Montreal Canadiens hire Pascal Vincent | What can we expect in Laval? | Guy Boucher on the bench?
hello everyone and inside today’s lock on Canadians it’s an all AHL special your locked on Canadians your daily podcast on the Montreal Canadians part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hello everyone and welcome to episode 1112 of locked on Canadians your daily Montreal Canadians podcast part of the lock on podcast Network where you get your team every single day of the week on Google Apple Spotify or here on youtube.com today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel and remember to make every moment more because as the sports start to wind down a little bit the summer the Sports Stop sportsing like we want them to but this summer FanDuel is hooking all customers up with a boost or bonus every single day that’s right there’s something for everyone daily all summer long just visit fanduel.com to get started I am your host for today’s episode I am Scott Mata you can follow me on the app formerly known as Twitter Scott Mata uh my Coast is not here tonight we uh were unable to get a show out yesterday due to some technical issues so we are bringing you the biggest news going on right now we actually have a lot to cover in this episode which is great because I was kind of going a little stir crazy this weekend I was like Kent Kent Hughes Jeff Gordon whomever one of y’all need to do something here help me to help you give me some summer content and boy howdy did they uh I had the inkling that we might have gotten this news today uh Anthony marot play-by-play voice of the Laval rocket brought up that he heard that candidates for the Laval rocket coaching job were being told that they did not get it as of this morning and less than an hour later the Montreal Canadians broke the news that they had hired head coach a new head coach in a former head coach uh of the Columbus Blue Jackets Pascal V Sal is the new head coach of the LEL rocket he is the fourth in team history uh succeeding uh Jean Francois hul who succeeded Joel buard who succeeded syvan lefave who I want to say it was Ron Wilson before him in Hamilton but that’s going way way back and nobody has any time for that on this episode and that’s Andrew zadernowski territory and I wouldn’t dare uh tread on the history uh part of that especially a team in Hamilton less and the immediate thought I had is hell yeah brother like that’s pretty pretty good uh it’s that British guy taking a sip of a a pint and going that’s bloody lovely and I have to say out of all the candidates uh Jared book pointed this out to me he’s like it’s been oddly quiet is that we heard uh Stefan Julian uh Bruce Richardson Pascal V and uh a month ago it felt like when John Fran stepped away uh to go take the job at Clarkson and the News started piling in we heard all these names from the qmjhl in that general area and then it ended up not being any of those guys and for the Laval rocket I think that this is a slam dunk and there were a lot of things from this press conference I want to point out is that for V Sal this is a homecoming he is getting to coach in his home Province he is getting to uh fully uh step into the shoes of someone who is there’s a lot of expectations now with that uh I’m bringing up his he’s actually from Laval Quebec which is a huge deal he is in his hometown here uh and he has a very long long coaching record dating back to 1994 1995 when he started as a qmjhl assistant coach with the St John lyns A team that does not exist anymore uh went to the qm triaa which I assume is one of the junior leagues back to the qmjhl with Kate Bretton was an under 18 coach uh under 18 coach stay cap Breton went to Montreal with the Juniors he’s worked with Joel bushard he’s worked with their goenda uh Marco Marciano he’s worked with Daniel Jacob he’s worked with uh la perier like he has worked with these players and after he left where he was the gmn head coach of the cape Bron Screaming Eagles and the Montreal Juniors he went to the NHL he was an assistant coach with the Winnipeg Jets upon the return to the NHL for one two three four five seasons went down to co he took that demotion to go coach the Manitoba moose as their head coach for another five ecers was an associate coach with the Columbus Blue Jacks were being thrust into the mess that was the Columbus Blue Jackets this year before uh signing on with the Laval rocket and we’re gonna we’re going to go talk about this because everyone’s look at oh wow he was the head coach of the Blue Jackets and they were terrible this year yes they were absolutely Fair they are also a team uh and if you listen to our friend Jay Foster over at lockdown Blue Jackets they were injured in a way that even Canadians fans would be like oh man you know we’ve been there but we know that that sucks and also thrust into a situation where hey we tried to hire Mike Babcock and it went so badly we had to fire him before he even coached a game a move that very also likely cost yarmo Kine in his job when the season went right down the toilet uh at some point and I don’t want to judge him solely on just that because that is unfair because that’s a situation that quite frankly you don’t have a lot of Hope to to really win in in that situation there you’re being put into a spot where it’s you’re not in a good spot to do anything there to to be quite honest with you uh it’s I don’t think there are many