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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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)
- 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.
- What junior
team did he play for?
Guy played for
the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League from 1976 to
1980.
- What NHL teams did he play for?
The Montreal
Canadiens, St. Louis Blues, and Dallas
Stars.
- When was he
drafted by the Canadiens?
Guy was
drafted on August 9, 1979 by
Montreal in the 3rd
round, 44th overall.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- But he was a
defensive forward in the NHL.
Yes, he was
asked by the Canadiens to become more defensive-minded and did so.
- What NHL awards did he win?
Guy won the
Frank J. Selke trophy (for best defensive forward) three times (1988, 1989 and
1992).
- 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).
- 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.
- When was Guy
traded to the Dallas Stars?
Guy was traded
to the Dallas Stars on October 2, 1995
for Paul Broten.
- 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).
- How many points did he have? Goals? Assists? Penalty minutes?
663 points –260 goals and 403 assists. He had 820 penalty minutes.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- Why was he
fired by the Habs?
No one seems
to really know, not even Guy himself.
- 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.
- What was his
record as Montreal head coach?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
