[VIDÉO] Michel Parisot, one of the Nordiques’ first color bearers, still plays hockey twice a week, at age 75

for several days, Newspaper It will present you with portraits of the former glories of their sport who are still as passionate as ever, even if today they cross 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. Yet nothing is at stake this winter afternoon, on this dark ice of a neighborhood yard in Quebec.

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But at 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 twenty years old to wear skates on Mondays and Wednesdays. The vast majority are over 60 years old. In the Beau goal league, many hockey players have already played in the QMJHL.

And there’s Michel Parisot, the World Hockey League’s first-hour star for the Nordiques, who also played a few games in the National League, with the Blues and the Flyers.

Mr. Parisot, at 75 years old, is the second leading scorer in the first team in “Fleurdelysé”, one of the oldest in this exceptional garage league.

Michel Parisot (behind) talks with his teammates, who are at least 60 years old, on the bench of his team.

Photo by Stevens LeBlanc

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It is better not to make mistakes …

If the striker still jumps on the ice twice a week, it is mainly because he likes the “group”, the discussions in the dressing room “before and after the match” and the “friendships that are formed”.

“I think it’s always the same, no matter the league: rarely is it serious! He says with a laugh. I think you don’t have to be sensitive to sit in the hockey room. It’s better not to make mistakes on the ice because everyone goes through them… We’re told after the game, or even before the next game!”

Michel Parisot (in white) chases the puck during a garage league game in Quebec. It plays twice a week during the winter, on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Photo by Stevens LeBlanc

But listening to his former glory talk, you will quickly realize that the game itself is still a passion for him. He’s not the only one, he said, because, on the ice, “it’s very dangerous.”

“It’s a good group, good quality of players, who are still good,” Mr. Pariso recounts. joking Because hockey is a team game. Which is fun because we make beautiful single games and beautiful team games.

And he continues: “It is certain that if we lose, we will not be depressed. But we would rather win!

Michel Parisot in the Nordiques locker room, at the WHA.

Archive photo

Outstanding longevity

Hockey, a discipline he has practiced almost non-stop since his youth, with the exception of a few winters after retiring from the sport at the age of 31, is also the best way Michel Parisot has found to keep himself in shape despite the past years.

But it’s kind of a vicious circle. Because if hockey allows him to stay active, he must also be active the rest of the time to continue his practice.

So the veteran goes cross-country skiing and biking with his wife, as well as doubling up on golf tours during the summer months.

Michel Parisot (in white, right) waits for the hockey puck after the showdown. If he still loves hockey for the group spirit it brings, the former Nordiques don’t hide it either: On the ice, it’s very dangerous!

Photo by Stevens LeBlanc

No, he no longer has his speed like in the past, but Mr. Parizeau knows that and he’s proud of it: still playing hockey at 75 isn’t the norm. To explain his longevity on skates, he cites in particular the few serious injuries he had.

They are also the ones who may dictate when he leaves the sport for good. For now, he says, he’ll go “one year, up to half a season at a time.”

But Michel Parisot nonetheless evokes a potential meeting on the ice of one of the former garage unions, in two years’ time. Proof that if health persists, the flame is not about to go out.

Michael Parisio

• 75 years old
• Choice 2^H Rangers tour in 1965
• 17 points in 58 NHL games with the Blues and Flyers
• Second leading scorer for the Nordiques in their first season in the WHA (73 points in 75 games)
• 394 points in 509 WHA games
• What allows him to keep fit: Doing several sports. Hockey, of course, but also cross-country skiing in the winter and cycling and golf in the summer.
• What keeps him passionate: Group spirit, and the friendships forged in the locker room