coaches that would have succeeded in thriving that and I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt with this and I’m looking at his time in Manitoba as a head coach where one of those seasons was canceled due to covid and one of them that where he had a very solid winning record there was no playoffs because covid and there are some es and flows here he’s here on a three-year contract the same as zanah H had and I believe the same as Jo Ard had he made the playoffs every year that he was a head coach in the qmjhl great uh the Winnipeg Jets as an assistant he doesn’t there isn’t a claim to uh the record on there which is perfectly okay this is someone who’s bringing a wealth of experience in the AHL who knows how to work within this system and the biggest thing is someone asked hey is this a pathway to get back into the NHL and his response was that is Martin Martin St Louis job I am not here for that I’m here to get these guys ready to be at that level this is a guy who understands what his role is in this organization and that’s a huge huge bonus for the rocket they’re going to be young again this year yes they’ve signed a good chunk of younger players coming in this year or older players coming in this year veterans on this team but they have a lot of high-end prospects who are going to be coming in as well that you want to make sure you’re squared away at like their current roster and this is the estimation from Elite prospects doish Conor Hughes Hunter Jones Hunter Jones likely go into the AGL 23 27 23 and net on defense 20 28 25 21 19 23 21 31 a mix in there uh in the forward group 32 22 20 26 29 22 22 26 22 20 21 20 21 25 2 2 23 22 20 it’s a young group uh there are some vets mixed in there guys like Vincent Arsenal Lauren Doan coming back uh Brandon gyac is one of the Elder Statesmen at 26 years old which is wild this is a team that is going to again probably have some growing pains and having a guy who has been through the AHL and is probably coached against or maybe with some of these guys is the right choice here and this is not including people who are not going to make the NHL team out of Camp other trades other things happening this is a team that I’m excited about and with pascow vinal there I’m very excited to see what they are able to do with this the one of the biggest notes out of this whole press conference though and Jared book pointed this out to me too is that they ended up with this new coach because at the time when they went into the off season there were two job openings that didn’t exist the Clarkson job and the Columbus Blue Jackets job uh the Columbus Job obviously was uh P gon was fired shortly after Jean Fran w h parted ways with the rocket to go back to Clarkson him going to Clarkson allowed the Canadians to hire Pascal Vin whose position was now open there and as it turns out they negotiated to bring back Jean France wul but if I am understanding the prop this tweet correctly is that uh Beno guu was their Top Choice and they approached him but he had just made contact or was in the process of negotiating his deal to go to the KHL so my thought is that they originally wanted to bring Ben wagu in to coach the rocket which also would have been an incredible hit for them as someone who has watched a lot of games against Ben wagu related teams they are a nightmare to play against quite frankly uh they are nasty they score a lot of goals maybe not always the best defensively but Ben wagu got a lot out of those Syracuse Crunch teams a very frustrating man to play against uh I think he would have been a good coach but Pascal V Sal I think is a huge win out of this not to say that these coaches coming from the qm JL also didn’t have uh strong records but I think picking the established coach is probably the right call here for a team that is looking to get back into the playoffs it’s going to be a really exciting season overall with that and it’s not one less thing for Kent Hughes to potentially worry about in terms of uh coaching and everything we’re going to jump into the other opening coaching the other open coaching spot in the Canadians roster coming up next but first Today’s Show is of course brought by the folks defendu and I love sports and I never ever want them to stop with the NHL playoffs over the NBA Playoffs over the Copa uh Euros everything we get fewer games and the sports aren’t sporting like I want them to but FanDuel lets me keep the sports going whenever I want all I have to do is open up the app and dream up bets any time I’m in the mood and this summer FanDuel is hooking up all 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fair and okay with me the question now becomes do the Canadians want to fill his role on the bench because I’m not 100% sure what it was it was the power play guy sometimes it was I think the forward coach but Trevor latowski was coaching the forwards I know Stefan robida is likely coaching the defenseman as he is on an island as the only defenseman on the bench and marttin St Lou also apparently had a hand in working on the power play so I’m not 100% sure what Alex Burrow’s defined role on this team was but I’m curious if they fill that behind the bench because they have their three coaches they have martan St Louie they have Trevor lowski and they have Stefan robida and they have Eric Raymond the go tending coach who’s likely up above watching everything go down there with uh their video staff