Lafleur’s personal connection made him special

John Catenacci calls the day he met Guy Lafleur the greatest of his life.

The Toronto resident was among thousands who payed tribute to the Canadiens legend Monday, as he lay in state on the ice level of the Bell Centre for a second straight day.

Waiting in line outside the arena, Catenacci’s daughter Maya spoke about her longtime love of the Habs, and how much Lafleur meant to her. Her dad couldn’t hold back his tears, wiping them away with a crumpled beige napkin. He spoke about how a friend set up a surprise meeting with Lafleur at a local hockey tournament in Peterborough, Ont. when Maya was a baby.

“I actually had five minutes with him,” said Catenacci, who was wearing personalized Converse shoes with a black and white photo of his idol on the right foot, and a No. 10 Canadiens jersey on the left foot. “He signed everything for me, and he even signed (Maya’s onesie), because we lost our first two kids. He was a listener. He listened to what I had to say; he was such a gentlemen.”

Catenacci, who grew up in Toronto, became a Habs fan when Lafleur was in top form in the 1970s. He said it was overwhelming to be in Montreal and see how many others feel the same way. “He’s my idol. That’s it.” Though Lafleur led the league in scoring several times and was one of the NHL’S elites, fan after fan paying tribute spoke not of his accolades, achievements or statistics, but of his remarkable humanity and his common touch with the average person.

The line snaked around the arena even before doors opened at 10:30 a.m., with some fans arriving three hours early.

Guila Benzecry spoke of her encounter with Lafleur when he was a guest of honour for a charitable event she organized in partnership with the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation.

“Everyone admires him for his sensitivity and his humanity towards people,” said Benzecry.

Dozens of bouquets of flowers were deposited in front of the statue of Lafleur in the square next to the Bell Centre.

Among those who paid tribute to Lafleur was Michel Lacroix, the longtime Canadiens announcer who knew the player when working as a journalist for CKAC and later when he was with the team. He said Lafleur had always wanted to live up to his own idol Jean Béliveau. While both were loved dearly by fans, there was a distinction between them, he said.

“It was ‘Mr. Béliveau,’ but it was ‘Guy’,” Lacroix told a crowd of reporters in the media room in the bowels of the Bell Centre. “By his accessibility and his generosity, he was different. Mr. Béliveau was bigger than nature, and Guy was on the other end of the spectrum: small. He was more accessible.”