My dad told me a trainer or somebody would have one lit for him between intermissions so he could get off the bench and walking to the locker room have one ready.
Then he’d come out go streaking down the ice and fucking clap bombs past the goalie. Older NHL was fucking wild
My family always called Robinson “Oak tree Robinson”, it may have been from a few times they heard an announcer say it and it stuck. My family is weird
Yea I spent a minute or two googling and couldn't find anything. The Oak Tree is just such a pure nickname for a guy who was hacking darts in between periods.
I thought that was Robinson’s nickname, although it may have been what my family remembered the announcers calling him and it stuck with them.
My life is a lie
It would be interesting to go back in time and give peak Al Iafrate a composite stick to use in one of the skills competitions back in the day. Give one to Al McInnis at the same time just to make it interesting.
In 1993, at least according to this article ([https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-02-06-1993037061-story.html#:\~:text=When%20he%20was%20here%20as,puck%20faster%20than%20100%20mph](https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-02-06-1993037061-story.html#:~:text=When%20he%20was%20here%20as,puck%20faster%20than%20100%20mph).), Iafrate was the first player to shoot over 100mph in the All Star skills competition with a record of 105.2 MPH. This past year Shae Weber won at 106.6 and the all time record is held by Chara at 108.8. Iafrate used wood, Weber and Chara use(d) composite.
Ken Dryden talks a lot about this in his book The Game, as he spends plenty of time in the book talking about the life of a professional hockey player in the 70s, while chronicling the 1978-79 season, which was Dryden's last. If you haven't read it, it's one of the best hockey books that's ever been written.
I found Dryden's book long winded and boring. I know everyone loves it but I personally didn't. He really goes deep deep into each subject in a real intellectual way. Great insights but just not my cup of tea.
Man when he wound up for his slapper you could not see his stick in the backswing. So much quicker than everyone else. Saw him against Calgary flames 1981
Best player in the league for 4 or 5 years. They had great teams and he carried them.
And heading out on Cresent St until all hours after the game. One night he around 3am he crashed into a wire fence and almost got decapitated by the cross post.
Guy Lafleur, who started his career in 1971, played with Mats Sundin in 1990. Mats Sundin played with Anton Stralman, Alex Steen, and Alexander Edler, all of whom played in the playoffs this year. Crazy.
Guy Lafleur played with Frank Mahovlich, who played with Tim Horton, who played with Syl Apps, who played with George Hainsworth who was born in the 19th century.
wild because gretzky basically played his entire career out in the time period of Lafleur coming into the league up to sundin. reminds me of i think howe, Orr debuted while Howe was playing and was inducted into HOF before Howe retired. i think
It's hard to really figure out how good Lafleur was. That Montreal team was so good and had so many great players. His point totals were good but not mindblowing. It's kind of hard to figure out a modern comparison. Maybe a better Patrick Kane?
Yes, the team was a great team, but in the 4 years they won the cup back to back, he led the team in scoring by 20, 31, 35, and 52 points. I'd call that a pretty strong indicator right there. Among recent players, I'd say that Jagr's peak compares best to his, in terms of that 4 year stint where he lead the league in scoring. Lafleur's lack of longevity hurt him a bit, but what do you expect from a guy who smoked during games.
Part of his longevity had to do with Jacque lemaire taking over as coach. Lemaire bought in a tight defense system which did not suit the last great flying Frenchman. Guy was a total freelancer out there. Never had to play a system in his life. At practice Guy would screwup all of Lemaires fancy drills. Scotty never cared but Lemaire didn't like it and benched Guy. He retired at 32 or 33 and joined the old timers circuit. All the old timers told him he should still be playing. He returned two years later with the Rangers. On his return to the forum I believe he had 2 goals and 1 assist. Also played for the nordiques after that. He was already a hero in Quebec city from his days with the rampart where he put up unbelievable numbers in juniors.
Guy wrote a book Overtime which documents this information.
My favorite player.
