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| Blackburn |
"He came at me from behind. I turned to my left and grabbed the blade of the knife. He kept coming back three or four times but I kept avoiding his swings," said Bob Blackburn of Normand Baron's March 13, 1987 attack. "I was restraining him. H started kicking me and yelling. I didn't swing back, as I was concentrating on the knife still in his hand."
Baron was irritated by the manager's refusal to allow him to party in the club to party free as he said "I'm going to party on the arm."
Blackburn refused. Baron then showed him a $100 bill and said he had the money but he was still refused entry.
So he went across the street to another bar he worked at, fetched a knife and returned alone and attempted to stab Blackburn in the back.
Baron then took a busboy hostage but was eventually cuffed and booked.
He was apparently under the effects of drugs, namely cocaine at the time.
Although Baron hadn't been with the Habs for a couple of years, then team General Manager Serge Savard reportedly helped him find legal counsel.
Blackburn's left index finger was almost severed in the attack and he was forced to miss several weeks of work but the scar - the physical one anyway - has since disappeared.
Months passed following the attack with no news of any punishment for Baron.
He complained and later was told that there had been no follow-up because he hadn't appeared in court and yet he had never been subpoenaed to do so.
Blackburn said that the prosecutor told him that Habs GM Serge Savard had taken an active interest in the case, which might've been one reason it didn't show up to court until he complained.
Finally, about one year after the attack Baron was ordered by a judge to keep the peace for two years and do 100 hours of community service, a light sentence that still irritates Blackburn.
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| Normand Baron |
He reportedly worked in swimming pool maintenance and/or was a bar bouncer in 1983 when he contacted Canadiens' front office guy Claude Ruel and pleaded for at tryout with the Habs because he claimed he could help by protecting Guy Lafleur.
Chris Nilan was the reigning pugilist for the Canadiens but there was little muscle depth behind him in an era where all teams apparently needed several guys who could scare the other team.
The was no doubt that the bodybuilding Baron had muscles, as he had been crowned Mr. Quebec and Mr. Montreal in bodybuilding contests and could reportedly bench press 600 pounds.
Baron wasn't much of a star at any level of hockey and hadn't played for six years, as he had been concentrating on his award-winning bodybuilding career which saw him crowned Mr. Montreal and Mr. Quebec.
Baron agreed to lose 25 pounds and GM Serge Savard gave him a tryout and the team signed him a $30,000 year deal with the team's AHL minor-league Nova Scotia Voyageurs.
Baron, surrounded by future NHL players, notched 22 points in 63 AHL games, half goals, on a squad that won the AHL championship.
He also bested Dave Brown in a pair of fights and was declared by Serge Savard to be a better skater than Jeff Brubaker and former-first round pick Jimmy Mann.He eventually got called up to the Canadiens where he played in four regular season games and three playoff games. But his off-ice existence was far less stable.
One of his friends had attempted to singlehandedly extort west end clubs, an idea that cocaine apparently sold him on.
The Habs sent him back to the minors and he eventually went to the St. Louis Blues the next season where he played 22 games alongside a half-dozen other former Canadiens.
His career ended soon after that, as he apparently suffered an off-ice injury.
He had been out of hockey for a couple of years when he attacked Blackburn with a knife.
After his days in hockey, Baron reportedly owned a gym in Verdun, worked as a postman, and or an orderly at St. Mary's hospital.
Nowadays Baron plays a Canadiens' logo-style guitar in a band and seems to be around the team a lot. he wrote a song tribute to the team and posed with Geoff Molson at a hockey for the homeless event.
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Blackburn retired seven years ago after 25 years managing the club. He says he took great pride in ensuring the safety of the dancers and keeping drugs out.
Perhaps most impressive of all, he was never once unfaithful to his wife throughout their 33-year marriage, he says.
He is not a Canadiens fan, although he said that the many other Habs who came to the strip club were gentleman as were the countless Expos who also showed up.
He also maintained good relations with the peelers that stripped bare in his club. "They are beautiful,kind-hearted and great mothers.awesome people, you would not believe me if I told you."
Nonetheless not all of them were great with money. "Try to imagine a beautiful young girl having a good night,making $500-$600 dollars.Comes in the next night with a black eye or cut lip and asks to borrow $10 to pay her driver."
And some of them weren't great influences on others.
"There was a fantastic player for the Expos, came to my bar and fell in love with a stripper, she and her friends introduced him to C. He became addicted. Expos paid for his rehab.Got cleaned up, came from rehab to my bar, met the same girl, within one week was hooked again."