RIP Guy Lafleur

pedro1918

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As a kid Bruin fan in the 70's, Lafleur scared the shit out of me. The joke was that Lafleur would pick up the puck, put it in his pocket and race down the ice so fast that no one would notice.

Lafleur on offense and Dryden in the net. They were pretty good.

Repose en paix, fleur.
 

Saints Rest

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Lafleur always seemed ot even faster than he was as his long blond hair flew out behind him. Maybe he would have lost his allure if he had to wear a helmet.

I wish we had had stat cast back in the day to see how fast skaters (or any athletes) were to compare them in that very tangible way to today's athletes.
 

Ferm Sheller

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Damn, that's too bad. I just saw within the past few weeks that he was having significant health issues. He was one of the "hated rivals" of my youth, but he's hockey royalty for sure. Would have loved to have had him on the Bruins.
 

mwonow

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Yeah, I can't even open that clip. Though as a glutton for punishment, I did at one point source the entire series on VCR tapes from CDC and rewatch all seven games.

The Flower was (like Larry Robinson and Ken Dryden, at least for me) one of those Canadians it was hard to hate. I mean, Montreal is in the hated opponent pantheon with the MFYs and Lakers, but LaFleur always seemed okay. Maybe it was the smoking in the locker room thing?
 

CoolPapaLaSchelle

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An amazing player who repeatedly had our number in the 70s. I always thought it was pretty cool that he retired, made the Hall of Fame, and then came back to play again. Certainly not the same player, but he acquitted himself well with both the Rangers and the Nordiques. IIRC, Jim Palmer try something similar in the early 90s. I remember the Sox cuffing him around in the spring training before he cut his come back short.
 

Bowhemian

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Speaking of groin punches, I was at the Ron Tugnutt game at the garden (March 21, 1991). Yes, the game that Tugnutt was absolutely standing on his head. Bruins were pounding the net (73 shots!), yet only scored 3 goals. That game should have been a 20-3 victory.

Anyway, I have distinct memories of LaFleur cruising down the ice, the only player without a helmet, his hair flowing in the breeze. I HATED the Nordiques those days, but man it was hard to hate Guy. I wanted to-but I couldn't. RIP sir.
 

Ferm Sheller

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Speaking of groin punches, I was at the Ron Tugnutt game at the garden (March 21, 1991). Yes, the game that Tugnutt was absolutely standing on his head. Bruins were pounding the net (73 shots!), yet only scored 3 goals. That game should have been a 20-3 victory.
I saw that game on TV -- very frustrating. However, it wasn't a "groin punch", it was a "nut tug".

EDIT: And by the way, Lafleur played in that game! It was one of his last games. (Oh, I see, maybe that's why you mentioned this particular game.)
 

Remagellan

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I grew up in north Jersey, and because I felt no allegiance to the teams across the river (except for an early Mets fandom), and in part because of my love of history and obsession with the Bicentennial (and I realize now in part because they were Spider-Man's colors), I started rooting for teams wearing red, white, and blue. Thus I became a fan of the Boston Red Sox (in their 70s red caps with blue brims), New England Patriots (had one of those Sears jackets with the red body and the faux leather blue sleeves), Philadelphia 76ers, and Montreal Canadiens. Lafleur was my second favorite player after Ken Dryden. Those mid-70s Habs teams were amazing, and made up for a lot of heartache I was enduring in the other sports. I vividly remember watching that Semi-Final game in 1979 on WOR with my back to the screen near the end of regulation praying for a tying goal, which of course, Guy delivered.

(I annoyed the crap out of my older brother whenever I used the Canadiens when playing our Coleco rod hockey game, because I ordered two extra sets of Montreal Canadiens and used electric football numbers to put on the back of all the players, and would do line changes whenever the puck went out of play. I would always try to score with my right wing whenever Guy was on the ice.)

I remember a column Joe Falls did in The Sporting News in which he listed the most beautiful things across sports at the time, and near the top were the words: Goal-Lafleur (unassisted). So true!

