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History of Écureuil Gallagher (Squirrel Gallagher)
I
bought my stuffed animal squirrel at Winners for my niece's dog but it was too
cute. One year in the playoffs Bell had
given out to many fans a stuffed animal Beaver wearing a Montreal Canadiens
jersey so I took the Canadiens jersey off my beaver & it fit the squirrel
perfectly. I named him Gallagher (like
the Canadiens player who like squirrels is a high energy all over the ice
player). Gallagher, his brother Patch
& the Bison tuque come with me to all the festivals & Canadiens games
& everyone loves them all. They
profit from their lives more than most people who work 9 to 5 & go home
tired every night. :) Montreal Canadiens player meets
Squirrel Gallagher here – Episode 9 Season 2 – 24 CH . Écureuil Gallagher’s great dancing skills
can be seen in this video
at the Festivoix Festival in Trois Rivieres (the best part is between the 5
minute & 6 minute mark).
Écureuil Gallagher also has the honour to be 2 music videos so far. Space Carnival by Spacemak3r
(1:26) & Boom
by Simple Plan (2:31, 2:54 & from 3:06 @ 3:09) . :) Écureuil Gallagher & his brother Patch
were also in an episode of the french satirical news
program Infoman right after the recent federal
election. Their other brother Radu
doesn’t come out too much. There are
now over 2500 photos in Gallagher’s Facebook. Updated
Aug 2021
You can LIKE Écureuil Gallagher in Facebook & go see lots of photos of
his life adventures. :)
The Bison
Tuque
The history of the Bison tuque
Success stories after tuquages
Videoclips including INFOMAN & other news
***Bison
tuque photos*** UPDATED Aug 24, 2021 All photos are up to date in
Recent Photos. Unfortunately Covid19
restrictions have limited possibilities for new photos. L
Picasa is now Google photos. The
links give the photos of albums in various sections. Click on the name of the
album for photos from that album. When
you are in the album each photo you click on opens up larger & you can
click on I for info which names the person & gives the information for that
particular photo including often the link for that persons website.
Recent photos The most famous Hockey Football Athletes other sports Music Media Politicians Artists Actors Mascots Superheros Fans Voyages Festivals Animals, misc Cowboys Fringants Forum people Maui, Hawaii
There are over
6000 photos including over 3000 new photos since 2012
Each time a person sees the Bison tuque for the first time the Tuque is
touched by the joy & pleasure which emanates
from the person’s spirit & the look in their eyes is priceless.
The honour of wearing the Bison tuque has
been offered to many different people & each person who has worn it has
seen their life improved since this fantastic moment.
Many of the success stories after people have worn the Tuque &/or
had their picture taken with the tuque or rubbed the tuque (if they had
previously had their photo with it) are described below.
You can LIKE the Tuque de Bison* on
Facebook & the Bison tuque is now
on twitter.
If you, your musical group or players on your sports team would like
wear the Bison tuque email me your request to funfestivals@yahoo.ca.
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I bought the Bison tuque in December 1998 or January 1999 at Montréal’s
Cohoes store on Ste-Catherine at a very low price. Each winter as I
wore the tuque on my head to keep me warm I never imagined that it would become
famous.
People everywhere fell in love with the tuque. Normally the
Tuque hibernated during summers and sat on my head everytime I went outside
during the winter. But after many Roadtrips (Sept-Iles & Abitibi) to
see Cowboys Fringants’ shows (the # 1 Quebec musical group) the tuque acquired
a passion to travel and since my Roadtrip to France in spring 2007 (again to
see the Cowboys Fringants & to visit relatives) she has travelled with her
Papa from one festival to another all summer long (over 30 festivals every
summer), sat on thousands of famous people’s heads & shared her magical
powers.
Now there are more than 6000 photos of the
Bison tuque on the head’s of NHL players, football players, other athletes,
world champions, musicians, singers, superheroes, politicians, mascots, Cowboys
Fringant Forumers, etc.
The link above is for an online photo site (with thumbnails for easy viewing)
so you can see almost all the bison tuque pictures. Most photos are not on
Facebook.
Many photos such as the Musician section have website links
included. The Tuque is washed pretty
frequently since so many people, animals, etc put it on their heads. I must stipulate that all the photos are
real. There are no montages. I was physically present for the
taking of each photo (except the photos taken during the Roadtrip to Sept-Iles,
Quebec in March 2006 to see Cowboys Fringants shows when the tuque was lent to
friends who are members of the Cowboys’ official Forum & from Sept 30 – Oct
7 2015 when the tuque was lent for one week for to ExpoPierre (an exposition
for the Comicbook launch of Pierre et la Pierre Volume II). The tuque was featured in Pierre et la Pierre Volume I.
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BISON TUQUE VIDEOS (incluant les reportages
dans les émissions Infoman & 24CH)
We can see Montreal Canadiens player Brandon
Prust putting on the bison tuque in the January 30th edition of the TV show District V.
The tuquage is @ 3:04.
The Bison tuque is honoured to have been
featured in the behind the scenes TV series of the Montreal Canadiens 24CH, Episode 9 (9:46-10:29) originally aired end Nov/early Dec 2013.
The Bison tuque is honoured to have been
featured on the Infoman TV show on Radio Canada
(minute 17 – 21 – Thank you Josée for the new video on
Youtube. Radio Canada removed its
original link for the TV show online ) Episode Infoman - September 29, 2011.
The Bison tuque is in Annakin
Slayd’s videoclip - Rock the Sweater (38 secondes) which
came out for the playoffs in May 2014 & in the Cowboys Fringants
music video - Tant qu’on aura de l’amour (end of the clip) which was released in December 2008.
Also Les Cowboys Fringants wrote & performed a song in honour
of the bison tuque. The Toune de la Tuque de Bison was
performed on Friday November 28th, 2008 during their show in Laval
and during the second half of the song I was invited on stage to breakdance
(the worm). Its all in the video.
The Tuque also had the honour of being on stage with the Cowboys
Fringants in front a crowd of tens of thousands at Woodstock en Beauce 2011
when I celebrated my 100th Cowboys Fringants show.
The video of the crowd from the Woodstock en Beauce stage is here & the video of me doing my breakdance with the Tuque on stage is here. Report - Sur le vif – Musiqueplus Fev 26, 2009
Karl Tremblay (lead singer) also sang a song with the Bison tuque on his
head during a Cowboys Fringants show in Dec. 2008 at L’Assomption.
The plans are that in about 5 years (if she is not lost or stolen in the
meantime) the Bison tuque will be sold on auction with all the profits going to
charities (such as cancer, childrens charities, Cystic Fibrosis, etc – I
haven't decided yet all of the charities will share the proceeds).
Other news -
In September 2012 a comic
book was released at Montreal’s Comicon 2012 with the Bison tuque in
it.
There is a nice article about the Bison tuque on
Urbania's website (published Feb 2, 2010).
The Cowboys Fringants Forum (closed since November 2011) is where I
first started placing the photos with the bison tuque starting in March 2006.
The group Les Cowboys Fringants, members of the Forum & a few of my friends
were the only ones to wear the tuque before its trip to France in May
2007. That was followed by Woodstock
en Beauce 2007 when famous musicians, athletes & others all began getting
their pictures with the tuque. Photos
with the tuque & comments were in the Forum for many years but are not
longer accessible with the Forum’s closure.
In September 2008 the Bison tuque got its own photo website (the link
near the top of the page) and that's where almost all of the pictures may now
be seen. There are about a dozen
people (including Celine Dion & a writer for the Degrassi television
series) who were honoured to wear the tuque but did not want their photo on the
website so obviously those pictures are not on the website.
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**** Success stories after a tuquage
****
There are hundreds of success stories of people who have worn the bison
tuque or appeared in a photo with the bison tuque. Obviously athletes &
musicians success is a result of their hard work, dedication & incredible talent
& skill. Many have had an immediate additional boost of exceptional play or
success following the wearing of the tuque or posing for a picture with the
tuque.
Is it a coincidence???
Recent success stories include Larry Walker, junior hockey stars Shane Wright, Cole Perfetti, Ryan Suzuki, tennis player Denis Shapovalov, Canadiens’ Joel Armia, Alouettes’ quarterback Vernon Adams Jr, a few Quebec Remparts, & a handful of tennis players with upset wins over higher ranked players. Other stories less recent below include Max Domi, Carey Price & Phillip Danault, Team Canada’s gold medal winning team at the World Junior Hockey Championships, Max Pacioretty & Dale Weise a bunch of times, Devante Smith-Pelly, Tomas Fleischmann, Mike Condon, Connor McDavid, Brandon Prust, Ryan White, Todd Bertuzzi, Georges Laraque, a little boy named Eric, a girl I know, a few women’s curling teams at the Scotties tournament of Hearts.
Feb 22, 2020 After wearing the Bison tuque after his 1st game at the Quebec PeeWee tournament John Mooney of the Pittsburgh Penguins PeeWee team went on to score 8 goals in his next 4 games as the Penguins played great but finally lost a close semifinal in the AAA division. His teammate Mark Evans had 2 assists in his next game after wearing the tuque & Carson Andrew of St Louis’ team had a goal & an assist in his next game after wearing the tuque.
Jan 26, 2020 After wearing the Bison tuque after their Friday night game January 24, 2020 Saginaw Spirit’s Cole Perfetti scored in his next game with an assist going to linemate Ryan Suzuki then in the next game Suzuki had 2 goals & Perfetti 2 assists & in the next game each scored a goal again.
Jan 26, 2020 After wearing the
Bison tuque after his Friday night game Jan 24, 2020 Kingston Frontenacs` Shane Wright
scored just 3 minutes 18 seconds into the 1st period of his next
game & added another goal & assist in the 3rd period.
Jan 25, 2020 Canadian freestyle skiier Mikael Kingsbury was awesome before wearing the Bison tuque but his success has continued & he’s even more almost unbeatable since he wore the tuque in August 2017. He now has 60 World Cup victories.
Jan 20, 2020 After 9 years of not even coming close to
being elected into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame former Montreal Expo
outfielder Larry Walker wore the Bison tuque in March 2019 & as I told him
it would happen he finally got elected into the Hall of Fame in his 10th
& last attempt with 76.6 % of the votes.
He got 304 of a possible 397 votes, 6 above the 298 needed to get
in. After
receiving 54.6 percent of the votes last year Walker made a 22-percent jump
this year, the highest for a player in his last year of eligibility in 65
years. As recently as four years ago,
Walker received just 15.5 percent of the vote jumping to 21.9 % in 2017, 34.1 %
in 2018. Between 2011 & 2017 he got between 10.2 % &
21.9 % of the necessary votes.
