Allen garners Béliveau Trophy for going above and beyond
There was a beautiful but heartbreaking scene in the Canadiens’ locker room after practice Monday in Brossard.
Étienne Toupin, a young fan who is battling cancer, visited the locker room in a wheelchair with his mother while wearing a Canadiens ball cap and covered up in a blanket. A bunch of Canadiens players took turns spending time with the young boy, including Michael Pezzetta, Joel Edmundson, Sean Monahan, Brendan Gallagher, Cole Caufield and captain Nick Suzuki.
Head coach Martin St. Louis also spoke with the 13-yearold boy and his mother. They left with autographed Canadiens sweaters from the players and hopefully some happiness and hope during such a difficult time.
November is Hockey Fights Cancer month in the NHL.
“It’s a simple thing,” Canadiens goalie Jake Allen said about the players spending time with the boy in the locker room. “Sometimes just saying hello to someone makes a person’s day. You never know what people are going through, what people are dealing with. I am a father, and a child should never have to go through a situation like that. Just to be able to brighten someone’s day.”
Allen was speaking after it was announced he was this year’s winner of the Jean Béliveau Trophy for his community involvement. The trophy comes with a $25,000 donation made by the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation to a charity of the player’s choice. Allen chose the Fondation Jasmin Roy Sophie Desmarais , which aims to stop bullying, discrimination and violence in schools.
In 2016, while with the St. Louis Blues, Allen and his wife, Shannon, founded Program 34 , a non-profit foundation that seeks to reduce barriers in sports caused by poverty, distance, disability and culture. Allen is from Fredericton, and Program 34 has raised nearly $500,000 for 22 New Brunswick charities. Last year, Allen and his wife organized the collection and distribution of 300 blankets for isolated elderly people in Montreal as part of the Santa to a Senior initiative. Allen auctioned his game-worn mask at the end of last season for more than $15,000, which was split between Program 34 and the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation. Allen has also donated a pair of half-season tickets to the Bell Centre to the Sun Youth Organization , hoping to encourage girls to compete in sports by inviting them to attend a Canadiens game.
“It’s an honour to win this award,” Allen said after being presented with the trophy by Béliveau’s widow, Élise. “A trophy with the name of Jean Béliveau on it — it doesn’t matter what it is — it’s an honour. His history within hockey, within the Canadiens, within the country of Canada … I never got to meet him or anything, but hearing the stories from my grandfather and my father, watching on TV, we all know his place in the game and his place in the organization. For me it’s a tremendous honour.
“New Brunswick is Canadiens territory, so he was a hero in that province for a lot of people — especially my grandfather growing up in that era,” Allen added.
Béliveau, the former Canadiens captain and Hall of Famer who passed away in 2014 at age 83, would have been proud to see the way the players spent time with young Étienne after practice Monday.
“That kid or child — or whatever the case might be — might be able to take that, be happy today, be happy tomorrow, be happy in a month because of that,” Allen said about players spending time with people like Étienne. “It might change his spirits, it might turn things around. Those situations, there’s no real reason for you not to go out of your way to make someone’s day better. Especially in the situation that we’re in, we’re so privileged and fortunate. It’s really a no-brainer to give back and I’m hoping a lot of these young guys that are going to be Montreal Canadiens for a long time really find that time and that opportunity to make that difference in our community. They support us, there’s no reason not to support them.”