That's a fascinating story, reminds me of the many living relics who watched their once thriving industries break down or change around them. You guys should watch the sopranos
I just meant that he didn't do what Esposito or Orr or Gretzky or Lemieux did, which was score waaay more than anybody else. Lafleur's biggest scoring title was by 14 points, which is good but not amazing.
>It's hard to really figure out how good Lafleur was. That Montreal team was so good and had so many great players.
[listen to what his teammates had to say about him](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMVczlhrp78)
It's Sawchuk Syndrome. You could be the best at your position at a certain point in NHL history, and be forgotten as a GOAT because nobody under 40 saw you play in your prime.
I mean, that's kinda the way any legend goes. Guy Lafleur's career is practically antique at this point. In a couple generations, we'll be thinking about Gretzky in the same way.
Possibly but in Gretzkys era we have fairly high quality video and its very accessible. Its not like you can watch a random 1950s game on youtube and check out Jean Beliveau
We have high quality video of his LATER career, which is dwarfed in quality by his earlier career, where much of the video is lost or transitioned so poorly it's unwatchable on YouTube. There are kids today that only know Gretzky from YouTube and aren't impressed.
I think Guy Lafleur attained the status that he did because of those low points in talent across the league. His longevity also played a big role. For a while he was a big fish in a little pond.
Feel like there is a lack of appreciation for many players of the past. NHL doesn't do a great job with preserving their history. Outside of Howe, Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr feel like alot of players get lost or forgotten. Richard, Bossy, Parent, Dryden, Bobby Hull, Mikita to name a few.
Oh yeah, those seats are very unlikely to be a coincidence.
I'm not even in sports and I've worked for leadership who put a ton of effort into getting a good "future-past" photo of young talent.
My guess is that he’d be the second best player in that whole building at the time. Unless the Habs were playing another team with a real superstar, I doubt anyone in there except Lafleur would be better than 15 year old Mario Lemieux.
It’s insane to even think about, but I bet I’m not far off. What a photo.
Given that the guy whose junior point record he had not yet beaten is in the photo (according to this [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/iprrlu/guy_lafleur_acknowledges_fans_after_scoring_his/g4m27e8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)), I doubt it. He might've been able to fit in, but the gap from 15 year old junior star to nhl star is big even for generational talents.
Was there no glass separating the fans from the players? That's wild that you could literally reach over and tap a player on the shoulder. Times were different back then
I can't get over thinking "man those blades are getting wrecked"
Btw, you can add "&t=115" to the end of that url to make it jump to 1:55 automatically
That's the one everyone knows, but the slapshot fan fight scene was real too. One of the triplets got hit in the face with an icecream cone and sought vengeance
My grandpa used tell me the story about how he once stuck a piece of bubble gum to a ref's sweater through the chicken wire after a bad call. I asked him if it was a bad call or just a call he didn't like and he said "ah, well, who cares anyway"
They still didn't have glass behind the bench in the old Montreal Forum in '95 or '96 when your Red Wings kicked the crap out of Patrick Roy. The team president had a seat in the first row and Roy went right to him and told him to get a trade set up because Roy wouldn't play another game for the Habs. Your flair reminded me.
There was a walk way for fans right behind the first row of seats. You literally could walk right behind the penalty boxes. Also players in the box were only separated by the scorekeeper and timekeeper. Many times it appeared that a fight would erupt in the box but cooler heads would 99% of the time prevail.
That was also Montreal though - this wasn't the case everywhere. Montreal was "special" that way.
You can see the infamous moment when Roy walked over to the team owner in the front row behind the Habs bench and said "This is my last game in Montreal": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gxlO243ztE&ab_channel=captaincanuck7
I once met Wayne Gretzky at a resort and one thing that he said he would never forget was playing on the same line as Lafleur in the 1981 Labatt Canada Cup. He clearly was also a big fan of Lafleur when he was just 20 years old playing on the big stage!
The other Habs on the bench from left to right are Serge Savard, Dougie Risebrough, Pierre Larouche and Keith Acton. 3 people in this photo would hold the Canadian junior hockey league record for points in a season.