Jan 17, 2020 As he stopped at the
red light by De la Montagne & Ste Antoine after the Calgary game Mon Jan 13th,
Philip Danault asked if he could rub my tuque I was wearing for good luck
thinking it was the lucky bison tuque that he would usually rub. I told him it wasn’t the right tuque but he
wanted to rub it anyway so I let him & Danault
scored in his next game & had 3 assists & was plus 3 in the game after
that. Perhaps my new Bison tuque
which I now wear but I don’t have players wear brings good luck too.
Jan 13, 2020 After 9 straight tournaments where he didn’t get
past the 2nd round Denis Shapovalov finally had his photo with the
Bison tuque at the 2019 Rogers Cup where entered ranked 32nd. He
then went on a roll winning between 2 & 5 matchs in 7 of 11 tournaments
including a tournament win in Stockholm moving into 15th
in the ATP rankings Nov 4th & making it all the way to the
final at the Davis Cup before finally losing to Rafael Nadal. Then Shapo rose to 13th in the rankings
after he made it to the quarterfinals of the ATP Cup before losing to Novak
Djokovic. Djokovic & Nadal are the
top 2 players in the world. In the ATP
Cup tournament Shapovalov defeated 3 top 20 players & 2 in the top 10 –
Stefanos Tsitsipas & Alexander Zverev.
Dec 19, 2019 Max Domi rubbed the tuque again after the Ottawa game Dec 11th. Heading into the game he had only 1 point in his past 6 games. He had 2 assists in that game & then he added a goal & 2 assists & was + 3 in his next 3 games including the gamewinner in overtime on Thurs Dec 19th in Calgary. He actually went on a hot streak with 6 goals in 6 straight games starting with that overtime winner including 12 points in his next 9 games.
Dec 17, 2019 Carey Price has had lots of success over the years
& some of his successes have followed tuque rubs. As indicated below
it all started with his first NHL shutout the game after he had his photo next
to the Bison Tuque at the Montreal Canadiens blood drive in February 2008. Since then there have been over a dozen
tuque rubs with incredible results. It seems as though at a certain point
after lots of success after tuque rubs the luck runs out. After a period
where I had Carey skip tuque rubs since it didn't seem to work anymore I
decided it was time to try to see if we could get the luck back & I offered
Carey the chance to wear the tuque for the first time. It seems like it
might have worked. After allowing
5 goals to finish the month of November with a 4th straight loss, a save
percentage of .883 & a 3,77 goals against average during the month
Carey wore the Bison tuque after practice at Brossard on Nov 29th
& in his next game he was awesome in Boston where the Bruins had not
suffered a regulation loss all season. Carey stopped
25 straight shots over more than 46 minutes before the NHL's leading goal
scorer David Pastrnak scored on a perfect shot to tie the game at 1.
A bad penalty led to another goal & a Bruins win. Price's play
continued to be exceptional as he gave up only 4 goals against on his next 87
shots (.954 save percentage) before I saw him again after the Ottawa game on
Dec 11th . When I asked him
if he wanted to give the tuque a rub he happily said - "Gimme that
thing" & gave it a good rub. 3
goals against on 59 shots (.949 save percentage) were the result in his
next 2 games including another 1st
star performance with a 38 save 3-1 win in Vancouver.
Dec 2, 2019 Joel Armia wore the
Bison tuque & the next night he scored
19 seconds into the game & added another goal after less than 2 minutes
into the next game 2 nights later.
Oct 25, 2019 A few nights after his photo with the tuque Nate Thompson of the Canadiens had a beautiful assist on an important goal in a Canadiens win over the Leafs.
Oct 18, 2019 A few days after wearing the Bison tuque Montreal Alouettes quarterback Vernon Adams Jr was the player of the game leading the Alouettes to a win over the Argos with 16 completions (including 10 straight) in 23 attempted passes for 249 yards & passing for 3 touchdowns with no interceptions. He also continued his brilliant play for the rest of the season.
Oct 13, 2019 In his next game after wearing the Bison tuque Quebec Remparts Felix Bibeau had 6 goals in his next 4 games including 2 straight 2 goal games. Bibeau scored twice & James Malatesta who also wore the tuque 2 days earlier also scored as the Remparts won 4-1 against Victoriaville in the first game after wearing the tuque. Bibeau scored 2 goals in his next game & 1 each in his next 2 games.
Oct 12, 2019 Starting with the next week Jeremiah Johnson of the Montreal Alouettes got hot with great rushing stats after wearing the tuque starting with 72 yards in 13 carries in his next game.
Sept 19, 2019 Brett Kulak rubbed the Bison tuque (after having his photo beside it in 2019) & he scored in his next game .
Aug 16, 2019 My boss wore the Bison tuque for her birthday (at work) on Wednesday & 2 days later (Friday) she won $132.50 in our work 50/50 draw.
April 6,
2019 I was in the reds for the warmup of the
Canadiens last game of the season against Toronto. Instead of just taking a photo
of my squirrels, Gallagher & Patch with the players in the background for
Gallagher’s Facebook I decided to get the tuque in the photo also. As they
often do when a rookie plays his first game the Canadiens had Poehling go onto
the ice first & instead of following, they let him do a lap or two before
joining him. I
managed to get a good
photo of Poehling alone on the ice with the Bison tuque & the luck of
the tuque helped him get a hat
trick in his first NHL game & the winning goal in the shootout. March 30, 2019 Although I often see Jeff Petry after games
& give him a thumbs up after a good game I rarely have him give my tuque a
rub for good luck. After his game
Tuesday March 26th against Detroit he rolled down his window for a
photo with a couple girls from Texas.
I took advantage of the opportunity to have have him give the tuque a
little rub for good luck. He
then scored
goals in back to back games for the first time since December 2018 &
only the 2nd time in over a year. March 27, 2019 After the Blue Jays exhibition game in
Montreal Monday March 25th someone approached me & asked politely if he
could please wear my tuque. He
said he had previously worn it when he was playing with Shawinigan in the
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League a half dozen years earlier. I
didn’t recognize him but he told me his name & mentioned to my friend he
had been drafted by the New Jersey Devils.
2 days later while watching the Montreal Canadiens’ farm club Laval Rocket
playing at home against the Binghamton Devils I recognized the name when he
scored a goal. There he was, Brendan
Gignac, draft pick of the New Jersey Devils playing great with a goal & an assist &
was + 2 in a 5-1 win in Laval. March 21, 2019 Jesperi Kotkaniemi finally wore the Bison
tuque after the Canadiens game Tuesday Feb
19th . I
told him he would score in his next game & he did just that on his 2nd shift of his next game, 3
minutes & 11 seconds into the game.
Dec 31
2018 Montreal Canadiens prospect
playing with Laval Rocket Jake Evans wore the tuque after a game against
Toronto. He had gone 5 games without a
point before wearing the tuque. In his
next game after having worn the tuque Jake Evans had 2 assists & he added a goal & an
assist in his 3rd game after wearing the tuque giving him 4 points in 3 games after his tuquage. Dec 16 2018 Matthew Peca, after having only 1 point in
his 6 previous games before wearing the Bison tuque (at the Montreal Canadiens
blood donor clinic in late November) Peca got
hot with 2 goals & 2 assists for 4 points in his next 3 games after
wearing the tuque. Dec 5 2018
Tie Domi rubbed the tuque after the Canadiens’ 5th game of the
season Mon Oct 15th. Before
giving the tuque a rub he had only 1 point in his past 3 games. After rubbing the tuque Domi scored his 1st
goal of season 38 seconds into his next game against St Louis & added
another goal Saturday at Ottawa & added 2 goals & 2 assists in his next
2 games for 6 points in 4 games & 20
points in his next 15 games (& 22 pt in 17 games) & was named Molson
Cup winner for the month of October after rubbing the tuque. After going pointless in 3 straight games,
Domi rubbed the tuque again at the Canadiens blood donor clinic & got hot
again with 2 goals & 2 assists for 4 points in his next 3 games. Domi had his photo with the tuque originally
in the summer of 2014 after an exhibition game preparing for the 2015 World
Junior hockey championships. Nov 2018
Congratulations to Kiki Bertens who has been redhot since rubbing the
bison tuque in Montreal 2 in early August.
She upset the world's number one ranked player Simona Halep to win
Cincinnati's Western & Southern Open in her next tournament. Heading in she
had only won 1 match in 3 previous years in Cincinnati. She first had her photo with the bison tuque
at Roland Garros in 2011 so when I saw her in Montreal after a doubles match I
had her rub the tuque for good luck since she already had her photo with it. She went on to
upset 2 of the world's top ten players before finally losing in the
quarterfinals in Montreal. Her great play continued in Cincinnait defeating 4
of the world's top 7 players (top ranked Halep, 2nd ranked Caroline Wozniacki,
6th ranked Petra Kvitova & 7th ranked Elina Svitolina) on her way to
winning the tournament. She also won the tournament in Korea a month later. Bertens
is now a career high 9th in the WTA rankings. Nov 2018 Daria Kasatkina - After rubbing the tuque after tennis practice she
scored 5 goals & 1 assist in an exhibition soccer game with other WTA
players against Montreal Impact players mid August & continued her winning
ways on the court. She is now a career
high 10th in the WTA rankings after winning the Kremlin Cup.
