For a few days, The newspaper will present to you the portraits of former glories of their sport who remain as passionate as ever, even if they have today crossed the threshold of 70 or even 80 years.
The referee blows his whistle and calls it offside. Frustrated, an attacker from the offending team hits the boards with his stick. However, there is nothing at stake on this winter afternoon, on this dark ice of a neighborhood arena in Quebec.
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But on the rink, most players have had a taste of high-level hockey, and they haven’t lost their deep desire to win…even decades later.
They are about twenty to put on the skates on Mondays and Wednesdays. The vast majority are over 60 years old. In the Beau goal vintage league, several hockey players have already played in the QMJHL.
And there is Michel Parizeau, star of the first hour of the Nordiques of the World Hockey Association, who also played a few games in the National League, with the Blues and the Flyers.
Michel Parizeau, at the time of the Nordiques, with whom he played in their debut in the WHA, in 1972.
Archival photo
At 75, Mr. Parizeau, second best scorer on the first team of the “Fleurdelysé”, is one of the oldest in this extraordinary garage league.
Michel Parizeau (in the back) chats with his teammates, who are at least 60 years old, on his team’s bench.
Photo Stevens Leblanc
Better not make mistakes…
If the attacker still jumps on the ice twice a week, it is mainly because he likes “the group”, the discussions in the locker room “before and after the game” and “the friendships that are formed”.
“I think it’s always the same, no matter the league: it’s rarely serious! he says, laughing. I think you don’t have to be touchy to sit in a hockey room. It is better not to make mistakes on the ice because everyone goes there … We are told after the game, or even before the next meeting!
Michel Parizeau (in white) chases the puck during a garage league game in Quebec. He plays twice a week during the winter, on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Photo Stevens Leblanc
But listening to the former glory talk, you quickly realize that the game itself is still a passion for him. He is not the only one, he raises, because, on the ice, “it’s quite serious”.
“It’s a nice group, a good quality of players, who are still good, lists Mr. Parizeau. It’s the fun because hockey is a team game. Which is pleasant because we make both beautiful individual games and beautiful team games.
“It is sure that if we lose, we will not be depressed, he continues. But we prefer to win! And it shows in the locker room after the game. When we win, the guys are happy, it screams. When you lose, it’s pretty quiet…”
Michel Parizeau in the Nordiques locker room, in the WHA.
Archival photo
Outstanding longevity
Hockey, a discipline he has practiced almost non-stop since his youth, with the exception of a few winters after his retirement from sport at age 31, is also the best way Michel Parizeau has found to keep in shape despite the passing years.
But it’s sort of a vicious circle. Because, if hockey allows him to remain active, he must also be active the rest of the time to continue to practice it.
So, the veteran goes cross-country skiing and cycling with his wife, in addition to multiplying the rounds of golf during the summer months.
Michel Parizeau (in white, on the right) waits for the puck after the face-off. If he still loves hockey for the group spirit it brings, the former Nordiques doesn’t hide it either: on the ice, it’s pretty serious!
Photo Stevens Leblanc
No, he no longer has his speed of yesteryear, but Mr. Parizeau recognizes it and he is proud of it: still playing hockey at 75 is not the norm. To explain his longevity on skates, he cites in particular the few serious injuries he has suffered.
They are also the ones who may dictate when he leaves the sport for good. For now, he says he’s going “one year, and even half a season at a time”.
But Michel Parizeau nevertheless evokes a possible reunion on ice of one of his former garage leagues, in two years. Proof that if health holds, the flame will not be about to go out.
MICHEL PARIZEAU
- 75 years old
- Choice of 2e Rangers tour in 1965
- 17 points in 58 NHL games with the Blues and Flyers
- Second best scorer for the Nordiques in their first season in the World Hockey Association (WHA) (73 points in 75 games)
- 394 points in 509 WHA games
- What allows him to keep in shape: practicing several sports. Hockey, of course, but also cross-country skiing in the winter and cycling and golf in the summer.
- What keeps him passionate: the group spirit, the friendships that form in the locker room