by Cam Stewart
Northern News Services

NNSL (Oct 31/97) - After all his years in hockey, Guy Lafleur still symbolizes the way hockey should be. And anyone at the Yk Community Arena Tuesday night for the Oldtimers Hockey Challenge would agree.

Lafleur always did it, and still does it, his way. Taking time to meet and greet his fans, sign autographs, sticks and jerseys ... always with a smile.

But he knows the game has lost its purity.

"It's a different game today," said Lafleur. "We want to influence kids to play the game for fun ... that's the secret. Too many kids are playing the game to satisfy their mother or father.

"It's not fun for the kids."

Lafleur, 46, and the rest of the NHL oldtimers squad, are on a 40-city tour of Alaska, British Columbia, and Yellowknife, the lone venue in the NWT.

"We play between 30 and 35 games a year," said Lafleur. "It's a lot of fun."

Fun is the ingredient that keeps the Montreal Canadiens legend playing the game. And the smooth-skating sniper remembers, though so many of today's athletes forget, that it's the fans who are the ones who buy the tickets.

"Making people feel good -- that's what I like most about this."

For Lafleur, winning the holy grail of Canadian sport, the precious Stanley Cup, was a special moment of an illustrious hockey career that spanned three decades. But one memory in his career stands out even more than the glory days as right-winger in the 1970s.

"My most memorable moment in hockey was in my last year. The last couple of games on the (1991) farewell tour. It was sad to realize that you just can't keep on going forever."

In today's world of agents, sports-card deals, holdouts and players asking for more and more money, pro hockey should be proud to have an ambassador like Guy Lafleur.

"That's why they send a guy like Lafleur here. He's great for the sport," said Mike Enns, president of the Yellowknife Men's Hockey League.

Lafleur wowed the fans as he continuously, without so much as a frown, signed autographs and memorabilia, posed for pictures and socialized with hundreds of adoring hockey lovers in between periods and throughout the post-game festivities.

To Lafleur, it's all part of the fun of being a pro hockey player.

"For all of the guys here tonight ... well, we just want to give something back to the game and the fans."