Jean Béliveau

Jean Béliveau (left) and Dickie Moore flank captain Maurice Richard in the Canadiens dressing room in this 1950s photo.
Gazette files

Hall of Famer Dickie Moore dropped in unexpectedly Friday on Canadiens great Jean Béliveau and was thrilled by the condition of his long-ago captain. I spoke with Moore late Friday and he could barely contain his excitement about seeing his dear friend in remarkably good spirits, chatting with his family and walking a little.

Béliveau was hospitalized Wednesday night after having suffered a mild stroke, taken by ambulance to the Montreal General Hospital.

Jean Béliveau at the Canadiens' centennial game Dec. 4 at the Bell Centre.
Richard Wolowicz, Getty Images

Canadiens icon Jean Béliveau was in the Montreal General Hospital Thursday, having suffered a stroke the night before. He is said to be in stable condition.

Full story here.

(A note to the Habs: Saturday, early in the game, say the first whistle, P.A. announcer Michel Lacroix should wish Jean a speedy and full get-well, and the fans in the arena should lift the roof off the Bell Centre. I mean, LIFT it.)

A source told The Gazette that Mr. Béliveau, 78, could not speak when he was transported to the hospital. The Hall of Famer was said to be unable to speak Thursday morning as well and was being treated at the neurological unit of the General, though his condition was not believed to be life-threatening.

The Canadiens would only say Thursday that Mr. Béliveau had been admitted and was undergoing tests.

A statement late Thursday afternoon from the McGill University Health Centre, of which the Montreal General is a part, said that Mr. Béliveau was in stable condition and that further details would be released “if they become available.”

Habs Inside/Out joins the great many fans of Le Gros Bill who wish him a prompt and full recovery. It's not going to be the same, not seeing him three rows behind the Habs bench at almost every game.

As promised, and held at least a few hours to prevent the cheating we knew would happen if we'd put these online earlier, here are the answers for the 10 multiple-choice quiz questions scattered through the six-acre cornfield maze on the farm of Chip and Tom Hunter in Florenceville-Bristol, N.B.

The six-acre cornfield as viewed from above. Scroll down for the larger version.
Courtesy Chip and Tom Hunter

The great Jean Béliveau has been celebrated in photo, film, documentaries, books and magazines.

His likeness has appeared on cereal boxes, bottlecaps, keychains and myriad other collectibles. He's been immortalized in sculptures made of bronze, wood and ice.

But this, Le Gros Bill says, is the first time he's been made of corn.

Chip and Tom Hunter, farming brothers in Florenceville-Bristol, N.B., have created a 600-foot-tall Béliveau atop a logo celebrating the Canadiens centennial in a six-acre field of feed corn. It's a tribute to their love of the Habs icon and their favourite NHL team, their impressive maze photographed from 500 feet aboard a Piper Cub late last month.

Scattered throughout the field's four km of paths are 10 multiple-choice questions; they appear below for you to try your skill. Answers will be found here tomorrow – just to prevent cheating. No prize for a good score, just bragging rights.

Special thanks to Inside/Out reader Paul Bourgoin, who brought this to our attention a few days ago and sent along a clipping from his home province's Bugle-Observer, and to farmer Chip Hunter's wife, Shelley, who provided us with the quiz below and the aerial images of the farm.

Captains Saku Koivu and Jean Béliveau appeared together on a 2006-07 cover of Canadiens magazine, captured by Habs photographer Bob Fisher.

DAVE STUBBS
(from Monday's Gazette)

The Canadiens' greatest captain was surprised, and he wasn't, when it became clear last week that Saku Koivu had played his final game wearing the "C" above his CH crest.

Jean Béliveau has been around hockey a lifetime, long enough to expect the unexpected.

The massive overhaul of the club by general manager Bob Gainey added five players, requiring the departure of others.

Atop the list of the outgoing would be Koivu, the team's 27th captain and its leader for nine seasons - 10, including the lockout season of 2004-05.

Gainey, the Canadiens' 20th captain from 1981-89, remains the most recent to retire with the C on his jersey. The seven since have been traded or released, four of them trap-doored during a 26-month period in the mid-1990s.

• Stubbs's feature column appears here.

Below: Koivu on the cover of Les Canadiens magazine in the fall of 1999, upon being named Habs captain.

