Guy Lafleur was in Edmonton last week for an autograph signing at Pro AM Sports. I was fortunate enought to have the opportunity to speak with the Hall of Famer and get his thoughts on a variety of topics. My thoughts are in italics.

Gregor: I was going through some of your stats today and I was amazed at your final year in junior with the Quebec Remparts when you had 130 goals, basically two goals a game and 3.5 points a game, it’s mind numbing. Did you go into games thinking, I’m going to score two goals tonight.

Lafleur: Well first of all, we had a hell of a good team at the time and it was just fantastic to be able to go out there and to win as many games and to score as many goals. The goalies at the time, I think that they were very weak [laughs].

Gregor: I like your honesty. You had four 50-goal scorers that year and one of your teammates went on to score 50 goals in the NHL;  Jacques Richard who was a hell of a scorer himself.

Lafleur: Yeah, Jacques was an unbelievable hockey player as you know he got drafted by the Atlanta Flames and he did very well there. He played in the WHA with the Nordiques and he scored 50 goals plus. Buffalo was the same thing. We had so many great players on the Remparts at the time in junior, so that’s why we had so much success.

Gregor: When you came out of junior there was so much pressure and expectations. You had 209 points your final year of junior and then you had to go into the Forum in Montreal where everyone breathes hockey. You had 64 points the first year, then 55 and then 56 and some people said  you weren’t living  up to expectations. How did you deal with that kind of pressure?

Lafleur: [Laughs} I didn’t feel good at all. When I was drafted, the year I came up, Jean Beliveau retired and everybody really believed that I was replacing Jean Beliveau and you don’t replace a guy like that. He had such a great career and me I was coming up with no experience, and maybe that’s why with the 130 goals my last year in junior people were expecting me to score so many goals. But I was not playing regularly and it was tough for me, for the adaptation, the change of city from Quebec to Montreal, Quebec to Montreal but it took me a few years to really get going.

Lafleur scored 29, 28 and 21 goals in his first three seasons, but then he became an elite scorer. For the next six seasons he tallied at least 50 goals and 100 points, becoming the first player to ever accomplish that. Only Mike Bossy (6) and Wayne Gretzky (8) have tied or beat Lafleur’s record.

Gregor: You still put up big numbers Guy, how were you able to not let it get you down? We have seen a lot of players come out of junior with great offensive numbers, then have a bad year in the NHL and never could regain their confidence.

Lafleur: Yeah, well for me, it was just a question of time. I knew that if I would get the ice time, I would be okay. But, you look at the players today and think it’s worse because they are drafting players younger and a lot of teams, they draft them at 18 then they’re going to training camp, they send the players to junior and then to the minors, sometimes one or two years if they’re not ready to jump up and a lot of times the players they are going to get discouraged. They don’t get their confidence back. Then they quit playing in the NHL, but a lot of times they go and play in Europe. So it’s a lot of pressure on the kids today because there are 30 teams in the league and you have to be in shape 12 months a year. You can’t have a let down when you are playing because there’s somebody waiting for your job and you better be ready.

Lafleur: Because other guys didn’t wear helmets at the time and in practice I was not wearing it. In my mind I was on the ice and it seems like I was getting my confidence back and I was playing a lot better in the practice than I was in the games. So that’s why I decided to take the helmet off.

But the only reason why I started to have success was because of the amount of ice time I was getting. I was playing more, I was playing on a regular shift, sometimes double shifted and playing on the power play and that’s where it started. The more ice time you get, the better you get.

Lafleur: Yeah, he was an excellent player, but he always thought defence first.  I remember one year, me and Steve scored 50 goals, and Jacques, I think he had 41or 42 goals and we said it would be nice to have the whole line score 50 goals. We had about 10 games left and we used to pass him the puck, and I think that he shot it wide on purpose. He didn’t want to score 50 goals and he said at the end that ‘if I had scored 50 goals, then the next year I would have had to score 55 and I can’t take that pressure.’ But it would have been nice as a linemate to have three guys score 50 goals [laughs].

Lafleur: It only happened in playoffs. When I was playing with Lemaire as a centremen he knew that me and Steve would be the offense all of the way, so that’s why he always stayed back, but in the playoffs we thought more about playing defensive as a line. But our main focus was to score goals and to win the game, if you don’t score any goals in the playoffs or in any games, you can’t win the game. My main job was to score.