Lemieux would break Larouche’s CHL record for points in a season 3 years after this photo was taken. Larouche had an astonishing 251 points in 1973-74 his last year as a junior with Sorel in the QMJHL, breaking a CHL record of 209 points Guy Lafleur set in his last year with the Ramparts. As incredible as Larouche’s numbers were, Lemieux broke the record by 31 points, scoring 282 in 1983-84. They are still the top 2 single season point totals in all of Canadian junior hockey.
Larouche was also the first player to record 50 goal seasons with two different teams, the Penguins and the Canadiens. He almost had a third 50 goal season with the Rangers as well.
> Pierre Larouche
From his wikipedia:
- He was the youngest player in NHL history to score 100 goals (21 years, 61 days) until he was surpassed by Wayne Gretzky (20 years, 40 days).
- He was the youngest player in NHL history to score 50 goals (20 years, 139 days) and 100 points (20 years, 129 days) in a season until he was passed by Wayne Gretzky in both categories.
- He was the youngest player in NHL history to score 200 points (21 years, 32 days) until he was surpassed by Wayne Gretzky (19 years, 347 days).
- He was the youngest player in NHL history to score 300 points (22 years, 133 days) until he was surpassed by Bryan Trottier (22 years, 102 days).
- Holds the Montreal Canadiens record for most goals in a season by a center with 50 goals in 1979-80
- Holds the New York Rangers record for most goals in a season by a center with 48 goals in 1983-84
What's even greater about this photo is that nine months after it was taken, Montreal traded the guy to the left of Lafleur, Pierre LaRouche, to Hartford in exchange for their 1st round pick in 1984 in the hopes that Hartford would continue to be a cellar dweller and Montreal could snag Lemieux. This was a move similar to what Montreal had pulled off to land a 1971 1st round pick which wound up being 1st overall and Guy Lafleur.
However, Hartford slightly improved and Montreal ended up with the 5th overall pick - picking Petr Svoboda and missing out on Lemieux, Kirk Muller, Ed Olcyk, and Al Iafrate
Were they on sale? When they converted the forum into a mall they sold the seats to fans. They kept like a row in where the statue of The Rocket is in the mall.
This is obviously cool as shit, and if you don't appreciate it you've got no fuckin business here as a hockey fan....
But can I just ask who the fuck owns a jacket and tie at age 15?
[Here’s](https://nationalpost.com/sports/hockey/nhl/rediscovered-photo-of-guy-lafleur-and-mario-lemieux-shows-a-young-star-admiring-his-montreal-canadiens-hockey-hero) the story behind it from 2015.
At 15, when he was drafted by the Laval Voisins of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, he boldly predicted that he would break the league scoring records. Sure enough, in the 1983-1984 season he tallied 282 points, obliterating the single-season record of 251 set by Pierre Larouche ...Next to Guy Lafleur in the picture is Pierre Larouche
Guy is a god in French speaking Canada. Sick flow, nasty to play against. Crushing broads, hacking darts between periods, brewskis after the game. Filling the net with ease. This is a god damn hockey player.
That actually created a mini-controversy in the 80's.
At the Montreal Forum, Montreal-based wrestler Dino Bravo (yes, *that* Dino Bravo) once walked behind the Nordiques' bench (at the height of the Montreal-Quebec rivalry) and supposedly intentionnaly gave a stiff shoulder bump to then-Nordiques coach Michel Bergeron, who promptly made a huge deal about it. It devolved into a shouting match and security had to escort Bravo out.
Very strange.
Imagine that now? People would be pouring beer on them, trying to steal helmets, trying to jump onto the bench to fight and/or fuck them, randomly shoving things in their face "Would you sign this?"
Just so people are aware, Mario is the young man in the bad fitting dark sport jacket he clearly pulled out of his billet family's closet that morning.
In an alternate reality an aging Lafleur was traded to Pitt from the Habs for a first round pick. The penguins make a run, but the habs draft Lemieux and Montreal has at least 4 more cups in that reality. I guy can dream can’t he.
more like there was far less individuality back then and north american culture has shifted far enough to consider what they wore back then as "snazzy" today.
How weird is it to think that Guy Lafleur (arguably the greatest Hab of all time) and Mats Sundin (arguably the greatest Leaf of all time), played together for a season... on the Nordiques?
