The Montreal Canadiens may once have been Gordie Howe’s opponents, but following the hockey legend’s passing on Friday, his former adversaries remembered a gentleman off the ice.
“Any time he stepped on the ice, he had only thing in mind: winning,” said former Hab’s forward Bobby Rousseau.
Howe was well-known on the ice for his graceful skating and brutal elbows. Jean-Guy Talbot compared him to another iconic player of the era.
“He was tough on the ice and then off the ice, he was like Jean Beliveau, he was a super man,” he said.
Talbot would later be traded to the Red Wings, where he got to know the man who came to be known as Mr. Hockey.
“He always took care of me because if I played against him, we didn’t like each other, but now I was his friend,” he said.
Yvan “The Roadrunner” Cournoyer recalled his first ever game in the NHL, which came against Howe’s Red Wings.
“He was very nice, he let us win like 7-3,” he said. “Gordie was right in front of me and… the only reason I’m here today is because when Gordie gave me the elbow, I was too short, Gordie went over my head all the time. He found that really funny.”
Howe’s last goal in the NHL came at age 52 during the 1979-80 season and was scored at the legendary Montreal Forum. Today, when most say the Habs’ most bitter rivalries are with the Toronto Maple Leafs or Boston Bruins, it’s hard to imagine that before the NHL expanded in 1967, matchups between the Canadiens and the Red Wings were something to look forward to.
“One of the great rivalries in the game, and it’s largely forgotten now, was Detroit and Montreal,” said Sports Illustrated hockey writer Michael Farber.
