Guy Lafleur obit

Montreal Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur dies at 70

"Night after night, game after game, he would electrify all of us with his skating, his control and his shot,” Red Fisher wrote in 2005.

 

He was not on the list.

Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur, 70, has passed away after a battle with lung cancer, his family announced on Friday.

The Canadiens have won a record 24 Stanley Cups and 59 players make up the team’s Ring of Honour at the Bell Centre, but there are three legends who stand above all the rest: Jean Béliveau, Maurice (Rocket) Richard and Lafleur.

When the late, great Red Fisher wrote a feature series in the Montreal Gazette in 2005 ranking the top 10 players he had watched during his own Hall of Fame career, Béliveau was No. 1, Richard was No. 2 and Lafleur was No. 3.

No three hockey players ever have or ever will have a bigger impact on the Canadiens franchise or the province of Quebec. They made the Canadiens the “Flying Frenchmen” and the best franchise in the NHL.

“In his time, Lafleur was one of those rare talents who was a man even while he was a boy,” Fisher wrote about Lafleur. “He was an amalgam of everything that was good and great in hockey because of his speed, his thunderclap of a shot and his matinee-idol good looks.

“Night after night, game after game, he would electrify all of us with his skating, his control and his shot,” added Fisher, who died in 2018 at age 91 after covering the Canadiens for 57 years, writing about 17 Stanley Cup championship teams and 15 players who would end up in the Hall of Fame.

“Lafleur was born to wear the CH,” Fisher continued. “What could be better? A poor boy from a pulp-and-paper town (Thurso, Que.) continuing the line of pre-eminent French-Canadian superstars. He was right for the times, bringing as much glory to the sweater as any of the great players before him or since.

“Most of all, he was uniquely Lafleur. The Flower. Delicate, yet indestructible. Lafleur pulled people out of their seats more often than any player of his time.

“Like Richard before him, when the Canadiens and Lafleur won, Quebec won. When Lafleur scored goals in a way only he could, Quebec scored. When Lafleur and the Canadiens brought home Stanley Cups five times in the spring, all of Quebec hitched a ride on their float as it inched along Ste. Catherine St.”

Like Béliveau and Richard, Lafleur somehow seemed invincible — until reality and cancer hit and they weren’t. Beliveau died in 2014 at age 83 in poor health after battling throat cancer and Richard died at age 78 in 2000 from abdominal cancer.

In October 2020, the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) announced that it was discovered during Lafleur’s follow-up meeting with doctors that his lung cancer had returned. Lafleur had undergone successful quadruple-bypass heart surgery at the CHUM in September 2019 and two months later was back at the hospital to have surgery to remove the upper lobe of one of his lungs and to remove the lymph nodes.

The CHUM news release after Lafleur’s cancer returned noted that he wanted to continue his battle privately with his family.

 

Lafleur’s hockey journey began at age 5 on a rink his father built in the family’s backyard in Thurso, located in the Outaouais region of western Quebec.

In his fantastic book, The Game, Hall of Fame Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden wrote about how after school and on weekends Lafleur would play on the backyard rink with his friends, but on weekdays he’d rush home from school at lunch to skate by himself for half an hour or more, working on his skills. In later years, Lafleur would sneak into the local arena through a back door on Saturday and Sunday mornings and skate by himself from 7:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. when the manager arrived.

Dryden noted that what made Lafleur really special is the fact he never stopped working on his skills by himself and that he would often say: “Hockey’s my life.” An hour before every Canadiens practice at the Forum, Lafleur would go on the ice with a bucket of pucks to be alone.

“When you play as a kid, you have no time to learn or study anything,” Dryden recalls Lafleur telling him when asked to explain the unquestioning direction to his life. “After 15 or 20 years, what else do I know?”

Recalled Dryden in his book: “Once (head coach Scotty Bowman) remarked to me that Guy Lafleur seemed obsessed always to do better; that while he was a good team player, being the foremost player in the league carried with it a larger responsibility, and that for him anything less than a scoring title was not enough.”

The Canadiens selected Lafleur with the No. 1 overall pick at the 1971 NHL Draft, but it took three full seasons before he really blossomed into The Flower. Lafleur earned a second nickname, Le Démon Blond, after ditching his helmet early in his career and allowing his hair to flow as he sped down the ice. After scoring 29, 28 and 21 goals during his first three seasons with the Canadiens, Lafleur exploded for 53 in the 1974-75 season and added 66 assists to win his first of three Art Ross Trophies as the NHL’s leading scorer. It was also the first of his six straight 50-goal seasons, including a career-high 60 in 1977-78. No Canadiens player has won the Art Ross Trophy since Lafleur in 1978. Lafleur would help the Canadiens win five Stanley Cups between 1973 and 1979 with chants of “Guy! Guy! Guy!” filling the Forum.

As a junior star with the Quebec Remparts, Lafleur wore No. 4 in honour of Béliveau, posting 130-79-209 totals in 62 games in 1970-71 before joining the Canadiens the next season. Béliveau retired after the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1971 and Lafleur was hoping to wear No. 4 in Montreal.

