The man who sat in Jeff Gorton’s seat just over four decades ago is expected at the Garden for Sunday’s Jean Ratelle celebration. General manager to general manager, Emile Francis understands perhaps better than anyone the tear-down, rebuild scenario facing Gorton, because he was forced to initiate the very same action when his beloved team’s time had come in the mid-’70s.
“It’s absolutely the same thing,” The Cat told Slap Shots on Thursday. “We had our great run, had teams that were good enough to win the Cup, I’ll tell you that. But then, they all got a year older, and when you get older you’re prone to getting hurt, and your performance goes down, and as general manager you’re faced with decisions, and they’re hard, believe me, because you came so close and you’ve been with so many of them for so long.