Claude Lemieux's death still weighs heavily on Jean Perron and former Montreal Canadiens teammates four decades after their 1986 Cup run.
More than 30 members of that championship team gathered at Serge Savard's annual golf tournament, but the reunion carried a much different tone following Lemieux's death on May 28.
Only 3 days earlier, Lemieux had carried the torch at the Bell Centre before Game 3 of Montreal's Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes.
That contrast remains difficult for his former teammates to process. Stéphane Richer, whose path crossed Lemieux's for years, pushed back against speculation surrounding what happened.
Richer said searching for explanations or spreading theories serves no purpose. His message was direct: “We don't need that.”
Savard shared a similar sense of disbelief. He had known Lemieux since the forward was 15 and remembered seeing no obvious indication that something was wrong.
Jean Perron raises a lingering concern over Claude Lemieux
Perron, who coached Montreal to the 1986 Stanley Cup, remembered Lemieux as unpredictable but invaluable when the pressure rose during the postseason.
The former Canadiens coach also questioned whether the NHL has done enough when dealing with concussions and their long-term effects.
“I think the NHL is not strict enough with its concussion protocol,” Perron said while discussing Lemieux's history of head injuries.
Larry Robinson had another difficult reaction. He initially believed reports of Lemieux's death circulating on social media were false before receiving confirmation.
Robinson later remembered the personality that teammates knew so well, describing him simply as: “He was the same damn Claude.”
The group had gathered to celebrate one of the defining seasons in Canadiens history, but Lemieux's absence changed the atmosphere surrounding the reunion.
At a private dinner, the former teammates chose to focus largely on better memories rather than theories surrounding his final days.
For a group tied together by a Stanley Cup championship, that remains the hardest part. Four decades later, their reunion became as much about remembering Claude Lemieux as celebrating what they accomplished together.
Should the NHL strengthen its concussion protocol even further?
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