Michel Plasse Learned The Ropes

Here's a great story of a practical joke Quebec Nordiques played on back up goaltender Michel Plasse in the early 1980s. The story, as told to The Hockey News, is told by starting goalie Dan Bouchard:

"The trick that we played on the ice on Michel Plasse, who unfortunately passed away not long ago. The old rink in Washington, the Cap Center, was the first with the Jumbotron over the center ice. Behind the benches they had the lace to drape the towels behind the player bench. One of our players unlaced the lace and put it through the loop in the back of the uniform of our backup goalie, Michel Plasse.

The cameraman was watching what was going on - our player was trying to lace the back of the pants, to tie the lace in there. He (the cameraman) showed it and everybody could see it on the Jumbotron. At one point I was talking to Plasse when I went to the bench on a delayed penalty, I was talking to keep him occupied and he was telling me about his playoff bonus. We were winning 8-1. Everybody saw what was happening except for Michel. Everybody stayed to watch what would happen.

At the final buzzer I went to the penalty box and all the players followed. Michel Plasse jumped on the ice. When he got to the end of the rope, he got pulled back. Both feet flung forward. Everybody got a good laugh. They got their money's worth that night. I was wondering if it was on YouTube or if anyone has that video of it. You don't see things funny like that now."