‘It sucked the way it ended,' Laval head coach Pascal Vincent says of Rocket's playoff exit
Laval Rocket
The Laval Rocket's season had barely ended before speculation began that the club could be seeking another head coach this summer.
After finishing first overall in the AHL and winning a franchise-high 48 regular-season games, Pascal Vincent knew there would be conjecture revolving around his future with Laval — especially because he has already been an NHL head coach with Columbus.
And while the Laval native hasn't hidden his affinity for being in the Canadiens' organization, the 53-year-old didn't close the door on a return to the NHL — even as an assistant.
'I'm a head coach. I've figured that out,' Vincent said during the Rocket's season-ending availability at Place Bell after the team was swept Tuesday by Charlotte in the Eastern Conference final. 'I'm a good assistant coach, too. Having said that, it would depend on the organization. Where they're at, whom I'm working with. Am I going to learn? Am I going to be excited to go to the rink every day? I've done it in the NHL.
'If I feel there's an opportunity where I keep growing, enjoy my time there and it's the right fit ... there's a lot of coaches and not many jobs. When it happens, and you have an opportunity, you've got to think about it. To leave this organization, it's going to take an offer I can't refuse. I don't know if it's going to happen, but right now I'm here.'
Vincent also spent five seasons as an assistant with Winnipeg and already has been linked to potential supporting coaching roles with the Tampa Bay Lightning and with the New York Islanders. After being fired last June by the Blue Jackets after one season, he was unemployed for only one month, hired by Laval to replace Jean-François Houle, who returned to his Clarkson University alma mater. Vincent said he's not actively pursuing a promotion to the NHL.
Vincent was named AHL coach of the year after guiding the Rocket to a 48-19-5 record. And while Laval dispatched Cleveland and Rochester in the playoffs, Charlotte exposed the Rocket's weaknesses, beating the team handily in the first three games while outscoring Laval 15-4.
While the Rocket succumbed to a more experienced team filled with NHL veterans, it was also missing injured defencemen William Trudeau and Tyler Wotherspoon. And centre Laurent Dauphin, who scored a team-leading five goals in 11 playoff games, didn't return after sustaining a concussion in Game 2 against the Checkers.
'Coming into this year, nobody really expected us to do too much,' Laval captain Lucas Condotta said. 'To win the league was very special. We're a young team. A lot of guys learned a lot of things. Going that far meant a lot. We'll all grow from this. Obviously, you want to win the whole thing. It sucked the way it ended. To go out four straight, that really wasn't us. Charlotte's a good team that got hot at the right time. I wish we could have done a lot better. It sucked after the season we had.'
Because the AHL has an unbalanced schedule, 45 of Laval's 72 games were played within its own North Division. Laval didn't meet Charlotte during the regular season, relying only on video before the series commenced.
'For sure, we thought we could go to the final and win it all,' veteran forward Brandon Gignac said. 'We finished first overall for a reason. We had such good chemistry and a good team. It's unfortunate, but Charlotte has a really good team. We never played against them. They deserved it.'
With Laval goals coming at a premium against Charlotte's Kaapo Kahkonen, who spent four seasons in the NHL with Minnesota and San Jose, the Rocket had to seize opportunities. Forward Alex Barré-Boulet couldn't convert first-period breakaways in each of the last two games.
'I missed those two breakaways but, at the same time, we lost 4-0,' he said. 'It might have changed a game or two — hopefully it would have — but I won't think too much about it. We didn't get many bounces, but it's hockey, it happens. It doesn't take away from our season. No one saw us finishing first overall. At training camp, we thought it was going to be a hard year, although I was confident. I think we surprised a lot of people this year.'
Forward Owen Beck won the Memorial Cup last season with Saginaw, before playing 12 games as a rookie with the Canadiens. He understands what's involved to win a championship and believes Laval's many injuries became too much to overcome.
'They were ready to go from the jump of that series and I think it caught us off-guard, having not played them,' he said. 'It just wasn't in the cards for us this year. We weren't quite ourselves at the right time.'
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