J.J. Daigneault has pretty much seen it all in hockey.
He played and coached in the NHL and AHL for a combined 31 years and knows the game inside out. Now that he’s back in the QMJHL for the first time since being a star player in the league in the early 1980s, it’s coming back to him how much work and improvement it takes to get from there to the pros.
“It’s amazing the amount of teaching and patience that’s required at the junior level,” said the Halifax Mooseheads head coach. “It’s a big adjustment for me but it’s also a fun and challenging adjustment that I need to make to teach these kids about the defensive structure and offensive structure.
“That’s the one thing that I’ve noticed from the kids coming out of junior A or midget programs,” he added. “These kids were probably dominant at the level they played at and at times they’re coming down and do too much and try to beat defencemen one-on-one. We had to deal with that at the AHL level with junior kids and college kids coming up from where they were dominant. But it’s not the same game. Defencemen in the Q are good, just like defencemen in the AHL and the NHL are good. You have to alter your game and make better decisions. This is one of the things I’m trying to teach our young kids, it’s to manage their game instead of winning their battles on the rush 80 per cent of the time.”
The mix of players on the Mooseheads is also something of a perfect storm this year. They have a core of individuals who are some of the very best veterans in the league but there’s also a large group of raw rookies and sophomores. The range of education required is as wide as you see at this level.
“That’s a big difference from last year where the team was much older with a lot of 19-year-olds and the direction that the team knew it was going,” Daigneault said. “It’s a much different landscape this year but so far I’m pleased with what I’ve seen in games. The execution is not now what it will be a few months into the season. There’s a lot of room for improvement. There are a lot of rookies that have come from other teams so they’re learning new systems and more systems and more structure. That takes time. But I like what I see.”
Daigneault is also getting used to the peculiarities of the QMJHL pre-season. There is the mid-August start, necessitated by enrolment deadlines for the league’s Quebec college (CEGEP) students, followed by the annual departure of players attending pro camps.
Raphael Lavoie, Jared McIsaac, Maxim Trepanier, BO Groulx, Alexis Gravel and Walter Flower have all missed time and are trickling back leading up to the Mooseheads’ season opener on Friday against the Saint John Sea Dogs on the road.
“That’s a challenge for us,” Daigneault said. “We lost six players to NHL camps and we have to get these guys up to speed when they get back. We have to sit down with them and say ‘You’ve been gone for 10 days, this is what we saw while you were gone.’ They might not have the chance to practice but obviously they’re going to see what has gone on and what systems they need to learn.”
Otherwise, Daigneault sounds like he’s really embracing his first chance to be in charge of a team’s identity and habits. He clearly had his share of influence and input as a long-time assistant but it’s not the same as being the head coach.
“For us, the rink culture is that you’re going to be coming down there for three hours every day and we’re looking to practice excellence every day,” he said. “Practising excellence is having a good attitude and coming to the rink looking to improve on a daily basis. That’s the goal for us individually and it’s the goal for the team as well. When we talk to kids when they’re working out or on the ice, we’re asking them to have that commitment to a common goal. Our goal is to not only be successful but also improve on a daily basis and learn from winning but also learn from losing.”
And Daigneault once again reiterated that he won’t necessarily be a defence-first strategist, despite his 15 NHL seasons on the blueline for 10 teams. He prizes quickness above anything else, for everything from mental processing to moving the puck up the ice to each individual’s athleticism.
“We want to be a puck possession team, and if we are, that should take care of defence. When you have the puck, you don’t need to defend,” he said. “Obviously we’d like to be sound defensively and I think we have the back side and the goaltending to do so. But it’s not only one goalie or three guys back there that will make your team successful defensively, it has to be a six-man unit. We want to play fast and we want to play a 200-foot game and make the right decisions once we have the puck.”
MORE ON THE MOOSE:
- Mooseheads' Barron ranked as potential NHL first-rounder
- Mooseheads coach J.J. Daigneault gets back to basics
- Mooseheads close pre-season with loss to Wildcats
A LOOK AT THE SCREAMING EAGLES:
- Cape Breton Eagles officially announce roster for 2019-20 QMJHL season
- Young players impress, earn spots on Cape Breton Eagles roster
- Eagles wrap up pre-season with win over Sea Dogs
A LOOK AT THE CHARLOTTETOWN ISLANDERS:
