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Montreal Canadiens: The Perfect Ending To A Perfectly Un-Perfect Season

By Joshua Rosa

Apr 29, 2022; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens team honors a member of the staff, Pierre Gervais (center), before the game against Florida Panthers at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 29, 2022; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens team honors a member of the staff, Pierre Gervais (center), before the game against Florida Panthers at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports /
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(Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
(Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /

Watching the first game at the Bell Centre after the death of Guy Lafleur at home was emotional. I couldn’t even imagine what it would’ve been like to have actually grown up watching him live, or actually being in the building the night the city stood and ovated Guy for over 10 minutes.

But on April 30th, the Montreal Canadiens gave Guy Lafleur the send off he deserved.

Lafleur wore the number 10 for his whole career in Montreal, and believe me, everyone in the arena knew it right around the point where Montreal scored their 6th goal partway through the second. 3 goals in the first 5 minutes of the game is a flurry, 4 goals in the first period is very good, 8 goals by the second put everyone on double-digit watch.

And in a game where everyone was skating like Lafleur, shooting like Guy, it was the least likely player who brought us to that magical number, naturally. Tyler Pitlick, an oft-injured throw in from the Tyler Toffoli trade, who it seemed was added just to have a monopoly on all the Pitlicks in the NHL, who hadn’t scored a goal in over a calendar year, ripped one right off the faceoff in the third period.

And there was no goal fatigue on that one. Everyone celebrated like mad. Because sometimes in routs the players stop celebrating. Like, I know that Christian Dvorak is a low-key guy, but could you at least crack a smile after you score a goal? I looked at his face and couldn’t tell if he had just scored a goal or got called for a penalty.

But the crowd goes crazy for the tenth goal, and as the Bell Center team lit up Guy Lafleur’s #10 jersey from the rafters, the chants of ‘Guy, Guy, Guy!’ filled the packed arena. In fact, you can hear it in the highlights on TSN. You know, if you can even find it anymore, unfortunately.

It doesn’t matter that this was a glorified AHL team against the worst NHL team in the league. The Montreal Canadiens got to honor one of the greatest hockey players to ever lace up the skates in the most perfect way possible.

And just two days before Lafleur would be honored for 2 days in the Bell Centre, and have his funeral broadcast for the whole continent to see.

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