for challenges and whatnot and uh the other uh assistants and such who work behind the scenes there I apologize for not knowing their names off the top of my head my first thought is they might not fill it at all and they may hire a consultant or someone else in that role maybe find somebody on the way up my thought is if they’re going to hire a coach to specifically work on one thing or the other is I am very curious about the name gibus who has left the Montreal or not he has left the Montreal Canadians organization once went on to pretty decent uh success for a little while and then kind of filtered out there uh who left the Toronto Maple Leafs organization where he was working I believe as one of their assistant or special teams coaches and I wonder about them bringing Gib in in that role as a very as a specialist not a defined coach in that way I mean with the title of a coach but as a guy who specializes in one thing uh because before he got after he left Ottawa and was hired by Toronto he was on I believe it was RDS or it was Tava I’m not sure which one it is please correct me if you remember which one it was breaking things down and he did so in a way that was very acute it was very smart and it was very easy to understand and everything and I’m very curious if that is enough to can he bring that to Montreal and into a form that allows the Canadians to kind of regulate their special teams I’m not asking them to be the best in the league at both of these things it would be awesome if they could be the best in the league at one of these things or the other truly it would but I am not asking for miracles out of nothing I am not I’m not feeding a crowd at the Sea of Galilee here I’m asking for an above average power play let’s say 13th 14th in the league and a penalty kill that isn’t in the bottom third that’s all I’m asking for this year and I wonder if Gib is that guy behind the bench where like we’re going to give you this singular Focus that you can break down the game and use because he’s very clearly a smart person it might just be that head coaching is not his thing and we’ve seen a lot of that in the NHL svan LEF and yes everyone knows that I’m not a fan of his was a by all accounts a very bad AHL head coach he just was coaching with the Florida Panthers and want a Stanley Cup with that defense yes players on that defense likely much better than what he was playing with in uh Hamilton and St John and in lval but at the same time this is a guy who could not coach his way out of a paperback but has turned that flirta defense into a very fearsome group overall which maybe some of it’s bosski I don’t know sometimes reassigning a coach in a role makes all the difference in the world and allows them to transition I look at Pascal V maybe not an NHL head coach but a pretty quality AHL coach gbus is is one of those things that sticks in the back of my mind there is that can he do this I’m also wondering do they go for a a bigger fish I believe it was Mike oand and I were talking in DMS he said what about the Abbott brothers from Sweden who uh were let go there and I I know Kent Hughes likes to think out of the box uh with things but I I can’t stop shaking making that name there uh of it being gius and I know to expect the unexpected I almost expect to now at the end of the week wake up and see we’ve hired Jake Woodcraft as an associate coach or an assistant coach at which point awesome that’s super cool I love that uh but if not a coach I wonder if bushe could be hired as a consultant like I was talking about someone who’s not on the bench but someone that they’re like hey you’re going to be our specialist for this we want to put you uh up in the box there where you’re watching things break down a little bit and then bring and pass that along to hey tell Kirby do to shift a little bit here there’s open space here when you know this is what the tendency of the PK is doing this is what we need to set up with on the power play from up above where he can use that full ice to break down what he’s seeing and that can be applied to all game not just the power play or the penalty kill as a con as a consultant I think that that wouldn’t be the worst possible role for him and I know everyone’s be like ah he’s passed his due he’s passed his due he’s passed his due I I think that Kent Hughes and Jeff Gordon like to think outside the box and that hiring an associate like that or a consultant like that might be the way forward I might I don’t think it’ll be a coach though I am almost leaning towards they’re not going to hire a coach that they will hire a consultant someone to be in that Consulting role to to get this team where it needs to be whether they call it Player Development or professional Player Development or something they they’re happy to invest this time and money into that because they want to get this team to the next level we want to get we as fans want to see this team get to the next level and part of that does in fact include hey we got to fix the power play a little bit this year you’re going to have a really strong top six this season deid off coming over next year you’re going to have another full year of Lane Hutson this year you’re going to have a lot of talent that you’re going to need to be able to work with here and someone like gush was worked with a very with a Tampa team that was young Stam Coast coming into that next Generation ottawa’s power play if I