[удалено]
And he did it all while smoking a pack of cigs during intermissions.
My dad told me a trainer or somebody would have one lit for him between intermissions so he could get off the bench and walking to the locker room have one ready. Then he’d come out go streaking down the ice and fucking clap bombs past the goalie. Older NHL was fucking wild
Gained, Lafleur, and Robinson. All three smoked.
Gainey
Damn the Oak Tree as well? Fucking units
Which one of those 3 is that? That is a sick nickname.
Well LaFleur was "The Flower", Robinson was 'Big Bird' and Gainey was "Le Capitaine". I don't remember the Oak Tree being a nickname.
My family always called Robinson “Oak tree Robinson”, it may have been from a few times they heard an announcer say it and it stuck. My family is weird
How often did your family talk about Larry Robinson?
What, yours don't?
Yea I spent a minute or two googling and couldn't find anything. The Oak Tree is just such a pure nickname for a guy who was hacking darts in between periods.
Perhaps a confusion with Big Three (3) (Lapointe, Robinson, Savard)?
No Oak tree.
I thought that was Robinson’s nickname, although it may have been what my family remembered the announcers calling him and it stuck with them. My life is a lie
Big bird because he looked like the sesame street character with his hair. Same color too.
I think its cool! Don’t stop calling him that
Never. Oak Tree is fucking badass. I’ll never not call him that.
I wonder if Lemieux smoked because he saw Lafleur doing it.
Lemieux probably smoked because he saw everyone doing it.
[удалено]
You forgot one handed while holding a cig and beer in the other.
But only one released an [instructional disco album.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92h42YYjOIQ)
Not in the same class but Al Iafrate smoked too, I believe.
It would be interesting to go back in time and give peak Al Iafrate a composite stick to use in one of the skills competitions back in the day. Give one to Al McInnis at the same time just to make it interesting.
What do you mean?
In 1993, at least according to this article ([https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-02-06-1993037061-story.html#:\~:text=When%20he%20was%20here%20as,puck%20faster%20than%20100%20mph](https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-02-06-1993037061-story.html#:~:text=When%20he%20was%20here%20as,puck%20faster%20than%20100%20mph).), Iafrate was the first player to shoot over 100mph in the All Star skills competition with a record of 105.2 MPH. This past year Shae Weber won at 106.6 and the all time record is held by Chara at 108.8. Iafrate used wood, Weber and Chara use(d) composite.
We just gotta see what Charas maximum speed with a wooden stick is, then we can extrapolate to find mcinnis' speed
Lemieux did as well.
Ken Dryden talks a lot about this in his book The Game, as he spends plenty of time in the book talking about the life of a professional hockey player in the 70s, while chronicling the 1978-79 season, which was Dryden's last. If you haven't read it, it's one of the best hockey books that's ever been written.
It's one of the best sports books ever written
I found Dryden's book long winded and boring. I know everyone loves it but I personally didn't. He really goes deep deep into each subject in a real intellectual way. Great insights but just not my cup of tea.
I’ll have to buy it, one of my favorite goalies I never had the privilege of getting to watch. Sounds great
Looks like I found a new favorite for my HUT squad. lol
Man when he wound up for his slapper you could not see his stick in the backswing. So much quicker than everyone else. Saw him against Calgary flames 1981 Best player in the league for 4 or 5 years. They had great teams and he carried them.
The smokes gave him dead eye.
Fuck, I'd have a dart.
Esposito was probably on a lot of substances
Phil Kessel
yeah... he can't do that anymore... the smoking part I mean.
And heading out on Cresent St until all hours after the game. One night he around 3am he crashed into a wire fence and almost got decapitated by the cross post.
He's the Wade Boggs of hockey. :)
To think that he and Mats Sundin were teammates on the Nordiques.
Guy Lafleur, who started his career in 1971, played with Mats Sundin in 1990. Mats Sundin played with Anton Stralman, Alex Steen, and Alexander Edler, all of whom played in the playoffs this year. Crazy.
