Cournoyer learned much on, off ice from Beliveau

MONTREAL -- It has been four years since the death of Montreal Canadiens icon Jean Beliveau, four years since Yvan Cournoyer, a fellow 10-time Stanley Cup champion and Hall of Famer with the Canadiens, stood at the altar of Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral on Dec. 10, 2014 and eulogized his dear friend.

"Oh captain, my captain … bon voyage," Cournoyer said that day, his voice tight with emotion during Beliveau's nationally televised funeral.
Cournoyer was visiting the Canadiens' seventh-floor executive offices at Bell Centre during a game against the Boston Bruins on Dec. 17. It was the second intermission, and having for a short time left the guests he had brought to the game, he was standing between large oil paintings of Beliveau and Maurice "Rocket" Richard.
There is a canvas of each of the Canadiens' greatest players on this floor; those of Richard and Beliveau, respectively captains from 1956-60 and 1961-71, are framed side by side. The painting of Cournoyer, captain from 1975 until his retirement in 1979, is a few dozen steps down the hall.

"It doesn't seem like four years. A couple of years maybe," Cournoyer said, studying Beliveau's portrait. "Jean always told me, 'Time goes so quickly.' When I arrived in the NHL I was 20 and he was 33. He was like a father to me. I laced my skates in the dressing room beside him. We were roommates on the road.
"I have so many memories, and when Jean passed away all the memories came back. Long after we retired it was always nice to see him because he was always asking, 'How's everything? How are you doing? Is everything fine?' He always kept himself informed about what we were doing. It was always a nice conversation with Jean. We could always talk."
Cournoyer was one of the last Canadiens to visit Beliveau at his Montreal-area home before his death Dec. 2 at age 83 following a lengthy illness. Cournoyer was devastated, inconsolable after the visit, at Beliveau's public visitation at Bell Centre on Dec. 7-8, as a pallbearer and eulogist at the funeral, and for long afterward.
But time has softened the loss, and today Cournoyer's memories are warm and painless, even if he still finds himself, like so many, wanting to pick up the phone just to hear Beliveau's familiar baritone.

"There were so many things about Jean," said Cournoyer, 75. "When he was talking in the room, and it wasn't that often, he was always positive, in the right way, never negative and never loud. He'd eat with us on the road or go for a quiet drink. He liked to have fun, and he liked to talk hockey a lot.
"Jean was very special as our captain. He always said to us, 'The hockey season is very long but if you have something that doesn't go well in the summer, I'm always available. Just call me and we'll figure out what we need to do. And if you have good things happening in your life, call me too. I'm there all year-round, not just during the hockey season.'"
For years there was a single portrait of Beliveau in the small foyer inside the Canadiens' Bell Centre alumni lounge, a dressing-room photo that captured the eye and the imagination every time you left. Last season two more portraits joined it: Cournoyer in the middle, Guy Lafleur on the right.

"It's wonderful to see us together, especially in black and white," Cournoyer said with a laugh. "We had tough times sometimes, but we always came out of them together. It wasn't easy all the time. Everyone says, 'You won all the time.' Well, if we did, it was for a reason.
"I learned so much from Jean. He always believed that if you have something to talk about, if something goes wrong, don't wait. He'd say, 'Let me know right away. The more we wait, the worse it will be.' When I became captain, I knew if there was something wrong I'd have a meeting on the road right away and we'd talk about it."
And that thought had Cournoyer smiling about an event during the 1966 Stanley Cup Final, his second NHL season.
"Detroit had beaten us two straight games at home (3-2 and 5-2)," he said. "Jean wanted to have a team meeting on the road in Detroit to get a few things straight. He had to fight with (general manager) Sam Pollock to get about $400 for a team dinner. That was a big thing, to spend that amount for a team meeting. Jean got the money, we had the meeting, and we won four in a row to win the Cup (4-2 and 2-1 in Detroit, 5-1 back in Montreal and 3-2 in overtime in Detroit). That was something I'll always remember. I think it was worth the $400."

Like Beliveau was as a player and in retirement, Cournoyer is busy in the community. Each played every one of his NHL games for the Canadiens, cornerstone members of the organization. The mantle of elder statesman is Cournoyer's now and he embraces it. For many fans his cheerful face and strong handshake are reminders of the Canadiens' glorious era of the 1960s and 1970s, Montreal and Cournoyer winning 10 Stanley Cup championships between 1965-79.
With Lafleur and alumni director Rejean Houle, Cournoyer is a team ambassador, a title he's had for almost 20 years. He makes a minimum of 25 official public appearances each season and another 15 or 20 with his own company. In truth, every time he steps out the door alone or with his wife, Evelyn, Canadiens fans view him, respectfully, as public property.
"I need a schedule," Cournoyer said. "I need to work and I like to work. I've been working since I think I was 7 years old. I cleaned the ice at my rink, worked in the flower shop. For me, it's natural. Everybody in the grocery store says hello. I feel right at home.
"I was leaving a store and a woman chased me across the parking lot to say, 'I have to shake your hand, you were my idol. I remember one game you fell two or three times but you got up and scored a goal.' Maybe it's because I played with no helmet and no visor. I look a little bit older but people still recognize me and I'm happy to say hello to everybody."

If it all comes naturally, Cournoyer says it's because he learned well from Beliveau, who famously answered by hand every piece of fan mail that reached him from 1953, when he arrived in Montreal from Quebec City, through cancer treatment, using his experience to buoy other cancer patients, until 2010, when the first of two strokes left him unable to sign his name the way he believed fans deserved.
Throughout our visit, Cournoyer flexed his meaty left hand, which was swollen because of a carpal tunnel problem he soon will have repaired surgically.
"But I'm right-handed so I can still sign autographs," he joked, signing a few more in the alumni lounge for star-struck fans.
Over his shoulder was the corner where Beliveau would sit when he attended Bell Centre games. The small couch has been replaced by a few chairs, where Beliveau's wife, Elise, their daughter, Helene, and their guests now gather between periods and until traffic has thinned out after the final siren.
"There is no doubt that Jean's presence will always be felt in that corner, in this room and around the team," Cournoyer said, friendship and reverence blended as one. "Maybe the greatest compliment you could give him would be to say that he was a teammate. No matter how much we looked up to him, Jean was one of the guys because he wanted to be."