from Roy MacGregor of the Globe and Mail,

The little hardware store in Sainte-Justine, Que., had sticks on sale for 69 cents (today, a Bauer Nexus 1000 composite retails for $299) and his parents told him he had to earn the money if he was going to buy one.

“The priest paid me 10 cents a mass to serve,” the former national librarian of Canada says with a chuckle. Seven masses later, he had his new stick.

But it was something else he received that winter that would forever change (Roch) Carrier, forever link him with the national game, and it was something he absolutely despised: a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater – when he had asked for, prayed for, a Montreal Canadiens sweater like all the other children on the outdoor rink at Sainte-Justine were wearing.

A mix-up in the Eaton’s shipping department led to the best-known, most-honoured short story this country has known.

And it all came about by accident, out of sheer desperation.

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