[FREE TO READ] Remembering Claude Lemieux, a ‘bulldog’ and ‘softie’ whose death has the NHL reeling

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7317172/2026/05/29/claude-lemieux-death-nhl-remembrance/?unlocked_article_code=1.mFA.W8Pc.baCnnogKWVRQ&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta Claude Lemieux had looked good just days before, walking through fans parting in the Bell Centre concourse. Lines by his eyes, a crease off his smile, shadowy grey hair, trimmed neat — but a well-aged man at 60, skin kissed by the Florida sun. In his red and blue Canadiens sweater, No. 32, Lemieux smiled and carried a flame toward a darkened rink. Just days before. That was Monday. The Canadiens were about to play the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final. The Canadiens reached out to Lemieux during the team’s series against the Buffalo Sabres, asking him to bear the torch if they advanced. “He was a bulldog,” said Doug Gilmour, remembering Lemieux’s imposing force in the 1989 Stanley Cup Final, when the Calgary Flames beat the Habs. “A pain in the ass to play against, you want him on your team.” https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7317172/2026/05/29/claude-lemieux-death-nhl-remembrance/?unlocked_article_code=1.mFA.W8Pc.baCnnogKWVRQ&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta submitted by /u/TheAthletic [link] [comments]