The Guy Carbonneau FAQ

UPDATED November 19, 2019:

From the search terms that people use to find this blog, and from the questions Carbo himself gets asked, it appears that there are certain things people want to know about Guy.  It also occurs to me that some of the folks who wind up here are not as well-versed in Guy's career as I, and come to this blog looking for info.  For that reason, I have compiled a basic list of questions which I call the Carbonneau FAQ.

The Guy Carbonneau FAQ

I.  Personal

1. How old is Guy?  Where was he born?  What is his family background? 

Guy was born in Sept-Iles, Quebec on March 18, 1960 to Charles-Aime Carbonneau and Mary Ferguson, the second of five children.

2. Is he married?  Does he have any children? 

Guy has been married since 1981 to Line Boivin, a businesswoman.  They have two grown daughters, Anne-Marie and Kristina.

3. But isn’t one of his daughters married to Brenden Morrow?  And they started dating when Morrow was Carbo’s teammate?  Boy, that must have been awkward! 

Yes, Anne-Marie has been married to former Stars captain, Brenden Morrow, since July 20, 2002.  They have three children together.  And yes, they started dating during the 1999-2000 season (Morrow’s rookie season, and Guy’s last).  To paraphrase Guy, all he heard at home was about Morrow, and all he heard in the locker room was about Anne-Marie, and while Morrow was apprehensive, Guy encouraged the rookie to talk to his daughter.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Guy, Anne-Marie, Line, and Kristina (photo credit:  La Semaine)

II.  Playing Career

1. What position did he play?  Did he shoot left or right?  What about his height and weight? 

Carbo played center and shot right.  On hockey cards he is generally listed as being 5’11” and 185 pounds.

2. What junior team did he play for? 

Guy played for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League from 1976 to 1980.

3. What NHL teams did he play for? 

The Montreal Canadiens, St. Louis Blues, and Dallas Stars.

4. When was he drafted by the Canadiens? 

Guy was drafted on August 9, 1979 by Montreal in the 3^rd round, 44^th overall.

5. But he paid his dues in the AHL, right?  What team did he play for there? 

Guy played for Montreal’s farm team at the time, the Nova Scotia Voyageurs, from 1980-82.

6. When did he begin playing in the NHL? 

Guy made his debut on March 21, 1981 at the Montreal Forum against the Vancouver Canucks, but didn’t become a part of the Habs’ regular roster until the 1982-83 season.

7. What was his career like as a junior? 

He had 182 points during his final year with Chicoutimi and has his number retired by the team.  That should tell the tale. 

8. But he was a defensive forward in the NHL. 

Yes, he was asked by the Canadiens to become more defensive-minded and did so.

9. What NHL awards did he win? 

Guy won the Frank J. Selke trophy (for best defensive forward) three times (1988, 1989 and 1992).

10. What Stanley Cup teams did he play on? 

Guy won the Stanley Cup in 1986 and 1993 with the Canadiens, and 1999 with the Dallas Stars.  In addition, he was on two teams that lost in the Stanley Cup Final:  in 1989 with the Canadiens (who lost to the Calgary Flames) and 2000 with the Dallas Stars (who lost to the New Jersey Devils).

11. Why did the Habs trade him?  And what’s the story about the finger photo anyway? 

The official story at the time was that the Canadiens needed to unload Guy’s contract.  And yes, Guy was caught on camera giving the finger at a golf course in Montreal in 1994 shortly after the Canadiens were eliminated from the playoffs, which ultimately made the front page of Le Journal de Montreal.  This was misinterpreted at the time as Guy giving the finger to Montreal fans (and many believe this was the reason for the trade), when in fact he simply wanted his privacy while playing golf and wanted the photographer to stop taking pictures.  Guy was traded to the St. Louis Blues on August 19, 1994 for Jim Montgomery.

12. When was Guy traded to the Dallas Stars? 

Guy was traded to the Dallas Stars on October 2, 1995 for Paul Broten.

13. How many regular season NHL games did Guy play in?  What about playoffs? 

Guy played in 1,318 regular season games, and 231 in the playoffs.  In fact, he only missed the playoffs once in his career (1996 with the Dallas Stars).

14. How many points did he have? Goals? Assists? Penalty minutes? 

663 points –260 goals and 403 assists. He had 820 penalty minutes.

15. When did he retire? 

At the end of the 1999-2000 season. His last game was on June 10, 2000, in which the Dallas Stars lost in the Cup Final to the New Jersey Devils in double OT.

