Flyers great Parent loves game, its fans
Former NHLers appearing at LEC
Bernie Parent is a fan of today’s goalies and yesterday’s goalie equipment.
Parent, the Philadelphia Flyers’ netminding great, is one of several former NHL stars coming to the Langley Events Centre starting Friday as part of Legends Weekend.
The 73-year-old Hockey Hall of Famer is employed by the Flyers under the title “ambassador of hockey,” and keeps a close eye on the game. Count him among those who thinks goalie gear got out of hand and needs to continue to shrink.
“I find the stuff very, very bulky and the guys don’t have the freedom to move like we did,” said Parent, a two-time Stanley Cup winner in his 13-year NHL career who went into the hall of fame in 1984. “It’s very different equipment than what we had.”
He does admit that goaltenders also face very different shooters than he did when he was patrolling NHL creases between 1965 and 1979.
Parent says he would routinely leave six inches over his glove hand shoulder open, in a bid to give him better coverage of the bottom of the net. He says nine times out of 10, shooters would miss that mark, either firing high and wide or giving him a chance to save it. These days, he thinks shooters would find that target nine times.
“They are so skilled now,” said Parent, who was listed at 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds in his playing days, which would make him small by today’s standards. “It’s like any sport — they’re so much better now. They’re better athletes now. They are bigger, stronger. They train all year round now. We used to use training camp to get into shape. I was definitely one of those guys.
“By God, I’m grateful that I played when I played.
“Who’s my favourite goalie to watch now? It’s difficult to pick just one. The league is blessed with many, many good goalies. I think to myself all the time that I couldn’t play now.”
Parent lives in the Philadelphia area. He says there are eight or nine players from those Flyers teams who still reside in the region and he speaks with them regularly.
He has a 45-foot yacht, dubbed The French Connection, that he keeps at a marina in New Jersey. It’s not named after the Buffalo Sabres forward line of Gilbert Perreault, Rene Robert and Rick Martin that Parent duelled with so often during his time with the Flyers. Rather, it’s a tribute to the 1971 Academy Award-winning movie of the same name, which featured a couple of New York police detectives — Gene Hackman, as “Popeye” Doyle, won the Oscar as best actor — chasing down a French heroin smuggler.
Parent says he loves to go deep-sea fishing. He says “life is hard. It goes by fast. I keep preaching that you must live your passion, whatever your passion is.”
It sounds like shtick, but you can find photos of Parent all over social media at various events and he always does seem to have a big smile on his face.
“Do I have problems? Like anybody else, I have problems. Everybody has problems,” he said. “Instead of focusing on the problem, I try to focus on the solution. That makes life so much more fun.”
Parent says he’s a fan of things like Legends Weekend.
“It’s just nice to shake hands with people who love the game and try to give back to the game,” he said. “You even get to meet a few people who have never seen you play.
“You don’t have a game without fans. You don’t. You have to show them love and respect and appreciation.”
Other guests this weekend at the LEC include Marcel Dionne, Mike Palmateer, Guy Lafleur, Dennis Hull, Mike Bossy and Dale Hawerchuk, as well as Mark, Marty and Dr. Murray Howe. To mix it up, there’s a little baseball, too, with an appearance from James Paxton, the Seattle Mariners’ left-hander from Ladner who pitched a no-hitter this past season.
Goto langley events centre. com for more information.