2024-04-25 11:00:00
Unlike the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, Drummondville Voltigeurs or Victoriaville Tigres, the Cape Breton Eagles were not particularly anticipated as real contenders for major honors in the Maritimes Quebec Junior Hockey League this season.
The club certainly gambled on several interesting elements, including the first pick in the 2022 QMJHL draft, defenseman Tomas Lavoie and New Jersey Devils prospect Cam Squires, but the Eagles appeared to lack the experience to advance to the next level.
It must be said that the Eagles were excluded from the playoffs at the end of the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons before being swept away in four short games by the Halifax Mooseheads in the first round in 2022-2023. In short, they were still far from reaching their proverbial ceiling.
And yet, at the end of April, the Eagles are still in the running as they face Drakkar this evening in the first meeting of one of the two semi-finals. The other will pit the Voltigeurs once morest the Tigres starting Friday night at the Center Marcel Dionne in Drummondville.
This is the Eagles’ first semi-final appearance since 2007 (!), when Cam Fergus and Dean Ouellet filled the opposition net, the late Luc Bourdon was brought in to stabilize the defense and a certain Ondrej Pavelec was busy between the posts.
Drakkar, the winner of the Jean-Rougeau Trophy, is obviously the arch-favorite to win, but that doesn’t stop the Eagles from believing it, who finished the regular season with an irresistible streak of 16 wins in 17 games. From mid-February onwards they only suffered one setback…
“Our start to the season was difficult (the team played for .500 following 20 games, editor’s note), recalls head coach Louis Robitaille in a telephone interview with RDS.ca. But we had every reason to be optimistic, because there was already a very good core in place. »
Hired by the Eagles a few weeks following the end of his affiliation with the Gatineau Olympics, Robitaille quickly rose to the task. His goal was clear: to create a strong sense of belonging that would convince players to adapt to his new game system.
Robitaille has no problem identifying those who allowed him to achieve his goals: Jacob Newcombe (who began his season in mid-January following battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma), Lucas Romeo and Charles-Antoine Lavallée (who scored 15 goals in 37 games following he returned permanently to the club’s team in mid-December following a stay in junior A).
The Eagles began the series with a bang by first eliminating the Rimouski Océanic in five games in the first round before sweeping the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in four in the second. Squires and Newcombe have been among the top scorers since the start of the series, while Nicolas Ruccia dominates especially when it comes to average goals allowed.
“There are not many people who knew us and will learn to discover us [pendant la série contre le Drakkar], delights Robitaille. They are going to see a club that works hard without the puck, that is able to play physically but also to produce offensively. »
Robitaille is particularly proud of the work done on defense, which allows Ruccia, “a goaltender who grew up with the organization,” to finally get some attention. He also speaks extremely highly of his defensive brigade, one of the best on the Cecchini circuit.
“Young people have changed, their mentality has changed,” explains the forty-year-old, who played with the Montreal Rocket in the early 2000s before starting a professional career that took him to several countries in the American Hockey League in Cortina, Italy.
“We have to explain to them how we are going to help them, and it is impossible to achieve this without good communication,” continues the man who set it in motion. coaching in 2011 before eventually managing the Tigers, the Olympics and then the Eagles since this season. We need to preach a kind of partnership that will eventually allow them to achieve all the recognition they deserve. »
If no one expected the Eagles at the start of the season, there are still many who take them seriously and, perhaps more importantly, respect all the progress they have made.
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