I'm a Devils fan now (became one in 1982 when the team moved to the Brendan Byrne Arena from Colorado), although I realized over the past couple of years that I really only care about the MLB and the NFL. But I'll still pull for the Canadiens whenever they're in the playoffs, if and when I bother to watch hockey. (More than with any other sport, I can't keep up with the player movement. "What a drag it is getting old...")

Rest in Power, Flower!
 

nolasoxfan

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As a youth, I completely disowned my French Canadian heritage because of LaFleur and Les Canadiens. They (and the Yankees) did all they could to ruin my childhood, and I hated them for it. Seven - twelve year old me thought Guy LaFleur was a monster…because he was so damned good. @Ferm Sheller is right, LaFleur is hockey royalty, a great player that brought joy and pain to fans of the sport. To me, he personified how graceful hockey could be, even if it was for a hated rival. May he Rest In Peace.
 

54thMA

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Yeah, I can't even open that clip. Though as a glutton for punishment, I did at one point source the entire series on VCR tapes from CDC and rewatch all seven games.
That game, game 6 of the 1986 WS and the Scottish Game; three losses I'll never get over.

Nor will I ever watch a highlight of.

Ever.

Montreal, the Yankees, the Giants, the Lakers and the Broncos round out my top five most hated Boston sports rivals.

Between them, I come up with 13 less Championships for the city of Boston in my lifetime.
 

Mighty Joe Young

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Losing both Bossy and Lafleur within weeks is terrible. Two of the greatest goal scorers of all time.

As a Leafs fan I shared the hatred for the Habs. But one couldn’t hate Guy Lafleur. He personified that late 70s dynasty - including the 78 team that lost 7 games !

RIP
 

mwonow

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Building on the above - the only time I was ever embarrassed to be a Boston fan was at the old Forum in the eaerly 80s. For probably the only time that I I wever got to witness it in Montreal, the Bs wiped the ice with the Habs, so by the end, Bs fans were in the majority, and a "LaFleur eats shit!" chant started.

I didn't join in. That goal of Gilles Gilbert broke my frickin heart, but LaFleur was just busy doing LaFleur things, skating fast and shooting hard.

PS - @54thMA - that game, and the entire 1986 WS, never happened. Or so I've insisted for more than half my life...
 

jacklamabe65

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My French-English Canadian wife from Montreal went to the same church in Montreal as Guy and Boom Boom Geoffrion. I married her anyway, despite this fact. The little darters who frequented the Boston College hickey program in recent decades? Guy was the prototype. As graceful a player as you can imagine.
 

Bowhemian

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I saw that game on TV -- very frustrating. However, it wasn't a "groin punch", it was a "nut tug".

EDIT: And by the way, Lafleur played in that game! It was one of his last games. (Oh, I see, maybe that's why you mentioned this particular game.)
Yeah, that's why I mentioned that game-and my post wasn't very clear about that part.
 

54thMA

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PS - @54thMA - that game, and the entire 1986 WS, never happened. Or so I've insisted for more than half my life...
You are a smart and wise person, I need to get on board with that line of thought.

His goal to tie the game was a rocket, Gilbert had no chance, he stood on his head that series, would have been nice to pay back Montreal/Dryden for 1972.

About a minute and 20 seconds or so from moving on and demolishing the Esposito led Rangers in the finals.

What a shame.
 
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ColdSoxPack

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I wasn't going to watch that clip but I did. My father had banished me to the den to watch it alone. He couldn't handle the pressure.

In 1994 I sat next to John D'amico on an Air Canada flight from Boston to Toronto after a Bruins game where he was the supervisor of officials and he was a nice man. I didn't have the balls to ask him who was the extra man on the ice that night but I did hear that LaFleur faked like he was going for a line change and Marcotte stayed on the ice with him even though Marcotte's replacement came over the boards. So LaFleur killed us twice that night. RIP.

P.S. Hockey players smoked like crazy back then.
 

Ferm Sheller

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I wasn't going to watch that clip but I did. My father had banished me to the den to watch it alone. He couldn't handle the pressure.