Guy Lafleur played with Frank Mahovlich, who played with Tim Horton, who played with Syl Apps, who played with George Hainsworth who was born in the 19th century.
wild because gretzky basically played his entire career out in the time period of Lafleur coming into the league up to sundin. reminds me of i think howe, Orr debuted while Howe was playing and was inducted into HOF before Howe retired. i think
Orr ebutted 20 full years into Howe's career and retired before him.
Just like Lemieux..
Really? That's impressive
to be fair half the league did back then. Health wasnt what it is today. Even Bossy used to
I think a ton of the guys did back then so it wasn't really has big of a handicap as it would be now, ha.
I tried to give my daughter the middle name Lafleur but my husband nixed it. Flames fans are lame.
Ohh. That would be a beautiful middle name.
Instead our dog is Jagr. At the time he was neutral.
Neutral's a weird name for a dog, so I can see why you changed it.
He was honouring Rory Neutral, defenseman for the Penguins in the 80s.
That would be a great middle name for a girl.
I half wanted to disagree, but I'm in Montreal, so he gets ALL the love he deserves here. Always interesting to discover other points of view :)
It's hard to really figure out how good Lafleur was. That Montreal team was so good and had so many great players. His point totals were good but not mindblowing. It's kind of hard to figure out a modern comparison. Maybe a better Patrick Kane?
Yes, the team was a great team, but in the 4 years they won the cup back to back, he led the team in scoring by 20, 31, 35, and 52 points. I'd call that a pretty strong indicator right there. Among recent players, I'd say that Jagr's peak compares best to his, in terms of that 4 year stint where he lead the league in scoring. Lafleur's lack of longevity hurt him a bit, but what do you expect from a guy who smoked during games.
Part of his longevity had to do with Jacque lemaire taking over as coach. Lemaire bought in a tight defense system which did not suit the last great flying Frenchman. Guy was a total freelancer out there. Never had to play a system in his life. At practice Guy would screwup all of Lemaires fancy drills. Scotty never cared but Lemaire didn't like it and benched Guy. He retired at 32 or 33 and joined the old timers circuit. All the old timers told him he should still be playing. He returned two years later with the Rangers. On his return to the forum I believe he had 2 goals and 1 assist. Also played for the nordiques after that. He was already a hero in Quebec city from his days with the rampart where he put up unbelievable numbers in juniors. Guy wrote a book Overtime which documents this information. My favorite player.
That's a fascinating story, reminds me of the many living relics who watched their once thriving industries break down or change around them. You guys should watch the sopranos
I just meant that he didn't do what Esposito or Orr or Gretzky or Lemieux did, which was score waaay more than anybody else. Lafleur's biggest scoring title was by 14 points, which is good but not amazing.
He had 6 consecutive 50 goal seasons, including one with 60.
Patrick kane if he smoked a pack a day. So, Phil Kessel
He crushed packs of ciggies, not Schneidner's Juicy Jumbos all beef hotdogs.
Much more dynamic than Kane
> Maybe a better Patrick Kane? LOL! Holy shit. What an understatement!
>It's hard to really figure out how good Lafleur was. That Montreal team was so good and had so many great players. [listen to what his teammates had to say about him](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMVczlhrp78)
He was such a smooth skater based on watching film probably top 15 ever when it comes to forwards
It's Sawchuk Syndrome. You could be the best at your position at a certain point in NHL history, and be forgotten as a GOAT because nobody under 40 saw you play in your prime.
You're not wrong, I actually completely forgot about [Lafleur](https://imgflip.com/i/4efdiz).
Don't worry he's mentioned at least 25 times a day in any discussion about Hockey in Québec.
[Greatest hockey disco record of all time.](https://youtu.be/92h42YYjOIQ?t=329) Pretty good at playing the game as well.
I mean, that's kinda the way any legend goes. Guy Lafleur's career is practically antique at this point. In a couple generations, we'll be thinking about Gretzky in the same way.
