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When Mathieu Darche (BCom'00) was a boy playing road hockey with his brother outside the family home in St. Laurent, he used to pretend he was Mats Naslund and the Canadiens were facing the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup.

"He was Mats, and my favourite line ever was (Guy) Carbonneau, (Chris) Nilan and (Bob) Gainey," Darche's brother, J.P., recalled with a laugh. "It's ironic that he ends up being more of a grinder."

But what a grinder he is. While Darche wasn't blessed with Naslund's skills, his work ethic is second to none. And you have to wonder how many goals Darche would score if he did have Naslund's skill set. You also have to wonder how many goals he might have scored this season if he had more ice time.

Darche scored 12 goals and added 14 assists while playing in only 59 games. He was also plus-7. As the Canadiens' lowest-paid player at $500,000, Darche had five more goals than Scott Gomez, the highest-paid player at $8 million. Darche had 664 total minutes of ice time (an average of 11: 16 per game), less than half as much as Gomez, who played 1,485 minutes (18: 33 per game). Darche had 79 minutes of power-play time, scoring twice with the manadvantage, while Gomez had three power-play goals in 216 minutes.

Talk about some bang for the buck with Darche, who is thrilled to simply have a oneway National Hockey League contract for the first time at age 34 after spending 11 years bouncing around the minors.

"People ask me if I'm surprised that he's doing well now and establishing himself with the team," J.P. Darche said. "I'm surprised it took so long. He's not a guy who's going to blow you away in practice with his great skill ... there's a lot of guys who look better skating around and shooting. He doesn't have the fancy 'wow' factor. But when you watch him play, you realize that he does all the little things and gives you all he's got every time he's on the ice.

"But he has a surprising amount of offensive skill," J.P. added. "He doesn't look pretty, but I'll tell you what: he can put the puck in the net."

Darche put the puck in the net 27 times in 26 games during his final season of university hockey at McGill in 1999-2000, adding 35 assists while being named an All-Canadian. But playing in the NHL was the furthest thing from his mind as he worked on graduating with a business degree.

J.P., a year older than Mathieu, played football at McGill, and the National Football League was nothing but an unrealistic dream for him while he was studying medicine.

But sometimes dreams do come true - twice.

J.P. went on to play nine seasons in the NFL as a longsnapper, retiring in 2009. He is now finishing his medical studies at the University of Kansas. When Mathieu scored the game-winning goal in a 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins in Game 2 of the Canadiens' first-round playoff series, he became the first former McGill player to score an NHL playoff goal since 1953, when ex-Redmen Reggie Sinclair and Johnny Peirson tallied for Detroit and Boston, respectively.

"Our parents didn't really stress sports that much," J.P. said over the phone Thursday from Kansas during a break in his medical studies. "They encouraged us and supported us in anything we did sports wise, but the main priority was school. There was never any confusion with that in our family ... school was always first."

J.P. added the brothers learned about work ethic from their parents. Edouard Darche worked as an accountant, while Lucie was an elementary school teacher.

"Our whole life we saw my dad get up to work early ... he used to work long hours and he'd never miss a day" J.P. recalled. "You'd see that work ethic in front of you every day with our parents. That's the only way you're going to be successful. They were pushing us at school, but they never pushed us at sports ... and (the work ethic) just sort of carried over to sports."

University life at McGill also had a huge effect on the Darche boys.

"When you go to a place like McGill, it's such a good academic school that just to get in is one thing ... it's not just anybody," J.P. said. "And then you look at the people who play college sports in Canada ... there's no scholarships, and for the large majority, including myself and my brother, when we played there was no realistic hope of playing in the pros. You do it for the love of the game.

"You have to be a hardworking person to succeed if you're going through school and play a sport," J.P. added. "It's a big commitment in time ... you need to be able to face adversity and be pushed and challenged. I think that's huge."

J.P. has the NHL Centre Ice package and doesn't miss any of his brother's games on TV. He'll be watching again Saturday night when the Canadiens meet the Bruins in Game 5.

"It's pretty cool," he said. "It's exciting. When you grow up in Montreal, every boy's dream is to play for the Canadiens. I was a huge Canadiens fan ... a lot bigger than Mat was. But I had stopped following the Canadiens the last four or five years before Mat got there, but last year I started following them again. It's exciting being a Montreal kid whose little brother plays for the Canadiens."

When Mathieu was featured on the Nos Canadiens television series this season, he told the show's host, Anne-Marie Withenshaw, that he never takes what he has now for granted.

"Sometimes when we're on the road, on flights, some of the guys on the team will start whining, 'The food's no good,' and things like that,' " Mathieu said. "I tell myself, 'You guys don't know what it's like to be on an eight-hour bus ride and eat pizza from your lap.

"Never forget where you come from."

Read full article: April 23, 2011