Lanny McDonald holding the Stanley Cup in L.A. L-R Terry Antolovic (son-in-law), Michelle Laroque (wife), Lanny McDonald, Norman Laroque ( "See Stanley with Lanny" contest winner), and Yvan Larocque (son) - photo courtesy Scotiabank

 

A man from Ste.Anne was at game four of the Stanley Cup final Wednesday night in Los Angeles. Norm Laroque ended up winning a contest through Scotiabank called Stanley with Lanny. Laroque, his wife, son and son-in-law flew down to Los Angeles with former NHL great Lanny McDonald.

Laroque says when they arrived at their hotel, there was quite a surprise awaiting them. "Scotiabank and the NHL had set up the Stanley Cup in one room for us." Laroque says they spent an hour with the Stanley Cup; touching it, taking pictures and listening to stories from both the caretaker of the Cup and Lanny McDonald. Laroque says it turns out his family will be the last group that will see the Stanley Cup before it is presented to this year's champions.

Laroque says Lanny actually hoisted the cup over his head in front of them. "There's kind of an unwritten rule that only the people that have earned that right are the people that have won it," he says. "We watched him do that and it was pretty exciting."

Following their date with the cup, Laroque and his family went out for supper with Lanny and then Wednesday morning watched the Kings' practice and toured the Staples Center.

Even though they were in the United States, Laroque says Lanny is a well recognized former star. While walking around the Staples Center, he guesses Lanny signed no fewer than 500 autographs and stopped for at least 500 photographs. "There's a lot of hockey fans here that recognize Lanny and he's so gracious and quite the guy," says Laroque. "He accommodates everybody." Laroque says Lanny is a true gentleman and a down to earth, great human being.

Laroque says attending Wednesday night's game was surreal. "The game was something that I've never experienced in my life, it was just unbelievable." New Jersey ended up winning the game 3-1 to force a game 5 Saturday. Laroque says the hardest working team certainly won Wednesday night, even though he was hoping for a different outcome. Had Los Angeles won, Laroque would have witnessed a Stanley Cup presentation. "Even Lanny said to me that other than his own experience winning the cup he's never seen a cup presentation," notes Laroque. "So he was pretty excited about the possibility of that happening."

Laroque and his family arrive home Thursday night. He's gracious to Scotiabank and the National Hockey League in making this trip possible. As for the highlight of the trip, Laroque says it was the time spent with Lanny and the Stanley Cup. "Hearing all his stories about the flight home from Montreal in 1989 when he won the cup. Those are the things that are kind of like the highlights. And just being around Lanny and him making us feel so good and him being like a long lost brother was just amazing."