Moore recalled the Canadiens watching a football game in their Boston hotel the afternoon of a night game against the Bruins.
“Marcel saw how when a football player would knock a guy down, he’d often help him up, even though he was on the other team,” Moore said. “Sure enough, that night Marcel hammers a Bruins guy down, then leans over and helps the guy up. Toe (coach Blake) pulled his hat over his head and really let Marcel have it when we got back in the room.
“Marcel said: ‘Hey, coach, in football they do that, so I do that, too.’”
A back injury suffered in Edmonton in 1954 would finally lead to Bonin’s retirement, surgery keeping him bedridden for two months and forced to wear a brace.
He left the game to serve as a police officer and pistol-shooting instructor in Joliette, then worked for a decade and a half in student security with the city’s school board.
Until a few years ago, Bonin was an occasional visitor to Montreal’s Bell Centre for Canadiens games, always welcome in the team’s alumni lounge where his stories were usually the best of the night.
“I’ve stayed in touch with Marcel over the years. It’s always been good to speak with him,” alumni director Houle said on Sunday. “Marcel was more than a champion, he was a member of our Canadiens family.”
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