Mike Boone

Mike Boone, a co-founder of Habs Inside/Out and a lifelong fan of the Canadiens whose passion for the team is worn on his sleeve in his live game blogging and post-game commentaries, is in mourning today, having yesterday lost his mother, Frances.

Mike had blogged every Canadiens game the past two seasons, since the birth of Inside/Out, until this week's road trip to Florida when the hospitalization of his mother absorbed all of his time. Frances Boone passed away early in the morning of New Year's Day in her 91st year after a brief illness.

Mike's mother was a supporter of Sun Youth, the 55-year-old organization whose many programs benefit thousands of needy Montrealers. Donations may be made in Frances's honour here.

Frances Boone's funeral is to be held this morning in Montreal. Mike will return to his Inside/Out writing soon. Until then, his colleagues at the website and The Gazette and his many readers express our deepest sympathies.

For those of you who use the Lucien L'Allier train station, between the Bell Centre and the commuter tracks to and from the suburbs: I've located Mike Boone's brick in the Canadiens' Centennial Plaza.

Exit the train station through the farthest door to the left. Immediately in front of you, maybe four strides dead ahead, in the first section of bricks, in the first row – surely the only time Boone will be front row for anything at the Bell Centre – is his brick. No hint on what he had engraved in it; you'll have to see it for yourself. And you'll have to read upside down until fences are removed and you can walk around the plaza.

(You guys are creative: get a thread going below to guess his message!)

I called my Inside/Out buddy to let him know, and immediately he expressed concern that pigeons were nearby.