http://www.canada.com/sports/hockey/canadiensstory.html?id=808f82b8-970b-438c-ba43-6744cedbd298

OTTAWA (CP) - Canadian soldiers turning out for ball hockey games in Afghanistan this week have found themselves up against a ringer: Guy Lafleur.

The Canadiens great has been wowing the troops with his shinny skills as part of a morale-building tour. Speedskater Catriona Le May Doan and comedian Rick Mercer are also hits, said one of the other tour participants.

Canadian troops abroad have a habit of building themselves ball hockey rinks in unlikely places and Lafleur grabbed a stick to play in both Kandahar and Kabul this week.

The soldiers even awarded Lafleur an epaulet with the four stripes of a colonel.

"Guy Lafleur has been made an honorary colonel and he should be an honorary general," Rudyard Griffiths, head of the Dominion Institute, said in a phone interview Friday from Kabul.

"He's been such a huge morale booster for the troops. He's been playing shinny hockey with them, signing autographs three hours at a stretch."

Le May Doan, a double Olympic gold medalist, has her own fans, Griffiths said.

"I think she's a favourite with a predominantly male population, some of who have been over here for as much as six months.

"She's very down to earth and I think has a great kind of common touch with a lot of the soldiers."

Mercer, who has been to Afghanistan before, is also a big favourite.

The tour includes other prominent Canadians, including retired general Lew MacKenzie, but it's the celebrities who get the attention, Griffiths said.

"I think it's important for the troops here to not just have the members of Parliament come over . . . or the policy wonks like myself, but to have Canadians who are themselves real, significant contributors, people that are known nationally.

"There is a little bit of risk being here and for people like Guy Lafleur to make the trip, I think, means a lot to the troops and they definitely are showing their appreciation."

Griffiths said the visitors have received a royal reception since they arrived in Kandahar in mid-week.

It's been a gruelling tour, he said, with days starting at 6 a.m. and not finishing until midnight.

Jet lag has added to the strain, but Griffiths said the 54-year-old Lafleur hasn't even slowed.

"He's been 110 per cent, just like he was on the ice. He's been game on from Day 1.

The touring Canadians are scheduled to be back in Canada by Sunday evening.

Griffiths said the visitors saw sharp contrasts as they took part in vehicle patrols in both Kabul and Kandahar in the south.

"Kandahar is a city that is economically down on its luck, to say the least," Griffiths said. "There's a lot of extreme poverty.

"If you look at what's happened here in Kabul and what the Canadians have done here, this city in the last 18 to 24 months has really turned around there's a lot of obvious prosperity here."

But Kandahar, where Canada will deploy more than 1,200 troops and a provincial reconstruction team by early next year, will be tough.

"It's a much more volatile security situation," Griffiths said. "The development work is going to be a lot more of a challenge there because we've got to establish some security before we can start the reconstruction that's been done in Kabul."

Defence Minister Bill Graham has said Canadian soldiers in Kandahar will have to go out in the field to hunt down insurgents and Taliban remnants to deter terror and provide the stability needed for rebuilding.

© The Canadian Press 2005