Records keep piling up for Sylvain Losier
For QMJHL managers, coaches, players and fans alike, Sylvain Losier needs no introduction, having recently set a record by officiating his 244th career playoff game.
Referee Nicolas Dutil, also still active, follows with 242 games. For linesmen like Losier, it is Serge Carpentier, who retired in 2012, that sits second with 239 games.
Regular season and playoffs combined, Losier is also first among QMJHL linesmen with a total of 1022 games, ahead of Daniel Béchard’s 1000, who hung up his whistle five years ago.
However, Losier will have his work cut out to catch up with referee Éric Charron, who pulled on his striped jersey 1,297 times between 1987 and 2019, 76 times more than Dutil and 275 times more than Losier.
If Charron’s record seems unattainable, Losier, who was a Montreal firefighter for 27 years before becoming a teacher, still intends to continue traveling around Quebec and the Maritimes to pursue his passion.
“It’s a school of life, said Losier recently in an interview with Urbania magazine. You learn to communicate, to convince, to stay calm and, above all, to be humble: ‘I made a mistake, my bad’. An essential reflex in this profession where every decision counts.”
The veteran linesman also adds that “our goal [as officials] is to be as discreet as possible” and that “I still make mistakes. I try to minimize them, but the important thing is to understand why we make them and to learn from them.”
So whether you’re a player or an official in the QMJHL, you learn and grow every day as an athlete and as an individual. Even after 32 seasons of experience.
REGINA, SK – MAY 22: Linesman Losier blows the whistle at the face off between Robert Thomas #27 of Hamilton Bulldogs and Antoine Morand #88 of Acadie-Bathurst Titan at Brandt Centre – Evraz Place on May 22, 2018 in Regina, Canada. (Photo by Marissa Baecker/Getty Images)