In 1994 I sat next to John D'amico on an Air Canada flight from Boston to Toronto after a Bruins game where he was the supervisor of officials and he was a nice man. I didn't have the balls to ask him who was the extra man on the ice that night but I did hear that LaFleur faked like he was going for a line change and Marcotte stayed on the ice with him even though Marcotte's replacement came over the boards. So LaFleur killed us twice that night. RIP.

P.S. Hockey players smoked like crazy back then.
Another thing about Marcotte is that I think (but I'm not 100% sure) that Lafleur's shot hit the shaft of Marcotte's stick. If that's true, then maybe it's also true that Gilbert makes the save had the puck not hit Marcotte's stick. (One thing is clear: either the puck or the blade of Lafleur's stick or both made contact with the shaft of Marcotte's stick.)
 

Maximus

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The Canadiens in the late 70's were a wagon and Lafleur was their most deadliest player on a stacked roster. RIP Flower.
 

LoweTek

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As we've commented a lot on both Bossy and Lafleur this week, I've noticed something in looking at the the highlights of both. Goaltending styles are completely different today than they were in the 70s and 80s. It's remarkable. Gilbert attempted a skate save on the shot in the Lafleur video. It seems like there is no such thing as a skate save anymore. It's all modified butterfly (as we old goaltenders used to call it). In the Bossy video one of the goalies did a stacked pads slide across the net. I can't remember the last time I saw one of those.

I saw Lafleur once at the (old) Garden from a pretty good seat near center ice. The Garden rink length was shorter than most at 191 vs. 200. I think they squeezed the blue lines together to accommodate the shorter length. I marveled at how he appeared to get the puck inside his own blue line and in what seemed like two strides while flying by everyone else, he'd arrive at the Bruins blue line. I'm not sure I ever saw a faster skater in person. It was like he had jets in his skates and just switched them on.

He was really an amazing player.
 

ColdSoxPack

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As we've commented a lot on both Bossy and Lafleur this week, I've noticed something in looking at the the highlights of both. Goaltending styles are completely different today than they were in the 70s and 80s. It's remarkable. Gilbert attempted a skate save on the shot in the Lafleur video. It seems like there is no such thing as a skate save anymore. It's all modified butterfly (as we old goaltenders used to call it). In the Bossy video one of the goalies did a stacked pads slide across the net. I can't remember the last time I saw one of those.

I saw Lafleur once at the (old) Garden from a pretty good seat near center ice. The Garden rink length was shorter than most at 191 vs. 200. I think they squeezed the blue lines together to accommodate the shorter length. I marveled at how he appeared to get the puck inside his own blue line and in what seemed like two strides while flying by everyone else, he'd arrive at the Bruins blue line. I'm not sure I ever saw a faster skater in person. It was like he had jets in his skates and just switched them on.

He was really an amazing player.
I think the butterfly is why goalies need hip surgery now.
 

lexrageorge

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RIP. Great player and a key contributor to the Habs Cups of the 1970's. And a true nemesis to the Bruins; ugh. Agree to lose him and Bossy the same month, and Clark Gillies just 3 months ago, stings this fan of the era.

That's one of the things that I love about Canada -- they take hockey so damn seriously.
So true. I recall being up in Toronto the day after the Joe Thornton trade fiasco. The TV commentators up there were ripping O'Connell up and down, all the while KPD was defending the pathetic return.
 

jaytftwofive

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As a kid Bruin fan in the 70's, Lafleur scared the shit out of me. The joke was that Lafleur would pick up the puck, put it in his pocket and race down the ice so fast that no one would notice.

Lafleur on offense and Dryden in the net. They were pretty good.

