{"id":55912,"date":"2026-05-30T04:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T04:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/55912\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T04:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T04:07:14","slug":"claude-lemieux-honored-ahead-of-eastern-conference-final-game-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/55912\/","title":{"rendered":"Claude Lemieux honored ahead of Eastern Conference Final Game 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hurricanes and Canadiens took a moment to pay respects to the late Claude Lemieux<\/a> ahead of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final.<\/p>\n

Shortly before the Hurricanes clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup Final<\/a> with a 6-1 win over Montreal on Friday, the big screen at the Lenovo Center displayed a picture of Lemieux as players from both teams stood at center ice. Lemieux spent the first seven seasons of his career with the Canadiens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hockey world lost a great champion yesterday with the passing of Claude Lemieux,\u201d Hurricanes public address announcer Wade Minter told the crowd. \u201cKnown across the League as a fierce competitor, the winner of four Stanley Cups and known to our organization as a father and advisor.<\/p>\n

\"AA tribute to Claude Lemieux is displayed on the scoreboard prior to Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Montr\u00e9al Canadiens at Lenovo Center on May 29, 2026 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cClaude left a lasting legacy on our great game. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and every player his life impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fans in the stands then applauded as the screen panned to an image of Lemieux at a Canadiens\u2019 playoff game just days before he tragically died at 60 years old by suicide at his family business in Florida on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Authorities previously told The Post on Friday<\/a> that Lemieux hanged himself in the back of the warehouse of the home-design business in Lake Park, Fla.<\/p>\n

Lemieux, a Quebec native, was drafted by Montreal in 1983 and won his first cup with the team in 1986.<\/p>\n

\"ClaudeClaude Lemieux carries the torch in the opening ceremony of Game Three of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Montreal Canadiens and the Carolina Hurricanes at the Bell Centre. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is a dark day for the Canadiens family and the entire hockey community. I wish to express my most sincere and deepest condolences to Claude\u2019s family and loved ones,\u201d Canadiens owner Geoff Molson said in a statement. \u201cA fierce competitor who rose to the occasion in big moments, Claude was a relentless, courageous, and tenacious player who led the team to the highest honors. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe embodied the very essence of being a Montreal Canadiens player. Today we mourn the untimely passing of one of our champions. Our thoughts are with his family on this difficult day.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis, you can call or text 988 or chat at\u00a0988lifeline.org<\/a>\u00a0for free and confidential crisis counseling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hurricanes and Canadiens took a moment to pay respects to the late Claude Lemieux ahead of Game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[53,3154,32556,182,31798,13583,31821,5020,32644,897,9205],"class_list":["post-55912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anthropic","tag-anthropic","tag-anthropic-claude","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-claude","tag-claude-lemieux","tag-deaths","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-playoffs","tag-sports","tag-suicide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}