Fri Apr 13, 2018 Before the last home game of the Laval Rocket (Fan
appreciation night) hockey fan Jack Pelletier rubbed the bison tuque just
seconds before he spun the wheel to win a chance at a gameworn Laval Rocket
jersey. Not only did his spin give him
a ballot but he was one of the winners selected as his name was drawn for a
game worn jersey. Dec 2017 Laval Express Junior
B - Nathan Arseneault – Before wearing the bison tuque Nathan had an average of
about a goal every 3 games. In his
next 5 games after wearing the tuque Nathan Arseneault had 8 goals & 5 assists. Wed Nov 29, 2017 Canadiens’
player Phillip Danault scored
his 1st goal in over a month (14 games without a goal) in the very next game after once again
rubbing the Bison tuque for good luck after Monday night’s game (Nov 27), his 1st
rub of the new season. Wed Nov 29, 2017 Canadiens’
goalie Carey Price was red hot in his first games back after his injury
following a major tuque rub at the Canadiens’
blood donor clinic where he politely asked me “Where is it? Bring it out”
as soon as he saw me waiting to give blood & knowing that I always get him
to give the tuque a rub whenever I see him after games over the past few
years. He politely took the tuque &
rubbed it softly all over himself before handing it back to me. Once he was back from his injury he started
out with a 36
save shutout & he ended up stopping 100 of the next 102 shots he faced
(.980 save %) on his way to 5 straight wins after this most recent tuque
rub. Wed March 29, 2017 Canadiens’
player Andrew Shaw had his photo with the Bison tuque after the game Feb
28th. RDS showed last night during the
game some statistics of Shaw’s offense since March 3rd (last 10
games). Shaw leads the forwards in
even strength with the statistics Free pucks contested that are recuperated
(average of 1.5 per game), shots from the slot attempted (2.1), shots from the
slot cadrés (1.5) & he is 3rd in passes completed with an
average of 5.9 per game (in the past 10 games). Mon March 20, 2017 The
day after rubbing the Biston tuque (at a Les Trois Accords concert) Stephane
Guilbault got more points in 2 games (6 pt) than he had in his previous 9 games
(5 pt). He had a goal & 1 assist
in his 1st cosom hockey game Sunday, then added a career best 2 goals
& 2 assists in his 2nd game
later the same day. In 9 games
leading into Sunday Guilbault had a total of 1
goal & 4 assists. Wed March 8, 2017 Carey
Price after once again rubbing the Bison tuque after the Canadiens game Thursday
March 2nd stopped 49 of the next 50 shots he faced over his next 112
& a half minutes in a 4-1 win in
New York over the Rangers & in an eventual 2-1 overtime
win in Vancouver. Sun Feb 5, 2017 Felix rubbed the Bison
tuque after the Canadiens game Tuesday night Jan 31st & in his next game
Sat Feb 4th he scored 7 goals & he added 2 more in his 2nd
game. Wed Feb 1, 2017 Carey Price stopped 37
of the next 38 shots he faced after rubbing the Bison tuque after Tuesday
night’s game then at the NHL all-star skills competition he stopped all NHL
shooters & scored a goal & in his 1st game after the
all-star break he was once again
awesome stopping the 1st 32 shots he faced before Buffalo finally
scored. Mon Jan 30, 2017 Elizabeth Desrochers had 2 straight
shutouts in broomball after wearing the Bison tuque Saturday at the Montreal
Winter Classic hockey tournament.
Marie-Eve Laviolette had at least 5 goals in her next hockey game after
rubbing the tuque. Sun Jan 22, 2017 In his 1st game in St John’s
after wearing the Bison tuque (at Complexe Desjardins) Chris Terry had a goal
& an assist. Mike McCarron (who had previously worn the
tuque an hour after winning the Memorial Cup in 2015 in Quebec city) rubbed the
Tuque right after Terry wore it & he added 2 assists in his next game with
St John’s. McCarron scored the Icecaps` only goal in his next
game with Terry getting an assist. Terry just added another goal & assist
giving him 2 goals & 3 assists for 5 points in 3 games since wearing the
tuque. McCarron also scored giving him
2 goals & 2 assists for 4 points in 3 AHL games since his tuque rub. Sat Jan 21, 2017 Kirk Muller (who coaches Montreal’s
powerplay) rubbed the Tuque after Wednesday’s game. All
3 goals the Canadiens scored Friday night were on the powerplay on 5 Devils
penalties in a 3-1 win on the road .
Montreal also had 3 more powerplay goals on its next 6 attempts in the
next 3 games to climb to 2nd in the NHL after being in the bottom
half of the league before Kirk’s tuque rub in December. Jan 14, 2017 In his next game after wearing the Bison tuque Artturi
Lehkonen had his 1st career 2
goal game & added an assist. Philip Danault who waved to the Bison tuque (the
traffic light was green so he couldn’t stop) also had an awesome game with 2
goals including
the goal of the year. Jan 5, 2017 The day after wearing
the Bison tuque Malix, a young hockey player & fan won Selfie of the game
(with his dad) at the Bell Centre at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Hockey
Championships. Dec 30, 2017 Matthew Barzal &
Dante Fabbro had previously worn the Bison tuque at the Quebec Winter Carnival
parade in February 2010 & Barzal went on to dominate the scoring race
(details below) at the Quebec PeeWee tournament. Thanks to this previous meeting, I had the honour of getting in
to the VIP family lounge in Toronto after the Canada Slovakia game to try to
help Team Canada in their quest to win Gold at the 2017 IIHF World Junior
Hockey Championships. 14 players wore
the tuque & the success followed. Canada
won its next game 10-2 as Taylor
Raddysh had 4 goals & an assist for 5 points, Dylan Strome had 4 assists,
Kale Clague had 3 assists, Mathieu Joseph had 2 assists & was +3, Matt
Barzal who had worn the tuque in 2010 & whose father wore the tuque after
the Slovakia game had 2 goals & was +4,
Nicolas Roy scored a goal, Dante Fabbro who wore the tuque again &
his father wore the tuque had an assist & was +3, Noah Juulson (Canadiens 1st
round draft pick) had an assist & was +2, Jeremy Lauzon was +2, Julien
Gauthier had a goal & added 2 more goals 2 games later, Thomas Chabot had
an assist & added 2 goals & an assist in his 2 following games. Pierre-Luc Dubois had 2 assists & had a
goal & 2 assists (3 pt per game) in each of his 1st 2 games
since returning to Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action & 15 points (9
goals, 6 assists) in 8 games since returning to the Quebec league after the
tournament. He had only 18 points (6
goals, 12 assists) in 20 games before he wore the tuque at the tournament. Nov 20 2016 Montreal Canadiens Carey
Price rubbed the tuque again after Tuesday’s game & was incredible with 31
saves on 32 shots in a 2-1 win over Toronto. Nov 12 2016 Montreal Canadiens Phillip Danault
wore the tuque on Oct 24th & scored in his next game. Danault has rubbed the tuque twice since
that game & he has scored a goal after each game he has rubbed the tuque
including a 1st star of the game Thursday Nov 10th after
his tuque rub after Tuesday nights game.
Danault has 2 goals & an assist in 2 games since last Tuesday’s
rub. Carey Price’s tuque rubbing luck
continues as well. He rubbed the tuque
after the Tampa Bay game Oct 27th & he was named 1st
star in both of his next 2 games allowing 1 goal against on 80 shots against
Toronto (1 goal against 38 shots) & Vancouver (42 save shutout). Obviously he hasn’t slowed down since
either. Radulov, Mitchell have been
among other tuque rubbers this season who have followed up with great
production in their next games. Sept 29 2016 Canada was behind 1-0 to Europe in
the 2nd game of the final of the World Cup of hockey with less than
4 minutes to play in the 3rd period when I rubbed the tuque on the Canadian
players on my television screen. Canada not only tied the game
but also scored a shorthanded goal for 2 goals within less than 3 minutes of
the tuque rub to win the game & the World Cup 2-1. End July Tennis player Daria
Kasatkina (ranked 33rd in the world at 19 years old) wore the tuque Tuesday
evening July 26th after losing her doubles match. In her next 2 singles matchs she
upset 18th ranked Samantha Stosur (7-6, 6-3) & Roberta Vinci,
8th in the world (7-5, 6-3) in straight sets before losing to 2nd
ranked (& currently number 1) Angelique Kerber, who wore the tuque in 2014. End June 2016 Quebec city singer Bob Bissonnette wore the Bison
tuque at a Laval Rouge et Or football tailgate party in November 2010. His fan base grew year after year &
after setting record crowds year after year for afternoon shows at Woodstock en
Beauce Bissonnette finally made his goal of playing a show on the big stage in
June 2016. April 10, 2016
St Johns IceCaps defenseman Ryan Johnston was called up for the Montreal
Canadiens last game of the regular season & after playing over 17 minutes @
the Bell Centre he wore the bison tuque just outside the parking lot after the
game. In his next game less
than 24 hours later back in the AHL at St John’s he got 2 assists & had an
amazing plus-minus of + 6. Heading
into the game Johnston was minus 18 in 34
games with 10 points. Feb 21, 2016 At
the Quebec Pee-Wee hockey tournament Lac St Louis Sud forward Dovar Tinling
scored 6 goals & 8 points in his next 2 games after wearing the tuque. He added 3 goals as Lac St-Louis won the
final to mlead
the tournament with 12 goals & 16 points in 6 games. No other AAA, AA Elites nor A player had more
than 11 points during the tournament. The last 3 times that Max Pacioretty
rubbed the Bison tuque he did not score so it appears as though there is a
limit to the number of successes after tuque rubs or maybe its just a period in
which even rubbing the tuque can’t help.
Also we have discovered that although Dale Weise scores in the game
following a tuque rub when he is already hot with a goal in a game he doesn’t
score in his next game if he rubs the tuque right after the game he has scored
in. There is still nothing
scientific. Just results, usually
great results. Jan 30, 2016 Angelique Kerber won her
1st Grand Slam tournament, the Australian Open 2016 - 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 vs Serena
Williams. Kerber is now
2nd in the world (career best) in the WTA rankings, another great
career rise since wearing the lucky Bison tuque. Novak Djokovic, qui n'arrête presque pas
d'augmenter son avance dans les classements ATP depuis qu'il a porté la Tuque
en Aout 2013 a aussi gagné l'Australian Open dans son 17e final consecutif (le record est 18). Djokovic est numéro 1 dans les classements ATP
depuis Juillet 2014 & mène les classements par un incroyable 7845 points (16790 vs 8945 pour
Murray & 8975 pour Federer) . Nov 25, 2015 Even though I had seen & spoken to
Devante Smith-Pelly at least a half a dozen times after games since he joined
the Canadiens in 2014-15 season, it was only this past Sunday night after the
game against the New York Islanders that I offered & took his photo Bison
tuque on his head. Evidently tonight in
his next game Smith-Pelly exploded for his
first regular season 2 goal game since
he joined the NHL in 2011. He had 1
goal in 21 games heading into the night.
Even more impressive, his 2 goals were against the New
York Rangers, the NHL’s number 1 team before the Canadiens took over the
number 1 stop by winning the game. The
Rangers & their goalie Henrik Lundqvist are tops in the NHL with the least
goals against & best save percentage. Nov 23, 2015 After his little rub of the Bison
tuque Monday night after the game Max Pacioretty again scored a goal & an
assist Thursday & scored again Sunday.
Dale Weise after having rubbed the tuque Wednesday at the Montreal
Canadiens Blood Donor Clinic also scored a goal Thursday & added an assist
on Friday night (+3 for the 2 games) & even though his goal Sunday was
disallowed because Desharnais (who didn’t touch the puck) was offside Weise
added another assist for 3 points in 3 games. Wednesday when Weise saw my tuque sitting at the top of my bag
he put his hand in & gave it a little rub while saying "I wanna get
hot again". It worked. Tomas
Fleischmann who wore the tuque Wednesday also played 3 great games with 2 goals
& a post in his next 3 games.
