Former Habs coach and Senator Jacques Demers hospitalized
Posted Oct 23, 2016 06:14:10 AM.
Last Updated Oct 23, 2016 08:49:28 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There are conflicting reports on the health of former NHL coach Jacques Demers.
Radio-Canada and RDS, the French-language all-sports network, say the Canadian Senator suffered his second stroke in the last six months on Saturday.
However, his wife is telling a Montreal newspaper that Demers is suffering from an infection.
“He’s fine,” Deborah Anderson tells the Journal de Montreal. “Everything suggests that it is not a stroke, but an infection.”
She added that they didn’t want to take any risks given his earlier stroke back in April.
Demers was at the Canadiens’ home opener on Tuesday night, smiling in a wheelchair while handing a torch to Captain Max Pacioretty to close out a pre-game ceremony.
Demers led the Canadiens to their last Stanley Cup in 1993.
He also coached the Quebec Nordiques, the Detroit Red Wings and the St. Louis Blues.
Demers was appointed to the Senate in 2009 by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but later left the Conservative caucus last December to sit as an Independent.
At the time he said he was uncomfortable with some of the fallout from the Senate expenses scandal and didn’t like to have to vote the Conservative party line all the time.
Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report