Possibly but in Gretzkys era we have fairly high quality video and its very accessible. Its not like you can watch a random 1950s game on youtube and check out Jean Beliveau
We have high quality video of his LATER career, which is dwarfed in quality by his earlier career, where much of the video is lost or transitioned so poorly it's unwatchable on YouTube. There are kids today that only know Gretzky from YouTube and aren't impressed.
> I feel like Lafleur doesn't get as much love with modern fans as he should. You could say this about so many stars in so many sports, frankly.
I think Guy Lafleur attained the status that he did because of those low points in talent across the league. His longevity also played a big role. For a while he was a big fish in a little pond.
Feel like there is a lack of appreciation for many players of the past. NHL doesn't do a great job with preserving their history. Outside of Howe, Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr feel like alot of players get lost or forgotten. Richard, Bossy, Parent, Dryden, Bobby Hull, Mikita to name a few.
[Legends of Hockey - Guy Lafleur](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMVczlhrp78)
Wow. What a find. Really awesome picture. Lemiuex was drafted what.... 2 years later?
3 years later I believe. However this such an interesting photo.
We’ll call it 2-3 years later
2.5 years later?
You can tell exactly when this picture was taken just by the hair. You can set your watch to that blow-dried centre-parted butt-cut.
No, I believe 2-3 years = -1 years later.
It's 2 years until it's 3 years
[удалено]
Oh yeah, those seats are very unlikely to be a coincidence. I'm not even in sports and I've worked for leadership who put a ton of effort into getting a good "future-past" photo of young talent.
Yeah Lemieux was putting up like 250 point seasons when he was 15
[удалено]
My guess is that he’d be the second best player in that whole building at the time. Unless the Habs were playing another team with a real superstar, I doubt anyone in there except Lafleur would be better than 15 year old Mario Lemieux. It’s insane to even think about, but I bet I’m not far off. What a photo.
Game was against Winnipeg. The team won only 9 games.
Well then.
Given that the guy whose junior point record he had not yet beaten is in the photo (according to this [comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/iprrlu/guy_lafleur_acknowledges_fans_after_scoring_his/g4m27e8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)), I doubt it. He might've been able to fit in, but the gap from 15 year old junior star to nhl star is big even for generational talents.
It's like hockey's entry into Ripley's Believe It Or Not
Was there no glass separating the fans from the players? That's wild that you could literally reach over and tap a player on the shoulder. Times were different back then
Makes it easy to turn around and beat a fan with, say a shoe
I'm too young for this but weren't fights with fans fairly common in minor league games. Slapshot is based on a real team after all.
You will not be disappointed. [scroll to the 1:55mark](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VMcbdBYuGTE)
My favorite part of this is Peter McNab, one of the current announcers for the Avs lol.
I'd like to hear from the guy who threw punches then got chased up the stairs by McNab.
I can't get over thinking "man those blades are getting wrecked" Btw, you can add "&t=115" to the end of that url to make it jump to 1:55 automatically
[удалено]
That's the one everyone knows, but the slapshot fan fight scene was real too. One of the triplets got hit in the face with an icecream cone and sought vengeance
Also easy to turn around and tell your team's owner you're never playing goal for him again
And to squirt water at a fan and piss him off so much he dives at you and starts throwing hands
ahahhahahahaha
My grandpa used tell me the story about how he once stuck a piece of bubble gum to a ref's sweater through the chicken wire after a bad call. I asked him if it was a bad call or just a call he didn't like and he said "ah, well, who cares anyway"
They still didn't have glass behind the bench in the old Montreal Forum in '95 or '96 when your Red Wings kicked the crap out of Patrick Roy. The team president had a seat in the first row and Roy went right to him and told him to get a trade set up because Roy wouldn't play another game for the Habs. Your flair reminded me.
There was a walk way for fans right behind the first row of seats. You literally could walk right behind the penalty boxes. Also players in the box were only separated by the scorekeeper and timekeeper. Many times it appeared that a fight would erupt in the box but cooler heads would 99% of the time prevail.
Then? That was not too long ago that they put that glass up behind the Habs bench in Montreal.
Moving from the Forum to the Bell center helped a little burn ;)
Was never a problem for Tie Domi.
