Stu Cowan: Shea Weber receives warm welcome back from Canadiens fans

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During his Hockey Hall of Fame induction speech Monday night in Toronto, Shea Weber thanked former Nashville Predators GM David Poile and head coach Barry Trotz for giving him a chance to live out his childhood dream of playing in the NHL in a city he now calls his “second home.” Weber also thanked them for teaching him lessons in life, hockey and leadership.

Weber then thanked former Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin and team owner/president Geoff Molson for giving him a chance to play in “the most passionate hockey city I think I’ve ever seen.”

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Weber then added with a bit of a grin: “I think I should be thanking David Poile for that, too.”

The trade on June 29, 2016, that sent Weber from Nashville to Montreal in exchange for P.K. Subban rocked Weber’s world and caught him by surprise. A week before the trade, Weber won the Mark Messier Leadership Award at the annual NHL awards ceremony.

Before Saturday night’s 5-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Bell Centre, the Canadiens honoured Weber and inducted their former captain into the Ring of Honour, along with the team’s other Hall of Famers.

“You guys all knew it before me … I think that was the biggest shock is I found out probably an hour after everyone else did,” Weber said about the trade when he spoke with the media ahead of Saturday’s pre-game ceremony. “A little bit of a head’s up would have been nice, but it’s in the past now and now we’re in the Hall of Fame together.”

Poile was also inducted into the Hall of Fame on Monday.

While Nashville will remain Weber’s second home, he also left his mark in Montreal during his five seasons with the Canadiens, including a run to the Stanley Cup final in 2021. His photo is now up in the Canadiens’ locker room, along with the team’s other Hall of Famers.

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Weber had yet to see his photo in the room before the game.

“I just got made fun of from the boys, that’s about it,” he said with a laugh.

On a more serious note, Weber still remembers going into the Canadiens’ locker room for the first time after the trade and seeing all the faces of the Hall of Famers looking down on him.

“It’s one of those things you go in and you obviously hear and you know the legends that played here,” he said. “And you sit down in the stalls and you look up and it’s just like guy after guy that just had amazing careers and were great people and role models. So it’s a cool feeling to be up there even though I’m going to be ripped by the boys for a while.”

Weber received a warm welcome from the Bell Centre fans with an ovation that lasted about a minute as he stood at centre ice before making a short speech. He seemed very touched by it.

Weber always was a man of few words in public and with the media, uncomfortable putting himself in the spotlight and preferring to let his actions speak for him.

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When asked what he would like Montreal fans to remember about him, he gave a typical Weber response.

“I don’t know … whatever they want, I guess,” he said. “I came here, I poured my heart out, I tried to help the city win a Stanley Cup. Obviously, we were very close and that one hurts a lot. But I did everything I could to put pride into that uniform and leave it out there for the fans and the city of Montreal.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Weber added about his arrival in Montreal. “Obviously, I knew there was a lot of exposure and attention. We would only come in once a year I think back then (with the Predators), so I’d see you guys (in the media) for one pre-game skate and one game and then I was out. So I didn’t really know what to expect.”

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Weber never seemed to feel comfortable in the bright Montreal spotlight, but once he got settled he said he loved the city and playing for the Canadiens.

“The restaurants here are amazing, the culture,” he said. “The city’s amazing. The fans are passionate. They love it … they know everything about the game. It was one of those adaptation periods, it was different for sure because Nashville is a much different city. But our family loved it here.”

While Weber and his personality never connected with Canadiens fans the way Subban and his outgoing personality did, it was nice to see the warm and well-deserved welcome back the former captain received Saturday night.

Weber is still uncomfortable talking about himself and remains humble, even as a Hall of Famer.

“It was pretty good,” he said about his career that lasted 16 seasons and 1,038 games, plus seven All-Star Game appearances. “I think it was pretty good. I’m just proud that I was able to play for as long as I did. I think they were talking about something the other day of how many guys have played 1,000 games and it’s not as many as you would think. I thought there was way more. So I’m proud to be able to say that I made it that long and the way I played, too.

“That’s probably what I’m most proud of.”

scowan@postmedia.com

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