Unfortunately Mike Condon who saw me & said “I think I need to rub the tuque again” just
before giving it a rub Wednesday didn't have as much succes Thursday as he had
after his first 2 tuquages. Nov 7, 2015 Tomas Plekanec scored 2 goals in his
next game earning 2nd star of the game honours after rubbing the
tuque Thursday night (although his 2nd goal was disallowed even
though Gallagher was pushed into the Boston goalie). Mike Condon was great again stopping 29 of 31 shots
as 3rd star of the game in a 4-2 win over Boston & earning 3rd
star of the week in the NHL. Also Dale
Weise once again got hot with a goal a game (Tues & Thurs) in
his next 2 games after rubbing the Bison tuque to become the 3rd
leading scorer in the NHL. Oct 25, 2015 After Tuesday night’s win against St. Louis I waited
for the players by the garage as I sometimes do after games. When he came out of the garage I gave a
thumbs up to Max Pacioretty to let him know great game. He then signaled me with his finger to go
see him so I went around to the other side of his car & I knowing what he
wanted I said ‘Things are going so well you don’t need any good luck.’ He then said ‘Yes, I do’ so I let him give
the tuque another rub & success followed as usual. – a goal & an
assist in each of his next 2 games, 4 points total - Oct 23 & 24th. Mike Condon also rubbed the tuque &
stopped 49 of his next 51 shots. Oct 2, 2015 In his next game after rubbing the tuque in preseason Dale Weise got
the gamewinning goal & Mike Condon in his 1st game after wearing
the Tuque got the win with a shutout.
Weise scored again in each of his next game for 3 goals in 3 games. Vaclav Karabacek (Baie Comeau – QMJHL)
also scored in his
next game after wearing the tuque. Summer 2015 – Less than a month after wearing the bison tuque Kevin
Anderson has now won 9 straight matchs including 5 straight with his 1st
tournament championship in more than 3 years in North Carolina & 4 straight now at the US Open
including a
4 set upset victory over 3rd ranked Andy Murray. Murray had defeated Anderson 4 straight
times in the past 15 months before Anderson’s recent win after wearing the
tuque. Anderson later rose to a
career-high 10th in the ATP rankings. Right before his 2nd round match in Montreal Jack
Sock rubbed the tuque for good luck & Sock
went on to defeat Grigor Dimitrov & Ivo
Karlovic wore the tuque not long before winning over Canadian Milos Raonic,
both upsets coming against
higher ranked players. Right before
their ball hockey game at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament Lars Eller rubbed
the tuque & Antoine Roussel wore the tuque. Eller scored 3 goals & Roussel had 2 goals in the game. May 13, 2015 This time I didn’t need to run far to have Carey &
Max rub the tuque. With the light
green when Carey Price arrived at the corner of De la Montagne I ran to again
catch him at the next light but Carey saw me, slowed down & with no cars
behind him he stopped the car & opened his window to rub the tuque before
closing the window & driving off.
As he was leaving I told him "Great game, We got 'em in 7." He knows that the tuque rub in the past
guaranteed a great game. Same thing for
Max. I missed Max when he was signing
& posing for photos with fans between the garage & the red light. I realized it was Max just in time &
even though the light turned green & he started driving I yelled
"Max" & he saw me. He
stopped (even though the light was red) & he opened his window to rub the
tuque. Mission accomplished. As usual Pacioretty
scored a goal in game 6 but for the 1st time Carey’s stats were not as great
as usual after a tuque rub, although the goals allowed were not his fault. May 1, 2015 Carey Price, Max Pacioretty, Tom Gilbert & Dale
Weise all rubbed the tuque after last Friday’s loss & Carey
Price was incredible with a 43 save shutout & stopped 76 of his next 77
shots (including last night’s game).
Pacioretty had a goal in each of his next 2 games. Gilbert & Weise were also very solid as
the Canadiens won in Ottawa 2-0 to win the series 4 games to 2 & in the 1st
game of the Tampa series which Montreal outplayed Tampa in spite of the 2-1
double overtime loss on a goal that should have been ruled offside. Since his 1st
NHL shutout after his photo with the tuque Carey Price has now rubbed the tuque
8 times with exceptional results lasting many games. Here is the result in the very next game after Carey Price has
rubbed the tuque - April 26, 2015 -
Shutout, April 19 - 1 GA, March 14 - 1 GA, Jan 31, 2015 - Shutout, Dec 18, 2014
- 2 GA, Oct 25/14 - 1 GA, Feb 8/14 - 1 GA (before being incredible on the way
to Olympic gold), Jan 28/14 - Shutout, Photo beside tuque – Feb 16, 2008 - 1st
NHL Shutout. That’s 4 shutouts, 4 games
with only 1 goal against & 1 game with 2 goals against. The good luck usually continues for at least
a few games. Pacioretty also has
great success after rubbing the tuque.
April 26, 2015 – 1Goal, April 19 – 0, March 30 – 1G, March 12 – 2G, Feb
21 – 2G, Jan 31,2015 – 1G, Feb 25, 2013 – 1Assist (but player of week following
with 4 goals, 3 assists in 4 games) Jan
7, 2009 after wearing the tuque – 1Assist April 23, 2015 Carey Price rubbed the tuque again for good luck &
once again responded with 2 great games allowing only 1 goal per game in his
next 2 games stopping 64 of the next 66 shots. Max rubbed the tuque again too but his results for the first
time were not as good as usual. March 30, 2015
Max Pacioretty
again. As he came out of the Bell
Centre garage Saturday night Max saw me & drove his car right up to where I
was. He rolled down the window &
said “Gimme a rub” in reference to wanting to rub the tuque again. This time Max only scored once. Not bad still. March 15, 2015 Tuesday night March 10th, after the game
against Tampa Bay, Max Pacioretty (as drove out of the Bell Centre garage)
again stopped to rub the Bison tuque for good luck & once again in his next game (this time within less
than 9 minutes of play) Pacioretty scored 2 goals earning 3rd star
of the game honours. Pacioretty scored another goal at 2:13 of the 2nd
period in his next game to be named 2nd star of the game. After
giving up a rare 5 goals Thursday night, the 12th, Carey Price
rubbed the tuque again for good luck.
In his next game Saturday night the 14th he shut out the New
York Islanders for over 57 minutes before New York finally scored on a 6 on 4
(powerplay & empty net). Price
finished the game with 35 saves on 36 shots in a 3-1 win to
earn 1st star honours. Alex
Galchenyuk, who also rubbed the tuque after the game Thursday night also had a
great game with a beautiful pass as he got an assist on Montreal’s 1st
goal. Connor McDavid also continues
his awesome season after having his photo with the tuque in August 2014. McDavid has 42 goals & 112 points in only 44
games (2.55 points per game) with Erie in the Ontario Hockey League. March 1, 2015 Last Friday, Feb 20th @ Montreal’s High
Lights Festival Max Pacioretty & David Desharnais were present for an hour
for autographs & photos. I couldn’t
miss the opportunity to help the Habs win their next game (especially since it
was my annual group game with 43 people to be present) . I waited to see the players & after
having a photo with them & even before I had a chance to ask Max said “I
don’t think David’s rubbed the tuque for good luck recently.” Max & David then both proceeded to rub the
tuque for good luck & Max scored 2:29
into the 1st period & again less than 12 minutes later with
David getting an assist leading Montreal to a 3-1 win over Columbus &
Pacioretty was named with NHL 3rd star of the week honours. Since that tuque rub Pacioretty has 3
goals, 2 assists & is +5 in 4 games & Desharnais has 2 goals, 2 assists
& is +8 in 4 games. They had both
previously worn the tuque for a photo so a tuque rub is the norm when someone
has already had their photo with it.
The tuquerubbing moment was also captured for this past week’s Episode 21 of 24CH. Feb 18, 2015 After the team’s practice January 30th, Carey
Price rubbed the tuque again for good luck & followed it up as 1st
star of his next game with 36 saves (against Washington) for another shutout
& he also earned the NHL’s 1st star of the week honours. In his 7 games following his tuque rub
Carey gave up only 8 goals stopping 182 of 190 shots (Save % .958). Max Pacioretty rubbed the tuque again just
before the practice & he scored the
game’s only goal in overtime. Jan 17, 2015 During the warmup before tonight’s Canadiens –
New York Islanders game I took a closeup of PK Subban & the tuque together
from the reds just behind the net. PK scored
the game’s 1st goal 1 minute & 56 seconds into the 1st
period. Andrei Markov was also in
the photo. He had 3 assists in the game
& I also got Pleky in a shot with the tuque during the warmup. He had 2 goals & 2 assists. Jan 11, 2015 Stephanie Croteau after rubbing the bison rubbing the
bison tuque in December scored 3 goals & 2 assists in her next 3 games with
the Champlain Rapides (South Shore league) & the Aeros (ASHL league). After wearing the tuque about a year
earlier she felt extra energy & skated better than ever & played great
although she didn’t get any points immediately after. Jan 6, 2015 Actor Marc
Primeau became an official ACTRA member after only 4 months of apprenticeship
not long after wearing the Bison tuque after 4 years of trying to get into
ACTRA. He also got a part in the
series 19-2 & in the sci-fi show Helix not long after his tuquage. Jan 5, 2015 18 out of 22
players from Team Canada’s gold medal
winning World Junior hockey championship team had their photo taken with
the bison tuque. Connor McDavid &
others were redhot since having their photo with the tuque & easily put an
end to Canada’s 5 year goldless streak.
Canada completely dominated the tournament going
undefeated & outscoring its opponents 34-5 & doubling them in shots by
an average of 40-19 heading into the final. Jan 4, 2015 Carey Price rubbed the tuque again once again just outside
the Bell Centre parking lot after Montreal defeated Carolina on Dec 16th. He then won 5 of his next 6 games
(the last were 4 road wins) making 162 saves on 170 shots (.953 save %). Price was 1st star twice & 2nd
star once in those games. Brandon Prust
rubbed the tuque again for good luck too a few minutes before Carey & he
played awesome in his next few games adding one of his rare goals
a few nights later. Prust had
previously snapped a 12 game goal-less streak in the next game right after he
wore the tuque. Nov 8, 2014 In his 2nd game after having worn the Bison
tuque Olivier Ouellette (Repentigny Bruins – bantam B) got his first points of
the season (in his 8th game) with a goal & 2 assists in a 5-4 win Sat Nov
8th over Crabtree, the team in first place.