Jean Béliveau beams with his new Team Canada jersey at today's Bell Centre news conference.
Dario Ayala, Gazette

From a release: Hockey Canada announced today that Canadiens icon Jean Béliveau – a 10-time Stanley Cup champion and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame – has been named an honourary Team Canada member and honourary captain of Canada’s 2010 Men’s Olympic Hockey Team.

Béliveau spent his entire 20-season NHL career as a member of the Canadiens, recording 1,219 points in 1,125 games. He retired from the NHL following the 1970-71 season and never had the chance to represent Canada in international competition. The first major international event involving NHL superstars was in 1972, when Canada and Russia met in the Summit Series. The IIHF World Championship did not allow professionals to participate until 1977.

“It’s unbelievable to think of some of the players who never had the chance to represent Canada in international play,” says Bob Nicholson, president and CEO of Hockey Canada. “Today, we bring a new member onto the Team Canada roster. It’s about time we see the great Jean Béliveau in a Team Canada sweater.”

Béliveau was honoured at a news conference in Montreal, as part of the Hockey Canada Foundation gala and golf fundraiser. Serge Savard and Yvan Cournoyer, honourary chairmen of the 2009 Hockey Canada Foundation gala, presented Béliveau with a Team Canada jersey, with Béliveau’s name and customary No. 4 on the back.

Jean Beliveau, with his emotional wife Élise in the audience, was met with an appreciative standing ovation last night. NHL Network Online

The Canadiens did not go unrecognized in last night's NHL awards show in Las Vegas, even after the Jack Adams Trophy presentation to former coach Claude Julien.

The great Jean Béliveau was honoured with the league's second lifetime achievement award, following last year's tribute to Le Gros Bill's fine friend and rival, Gordie Howe.

Joe Pelletier's Legends of Hockey site presents video of last night's ceremony.

Famous are the hat-trick photos of Jean Béliveau holding three pucks in the Canadiens' dressing room – beneath the fedora of Habs coach Toe Blake.
Denis Brodeur Collection

Andrei Kostitsyn and Christopher Higgins won't soon forget their maiden NHL hat tricks, Kostitsyn bagging his on Saturday in Pittsburgh, Higgins back on Nov. 11 in Montreal vs. Ottawa.

The two forwards now trail Canadiens icon Jean Béliveau by just 17 in the hat-trick category, and team leader Maurice Richard by 25.

None of Béliveau's hat tricks was more famous than that of his four-goal night on Nov. 5, 1955 against Boston Bruins goaltender Terry Sawchuk, three of his goals coming in a span of 44 seconds on the same power play.

That played as large a role as anything in the NHL passing a new rule at season's end to bring a minor-penalized player back on the ice after a man-advantage goal.

Here's a walk down Le Gros Bill's memory lane on that.

And see below for a photo from that night that, in itself, is an interesting story, details from the linked story excerpted below.

Broadcaster Bob Cole has warm memories of Jean Béliveau, who starred in the first game Cole called for CBC Radio.
Greig Reekie, CBC Imagebank

What follows appears at CBC.com, to which we'll link you here. You'll find other blogs by CBC broadcasters there, as well. But we'll steal Bob's remembrance of the great Jean Béliveau to post at Inside/Out, for obvious reasons. Enjoy.

•     •     •

When I think about the Montreal Canadiens, especially with their 100th anniversary celebration underway, I immediately think of Jean Béliveau.

He was, as we all know, one of the greatest Canadiens ever and, in my opinion, he was the classiest.

I have a great memory of Jean Beliveau that dates back a lot of years now. I was doing a game in the old Boston Garden on a Sunday afternoon several years ago. I had Mickey Redmond as my colour man. Well, that day the Canadiens won the game in overtime over the Bruins.

We're spoiled in Montreal, thinking that the great Jean Béliveau is ours. He is, to a degree. But he belongs to a great many more.

Le Gros Bill and his Original Six rival, Toronto Maple Leafs great Johnny Bower, along with Philadelphia Flyers' notorious Dave (The Hammer) Schultz, were in Cobourg, Ont., last week to lend their support at a sports celebrity dinner to benefit ALS.

Here's a report by Jason Chamberlain of northumberlandnews.com.

An impressive array of guests, highlighted by a visit from the Stanley Cup, will join an expected sell-out audience paying tribute to Canadiens legend Jean Béliveau when he is inducted into the YM-YWHA Alex Dworkin Montreal Jewish Sports Hall of Fame on April 30.