Remembering Normand Léveillé’s Final Skate At Boston Garden | Bruins Centennial Stories

Remembering Normand Léveillé’s Final Skate At Boston Garden | Bruins Centennial Stories

[Music] it’s an awful price but it it brought the team together as soon as they had the answer Stevie calls me after the game and he says you know we we really don’t think we’re not hearing good things that Norman you know is going to make it through the night and they were operating on them very quickly very shortly and uh he was in there for hours no one knew well very few people knew until Raymond helped Norman levier out on the ice for one last chance to skate he came on the Ice on skates with a hockey stick between him and Ray bour and he was able to skate on the ice and uh it was just breathtaking his rookie year was tremendous his speed his shot his passion you know how he could be physical told how he was strong and how he love playing the game and he he was going to be a superstar in the league you know just he had explosive speed he had he had toughness mental and physical toughness and he had skill but he had that one physical uh you know the issue what a shame it was in Vancouver during the game he hit his head on top of the boards and um he got he got taken away during the game and and and and I N just really knew what was happening at that point and he he took a hit uh by somebody but it didn’t look like any anything exceptional and then as he turned and he was coming back down the ice you could see him start to stagger and you could see one side of his face started to droop I just remember getting a call from Steve Casper that you know I played Junior Hockey and really close and good friends with Stevie so Stevie calls me after the game and he says you know we we really don’t think we’re not hearing good things that Norman you know is going to make it through the night it was only after the game I think Ray came up and said you know Norman’s really in trouble and um he’s uh they think he said um I don’t know if at that point we knew that he had some sort of aneurysm or something um but it was very very serious life-threatening serious and they were operating on him very quickly very shortly and uh he was in there for hours and it was a brain bleed and they had to they had to get in there and siphon off as much blood as they could before it uh did too much damage and uh then he finally came out of his coma and and then recovered and then he got strong enough to come see game later on I think it was that year later on and he’s he’s in the corner uh first row at The Forum you know ice level and we end up we end up winning the game and uh we all you know I get emotional just thinking about that um we all go see him in the corner and you know knocking our sticks and just you know this one was for him know it’s uh it it was devastating it is still is devastating it’ll always be a very sad sad part of Bruin’s history but Norman uh fortunately survived and and uh and did the very best with an incredibly tough circumstance one of the greatest moments of my Bruins life was the last skate at the Boston Garden and no one knew well very few people knew then you see some activity over near the bench area you’re not sure what it is at first I mean I’m there as a spectator and this wasn’t being announced I didn’t have headphones on I wasn’t listening to the game on the radio then you know it’s Norman wow I’m choked up now he was the last one introduce 1983 promising hockey career was cut short when he suffered an injury in October 1982 please welcome number 19 Norman levier and um he wanted to Skate One More Time On The Garden so we got the skates on him and we’re able to pull them around and I don’t think there’s a dry eye in the place so he came on the Ice on skates with a hockey stick between him and Ray bour and he was able to skate on the ice and uh it was just breathtaking Raymond had the stick and Norman was holding on to the stick and Raymond was guiding him out to the carpet where the other Bruins Legends were waiting not going to be ashamed to say it I stood in that Boston Garden and cried like a baby uh it was a very emotional moment because if if you remember the look on his face you know he what he’d been through lifechanging going from one of the elite professional players in the NHL to fighting for his life he had this smile on his face he was just so happy to be there Ray has just an inate ability to do the right thing at the right time just always in his life that’s one of his true gifts and that was certainly one of those instances uh and to see him holding Normie and skating around the Ice uh uh was uh was was that was the highlight of the closing of the garden probably so many thing so many things packed into that one visual of of levier skating uh you know assisted by by bour uh and it’s something again as you said one of the most most memorable things that have happened in the in the history of the Bruins 100 years you go to YouTube and you play that again and if you’re a real Bruins fan yeah you won’t admit this to everybody but you’ll you’ll get a you’ll have a Kleenex out you you’ll start crying CU it was that perfect just such a shame uh that he wasn’t able to to live his uh his dream more than you know that one year but that one year showed us a lot what he what he was all about and what he was going to be all about and and then his battle to come back and to be you know what he has been over all these years with what he’s had to live with uh says a lot about Norman Lev

There wasn’t a dry eye in the Boston Garden when Ray Bourque brought out Normand Léveillé for one final skate in 1995. Watch the latest episode of Bruins Centennial Stories to learn about one of the most iconic and emotional moments in Bruins history.