HAY RIVER - Stu Poirier is a massage therapist, but, when he works on people's aches and pains, the talk often turns to hockey.

Stu Poirier, right, works on Eric Brewer, a member of Team Canada during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. - Photo courtesy of Stu Poirier

Poirier was the massage therapist with the Edmonton Oilers for 18 years.

"I tell them stories steady, great stories," he said. "They love it and I love it, too."

Poirier said when he worked on NHL players, he would often tell them stories about the North, like his time as a bush pilot. "And they loved the stories about up here."

Along with the Edmonton Oilers, Poirier served on a number of editions of Team Canada, including the gold medal-winning squad at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, the World Cup of Hockey, the Canada Cup and world championships.

When he talks of the NHL players he has helped, names such as Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Joe Sakic, Eric Lindros, Paul Coffey and many other stars pop up.

"I worked on all those guys," he said.

Plus, he has the scars to prove it from sticks, pucks and skate blades. That includes a 24-stitch cut on his knuckle from goalie Bill Ranford's skate.

Poirier was hired by the Edmonton Oilers in 1989 and served with the team until 2007.

"I was on the team just as much as anybody is on the team," he recalled. "I was on the bench for every single game with the coaches."

That included the Oilers last Stanley Cup win in the 1989-1990 season, he said. "In my rookie year."

Now, Poirier, who lives in Enterprise, is offering his expertise in the Hay River area as sole proprietor of All Sports Therapy.

It is a mobile service in which he travels around, mostly to people's homes, to offer therapeutic, sports and injury massage.

Going to homes is good for both him and the clients, Poirier said. "My overhead is very low and they feel more comfortable at home."

On his journeys, he carries a massage table, sometimes a cooler of ice, elastic bandages, sheets and a heating pad.

"But mostly it's my table and my hands. That's it," he said.

One of his goals is to teach people how to take care of themselves.

"Either they're going to pay me a lot of money over the course of a treatment or I can teach them how to take care of themselves," he said. "So if this becomes chronic and it happens again, which probably will happen, they can look after themselves."

Many of the injuries he deals with in Hay River are the result of sports, including strains and sprains.

"It's a sports-oriented town," he said. "People play hockey in the wintertime. There's a lot going on in the schools in the way of track and field, basketball, volleyball, and that sort of thing."

There are also non-sports injuries from people falling down stairs, wrenching their knees, spraining an ankle, or dislocating a shoulder.

"Life is all about injuries," Poirier said.

Born in northern Saskatchewan, he was raised in Hay River from the time he was about 10.

When he was younger, Poirier was a weightlifter and a bodybuilder, which led him to therapeutic massage.

"I was just looking for ways to recover faster without using drugs," he said, adding he also read a book about a therapeutic massage therapist working for the Boston Bruins in the 1960s.

"I said this is for me," he recalled.

So, he studied at the Northern Institute of Massage, a college in Liverpool, England. Afterwards, he and a partner opened a clinic at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton in 1987.

"I was treating the Edmonton Eskimos just like that, because there was nobody else around," he said.

A couple of years later he moved on to the Oilers.

Poirier said he was a bit star struck at first working with the NHL stars.

"First of all, I was a big Edmonton Oilers fan," he said. "Hockey was the number one sport in my life. It had always been."

Poirier, 58, and his wife, Erin, came back North after he retired from the Oilers.

"I never thought of any other place of retiring except Hay River," he said. "This is always where I wanted to come back."

In fact, he said he would come back up ever summer to fish or work as a pilot while with the Oilers

Poirier felt it was time to retire as an NHL massage therapist, adding the job is very physical work and a tough grind.

"The players always want you to give them the best massage," he said. "I realized I only had so many treatments in me. I could only give so many massages. When I finally got to the point that I just wasn't feeling like I was enjoying it anymore, I didn't feel like I could go on anymore."

In 2006, when the Oilers last made it to the Stanley Cup finals, he was with the team from August to late June, he said. "I probably did about 4,000 massages that year."

Overall, he said he has enjoyed his career as a massage therapist. "I like being the person that can give people relief from their muscle pain."