from Ron MacLean of Hometown Hockey,

Tonight we opened with a nod to Jean Beliveau.

If I were to pick a place in Canada that personifies Jean, it would be Moncton. A large measure of this belief would stem from trying to understand Jean’s Acadian roots.

I owe Bouctouche, N.B. writer and playwright Antonine Maillet, Montreal author Noah Richler and Canadian philosopher and writer John Ralston Saul for my understanding of the Acadian people.

Beliveau’s ancestors moved to the Annapolis Valley, N.S., in the 1600s. In 1755 all Acadians were deported to the 13 colonies of the future United States of America, with Col. Robert Monckton carrying out the orders. Moncton, often known as the capitol of Acadia, bears the name of the man who exiled them. That says a lot. Beliveau’s people went to Boston. Then like most Acadians, they came home. The Acadians returned to either the region surrounding Moncton, southwestern Nova Scotia, or in the case of the Beliveaus, Quebec and Saskatchewan.

They returned without bitterness.

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