Bulls & Bears: Guy Lafleur’s flower power propelled an NHL dynasty

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bulls of the week

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The news that Guy Lafleur succumbed to cancer Friday represented a huge loss for his extended family, friends, former teammates and the media and commentators who followed his tremendous career. It is a sad day for hockey, hockey fans and the heritage brand that is the Montreal Canadiens.

Yet it is also an opportunity to celebrate a very special life and career, played mostly in one of the religious epicenters of hockey. Playing under enormous pressure since the day he stepped onto the ice for his first NHL game in October of 1971, the No. 1 draft pick helped make the Canadiens of the late 1970s one of the sport’s greatest dynasties.

He was the best player of his generation and a uniquely gifted scoring forward and playmaker. athlete. rock stars Ambassador. Few combined the level of skill, artistry and panache that made the “Flower” one of the most revered players of all time.

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He had “flow” in his golden mane of hair before the word even existed. Helmetless except for the first three seasons of his career — it was when the lid came off that his 50-goal seasons started coming — Lafleur’s neutral zone rushes and precise shooting ability embodied how dangerous a game-changer he could be.

Just ask Don Cherry, who had to watch from the opponent’s bench the arguably most famous goal of Lafleur’s career, which came on May 10, 1979 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup semifinal series at the Montreal Forum. Lafleur converted on the iconic bench minor for too many men on the ice that was levied on Cherry and the Boston Bruins, scoring on a blistering slap shot from just inside the blue line to send the hometown fans into pandemonium with 1:14 left in regulation . Yvon Lambert then scored in overtime, eliminating the Bruins, setting up a five-game Stanley Cup Final win over the overmatched New York Rangers and giving Lafleur his fifth and final championship with Montreal.

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Wearing No. 10 for the Habs, he was the first player in NHL history to record six consecutive 50-goal seasons and first to amass 100 points six years in a row. He will forever be remembered as a Montreal Canadiens legend and one of the most beautiful artisans of the game. RIP: Le Demon Blond.

bears of the week

It’s been a bad week – the wrong kind of Moneyball – for the Oakland Athletics and Major League Baseball. The team with the smallest active payroll in the majors (US $31.8 million) set new records for futility at the box office — at least since 1980 — on their opening homestand at RingCentral Coliseum. A party opening-day crowd of 17,503 fans turned into 3,748 in game 2 and 2,703 in game 3.

Those attendance figures are minor league baseball numbers, making the 63,132-seat Coliseum as cavernous a stadium as there’s ever been in the majors. Yet the worst part of all of this bear market for baseball in Oakland is that it all seems by design. Athletics’ fans don’t want the ownership of John J. Fisher and Fisher doesn’t seem to want the status quo either.

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In what is one part fan boycott and one part stadium strong-arming by the ownership group, the empty stands are an eyesore for MLB, almost begging for the relocation of the A’s, which has been an on-again, off-again sport business soap operates for well more than a decade.

That is what makes the situation in Oakland this week so disheartening — there’s the addition of insult to injury after years of failed stadium negotiations. The breakup seems unavoidable.

Marketing communications executive and sport business commentator Tom Mayenknecht is a principal in Emblematica Brand Builders and the host of The Sport Market on BNN Bloomberg Radio 1410 and TSN Radio nationally. Follow Mayenknecht at: twitter.com/TheSportMarket

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