remember correctly was also very good under gibus Toronto sometimes I think it’s up here uh and some of that was just regular coaching which is a Sheldon Keefe thing we’ll see what that looks like after bushe has left this year I’m just curious if a consultant role might fit guche on the bench there he’s also legitimately he played with Mar or he coached martan St Louie someone that Marty is very familiar with and if that’s someone that you’re happy to be working with he played against Stefan roy. to played against Alex Bros if it’s someone you’ve worked with and you know their thing if it’s going to fit your style I think that that’s going to be a huge dividing point in this because if martan St Lou gives the thumbs up guess what gibus on the bench two decades after he probably should have been uh maybe not two decades decade and a half whenever it was that he was supposed to be promoted up from Hamilton and they let him go uh with Julian brebach Etc I’m curious what happens there because now that there’s the head coach in place in lval I think we’re going to get a rash of other things happening in terms of player moves going forward and uh I can’t wait I’m hoping this was The Floodgate for Kent hughes’s summer of Kent uh we are going to we’re going to switch gears back to the AHL for a moment though because the AHL schedule is out and it’s time for all to early predictions coming up in our next segment we’re always driven by the search for better but when it comes to hiring the best way to search for a candidate isn’t to search at all don’t search match with indeed and if you need to hire you need indeed because indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million 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getting stuck with the AHL or maybe not stuck maybe that’s the wrong word because I know a lot of you love the AHL the schedule came out last week and I was going to probably do a show about this but I was waiting for any potential weekend news before I jumped into this uh as always the Laval rocket schedule is pretty nailed down there’s not too much different than there was uh last year in this they only play one team where they are traveling west uh into the Western Conference and that’s the abbottsford Canucks once again I’m looking at this schedule and are I should say Manitoba is in there too but they’re Central in Canada without an airport anyways besides the point uh I want to do some Alto early predictions and the way that I look at this schedule what you know the rocket can do to rebound after missing the playoffs in the last week of the season last year they have two preseason games one against Belleville on the fourth one against the Toronto Marley’s on the 5th and then they open up their season on the road in Providence on Friday the 11th in October and then at Springfield on the 12th they are home the following weekend for their home opener on the 18th and 19th Friday and Saturday against Syracuse then they play three games against UDA at end that month uh the 25th 26th and the 30th on a Wednesday night uh Home Away Home which why they are traveling to UA after playing on Friday night I will never understand that’s a brutal travel jump there it’s a pretty tough start there UDA always plays them well Syracuse is a nightmare Providence and Springfield play them tough and then two preseason games that are usually a little bit fighty and then as I look at this schedule uh it’s mostly Friday and Saturday with some Wednesday night games spread out in there a couple of Sunday and Monday games depending on uh holidays and whatnot November is two games home against Providence two games away at Belleville Rochester Syracuse Rochester away in one week Rochester home home Belleville away Belleville at Hershey at wils Berry at Lehigh Valley to end November their Pennsylvania Road Trip the two biggest months on the schedule that I’m looking at are March they have just two away games that they play away in UDA and they are home against Belleville UDA two home games against the amers home against the Islanders home against the Marley’s home against uh the monsters in a backtack and then home against the Marley’s and the Phantoms March is usually when this it kind of becomes maker break for the playoffs here that many home games where plas spel is a fortress if they are playing that well is massive that’s a good chance that if you’re making up ground with those fans in front of you that you’re doing it over Belleville udica Rochester Toronto Cleveland those are all divisional games those are important April where they end the month is probably one of their harder bits they start the month away in Manitoba where they are playing a Tuesday and Wednesday night backto back off for two days to travel to Abbotsford for a Saturday Sunday back to back on the road traveling then to Rochester and Syracuse back to back all of these games on the road to start the most critical month of the year and only two of them are divisional games so when they lose if these are those teams are winning it’s a potential double whammy here and then they end it with Belleville home Belleville home Belleville away three games against the Senators a team they were battling tooth and nail to end last year with there’s a reason why I’m putting such an emphasis on March because if you build if you’re tracking into a playoff spot then you’re sitting in one there and you have a successful