On July 31st the Oilers Rig posted part one of this two part series (Changes Part 1: an interview with General Manager Stan Marple) focusing on the changes coming for the University of Alberta Golden Bears for the 2016-17 season. For the second part of the series I had the pleasure of speaking with head coach Serge Lajoie. Lajoie is entering his second season as the University of Alberta’s head coach.
Coach Lajoie is a former Kamloops Blazer, St. Albert Saint, and University of Alberta Golden Bear player. He finished his playing career professionally in Europe playing four seasons for Bad Nauheim EC of Germany’s first division. Coach Lajoie won the national title (University Cup) with the Bears in 1992. During his playing career Lajoie played with many players who will be familiar to hockey fans:
- Mark Recchi (Kamloops)
- Rob Brown (Kamloops)
- Current Oilers assistant coach, former Bears head coach, and former Oilers player Ian Herbers (Bears)
- Former Oiler Cory Cross (Bears)
- Former Senators coach Cory Clouston (Bears)
- Current Bears general manager and former Bears coach Stan Marple (with both the Bears and the Saints)
- Moe Lemay (Bad Nauheim)
After finishing his playing career following the 1998 season Lajoie eventually found his way back to the Golden Bears as an assistant coach in 2006. During his stint as an assistant he added two more national championships. Coach Lajoie then moved across town to become the head coach at NAIT where he spent 5 seasons and captured two ACAC crowns (2013 & 2015). He then moved back to the U of A to become the head coach when Ian Herbers moved to the Oilers at the start the 2015-16 season.
This is the second time I’ve been fortunate enough to interview coach Lajoie. The first time was an audio interview just before last September’s the much hyped rookie game featuring Connor McDavid between the Bears and the Oilers. You can listen to the interview here. I remember that during that interview coach Lajoie commented on how it was amazing that relationships he made during his playing days have lasted- even from his short time with the Kamloops Blazers in the late 80’s.
I started our conversation asking the coach about how he felt about losing so many key players from last year’s squad. “We have some big holes to fill and those aren’t easy guys to replace,” was the coach’s initial response to losing his entire first line and top defenceman to graduation. However, Lajoie sees an opportunity which the transition presents in terms of recruitment. “With those guys leaving we can paint an enticing picture for high-end recruits. We can offer the opportunity to play big minutes in key situations.” In part one of this series gm Stan Marple referred to the current crop of graduating players from the WHL as a, “strong group.” Coach Lajoie is confident that the Bears can offer an attractive situation where new recruits can challenge for top minutes right away along with playing for the top program in the history of Canadian University hockey.
We then started talking about the recruitment process. He said finding players involved, “constant communication,” between himself, the gm, and their contacts in hockey. It was at this point that a theme emerged, which had also presented itself during my conversation with the GM, when the coach stated about recruiting new players:
We’re looking for not only talent but to identify players who will exemplify Golden Bear Hockey. There is a high level of expectation coming into the U of A. We try to gather as much information on the player as possible including character references.
Lajoie’s words echoed a statement from his GM where Stan Marple said, “(We want to) recruit the right players. Kids who’ll be able to play Bears’ hockey and handle what comes along with being an athlete and a student at the University of Alberta.” From speaking to both the coach and GM it is very clear that while they want to continue the Bears’ excellence on the ice they also want to continue the Bears’ off-ice record of developing quality people.
The coach’s comments tied in nicely when I asked him about who he saw stepping up from the returning players. “Players like (Jamie) Crooks and (Rhett) Rachinski are preparing themselves for a larger leadership role.” The coach cautioned that even the returning players will need to earn greater roles and responsibilities and they won’t simply be handed to them. While the returning players may be preparing themselves they’ll need to earn greater responsibility in camp.
The conversation shifted gears and I asked Lajoie for his thoughts on last season:
One word, ‘disappointment,’ if we focus on the end result (losing in the Canada West final and their only game of the University Cup). However, we also need to focus on the body of work. You either win or learn and you can lose site of how hard it is to win a national championship. What we want is continual growth.
