LNAH ‘goon league’ is cleaning up its act
Lockout has boosted level of hockey
CORNWALL, ONT. —
On a crisp November night, the wind is whipping off the St. Lawrence and buffeting fans as they walk from the parking lot to the comfort of the Ed Lumley Arena.
The city’s hockey heritage is reflected in murals honouring local heroes. There’s Canadiens legend Newsy Lalonde, Doug Gilmour and Hall of Famer Dale Hawerchuk, who led the Cornwall Royals to back-to-back Memorial Cup wins. But the attraction tonight is a game between the Cornwall River Kings and Jonquière Marquis in the Ligue Nord Américaine de Hockey.
The first thing you notice is that this is not your father’s LNAH. The last time the National Hockey League was locked out, the LNAH was known for brawls that were straight out of the WWE playbook.
Noted hockey fighters like Link Gaetz and Frankie (The Animal) Bialowas shared top billing with goons who had trouble skating. Steve Bossé, who played for the defunct Verdun Dragons, used hockey as the launching pad for a career in mixed martial arts.
Donald Brashear, a true heavyweight who played for Quebec Radio-X, refused to take part in the charade and, after a relatively tame contest at the Bell Centre, a Verdun team official unleashed an obscene, racist verbal attack on Brashear for not “putting on a show.”
There are now seven teams in the LNAH, including TroisRivières, Rivière-du-Loup, St-Georges, Thetford and SorelTracy.
“The league has been cleaned up,” said Patrick Lacelle, who serves as the River Kings’ governor, chief scout and public relations point man. “We still have brawls, but not like before.”
There are two fights on this evening and the main event pits Cornwall’s Francis Lessard against Martin Grenier. They have heavyweight credentials. Lessard once racked up 416 penalty minutes in the American Hockey League, while Grenier had 479 while playing for the Quebec Remparts.
But both players have had a taste of the NHL — Lessard was with the Ottawa Senators as recently as two years ago — and both played a regular shift.
“The tough guys can play,” said Cornwall’s Yves Sarault, whose NHL credentials include a stint with the Canadiens in the mid-1990s. “The hockey is pretty good, and with the lockout this year everybody gets pushed down and that makes this league better.”
Each team in the LNAH has a handful of players who have enjoyed at least a cup of coffee in the NHL. There are former first-round draft picks and players whose careers are defined by the places they’ve been.
Sarault, who turns 40 this month, has played for 29 different teams in five countries. His résumé is highlighted by 106 NHL games, including 22 with the Canadiens in the tumultuous time after their last Stanley Cup win in 1993.
“I was there before the Patrick Roy fiasco,” Sarault recalled. “I was a young guy and I didn’t know what they expected of me. I was chasing around and hitting everybody. Looking back, I could have done better than that.”
Sarault, who grew up in Valleyfield, says he retired about three years after the better part of a decade playing in Europe. He coached one year in Moncton, and when he isn’t playing for the River Kings he works with the hockey program at a local high school that his son attends.
“I still enjoy playing and it helps that transition where you’re done playing but you get used to a certain lifestyle,” Sarault said. “Obviously, when you start out, you want to achieve a little. I was hoping to stick longer in the NHL, but I tell my kids I did everything I could on and off the ice. I disciplined myself to give me the best chance I had.”
Sarault was a forward in the NHL, but today he patrols the blue line for the River Kings while serving as a leader on the ice.
He gets a goal and two assists against Jonquière and is the game’s second star.
The first star on this night is a towering defenceman named Sacha Pokulok. The 25-year-old from Vaudreuil scores two goals, including one on a wraparound, and adds two assists in the 5-4 victory.
His dominant performance isn’t a surprise because Pokulok is a thoroughbred who was once destined for an NHL career.
The 6-foot-5, 229-pounder played at Notre Dame College in Saskatchewan and then headed to Cornell University. He was named to the ECAC All-Rookie team in 2005, and the Washington Capitals selected him with the 14th overall pick at the NHL entry draft later that year. Pokulok had an outstanding sophomore year as Ryan O’Byrne’s defence partner at Cornell and both of them left school in 2006 to pursue professional careers.
Pokulok had a strong training camp, but the Capitals sent him to their American Hockey League farm club in Hershey, Pa., for seasoning. His NHL dreams ended in his first pro game.
“I got a concussion and I missed five months,” Pokulok said. “It was a clean hit, but I had my head down. I kinda learned from that. I came back too quick and got another concussion, and I’ve had a bunch more, and I went downhill from there.”
Pokulok said he’s aware of the potential danger of further concussions, but says he has learned to avoid trouble by trying “to use my body a bit more and keep my head up.”
Pokulok spent several years bouncing between the AHL and the East Coast Hockey League before heading to Europe. He played one year in Germany and one year with the Zagreb team in the Austrian League. While Pokulok took advantage of the experience to see Europe, the hockey was a different matter.
“Things weren’t going as well as I planned and I felt it was time to turn a page in my life and start something new, start real life,” he said. “I saw the opportunity to play here and it was great. You get the opportunity to play hockey on weekends.
“I have a job, but I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with my life,” Pokulok said.
“I have a bunch of options. Going from pro hockey to real life is difficult. With hockey, you practise and come home at noon and you have nothing to do. For me, it’s a change of routine. Now, it’s working 8-5.”
Pokulok is philosophical when asked whether he has any regrets about his hockey career.
“I don’t think about the past,” he said. “It was disappointing, but if I dwell on it, I’m going to be miserable for the rest of my life.”