“French-speaking hockey stars who find themselves playing in Quebec have a particular cross to bear,” Béliveau wrote in his book, Jean Béliveau: My Life in Hockey. “The expectations of an entire province often go with them, and the pressure exerts itself in unusual ways.”

Béliveau had worn No. 9 in honour of Richard in junior and senior hockey, but the Rocket was still with the Canadiens when Béliveau joined the team in 1953, so he took No. 4. Béliveau was flattered that Lafleur wanted to wear his number with the Canadiens, but offered him some advice.

“I remember warning Guy that the number four might weigh heavily on his shoulders, intensifying the inevitable comparisons,” Béliveau said in his book. “I counselled him to make a fresh start: ‘Find your own number, and make every boy in Quebec want to wear it.’ Which he very wisely did.”

Lafleur’s No. 10 hangs from the rafters of the Bell Centre, along with Béliveau’s No. 4, Richard’s No. 9 and the 12 other retired Canadiens numbers.

Lafleur’s career with the Canadiens came to an end on the afternoon of Nov. 26, 1984, when he officially announced his retirement after Fisher got the scoop and reported the news in that morning’s Montreal Gazette. At age 33, Lafleur had lost a step and new coach Jacques Lemaire, who preferred a defensive style of game, had diminished his ice time. A frustrated Lafleur had only two goals in 19 games at the time and had lost his spot on the first power-play unit. During his last game with the Canadiens against the Detroit Red Wings, Lafleur played on a line with defensive specialists Guy Carbonneau and Bob Gainey. The Canadiens won 6-4.

“I went to the Forum on Saturday afternoon to prepare for the game that night against the Detroit Red Wings,” Lafleur said during his retirement news conference. “I sat down in the locker room and wondered what I was doing there. It was the first time in my 14-year career that I had a reaction like that. I realized then that it was time to retire.

“There’s no way I’m going to decide to make a comeback with another team in a year or two,” he added. “My decision is final and irrevocable.”

After being retired for three seasons, Lafleur returned to the NHL with the New York Rangers. In his first game back at the Forum on Feb. 4, 1989, Lafleur scored two goals and added one assist in a 7-5 loss to the Canadiens.

Chants of “Guy! Guy! Guy!” returned to the Forum.

“That was the first time I ever allowed a goal at the Forum and the guy who scored it received a standing ovation,” Canadiens goalie Patrick Roy said after the game.

At age 37, Lafleur would finish that season with the Rangers with 18-27-45 totals in 67 games.

Lafleur would go on to play two more seasons with the Quebec Nordiques, scoring 24 goals, before hanging up his skates for good with 560 goals, 793 assists and 1,353 points in 1,126 career NHL games.

In his book, Serge Savard Forever Canadien, the Hall of Fame defenceman says Lafleur embodied a bold, confident Quebec.

“You only had to close your eyes to picture him, his blond locks flowing, breezing toward the opposition net and scoring a spectacular goal,” Savard says in the book.

“Guy was more than a superstar. He was an icon.”

In 2017 Lafleur was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.

In his teens, Lafleur gained considerable recognition for his play as a member of the Quebec Remparts and the Quebec Junior Aces of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he led his team to the Memorial Cup in 1971, scoring 130 regular season goals. At the time, Lafleur idolized Béliveau and Bobby Orr.

With Lafleur and fellow French-Canadian Marcel Dionne among the top prospects in the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft, the Habs' general manager, Sam Pollock, was keen to find a way to trade to obtain one of the top two picks. He persuaded California Golden Seals owner Charlie Finley to trade the Seals' 1971 first-round pick and François Lacombe in return for Montreal's 1970 first-round pick and veteran Ernie Hicke. Unrelated to the draft of that year was the trading of Ralph Backstrom to the Los Angeles Kings, often credited as helping the Kings stay out of last place; however, at the time of the trade the Kings were ahead of the Seals, Red Wings, Sabres, and Canucks, and the deal had no effect on the Kings' standings that year.[9] Oakland finished last, leaving Montreal with the first overall pick. Pollock hesitated between Lafleur and Dionne, but chose Lafleur with the first draft choice.

He became known among English fans as "Flower" due to his literal translation of his surname, while among French fans he was dubbed "le Démon Blond" (the Blond Demon).[12]

 

He was a cornerstone of five Stanley Cup championship teams. During the 1978 Stanley Cup finals, Boston Bruins head coach Don Cherry ordered his players to put their sticks up and hit Lafleur whenever they encountered him. At the end of the series, Lafleur's head was swathed in bandages after numerous slashes from Bruin players. After Montreal won the Stanley Cup, he borrowed it for the weekend without telling anyone to show his friends back home in Thurso, where he set it out on his front lawn for all his neighbours to see.

In 1979, Lafleur released the album Lafleur!, consisting of Guy Lafleur reciting hockey instructions, accompanied by disco music.

