LAVAL – Something special is happening at Place Bell.
Laval Rocket fans have always been there to support their team, but there is something about the atmosphere of the American League playoffs that has added to the personality of this arena, this team, and the public. who supports it.
It’s much more festive than at the Bell Centre. It’s good-natured without necessarily being more family-friendly. This is the place where CH fans gather to watch hockey without it all becoming a national issue. Without taking the lead.
There is still hockey in the Montreal region, the 9 to 10,000 people who came over the last two days were well aware of it, and they intended to take advantage of it. More people are currently going to see the American League playoffs than in any market, and this enthusiasm is reflected throughout the circuit, underlined the commissioner of the AHL, Scott Howson.
The Rocket is less serious, it’s less “serious” than the Canadian, but the support for the team is passionate.
“Nobody loves hockey like the world in Quebec, I learned that this year,” said American defenseman Louie Belpedio Monday night after the Rocket’s 3-1 win over the Rochester Americans.
“I’ve never seen a crowd like that,” added Tobie Paquette-Bisson. Playing in Laval right now is incredible. »
Not only are these the first steps for the Rocket in the playoffs since settling in Laval, but it’s the first time in 11 years that the course of the club-school of the Canadian exceeds the first round.
Of course it makes a difference in the enthusiasm of the supporters. But it especially makes a difference on the ice, where more solid foundations finally seem to be in place.
For several years, the CH subsidiary operated on the basis of a very specific principle: the individual development of players came before victory. Preparing young people for the National League, with a view to making them long-term contributors to the Canadiens, was the fundamental mandate. Perhaps it was easier to think that way and bring the work back to each individual since too often the farm club didn’t have the horses to field a winning team.
Make no mistake, the Rocket is not yet a formation that is drawn by the best hopes of the Canadian. He’s not like the Rochester Americans, the team he just beat twice in 24 hours and is defined by his young first-round talents like Jack Quinn, Peyton Krebs and JJ Peterka, players who are seen as the future of the Buffalo Sabres.
Sunday night, in the first game of the series, it was American League veteran Danick Martel who distinguished himself by scoring four goals. On Monday, it was Belpedio and Brendan Gignac, two other players who saw Hershey’s America in San Diego, who scored the Rocket’s first two goals and were its best skaters.
There are certainly some draft picks from the Canadiens in the group, and a few players who will one day end up helping out in the NHL; but the Rocket are a seasoned, cantankerous group ready to do what it takes to win the playoffs.
“We are a complete team that works together and improves together,” said Paquette-Bisson.
Perhaps the Rocket will inherit recent first- and second-round picks next year, and eventually become a “big name” roster. But right now, on the Rochester side, the profile of Quinn, Krebs and others doesn’t change the fact that the Rocket is only one game away from the Conference Finals. The Amerks’ young stars are being silenced, there’s a lot of frustration in the air, and it’s the Rocket who are finally getting drunk with victory.
(Vitor Munhoz / NHLI via Rocket de Laval)
So what do the Cayden Primeaus of this world, the Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, the Jesse Ylönen, those who have a legitimate chance of moving up the ladder, get out of these playoffs?
They develop by winning, replied head coach Jean-François Houle.
And that is new.
“It’s very important to develop, but you have to win, insisted Houle, Monday evening. Look at the Tampa Bay Lightning. All of these players who are winning with Tampa Bay right now, they’ve won in the American League. This is where everyone pushes together and it gets contagious. It’s very important for the development of players, I even think it’s essential.
“It’s fine to develop, but when you lose all the time and it’s negative and the guys are frustrated, the environment is hard for a coach to control. When you win, the environment is more fun, everyone is happy, and you can grow in that a lot more than in a losing environment. »
Goaltender Cayden Primeau, who is currently living his best hours since joining the professionals, is the perfect example.
In terms of defeats and negatives, the 22-year-old goalkeeper knows a bit about it. His lowest moments were pitiful to watch, earlier this season, when he was called up by the Canadiens and absolutely nothing was working out. But it wasn’t just Primeau who was struggling. The whole team was in a losing streak and there is nothing in the National League experience that could benefit the young goaltender.
While back with the Rocket, in an environment where he belongs, Primeau was able to turn the page and begin a new chapter when the playoffs began.
“You have to know how to put everything behind you,” Primeau said Sunday night after a dominant performance in the first period of a 6-1 victory.
“I’ve tried over the past two years to focus on what’s happening here and now, not to look too far into the future or the past. And it’s a lot of fun right now. So I’ll just focus on now. »
Monday, it was in the second half of the game, after his teammates had slowed down their frantic pace, that Primeau really won.
“Throughout the year, whatever the pitfalls on his way, he was able to face them, and there his success is reflected, commented Belpedio. He may have just played the best game I’ve seen from a goalkeeper on any team I’ve played for. »
Primeau’s performance is both a cause and a consequence of a team that learned to win. Or who is ready to win.
If we go back four months, it would have been difficult to envisage the future of Primeau with much optimism. However, he is currently establishing himself as the cornerstone of a team that can aspire to the Calder Cup. The contrast is striking.
He has reached a stage where, at least on the American League scale, it is success that must drive him forward, and not just technical improvement. It is to be faced with challenges, to overcome them, and to be rewarded individually and collectively. Then increase his confidence, and resume in the next game.
No, the Canadian may not be full of aces in terms of high-level prospects currently in Laval. But the school club is doing its job awfully well when the organization’s main goalkeeper of the future, who could have survived the aftermath of a ruthless regular season, is given the opportunity and the tools to bounce back and he reached another level as Primeau did.
There is not a great distance separating the Bell Center and Place Bell, but it is sufficient for the rowdiness and murmurs to have died down and for Primeau to hear another crowd, warm and happy to be happy, chanting their name repeatedly.
May he continue to enjoy it. To grow by winning.
No rush.
(Photo: David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)