Oct 29, 2014 Tuesday night October 21st after the Detroit
game Carey Price opened his car window as he stopped at the red light (Saint
Antoine & De la Montagne) just outside the Bell Centre parking lot & he
gave the Bison tuque a little rub once again for good luck. Carey then stopped 74 of the next 76 shots
he faced & was named 1st star in his next 2 games (vs NYR & Calg). He made 34 saves on 35 shots in a 3-1 victory
over the New York Rangers on Saturday night, then Tuesday night he stopped
40 of 41 shots in a 2-1 win @ Calgary (including 3 of 3 in the shootout). Montreal had
been outshot 38-19 during the game.
It was the first time Montreal won @ Calgary in over 10 years. Below you can see other successes of Carey
after rubbing the tuque. J July 2014 In August 2012 at the Rogers Cup in Montreal Eugenie Bouchard had
the honour of wearing the bison tuque.
She has played awesome tennis ever since & exploded up the
rankings. At the time she wore the
tuque she was ranked 237th in the world. In 2013 she was named WTA newcomer of the year ending the season ranked
32nd & this week, less than 2 years later Eugenie moved
into 7th in the WTA rankings making history as the highest
ranked Canadian female ever in addition to being the first to make a Grand Slam
final. March 7, 2014 At the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey tournament
in Quebec city I saw the Detroit Red Wings’ Todd Bertuzzi, who was there during
the Olympic break to see his son playing in the tournament. Evidently I took the NHL player’s photo with
the Bison tuque on his head & told him it would give him good luck but when
I realized that Detroit’s next game was in Montreal I went back to see him
& I said ‘Todd. 1 goal is ok against us but please don’t score more than
1’. Bertuzzi scored the only goal of
the game (at
14:01 of the 1st period), his 1st goal & 2nd
point in his past 19 games & he was well on his way to being the first star
of the game when Brian Gionta finally tied up the game with only 29 seconds
left to play & Montreal’s goalie on the bench for a 6th attacker. Detroit scored in overtime to win the game
2-1 so I’m sorry but the Canadiens loss was my fault. Bertuzzi followed that up with another
goal in his next game giving him 2 goals in 2 games since wearing the
tuque. 3 days later Bertuzzi added
another 2 assists. It was only the 2nd
time in over 2 years that Bertuzzi had 2 goals & 2 assists in a 4 game
stretch. Feb 23, 2014 Montreal Canadiens’
forward Brandon Prust wore the Bison tuque for the first time at the
Montreal Auto Show in January & scored in his next game, his first goal in his past 13 games. Carey Price who rubbed
the Tuque a few seconds after Prust wore it had
a shutout in his next game to end a 5 game sequence where he had allowed at
least 4 goals per game (21 goals against in 5 games). In his next game the only goal Price allowed was by P.K. Subban
who put it in his own net before a goal in overtime, giving Price 70 saves on
71 shots (only PK beat him) for a save percentage of .986 immediately after
having rubbed the bison tuque. Price
continued his great play with 102 saves on his next 106 shots faced (%.962)
including another shutout. After
his win at the Bell Centre against Vancouver Price stopped his vehicule as he
was leaving the parking lot after the game to rub the tuque again for good luck
with 1 game left before the Olympics.
Price stopped 31 of 32 shots (%.969) in another Canadiens’ win in
Carolina & he was nearly perfect in Sochi in winning best goalie of the tournament
honours & the gold medal with Team Canada.
His
opponents only scored 3 times in 5 games at the Olympics. 103 saves on 106 shots (%.972) including 2
shutouts in the most important games, the semifinal against the USA & the
final against Sweden. Feb 23, 2014 At the Quebec
International Pee-Wee hockey tournament in Quebec city many players wore
the tuque & success followed in many cases. Xavier Parent, Samuel Poulin & other players of the team
representing Blainville-Boisbriand helped the team win
the AAA category. Long Island
Stars & other teams also did well after their players wore the tuque. Feb 9, 2014 At the Scotties Tournament of Hearts womens
Canadian curling championship tournament at Montreal’s Maurice Richard arena I
got photos of curlers from 3 Canadian teams wearing or holding the tuque. Rachel Homan’s team (Team Canada) won the
tournament to advance to the world championships with a perfect 13-0 record, the first time in 29 years
that a team went undefeated for the whole tournament. Val Sweeting’s Alberta team which faced
Canada in the final won 4
straight games after Sweeting wore the tuque before losing in the final
including 2 wins against Manitoba (the 2nd place team in the
roundrobin standings). 4th
place Alberta surprised 3rd place Saskatchewan in the 3 vs 4 game & then
Alberta surprised Manitoba in the semifinal to earn its spot in the final. After a bad start to the tournament Ontario
team members wore the Bison tuque & some good wins followed (including a
12-2 win & another win over Alberta before Sweeting had worn the tuque. Feb 8, 2014 When friends from Alberta were in Montreal
visiting during Super Bowl weekend I took a day off work on Friday January 28th
to see the Canadiens practice with them in Brossard. Ryan White (who had already worn the tuque) rubbed the tuque for
good luck. As soon as he was back from
his injury, after a warmup game, White scored 2 goals & added
an assist in his next 2 games. Feb 2, 2014 The night the Alberta friends arrived
(Thursday January 27th) we went for dinner & to see the Canadiens Bruins
game at the Cage aux Sports. At the
table next to us there was a nice man from Manitoba & his 8 year old son
Eric. I took a photo of each of them
with the tuque on their head. Sunday as
I was waiting in line for the doors to open before the Habs game against the
Jets I saw they were both there too.
Mr. Lafleche informed me that his son had won the right to ride the
zamboni while it was cleaning the ice during the intermission of Saturday’s
game. Once again the tuque had brought
someone some good luck. Jan 26, 2014 At Montreal’s Snow festival at Jean-Drapeau
park during the Foundation
David Suzuki’s ‘Protect
our winters’ hockey game former Montreal Canadien Georges Laraque had still
not scored after 1 period of play. He
had already worn the tuque in 2011 so I yelled to Georges to come over &
rub the tuque for good luck. He did
& he scored not long after & had 4 goals & 1 assist in the next 2
periods. Jerome Dupras of the Cowboys
Fringants (Quebec’s best musical group) rubbed the tuque also before the game
& he was brilliant in goal but Jerome is always brilliant in goal. Nov 22, 2013 At the Montreal Canadiens blood donor clinic
Travis Moen once again rubbed the Bison tuque for good luck & in his next
game he scored his
1st goal in 47 games.
Ryan White & Michael Bournival who also gave the tuque a rub on
Wednesday each had an assist on Moen’s goal.
Players that have previously worn the tuque for a photo give it a rub
for good luck instead of wearing it again.
Daniel Brière who got off to a terrible
start to his season with only 1 point in his first 5 games after refusing a
photo with the bison tuque this summer, had his photo taken beside the Tuque at
the clinic & he also scored a goal Friday. Nov 8, 2013 Melanie Perreault wore the Bison tuque Thurs Nov 7 at
Kain’s CD launch. The very next night,
during the Bon Jovi concert at the Bell Centre, Jon Bon Jovi, her favourite
musician & IDOL (love since her childhood) bent down & gave her
directly his guitar pick with his most beautiful smile. It will evidently be framed. J Nov 4, 2013 Canadian tennis player Peter Polansky exploded in the world
rankings after having worn the Bison tuque just like Milos Raonic, Vasek
Pospisil, Eugenie Bouchard & others.
Polansky wore the tuque during the Rogers Cup in August. Since September Polansky has won 3
Challenger tournaments & just lost in the final of a 4th
tournament. He has climbed to 150th in the ATP rankings. Nov 1, 2013 Dallas Stars Tyler Seguin had his photo
taken beside the Bison tuque late in the 3rd period of Tuesday’s
game in Montreal. Two nights later
Seguin had a goal & an assist & earned the 1st star of
the game. August 12, 2013 At the 2013 Rogers Cup tennis tournament in Montreal
Alex Bogomolov Jr. (ranked 83rd in the world) proudly wore the Bison tuque for a photo
& in his next match he
upset the 3rd ranked player in the world David Ferrer 6-2, 6-4. Canadians Milos Raonic & Vasek Pospisal
had already worn the Bison tuque so I didn’t need to take another photo but
they each rubbed the tuque for good luck before most of their matches &
Pospisal won 4 matchs (including upsets over 20th ranked John Isner
& 6th ranked Tomas Berdych) to make it to the semifinal &
Raonic won 5 matchs advancing to the final before finally losing to 4th
ranked Rafael Nadal. Since wearing
the tuque during the Davis Cup in midSeptember 2012 in Montreal Pospisal has
climbed in 11 months from
120th in the ATP rankings to a career high 40th after
the Rogers Cup. Milos Raonic as noted
below climbed from
691st in August 2009 when he wore the tuque to a career high 10th
in the ATP rankings after the 2013 Rogers Cup.
August 12, 2013 Baseball player Zackary Ruel wore the Bison tuque
during a Quebec Capitales game in midJuly.
He then went on a tear with 6 hits in his next 7 at bats in his next 3
Timbits’ games. 2 for 2 (2 rbis), 2
for 3, 2 for 2, 1 rbi. August 3, 2013 Vancouver Canucks forward Alexander Burrows had his
photo taken with the Bison tuque during halftime of a fun celebrity
ball hockey game at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament. Less than a minute later Burrows scored a
goal. May 2013 Andrew Waines has been the rhythm guitarist
for the group Jordan McIntosh since
April 2013. He wore the bison tuque in
April 2010. March 14, 2013 Jonathan Drouin of the Halifax Mooseheads wore the
Bison tuque in January 2013. Before the
day he wore the tuque he had 20 goals & 31 assists for 51 points in 26
games (1.96 Pt/gm). In his next 21
games he scored 21 goals & added 32 assists for 53 points (2.52 Pt/gm) to
take over the QMJHL
scoring lead with 104 points in 47 games. March 6, 2013 Goalie Dustin Tokarski wore the Bison tuque after the
Hamilton Bulldogs (Canadiens farm club in the AHL) game at the Bell Centre on
February 22nd, 2013. Tokarski then stopped 77 of the
next 78 shots he faced (save percentage of .987) including 2 straight shutouts
in his next 3 games. March 4, 2013 Max Pacioretty had already worn the Bison tuque after
a Canadiens game on January
4th, 2009 so when I saw him after the Canadiens practice in Brossard on Feb
23, 2013 instead of taking another photo with the Tuque on his head I simply
asked him if he wanted to pat it for good luck. In effect Max gave the tuque a little pat & quick rub &
a little over a week later he became the 1st
star of the week in the NHL with 7 points (including 4 goals) in 4 games
& Montréal, 8-0-3 in its last 11 games has the 4th best record (14-4-4) in
the NHL. March 4, 2013 During the NHL lockout Corey Crawford played a game
in late September (with proceeds going to charity) in his hometown Chateauguay,
Qc. The Bison tuque was there &
after the game I had a chance to get a
photo of Crawford with the bison tuque.
