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Post by stoat on Dec 4, 2014 0:23:25 GMT -5
Here's Big Jean signing my late 50's/early 60s "Canadiens vs. All Stars" tin dart game. April 7, 2007 in Cambridge, Ontario. Aa I set it down in front of him, his eyes brightened, "Oh…what is this?" I told him that Eagle Toys had produced this dart game and a table top hockey game (which I've also collected) in honour of their 5-Cup streak. He said, "Well, I've never seen this before." "It'd be an honour if you'd sign it…of course at centre!" "Certainly, I'd be delighted to do that!" Then I asked him about the 7-5 comeback and Game 7 in Chicago, 1971. I've recounted that experience on this board a few times. I'm a collector and I'm absolutely, 100%, envious ... that's just a great collectable as is Mr Beliveau's reaction ... Cheers. I don't collect hockey souvenirs but I would make an exception for Maurice Richard and Jean Béliveu.
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Post by franko on Dec 4, 2014 9:11:58 GMT -5
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Post by Willie Dog on Dec 4, 2014 9:48:07 GMT -5
I guess with the Torranna media it's got to include the Laffs in everything no matter what the topic, regardless of how irrelevant the Laffs are to the discussion.
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Post by CentreHice on Dec 4, 2014 10:01:11 GMT -5
I don't see the humorous angle to the death of a legend.
Classless cartoon…
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Post by franko on Dec 4, 2014 10:12:10 GMT -5
obviously I saw it differently: the Habs-Leaf rivalry is eternal.
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Post by Willie Dog on Dec 4, 2014 10:18:13 GMT -5
obviously I saw it differently: the Habs-Leaf rivalry is eternal. No worries Franko. It could be taken multiple ways. IMO, I just did not think it showed any class.
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Post by Willie Dog on Dec 4, 2014 10:26:23 GMT -5
I posted the following in the comments section below the cartoon
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Post by CentreHice on Dec 4, 2014 10:32:09 GMT -5
obviously I saw it differently: the Habs-Leaf rivalry is eternal. I'm not against posting it, franko….I can handle that. It's more a commentary of the mindset of the cartoonist. Beliveau uttering a curse word just adds to the classlessness, IMO.
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Post by franko on Dec 4, 2014 10:36:34 GMT -5
obviously I saw it differently: the Habs-Leaf rivalry is eternal. I'm not against posting it, franko….I can handle that. It's more a commentary of the mindset of the cartoonist. Beliveau uttering a curse word just adds to the classlessness, IMO. I can accept that.
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Post by UberCranky on Dec 4, 2014 14:26:01 GMT -5
We always used the orange balls....we were tough country boys!! Then they came out with the orange sponge balls, we gladly switched to those!! You switched? Coward! Those balls created better goalies. Nothing speaks of bravery and sharpened reflexes then getting those balls in the man-pain-region in minus 20 weather. One in the calf was an ouch forgotten in a week, one the man-pain-region served as a long reminder to make sure you faced the shooter square on....and tuck.
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Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Dec 4, 2014 14:53:42 GMT -5
The bane of our existence! We all knew that Esposito hated Hab fans so much, he created a ball that left welts that lasted a WEEK! If I had known it was Esposito who was endorsing it I probably would have stuck to the tennis balls JKR referred to ... that said, I used a lot of Bruin and Leaf cards in the spokes of my bike when I was younger ... Orr, Espo, Ellis or Keon, made no difference ... I still see these orange balls every so often ... I'm not sure what they're using now, but I've seen them used in the intersection ball hockey games here on the base in K-town ... you're right, they leave quite the welts ... the tennis balls really stung when you took them in the package ... Cheers.