16. Was he ever named to any All-Star Teams? 

Guy was named to the QMJHL Second All-Star Team in 1980. He never appeared in an NHL All-Star Game during his playing career, but in 2009 he served as assistant coach to Claude Julien during the All-Star Game in Montreal.

17. Did he ever represent Team Canada? 

During his playing career, no. He did coach the Canadian U-18 team in the World U-18 Championship in Belarus in 2010, and he also coached the Canadian men's hockey team at the Maccabi Games in Israel in July 2013, bringing home the gold medal!

18. What other honours has Guy received? 

Guy is a member of the QMJHL Hall of Fame, and the QMJHL has also named an award after him (the Guy Carbonneau Trophy, which is presented annually to the league's best defensive forward). There is also an arena named after him in his hometown of Sept-Iles, Quebec.

Guy is also a 2019 inductee to the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Player category.

III.  Post-Playing Career

1. What did he do after retiring from Dallas? 

He joined the Montreal Canadiens in the summer of 2000 as the director of youth development, but became an assistant coach under Michel Therrien in November 2000.  He served in that capacity until 2002 when he moved back to Dallas to work as assistant GM. 

2. Didn’t the Stars place a one-year moratorium on his number being worn immediately after his retirement?  Have any teams retired his number?

Yes, that’s true.  However, #21 has been worn in Dallas since his retirement.  His number 21 is retired by the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, and it is this blog's opinion that it should be retired by the Montreal Canadiens as well (though that has not yet happened).

3. When did he become head coach in Montreal? 

Claude Julien was fired by the Canadiens in January 2006.  Bob Gainey, the GM, then took over as interim head coach with Guy as assistant.  Guy took over as head coach in May 2006 and served in that capacity until being fired on March 9, 2009.

4. Why was he fired by the Habs? 

No one seems to really know, not even Guy himself.

5. But wasn’t he nominated for the Jack Adams Award for best NHL head coach?  How could he get fired right after that? 

Yes, in 2008 he was nominated for the Jack Adams Award but lost to Bruce Boudreau, who was then coach of the Washington Capitals.  And you tell me.  I honestly have no idea.

6. What was his record as Montreal head coach? 

230-124-83-23.

7. What did he do after being fired by the Habs? 

During the 2009-10 season he worked as an on-air analyst for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada.  In 2010 he also coached Canada’s U-18 team in Belarus, and starred on a TVA reality show about hockey, La Serie Montreal-Quebec.  And for a few months in 2011 he was head coach of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.

8. What is he doing now? 

Since the 2010-11 season, Guy has been working as an on-air analyst for RDS (Reseau des Sports; Quebec’s 24-hour sports channel).  He appears during Montreal Canadiens games and on the sports discussion series, L’Antichambre.  Most recently, he served as coach of Team Canada at the Maccabi Games in Israel (July 2013), winning the men's hockey gold medal.

9. But didn’t he have to have his hips replaced? 

Yes, because of the wear and tear of his playing career.  This occurred in 2008 and 2009.

IV.  Miscellaneous

1. Did he really dent the Cup when he threw it off Vinnie Paul’s balcony? 

Somehow the Stanley Cup got dented after the Stars won it in 1999.  Vinnie Paul, drummer of the band Pantera, claims that Guy dented it when he threw it off his balcony during a celebration party at Paul’s house, intending for it to land in the swimming pool.  Carbo denies this story.  The official keepers of the Stanley Cup also say it is not true.

2.  How many times did Guy break his nose? 

According to a 2010 interview with TSN's Michael Landsberg, Guy broke his nose four times during his playing career.

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.

Guy at Playground Poker Club

As part of this weekend's World Poker Tour festivities in Montreal, Guy participated in a shootout challenge with the Leafs' Phil Kessel.  Guy was pitted against professional poker player Phil Laak.  

credit for images:  Twitter / @AceKicker_19 (first image) @BartsBytes (second image), CanadaPoker.com (third image)

Also, yesterday at the event Guy spoke with Diana Cox about his poker experience.  Have a listen here.

Carbo in rare PSA

Found this while surfing YouTube this evening.  It always delights me when new Carbonneau material gets posted, especially stuff from the early years.  This is a 1983 public service announcement for Grands Freres (Big Brothers), in Quebec.

Happy Thanksgiving to those in the USA who celebrate!