Is it a coincidence that Crawford is 2nd in the NHL in save
percentage at an incredible
.945 & leads
the NHL in goals against average (1.41).
Chicago has now gone an NHL record 22 games with at least a point to
start the season. March 4, 2013 During the NHL lockout in December I also went to see
some women’s hockey games (Montreal Stars).
Most of the Montreal team wore the bison tuque after the 1st
game I went to see. Leading up to that
game in December Montreal had a record of 3-3-1 in it’s league. As of that day when the players wore the
tuque Montreal has 12 wins & only 2 losses (by 66 – 27) for
a record of 15-5-1. The game after
the Stars wore the tuque was an exhibition game against Les Boys (10-9 shootout
win for Montreal). Dominique Thibault
scored 4 goals in the game, the same number of goals that she has in 18 regular
season games. Haley Irwin &
Ann-Sophie Bettez both had 3 points in the game after wearing the tuque. Feb 24, 2013 For the 3rd
consecutive year (since we started going to the Quebec International PeeWee
Hockey tournament) the Bison tuque is proud of PeeWee players that had their
picture taken with her on their head.
Kyle Peters (Philadelphia Flyers) had 2 goals & 3 assists in his
next 2 games after wearing the tuque (including the winner in overtime) &
Zach Egber scored 4 goals in his next 3 games for Philadelphia. Their team lost 3-2 in the semi-final with
less than 2 minutes to play against the eventual champions Minuteman. Egber, Peters (with 6 points for 1.5 points
per game) & Mattias Samuelsson (5 points) were near the top of the leading
point-getters of the tournament. Other PeeWee players also played very well after
wearing the tuque during this year’s edition of the tournament. Nov 23, 2012 After wearing the Bison
tuque following University of Laval Rouge et Or’s final football game of the
2012 regular season injuries to the team’s top runningbacks led Maxime Boutin
to a bigger role on the team & he has been on fire ever since. In his 1st game in a prime role
after wearing the tuque Boutin responded
with 119 yards on 6 carries (average of 19.8 yards) as Laval won the Quebec league Dunsmore Cup
final 40-17 over Sherbrooke. He
followed that up with what was then a career high performance of 213
yards on 25 carries (average of over 8.5 yards), also receiving 3 passes for 30
more yards in
Laval’s 42-7 Uteck Bowl win over Acadia earning most valuable player (MVP) of
the game honours. He was once again
the MVP as Laval destroyed number 1 ranked McMaster 37-14 to win the Vanier
Cup. Boutin beat his previous week’s
career high with 253
yards (an average of 10.5 yards per carry) & 2 touchdowns & added another
22 yards on a reception. His 253
yards was only 7
short of the Vanier Cup record.
Most of his offence was when it counted the most with 207
yards on his 1st 14 carries (14.8 average) in the 1st 3
quarters helping Laval to a 31-14 lead.
Almost all Laval Rouge et Or players have worn the Bison tuque. The photos are all on the Picasa website. Nov 17, 2012 Ricky Stenhouse Jr has won 2 straight NASCAR Nationwide series
car racing championships (2011& 2012) since wearing the Bison tuque in Montreal in
2010. J Nov 12, 2012 Canadian tennis player
Milos Raonic has quickly climbed the ATP singles rankings since wearing the
Bison tuque in Montreal on August 9th, 2009. He went from
691st in the world at the moment he put the tuque
on his head to 37th within a
year & a half. Raonic is now
ranked 13th in men’s tennis (best in Canadian history). Nov 9, 2012 2 nights after 18 Quebec Major
Junior Hockey League players put the Tuque on their heads for good luck, the
team ended its 5 game losing streak against the Russian Junior All-star team exploding for 5
goals in a 5-2 win in Val d’Or. Nathan MacKinnon (1 goal, 3 assists, +2)
& Jonathan Huberdeau (2 goals, 1 assist, +2) led the way less than 48 hours
after having the tuque on their heads.
Huberdeau followed that up with 4 assists in
his next regular season game (7 points in 2 games after wearing the tuque). MacKinnon had 2 assists in his next
game (6 points in 2
games) & goalie Zachary Fucale stopped 20 of 21 shots in the same game
(Halifax’s 5-1 win in Gatineau). That
exact same Russian team defeated Quebec 6-2 right before the Quebec players
wore the tuque & in its next 4 games Russia
only allowed 5 goals total in
regulation time (barely over a goal a game) going 2-1-1 against the Western
Hockey League & Ontario Hockey League all-star teams. Halifax goalie Zachary Fucale also had a
great game right after wearing the tuque stopping 20 of 21 shots
in a 5-1 win in Gatineau. ***Update April 28, 2013
– Since the NHL lockout Huberdeau is playing with
Florida & finished the season as the top
rookie point-getter in the NHL with 31 points (48 games). Brendan Gallagher of the Montreal Canadiens
is the favourite for rookie of the year.
He finished just 3 points back of Huberdeau with 28 points (44 games in
less than 14 minutes playing time per
game) & was among the rookie leaders in +/- at +10. Gallagher wore the Bison tuque after a
Hamilton Bulldogs game at the Bell Centre also in November. The Tuque is proud of them all. J Sept 2012 Canadian tennis player Alexandra Wozniak
(ranked 55th at the time) had lost all 4 matchs against Jelena
Jankovic before wearing the bison tuque.
Less than 2 days after she wore the tuque in August 2012 Wozniak
destroyed 13th ranked Jankovic 6-2, 6-3 at
Montreal’s Rogers Cup tennis tournament.
It was her 1st win over a top 20 player in almost 3 years (20
straight losses). Wozniak also won her
3rd round match against 26th ranked Christine McHale
becoming the 1st Canadian woman to advance to the Canadian
tournament quarterfinals in 20 years. She eventually lost in the quarters to 8th
ranked Caroline Wozniacki but continued her great play advancing to the
quarterfinals in her next tournament in Dallas. Wozniak shot up to 42nd
in the WTA rankings before an injury in September
in Quebec City ended her season. Jan 30, 2012 Not long after wearing the Bison
tuque actor Emmanuel Bilodeau scored 3 goals to lead the blue team to a win
over the green team in the Quebec Winter Carnival’s David Suzuki Protect our
winters hockey game. Teammate Maxim
Martin also racked up a lot of points not long after wearing the tuque. Later at night the Quebec Remparts were
edged by Victoriaville 6-5 but it was a great effort as Quebec was playing its
3rd game in 3 nights. Jeremie Malouin (2
goals, 1 assist) & Gabriel Desjardins (1 goal, 2 assists) each had 3 points
for Quebec less than 24
hours after they had their photos with the Bison tuque. Victoriaville hadn’t played since last
Wednesday. Jan 15, 2012 Last night after the Montreal
Canadiens game at the Bell Centre I bought a Mike Cammalleri stuffed doll &
then went to the Cage aux Sports to watch the 2nd half of the LA at
Calgary game with some people from Alberta.
I put the Bison tuque on the doll’s head for some luck. 2 shifts later Cammy scored his 1st
goal for Calgary since his trade. Jan 4, 2012 What a great game
tonight for players who had their pictures taken with the Bison tuque yesterday. I'm very proud of Lars Eller for his 4 goals & 1
assist for 5 points tonight. He was
also +4 & the 1st star of the game (in less than 16 minutes of icetime)
after having had his photo with the Bison tuque yesterday morning after the
Montreal Canadiens practice in Brossard. 4 goals!!!! And what
an awesome goal on the penalty shot. Eller is hot. Michael Cammalleri & Tomas Kaberle also had their
photos with the Bison tuque yesterday and they scored too. For Kaberle it was
his 1st goal with the Canadiens. Travis Moen (who had 2 goals & was the 2nd
star after having worn the Bison tuque on November 22nd against Toronto) rubbed
the Tuque yesterday and he had 3 assists tonight. Alexei Emelin wore the tuque
yesterday too and he was +3 in the game.
Dec 8, 2011 You may wonder what happened to Jose Theodore. He was one the NHL’s best goalies from
1999 to 2004 (including his MVP & Vezina trophy winning season in 2001-02
in which he had one of the best
save percentages in NHL history at .931). The lockout followed in 2005 and Theodore was mostly terrible
from 2006 to 2010. With Minnesota last
season he was pretty good but after having his picture with the Bison tuque
this summer at a Blink182 concert at the Bell Centre Theodore has been one
of the NHL’s best goalies with a .929 save percentage with Florida in the
2011-12 season including a 40 save shutout last
night against Boston. When I told
him at that concert that I believed he’d have another good season he surprised
me by telling me that he was old & washed up. I told him that the Tuque brings people good luck. He wanted to share the luck with his nephew
so I took a picture of both of them with the Bison tuque. Whether or not Theodore was joking about
being washed up I wasn’t joking about the good luck and Theodore is now once
again one of the NHL’s best. I
haven’t had news about how his nephew is doing but I’m sure he’s having a great
season too. Oct 24, 2011 Congratulations to Peter Budaj who in
his first game after he wore the Bison tuque he was brilliant with 29 saves on 31 shots to earn 2nd star
of the game honours. During the 3rd period of the
same game Dean, Papa of the Bison tuque won Fan of the game honours while
dancing with the Bison tuque on his head. J Oct 22, 2011 Other success stories will be added when I have more time. Dec 5, 2010 Like Carey Price in February, 2008 Jimmy Appleby of the Quebec Remparts
had a shutout (4-0)
in the first game he played following his tuquage. Oct 3, 2010 Montreal (Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) player Louis Leblanc scored
2 goals & 2
assists for 4 points, +3 & was named 1st star in
his next game after wearing the Bison tuque. Philippe Fontaine (1 goal, 1 assist, +1)
was the 3rd star in
the same game, also less than 48 hours after having worn the tuque. Leblanc has
3 goals & 5 assists for 8 points (an average of 4 points per game) in the 2
games after a member of his line wore the bison tuque & only 29
points (1.07 points per game = 13 goals 16 assists) in the 27 games
(updated Jan 16) after no member of his line wore the tuque. Sept 12, 2010 Montreal Junior (QMJHL) player Philippe Lefebvre was the 1st star in his next
game after wearing the Bison tuque scoring 4 goals & adding 1
assist for 5 points. April 2010 Steven Stamkos had his photo with the bison tuque during the All-star
weekend in Montreal in January 2009.
