Carolina Hurricanes Coach Rod Brind'Amour Returns to Montreal Roots
carolina hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour returned to Montreal with the Eastern Conference Final bringing him back to the city where his NHL life began. He was the No. 9 pick in the 1988 NHL Draft at the Montreal Forum, and now the Hurricanes are facing the Canadiens at Bell Centre.
Montreal Forum memories
Brind'Amour said the Forum still sits at the center of those memories. “I remember walking into the Forum as a kid and feeling it,” he said. “It was unbelievable.”
He was back in Montreal once before as a 15-year-old for a tournament he watched, and he still remembers the atmosphere from childhood visits. “I remember as a kid watching the three stars on 'Hockey Night in Canada,'” he said. “My idol growing up was Guy Lafleur.”
Bell Centre and the old Forum
The Bell Centre has 24 Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup championship banners hanging in its rafters, along with banners for 15 retired numbers worn by 18 Hall of Fame players. Brind'Amour drew the contrast plainly: “This (Bell Centre) building is nice, but it's not the Forum and you can't really explain that to your players.”
The old Montreal Forum closed to hockey in March 1996 and is now home to a junior college campus, a movie theatre, an amusement arcade and some retail stores. That leaves Brind'Amour returning to a modern building with his earliest NHL memory tied to another arena entirely.
Brind'Amour and the draft start
He said his NHL life began in Montreal, and the timeline is hard to miss. The St. Louis Blues selected him with the No. 9 pick in the 1988 NHL Draft at the Montreal Forum, the same city he is now visiting as coach of Carolina.
The return also comes after Brind'Amour had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee five days before the practice he discussed in Montreal. He joked about the toll of a long career, saying, “Too many,” then added, “Three on the left knee, one on the right, hand, wrist, nose … seven or eight. I've got some screws in here.”
For Carolina, the trip turns a playoff series into a reunion with the place where Brind'Amour's path started. For Brind'Amour, Montreal is not just another road stop; it is where the draft night that opened his NHL career still hangs over every return.
