LUNCH DATE WITH GUY
Pacioretty is first to ask
Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty has a coming lunch date with Guy Lafleur.
During a riveting one-hour interview with Paul Arcand on TVA’s Conversation Secrète that was televised Sunday night, Lafleur said Pacioretty was the first Canadiens player to invite him to lunch since the Hall of Famer retired 26 years ago.
“I haven’t gone to lunch with him yet,” Pacioretty said after the Canadiens practised Monday in Brossard before heading to Dallas, where they will face the Stars Tuesday night (8:30 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN Radio 690). “I’ve spoken with him a couple of times and the plan was to get together and go for lunch. I’ve talked to him a lot since this summer and I have, I would think, a pretty good relationship with him.”
It’s incredible to think that no other Canadiens player over all these years had thought about inviting Lafleur to lunch to pick his brain about life on and off the ice in Montreal.
“I just think it’s so important to be on the same page as the legends here,” Pacioretty said. “They know what it’s like to go through the ups and downs in this franchise, so it’s just really important for me and special for me to be on the same page as them.”
Lafleur candidly discussed all the ups and downs of his career with the Canadiens during his captivating interview with Arcand.
Lafleur talked about how shy he was while living with Jean Béliveau and his wife, Élise, for the first few weeks of his rookie season in 1971-72 before Élise helped him find a nearby apartment in Longueuil, where Lafleur would meet his future wife. Lafleur recalled driving his Ferrari from Longueuil to Quebec City in 55 minutes, leaving at 2 a.m. one day, and also talked about the late-night car crash that almost killed him in 1979 after he fell asleep at the wheel and hit a fence. A post went through Lafleur’s windshield and the middle of the steering wheel, but he incredibly escaped with only a cut on his ear.
Lafleur remains bitter about how his career with the Canadiens ended 19 games into the 1984-85 season when he decided to retire rather than play coach Jacques Lemaire’s strict defensive system, noting he was paid to score goals, not play defence. Lafleur said it broke his heart not to finish his career with the Canadiens and that GM Serge Savard had refused to trade him. Instead, Lafleur retired for three full years before returning to the NHL for one season with the New York Rangers and then two more with the Quebec Nordiques.
Lafleur said he earned a total of $3.6 million Canadian during his 17 years in the NHL when owners exploited players and figures he would be worth US$15 million per season in today’s market, noting that “puck pushers” now earn $6 million. Lafleur added it’s a shame that today’s defensive systems don’t allow talented players like the Canadiens’ Alex Galchenyuk to display their creativity.
The Hall of Famer also said it’s unfortunate that hockey has become a job instead of a game for too many of today’s NHLers, noting it’s very rare to see a player like former Canadien Alexander Radulov — now with the Stars — actually smile on the ice.
Lafleur added that back in his day the team was like a family and after practice at the Forum all the players went across the street to Les Carabiniers brasserie, which is where any lockerroom problems would be settled over lunch and a couple of beers.
“He’s one of the best players to ever play,” Pacioretty said about Lafleur. “For myself, personally, to be expected to produce ... I know he knows what I’m going through sometimes through the ups and downs when you feel like you can’t miss or when you feel like you’re never going to score again. That just comes with wearing this jersey.
“He was talking about how it doesn’t come easy,” Pacioretty added about his recent conversations with Lafleur. “And for him to say that … because you would think it did come easy for him. He was The Flower … he’d skate around with the nice hair and go down and take a nice slapshot. He made it look easy but, as he said, it wasn’t easy. There’s a lot of hard work and to hear that coming from him … it’s something so simple, but you would think his life was easy at the time and he’d just go out there and play his game and score goals. But it took a lot of dedication, a lot of hard work and ups and downs to accomplish what he accomplished.
“For him to say that, we can look in the mirror and say — especially right now when things definitely aren’t easy — the only way we’re going to get out of it is with each other and working hard for each other.”
Sounds like good advice.
I just think it’s so important to be on the same page as the legends here.