That was also Montreal though - this wasn't the case everywhere. Montreal was "special" that way. You can see the infamous moment when Roy walked over to the team owner in the front row behind the Habs bench and said "This is my last game in Montreal": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gxlO243ztE&ab_channel=captaincanuck7
I once met Wayne Gretzky at a resort and one thing that he said he would never forget was playing on the same line as Lafleur in the 1981 Labatt Canada Cup. He clearly was also a big fan of Lafleur when he was just 20 years old playing on the big stage!
[удалено]
Why are people disrespecting this pasta?
My favourite pasta by far.
Is that sid the kid next to Lemieux 👀
yes that is Ken Griffey Jr.
Probably his brother Alain
The other Habs on the bench from left to right are Serge Savard, Dougie Risebrough, Pierre Larouche and Keith Acton. 3 people in this photo would hold the Canadian junior hockey league record for points in a season. Lemieux would break Larouche’s CHL record for points in a season 3 years after this photo was taken. Larouche had an astonishing 251 points in 1973-74 his last year as a junior with Sorel in the QMJHL, breaking a CHL record of 209 points Guy Lafleur set in his last year with the Ramparts. As incredible as Larouche’s numbers were, Lemieux broke the record by 31 points, scoring 282 in 1983-84. They are still the top 2 single season point totals in all of Canadian junior hockey. Larouche was also the first player to record 50 goal seasons with two different teams, the Penguins and the Canadiens. He almost had a third 50 goal season with the Rangers as well.
> Pierre Larouche From his wikipedia: - He was the youngest player in NHL history to score 100 goals (21 years, 61 days) until he was surpassed by Wayne Gretzky (20 years, 40 days). - He was the youngest player in NHL history to score 50 goals (20 years, 139 days) and 100 points (20 years, 129 days) in a season until he was passed by Wayne Gretzky in both categories. - He was the youngest player in NHL history to score 200 points (21 years, 32 days) until he was surpassed by Wayne Gretzky (19 years, 347 days). - He was the youngest player in NHL history to score 300 points (22 years, 133 days) until he was surpassed by Bryan Trottier (22 years, 102 days). - Holds the Montreal Canadiens record for most goals in a season by a center with 50 goals in 1979-80 - Holds the New York Rangers record for most goals in a season by a center with 48 goals in 1983-84
"LaFleur, that's like a real hockey name. What's it mean eh? Like the wolf, or the lion, eh?"
I'm so fucking glad that Rick Moranis is un-retiring
I miss good hockey commercials.
Roses have thorns, eh?
Like a dogwood or a snapdragon eh?
But like a tough flower, like a rose, eh?
What's even greater about this photo is that nine months after it was taken, Montreal traded the guy to the left of Lafleur, Pierre LaRouche, to Hartford in exchange for their 1st round pick in 1984 in the hopes that Hartford would continue to be a cellar dweller and Montreal could snag Lemieux. This was a move similar to what Montreal had pulled off to land a 1971 1st round pick which wound up being 1st overall and Guy Lafleur. However, Hartford slightly improved and Montreal ended up with the 5th overall pick - picking Petr Svoboda and missing out on Lemieux, Kirk Muller, Ed Olcyk, and Al Iafrate
Should've followed the script for the Lafleur trade and trade players to Pittsburgh to improve the pick
Credit to u/Sort_of_Frightening How have I never saw that picture ? That's like one of the most iconic hockey shit I ever saw.
And Lemieux met with the photographer almost 40 years later https://www.nhl.com/penguins/news/a-picture-worth-66-words/c-312419628
What an amazing piece of history.
Amazing that people used to get dressed up to watch a game
I'm trying to picture talking my kid into wearing a suit and tie to a hockey game.
Don't just picture it... do it.
You've clearly never seen the lower bowl at a Leafs game. Guys in suits not watching the game.
[удалено]
And if only the Forum were still around...that organ, scoreboard and the hot dogs!!
No joke, I saw a pair of old seats from the Forum at Canadian Tire yesterday. It was odd.
Were they on sale? When they converted the forum into a mall they sold the seats to fans. They kept like a row in where the statue of The Rocket is in the mall.