At the time he had only 6 goals in 45 games (.13 goals per game). After that special moment Stamkos
quadrupled his goal production with 17 goals over his next 34 games &
he’s been a top scorer ever since winning the Rocket Richard trophy for most
goals 2 of the next 3 seasons (sharing it with Crosby in 2009-10 with 51 goals,
finishing 2nd with 45 goals in 10-11 & winning it easily with 60
goals, 10 more than Malkin in 11-12). April, 2010 Montreal Junior hockey player Trevor Parkes scored 4 goals in 3 games after
wearing the Bison Tuque. Kevin Poulin of Victoriaville was named 1st,
2nd & 1st star (with 56 saves on his next 58 shots
& 85 saves on the next 90 shots) in the 3 games following wearing the bison
tuque. February, 2010 8 members of the Burnaby Winter Club hockey team wore the bison tuque
Saturday Feb 14 at the Quebec Winter Carnival parade. At the Quebec
International PeeWee tournament Burnaby had a perfect record of 6
wins 0 losses before losing Sunday's final against Detroit 1-0, the only goal
coming with less than a minute to go. Congratulations Burnaby! 2nd place out of
56 teams. Burnaby also had the top
2 pointgetters in the tournament, Mathew Barzal (6 years later drafted in the 1st
round of the NHL entry draft) & Justin Szeto with 22 pt & 15 pt
respectively in 7 games. The link for the players pictures is just below. Saturday Dec 26, 2009 Gabriel Bourque of Team Canada
juniors scored
a record 7 points in Canada's first regular World Junior Hockey Championship
game after wearing the bison tuque immediately following his last game with
his Baie Comeau junior team right before the tournament. Thursday March 26, 2009 Emmanuel of the Escouade Family
Zone at the Bell Centre for the Montreal Canadiens games told me his success
story after having worn the Bison Tuque. He buys coffee about once
every other day. Emmanuel before having worn the bison tuque earlier in
the season had bought 30 coffees in a row during Tim Horton’s “Roll up the rim
to win” contest without having won. Immediately following the game
in which he wore the tuque Emmanuel bought a coffee and won instantly a free
coffee. He told me actually that he won 3 coffees in a row right after
wearing the tuque. 0 for 30 before wearing the tuque then 3 coffees
in a row after. The Bison Tuque has once again helped
someone. J Tuesday January 6, 2009 The game after that meeting (his first with the tuque this season with
Montreal) Angelo had 6 points. The
3 big winners at the 2008 Quebec music ADISQ awards all had proudly worn the
bison tuque. Karkwa,
Ariane Moffatt & Alfa Rococo won 2 awards each at the show Sunday Nov 1st
at the Bell Centre.
Karkwa also won 2 awards at the other gala a week earlier. In 2005 Les Cowboys Fringants won for song of the year & album of
the year after being the first members of a major musical group to wear the
bison tuque. Chris Higgins of the Montreal Canadiens’ 3 goals against Ottawa on
November 11th (his 1st career NHL hat trick-no pun intended) came less than a week after he had
his photo with the bison tuque. Alex Tanguay & Tomas
Plekanec also recently had a streak of super games following their photos with
the bison tuque. Another
NHL player to have an incredible hot streak following his recent photo with the
bison tuque is Teemu Selanne. On Saturday October 25th after the
Anaheim Ducks practice at the Bell Centre Selanne tentatively posed for a
picture with the tuque after hearing previous success stories. Selanne
went on to score a goal in an Anaheim win over Montreal (the Canadiens only
regular season regulation time loss at the time) & over his next 3 games
Selanne had 6 more goals and 2 assists for 8 more points & earned the NHL’s first
star of the week. Alexander Semin of the Washington Capitals at the same time was named
the NHL’s player of the
month for October (9 games – 8 goals, 8 assists = 16 points to lead the NHL
& +/- of + 7. Semin proudly wore the bison tuque during Russia’s World Championship victory
celebrations in May in Quebec City. In his next NHL games Semin was
redhot and led the NHL with 27
points, just ahead of Evgeni Malkin (24 points – Malkin also had worn the bison
tuque). Semin also
led the NHL in +/- with a + 17 & il était 1e
en buts avec 13. Dominic Coulombe (Anatole Eugene in the Cowboys Fringants Forum) proudly
wore the bison tuque. As spokesperson for the Patro of Lévis for the TV
show L'union fait la force he helped lead his team to 5 straight wins
(0 losses) to win $5000 for the organisation. On
Easter Sunday in 2008 defenseman Francis Bouillon of the Montreal Canadiens
proudly wore the tuque for a photo and during the game the next night (Easter
Monday) Bouillon scored his second goal of the season in a Canadiens win over
Ottawa. He was also +1 with 3 bodychecks, 3 blocked shots & earned
the 2nd star of the game (the 2nd time during the 2007-08
season that Bouillon was one of the games 3 stars). Josh Gorges was the first Montreal Canadien to wear the tuque (Canadiens
Blood Donor Clinic February 2007) soon after joining the Canadiens in a
trade. Not long after wearing the
tuque Gorges went from being the Canadiens 7th defenseman to one of
the team’s key regulars (and with Andrei Markov injured Gorges has been the
Canadiens best defenseman). There
are also many success stories from the 2008 World IIHF Hockey Championships in
Quebec City. There are also unfortunately bad luck stories following a
player’s refusal to appear in a photo with the tuque. Goalie Cam Ward lost the Gold for Canada
blowing a 4-2 3rd period lead, giving up 5 goals on 32 shots
as Canada lost 5-4 in overtime to Russia in the 2008 World Hockey Championships
in Quebec city after Canada had
dominated the tournament. In other
bad luck stories – While other Team North America players were proud to wear the
Bison tuque at the airport after an North America Europe exhibition game in
Montreal in September, Aaron Ekblad wanted nothing to do with the tuque (did
not want to wear it & did not want a photo next to the tuque) & he
later got injured in his team’s 1st tournament game & he had to
miss the whole World Cup of Hockey in addition to a part of the preseason. Canadiens’ backup goalie Al Montoya had a .893 save
percentage in his next 2 games (8 goals against on 75 shots) after refusing
a photo with the tuque. I will add more
bison tuque stories soon. UPDATES –
March 23, 2016 – I add
photos usually the same night I take them or maximum one week from the date
unless it’s nonstop festival time or if I’m out of town. Sept 7, 2015 – All up to
date again. Aug 17, 2015 Again the
website is up to date with recent summer photos. I’ve been adding them weekly or nightly depending on if I am in
Montreal. March 13, 2015 Up to date. Every time I get new photos I put them on the
website. Once again, Montreal Canadiens,
Quebec city PeeWee hockey tournament, Canada’s best junior hockey players
including Connor McDavid (before they went on to win gold at the World Junior
Hockey Championships in December 2014), all have been added to the website. The photos are all up to date. July 30, 2014 – Over 60 photos from
St-Jean Baptiste till now have been added. Feb/March/April/May/June
2014 – over a hundred new photos have been added including Brigitte Boisjoli,
Mixmania, Joey Scarpellini, Montreal Canadiens Brandon Prust, Detroit’s Todd
Bertuzzi, former NHL players like Rob Blake, Mark Recchi, Stephane Richer,
player agent Pat Brisson & over a dozen success stories. Jan 20, Jan 14, Jan
7,2014, Dec 15,2013 & Nov 17 –
Updated again. Oct 31 – Haley
Wickenheiser & many others have been added. Oct 16 - The latest photos have been added once
again. Sept 18 – Photos of George Takei (Star Trek), Christopher Lloyd
(Back to the future, Taxi, etc), Joe Mastroianni (Degrassi series), Kevin Nash
(pro wrestler) & many others who wore the Bison tuque at Montreal’s Comicon
have been added. Sept 4 – All photos have
been added from this summer. Aug 7 – The world’s number
1 tennis player Novak Djokovic & other photos from Montreal’s pro tennis
tournament have been added. July 30 – My computer is
fixed so I will be adding photos from Quebec City Festival d’été & the week
that followed in the next few days. June 21, 2013 – More photos
have been added over the past few weeks. May 15 2013 – About 2 weeks
ago I moved all the photos in the New Photos (June 2012- present) category to
their respective sections, doubling some of them up adding them also to the
Famous section. Other photos have been
added recently. March 24 2013 – Montreal
Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin & poker world champion Jonathan
Duhamel wore the tuque today. I added
other former NHL stars photos with the tuque also. March 3 – Jacques Demers,
former Montreal Canadiens coach (Stanley Cup winner in 1993) & currently a
Canadian senator wore the Bison tuque. Feb 24 – I added former NHL
players Joe Sakic, Adam Foote, Mike Peca, Rory Fitzpatrick & Doug Messier
along with Montreal Canadiens owner & president Geoff Molson, each with the
Bison tuque on his head. I also added
many PeeWee players & a few other photos.
J Jan 15, 2013 - I have finished labelling & adding links
for over 550 photos that were added after Nov 21, 2012 including 100 from the
Grey Cup festival in Toronto & many others. New photos include CFL greats Tony Gabriel, Hank Ilesic, Terry
Greer, etc & from the world of hockey - Jean Perron, Jacques Martin,
Francois Allaire & many of the best women hockey players. 21 Nov 2012 – I added 345
new photos from summer 2012 (June-Nov).
The last photos were added in June – Robert Charlebois, Veronique
Cloutier, Antoine Bertrand, Maude Guérin, Louis Morissette, Montreal Alouettes
cheerleaders, musician James McCartney, Canada’s best divers including
Alexandre Despatie & Emilie Heymans, the Gala Artis & Earth day. Not long ago I moved all the photos from
earlier in 2012 to their proper sections.
Previous recent additions included former Expo great Warren Cromartie,
Montreal sports music sensation Annakin Slayd, comedians Andre-Philippe Gagnon,
Francois Morency (who just published a book) & Laurent Paquin. I also added recipe book author
Jean-Francois Plante. St Patricks day
parade pictures are also there. There
are almost 40 pictures from Quebec cinema’s Jutra awards including award
winners Philippe Falardeau (best director), Sophie Nélisse (best supporting
actress), Emelien Neron (best supporting actor), all from the film Monsieur
Lazhar), Jean-Marc Vallée (award winning director of C.R.A.Z.Y. & more
recently Café de Flore), Denis Villeneuve ( award winning director for
Incendies), etc. There are also photos
from the Montreal Highlights Festival & over 50 pictures from Quebec City’s
Winter Carnival and Pee Wee tournament including more former NHL greats
including Scott Niedermayer & former baseball great Cy Young award winner
Tom Glavine. Other additions include
more former Montreal Canadiens including Richard Sevigny & Mathieu
Dandenault & former NHL players Luc Robitaille & Patrick Roy, many
Quebec Remparts & some actors.
