Brian Sutter is a man who loves heroes.
The head coach of the Innisfail Eagles is also a passionate man who loathes all notions of losing.
And last week he lost big time, as did millions of other Canadians.
Canada lost the great Jean Béliveau who passed away on Dec. 2. Sutter, the tough-as-nails former NHL star, could barely hold off the tears at the passing of a Canadian hockey legend. In every reference to the late great centre of the Montreal Canadiens it was “Mr. Béliveau” from Sutter.
He readily conceded he was not a Habs fan when he was watching Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night with his famed clan of hockey brothers while growing up in Viking. But that did not matter. Mr. Béliveau was special to any Canadian kid, whether he was playing out his hockey dreams along the shores of Quebec's Gaspé Bay or out on the Alberta Prairie.
“You didn't have to be a Montreal Canadiens fan to have the ultimate respect for him,” said Sutter, a Detroit Red Wings fan. “He was just a very, very special man.”
Sutter remembers fondly from his earliest professional days as a raw rookie with the St. Louis Blues how warmly Béliveau would receive him every time his team would visit the hallowed confines of the old Montreal Forum. He was wide-eyed and star-struck just setting foot in that sacred temple of hockey but to meet "Le Gros Bill" took everything to another level.
“Everything I learned was Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Canadiens, and Montreal Canadiens, from Scotty Bowman to Dickie Moore to Jean-Guy Talbot,” said Sutter. “Those guys were great, great people.
“Mr. Béliveau would always wait for me when I came to Montreal, and back then I became the youngest captain in the history of the NHL. Most captains were 35 and I was 21,” added Sutter. “I will never forget him patting me on the shoulder one time and he says, ‘Some of us care and some people may not understand us, but some of us do care in a much different way'.”
And of course Sutter never forgot how great a hockey player his hero was. Béliveau was a big man of 6-3 back in his playing days, a towering figure on the ice who commanded just as much respect as he did when the game was over.
“He was an incredible player to watch, his grace for being such a big man, and how smooth he was,” said Sutter. “He used a long stick and always used a wrist shot, an old-time wrist shot. I knew Bernie 'Boom-Boom' Geoffrion real good and he used to say, ‘Jean used to shoot his wrist shot harder than my slapshot'.”
Le Gros Bill retired from the game in 1971. He became one of the greatest ambassadors ever for hockey. The voluminous decency and warmth he carried with such ease left an indelible mark on everyone, including the kid from Viking, whose transformation to a man was shaped by Béliveau's influence.
“He was a role model, and he set the standard. He would say, ‘You treat people with respect, look them in the eye and you never embarrass him',” said Sutter. “Mr. Béliveau was a role model to why you thought a certain way, and that standard – anything less – was not acceptable for myself. But holy smokes, he was just a special, special person.”
Brian Sutter
"He was a role model, and he set the standard. He would say, 'You treat people with respect, look them in the eye and you never embarrass him'."