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Post by UberCranky on Dec 4, 2014 15:20:16 GMT -5
The bane of our existence! We all knew that Esposito hated Hab fans so much, he created a ball that left welts that lasted a WEEK! If I had known it was Esposito who was endorsing it I probably would have stuck to the tennis balls JKR referred to ... that said, I used a lot of Bruin and Leaf cards in the spokes of my bike when I was younger ... Orr, Espo, Ellis or Keon, made no difference ... I still see these orange balls every so often ... I'm not sure what they're using now, but I've seen them used in the intersection ball hockey games here on the base in K-town ... you're right, they leave quite the welts ... the tennis balls really stung when you took them in the package ... Cheers. I still have a few of them at the plant. Unlike pavement, the floor is concrete smoothed over and with the new hockey sticks, those things can FLY! The guys use to bring their sticks and take shots on their break, unfortunately, a game would break out....and frighten the hell out out me. The last thing I needed was someone breaking a leg and screwing up my workman comp rates. Every claim was a percentage increase on my entire payroll and it would sting if it went up even one percent. So, very reluctantly, I put an end to it. Anywho......there are five stick and a few Espo'spito balls in my office. Every so often, when no one is around.......the little monster wannabe Richard comes out to take a few slappers.
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Post by Bones on Dec 4, 2014 15:29:50 GMT -5
The worst thing about getting older.....is losing people who shaped your memories. Back in the day, hockey in the streets of Montreal was serious business. As a 10 year old warrior and legend in our minds, we came out with our Richard or Beliveau sweaters to defend our street against those other phony wannabe legends in their Beliveau and Richard sweaters. Obviously, they were foreigners from another block. Obviously they were not worthy. And so it went.....from 5 to 15....a decade were their legends were part of our daily young lives, we, we the scraped and whacked, sporting nice little black spots on our legs, damn you Esposito ball, WE and only WE were the heirs to the Richard and Beliveau legends. Holding back the tears..... I love this post, I think we can all relate, thanks. He'll definitely be missed. When it comes to heroes, to what epitomizes everything that is great about our team our sport, the very fabric that ties our dreams together, the admiration and class that we'd want to see in our heroes, or to emulate in our own lives, there is no one greater than Jean Beliveau. He is the very definition of a legend, may his live forever. <3
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Post by CentreHice on Dec 4, 2014 17:52:33 GMT -5
I heard the Dickie Moore clip. Heart-wrenching….just how much Beliveau meant to his teammates. That's a leader. New info for me…. M. Beliveau was nicknamed "Le Gros Bill" because of the stature and gentle nature of a French-Canadian folk hero of the same name. And also, from other sources I've read, because he bore a resemblance to actor, Yves Henry, who played the title character in the 1949 movie, "Le Gros Bill". Here's a picture of some of the cast/personnel from the movie...guess which one is Yves Henry.... I always knew it translated into "The Big" something. For years, I thought "Bill" was short for "Billet" (ticket). "The Big Ticket" made sense so I went with it. Nope. Apparently, it means simply Big Bill.
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Post by habsorbed on Dec 5, 2014 0:16:45 GMT -5
Don't know if anyone caught the Bruins v. Sharks game tonight. They had a moment of silence before the game for Le Gros Bill. That pretty well sums up the legend of this extraordinary athlete. Two American teams playing in California recognized what this French Canadian who only played for Montreal accomplished on and off the ice.
Now if only the National Post could show some class. I am in disbelief and disgusted they could make light of this very somber time. Not surprisingly TO ethnocentricity rules out any empathy they may have for how others living elsewhere might feel. And they call themselves "National". Perhaps "Provincial" or "Ignorant Post" might be more appropriate.
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Post by seventeen on Dec 5, 2014 1:47:47 GMT -5
There's always one idiot somewhere. I suspect most fans from Ontario have a lot of respect for big Jean.
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Post by franko on Dec 5, 2014 7:01:05 GMT -5
Now if only the National Post could show some class. I am in disbelief and disgusted they could make light of this very somber time. Not surprisingly TO ethnocentricity rules out any empathy they may have for how others living elsewhere might feel. And they call themselves "National". Perhaps "Provincial" or "Ignorant Post" might be more appropriate. there were some positive articles . . . and they are part of the canada.com network and often post/repost from the Gazette (Stubbs, for example). on a more Béliveauish note, I love this quote: When I’m gone, let them say that I was a team man. showed his priorities, once he accepted the inevitable that he would be a Hab.
