In latest days, a query has echoed amongst those that knew Claude Lemieux and people who noticed him earlier this week: did one thing occur on Monday night time that set off a tragic chain of occasions?
This was the query posed by NHL historian Liam Maguire in an interview with the Day by day Mail, following the surprising information of Lemieux’s loss of life by suicide.
Rejean Tremblay, a seasoned hockey author with three many years of acquaintance with Lemieux, shared an identical sentiment with the New York Publish. He speculated, “May that overwhelming wave of affection from Monday night time have sparked an emotion that was simply too highly effective to deal with?”
We might by no means absolutely perceive what transpired throughout these 5 days in Might, between Sport 3 and Sport 5 of the Jap Convention Finals, that includes the Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes.
Lemieux, at 60 years outdated, was celebrated on Monday night time in Montreal, receiving exuberant applause as he carried the ceremonial torch. By Friday night time in Raleigh, the temper shifted as followers mourned his premature passing.
The search for solutions commenced shortly, with theories rising and new particulars coming to mild. But, a lot stays unclear about what drove a four-time Stanley Cup champion, a person each revered and controversial on the earth of hockey, to take such a tragic step.
Lemieux carries the torch within the opening ceremony of Sport 3 of the NHL’s ECF
Hockey historian Liam Maguire (left) is pictured with ex-Canadiens teammates Claude Lemieux (heart) and Chris Nilan (proper) earlier than a playoff sport towards the Carolina Hurricanes on Might 25. Lemieux was discovered lifeless in Florida three days later after a suspected suicide
Maguire was among the many final folks to talk to Lemieux. He was there on Monday, when Lemieux returned to the Canadiens, the place the Quebec native spent seven robust seasons and gained a Stanley Cup title.
‘I stated, “Geez, you look nice, I don’t even suppose you’re 5 kilos over taking part in weight,”‘ he advised The Day by day Mail. ‘He laughed and simply stated he was working a enterprise in Florida, doing a little stuff, and residing life. And I imply, it’s so ironic to say that now that he’s gone.’
Three days later, Lemieux’s physique was found by his son on the household’s furnishings enterprise in Palm Seaside County. He had hanged himself.
‘It may need reawakened outdated pains, outdated struggling,’ Tremblay advised the Publish about Lemieux’s night time as torch bearer. It didn’t appear that technique to Lemieux’s purchasers. Lemieux labored as a participant agent, representing gamers similar to Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen and Golden Knights star Rasmus Andersson.
They may face off in subsequent month’s Stanley Cup Ultimate however each detailed their heartache after shedding the person who helped information their profession. Andersen struggled to include his feelings after Friday’s sport in Raleigh; he described Lemieux as ‘like household’ and stated he ‘has the most important coronary heart.’
Andersson heard from Lemieux on Wednesday. That they had reportedly recognized one another because the Vegas star was 13 and so they spoke most days, plotting the following transfer in Andersson’s profession. ‘We laid out a plan,’ he advised the Las Vegas-Evaluation Journal this week. ‘I couldn’t imagine it once I received the decision.’
Not even his household had a way that tragedy lay across the nook, apparently. In keeping with a pal, Colombe Lacroix, Lemieux had been ‘depressed’ and going by ‘a troublesome time.’ However, Lacroix advised the Publish, his family members ‘by no means noticed it coming.’
So what had been troubling Lemieux? In keeping with the Publish, the NHL legend had – at one level – gone ten years with out talking to his youngsters, which Tremblay stated ‘damage him tremendously.’ Then there was his snub from the Hockey Corridor of Fame.
He gained the 1986 Stanley Cup with the Canadiens as a rookie – his first of 4 titles
Lemieux’s son Brendan paid a heartbreaking tribute to the NHL legend after his loss of life
Lemieux in 1991 throughout a sport towards the Minnesota North Stars
‘It’s ridiculous that he’s not [in],’ Maguire advised the Day by day Mail. ‘It’s solely as a result of the Corridor of Fame is a political entity. The primary-ballot guys are rubber-stamped, those who anyone would say is a no brainer.
‘While you get to the following degree down, then it’s a must to test off packing containers, and Claude doesn’t test all of them off as a result of he didn’t play good.’
Tremblay advised the Publish that Lemieux by no means received over the ‘injustice,’ including: ‘The sense of rejection ran deeper than one may need imagined.’
Certainly one of solely 11 gamers to win Stanley Cups with three completely different groups, Lemieux earned Conn Smythe Trophy honors with the New Jersey Devils because the 1995 playoff MVP. However whereas he’s celebrated by followers of the Canadiens, Devils and Colorado Avalanche, he’s extensively hated by many others over allegations of soiled play.
