Michel Therrien brought back old memories during his segment with Jean-Charles Lajoie on Tuesday.
The former Canadiens coach said he was the one who came up with the idea of getting Ginette Reno to sing the national anthem ahead of the playoff games in 2014.
“Ginette’s story is an idea of mine and Sylvain Guimond. I explain my plan to Marc Bergevin. He thinks it’s extraordinary and we present it to Geoff Molson. He liked it. We met Jacques Aubé from the evenko group who was supposed to take care of it. I had a whole plan in mind.”
However, Therrien explains that the singer initially refused and he had to pull out all the stops to convince her.
“First she replied to Jacques Aubé that he was not interested for health reasons. I really wanted Ginette. So we did a conference with Ginette and Sylvain Guimond. I explained to her that she was the singer that people in Quebec loved the most and that she would build the Bell Center.
The man who also captained the Pittsburgh Penguins has fond memories of that playoff trip and is grateful to Ginette Reno for embarking on this adventure.
“I used to visit her when she was doing sound checks. I would always say hello to her and thank her. She gave us magical moments. I talk about it and I still get chills.”
Check out the segment in question in the video above.
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