Au Bout de Souffle

For those of you who, like me, are not fluent in French, that translates to "The Breathless Tournament." The following story comes to us from Friend of The Crosby Show Lisa-Marie W. She not only alerted me to the story, she actually took the time to translate several articles about the tournament just so I could bring this story to you. She also took the photos. She did such a great job telling her story in her emails that I'm just going to quote her and add links to some of the things she says for clarification purposes.

(She left this in the comments section on the nickname poll results post:)

Sidney has been in Magog, Quebec (about an hour away from Montreal) in a tournament called Au Bout de Souffle. The tournament is organized by Yanic Perrault, and all proceeds go towards certain hospitals and charities in the area. Overall, this year 32,000 was raised. Sidney played with the Maxi-Club Perrault team, along with Yanic and Jack Johnson. They've all been here since Thursday, and the tournament wrapped up today. Sidney's team went undefeated, won the championship, and Saint Sid racked up 14 points over a few games. He was very gracious -- coming out and signing autographs for every single person waiting in line, paying special attention to the kids. He posed for photos and gave them pucks -- a real nice guy. It was a great tournament!

(She offered to send me some of the pictures she took of Sid at the tournament. I contacted her and she had this to say:)

I did manage to snap these three after the tournament was done, and his team (Perrault/Maxi-Club) won the trophy. Sidney took it last, and when he did, he raised it way over his head, yelled "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!" and kissed it as if it were the Stanley Cup. He's such a goof. He stayed for a long time, making sure all the kids got autographs, taking pictures with them and flicking pucks to people. Just a stand up guy :)

A shot of the Perrault/Maxi-Club

Sidney

Sidney again

(After receiving the photos, I wrote to her that I was going to post about the tournament, but that I'd have to do so without the details because I haven't spoken French since high school and have forgotten most of what I learned. She then sent me this:)

This is the 14th year in a row of the tournament, organized by NHL player Yanic Perrault every year. This is Sid's 3rd consecutive year, all of which he's played on Yanic's team. The tournament is like "shinny" hockey -- there's no checking, and the play doesn't stop for infractions. The whistle is blown and another puck is just thrown on the ice. The tournament is composed of 8 teams composed of professional players (you can find the rosters here: http://www.aboutdesouffle.qc.ca/joueurs.asp). During the tournament, there are also about 8 teams of players from Junior ranks or the AHL (though no real big names, besides Espo). The tournament lasts from July 24th-29, with the juniors battling it out for the championship, and the pros battling it out for a separate championship. Games are one hour long -- 3 periods of 15 minutes with a 3 minutes warm up, a one minute "rest" between period 1 & 2, and a 12 minute rest between periods 2 & 3. There is only one "spare" player per team, so each player got the chance to sit alone on the bench for 20 seconds or so. That's the general info. Here are two articles that I've translated for you:

Magog, Sunday July 29th 2007 - A new record for the "Breathless" tournament
For the 14th year, the tournament submitted a record breaking $31,000 to seven charitable organizations within the region. The money will be split in most part between the Hyperbar Foundation of Memphremagog, Charlotte Dugrenier (a 4 year old girl with cerebral paralysis), The Sports Foundation of Sherbrooke, The Sports Merit Committee of the Eastern Townships, The Circus of Stars, and the Eastern Townships Foundation for Epilepsy.

Magog, July 29th, 2007 - Perreault Maxi-Club maintains their championship
Yanic Perreault's team held onto their championship title for a second time in a row, in the 14th annual "Breathless" tournament. Perreault and his teammates beat the M-150 team in the finals, with a score of 6-4. Yanic Perreault was nominated Player of the Game with 3 goals, and the Best Player in the Tournament was awarded to Sidney Crosby, who earned his excellence with 15 goals and 14 assists in 5 games. In the Spot Wellington (the non-pros), The Quebec Nordiques got the better of the National Bank team in the finals, with a win of 13-6.

For the record, she sent me the link to the tournament rosters. If you click on that link, you'll see more than one familiar name on several of the teams. I really can't thank Lisa-Marie enough for the photos and the story. Without her help, today's post would not have been possible. :)