Lemieux’s notorious hit on Kris Draper in Sport 6 of the 1996 Western Convention Finals left the Detroit Pink Wings heart with a concussion in addition to a damaged nostril, collarbone and jaw. Fallout from the incident spilled into subsequent seasons as Draper’s teammate, Darren McCarty, tangled with Lemieux on a number of events.
Lemieux and McCarty would later bury the hatchet in a collection of public occasions geared toward elevating cash for charity. Nonetheless, even in loss of life, Lemieux’s violent previous remained troublesome to disregard.
‘That is extraordinarily unhappy it doesn’t matter what emotions from previous or current you maintain,’ McCarty wrote on X after studying of the tragedy. ‘My ideas and prayers to his household and associates and individuals who received to see the particular person off the ice wasn’t the particular person on [it].’
Even on Monday, when Lemieux was re-introduced to Maguire by former Canadiens ahead Chris ‘Knuckles’ Nilan, the hockey historian sensed some nagging reservations over the participant’s previous.
‘Chris introduces me as this hockey know-it-all,’ Maguire stated. ‘For a break up second I believed on [Lemieux’s] face I may type of sense that he was pondering, “Oh God, please, please don’t go there. Please don’t say something concerning the Draper hit…” It was one thing together with his physique language.’
Ex-Pink Wings enforcer Darren McCarty fought Lemieux a number of occasions, however nonetheless remembered his rival fondly, saying the Quebec native was a unique particular person away from the sport
Lemieux gained a Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe honors as playoff MVP with the Devils in 1995
Maguire didn’t speak to him concerning the Draper hit or one other incident when Montreal coach Pat Burns accused Lemieux of diving earlier than refusing to permit trainers to deal with his ailing star.
Such recollections, Maguire felt, nonetheless precipitated ache for Lemieux.
‘I feel it was one thing that he all the time needed to stay with,’ stated Maguire, who thinks Lemieux was nonetheless attempting to vary the notion of his profession. ‘I feel that’s why he did all of the [charity events with McCarty].’
Monday’s heart-warming torch ceremony additionally appeared like an effort to vary his ferocious on-ice status.
‘He may have stated “no” to doing the torch, as a result of he is aware of that no matter how nicely it’s going to be acquired… there’ll be some dialog: “Why are you bringing that piece of s*** out right here?”‘ Maguire stated.
As a substitute, Lemieux embraced the second and confirmed his affection for the followers who keep in mind him with love as a substitute of vitriol.
‘Getting that in entrance of twenty-two,000 folks, the full-on adulation he hadn’t gotten in 20, 25 years,’ Maguire questioned, ‘did it set off one thing?’
Sadly, suicide amongst former hockey gamers is just not unusual. As an example, in 2024, Lemieux’s former Colorado Avalanche teammate Chris Simon took his personal life at 52. Simon has since been posthumously recognized with continual traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative mind illness linked to repeated head trauma.
Lemieux addressed Simon’s suicide at a December reunion celebrating Colorado’s 1996 Stanley Cup title.
Lemieux gained 4 Stanley Cups with three completely different groups over his illustrious profession
Lemieux and his future Devils teammate Scott Stevens collide in New Jersey in 1991
‘It’s very troublesome, and particularly with Chris passing at such a younger age,’ Lemieux stated. ‘We’ve to rely our blessings — be glad about the times that we now have and luxuriate in and recognize these occasions after we get collectively.’
It’s too early to say if Lemieux’s loss of life has any similarities with Simon’s, or how Monday’s profoundly emotional scene in Montreal impacted his last days.
However in ‘the hope that Claude’s life can proceed to assist others,’ Lemieux’s household is donating his mind to the UNITE Mind Financial institution on the Boston College CTE Middle.
‘This resolution is a present to science, to athletes, and to future generations of households searching for solutions,’ an announcement learn. ‘No conclusions must be drawn at the moment relating to any prognosis.’
Lemieux is survived by his spouse, Deborah, and his 4 youngsters. On his journey to Montreal this week, studies declare, the NHL legend noticed his personal mother and father for the ultimate time.
And through Monday’s outpouring of affection, Lemieux’s famously stoic face was briefly changed with a slight grin as he carried the torch on the Bell Centre.
Whereas he was by no means enshrined in Toronto alongside so many different Corridor of Famers, Lemieux did domesticate his personal admirable legacy, as some extra astute followers can attest.
‘On the finish of the day, he’s probably the most ferocious, fiercest rivals and winners in hockey historical past,’ Maguire stated of the four-time Stanley Cup champion. ‘That’s how I’m going to recollect him. Within the realm of the world that I dangle my hat on as a hockey historian, that’s who he was.’
When you or somebody you realize wants assist, please name or textual content the confidential 24/7 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline within the US on 988. There may be additionally a web based chat obtainable at 988lifeline.org.