Another game for charity, Carbo on divers, Sags management change, and a personal aside

• Held last Saturday, the eighth annual CN Hockey Greatest Stars challenge raised $350,000 for charity.  Guy was on a Canadiens alumni team alongside players such as Stephane Richer and Patrice Brisebois, and was coached by Guy Lafleur.  The Marie-Vincent Foundation, the Ted Nolan Foundation, and Big Brothers Big Sisters (Canada and U.S.) will each receive $75,000.  The remaining money will be divided among beneficiaries in Canada and the United States.  (link)

• Guy was on the bench during a playoff game in June 1989 when his teammate Claude Lemieux lay on the ice without a visit from trainer Gaetan Lefebvre.  Pat Burns, the Canadiens' coach, stopped Lefebvre from going on the ice to teach Lemieux a lesson about diving.  According to the English translation of the article, Carbo said there was a time in his playing career when diving was popular but he never dared to question his teammates' dives and that the onus was on team management to enforce rules about diving.  When Guy became coach, he imposed no such limit but did speak to players such as Maxim Lapierre.  He did not think Lapierre was a diver, but that he talked too much and had to focus more on what he had to do on the ice.  (La Presse)

• The team led by Guy has managed the Chicoutimi Sagueneens since the summer of 2000.  This past spring, the city of Saguenay issued a tender to see if any new managers would come forward.  Five groups came forward, showing interest to obtain management of the Sags.  After a process that lasted several months, the team led by ex-Sagueneens player Pierre-Marc Bouchard was successful, signing an agreement to lead the team for seven years.  (RDS)

• And as an entirely personal aside, after four years of owning them I finally found a way to display my game-worn Carbonneau skates!  These prized items in my collection were just sitting on the floor while other useless junk was taking up precious wall space.  Ridiculous.  Anyway, I devised a way to hang them using cornice hooks from the hardware store and this is the end result.  Very pleased!  (These L-shaped hooks are also great for hanging game-used sticks, by the way.)  Also, I received an income tax receipt for the alumni game I attended on November 10, since the ticket purchase was a charitable donation.  What, I got to meet my hero and write it off on my income tax?  Is this real life?

Another photo find

More vintage photos are popping up on eBay:

Here's Guy and coach Jacques Demers during practice on Great Western Forum ice in Inglewood, CA during the 1993 Stanley Cup Final between the Canadiens and the Los Angeles Kings.  Love Guy's Gretzky-style JOFA helmet!

(photo credit:  eBay/The Sporting News)

Carbo and the '94 lockout

With talks between the NHL and its players' association at a standstill, let's go back in time eighteen years to the lockout of 1994.  It began on October 1, 1994 after a year of NHL hockey being played without a collective bargaining agreement.  The big issue was the implementation of a salary cap -- the owners were in favor of it while the players were opposed.

Guy was traded from Montreal to the St. Louis Blues on August 19 of that year, a move that stunned him.  Still, he found himself acting as the Blues' player representative for the NHLPA in negotiations with the league.  This role was not new to him -- he became the Canadiens' player representative in 1991 after Ryan Walter, the previous rep, was traded to Vancouver.

When the 1994 lockout was happening, Guy was quoted as saying that he wanted nothing more than to play hockey, but he'd rather be kept in the loop in negotiations than be left in the dark.  He also said of being a player representative with no formal education:

"It was really hard at the start.  There are so many things you have to remember, and I'm not an English (speaking) person, so there was a lot of vocabulary that I never heard of before. I got out of a few meetings with a headache. 

Now, it's a lot better. I understand a lot more. It's easier for me."

Guy also raised a few eyebrows at the time when he said of the NHL:  "I wonder why they don't ask Mike Keenan or guys who want to start the season."

When asked about the 1994-95 season being cancelled, Guy said:

"I don't think it'll be the end of hockey because you'll still have 650 of the best hockey players in the world, and we can do a lot of things.  If you have 26 owners without players, they're nobody...They have the contacts to bring the money in, but without us, they don't have the product to play and bring in that money.  We don't have (the contacts) now, but it could come. We can still play hockey without them. I hope that they realize that. I'm not going to make that much money, but there's still going to be hockey.  In what league and what form, it's really hard to say. A lot of ideas have been put on the table, but I don't want to talk about that. I want to wait a week or 10 days and see what their actions are going to be." 

The season wasn't cancelled, though -- the lockout was settled on January 11, 1995 and the season was shortened to 48 games.  Guy would play only one season in St. Louis before being traded to the Dallas Stars on the eve of the 1995-96 season for Paul Broten. 

(with quotes from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; December 11, 1994)