A voracious reader of historical biographies, a dedicated viewer of classic movies, a devotee of opera and great tenors … this gentleman would be just as happy to discuss with you world events and film stars and a soaring, emotional vibrato as he would be to talk about hockey, the game that largely if very incompletely defined his life.

The passing Tuesday night of Jean Béliveau was a crowbar in the chest of Montreal, an indelicate surgical extraction of the heart of this town.

Today, Montreal is a city at half-staff. We are all wearing a black arm band.

Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette on Jean Beliveau. Read more on Beliveau, written from the heart..