Corey Hart forced to postpone hometown farewell birthday show for potential Canadiens Game 7

The Montreal Canadiens staved off elimination with Tuesday night's 7-4 win over the New York Rangers, but their Stanley Cup dream isn't the only thing they kept alive: they also gave the world one more week of Canadian rock legend Corey Hart.

That's right. Corey Hart is still making music. Did you know that? And did you also know that Corey Hart was briefly considered for the role of Marty McFly in Back to the Future? Yeah. He was. Corey Hart is one of the greatest Canadians who ever lived.

The "Sunglasses at Night" singer was originally scheduled to play his final concert ever -- his farewell show! -- at the sold-out Bell Centre in his hometown of Montreal on Saturday, the night of his 52nd birthday. It was really going to be something. It was going to be as cool, cool, cool as his preferred type of love.

"One night," Hart told the Canadian Press. "Even if it's 50 songs and I'm bleeding by the time I leave the stage, bloody and battered, that's [what] makes it special. To me, it makes it special. I want my fans to have something special. And once is special."

But with a Game 7 between the Canadiens and Rangers very much a possibility for the same night in the same place, especially after the way the Habs played in Game 5, Hart was forced to make the difficult decision to move his special show.

So much for "Never Surrender."

The new show will be on Tuesday, June 3. Fans will be pleased to know that their tickets for the Saturday show will still be honoured.

As for Hart, well, he's crushed.

That said, one suspects the native Montrealer will feel better if his Habs are in the building that night, punching their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final. He'll no doubt be there too, cheering the boys on, and maybe participating in the wave -- or, more appropriately, the new wave. (Get it?! Because that's his genre of music!)

I know what you're thinking, though. What if the Canadiens are eliminated in Game 6 and Hart could have played his farewell hometown show on his birthday after all? The answer: it'll go down as one of his biggest regrets, like when he passed on recording "Danger Zone" for the Top Gun soundtrack, leaving Kenny Loggins to make hay with it instead. That happened! Corey Hart is a badass.

Anyway. Don't weep for Corey Hart. His farewell hometown birthday show is ruined, but the new date of June 3 still lines up quite beautifully. Diehard Hart fans (most of whom are in Canada) know the singer's 28th single, from his 1996 self-titled album, which went Canadian Platinum and which Hart considers the pinnacle of his artistry, was titled "Third of June".

You can't make this stuff up!

"Oh, dance with me", sings Hart, "Under a bright moon... third of June." Powerful. And imagine how much more powerful this classic soft ballad, which hit 17 on the Canadian rock/alternative charts, will be on Tuesday:

See, sometimes you make a plan, but then the universe makes a better one. Godspeed, Corey Hart.