STANSTEAD, Que. -
A thin and frail Pat Burns called it a great honour to have an arena named after him, even if he admits he likely won't live to see it completed.
Burns and Prime Minister Stephen Harper were guests of honour Friday at an announcement that the Pat Burns Arena will be built in Stanstead, a town near the Quebec-Vermont border.
The former NHL coach, his voice left raspy by the cancer attacking his lungs, flew up from his home in Florida for the ceremony.
He joined Harper and Senator Jacques Demers in posing for pictures on the site of the $8.4-million project, to be funded in equal shares by the federal and provincial governments and the municipality.
It is slated for completion in 2011.
Accepts fate
Burns was forced to leave coaching in 2004 when he was diagnosed with colon cancer. He beat that only to come down with liver cancer a year later. Then in 2009, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and opted against treatment.
"I know my life is nearing the end and I accept that," he told a few dozen invited guests at Stanstead College. "I probably won't be here when (the arena) is finished, but I'll be looking down on it."
Harper pointed to the three Jack Adams trophies Burns won with three different teams -- Montreal, Toronto and Boston -- as evidence that "he had the ability to go to any organization and get the best out of that organization."
Burns also won a Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 2003. He had amassed 501 career wins from 1988 to 2004.
Also on hand were Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello and former NHL players Felix Potvin and Marc Bureau, as well as Burns' cousin and agent Robin Burns and former NHL coach Michel Bergeron.
The fiery, outspoken Burns is the only three-time winner of the Jack Adams Trophy as top coach in the NHL, winning in 1989 with Montreal, 1993 with Toronto, and 1998 with Boston.
