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New York Times
22-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
For Blues' 2025 draft pick Justin Carbonneau, confidence is just ‘part of who he is'
ST. LOUIS — Justin Carbonneau made his first trip to St. Louis earlier this month, and while wowing many fans with his performance at the Blues' development camp, he was wowed himself by one of the guest speakers. As part of the initiation to the organization, the first-round pick in 2025 and fellow prospects were greeted by Hockey Hall of Famer and former St. Louis Blues center Peter Stastny. Advertisement 'I should've brought a notebook because there was so much learning about being the best for yourself every single day as a person,' Carbonneau says. 'With Peter, he talked to us about being a good teammate and being grateful for others. If one of the best players ever tells you that, it shows how important it is.' Stastny's last game with the Blues — and in the NHL — was April 1995 and Carbonneau, 18, wasn't born until November 2006. So it's not like the youngster can recall the career that made Stastny 'one of the best players ever.' But born in Levis, Quebec, Canada, Carbonneau grew up the son of a longtime Quebec Nordiques fan, Pascal Carbonneau. Stastny played 10 seasons with the Nordiques (1980-90), the team that retired his No. 26. Pascal, now 49, had that No. 26 jersey. 'Peter Stastny was my idol,' he says. 'I was very young, but he was the captain and the star player. Even though Justin never saw him play, he heard plenty about him at home, and I probably showed him a few clips. So I think Justin was pretty impressed meeting his dad's childhood hero.' Carbonneau was impressed and approached Stastny afterward. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound right winger told him that he was from Quebec and said, 'It would be sick to get a picture with you!' Stastny obliged, and Carbonneau immediately sent that photo to his family. 'When I told my dad that I met Peter Stastny and shook his hand, he was pretty jealous,' Carbonneau remembers. 'I know he's a legend, so I'm grateful that I had the chance to speak with him.' The exchange with Stastny has only heightened Carbonneau's passion about playing the sport he's loved since he was 4 years old. Pascal coached his son until he was 10 or 11 and recalls him always being driven. 'The confidence Justin has in himself and his abilities, it's part of who he is,' Pascal says. 'On the ice, even though he wasn't the best player, he was by far the most intense, the most competitive, and determined among the young players. He was built differently. He was very demanding of himself, even at the age of 6 or 7.' Advertisement Carbonneau's mother, Audrey, remembers him setting goals at that ripe age. 'It was little challenges each year: 'Next year, I want to achieve this. The next year, I want to achieve that,'' she recalls. 'He was very rarely satisfied with what he has done. Even if he won the tournament, he was satisfied, but not that much because he was thinking about the next step.' Carbonneau's older brother, Jeremie, says his younger sibling always wanted to be on the opposite team. 'He was always trying to have a fun time, but a tough time, too,' Jeremie says. 'He wanted to win, but work to win. It was kind of rough to play against him. I don't think he's scared of a lot of people. He just has something in him that, yeah, he's really not scared of anyone.' Sometimes, Carbonneau's confidence could be interpreted as cockiness. 'Jeremie would say, 'It's enough,'' Audrey recalls. 'It was a challenge because his intensity was driving him all the time. We had to understand how he was working in his head.' To Carbonneau, it was simple. 'I've always believed in me,' Carbonneau says. 'You know you have to put the work in. You know you have a lot to learn and you have to stay humble. For me, I'm humble and I work my butt off, but I believe in myself.' 'The Mamba Mentality,' adopted by former NBA star Kobe Bryant before his death in 2020, was something that helped Carbonneau understand the mindset that it takes to play at a high level and maintain a balance. 'Kobe's mindset was, 'If you think you're good, well, you're not good enough,'' Carbonneau says. 'He was the first one in the gym and the last one in the gym, and I learned more and more about him and everything he did to get where he was. 'Michael Jordan, too. 'The Last Dance' popped to me because every single thing that happened, the more it brought fire in his eyes. They try to find ways to work on themselves, so when it's time to take the final shot, they believe in themselves.' Advertisement Carbonneau began to find motivation in perceived slights, as well. In 2022, he felt that he should've been selected in the first round of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft and instead went in the second round (No. 20 overall). 'It kind of slapped me in the face saying, 'You're not good enough,'' Carbonneau says. 'It brought me into a mindset where I'm never going to stop working. From that moment, I started working on so much details. I started finding ways that I didn't know existed. I just told myself, 'Make sure that that never happens again and you prove everybody wrong.'' 'It was more (of) a slap in the face than I thought,' Jeremie recalls. Carbonneau began working with former NHL defenseman Yannick Tremblay, a sixth-round pick of the Maple Leafs who played nearly 400 games with Toronto, Atlanta Thrashers and Vancouver Canucks. Tremblay already liked Carbonneau's approach to the game. 