Laval Rocket head coach Pascal Vincent had a late start to the off-season and getting to know his players. He often joked with the media early in the season that they knew the players better than he did. He had not been around the American Hockey League for years, and had his hands full coaching in the NHL, after all.
One of the biggest mysteries he was trying to figure out was Sean Farrell.
On December 14, Farrell was playing his 23rd game of the season and the 23-year-old known for his offence was still looking for his first goal of the season. He was in and out of the lineup. The Rocket were very healthy for the first part of the season, and when opponents were bigger and tougher, it was usually Farrell who would sit out. In fairness to Farrell, he was usually more known as a playmaker than a finisher, but even then his stat line showed just two assists through 22 games.
He was quickly exiting the conversation as an NHL prospect, not only with a deep Montreal Canadiens organization, but NHL full stop. Yet another poster boy for a smaller player who couldn’t take the next step.
But still, there was one thing that ate at Vincent, Farrell’s new head coach.
“Early in the season, his intensity is right, his reads are good, execution, without the puck really good,” Vincent said on Friday night. “His routes are good. He’s disciplined. Practice habits, he’s A+ everywhere but he doesn’t bring it in games.”
“So I started to worry about, ‘what is he going to give us?,'” Vincent said.
Then, on December 14, in Hartford, Farrell finally scored his first goal of the season. Ultimately, a meaningless goal that made the score 3-2 in what turned out to be a 4-2 loss.
It was anything but meaningless to Farrell’s season.
“He scores that goal in Hartford and from there, he just took off,” Vincent said.
Including that night in Hartford, Farrell played 45 games after the initial 22. He had 42 points, and on Friday, against all odds, became a 20-goal scorer.
Even with the success, Vincent was quick to wonder if he should shoulder some of the blame for Farrell’s slow start. That game, he was put on a line with Rocket captain Lucas Condotta.
“When you play with him, you get going. Maybe I should have put him with Condo before, maybe that’s on me,” Vincent said. “But since then he’s just been amazing without losing or cheating the game when he doesn’t have the puck. He’s still back checking, he’s still blocking shots, he still has a good stick, his reads on the forecheck, he’s good.”
The Rocket, who clinched first place in the AHL on Friday, have Farrell firmly on their top line, with Laurent Dauphin and Alex Barré-Boulet.
“He’s a big reason why we finished first,” Vincent said.
“My game’s come a long way this year,” Farrell said. “It was definitely a really rocky start, I did my best to dig myself out of it, and now I’m fortunate to be playing with two really good players and I’ve been finding a lot of good spots and being able to get the puck in the back of the net.”
“I’ve never seen this,” Vincent said about the downs and ultimate ups of Farrell’s season.
Farrell was one of many regulars out of the lineup for the Rocket in their season finale on Saturday night in Belleville against the Senators. Florian Xhekaj scored twice, including the overtime winner in a 5-4 win.
Belleville, who was eliminated from playoff contention the night before by the Rocket in Laval, scored twice in the final 1:28 to push the game to overtime, but it was Laval who got the win despite playing several tryouts. Laval had four Ottawa Gee-Gee players signed to Amateur Try Out contracts for the game just so they had enough bodies to ice a full lineup and rest some of their top players.
Tyler Thorpe and Joe Dunlap played their first games in the AHL as well, and Jacob Fowler made 27 saves in the win. Owen Beck had a goal and an assist, and Thorpe had two assists in his professional debut. Luke Tuch and Noel Hoefenmayer also scored for Laval. Tyler Wotherspoon played his 72nd game out of 72 this season, and told Vincent that even if the coach would try to rest him he was going to be on the ice regardless.
The Rocket now have 10 days off as they wait to see their second round opponent following the best-of-three play-in series between the Toronto Marlies and Cleveland Monsters. If Cleveland wins, the Rocket will elect to start on the road and keep games three, four, and five at home as the top seed has the choice of 3-2 or 2-3 due to the length of travel. If Toronto wins, Laval will start at home in a regular 2-2-1 format.
