Former Canadian player Marcel Bonin, who won the Stanley Cup four times, including three with CH, has passed away. He died Sunday morning, his daughter Manon announced on her social networks.
Posted at 3:58 p.m.
Reread the comic strip “The Joliette Bear”
Reread “Marcel Bonin: a head full of memories”
At 93, Bonin was the oldest member of the Canadiens alumni, according to Réjean Houle, president of the Anciens Canadiens.
Before graduating into the National Hockey League, Marcel Bonin acquired a nickname: the Joliette Bear.
“After his career as a heavyweight boxing champion, Joe Louis organized bear fights,” Bonin said. He offered $1,000 (in the late 1940s!) to anyone who would slay the bear. At 16, I responded to the challenge and quickly found myself on my butt. I fought several other battles, in Trois-Rivières and elsewhere, with this bear, muzzled and declawed. In several cities in Quebec, people remember me. »
The nickname stuck.
Born September 12, 1931 in Joliette, Bonin was known for his aggressiveness on the ice. The winger had his best moments in the NHL with the Canadian after wearing the colors of the Detroit Red Wings and the Boston Bruins.
He won the Stanley Cup four times, including three with CH. He was even one of the heroes of the 1959 conquest. That spring, he scored 10 goals in 11 playoff games while putting on the gloves of the injured Maurice Richard. He had the winning goal in three games, including the last of the series.
These were the glory weeks for Bonin, who settled for one goal and 10 assists in the other 39 playoff games of his career.
-PHOTO ROGER ST-JEAN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Marcel Bonin scored 10 goals in 11 playoff games in 1959. His last was scored at the expense of Johnny Bower of the Maple Leafs and contributed to the Canadian’s fourth conquest of the Stanley Cup.
Bonin was respected and appreciated by his teammates. He cheered them up… by crunching glass. “I did this while traveling. I had seen someone do it and I was tempted to try it. It feels like the glass melts in your mouth and it becomes like sand. I certainly could have swallowed it, but I didn’t. »
He had to retire during the 1961-1962 season. He injured his back colliding with Pete Goegan of the Red Wings.
From his career, he kept a Stanley Cup ring. “I got a ring for the three conquests in Montreal since they didn’t give one in the 50s. I lent my ring to a friend in Florida. I never saw the friend again, nor the ring for that matter. I received a ring (50 years later) from the Red Wings to remember my conquest of 1954-1955. »
PHOTO ROGER ST-JEAN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Marcel Bonin and Toe Blake celebrate winning the Stanley Cup in 1959.
His skates hooked up, Bonin worked as a police officer, then in schools as a drug counselor.
His “return” to school introduced him to a new hobby: reading. “I am passionate about the history of New France. I made friends with history teachers. Today I have a collection of around 2,600 century-old volumes. »
Thousands of pounds and, as a souvenir, a few fights in the arena and a ring.