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Post by Willie Dog on Dec 5, 2014 8:12:14 GMT -5
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Post by CentreHice on Dec 5, 2014 8:56:40 GMT -5
Thanks for posting that story, WD.
My earlier guess that Beliveau's Game 6 OT winner that eliminated Boston in 1969 is in an earlier clip, is dispelled by the account of the goal I've just read in Beliveau's book, "My Life In Hockey"….and it appears in the clip you posted above…at the 3:03 mark. You can hear the Bruins' announcer: "Provost…look out….Provost….Beliveau…shot…score! Beliveau!"
We went into overtime, and survived a scare in the first twenty-minute supplemental period when Fergie took a penalty and the Bruins almost scored. Our coach, Claude Ruel, was nervously chewing gum behind our bench midway through the fifth period when a move he'd made earlier in the game paid off. During the regular season and much of the playoffs, I had been up against Derek Sanderson, a talented but cocky centre who was very good on the draw. Fergie, Cournoyer, and I had our successes against him, but by game six, Harry Sinden was double-shifting Phil Esposito's line. Claude had reasoned that, unless I played against Esposito, head-to-head, our top scoring line would be sitting on the bench for lengthy periods of time.
He moved Claude Provost to the right wing, and I was out with him and Fergie when the game finally was brought to an end early that Saturday morning. We lined up against Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Murphy, just past the eleven-minute mark of the fifth period, the ninety-first minute of the game (and believe me, we were counting!). I won the draw and we chased the puck into the Bruins' zone. Fergie was in the corner, forcing the defenceman to to hurry his clearing pass. Don Awrey, the other defenceman, tried to tame a skittering puck near the blueline. but it bounced free. I saw Provost heading for it and knew that he'd get there first, so I turned and moved toward the net, on the opposite side of Cheevers.
In a flash, the puck was on my stick, and off again, into the top corner of the net. We had won the series, and I had the only overtime playoff goal of my career.
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Post by Willie Dog on Dec 5, 2014 9:02:27 GMT -5
Thanks for posting that story, WD. My earlier guess that Beliveau's Game 6 OT winner that eliminated Boston in 1969 is in an earlier clip, is dispelled by the account of the goal I've just read in Beliveau's book, "My Life In Hockey"….and it appears in the clip you posted above…at the 3:03 mark. We went into overtime, and survived a scare in the first twenty-minute supplemental period when Fergie took a penalty and the Bruins almost scored. Our coach, Claude Ruel, was nervously chewing gum behind our bench midway through the fifth period when a move he'd made earlier in the game paid off. During the regular season and much of the playoffs, I had been up against Derek Sanderson, a talented but cocky centre who was very good on the draw. Fergie, Cournoyer, and I had our successes against him, but by game six, Harry Sinden was double-shifting Phil Esposito's line. Claude had reasoned that, unless I played against Esposito, head-to-head, our top scoring line would be sitting on the bench for lengthy periods of time.
He moved Claude Provost to the right wing, and I was out with him and Fergie when the game finally was brought to an end early that Saturday morning. We lined up against Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Murphy, just past the eleven-minute mark of the fifth period, the ninety-first minute of the game (and believe me, we were counting!). I won the draw and we chased the puck into the Bruins' zone. Fergie was in the corner, forcing the defenceman to to hurry his clearing pass. Don Awrey, the other defenceman, tried to tame a skittering puck near the blueline. but it bounced free. I saw Provost heading for it and knew that he'd get there first, so I turned and moved toward the net, on the opposite side of Cheevers.
In a flash, the puck was on my stick, and off again, into the top corner of the net. We had won the series, and I had the only overtime playoff goal of my career. Wow... over 500 goals and only 1 overtime playoff goal... I guess when you have a great team they don't go into overtime very much.
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Post by CentreHice on Dec 5, 2014 9:53:23 GMT -5
Personal tribute from broadcaster, Scott Russell. I don't know why I get so emotional during these interviews recalling the career of Jean Béliveau on the day after he died.