Repose en paix, fleur.
Those teams from 76-79, that won four straight cups(79 oh the pain, too many men on the ice. Sorry to bring up a bad memory) were the best in my lifetime. The 77 team was the best ever. And it's hard to pick against some of those Oiler Gretzky teams that were great. They're right behind them, IMO. Yes they were pretty good, pretty, pretty, pretty good.
 

lexrageorge

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Gerry Cheevers has said that the too many men on the ice call, was the right call, as much as it hurt him to say. Don Cherry disagrees of course.
Replays of the TV38 broadcast on Youtube clearly show 6 Bruins skaters on the ice involved in the play: 3 in or forward of the neutral zone, and 3 around the Bruins blue line. The linesman even tried to get the attention of the Bruins bench during the change.
 

LoweTek

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I think the butterfly is why goalies need hip surgery now.
I can't speak for the other old goalies but I've got a titanium knee replacement because of the goaltending style of the 70'sand 80's. I beat the crap out of my knees.

Loved Lafleur and all those Canadiens teams. Even as a Bruins fan I greatly appreciated their skill.
 

ColdSoxPack

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I can't speak for the other old goalies but I've got a titanium knee replacement because of the goaltending style of the 70'sand 80's. I beat the crap out of my knees.

Loved Lafleur and all those Canadiens teams. Even as a Bruins fan I greatly appreciated their skill.
How did you hurt your knees? Curious. I was a mediocre left wing my whole life and my knees hurt on a scale of 10 out of 10 due to bursitis 24/7. Is it true that once you have a knee replacement that the pain is reduced to zero?
 

reggiecleveland

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Two quick Lafleur stories from guys I know.

1st I may have written about when we had a discussion about how good elite guys are. Buddies of mine were just finished college careers and got to play in charity games against Guy, Steve Shutt, some other old Habs. They got to meet them before the game, Guy had a dart, and Shutt had this big gut at least 30 lb overweight. My buddy's, one of whom had a cup of coffee with the North Stars back in the day said Shut, and Guy beat them to every puck and Guy turned the corner on the d effortlessly all game, against good college players. There is skating and there is skating I guess. There were not surprised when Guy went back and played in the NHL again.

Another guy I know was a goon with the Nordiques when Guy was at the end of his comeback. Said Guy was very remorseful for not looking after himself. Said he only spoke to him directly twice. 1st time was telling the guy to lay off the booze since each year in the NHL was a lot of money. 2nd time before a game Lafleur told him to be ready. He said this was surprising since he was an icon, and he didn't wear a helmet, guys didn't go after him. He said as much and Guy said, "I don't like this guy." He went after the guy Lafleur told him about. He said it was such a mismatch he heard it was one of the video clips used when they were arguing for the instigator penalty. Between the periods the coach was going off on him and Guy just looked at the coach who stopped. The tough guy told this story after his brother was talking about mafia movies. He said later in the year in pregame skate Guy locked eyes on a defenseman from the other team and then just looked at him. He knew. Anyway he told his brother he absolutely believed guys in crime families were murdered without words being exchanged
 

jaytftwofive

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Guy Lafleur at Jean Beliveau's funeral, honouring his childhood hero and later teammate.View attachment 51063
I'm pretty sure they didn't play together or maybe at the end of the year, like Dryden. Jean retired at the end of the 70-71 season. Nope, looked it up. Guy's rookie year was 71-72, the year right after Jean retired. Guy didn't even come up and play any regular season games like Dryden who I think played 6 reg. games in 70-71. I'm sure they knew each other quite well when Guy was in the minors.
 

LoweTek

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How did you hurt your knees? Curious. I was a mediocre left wing my whole life and my knees hurt on a scale of 10 out of 10 due to bursitis 24/7. Is it true that once you have a knee replacement that the pain is reduced to zero?
It's kind of a multi-part answer. tl;dr warning up front.

First, as to part two about the knee replacement, nope, nowhere near zero assuming you want to do something with it other than walk. I can assure you having had 7 knee surgeries including the replacement, and more on other body parts, no surgery reduces pain to zero or returns movement back to 100%. If you get 90%, pain reduction or movement returned, you had a damn good surgeon or your injury was less significant than mine were.

As to the question about goaltending damaging my knee, there was a huge difference in equipment protection from today, especially leg pads. The catching gloves were kid size mittens compared to the gloves used today.