Lafleur: They should be able to do both because there is no more grabbing and hooking anymore compared to our old days [laughs]. Today it’s more a wide open game and it’s a different game so they get to the red line, they dump it in and they chase after the puck all of the time. It’s different.

Lafleur: Yeah, well I was not the only one. There were about ten guys. But yes we did. We were not allowed to smoke in the room so we used to hide because Scotty (Bowman), he didn’t want us to smoke in the room. But if you look back at those days, the Islanders were smoking in their room and the dressing room. That’s how it was back then. Now they drink milk and they drink it with a straw. [laughs]

Lafleur: I don’t think so. I don’t think that they will be able to go back like it was when we played. Some people want to get the fights out of the game, so I doubt we will see more. However, I don’t think that they will be able to get rid of fighting because hockey is an emotional game and you can’t really tell what’s going to happen without it. If they take it (fighting) out of the game, I don’t think that hockey would be the same anymore.

Lafleur: Well I think that Mike was better because that guy was a sharp shooter and he was playing on a great line with Brian Trottier and Clarke Gillies. That guy was amazing. Mike was a deceiving player. When you played against him, or watch him play from the bench you didn’t see much, he was not a fast hockey player skating wise, but he had an incredible compass, he could score from any angle. I never saw a guy who could score from so many angles and Mike was an unbelievable goal scorer.

Lafleur: I was really close to sign with the, because my father-in-law was the co-owner of the Nordiques at the time and he was coming down to Montreal with an offer, a millions dollars for five years. Montreal was offering me a million dollars for 10 years.

We were in the playoffs at the time and we were playing against the Flyers and Sam Pollock brought me into his office one day and he said ‘well you’re going to have to sign this contract’ he knew what was really going on because the agent at the time used to work for the players and they used to work for the owners, so they were collecting cheques from both side I think.

I said, ‘I can’t sign today because we’re in the playoffs and I want to concentrate on the game.’ And he knew, he said, ‘listen Guy, you won’t get out of my office before you sign this contract.’ So I was 21 years old and I tried to reach my father-in-law, I couldn’t reach him. When things like that happen, you can’t reach anybody. I signed a deal, it was on the weekend, it was a Saturday and Sam Pollock was telling me that there was no problem because we can’t register the contract until the opening of the week on Monday. He said the contract could be cancelled it at any time. But, that wasn’t the case. Once I signed it was too late.  But I don’t regret it. That day, I was very happy about signing with the Montreal Canadiens.

Lafleur: For sure. Things worked out well for me in my career.

Lafleur: I think so. I think that it was the best hockey ever in the NHL at its time and they didn’t have the room for two leagues. Short term, a lot of players took advantage of if (WHA and more money), but long term I think that it was better off to come back into the NHL

Lafleur: Well at 33 I was not playing much. Lemaire was coaching and the game was really really defensive at the time, and I was unhappy with the amount of ice time that I was getting. It was reaching 5-6 minutes a game and I could feel the pressure from the fans that I was not producing and I asked the organization to trade me at that time. They said ‘no, we can’t trade you. You’re part of the organization,’ so I told them that if I am a part of the organization, you had better play me. It didn’t happen and that’s why I retired.

I was unhappy and I ended up playing old timers games for the next three years across Canada, and I was in really good shape. One day a guy came up to me and said, “Why don’t you try to make a comeback with the Rangers. I have two teams you can try out for the Rangers, or the Kings in Los Angeles.’ I choose the Rangers because it’s close to Montreal and I knew Michel Bergeron and Phil Esposito, so that’s how it happened.

Lafleur is a colourful character, and even though I never cheered for the Canadiens, Lafleur was one of my favourite players to watch. He was a dynamic scorer, and I can only imagine how much pressure he felt when people expected him to replace the great Jean Beliveau. Lafleur is a true legend of the game, and he was great to chat with. I thought a conversation with Lafleur would be a nice break from the Oilers. It isn’t often you get to speak with one of the greatest players to ever skate in the NHL. 

RECENTLY BY JASON GREGOR