Meet your fellow CHN subscriber: Dominic Morin

The latest in an occasional series where you get to meet your fellow Colorado Hockey Now subscriber. I’m pleased to introduce Dominic Morin, a big-time Avalanche fan who lives in Montreal. He never missed a game when the Avs are there, and has taken many pictures with players over the years. If you’re interested in having this done for you, too, send me a thumbnail bio of your life and a pic to adater@comcast.net.

I’m going to let Dominic tell his story from here:

I was born in 1981 and diagnosed a year later with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Therefore, I have no muscle strength and I am forced to live in a wheelchair. This never stopped me from reaching any goals me or my parents would set for me and I completed my bachelor’s degree in translation at University of Montréal more than 10 years ago.

My story begins in September 1986. The Montréal Canadiens had just won their 23rd Stanley Cup and training camp had just begun. For the occasion, the Canadiens had opened doors at the Old Montréal Forum. My father taught it would be a good moment to initiate me to the sport of hockey. He had been working on a pair of snowmobile skis link in between by a steel bridge to hold them together that he would put under my wheelchair to allow us to go skating. We had tested his invention a few times already on other skating rinks but the opportunity to skate on the ice of the old Forum was a “can’t miss opportunity.”

So, he dressed his five-year-old son with a Montréal Canadiens jersey, hat and gloves and we drove for about 40 minutes before we arrived at the good old Forum, a temple for any hockey fans. My father then installed the skis under my wheelchair and just as we were about to step on the ice, we heard “that kid is not stepping on the ice”! That voice belonged to Jean Perron, the coach of the Canadiens at that time. Apparently, he was afraid the insurance would not cover the team should there have been a mishap with the skis under my wheelchair. My father tried to explain to him that the system was working perfectly and that there was absolutely no danger, but the coach’s answer stayed the same. We took it to a higher instance by speaking to Reynald Corey who was the team’s president at the time. We also hit a wall with him and the organization did everything in its power to make us feel unwelcome. The five-year-old kid in me was disheartened and was saddened by the way he was treated.

A few months later, my parents and I took part of an organized trip to Québec City to see a Nordiques game. During the second intermission, the beautiful blonde woman came to see me with both her hands in her back. She asked me who my favourite player was, and I spontaneously answered, “Peter Stastny”. She told me she was Paul Gillis’s wife and asked me if it was okay if she gave me a jersey with his name on the back. I obviously agreed and she made sure that I met her husband, Peter Stastny and the rest of the players. But that story doesn’t end there. A month later, Christmas came. A few days before that, a delivery man had delivered a giant Christmas stocking that was approximately 6 feet high. When I opened it, I found out it was from the Québec Nordiques. Inside the stocking was an autographed hockey stick and tons of Nordiques merchandise. Put yourself in a five-year-old shoes, I was sold. On one side there was the Montréal Canadiens that made me feel unwelcome and undesired and on the other side, there was the Québec Nordiques that treated me like a king.

Since that day I became a Nordiques fan and I have never looked behind. I saw my team hit bottom rock before getting players like Nolan, Sundin, Foote, Sakic and Forsberg. Then, Marcel Aubut poured my heart out of my chest when he announced the team had been sold to Colorado investors and that the team was leaving Québec City. The feeling was awful. Just as the team was about to be really good, it was being taken away from us. When the 95–96 season began, the 14-year-old hockey fan in me was left with a sense of emptiness. There was no way I was going to cheer for the Canadiens, so I started to consider my options.

Then came 2nd of December, the day that will go down in infamy for any Montréal Canadiens fan. That day, the Detroit Red Wings destroyed the Montréal Canadiens 11 to 1 and Patrick Roy was traded to Colorado just a few days later. My reflection was over. I was officially a Colorado Avalanche fan. After all, I couldn’t have suffered all those rebuilding years in Québec to jump ship when they were about to achieve great things, right? The only downside was that I couldn’t watch the games. The only one I would get were the ones that were broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada once in a while and the playoff games. I will always remember my parents barging into my room in the early hours of the morning and waking me up to tell me that the Avalanche had won the Stanley Cup in June 1996. I was only in bed because the next morning I had final exams in school. But I still turned on the TV in my room and watched my hero, Joe Sakic raise the cup for the first time in his career.

Since the late 2000s I am fortunate enough to meet the players every year when they come to the Bell Centre. Every time, I barely manage to sneak to the ice level, and I take a picture with all the players. I got to meet Joe Sakic for the first time during his final season has a player and now, when he travels with the team, he recognizes me and calls me by my name. How lucky is that? Most players recognize me from a year to the other and it is fun to interact with guys like Landeskog and Erik Johnson. Tyson Barrie, Matt Duchene and Paul Stastny were very nice with me in the past as well. My story continues to write itself and hopefully, there will be many more chapters… And Stanley Cups!

TAKE FIVE (QUESTIONS)

1. Who is your all-time favorite player to have been photographed with?

A: Joe Sakic, for sure. Such a great human being. A contemporary version of Jean Beliveau. I also got the opportunity to meet and take pictures with Montreal legends like Maurice and Henri Richard, Bernie Geoffrion, Guy Lafleur and the three Stastny brothers.

2. What’s your all-time favorite movie?

A: My favorite movie is the original Star Wars trilogy. I am a huge fan and a collector of everything Star Wars.

3. What was the Quebec-Montreal rivalry really like?

A: If you think the Colorado—Detroit rivalry was good (and it was), it was nothing compared to the Nordiques—Canadiens rivalry. Families were thorn apart and the excitement was epic. My three uncles were Canadiens fans and my parents and I were Nordiques fans. The games were intense both on the bench and in the stands. The peak was reached during the “Good Friday Massacre”. See link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3ZkUmTCIE0

4. Do you think Quebec will get another team?

A: Unfortunately, I don’t see Quebec getting another team short term. With Seattle coming next year, the league will be balanced with 16 teams in each conference. Only a relocation (Carolina?) could possibly bring a team back to Quebec. I don’t see that happening before 3 or 4 years.

5. Who makes the best smoked meat sandwich in Montreal?

A: Schwart’s Deli without a doubt! It was bought by René Angelil and Celine Dion a few years ago and were already an institution before that.

See link: https://schwartzsdeli.com