Again, the theme of learning, developing, and focusing the entirety of the program came to light. There is no doubt that the coach is spot-on in his assessment; while it may seem like the Bears should win every year, and always seem to be in contention, it is a momentous task to win a University Cup and there is no shame in getting to the tournament and not winning as long as there is growth for the players and the program.
Outside of recruitment and next season I had a question I’ve wanted to ask the coach for months. At one point last season the Bears were having trouble closing out games despite routinely out-shooting opponents by 20 or more. Possession was definitely not a problem for the U of A and it became so strange I actually took two stop watches to the second game of a series with Manitoba after the Bears needed double overtime to put the Bisons away (despite out-shooting Manitoba 45-19) and timed possession. You can read the resulting post from that experiment here. The game I looked at had the shots at 45-19 (not a typo; the shots were the same in both games) in favor of the U of A with the Bears possessing the puck in the offensive zone for over 9 minutes and the Bisons having just over 2 minutes of puck time in the Bears’ end. Amazingly the Bisons won 3-2. My conclusion at the end of that game was:
The Bisons seemed content to allow the Bears to hold onto the puck around the perimeter of the offensive zone and allow Alberta to lob in wiffle balls from weak scoring areas at the net. On a number of occasions the Golden Bears didn’t have a player parked in front of the net to get second and third chances off rebounds. Manitoba did an excellent job of keeping the Alberta to the outside and blocking up the shooting lanes. When Manitoba did gain possession in the Bears zone, they had several attacking forwards who were more than willing to make hard and gritty plays to get shots from scoring areas, which was something the Bears were lacking for most of the night.
When I started to ask the question regarding dominantly out-shooting the opposing team and struggling to win, without prompting, coach Lajoie immediately brought up the series against the Bisons. “Greasy goals,” is how the coach described the goals Manitoba scored and what the Bears needed but didn’t get. True to form, Lajoie again focused on process and learning, “typically, out-shooting an opponent is a pretty good indicator of what the end result will be. It goes back to learning and our guys have to learn that yes, we’re going to generate shots, but tight is tight and you have to go to the tough areas.” I then asked what he tells his team after a game like that he answered, “What do you tell your guys? All you do is make sure they learned from it.”
The next two questions were not related to the coming season. Coach Lajoie was part of the staff for Canada’s World U-18 entry in North Dakota back in April. Team Canada lost the bronze medal game to the Americans. I asked Lajoie for his thoughts and he responded, “First of all it was an honor to get an opportunity to learn under coach Clouston. We had 5 or 6 players drafted in the first round or thereabouts.” By my count they had six first rounders: Jakob Chychrun, Tyson Jost, Brett Howden, Logan Stanley, Dante Fabbro, and Michael McLeod. The coach followed it up by saying, “it was great to get an opportunity to learn a lot and have a chance for professional development. Obviously it wasn’t the result we wanted but overall it was a great experience.”
The last question I had for the coach was in regard to last season’s rookie game with the Oilers and Connor McDavid. Here is coach Lajoie’s answer:
Well there was no need for a motivational speech. We all enjoyed the atmosphere and it allowed us a chance to measure ourselves. It allowed our coaching staff and myself an opportunity to improve in all areas. The biggest thing we told our guys, especially with players like McDavid, is that you can’t give those guys much time and space.
I think the rest of the NHL is on notice about giving McDavid time and space. For those of you, like me, who love the Oilers versus Bears rookie game it was just announced that this year’s rookie game will be held September 21st at 7:00pm at the Clare Drake Arena.
I am thrilled that both coach Serge Lajoie and general manager Stan Marple took the time to speak with me. It is great to be able to report on a program that is as equally concerned about the people that they develop away from the rink as they are with the results on the ice. After speaking to both men it is no surprise that the Golden Bears Program continues to be the pinnacle of Canadian University hockey.
The Oilers Rig’s coverage of the University of Alberta Golden Bears will continue throughout the entire 2016-2017 season.
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