others stayed out on the ice to work on their skills, Lafleur was gone. It was that way right back to his days as a phenom with the Quebec Remparts. “He never had to stay to work on his shot,” said former Quebec linemate Andre Savard, who set the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League record for points in a game with Lafleur on his right side. “We all had to, but he didn’t.”
And so it was with Lafleur, a man who was remembered as a person who had time for everyone and anyone. Everyone’s first meeting with the man was memorable, whether it was a regular fan seeking an autograph or a rookie entering the Canadiens’ dressing room for the first time. One of legendary goaltender Patrick Roy’s most enduring memories was when he joined the Canadiens in 1985 and a fading Lafleur tapped the next superstar on the pads and said, “Hey, kid, welcome to the team.” Or as defenseman Brian Engblom recalled in his first training camp with the Canadiens in 1975 after being drafted out of the University of Wisconsin: “We scrimmaged a lot in training camp and I remember in my rookie year, my first scrimmage, he’s on the other team and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s Guy Lafleur’ and then ‘Wow, that was Guy Lafleur. I guess I’m not quite ready to play in this league yet.’ ”
Engblom would spend two years in the minors before being ready to play, then came up in time to win the last three Stanley Cups of the Canadiens’ late-1970s dynasty. All told, he played five seasons with Lafleur and never quite got used to the fact that he was in the presence of greatness. The Flower had that destiny thing about him. Always in big moments he wanted the puck. ‘Give me the puck and something good will happen. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but we’ll see in a minute.’ “He always made you feel special and I remember that,” Engblom said. “And it wasn’t just my rookie year. It was all the time, even when he just said, ‘Hi.’ It just made me feel special. It was that ‘it’ thing. I don’t know how to describe it. There’s a persona there that is different from everyone else.”
Engblom remembered how the Canadiens would come to the Montreal Forum hours before an 8 p.m. game and Lafleur would already be in his stall with most of his equipment on and his skates untied. For playoff games, he’d arrive even earlier. Engblom wondered sometimes whether Lafleur ever left the rink. He didn’t just play hockey,” Engblom said, “he was a hockey player.”