The game is seemingly banal. A run for the puck in the neutral zone. Sticks clashing. A sequence as we see about thirty in a match. Except that one cost Elliott Lareau half of his vision. In a split second, his life changed forever.
In the offices of The Press, Elliott Lareau shows us the replay on his cell phone, almost four months to the day after the event. The game is normal. In the neutral zone, the attacker approaches the boards to retrieve a loose puck. Behind him, an opponent tries to lift his stick, but splits the air. His palette ends his way under the visor of the Quebecer. In his right eye.
Instantly, Elliott collapses on the ice rink. Meanwhile, play continues and ends with a goal by his team, the Austin Bruins, Minnesota; Lareau also gets an assist. On regaining consciousness, the young man brings his gloves to his face. There is blood. A lot of blood. “My eye, my eye! he shouts at the therapist.
“At that time, I was awake, but then I lost consciousness,” he recalls. Proud as I am, I said: I’m going to get up. I tried and I fell to the ground. »
To this day, Elliott’s memories are still hazy. He remembers having “yelled” at the paramedics because they wanted to cut his sweater.
“I was really mean, apparently. I tried to apologize, but I never saw them again. I vomited all over the ambulance from the head trauma. »
At the hospital, doctors agreed to transfer him to another health facility in Minnesota “where they specialize in ophthalmology.” There, the specialists multiplied the tests and X-rays, made sure that there was no blood in his brain.
My eye was so swollen that they didn’t know if I could see or not. […] I said [aux dirigeants de mon équipe] : “I had six or seven stitches, a concussion, I will be back in three months.”
Elliott Lareau
“When my eye swelled up and we met the eye doctor and he said there was no technology out there to fix my eye, it was going to be the same for the rest of my life. , it went: oh, ”he breathes.
Acceptance
During our interview, Elliott wears a black eyepatch. “If you look at your vision as a circle, the whole middle of the circle is black. It will never come back, he explains. The outside is very blurry. It’s just light. »
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Elliott Lareau’s ultimate dream was never to play professional hockey. He has always targeted the NCAA division 1, in the United States.
The two months following the accident were very difficult, especially because of the head trauma, which notably prevented him from having a conversation of more than 15 minutes. To this day, he still experiences various memory, speech and attention problems; he will soon begin rehabilitation in a specialized program for this type of injury in Rochester, Minnesota.
“Head trauma has a bigger impact on my daily life than my eye. […] I can’t do two things at the same time. If I sit in a class, there’s a teacher talking and I have to take notes, I can’t.
“It’s very frustrating not remembering what you just did, or wondering: what did I do this morning? »
Elliott’s ultimate dream was never to play professional hockey. He has always targeted the NCAA division 1, in the United States. “Playing professional is not what got me drive all my life like my father [l’ancien joueur de tennis Sébastien Lareau], he said. It was more education. »
Over the past few months, this goal was finally becoming attainable. While playing his second season in the North American Hockey League this year, he had discussions with various Division 1 universities in preparation for the upcoming season. Princeton University. The University of Massachusetts. Minnesota State University. Several options presented themselves to him.
Elliott had to face the facts over the past few months: there would be no NCAA. During the holidays, he accepted that he would no longer play competitive hockey. He also made the announcement on his social networks. Then, rather than asking “why me? “, the young man asked himself the question” OK, what do I do? “.
“I am very reactive in life. I wanted to decide my next move. I decided that I was going to start reading one book a week on my own. »
A different approach
while reading the book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, Elliott reflected on his approach to life.
When you’ve been doing something your whole life since you were 3, and it shift like that, it makes you question what makes you happy in your life. You realize: it’s not the money, it’s not what other people think of me. What is your happiness?
Elliott Lareau
“Me, my happiness is to help people and talk with them,” he replies. I like it, doing that. It took me a while to realize that. »
The friendly and talkative 21-year-old is therefore considering the possibility of studying psychology at Concordia University next year. Otherwise, he intends to keep moving by playing hockey for fun or practicing other sports. He has also decided to spend the rest of the year in Minnesota, with his teammates. His coaches have even added his name to the staff list: he serves as assistant to the equipment manager.
“I dress all nice, I yell at the guys,” he says, laughing. I don’t do anything, but I help our manager with the equipment if he needs me. The organization tries to find ways to help me. »
Rather than feeling sorry for himself, he prefers to put things into perspective. “I’m here today, I’m giving an interview. Other than the fact that I only have one eye, I’m able to function, he says. There is like a bump in my life, but I will be able to carry on. It’s dramatic, but it’s not…
– The end of the world ?
– Exact. »
Elliott was not in control of his decision to end his hockey career; it was, in a way, imposed on him. But he accepted it.
“We were talking about that with the guys: in 10 years, we will all be playing in the same garage league. Whether you played in the D1 or in the show, it won’t change anything. There won’t be anyone in the stands and we’ll just have some fun playing hockey,” he concludes with a smile.
A missed call from Marc-André Fleury
Three days after his accident, Elliott Lareau missed a call from Minnesota Wild goaltender, Quebecer Marc-André Fleury. “I was still too damaged by my injury,” he says. He had also received tickets for the game between the Canadiens and the Wild in Minnesota, but was unable to attend. Lareau’s head coach with the Austin Bruins, Steve Howard, is set to arrange a call soon between Elliott and David-Alexandre Beauregard, who had a long professional career after losing an eye while playing hockey.