'The bigger the challenge, the more Justin's willing to try things and try to make it work,' Tremblay says. 'I said this to one of the scouts, he's always looking actively at doing whatever needs to be done. He says, 'If this needs to be done, I'll go and do it.'' So the two honed in on Carbonneau's details — learning how to get off a good shot when the puck may not be in the right spot, or finding ways as a power skater to have quicker bursts of speed in small areas. 'Justin, from the get-go, he was really willing to not be comfortable,' Tremblay said. 'He's actively asking, 'How can I make it harder so that when I need it, it's going to be easier and I'm going to be able to execute?'' Carbonneau set a goal of being picked in the first round of the NHL Draft this summer, and after what happened in junior hockey, he made sure that he put himself in good position. In 2023-24, he had 31 goals and 59 points in 68 games with Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, and he followed that up with 46 goals and 89 points in 62 games last season. Advertisement 'For me, it's just finding motivation everywhere I go,' Carbonneau said. 'It can be in front of me or what I'm hearing. Not a lot of people make it to the NHL, so there's a lot of comments on that. For me, it's just motivating me to prove everybody wrong.' The Blues had the No. 19 overall pick in the first round and took Carbonneau, who had about 30 family members and friends in Los Angeles for the draft. 'It's still hard to believe,' Pascal says. 'We knew he could be drafted in the middle of the first round and we all became emotional when we heard his name called by the Blues. We tried to enjoy the moment, despite the stress. We were very happy with the final destination and Justin seems to be very happy with the organization.' 'A lot of emotion,' Jeremie says. 'We knew it was his goal since he was 4 years old. Where we're from, there's not a lot of drafted players and he was first round. Some of my friends were texting me, saying, 'Damn, first-round pick, that's really big!' Yeah, it's really big.' But remember what Carbonneau said about staying humble? 'You get drafted because you're good, but the best thing about drafting me is that I know I'm not good enough right now,' he says. 'I know I have a lot to work on and I will put the work in. I think sometimes the best thing is not the hockey player you are now, but the player I will be in a couple of years.' Carbonneau traveled to St. Louis from L.A. for development camp and was warmly greeted by Blues fans at the airport. 'The first 15 minutes, everybody was saying 'Welcome here, we're happy to have you!'' Carbonneau says. 'I felt the support, and I'm not even playing yet.' My son got to meet the @StLouisBlues newest draft pick Justin Carbonneau at the airport tonight! #BleedBlue — Kyle Gross (@kylegross03) June 29, 2025 Carbonneau arrived at camp the next day, and when he wasn't chatting up Stastny, he was listening to a pair of other former Blues: Paul Stastny (Peter's son) and Robert Bortuzzo. 'One thing the Blues taught us is, when you enter that room, you leave your ego on the side and you're being a good teammate,' Carbonneau says. 'It just shows how much that's what they want because every single guy in the locker room were good people. Good players, too, but good people.' Advertisement Carbonneau can't get enough of that stuff. He's currently reading a book titled 'The Captain Class' by Sam Walker and up next on his list is 'The Energy Bus' by Jon Gordon. 'The one that I'm reading now, just the best leaders around the world, sometimes they're not the best players and don't have the spotlight on them,' he says. 'I want to learn from them and be the best teammate that I can be. I'm 18 years old and I want to be a big leader for my team next year. Books like these about the mentality of athletes over the years, it's just great to round up your learnings.' Carbonneau announced recently that he will be back with Armada in 2025-26, choosing to return to his junior team for a fourth season over an opportunity to play NCAA hockey at Boston College. 'I had some good talks with Boston College and Armada, and even with St. Louis, and everybody gave me their opinion,' Carbonneau says. 'To be honest, it was an easy decision. There's different things that I can learn from college. You play against bigger guys, but you don't get the road trips or the pro playoffs. 'Also, I didn't want to let my (Armada) teammates down. I think I showed that with my decision. I give it all to teammates, and it would've been stupid to let them down and go somewhere else. I love these guys and I want to win with them.' Tremblay is on board with the decision Carbonneau made. 'You can't compare both leagues with the age and level of the players, but at the same time, it allows him to have a different role that maybe he would not have had in the NCAA and that can be beneficial,' Tremblay says. 'I don't think it's going to hinder his development because he sees what he needs to improve. He came back from development camp and he had a bunch of things he told me: 'I need to do this. I know I will need that. Can we work on this?' I don't think that's going to be slowing down because he's going back to Armada. Advertisement 'He's got the size, he's got skill, and he's willing to do what needs to be done. So starting from that, the ceiling is pretty high, and with that ingredient of always wanting to do more for the impact he has on the team, yeah for sure, I see him having a pretty good impact in professional hockey. I see him with the Blues doing really good things.'