With Ken Dryden, Jacques Lemaire, and several other key players retiring after the conclusion of the 1979 season, the Canadiens' dynasty came to an end, losing in the second round of the 1980 playoffs to the Minnesota North Stars in seven games. Injuries shortened Lafleur's 1980–81 season and his production dropped significantly (during the previous six seasons, Lafleur had reached or exceeded 100 points and 50 goals). In the following seasons, he was overshadowed by Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky.

While driving home on March 24, 1981, Lafleur fell asleep at the wheel of his Cadillac and crashed into a highway fence. A metal post pierced the windshield, missing his head by inches while tearing off part of his ear. During the 1980–81 season, Lafleur appeared in only 51 games and scored 27 goals. It was the first time since the 1973–74 season that he failed to score 50 goals or more in a season.

The 1983–84 season produced Montreal's first losing record of the expansion era, and resulted in coach Bob Berry being replaced 63 games into the season by Lafleur's former teammate Jacques Lemaire. At first, Lemaire's hiring was seen as a success as he guided the Canadiens to their first playoff series victories since 1980 and reached the Wales Conference Final. However, while the Habs' new coach had been Lafleur's centreman during the glory years of the 1970s, the former linemates quickly struggled to transform their relationship to an amicable one between coach and player. During the 1984–85 season, Lafleur started the season scoring only two goals in 19 games and was unhappy with the amount of ice time he was receiving from Lemaire.

In time, Lemaire would become renowned as one of the NHL's finest defensively-minded coaches. However, Lafleur was always an offensive-minded player who believed his productivity overshadowed any defensive weaknesses. Lemaire's insistence that everyone on his teams contribute defensively promptly caused a rift between him and Lafleur that would never heal.

By 1985, Lafleur's rocky relationship with Lemaire had become intolerable for him and he asked to be traded. General manager Serge Savard refused his request, as trading one of the most popular players in Canadiens history would have incurred a severe backlash from fans and the media. With no other options, he decided to retire, and his departure from the Canadiens was considered acrimonious.

After being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Lafleur came out of retirement to return to the NHL for three more seasons, from 1988 through 1991, with the New York Rangers and the Quebec Nordiques. Lafleur remained one of the few players who did not wear protective helmets due to a grandfather clause.

Against the Edmonton Oilers in a 1988 exhibition game, Lafleur played well enough to earn praise from the Oilers' Mark Messier and convince Rangers general manager Phil Esposito to sign Lafleur to a one-year contract. During his first game back in the Montreal Forum, he received a standing ovation when he came on the ice, and as in his heyday with the Habs, the crowd chanted "Guy! Guy! Guy!" every time he touched the puck. Lafleur scored twice against Patrick Roy, to heavy applause, during the Rangers' 7–5 loss to the Canadiens, and was awarded the first star of the game. Although his high-scoring days were well behind him, his stint with the Rangers was moderately successful, and he helped the team to first place in the Patrick Division until being knocked out by a knee injury.

Lafleur then followed dismissed Rangers head coach and close friend Michel Bergeron to the Nordiques for his final seasons. Intending to finish his hockey career in Quebec where he had started, he reportedly turned down a $1 million offer from the Los Angeles Kings, which would have allowed Lafleur to play alongside Wayne Gretzky. He managed 24 goals in 98 games with the Nordiques over two seasons, mentoring young center Joe Sakic, who was emerging as a superstar despite the Nordiques owning the NHL's worst record in both seasons Lafleur played with them.

The Minnesota North Stars selected Lafleur with the 20th and last pick in the 1991 Expansion Draft. Lafleur had decided to retire for a second and last time as a player, and he had already verbally agreed to an off-ice job with the Nordiques. However, since his retirement papers had yet to be officially filed, the league's bylaws prevented him from accepting a job with a team that didn't own his playing rights. The North Stars solved Lafleur's quandary by trading him back to Quebec in exchange for the rights to a former Nordique who had been playing in Switzerland for two years, Alan Haworth. Haworth played just one more year of professional hockey, and never returned to the NHL.

On February 16, 1985, Lafleur became the fifth player from the Montreal Canadiens to have his sweater number retired. Lafleur was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. Along with Gordie Howe before him and Mario Lemieux after him, Lafleur is one of only three players to have returned to the NHL after being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He still holds the record for the most career point and assist totals in Montreal Canadiens history, as well as the second-highest goal total behind Maurice "Rocket" Richard.

Lafleur operated a helicopter rental company in Montreal that shuttles VIPs to and from the airport. He was at the controls when the Tampa Bay Lightning's André Roy proposed to his fiancée, the Stanley Cup serving as the engagement ring bearer.

Lafleur also owned a restaurant in Berthierville, Quebec, "Guy Lafleur Mikes Signature" which opened in 2002. He opened a new restaurant, called "Bleu, Blanc, Rouge!" in Rosemère, Quebec, on August 4, 2008. Lafleur sold the "Bleu, Blanc Rouge" in December 2012 for over $5 million. The restaurant closed on December 22, 2012.