(Trois-Rivières) Eighty. This is the number of players who have played at least one game with the Trois-Rivières Lions this season. The equivalent of four full teams.
Posted at 7:45 a.m.
A record? Most likely. At least, I haven’t found anything better in the great grimoire of professional hockey.
“Seriously, it was completely crazy,” says head coach Éric Bélanger. “One day, I ran into a guy in the arena parking lot. I asked him if he was playing for us tonight. He replied yes. Everything was going so fast, I didn’t even know it! »
How did the Lions get here?
This was the result of a cascade of problems. Kind of like in the movie The Fair of Misfortunes, with Tom Hanks, when the house collapses. First there were recalls. Then injuries. Then the shenanigans of the opponents. Then COVID-19. Then outfitting clubs turned off the tap. “At one point, says general manager Marc-André Bergeron, we weren’t even choosing the players anymore. We took those who were available the same evening. »
PHOTO FRANÇOIS GERVAIS, LE NOUVELLISTE ARCHIVES
Marc-André Bergeron, general manager of the Trois-Rivières Lions
For neophytes, the Lions do not evolve in a garage league. It is a third division professional team, associated with the Montreal Canadiens and the Laval Rocket. Basically, when the Rocket needs a player, they’ll tap into the Lions roster. It is therefore normal for there to be staff turnover during the season. “Usually, a team in our league will need about 46 players, explains Éric Bélanger. But there, we have almost doubled. »
The troubles started in the first weeks of the season. The Canadian’s infirmary was overflowing. That of the Rocket too. Several Lions were called in as reinforcements. To replace them, Marc-André Bergeron called on players from the North American Hockey League (LNAH), a semi-professional circuit well established in Quebec.
“We are the newcomers to Quebec hockey. We wanted to be good partners. Out of respect for the LNAH clubs, we tried to take guys who weren’t playing the same night as us. Hence the high number of different players from the LNAH in the Lions roster.
So far all was well. Then opponents of the Lions began to peck them, like tiring little flies. How ? By claiming waivers from LNAH players, even though they knew very well that these semi-professionals had no intention of moving to Pennsylvania or Maine. Since these players refused their new assignment, they were automatically suspended. This forced the Lions to recall even more different players.
Marc-André Bergeron couldn’t believe it.
“If we also start to harm each other and put obstacles in the way between us, it’s a bit ridiculous,” he drops.
In our league, the teams are in trouble two or three weeks a year. At that time, you have to call the guy who lives next to the arena. But for us, it lasted… four months!
Marc-André Bergeron, general manager of the Trois-Rivières Lions
Because after the injuries and the shenanigans of the opponents, it was the COVID-19 that struck. Very strong. Do you remember, in December, when almost all the Rocket players were with the Canadian? Well, those of the Lions replaced them in Laval. And the replacements for the replacements, in Trois-Rivières, in turn fell ill. It happened during a trip to the United States. In order for the 11 infected people to return to the country, the club had to rent six U-Haul trucks.
Completely crazy?
Wait, the best is coming.
Once the COVID-19 episode was over, the club took another curveball. This time, from the LNAH clubs, who have decided to turn off the tap. No more reminders. Players who jumped the fence faced an 18-month suspension. Marc-André Bergeron therefore turned to the senior leagues in the region. Total transparency: at that time, he did not know the players.
“There is a limit to what I am able to see and know. I relied on the GMs and the coaches. I asked them, for example, a center capable of playing in numerical superiority. They know their league better than me. »
The guys played with heart. But the bar between the amateur and professional ranks was sometimes a bit high.
“The reality, explains Marc-André Bergeron, is that in senior AAA, there are guys who have good jobs. They may be less tempted to play hockey. They play less often than the LNAH, whereas at home, we are on the ice every day. When the guys play with each other on Friday nights in Louiseville, they don’t really realize it. But when you take their best player and put him with us, you realize the gap. It’s not that he’s not good enough. It’s because he’s gone somewhere else in his life. »
Through it all, the Lions have had a few experiences. A friend of Marc-André Bergeron, Jean-François David, 39, came to play three games – 10 years after playing his last game with the pros. Pierre-Luc Létourneau-Leblond, former New Jersey Devils badass, also came out of retirement, at age 36, for one game. Yes, he fought.
At one point, Marc-André and I wondered if we were going to come back to the game…
Éric Bélanger, head coach of the Trois-Rivières Lions
Really ? At 41 and 44?
“Yes, we thought about it. We thought that with three or four weeks of training, we could get back in shape. It took us a minimum of players. I could have played three or four shifts. But we couldn’t. A league rule prevents us from being players and managers at the same time. »
Éric Bélanger played 15 years with the pros, in four different countries. I asked him if he had ever experienced a similar situation elsewhere.
” Nope. Nowhere. Neither as a player nor as a coach. Look, it was one case after another. At one point, you wonder: hello, where will it stop? »
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Éric Bélanger, head coach of the Trois-Rivières Lions
Not easy for team spirit. Or to implement a game system and teach it to reservists who arrive at the arena a few hours before an important game. “That was the job of my assistant Pascal [Rhéaume], says Éric Bélanger. Pascal was very, very, very good at showing our system to new players. He did it… ”
Pascal Rhéaume’s head emerges from the door frame.
“…87 times! »
That’s the number of different players who have signed a contract with the Lions. Of this group, 80 have played at least one game, according to official statistics.
” Hat ! Credit also to the players. Honestly, they did very well. Thanks to them, we managed to get our heads above water. »
Better than that. Despite waves, storms and undertows, the Lions finished the season with 34 wins and 35 losses. Third in their division. An astonishing result for an expansion club. It even earned them a place in the playoffs, an achievement of which the leaders of the Lions are particularly proud.
“We were able to improvise and turn around on a dime,” explains Éric Bélanger. If I have one lesson to take away from the season, it’s that your planning has to be more than top notch. No matter how much you prepare for 25 hours in a row, at the 26and hour, you may have to start all over again because you have eight guys who get COVID, and six others who are called back to Laval. You have to be able to laugh about it too.
“Can you laugh about it?”
– There, I can. But when we slipped in the standings, it was more difficult. »
Marc-André Bergeron, he is happy to see that his vision for the Lions is functional. “The number of players from here that we have employed, we have proven that there is depth in Quebec. That we can win with Quebecers. At the start of the season, I had two wishes: to have a club made up mainly of Quebecers, and to win the last game of the season. The first objective is achieved. »
And the second?
“We still have a chance. »
The Lions host the Newfoundland Growlers on Tuesday and Thursday at the Colisée Vidéotron in Trois-Rivières.