Ottawa Citizen
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Ottawa Citizen
Serge Fiori's national funeral celebrates his life, his music and his dream for Quebec
Article content The national funeral for Serge Fiori Tuesday afternoon at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts was much more than a funeral. It was actually a full-scale tribute concert in honour of the iconic Québécois singer-songwriter and co-founder of the much-loved progressive-rock band Harmonium. Article content But it wasn't just a concert, either. It was a heartfelt homage to the man and the musician from a slew of homegrown stars, almost all of whom had either worked with him or were good friends of his. In the end, this magical, nearly two-hour event was a nostalgic love letter to a time — Harmonium's heyday in the mid-1970s — when Fiori and millions of other Quebecers dreamed of someday creating their own country. Article content Article content Fiori, a Montrealer with Italian roots, never wavered in his support of the independence movement and for fighting for the French language ici, even though his songs never explicitly referenced such matters. He died on June 24, Quebec's Fête nationale, at the age of 73. Article content Many on stage Tuesday underlined his commitment to Quebec, starting with Premier François Legault, who was one of the first speakers. He said he wore out his copy of the first Harmonium album as a teenager in 1974. Article content 'He made us more proud to be Québécois,' said Legault. Article content Article content Former Quebec City mayor Régis Labeaume, a friend of Fiori, said the two agreed on everything except hockey. Labeaume was a Quebec Nordiques fan, Fiori a fervent fan of les Canadiens. Article content 'You would never accept us saying 'no,'' said Labeaume, clearly referring to Fiori's position on the two referendum campaigns. 'And that, we're going to remember.' Article content Article content Article content Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon — who, at 48, is much younger than Harmonium's original boomer fans — said before Tuesday's event that Fiori spoke for a generation, and that it was always about much more than music with the singer-songwriter. Article content 'The generation before mine, the people who lived through the golden era of Harmonium, it's almost like a cult,' said St-Pierre Plamondon. 'So it's the celebration of a genius. But it's also recognizing someone who was the opening act for René Lévesque.' Article content That's a reference to Harmonium's trip with the first Parti Québécois premier to California in 1978 to promote Quebec and the band. Article content 'They went to California to talk about Quebec and independence,' said St-Pierre Plamondon. 'In one of (Fiori's) last interviews, he said that if we don't deliver this project (of independence), Quebec culture has no future.'
Edmonton Journal
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
Former Maple Leafs GM reveals why team passed on drafting Joe Sakic
Article content While it was well known that the Leafs passed on Joe Sakic in 1987 — as did 12 other clubs before Sakic went to the Quebec Nordiques — Stellick detailed how close the future Hall of Famer came to wearing Blue and White in a guest appearance on the Leafs Morning Take podcast. Holding the seventh overall pick that year, the Leafs had an ad hoc committee with Stellick, who was then the NHL's youngest GM at 30 years old, coach John Brophy and senior scouts, but all living with the whims of unpredictable owner Harold Ballard. Big Peterborough Petes defenceman Luke Richardson was on their radar, but as it got close to Toronto's turn, scouting director Floyd Smith made a convincing argument to consider Sakic. With 60 goals and 73 assists for the Swift Current Broncos, Sakic was certainly attractive, but lacked bulk. 'The table (at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit) is up in arms, like 'holy crap,'' Stellick recalled for the show's hosts. 'Brophy (who preferred scrappy players) was going nuts because he doesn't like small centremen.
Toronto Sun
11-06-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Sun
Former Maple Leafs GM reveals why team passed on drafting Joe Sakic
Former Leafs coach John Brophy 'was going nuts because he doesn't like small centremen.' Get the latest from Lance Hornby straight to your inbox Former Quebec Nordiques star Joe Sakic during a game in 1995. Postmedia files Say it ain't so, Joe. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account As the Maple Leafs grapple with all-star Mitch Marner's likely departure, former general manager Gord Stellick brought up another story of a first-round pick, this one that got away at the draft table. While it was well known that the Leafs passed on Joe Sakic in 1987 — as did 12 other clubs before Sakic went to the Quebec Nordiques — Stellick detailed how close the future Hall of Famer came to wearing Blue and White in a guest appearance on the Leafs Morning Take podcast. Holding the seventh overall pick that year, the Leafs had an ad hoc committee with Stellick, who was then the NHL's youngest GM at 30 years old, coach John Brophy and senior scouts, but all living with the whims of unpredictable owner Harold Ballard. Big Peterborough Petes defenceman Luke Richardson was on their radar, but as it got close to Toronto's turn, scouting director Floyd Smith made a convincing argument to consider Sakic. With 60 goals and 73 assists for the Swift Current Broncos, Sakic was certainly attractive, but lacked bulk. 'The table (at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit) is up in arms, like 'holy crap,'' Stellick recalled for the show's hosts. 'Brophy (who preferred scrappy players) was going nuts because he doesn't like small centremen. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'John Brophy was our coach and he had way too much influence as a coach because the owner, Harold Ballard, liked him … It's absurd. A coach who is even involved when you're drafting. But he had the ear of the owner.' That insured the Leafs took Richardson, but as was the case with many of their 1980s picks, they had no gradual development plan for him. He could've used another year of junior, but openly challenged Stellick's plan to demote him and, while he did play 21 years with various teams, his Toronto tenure wasn't as successful as hoped. Read More Stellick said he re-hashed the story with Sakic in 2012 at the latter's Hall of Fame induction. The irony was that Sakic wasn't even the Nordiques' first pick that year. In a draft dominated by defencemen, they took Bryan Fogarty ninth before Sakic at 15th. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Two Hall of Famers led off that draft, with Pierre Turgeon going first to Buffalo and future Leafs president Brendan Shanahan second to the New Jersey Devils. 'I always think about that … c'est la vie,' Stellick concluded his story. ' I'm sure that it worked out better for Joe Sakic.' Sakic had three 100-point seasons with Quebec, which changed addresses to Colorado in 1995 and won the Stanley Cup its first year in Denver. That was Sakic's first of two as a player, the second coming in 2001, before adding the 2022 title as the team's GM. He's now the Avalanche's director of hockey operations. lhornby@ X: @sunhornby NHL Celebrity Editorial Cartoons Toronto & GTA News
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
#ElbowsUp: Why have Canadians chosen hockey as the symbol of our national unity?
