Vinny Trade Talk Ramps Back Up

For three days, being on the ice was Vinny Lecavalier's only escape from his cell phone. Once the rumors of a pending trade to Montreal hit cyberspace, there was no dousing the flames.

During the past week, the talk dwindled to a murmur, relegated to low-traffic Web sites or the occasional talk-radio caller still dreaming of Lecavalier wearing the Canadiens' cherished bleu, blanc and rouge.

But this weekend, Lecavalier jumps back into the cauldron as he prepares to represent the Lightning in the NHL All-Star Game at Montreal's Bell Centre on Sunday. With a throng of media descending upon Lecavalier's hometown for the weekend and local reporters donning pens, pads, cameras and microphones, the return of a homegrown hero - potentially for more than just an All-Star weekend - will be a juicy topic.

"It's going to be pretty crazy," said Lecavalier, 28, who was born in Ile Bizard, in a borough of Montreal. "But the good thing is, the league does a good job with the media availability to allow for time to talk about that, but the rest of the time, it's not going to be about that. Once I say the answer and somebody asks the question, we can't keep doing the same thing. So, I'm going to address it there. Whatever questions they want to ask me is fine. I'll answer, and after that it's over."

Discussions of Lecavalier's return to play for the Canadiens, donning the jersey every Montreal child dreams of wearing, have followed Lecavalier since before he was selected by Tampa Bay with the first overall pick in the 1998 draft. They likely will continue until he retires.

In Montreal, hockey is not a passion or just a topic of casual conversation at the local Tim Hortons donut shop. The sport is woven into people's daily lives. It is a birthright. It is a religion.

"It's amazing," Mark Recchi said of the fan base when he played in Montreal from 1995-99. "It's a great place to play hockey. When I first got traded there, I was like, 'What did I get myself into here?' But five years later, I couldn't have been more thankful that I got the chance to play there."

The allure of finding the next great French-Canadian to play in Montreal, the next Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Jean Beliveau or Guy Lafleur, is a fascination beyond the normal hometown-hero persona. The impact on the Montreal franchise would extend beyond the comprehension of most sports fans.

Seeking to land that next big Francophone has been a goal of Montreal general manager Bob Gainey since he took over in 2003, something he tried when pursuing free agent Daniel Briere two summers ago, according to Renaud Lavoie, a reporter for RDS television, a French station similar to ESPN.

"Hockey in Montreal has always been king, but now there is nothing else. There are no more Expos, so the main thing in sports is hockey," Lavoie said. "And if you want to be in the business of sports, if you want to talk about sports, if you listen to the radio or TV or whatever, it's only going to be the Canadiens, so that's the impact.

"But I think that Vincent Lecavalier for the organization will be exactly the same that was Guy Lafleur, Patrick Roy, Jean Beliveau, all those big French-Canadian players that played for Montreal. It will be the same impact. And I think the impact today would be even bigger, not because Vinny is bigger than those guys, but because everything changed in the last 10 years with hockey in Montreal."

Having been a childhood fan of the Canadiens, Lecavalier understands the passion of the fan base for the sport and the thirst for a native Quebecer to play in Montreal. He remembers hearing his grandmother tell stories of Beliveau and watching Roy lead the Habs to Stanley Cup titles.

"Since I was a kid, the French-Canadian hockey players that play for the Montreal Canadiens are going to be out there more, they are going to talk about them more, they deal with more media," Lecavalier said. "People want a French-Canadian. They talk about it every summer when free agency comes. It's part of the tradition. People are fascinated by it."

Some Montreal fans, hoping the latest Lecavalier rumors become reality, have even started showing up at games wearing Canadiens jerseys with Lecavalier's name on the back. But for now, those fans will have to be content with perhaps the NHL's biggest French star wearing the home jersey of the Eastern Conference this weekend at the Bell Centre.