March April doesn’t become as pre as pressure cookery and I know that’s not a word but it’s what you’re getting out of this I look at that and that if they have a successful March and let’s say that they win let’s see they have one two so they have three six nine 12 games win 10 out of 12 in March entirely feasible and you’re in a good spot aiming for 500 in April with they always have a tough going Abbotsford Rochester and Syracuse are always hard and those three games against Belleville a team that they no matter what happens throw any logic out the window it’s going to be it’s going to be a battle down the stretch there give yourself that cushion so you are not playing like you were dangling over a volcano the entire time uh in terms of all to early predictions I think that yakob doish in a reduced role this year a little bit will probably be better for him I think he’s going to hopefully hit the ground running sooner than he did last year that adjustment season is completed having Conor Hughes as a backup I think will help him in a lot of ways here and I think you’re going to watch a guy like David reinbacher play a lot and I think you’re going to see some pretty solid Point totals out of that I look at this roster that I’m expecting I am hoping for a huge Year from both Shan Ferrell and Riley kidney I’m hoping Riley kidney can step up after his first full professional season and Shawn frell had his flashes just when he got injured it threw everything out of whack here a rebound year for emel heinan where he’s not just a a Power Play Weapon would be massive somebody’s going to need to step up in that role I don’t expect Brandon gyac to be a point per game player again next year it would be very cool if he was but I don’t expect that and the biggest thing is clamping down on the penalties I still think this is going to be a team that’s very high in penalty minutes there’s a lot of guys on this team that will absolutely love to throw down Florian Jacky alone is going to give you is probably going to make up all those penalty minutes from the departed Riley McKay uh on this team a guy like Vincent Arseno is also a tough guy out there Tyler Witherspoon who’s been around for a while very well might wear the sea this year for the rocket as the true veteran I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes to Brandon giny who would absolutely have earned that I should actually look at what that the what the rocket roster is going to look like here for you uh I would not be with Gabriel bour not back this season I am looking at this defense and I’m looking at this team I would not be surprised if uh you’re going to have a letter on Brandon giny on potentially William Trudeau or Tyler wther spoon and letter on maybe Lauren dolane potentially too I think Larry dolphins being a guy who was here before and has come back absolutely has earned the has earned the right to wear that letter he’s on an AHL deal so you don’t have to worry about him getting called up uh like what happened with Alex belil I can absolutely see doam being your Captain this year or Tyler Witherspoon I would assume they would potentially go with uh the more local player in that there’s obviously you know big part that plays into that uh your leading score on your team this year looking over this right now I’m gonna go out of my way and say the leading score on this team will be Logan Mayu depending on how the Canadian uh defense shapes up I think drives so much offense from the back end that no matter what even if it’s spread out amongst the forwards Mayu is going to be that guy collecting a lot of points there I do think that this is going to be a huge year for Xavier Simo and Shan frell and also I think Luke tuck is a guy that might have a potential breakout here Flor and Jacky is going to lead this team in penalty minutes I don’t think that’ll be close I still think he’ll chip in 10 to 12 goals at the bare minimum all too early predictions and because I won’t be on this podcast by the time next season ends you can’t yell me on this show so I want to hear your AHL predictions for next year remember to just tweet them at gmail.com make sure you are following us wherever you get your daily podcast Google Apple Spotify or here on youtube.com as well you can follow me on Twitter scottm you can follow my co-host at the Active stick we will be back tomorrow I assume there will be more news now that Kent Hughes has uh gotten back from vacation let’s say as always thank you so much for listening and folks we will see you all next time
Inside the latest Locked on Canadiens
The Laval Rocket have finally found their new head coach hiring former Columbus head coach, Pascal Vincent. For the Rocket it’s a huge get as they’re bringing in a coach with established AHL credentials to help bring them to the next level. Scott goes through the hire, and some of the other news surrounding it to kick off the show!
Speaking of coaches, Scott wonders whether or not Guy Boucher might end up being the right guy to take over for Alex Burrows behind the bench. If not there, could the former rising star from the Habs AHL system be a fit as a consultant only?
To wrap up the show, with Pascal Vincent now hired and his assistants in place, Scott takes a look at the Rocket AHL schedule and makes some potentially way too early predictions about the upcoming season for the Laval Rocket.
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