Interview with Stéphane Richer | “There is no shame in being ceded to minors”

(New York) If it was good for Stéphane Richer, could it also be for Cole Caufield?

Guillaume Lefrançois
Press

In a very different time, Richer experienced what Caufield is experiencing now. In Press February 7, 1987, a young Richard Hétu, special envoy to Hartford, tells us that Richer has been ceded to the Sherbrooke Canadians. A dismissal which could last “between a week and six months”, declared the general manager of the time, Serge Savard.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Richer retorts at the end of the line. At 19, I spent the entire season in Montreal. I won the Stanley Cup. You think that everything is settled, that you are set for life! ”

But all was not yet settled for Richer. The Canadiens’ second-round pick in 1984, he carved out a place with the team the following year, scoring 21 goals in 65 games. He will add 4 goals in 16 playoff games to help the team win the Stanley Cup.

Richer kept pace the following year, before going through a tougher period at the end of January, marked by a seven-game scoreless streak and a -6 differential.

“The difference with today is that I had guys like Bob Gainey, Larry Robinson, Rick Green and Ryan Walter who said to me: ‘Stéphane, go to the minors, I know it’s not easy, but it will be good for you. Will score nine goals in nine games, that will shut them down. And you will come back, because we are going to need you in the playoffs ”. ”

Richer had finally had a successful stay on the King, scoring 14 points in 12 games. He had returned to Montreal for the end of the season and the playoffs, but it was especially the following season that the team reaped the benefits. It was in 1987-1988 that he managed the first of his two 50-goal campaigns.

Notice he also had a helping hand from a veteran. We tend to forget it, but Richer had been drafted as a center, a position where the Canadian was not lacking in resources. “Bob Gainey had been to see the organization and he said: ‘We have enough crosses with Carbo, Bobby Smith, Ryan Walter, Brian Skrudland… Put him on the wing.’ It took a veteran who saw it snow and said I had to be given my chance. It unlocked. ”

This last part of the story does not compare with what Caufield is going through now, but otherwise, the similarities are strong. The arrival in the NHL without going through the American League, the drunkenness of a final, the hard tomorrow …

Caufield has played five games with the Laval Rocket since his dismissal. He has four points (one goal, three assists) and has a differential of – 5.

“The little Caufield, it’s a good thing he’s going to Laval. He’s still young, he played in college what, 40 games a year? He didn’t know what it’s like to go play in Chicago, go to bed at 3 a.m. and be back on the ice at 10 a.m. the next morning. Great players have come through the American League. There is no shame in that. ”

Recognized involvement

The discussion with Richer was bound to deviate from hockey, but we spoke to him especially for his involvement in mental health. Last week, he was named the 2021 recipient of the Douglas Utting Foundation Medal “for his work in raising awareness about mental health among the general public,” the statement read.

This engagement started by pure coincidence, in 2009, during a stint on the popular show of TSN Off the Record. He then opened up about his battle with depression, live, in prime time in a program with national reach.

It was an unexpected turn in the life of former number 44. Richer was never seen as a great orator; his interviews were also the target of mockery in the weekly shows of Rock and Belles Oreilles.

“I’ve never been the best at speaking in front of the media,” he admits. I was embarrassed, I spoke fast, I was not ready to speak in front of the cameras. Seems like life has taken me somewhere else. “

Like a hockey player, Richer makes sure to keep things simple when speaking in public. “I’m not perfectly bilingual, but my wife helps me out when it’s in English,” he describes.

“I try to be shorter, to get straight to the point. When I speak, there is no flafla, no notes. I leave at 5 years old, I say that I ate slaps behind the head, that I left home at 14 years old. I say things that come from the bottom of my heart. If you’re sincere, people will feel it. When you start to go left, right, trying to show that you’re thinner than the others, it’s not a real sharing. ”

Today, Richer gives lectures here and there. The pandemic has obviously slowed down his activities, but as part of the medal presentation, he will participate in a virtual discussion Thursday afternoon, in the company of doctors Raymond Lam, Serge Beaulieu and Erin Michalak.

However, he deplores the lack of attention that the cause of mental health receives in Quebec and is precisely ready to do more to help.

“10 years ago, I gave more lectures, I played Alumni games and I went to see the young people of the local school. It was 2 for 1! I often went to Hearst, Timmins, the Maritimes and to reserves.

“In Quebec, it’s more difficult… The mentality is different. I don’t know if we take it less to heart or if people think they can do it on their own. I would like to have more requests in Quebec. Maybe with this price it will help. Because I know that when I come to tell my little story, I am doing my job in life. ”