A towering figure of playoff-era NHL hockey, Claude Lemieux is being remembered through a more complicated emotional lens in the aftermath of his death, as friends and colleagues describe the quiet burdens he may have carried away from the spotlight.
Réjean Tremblay, a longtime Montreal hockey columnist and close friend of Lemieux for more than 30 years, suggested in an interview published Saturday that unresolved feelings tied to recognition and legacy weighed heavily on the former NHL forward.
Advertisement
“He always lived this as an injustice, a heavy burden to bear,” Réjean Tremblay, Montreal hockey columnist and friend who knew Lemieux for 30 years, told The New York Post in an interview published on Saturday, May 30, claiming that the late hockey star was “deeply sensitive to rejection” and, as a result, never got over the fact that he wasn’t inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame following his 2009 retirement.
“The sense of rejection ran deeper than one might have imagined,” Tremblay further claimed. “He took it very hard.”
The NHL legend was found dead on Thursday, May 28, by one of his three sons. He was 60. His death was later ruled a suicide.
In the months leading up to his passing, Lemieux made several public appearances that now stand out in a different light to those reflecting on his final chapter.
Advertisement
On December 11, Lemieux attended the Panthers-Avalanche game at Ball arena where the organization honored its 1996 Stanley Cup-winning team, a group he played a key role on during his years in Denver. During the event, he briefly spoke with reporters and reflected on the evolution of the modern NHL, expressing appreciation for the league’s increased focus on player safety. He noted that today’s game was “cleaner” than during his playing days, when frequent on-ice fights and physical confrontations were a defining part of the sport.
“The National Hockey League mourns the passing of Claude Lemieux, a four-time Stanley Cup champion and one of the greatest big-game Players in hockey history,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. Lemieux — who played for 21 seasons in the NHL between 1983 and 2009 — is survived by his wife, Deborah, daughter Claudia, and sons Brendan, Christopher and Michael.
“I love you dad! My son [Luc’s] favorite person is going to watch from above for a while,” Lemieux’s son Brendan wrote via Instagram, breaking his silence in the wake of his father’s shocking death. “We will see you.”
Advertisement
The NHL star’s death came just three days after he made an emotional appearance at Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday, May 25, where he served as a torchbearer prior to puck drop. Lemieux played for Montreal from 1983 to 1990 and was a part of the 1986 Stanley Cup team alongside Patrick Roy.
“It’s possible that surge of love, that wave of love on Monday evening, triggered an emotion that was too intense,” Tremblay claimed to The New York Post, citing other friends of Lemieux, per the outlet. “It might have reawakened old pains, old suffering.”
Colombe Lacroix, another close friend of the hockey star who was reportedly at the scene with the surviving family on Thursday, per The New York Post, said Lemieux had been “going through a difficult time” and was allegedly “depressed” prior to his death.
“They didn’t expect that at all,” she added of the player’s death by suicide. “They never saw it coming. It’s so devastating, everyone is upside down.”
Advertisement
The widow of former Colorado Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix, who became close with Lemieux and his wife during his years in Colorado from 1995 to 1999, recalled a final personal moment shared with the former forward.
“I held Claude in my arms, and I said thank you for being there for me,” she told The New York Post on Saturday. “He left our world too soon and I hope he’s in a better palace and that he’s happy.”
Image
Read the full article here