There were more Montreal Canadiens photos & 175 photos from Nov
2011’s vacation in Maui, Hawaii. At
some point hopefully soon I will try to add over 100 photos from May 2011’s
vacation in France. The Bison Tuque is very proud to have
been thanked by lead singer Karl Tremblay (Papa Dean also is proud) following
the Cowboys Fringants win as Quebec’s Group of the year at the Gala ADISQ on
Sunday October 30, 2011. Unfortunately
the video is no longer available online.
L Early June 2011 - The Bison
tuque just got back from 3 weeks vacation in France where she sat on many
heads. This included a day at Roland
Garros (pro tennis) in Paris, a visit to Nice, Monaco, Monte Carlo & some
beaches in the San Tropez region & of course a visit to the Cannes film festival
where the Tuque was very excited about her chance to sit on the heads of Robert
DeNiro, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Steven Spielberg
& many other movie stars & directors.
Unfortunately we weren’t there long enough to get most of the major
stars. Pictures from 3 weeks in France
will soon be added to the website. In mid-February various
former NHL players & current PeeWee players wore the tuque at the Quebec
PeeWee tournament. Once again success
followed for most of the players but unfortunately a tough schedule of 3 games
in less than 3 days helped eliminate the St Louis Blues in a shootout just as
it looked like they were well on their way to winning the Elite division
championship. On the weekend of
January 30th, 2011 at Quebec City's Winter Carnival (Protect
our Winters friendly ice hockey game) great Canadian environmentalist,
scientist & broadcaster David Suzuki, former NHL player Georges Laraque,
musician Fred Fortin & dozens of mascots had the honour of wearing the
bison tuque. On January 18th the bison tuque was honoured to have
been worn by retired Lieutenant
General & now Senator Romeo Dallaire who recently published his 2nd
book They
fight like soldiers, they die like Children, following up the eyeopening book (turned into a
movie) Shake hands with the devil. In early January most
members of the McGill Martlets women's hockey team wore the Bison tuque. McGill won the Canadian university
championship in 2008 & 2009 & was on a 93 game winning streak in league
action at the time. McGills only loss
since 2007 (ending its 87 game overall streak) was in the 2010 national
championship final, a game won 2-0 by Alberta. The Martlets spent the season
ranked number 1 in Canada. The women’s team won the
national championships after wearing the tuque. The men’s team lost in the championship final to end up 2nd
in Canada. On December 1st
after the Grey Cup parade Ben Cahoon & other members of the Montreal
Alouettes Grey Cup champion team wore the tuque. I already had many members of
the Alouettes wearing the tuque including Anthony Calvillo. November was a busy
month with numerous tuquages. At the Montreal Canadiens blood donor clinic
various members of the Montreal Canadiens got their picture with the tuque. On
a recent roadtrip to Quebec City, many players of the Laval Rouge et Or Vanier
Cup champion university football team & players of the Quebec Remparts
junior hockey team also wore the bison tuque. The Hamilton Bulldogs (Montreal
Canadiens farm club) had many of its players who had not yet worn the tuque
have the honours in early November. Also Canada's great speed skating stars
including Charles Hamelin & Mariane St-Gelais had the honour of wearing the
Bison tuque after dominating races in Montreal also in early November. Before the Montreal Impact
soccer game on July 28th in the Air Canada goal celebration contest
I scored a goal while wearing the Bison tuque & then I did the worm
(breakdance) to celebrate. Mine was chosen as one of the 20 best celebrations.
During halftime of the Impact game on October 3rd after the 3 top
videos were presented on the big screen it was officially announced that I got
the most votes (542-227-127....) as the best celebration so I won a trip for 2
to Europe. With my almost non-stop festivalgoing (and birthday celebrations) I have
added a new section where I put all new photos before updating the information
with the photo & placing each one in its proper section. If the details are
not yet included under the picture if you rightclick you can see the name of
the person in the photo. In February 2010 the Bison tuque had the honour of being worn by
Montreal Canadien's great Jean Beliveau. Pictures of Scott Gomez, Hal Gill,
other Montreal Canadiens, former Canadiens Dickie Moore, Mike Keane, Mike
McPhee, Steve Penney, Rick Green, Gilles Tremblay, & Canadian gold medal
winner Kim St-Pierre were also added. Hockey Night in Canada's Ron MacLean,
Elliot Friedman & great sportswriter Roy MacGregor also posed for a photo
with the bison tuque during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs. Other recent pictures on the Tuque's website (link below) include Guy A.
Lepage & Dany Turcotte of the hit TV show Tout
le monde en parle, Vancouver Canucks head coach (former Canadiens coach)
Alain Vigneault, Montreal Canadiens great Henri Richard &
actor/writer/producer/director Xavier Dolan (J'ai tué ma mère). I will soon add more success stories following the tuquage of people. Over 300 photos from this summer were added in August & September
2009 including over 75 musicians, Canada’s 12 strongest men from the Canadian
Strongman Championships at Expo Québec & the CANAM baseball champion Quebec
Capitales with 2003 major league baseball Cy Young award winner Eric Gagné. Over 100 photos from NHL all star weekend in Montreal were added
including Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur, Gordie Howe, Sidney Crosby, Alex Kovalev,
Mark Messier & over a dozen NHL mascots & many other players &
members of the media.
April 6, 2019
After going pointless in 3 of his past 4 games Max Domi gave the Bison
tuque another rub after the Canadiens game on March 21st. In
his next game he got 3
points with a goal & 2 assists in a win over Buffalo & he had points in
6 of his next 8 games. :)
Last night I brought the Bison Tuque with me to the final of the World Junior
Hockey Championship tournament in Ottawa. The Tuque sat on the
window just above the Canadian bench before the Gold medal game and I took
pictures of the Tuque with lots of Canadian players warming up behind her
during the pre-game warmup. But even more impressive………………..
As everyone knows Angelo Esposito had his picture with the Tuque when he played
with the Quebec Remparts. Even though there are pictures sitting on the heads
of almost every other player of the Remparts in the picture with Angelo is
beside the Tuque. When he joined the Montreal Junior team this year (after the trade
from Quebec I saw him many times after the junior games & he said about
having his picture with the Tuque sitting on his head (instead of beside) “Je
ne suis pas prêt" (“I’m not ready”) but then added “later in the season”.
I didn’t ask again thinking that when he’s ready he’ll say. After the
Montreal Junior’s last game before the Team Canada Selection Camp I asked
Angelo if he wanted to pat the Bison tuque for good luck and he did.
As everyone knows after being cut from Team Canada’s National Junior team 3
straight years Angelo finally made the team in his 4th try in December (after
having patted the Bison Tuque).
Monday night in Ottawa after the Bronze Medal game I joined the crowd of
youngsters who were waiting in the stands just by the exit of the Canadian
dressingroom for the warmup before the Gold Medal game. After the
warmup when the players were leaving the ice Angelo passed us and I yelled to
him Hey Angelo or Salut Angelo or something like that and showed Angelo I had
the tuque in my hand. I don’t remember exactly if he said anything (I think he
didn’t say a word). Angelo kept walking and then stopped for a second,
backtracked 2 or 3 steps and rubbed the Bison tuque then continued on into the
dressingroom.
It was a very magical moment (like if Angelo said in his head wtf – it will
bring me good luck).
1 minute later PK Subban (the player drafted by the Montreal who wore the tuque
for a picture in September 2007 at the Canadiens Jamboree) passed by and was
highfiving the youngsters who put out their hands for highfives. Evidently I
highfived PK with the Bison tuque in my hand so PK technically patted the Tuque
in the highfive before heading to the dressingroom just before the game.
We all know what followed. After only 38 seconds PK Subban scored the first
goal of the game for Team Canada.
At 4:06 of the second period Angelo Esposito scored the game-winning goal.
2 goals for Team Canada by 2 players that patted the Bison tuque & had
previously had their pictures with the Tuque) & 2 assists (if you believe)
to the Bison Tuque.
It was a very special night & game & I’m very proud of the part the
Bison tuque played in the victory.
Yes, Canada surely would have won the game anyway but I’m proud & convinced
that the Tuque’s magical powers contributed to the 2 key goals as Canada won
our 5th consecutive Gold Medal.
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Coulombe & Bouillon join Carey Price, Evgeni Malkin, the new mayor of
Québec Regis Lebeaume & many others in an extensive list of people who have
had super positive effects after contact with the Bison tuque.
Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins) the night after wearing the tuque (Sept 18,
2007) obtained a goal & an assist & was +3 to earn first star of the
game.
The new mayor of Quebec City Regis Lebeaume won the city’s election with help
from the bison tuque.
At the moment that he wore the tuque on his head Mr. Lebaume had only about 10%
of votes in surveys compared with 34% for Ann Bourget. Right after
wearing the tuque for a photo (before a Laval Rouge et Or football game)
Lebeaume exploded in popularity & 3 weeks later he was voted mayor of
Quebec with 59 % of the votes.
Carey Price (Montreal Canadiens goalie) got the first shutout of his NHL career
in his next game after he touched & appeared in a photo with the bison
tuque. February 14, 2008 around 6 pm at the Montreal Canadiens Blood
Donor Clinic Price spent some time with the bison tuque & 52 hours later he
helped the Canadiens shut out Philadelphia 1-0 stopping 34 shots. He won
the next night also (Feb 17) 5-3 with 34 saves to earn one of the 3 stars of
the week for the whole NHL.
Who will be the next person to benefit from
the possible magic powers of the Bison tuque?
McGill's mens team, the Redmen also had almost every player wear the tuque
after a recent win that improved the team's record to 21-0-2 in league play.
The Redmen were ranked 2nd in Canada in mens university hockey.
With the contest a little over a year ago the top 20 videos have been erased
but a friend managed to make
a copy of my winning video.
In July 2010 at the Quebec City Summer festival the Bison tuque had the
honour of being worn by Roger Hodgson (lead singer of the number one band in the
early 80s, Supertramp). Politician Pauline Marois, singer Ginette Reno, &
many musicians at the Jazz Festival, Francofolies & Woodstock en Beauce
have also had their photos with the tuque recently added.
The Bison tuque celebrated her 2nd anniversary with her girlfriend Tuque de
Vache (Cow Tuque) on January 10th, 2011. Many photos of the two together are in
the section Vacation/Festivals.