He was, after all, a hockey player.
I am just a sports broadcaster who was fortunate enough to encounter him long after he retired.
But in searching for the reason behind the lump in my throat and the tears that well up, I find a deeper meaning to what the player — one of the greatest players — meant to me and I'm sure to so many Canadians of my generation.
He was gigantic.
He was an enormous personality.
He was the most graceful and elegant athlete I have ever met.
You will hear much about the 10 Stanley Cups he won as a key member in the Montreal Canadiens lineup. You will come to understand that Béliveau was not just a captain of the team, he became the captain of the team forever and for all time.
He scored more than 1,000 points, played in more than 1,000 games and accumulated more than 1,000 penalty minutes.
But these are just totals that could never portray the true measure of this remarkable man.
Béliveau was skilled, productive, tough and the consummate leader on the ice. His aura was immense and magically intensified even after his playing days were over.
My grandfather and I would watch Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights and revel in how we both despised the Canadiens. Grandpa Koch was a Detroit Red Wings fan and I admired the Toronto Maple Leafs. When it came to Béliveau, though, he insisted upon respect, even adoration.
"If you're not watching Jean Béliveau you're not really watching the game," he would warn.
Iconic trio
When I went to work for Hockey Night in Canada in Montreal in the late 1980s, I was introduced to three people when I first entered the iconic Forum.
There was Red Fisher of the Gazette and Dick Irvin, who would become a mentor on the broadcasts of the games. The third was Béliveau. He welcomed me and said it was great to have someone new in Montreal to cover the Habs on Hockey Night in Canada.
From that day forward he unfailingly remembered my name and always had time to talk hockey. I worked 14 seasons on Hockey Night in Canada and many of those games were in Montreal.
When I wrote my first book, The Rink: Stories from Hockey's Home Towns, along with Chris Cuthbert, I associated with Béliveau in a more extended way. We shared hours conversing about Le Colisée in Quebec City, an arena which had been built to attract him to come and play senior pro hockey in the capital of the province.
We would subsequently linger in the studio at the Bell Centre and he would gladly weave a fascinating yarn involving his love of the game and, more importantly, the family of hockey — a family of which he had become the unquestioned patriarch.
At the end of each meeting he would always bid adieu by saying a similar thing. "It has been my pleasure, Scott," he would say with a smile. "I have all the time in the world to speak with you."
Today is an emotional day, not because he is gone, but because we have the chance to remember all that he has been and continues to be.
One of the greatest players.
An honourable and noble Canadian.
A constant presence in the game we grew up loving.
I remember all those times the television director showed us the image of you in your seat behind the Canadiens bench. He did it to reassure us that you were still there, to comfort us and demonstrate that everything was right with hockey's world.
Mr. Béliveau, I'm just like so many fans.
I couldn't help being in awe of you.
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Post by CentreHice on Dec 5, 2014 10:08:57 GMT -5
I've read opinions from fans that the Bell Centre should perhaps change it's name to Centre Beliveau….the first syllable still works corporately! Has a nice "ring" to it!
I doubt that will happen, but Quebec City might think about renaming Le Colisee or choose Le Colisee Beliveau if a new arena is built for an NHL franchise. After all, Le Colisee, built in 1949, was often referred to as "the house that Jean built".
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Post by Willie Dog on Dec 5, 2014 10:36:44 GMT -5
Personal tribute from broadcaster, Scott Russell. I don't know why I get so emotional during these interviews recalling the career of Jean Béliveau on the day after he died.
He was, after all, a hockey player.
I am just a sports broadcaster who was fortunate enough to encounter him long after he retired.
But in searching for the reason behind the lump in my throat and the tears that well up, I find a deeper meaning to what the player — one of the greatest players — meant to me and I'm sure to so many Canadians of my generation.
He was gigantic.
He was an enormous personality.
He was the most graceful and elegant athlete I have ever met.
