by Justin Vézina | AHL On The Beat
It was an eventful summer for the Laval Rocket. After being eliminated from playoff contention in the last weekend of the 2023-24 season, the Montreal Canadiens’ top affiliate team had to find a new coach after Jean-François Houle left to pursue another opportunity.
Pascal Vincent, former coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the NHL and the Manitoba Moose in the AHL, was appointed head coach. Then more than a dozen players, including Alex Barré-Boulet, Tyler Wotherspoon and Adam Engström, joined the Rocket, and an entirely different team began the 2024-25 season.
Proof that it’s not the same group anymore? Last season, the Rocket won just two of their first 10 games. This season, it was nine wins in that span.
What’s more, the Laval club has a perfect record of six wins and no losses at home, and had a franchise-best eight-game winning streak before a loss in Belleville on Saturday.
The formula for success was straightforward, according to Vincent. It started long before the opening game when the tactician began referring to a certain “wolf pack” mentality.
“It started at the Canadiens camp,” Vincent explained. “It’s something that, as an organization, we want to do. The message here is to protect and support each other. We want to play in blocks of five. We protect, support and encourage each other. It’s an inclusive state of mind.”
This can be illustrated in concrete ways like when alternate captain Brandon Gignac, who had only one fighting major in more than 300 professional games, recently dropped the gloves in defense of teammate Joshua Roy.
But this group spirit can materialize in more subtle ways. It can be as simple as making sure your teammates are on time for team meetings.
And even if the definition of a wolf pack is broad, it’s crystal-clear in the dressing room.
“When you come into any team setting, the mindset is that you know you’re trying to accomplish the same goal,” said rookie forward Owen Beck. “Everybody here is really on the same page and we became close pretty quickly. That stems from hanging out with one another, doing community events or just enjoying your time or finding fun things to do around the rink. It could be playing ping pong or playing sewer ball or whatever.
“And then, obviously, when you have a coach that’s preaching that mentality, we stick together and stand up for one another. And on the ice or out in the world I think that it pushes every single one of us.”
In the end, the principle that Vincent has implemented in Laval is simply to be “a good teammate.”
This leveling-up is characteristic of the Rocket’s start to the season. Now they’ll have to keep it up for another 61 matches at the very least.