It had been more than a month since Hendrix Lapierre had scored. A long wait of 13 games. The goal he scored on June 21, however, erased this scarcity, which we will never talk about again.
That net, scored late in the second period, tied the Hershey Bears after overcoming a 2-0 deficit in Game 7 of the American League Final. Two hours later, after a spectacular game concluded in overtime, the Washington Capitals farm club won the Calder Cup.
Lapierre couldn’t have found a better way to wrap up his first full pro season.
One could smile to hear a 21-year-old athlete speak like this about a career that is still in its infancy. For Lapierre, however, we will make an exception.
Including the season (60) and the playoffs (20), the Gatineau native has played 80 games in 2022-2023. A total comparable to his last three campaigns in the QMJHL…combined. A series of injuries and a calendar cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic had limited him to 97 games in three years in the junior ranks.
“It feels good”, he confessed during a discussion with La Presse, ten days ago, at the KR Classic, a charity event in which a few dozen players from the ranks took part. professionals.
“I had taken a lot of positives from my junior career, but I still had some regrets about what happened,” he continued. I had never played so many games before. Just for that, it’s been a great year. It allowed me to experience the ups and downs of a full season. And it ended well! »
The “ups and downs,” as he calls them, are those experienced by anyone who makes the leap from a junior league to a professional circuit – even for a player selected in the first round (22nd overall in 2020). In the American League, learning takes place through long bus trips and a grueling schedule that sometimes involves three games in three days.
Collectively, there’s not much to tell, as the Bears went 44-19-9 on the season. On a personal level, “sometimes it wasn’t going so well,” he points out, quickly adding that “it’s part of the game” and you have to “learn to deal with it.” There were “questions”. “It’s not true that it’s going well all the time,” insists the center player.
“When you play so much, you have to know how to manage your emotions, because you don’t have time to be too down or too excited after a game. You have to stay down to earth, stay consistent, work hard every day,” he says.
The presence of many veterans around him helped him keep a cool head. Especially that of goalkeeper Zachary Fucale, the only other Quebecer among the regular players of the formation.
Lapierre eventually had 30 points, including 15 goals, in 60 games during the season. A very honest production, especially knowing that he was the youngest striker in the team. Of the Capitals’ prospects, only Conor McMichael (39 points) has passed him in offensive production.
He would have welcomed a recall to the NHL, especially after having tasted it at the start of the previous season, the time of six games. Although he “stands ready” at all times, “it didn’t happen, and that’s fine.”
“Next season I’m going to try to be [in Washington] full time,” he promises.
A look at the Capitals’ roster suggests there will be few, if any, positions available in training camp. That said, depending on how the next season looks for this aging team, which has just missed the playoffs, a youthful turn could well take place before long.
For the first time in years, he is spending the summer at his home in the Outaouais, which allows him to spend time with his family and friends.
He hasn’t had a specific conversation with Capitals management about expectations for him in 2023-24, and he doesn’t mind.
Never before had he learned so much in one year, he said. So to have a summer in which, by his own admission, “not much” happens, it’s no worse.
Next season will come soon enough.
