The Montreal Canadiens Alumni face off with A’Burg’s Rotary “Hockey Heroes”

By Kenneth Pastushyn

The Montreal Canadiens Alumni Tour came to Amherstburg to play a charity hockey game against the Rotary Club’s “Hockey Heroes” home team.

The fundraiser took place at the Libro Credit Union Centre next to the Miracle League baseball diamond.

This was a Rotary Club project, as was the playground at Toddy Jones Park and the Town Clock at the foot of Richmond Street. The Rotarian’s other fundraising activities included the annual Beef in the Burg and the Ribfest events. All of the nets proceeds from the charity game will go to support Amherstburg Community Services such as Meals on Wheels.

“As soon as the Rotary Club asked me to help out Amherstburg Community Services I couldn’t refuse,” said Wes Ewer, 33, one of three owners of the Amherstburg Admirals Junior C Hockey Club, a major organizer of the event and of one of the players on the home team.

All the players and coaches of the home team, consisting of police, fire, E.M.S and local business people, donate money to be a part of the event. Then there are the “super fans” who made a generous donation to be in the line-up with The Habs alumni. They got to wear the iconic red Montreal Canadiens jersey with their name on the back and skate around on the ice for a few shifts with the players they grew up watching on television.

“Montreal was the team when I was a kid. I was born there and followed them all my life,” said Francois Giroux, 56, who owns the Lauzon Landing Sports Bar and Global Roofing in Windsor. “I hope someday in the near future, I’d hope to see them win the Cup again, that would be awesome.”

There were 10 Stanley Cup rings on the bench of The Habs alumni that evening. Two with the ’79, ’86 and ‘93 teams as well as one with another team. Yvon Lambert had won four Cups during the dynasty years of the mid-to-late seventies. Lambert served as the coach the bench for the alumni team.

Lambert’s honorary assistant coach that evening was John Miceli, the chief accounting officer at Amherstburg town hall. Giroux wore #16 and the other “super fan” wore #24 with the name “Simone” on his back. If both of them played together, they would probably be known as the “Thrill of a Lifetime” line referring to a reference in the souvenir program.

“It was a lot of fun,” said John Simone, 49, from Amherstburg who is a manager of Integrity Tool and Mold in Oldcastle. “They were great guys who made me feel relaxed and a part of the team.”

The Habs alumni also made the Reinforcements feel relaxed and part of the team. They are a group of 16 young people under the age of nine who played a pick-up game of hockey during the first intermission.

Patrice Brisebois led the group of them in a skate around the ice. Chris Nilan, led the group in stretching exercises while offering encouragement. Pierre Dagenais, demonstrated his shooting skills and Marc Andre Bergeron, gave a skating clinic to all the youth around him.

Other Habs alumni on the ice during the first intermission skate with the Reinforcements were Guillaume Latendresse, Mike Weaver and Olev Petrov, a member of the 1993 Stanley Cup team and the first Russian to play for The Habs.

The Habs alumni also had some fun with the Rotary “Hockey Heroes,” who made sure to give the first player to score on Richard Sevigny, the ‘80-‘81 Vezina trophy for the NHL’s best goaltender and member of the ‘79 Stanley Cup team, a shaving-cream-pie-in-the face.

“I had a great time and it was my dream to as a child to play with NHL players,” said Tim Taggert, 29, a firefighter in Amherstburg and paramedic in Windsor, who also scored that first goal. “It was the most fun I ever had losing a hockey game.”

The Amherstburg Rotary team lost by a score of 18-7.