Canadiens icon Robinson hoists torch, delights Bell Centre prior to Game 6

MONTREAL -- Larry Robinson had not once in his life handled the Montreal Canadiens’ symbolic torch.

On Saturday night, a Bell Centre crowd roaring before Game 6 of his former team’s Eastern Conference Second Round series against the Buffalo Sabres, the Hall of Fame defenseman held the flame aloft and set the arena aglow.

“I’ve never even touched it,” Robinson said of the torch, speaking a few hours before the pregame ceremony. “I missed the March 1996 ceremony when the Canadiens moved from the Montreal Forum to the Molson (now Bell) Centre, coaching (the Los Angeles Kings) the same night.

“I kicked myself afterward. I could have had my assistants handle the team but that’s not me.”

Adding insult to injury: The Kings lost 5-2 to the visiting Edmonton Oilers.

Larry Robinson in action with the Canadiens at the Montreal Forum.

The torch is steeped in Canadiens history that goes back more than 70 years. “To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high” has been displayed in the team’s dressing room since 1952, first placed by general manager Frank Selke Sr. and coach Dick Irvin Sr. The passage is taken from the World War I poem “In Flanders Fields” written by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae.

Through five home games this Stanley Cup Playoff season, Montreal had five alumni walk the team’s flaming torch through a Bell Centre concourse into the arena bowl to set the building aglow, fanned by the twirling rally towels of fans.

First was Yvan Cournoyer, followed by Serge Savard, Chris Nilan, Kirk Muller and Guy Carbonneau; on Saturday, Robinson was the sixth.

A legendary member of the Canadiens’ 1970s “Big Three” on defense with Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe, Robinson didn’t have much of an idea what to expect, having only seen a video the team sent him of Cournoyer leading off Game 3 in the First Round against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Canadiens’ souvenir program distributed for Larry Robinson’s Nov. 19, 2007 number retirement, and in an early 1970s portrait taken from the first days of his career.

Honored, he said, to accept the team’s offer to join the torch parade, he arrived late Friday night from his home in Florida. With him on Saturday was his grandson, Dylan, who at age 7 was on Bell Centre ice on Nov. 19, 2007, the night the Canadiens retired and raised Robinson's No. 19 to arena rafters.

Robinson hoped during his Bell Centre visit to meet with Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson, last season’s Calder Trophy winner voted as the NHL’s top rookie, whose 66 assists this season tied Robinson’s Canadiens record for defensemen established in 1975-76.

“He’s a hockey wizard,” Robinson said of Hutson. “The kid has a feeling for the game. He made a play the other night on the power play, coming down and throwing the puck across through about 15 sticks.

“His take on the game, the way he plays it … does he make mistakes? Sure he does. Even the best players make mistakes. But he has a really bad memory and that’s a good thing to have. He doesn’t dwell on his mistakes. He gets right back up and usually makes another brilliant play. He’s a fun kid to watch, I’m really happy for him.”

Larry Robinson (r.) with fellow Big Three defensemen Serge Savard (l). and Guy Lapointe on Nov. 8, 2014, the night Lapointe’s No. 5 was retired by the Canadiens.

Montreal's playoff run hasn’t been a surprise to Robinson, who attended Game 1 of the first round in Tampa and has seen the rest on TV.

“They’ve just been, above all else, a fun team to watch,” he said. “They’re a bunch of kids who love each other, who love playing with and for each other. They compete.

“And they’ve basically taken on the personality of the gentleman behind the bench,” he added of coach Martin St. Louis. “That’s the way that Marty played the game, with a  lot of passion, a lot of heart and a never-say-die attitude.”

Goalie Jakub Dobes has stunned Montreal and stoned the Lightning and Sabres for much of the playoffs, quite the way rookie Patrick Roy performed in 1986 on the march to the Stanley Cup, Robinson’s sixth.

“Dobes reminds me a little bit of somebody else who nobody knew much about when he came into the net and suddenly was the talk of the town,” Robinson said of Roy, laughing. “They seem to have very similar personalities. I’ve never met Dobes so I can’t speak first hand but he patrols the net very much like Patrick did, so for Montreal that’s good to see.”

Larry Robinson’s Legends of Hockey display as it was showcased at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Robinson’s most recent visit to Bell Centre had been for a fundraising gala some years ago. His last time in the arena for a game was Oct. 17, 2018, watching from the media gallery while on the St. Louis Blues staff as senior consultant to hockey operations during their Stanley Cup championship season.

If the ceremony Saturday were entirely new to him, the playoffs were very familiar. Robinson’s name has been engraved on the priceless trophy 10 times -- six as a player with the Canadiens, three with the New Jersey Devils as a coach or in management, and most recently with the Blues.

Add to his platinum pedigree the Norris Trophy, voted as the NHL's best defenseman in 1977 and 1980, the Conn Smythe Trophy voted as the most valuable player of the playoffs in 1978, and the fact that not once in his 20-year playing career did he miss the postseason, from 1972-89 with Montreal, then from 1989-92 with Los Angeles.

Saturday marked 50 years to the day that the Canadiens’ 5-3 win swept the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1976 Stanley Cup Final, the latter having won the championship in 1974 and 1975.

Larry Robinson speaks to Bell Centre fans on Nov. 19, 2007, his No. 19 retired. At right is his good friend, former New Jersey Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello.

“The Flyers were dominating the NHL with their roughhouse kind of hockey, intimidating everybody,” Robinson said. “I remember the last game, they had Kate Smith singing ‘God Bless America’ as their good-luck charm.

“Before warmup, usually guys would take their time and prepare. But before the final game, everybody was dressed and walking around the dressing room 15 minutes before warmup, not sitting in their stalls. The only one sitting was (goalie) Kenny (Dryden). I still say that we were so ready to play and beat those guys that I don’t think anybody could have beaten us that night.”

Though Flyers forward Reggie Leach was voted winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy, Robinson was chosen MVP of the playoffs by Sport Magazine, awarded a car.

“An AMC Pacer, nicknamed ‘the Flying Fishbowl,’ ” he said, laughing again. “I seem to recall the magazine chose a dealer in Montreal, where I picked it up. There was a photo taken in New York and what I mostly remember about that is that I wore a black and red and white checkered suit that was in style. I kept the Pacer for about a year then sold it to a neighbor.”

Larry Robinson on May 16, 2026 with his “new” 2005 Corvette, having the finishing touches put on it at an automobile dealership in the suburbs of Montreal.

Fifty years to the day of the Flyers defeat and his Flying Fishbowl win, Robinson was at a Montreal suburban auto dealership Saturday morning having his “new” 2005 Chevy Corvette detailed with a few final touches.

Guessing it’s the eighth Corvette he’s owned, he bought it sight unseen from a dealer in Vermont, then with considerable effort had it licensed for Florida. He drove it to Montreal a couple of weeks ago, planning to keep it up this way for the summer, shipping it back to Florida in the fall.

If Robinson isn’t big on his own hockey statistics, he was quick with the number 11,537.

“That’s how many miles are on it,” he proudly reported, soon headed downtown in a limousine for his special night.

The hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners Robinson took many chances on his road to fame in Montreal. Risking his shiny Corvette on Saturday to the hungry jaws of Montreal’s famous potholes would not be one of them.