Panache was the phrase for Guy Lafleur, a towering determine in Montreal hockey historical past who swooped down the proper wing for the Canadiens in the Seventies, golden locks flowing behind, earlier than freezing many a goaltender along with his lethal slapshot.
Lafleur, typically described as a rock star on the N.H.L.’s most glamorous crew of the period, died after three years of present process therapy for lung most cancers, his sister Lise Lafleur introduced on Friday. He was 70 years outdated.
In Lafleur’s prime, the Montreal Canadiens have been arguably the biggest crew in league historical past. They gained 4 consecutive Stanley Cups from 1976 to 1979 with the 1976-77 crew shedding simply eight of 80 video games in the common season. Fans nonetheless argue whether or not that model of the Canadiens or the one in the Fifties that gained 5 consecutive Cups is the finest.
There was by no means an argument over who was the biggest star on the Seventies Bleu, Blanc et Rouge. Not solely was Lafleur a prolific goal-scorer, however he additionally performed hockey the manner French Canadian followers liked to see it performed, with type. Fans round the N.H.L. knew him as The Flower, the literal translation of Lafleur, however in Quebec his nickname was the extra becoming Le Démon Blond.
He mixed the finest traits of his predecessors, the Quebec hockey icons Maurice (Rocket) Richard and Jean Béliveau. While Lafleur didn’t have Richard’s sheer energy on his skates, he did have an murderer’s eyes as he neared the internet with the puck on his stick. His grace and class have been a nearer match with the stately Béliveau, as Lafleur was a gifted playmaker in addition to scorer.
For six consecutive seasons, from 1974-75 by means of 1979-80, Lafleur scored not less than 50 objectives. He performed 961 video games for the Canadiens from 1971 to 1984, ending with 1,246 factors, which remains to be the franchise file.
Lafleur’s taking part in days with the Canadiens didn’t finish nicely. By 1984, his former linemate Jacques Lemaire was the head coach, and so they clashed over how the sport ought to be performed. Lafleur retired early in the 1984-85 season however got here again 4 years later — after he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame — to play three extra seasons with the New York Rangers and Quebec Nordiques.
“He was a great player,” stated Scotty Bowman, who was the head coach of the Canadiens from 1971 to 1979. “I don’t know if any player in history had the pressure he did. When he got drafted by Montreal in ’71, they had just won the Cup, Béliveau had just retired.
“Those were big shoes to fill, coming into Montreal to replace a player that you can’t replace.”
Lafleur was the lineal successor to Béliveau, and earlier than him, Richard, as the Canadiens’ French famous person. This was no straightforward place in hockey-mad Montreal. Immediate success was demanded.
On prime of that, Canadiens normal supervisor Sam Pollock had used all of his notorious wiles to land Lafleur, who grew up in the small Quebec paper-mill city of Thurso. He determined the California Golden Seals have been the finest guess to complete final in the 1970-71 season, thus getting the first decide in the novice draft. Pollock persuaded the Seals to commerce the decide, and later, when it seemed like the Los Angeles Kings would possibly fall under the Seals in the standings, Pollock traded veteran middle Ralph Backstrom to Los Angeles. Backstrom ran up 27 factors in 33 video games, and the Kings stayed forward of the Seals, which allowed Pollock to take Lafleur first general.
But the Canadiens had plenty of expertise, and even a prodigy like Lafleur needed to earn his spot in the lineup. This didn’t mollify the followers, particularly when two French Canadian gamers taken simply after Lafleur in the 1971 draft, Marcel Dionne (Detroit Red Wings) and Richard Martin (Buffalo Sabres), began scoring instantly.
“Of course, everybody in Montreal was comparing Lafleur to both Dionne and Martin,” Bowman stated. “They were playing regular minutes, and he wasn’t. He had a lot to overcome. It took a while.
“He was a quiet guy — never complained about his lot. There was a lot of pressure on him, but he kept it to himself,” he stated.
The breakthrough got here in the 1974-75 season, when he was paired with left-winger Steve Shutt and scored 53 objectives. For a lot of the subsequent 10 years, they have been one in every of the most feared duos in the league.
Lafleur’s most well-known objective got here on May 10, 1979, when the Canadiens have been on the verge of shedding their probability for a fourth consecutive Stanley Cup. With two minutes left in the third interval, they have been down 4-3 to the Boston Bruins in the seventh and deciding sport of the Cup semifinal.
But the Bruins took that well-known too-many-men penalty, after which got here the quintessential Lafleur objective with 74 seconds left. He picked up the puck in his personal finish, circled after which streaked up the proper facet. Lafleur despatched the puck to Lemaire, who carried it into the Boston zone with Lafleur behind him. Lemaire left a drop move, and Lafleur, in full flight along with his dirty-blond mane streaming, stepped into a slapshot that left Boston goaltender Gilles Gilbert sprawled on his again.
The objective despatched the sport into extra time, and Yvon Lambert scored to win it for the Canadiens. The New York Rangers have been dispatched in 5 video games, and the Canadiens, and Lafleur, had a fourth championship.
Recommend
