(Hamden, Connecticut) Practice draws to a close this Thursday at noon at the Quinnipiac University sports center. Men’s team head coach Rand Pecknold rallies his troops at center ice.
The players place one knee on the ice. The coach utters a few inaudible words and concludes everything with a slogan for the weekend’s matches, both at home. Let’s take care of our rink. In other words, let’s make sure we win in front of our fans.
Then, the coaches leave, the players gather together, exchange a few words, then they all raise their sticks in the air, for a rallying cry, which begins with the classic one two.
This type of ritual is seen more and more among junior teams, and in a program focused on team culture, and where this culture seems to be more than an overused word, we should not be surprised by such practical. Even after an ordinary Thursday training, in the middle of November, four months before the playoffs.
Here we are with the Quinnipiac University Bobcats, reigning NCAA champions. A program that started from nothing, led by the same coach for 30 years, now successfully contending with the titans of Minnesota, Massachusetts and Michigan. And which has four Quebecers in its ranks.
John Lahey experienced the before and after at Quinnipiac University. He was president from 1987 to 2018.
“The joke in 1987 was if you knew how to pronounce Quinnipiac, you got in. And if you could spell it, you got a scholarship! », says the former administrator, laughing.
The college came from afar. “In 1987, it was a school of 2,000 students, who didn’t live on campus,” Lahey continues. We had 100 acres of land and only three special schools. Our endowment fund was $5 million, he lists.
“I knew that a school of 2,000 students, private, without public funding, was fragile. My goal was to transform this small college into a nationally recognized university. »
What about the hockey program? All the stories circulating about the early 1990s seem just as implausible as each other. For example :
• The university did not have its own arena, so home games were played in a high school arena. “We didn’t have a locker room to store the equipment. Players had to take their bags home. I felt bad for those who had roommates! », says Lahey. “It was pretty Mickey Mouse,” Pecknold concedes.
• At the first training camp run by Pecknold, in 1994, there were “17 skaters and 12 goalies,” Pecknold maintains. “I asked the goalies if they had ever played as skaters! »No one raised their hand, he assures.
• Training took place at midnight, “the only available time slot,” Pecknold relates. “In our second year, we had ice cream at 9:40 p.m. It was better, but not optimal. »
Pecknold himself was doing double duty. By day, he taught high school history, which he did until the program advanced to NCAA Division I in 1998.
For the average hockey fan, the name Quinnipiac remains unknown, because the stars to emerge from it are rare. There are only two college alumni in the NHL this season: Devon Toews and Connor Clifton. The Canadian has welcomed only one Bobcat in its history: the Franco-Ontarian Matthew Peca.
Additionally, the program’s name was never heard in the first round of the NHL draft, and only once in the second round. It was in 2003.
Yet Quinnipiac won the NCAA national championship last spring. It was his first title, but his third final in 10 years. Only Minnesota-Duluth has been there so often in the last decade.
Pecknold makes no secret of it: he too would like to attract the Logan Cooleys, the Adam Fantillis of this world. “The problem is that the best prospects all go to the same seven or eight colleges,” he laments. He’s not wrong here. In the last three drafts, 24 first-round picks have come through the American college system. Seventeen of them were grouped into three programs: Michigan (8), Minnesota (5) and Boston College (4).
“So we found a niche. The two things you need to be successful are a high hockey IQ and an elite level of character. We also look for talent, but it first takes these two elements. »
“You can’t really go out on Friday night,” admits forward Christophe Fillion, one of the four Quebecers on the team. If you want to have time for lunch, you have to get up at 5:15! He wants us to be rigorous, and that makes the team really tight. »
It is in the gym that this culture is transmitted. Charles-Alexis Legault, a prospect for the Carolina Hurricanes, arrived here in the summer of 2022. Fillion and the other Christophe, Tellier this one, took him under their wing. “We’re talking about culture… There are things you don’t want to do as a rookie,” recognizes Legault.
What the two Christophes showed him? “Details in the gym. You can’t sit down, you can’t put your hands on your knees. You have to stay upright. No cap, no collar, no gum. This is the standard.
“Being hunched over in the gym is bad because you don’t get as much oxygen. The cap is not professional. The gum, you can choke. It’s the same thing on the ice. The difference between us and the other teams is the margin that these details give us. You add them up and it makes a big difference. »
On the ice, the watchword is written in the locker room: 40 for 40. According to coach Rand Pecknold, in a game, there are on average 40 moments where players must retreat defensively. The standard is that players must fall back 40 times.
“We are a small team, but we work, we never miss a turn,” explains Christophe Tellier. We are disciplined, we are mature, we don’t fight ourselves. »
Details are another crucial element. The team relies on predetermined plays at each of the nine faceoff points. “We are structured, but we also give freedom. Here’s the plan: If it’s not there, make a game. It’s not robotic. But we want smart guys who can make play reads and react,” Pecknold maintains.
The winning goal in the final last spring was scored on a prepared play, called the “Jet”. “It’s a play that is designed for us to enter the offensive zone in possession of the puck,” explains Legault. That’s the goal, but sometimes it creates excess numbers. » In this case, it created a goal, and brought in a championship.
What about Pecknold in all this? With so many rules, one could imagine a coach with a military approach, especially since some find him cold, due to his obsession with details and video. We address the question at the end of the interview, when Christophe Tellier passes by. “Am I that distant? », he asks Tellier. The young man could hardly answer in the affirmative, but their warm handshake seemed very sincere.
“We value positive reinforcement,” explains the coach. For example, we are not good at hiding the guard’s view. Let’s say in a game we miss 10 chances to do it. On Monday, I’m not going to show these 10 games. I’m going to show the four times a guy did it, so they’ll say: I want to be in the video too!
“We’re going to show you your mistake in private, in a protected environment. Before, you showed it to him in front of his 27 teammates. The young man is humiliated. He understands, but it’s bad for confidence, the guy knows he’s missing the game that’s coming. I coached like that 20 years ago, like everyone else. It’s more personalized today. »
Pecknold is not alone in calling the shots. The physical trainer, Brijesh Patel, received praise from all the speakers he met. “He’s very positive. With him, it’s not good morning, it’s great morning,” explains goalkeeper Vincent Duplessis.
Collectively, the team produces results. Individually, the players find what they are looking for. Last spring, seven of them – a quarter of the program – signed professional contracts; one of them, Quebec goalie Yaniv Perets, landed an NHL contract.
And at school ? “It’s a small school, the student/teacher ratio is good. I didn’t want to be in classes of 300 students, where the teacher doesn’t know your name,” Fillion admitted.
The “3 1” program that Legault, Fillion and Tellier do in particular allows players to complete their baccalaureate and their MBA in four years. “They condense six years of schooling into four years,” Pecknold recalls.
It is therefore a well-oiled machine that is in place in this small college in Connecticut, in the backyard of the prestigious Yale University. An interesting option for those who see their career as a marathon, not a sprint.
Who would have believed it 30 years ago?