You will hear much about the 10 Stanley Cups he won as a key member in the Montreal Canadiens lineup. You will come to understand that Béliveau was not just a captain of the team, he became the captain of the team forever and for all time.
He scored more than 1,000 points, played in more than 1,000 games and accumulated more than 1,000 penalty minutes.
But these are just totals that could never portray the true measure of this remarkable man.
Béliveau was skilled, productive, tough and the consummate leader on the ice. His aura was immense and magically intensified even after his playing days were over.
My grandfather and I would watch Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights and revel in how we both despised the Canadiens. Grandpa Koch was a Detroit Red Wings fan and I admired the Toronto Maple Leafs. When it came to Béliveau, though, he insisted upon respect, even adoration.
"If you're not watching Jean Béliveau you're not really watching the game," he would warn.
Iconic trio
When I went to work for Hockey Night in Canada in Montreal in the late 1980s, I was introduced to three people when I first entered the iconic Forum.
There was Red Fisher of the Gazette and Dick Irvin, who would become a mentor on the broadcasts of the games. The third was Béliveau. He welcomed me and said it was great to have someone new in Montreal to cover the Habs on Hockey Night in Canada.
From that day forward he unfailingly remembered my name and always had time to talk hockey. I worked 14 seasons on Hockey Night in Canada and many of those games were in Montreal.
When I wrote my first book, The Rink: Stories from Hockey's Home Towns, along with Chris Cuthbert, I associated with Béliveau in a more extended way. We shared hours conversing about Le Colisée in Quebec City, an arena which had been built to attract him to come and play senior pro hockey in the capital of the province.
We would subsequently linger in the studio at the Bell Centre and he would gladly weave a fascinating yarn involving his love of the game and, more importantly, the family of hockey — a family of which he had become the unquestioned patriarch.
At the end of each meeting he would always bid adieu by saying a similar thing. "It has been my pleasure, Scott," he would say with a smile. "I have all the time in the world to speak with you."
Today is an emotional day, not because he is gone, but because we have the chance to remember all that he has been and continues to be.
One of the greatest players.
An honourable and noble Canadian.
A constant presence in the game we grew up loving.
I remember all those times the television director showed us the image of you in your seat behind the Canadiens bench. He did it to reassure us that you were still there, to comfort us and demonstrate that everything was right with hockey's world.
Mr. Béliveau, I'm just like so many fans.
I couldn't help being in awe of you. Thanks for posting CH. If a leaf fan can say something nice about Mr. Beliveau, why can't the National Post have a respectful cartoon... Can you tell I'm still pissed about it?
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Post by CentreHice on Dec 5, 2014 11:44:36 GMT -5
Yeah, that cartoon was basically, "Don't forget, the Leafs are God's team…."
Yawn…
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Post by franko on Dec 5, 2014 11:54:23 GMT -5
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Post by CentreHice on Dec 5, 2014 12:01:14 GMT -5
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Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Dec 5, 2014 12:09:34 GMT -5
Have a buddy who's thinking of seeing Mr Beliveau off on Sunday, but he's a Leaf fan and he didn't think it would be appropriate ... I told him that he should consider not only going, but also consider wearing his Leaf colours while there ... I told him that I don't think anyone will give him a hard time for doing that ... I also told him that fans from all teams should wear their colours as a sign of the emense respect Mr Beliveau commanded during his time with us ... he was here in Kingston the odd time and there was a small window to see him each time but I really regret not making the time to stand in line for 2/3 hours ... might get a chance to see him if I decide to get off my keester and get to Montreal ... would probably have to stand in line a tad longer ... it's probably going to be a mad house ...
Cheers.
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Post by CentreHice on Dec 5, 2014 12:12:52 GMT -5
A still of Beliveau's 1969 OT and series winner vs. Boston on its way into the net past Cheevers. Ted Green prone on the ice.
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Post by franko on Dec 5, 2014 12:41:27 GMT -5
great shot of a great shot!
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Post by franko on Dec 5, 2014 12:46:50 GMT -5
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