Faced with American tariffs and threats of annexation, Canadians have been using hockey as a way to express our discontent. Canadian fans have booed The Star-Spangled Banner at NHL games, and Canadian singer Chantal Kreviazuk — performing O Canada before the Canada-U.S. final at the 4 Nations Face-Off on Feb. 20 — changed the lyric "in all of us command" to "that only us command" as a protest against American expansionism. That 4 Nations final match became a kind of surrogate for the political conflict between our two countries. The game was one of the most-watched in North American history and, when Canada won, the celebrations had a distinct nationalist edge. Even then prime minister Justin Trudeau tweeted "You can't take our country — and you can't take our game." It's perhaps no surprise, then, that ever since Canadian comedian Mike Myers mouthed the words "elbows up" at the camera during an appearance on Saturday Night Live, the reference to legendary hockey player Gordie Howe has become a national rallying cry. In this moment of crisis, why is hockey our metaphor of choice for Canadian unity? It's been called "Canada's game" and a "national religion," but hockey's popularity as both a pastime and a spectator sport has declined in recent years. Youth participation has dropped 33 per cent since 2010, and hockey viewership is shrinking, too. When asked in 2022 how important they felt hockey is to our national identity, Canadians ranked it well below the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, our public health-care system and our education system. Since the weakening of relations with our neighbour to the south, the importance of hockey to our collective imagination seems to have bounced back. As a multicultural society with a colonial past, we have few touchstones that bind us all together. "For a country that often feels fragmented," literary scholar Jason Blake has written, "the hockey arena is a convenient gathering place and focal point." Howe, 50 at the time this photo was taken, delivers one of his well-known elbows to the head of Quebec Nordiques forward Curt Brakenbury in 1978. An oft-repeated, but incorrect, explanation of a 'Gordie Howe hat-trick' is a fight, a goal and an assist. (The Canadian Press) Hockey reflects a neutral, natural aspect of Canadian living — our northern climate — though even that isn't universal. Rarely does any pond on Vancouver Island freeze thick enough for skating. Hockey also has the benefit of being a multicultural Canadian innovation, combining settler ice sports like English bandy, Scottish shinty, and Irish hurley with Indigenous baggataway (lacrosse). Still, at the professional level, hockey has always lacked diversity. Contemporary ice hockey was developed by young, privileged, male students at McGill University in the 1870s, and even today most professional players are white men. The NHL is the least racially diverse professional sports league in North America, and the Professional Women's Hockey League launched only last year. Yet despite their historical exclusion from white men's leagues, other Canadians refused to be written out of the sport. Women began organizing their own hockey teams at the collegiate level in the 1890s, and in 1895 Baptist community leaders in Halifax and Dartmouth founded the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, which lasted into the 1930s. Asian leagues popped up in the mid-20th century, and Dick Loiselle and Jean Lane introduced sledge hockey to Alberta in 1980. Hockey was codified by students at McGill University in the 1870s. This photo shows a student match on campus in 1901. (Library and Archives Canada) Even early hockey was progressive in its own way. In 1870s Montreal, most local athletic clubs were restricted to affluent English speakers. Hockey, in contrast, accepted French and working-class players, breaking down class and cultural barriers. The sport represents values many Canadians share regardless of demographics, like team spirit, tenacity, and integrity. It embodies not only resilience but audacity in the face of hardship: give us winters so cold our eyelashes freeze, and we'll literally make a game out of them. But hockey's dark side is impossible to ignore. In his poem "Hockey Players," Al Purdy calls hockey a "combination of ballet and murder," replete with officially sanctioned violence that seems at odds with our international reputation for courtesy. This very aggression, though, may be what's made the sport such a powerful and lasting emblem of Canadian sovereignty. Hockey surfaced in the wake of Confederation, at a time when Canadians were keen to map out an identity separate from the British, who had previously governed them, and the Americans, who were hoping to govern them next. The sport's violence distinguished it from genteel national games like British cricket and American baseball. In cross-border matches between Canadian hockey teams and American ice-polo teams in the 1890s, the Canadians' ferocity made them dominant on the ice. According to news reports, "many a man had to be carried to the dressing room," and, in at least one instance, police were called in to break up a fight. There weren't many black hockey players in rural Ontario in the 1950s, let alone hockey lines with multiple black players. Howard Sheffield, Arthur Lowe and Gary Smith played on a line together for the Mount Forest Redmen during the early 1950s, where they got the nickname the 'Black Flashes.' (Mount Forest Museum & Archives) During the 1972 Summit Series, an eight-game exhibition tournament between Canada and the former Soviet Union, Team Canada struggled against the swift, skilful Soviets until the Canadian players dialed up the aggression, roughing their way to victory. Like the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Summit Series took on political overtones. For the Canadian public, their team's win represented a triumph of democracy over communism and of freedom over tyranny. Today, as Canadians borrow the language of hockey to push back against a new international rival, our choice of phrase reveals something meaningful about our national self-image. After all, it's not easy to assault someone with your elbow. Gordie Howe's signature move wasn't for offence but for defence — he used his elbows to ward off opponents who were coming after him. Canadians won't attack first, "elbows up" seems to say. But anyone who threatens us had better watch out, whether we meet at the hockey rink or in the political arena. Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.
