McGill grad Darche returns as Lightning play Habs Dec 09, 07 Ice Hockey (M)

By Earl Zukerman

MONTREAL – Mathieu Darche, an alumnus of the McGill University hockey program, will make his long-awaited return to Montreal on Tuesday when Tampa Bay takes on the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

It will be 52nd career National Hockey League game for Darche -- only his second-ever visit to the Bell Centre -- who is no doubt hoping that the Habs get hit by a Lightning strike.

The 31-year-old native of St. Laurent, Que., played for the McGill Redmen from 1996 to 2000, after skating for Choate Rosemary Hall, a prep school in Connecticut.

Darche, who scored only one goal during his freshman season at McGill and 31 in his final campaign, ended up with a 76-84-160 record in 128 career games. He served as captain and earned team MVP and All-Canadian honours in his senior year, graduating with a bachelor of commerce degree.

Darche is one of 153 players – and the 10th from McGill -- to make the jump from Canadian Interuniversity Sport to the NHL. Since leaving the Redmen, he has played for 10 teams in eight years, including stints with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Nashville Predators, the San Jose Sharks and the Tampa Bay Lightning. In 50 career NHL contests (heading into Monday's game at Toronto), he has scored five goals and 10 points.

He has played for five teams in the American Hockey League, including stops in Syracuse, Milwaukee, Hershey, Worcester and Norfolk, posting a 165-187-352 record in 440 AHL games, leading four different teams in scoring.

Darche’s older brother Jean-Philippe is also a McGill grad and is currently playing in the National Football League for the Kansas City Chiefs, where he signed last summer after eight seasons with the Seattle Seahawks.

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It's no piece of cake

By ERIK ERLENDSSON
The Tampa Tribune
Dec. 6, 2007

TAMPA - Mathieu Darche took plenty of ribbing from his friends back home in Montreal this past summer. Even his wife took part in the good-natured repartee.

"She would take a piece of cake and kind of put it under my nose and smile at me," Darche said. "But it was all in fun."

It was all for a purpose, too, as the 31-year-old winger used his new offseason regimen to help him break the label of career minor-leaguer. It has paid off as Darche has found a spot - for the time being - on a line with Brad Richards entering tonight's game against Carolina.

Following practice Wednesday, Darche admitted to having quite the sweet tooth, including a certain soft spot for anything chocolate. After signing a free-agent contract with Tampa Bay, however, he got together with a nutritionist and swore off the sweet stuff - at least most of it.

Changing his diet changed his fortune. Combined with a new workout program, it resulted in a loss of 22 pounds of fat while adding 11 pounds of muscle to his 6-foot-1 frame. Darche wanted to make sure he was ready for a Lightning training camp he knew would be tough. And he wanted to make a strong impression as he entered training camp with his fourth different NHL organization.

"I knew I was probably coming in to training camp as 18th out of 18 forwards and I came in in good shape. You start off on the right foot, you do well in the testing then I took things one day at a time," he said. "And even when you enter a training camp even with the slimmest of hopes to make the team, you have to go in with the attitude that you have a chance to make the team because if you don't go in with that attitude, you won't have a chance."

With 28 games of NHL experience - and just five games in the past four NHL seasons - Darche wanted to give the coaching staff a reason not to send him to the minors where he has been a productive scorer with five 20-goal seasons. A good training camp, a good preseason and an opportunity because of injury opened the door for Darche and he has made the most of it.

Entering the season, Darche had one career goal in 28 NHL games. Entering tonight he carries a three-game goal scoring streak and has four goals in 20 games. Yet he knows every game or shift could be his last if he doesn't continue to do the right things on a nightly basis.

"I've never been in this position before where a team has told me to go get a place to live," Darche said. "But I'm not getting ahead of myself. Things are going well right now and with this team if you play a few good games you play.

"If I have a few bad games I'll be off that line pretty quick, so I have to keep doing what I'm doing."

What Darche does is play responsible defense in his own end, get in the offensive zone on the forecheck, finish his checks and get to the net. On his goal Tuesday against Ottawa, he took defenseman Joe Corvo into the boards and went straight to the net and was in position to tap in Jan Hlavac's pass from the slot. And later in the game he stood his ground when confronted by tough guy Chris Neil.

"He's learning that he has to do the little things," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "He did some really good things on the wall as far as getting pucks out and getting pucks in, has gone to the net and done some things there. He still has to stay consistent in the details - and he's gotten to the point where he comes to the bench and he tells me when he knows he has made a mistake before I can talk to him - and it has earned him some time in a top two-line role.

"But he's fighting for his life every day, and that will not change."

Even if his diet has.

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Lightning's Darche finally comes home

By Sean Fitz-Gerald
The National Post
December 10, 2007

TORONTO - A life in professional hockey has led Mathieu Darche from upstate New York to the American Midwest and California. It has cast him overseas, reeled him back and, on Monday, left him in a corner stall of a dressing room trying to muffle the importance of where he would be playing Tuesday night.

At home, finally.

"I have to make sure that I don't get carried away just because it's Montreal," he said. "It's another game, and I'm fighting for my life every day, to be honest with you."

The 31-year-old forward is establishing a foothold with the Tampa Bay Lightning, after bouncing from outpost to outpost for the better part of seven years. The Lightning played the Toronto Maple Leafs Monday night, and will continue the road swing Tuesday in Montreal, where the Darche family became unique in Canadian sports.

Darche and his older brother, J.P., both attended McGill University, and both are drawing paycheques in professional sports. J.P. Darche is a long-snapper with the Kansas City Chiefs, and was a finalist at Super Bowl XL with the Seattle Seahawks.

Mathieu Darche is one of Tampa Bay's lowest-paid players, with a base contract worth US$475,000. But he had recorded four points in five games heading into play last night and had been playing on a line with Brad Richards - the highest-paid man on the team.

Darche scored four goals and had four assists through his first 22 games, all career-highs.

"They weren't highlight-reel goals, and you probably didn't see any of them on the news," he said smiling. "But I worked in front of the net, and I tipped a couple of pucks. That's the type of player I am. I won't start dangling through five guys to score."

Darche signed as a free agent with the Columbus Blue Jackets after university because he felt he had a better chance of catching on with an expansion team. He was held without a point through nine games in his first season, 2000-01, and bounced between the NHL team and its affiliate in Syracuse, N.Y., for three years.

He signed as a free agent with Nashville and played in two games with the Predators. He signed with Colorado the next year, but never played a game with the Avalanche and moved to a professional league in Germany.

A short stint with San Jose, another long tour in the American Hockey League followed. Tampa Bay, with half of its payroll locked into four players, gave Darche another look.

"As you get older in hockey, your chances get slimmer and slimmer," his father, Edouard, said Monday. "He worked really hard over the summer, and he's probably in the best shape of his life."

Neither Edouard nor his wife, Lucie, will be at the Bell Centre Tuesday because they are in the middle of a Caribbean vacation planned long before the contract was signed. Other friends and family members are expected to be in attendance.

Darche has played an NHL game in Montreal before, with Columbus, but never had time to think about it. It was after the Blue Jackets had called him at 9 a.m., asking him to drive to Montreal from the AHL affiliate's headquarters in Syracuse.

He made it in time to have a quick nap a few hours before the opening faceoff.

Barring injury or an unexpected twist of fate Monday night, Darche will not be alone in his homecoming. Vincent Lecavalier and fellow forward Martin St. Louis are among a handful of Lightning players from the area.

"Montreal will be jealous," Edouard Darche said with a chuckle. "There are six French Canadians on the team. And good ones, at that."

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