Keith Simison, 71, laces up hockey skates nearly 200 times a year

Each winter, 71-year-old Keith Simison skates the equivalent of two full NHL seasons on the ice.

Since retiring as a health professional about six years ago, Simison has logged about 1,000 hockey games and thousands more kilometres on his bike.

Nicknamed 'The Fog' because he starts slow but always catches up, Simison is competing in the CARHA World Cup of recreational hockey in Windsor, Ont.

Get off the couch, eat your veggies and if you must smoke — smoke salmon.- Keith Simison

Though his 194 games played each year are more than double the NHL's 82-game season, Simison insists there is nothing special about what he's doing.

"Everybody I do it with is doing the same thing," Simison told CBC News. "What we're doing is our daily physical activity. The Canadian Activity Guide recommends at least an hour a day for an adult. An hour of hockey or an hour of cycling is a way of maintaining my health."

For this week's world cup, which has more than 100 teams from across the world competing, Simison will be in the over-70 age group. But he's been known to play with guys as young as 35.

"I get whiplash watching those young guys play," he said. "It makes you think you're better than you are, you kind of get the halo effect, seeing how good they are."

Friday, Simison's team — The Living Dead — advanced to the final of its division in the CARHA world cup.

Fern Poulin helped start the team and has been playing with Simison for more than 20 years.

"We push him in the corners a little bit, we have to," Poulin said. "He plays up, he's a team member."

As a recreational team that plays once a week, Poulin said The Living Dead is as much a social club as hockey team. A few guys will go out for a pint or two afterwards, but others don't drink, "because we're athletes."

As for Simison, Poulin said he's a good teammate and fun to play with.

"He's a very good guy to play with and he keeps the guys here in top condition, so we're doing good," Poulin said.

'Fitness, fun and competition' 

Before retiring, Simison worked with the YMCA and the local health unit, which helped him place a premium on maintaining his health. Now that he's older, he wants to be a role model for his kids to show them how important it is to stay active in later life.

"I'm trying to do it for fitness, fun and competition and incorporate a bit of [all three]," Simison said. "Other than that, the message has always been: 'Get off the couch, eat your veggies and if you must smoke — smoke salmon."