The Nordiques?
Guy Lafleur’s last game at the Montreal Forum was my first time attending a game of hockey. It was March 30, 1991, and it also happened to be the night when Guy scored the last goal — the 560th — of his NHL career. His final game in the league was actually the following night at the Colisée de Québec, in Quebec City. Lafleur was playing for the Nordiques de Québec, a franchise that relocated to Denver in 1995 and was renamed the Colorado Avalanche. I can only imagine how annoyed Quebecers were that Americans stole the Nordiques ($$).
Guy Lafleur died this week at the age of 70. Most Americans probably don’t know the name. In Quebec, he seems to be a national hero. I didn’t even know who he was until I saw him play that night. Guy was easy to recognize on the ice because he was the one not wearing a helmet. Imagine playing in that league — or even just playing that sport — without a helmet.
Guy! Guy! Guy!
This event was a highlight of my first stay in Montreal. In 1991, a fellow American attending McGill University introduced the city to me and gave me a place to stay for a couple of months. A Canadian he introduced me to decided that I needed to see this game in particular. Back then, the Forum was “regarded as ice hockey’s Holy Place”. Today the building is a National Historic Site of Canada and it hosts the massive Cinéma Cineplex Forum, which now includes five cinemas in the basement where cocktails and beer are available.
The video above gives some idea of what it was like that night. His name was chanted in chorus. Electricity was in the air. Quebec’s drinking age is 18, and beer was everywhere. I grew up on baseball in the States, but on March 30 for a few hours, I was a hockey fan. I’ll never forget how Guy Lafleur’s last game at Le Forum de Montréal became my formal initiation into Canadian and local culture. As if I needed another reason to fall in love with Montreal.
— Victor
Credits: Illustration by Jean-Pierre Girerd, featured on the cover of the comic book On a volé la coupe Stanley (“We stole the Stanley Cup”), published in 1975. Credit for the idea of using this image in a blog goes to Benoît Melançon, academic and coauthor of the book Dictionnaire québécois instantané.