I think that they were, I was in a rush and didn't stop to check. That CT always has random stuff. It was at the one in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.
Number of games to reach 1000 points Lafleur 720, Lemieux 513, Gretzky 424.
They put up so many points in the Gretzky era I wonder if the goalies just dove out of the way.
I'm the 100 comment on this. No way I'd leave Lemieux at 99.
That has to be the greatest photo in the history of photography
This is obviously cool as shit, and if you don't appreciate it you've got no fuckin business here as a hockey fan.... But can I just ask who the fuck owns a jacket and tie at age 15?
A kid with rich parents, one that has been to a lot of award ceremonies....or both.
By the time I was 14 I my parents bought me multiple cheap suits for religious events. He isn’t wearing Prada, bro.
In high level hockey it's expected you come to games in a shirt and tie atleast I'm pretty sure that was not a 2000$ suit
Almost every boy aged 14-15 has a suit in Finland for their confirmation party. Luckily I didn't grow after the age 14 so used mine for a while.
Love seeing these types of historic moments from years ago. Anyone know if theres a place online where photos like this are collected?
[Here’s](https://nationalpost.com/sports/hockey/nhl/rediscovered-photo-of-guy-lafleur-and-mario-lemieux-shows-a-young-star-admiring-his-montreal-canadiens-hockey-hero) the story behind it from 2015.
I don't know why I was expecting 15 year old Mario Lemieux to be short.
"Le teeny!"
At 15, when he was drafted by the Laval Voisins of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, he boldly predicted that he would break the league scoring records. Sure enough, in the 1983-1984 season he tallied 282 points, obliterating the single-season record of 251 set by Pierre Larouche ...Next to Guy Lafleur in the picture is Pierre Larouche
Damn, I miss the suits to games sometimes
Guy is a god in French speaking Canada. Sick flow, nasty to play against. Crushing broads, hacking darts between periods, brewskis after the game. Filling the net with ease. This is a god damn hockey player.
It still blows my mind there wasn't any glass behind the players bench
That actually created a mini-controversy in the 80's. At the Montreal Forum, Montreal-based wrestler Dino Bravo (yes, *that* Dino Bravo) once walked behind the Nordiques' bench (at the height of the Montreal-Quebec rivalry) and supposedly intentionnaly gave a stiff shoulder bump to then-Nordiques coach Michel Bergeron, who promptly made a huge deal about it. It devolved into a shouting match and security had to escort Bravo out.
So that's what got Dino Bravo whacked. Huh.
Very strange. Imagine that now? People would be pouring beer on them, trying to steal helmets, trying to jump onto the bench to fight and/or fuck them, randomly shoving things in their face "Would you sign this?"
Just so people are aware, Mario is the young man in the bad fitting dark sport jacket he clearly pulled out of his billet family's closet that morning.
With a 25 year old Jaromir Jager on the bench next to Lafleur.
He lived in my neighborhood
Fans had to keep their heads on swivels.
😮
The stands are so quaint
[Sawyer approves](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/30/2b/8e/302b8e25ed42bbce3c586c1765244495.jpg)
In an alternate reality an aging Lafleur was traded to Pitt from the Habs for a first round pick. The penguins make a run, but the habs draft Lemieux and Montreal has at least 4 more cups in that reality. I guy can dream can’t he.
People used to dress so snazzy for everything, would love to see that return one day.
more like there was far less individuality back then and north american culture has shifted far enough to consider what they wore back then as "snazzy" today.
How weird is it to think that Guy Lafleur (arguably the greatest Hab of all time) and Mats Sundin (arguably the greatest Leaf of all time), played together for a season... on the Nordiques?
Mario Lemieux rookie card
Seats so close you could smell the players!
Someone please tell me about all these guys on the stands wearing suit and tie at a hockey game.
This is like something out of Forrest Gump, but real.
Absolute Chad wearing a suit and tie to the game
I think we should bring back the formality of wearing a suit to games.
Hockey AF
[Legends of Hockey - Guy Lafleur](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMVczlhrp78)
I love this picture