Michael Therrien relived old memories on Tuesday’s “JiC” show on TVA Sports.
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The former Montreal Canadiens coach explained that he had the idea to bring Jeanette Reno to sing the national anthem before the playoffs in 2014.
“Ginet’s story was an idea for me and Sylvain Guimond. I explain my plan to Marc Bergevin. He finds it unusual and we present it to Jeff Molson. He thinks it’s good. We go to meet Jacques Aube from the Evenco team who is supposed to take care of it. I have the whole plan in mind.
However, Therrien admits that the singer initially refused and he had to pull out all the stops to convince her.
“At first, she replied that she wasn’t interested in Jacques Aube because of her health. I, I absolutely wanted Ginette. So we had a conference with Ginette and Sylvain Guimond. I explained to her that she was the most popular singer in Quebec and that she would lift up the Bell Centre.
The man who led the Pittsburgh Penguins has fond memories of this playoff trip and is grateful to Ginette Reno for taking on the adventure.
“I went to see her when she was doing her sound check. I am always going to say hi and thank her. She gave us magical moments. I’m talking about it, and I’m still cold.”
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