Lefebvre keeps level head with Rocket grounded
Sylvain Lefebvre doesn’t know if he will be back next season as head coach of the Laval Rocket, a team that has the worst record in the AHL (24-40-10) with two games remaining in the regular season.
“I haven’t talked to anybody,” Lefebvre said about the Canadiens’ management team after the Rocket practised Thursday morning at Place Bell. “I’m a guy who lives the moment. I know life will take me where I need to be. If it’s to come back here in Laval, I will give everything I have just like I did the past six years. I love my job, I do it with passion. I come to the rink every day and I know I’m going to learn every day. I know it’s been a tough go, but I’ve learned so much. It’s unbelievable how much I’ve learned and how much the staff has learned. It’s when there’s adversity and when there’s tough times that you learn the most, most of the time.”
The Canadiens’ farm team has made the AHL playoffs only once in six years with Lefebvre as head coach, losing in the first round last year as the St. John’s IceCaps before the franchise moved to Laval.
Lefebvre’s job has not been easy this season with the Canadiens calling up so many players from Laval because of injuries. The Rocket is winless in its last 10 games (08-2) heading into the final home game of the season Friday against the Toronto Marlies, the best team in the AHL with a 51-18-4 record.
“Early in the season, it made a big dent when three or four guys got called up and then losing our captain (Byron Froese) just after we named him ... we never saw those guys again,” Lefebvre said.
“A lot of people don’t understand the dynamic of guys getting called up and sent down and what those young players have to go through psychologically to overcome that. It’s not easy. It’s the same everywhere, but obviously we did not plan at the start of the year to have so many guys up in the NHL and then we had to scramble at times to find guys to come and play for us.”
After the Canadiens’ season ended, defenceman Brett Lernout and forwards Michael McCarron and Kerby Rychel were assigned to the Rocket.
After two years in St. John’s and three before that in Hamilton, the 50-year-old Lefebvre said it was a blessing for him and his family when the Canadiens’ AHL franchise moved to Laval this season and he could be close to his four children and two grandchildren, who live five minutes away from Place Bell.
“It’s been a blessing because after a tough game when they’re there waiting for you with a big smile on (their) face and happy to see you, it puts things in perspective,” Lefebvre said about his grandchildren, who are two and 14 months old.
Lefebvre also has a home in the Eastern Townships he was able to drive to on off days.
“I have some land and I would put on my snowshoes and go for a walk and it kept me grounded, kept me sane,” he said.
The tragic bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos junior team April 6 in Saskatchewan that killed 16 people and seriously injured 13 others also helped put things in perspective for Lefebvre, who still does the majority of travelling with the Rocket on buses.
“When tragedies happen like the Humboldt team, it makes you appreciate what you have and realize that life ain’t so bad,” Lefebvre said. “We always bus … the only time we fly is when we go to Winnipeg and Charlotte.”
Lefebvre should find out soon if he will be back on the bus with the Rocket next season.