The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Throughout five solid seasons, Marian Stastny earned a reputation as one of the NHL's most gentlemanly players. During my recent vacation to Quebec, I can attest to the fact that the retired great is every bit as genial off the ice. If you're a hockey fan, you'll remember Marian from his days with the Quebec Nordiques, where he joined brothers Peter and Anton in forming one of the dominant scoring lines of the 1980s. After leaving hockey, Stastny laced 'em up for a different sort of game: entrepreneurship. He owns a gorgeous hotel and 18-hole golf course on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence, near Quebec City. He's clearly a very wealthy man, and still adored in his adopted home city. Yet you don't need a press pass to meet him. All we did was walk into the clubhouse and ask to see the 56-year-old Czech. A moment later, we politely entered an office where Marian sat alone, hard at work. At first it was a little intimidating, like a job interview, but when he rose from his desk with a wide smile, I knew he was genuinely glad to see us. Some miscommunication with my girlfriend's step-father (unlike the trilingual Marian, I only speak one language well) had caused me to believe I was meeting Peter Stastny, whose career I was more familiar with. It turns out Peter is now a member of the European Parliament for Slovakia. It was still a memorable moment. There are some people who charm you from the get-go, and Marian is one of them. For the better part of 10 minutes, he graciously humoured me as I inquired about his days in the big leagues. We also talked about Flin Flon, which he already knew as, no surprise, the birthplace of Bobby Clarke. We discussed the blow to Quebec when the Nordiques left. And we chatted about his (very successful) business venture, which offers guests a bona fide European experience. By the end of it all, this man who was so intimidating to opposing coaches (and goalies) had struck me as one of the friendliest people I have ever met. I mean, he shook my hand four times in a matter of minutes! A weekend in Montreal was also on our vacation agenda, allowing me to visit the hockey equivalent of the Vatican, the old Montreal Forum. It's a shopping centre now, but remnants of its glorious past remain. The floor is painted up like the old ice surface, and several of the stands remain (one of which seats a very enthusiastic mannequin "fan"). Not so far away sits the Canadiens' current home, the Bell Centre. I stood side by side with the statues of four Habs greats: Howie Morenz, Maurice Richard, Jean Bealiveau and Guy Lafleur. What amazed me was how you could walk up to the statues at any time of the day or night. Weren't they worried about vandalism? "Nobody would vandalize them," one of our friends told us. "The Canadiens are like a religion."