Leg pads were notoriously stiff, like a new baseball glove. By the time you could break them in to get them softened, it was time to replace them. In addition, there was not much choice as to brand - Cooper dominated and Win-Well chased them. We were encouraged to wear pads sized just above the knees with the top two straps loosely tightened so the pad above the knee did not interfere with flexibility. Therefore, the unprotected knee was exposed in between the top of the pad and the thigh pad in the pants. If the pad was turned or you extended the pad butterfly-like flat to the ice, the knee did not do well slamming onto the ice or actually getting hit by a shot puck.

Today, pads are worn much higher on the leg and are engineered to be highly flexible at the knee. When a goalie does a butterfly today, his knee is protected by a pad so pliant it shrouds his knee and only the pad ever touches the ice. The pads today are also much lighter weight and frankly appear much wider to me.

Back then, there was a strap on knee pad you could use, (kind of like your elbow pads but for the knees), which was worn under the uniform and mitigated this damage a little. I tried it for a while but I found it restricted movement significantly. Before long I only wore it when the knee was so bruised it was excruciating to have it get hit by a puck or bang on the ice.

The primary culprit though was the partial butterfly move itself. My goalie coach taught me a method of defending breakaways which involved skating hard toward the approaching player, stopping when he was 10-15 feet away and begin skating backward as he got closer to the net, keeping as close a distance to the shooter as you could based on his speed and your proximity to net you were backing into. You were not supposed to go down until the forward committed. When he did, the ideal move was to flatten the pad on the side to which he committed, butterfly-like, shoot the pad out and throw up any thing else you had, gloves, stick, mask, whatever. The idea was to defend the most likely height of the shot. Believe it or not, the most likely elevation was zero or along the ice, easily defended by the flattened pad.

So right now, try this move (or at least think about it). You're flashing your leg out to flat along the ice (knee to foot) as quickly as you can often smashing the side of your usually unprotected knee onto the ice in the process. Shit adds up.

Bottom line, repeatedly snapping your leg out to sideways flat into an unnatural angle pulls on the ligaments and cartilage until one or both give out. In my case, I think they gave out fairly early in my short "career." But as I learned when I tried to get in the net and play some ten years post "retirement," you have to be in some kind of shape to play goal at any high level. I had to leave the stick time I was at after less than 45 minutes I was so spent. Point being when you're competing at your peak, the surrounding musculature in the knee area is so strong, it is masking the injury.

Last point about the knee replacement. A couple of years ago I tried to go to a public skating session. I was a pretty good skater for a goalie. I could barely get around the ice one lap. I was happy I didn't fall. I looked like someone skating for the first time. Pretty sobering. Titanium unfortunately has no nerves. When I tried to skate it was like my leg stopped at the knee as if it was a prosthetic which I guess it what it is. Interestingly my right knee is fine. All the injuries were to my left knee.

One more thing, do not watch a YouTube of a knee replacement.
 

jaytftwofive

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That game, game 6 of the 1986 WS and the Scottish Game; three losses I'll never get over.

Nor will I ever watch a highlight of.

Ever.

Montreal, the Yankees, the Giants, the Lakers and the Broncos round out my top five most hated Boston sports rivals.

Between them, I come up with 13 less Championships for the city of Boston in my lifetime.
m season
What about the Dolphins???? For us Baby Boomers we despised them. Pats didn't win in Miami from 1970 until the AFC Title game in 85 season. Giants? Football right? Why the hate for them over the Jets? (Who are pathetic) Because they beat our team in 2 Super Bowls? Just curious.
 
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ColdSoxPack

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Can't find a game thread so I will say here the pregame tribute to LaFleur was well done. All the goals against the Bruins shown was a nice FU to the visiting team.
 

scotian1

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It must have been close to 20 minutes. Several times they tried to get the game going but thecrowd wouldn't let them proceed. Howie Morenz, Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur. The Montreal Canadiens Mt. Rushmore.