Rest in peace, Denis Brodeur

Denis Brodeur, longtime official Montreal Canadiens photographer and father of legendary goaltender Martin Brodeur, passed away last week at age 82.  The elder Brodeur was also a goaltender, between the pipes when Team Canada won the bronze medal at the 1956 Olympic Games in Italy.  

Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette tweeted this wonderful Denis Brodeur photo of Guy with Brodeur's young son Martin, at the old Montreal Forum.

(photo source:  Twitter / @Dave_Stubbs)

Carbo on the Forum closing; plus, a memorabilia update

Recently this blog mused about the arenas Guy played in.  Today, NHL.com published an article about the closing of the Montreal Forum with some choice quotes from Carbo.

"I felt really lucky at that time," said Carbonneau, the captain of the '93 team. "I was in Dallas and it just happened that the last game at the Forum was against the Dallas Stars.  We had a few guys who played in Montreal and it was definitely a date that was circled in the calendar. On top of that, the Montreal organization asked me if I wanted to switch jerseys after the game and come back on the ice and carry the torch. It was really a great day."

(full article here)

In collecting news, I recently broke down and bought a case for my Carbonneau game-worn jersey.  This purchase was spurred on because I wanted to have something to protect the jersey from my mother's cigarette smoke (she's working on quitting) and my curious orange kitten.  I ended up going with a case from Frozen Pond here in Ontario, which meant that luckily I didn't have to pay customs.

Here is the result:

It's not a hinged cabinet -- the front pops off if I wish to remove the jersey.  I also had room to place the photo of Guy wearing the jersey inside the frame.  And it's UV protective as well.  Overall, I'm very pleased.

And yes, I own a Coach Carbonneau bleacher creature.  Don't judge.  

The ice he skated on

(warning:  this post will be image/media heavy)

I've been meaning to do a blog post about this for a while -- the NHL arenas Guy played in have always been of particular interest to me, especially those that he played his first NHL game in...and his last.