from Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette,
On this day, as it will be on Monday, too, the Bell Centre is a silent, dignified place of worship, the banners of its greatest players and its 24 championship teams suspended in dim light from the rafters overhead as a kind of CH-crested stained glass.
Jean Béliveau, a legend of La Sainte-Flannelle, never took a National Hockey League shift in the Bell Centre. His 1,287 regular-season and playoff games between 1950-71 were skated a few blocks to the northwest at the Montreal Forum, and in the buildings of 13 opponents.
But now this great centreman, the figure who epitomized uncommon excellence and a gentlemanly grace and dignity on and off the ice through his more than six decades in Montreal, lies here in state.
His flower-draped casket is in the south end, between the blue line and the faceoff circles of the zone the Canadiens defend for two periods each game.
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