Things have to go better in the Emerald City this time for new Seattle Kraken assistant coach Pascal Vincent. In past visits to Seattle as a player and as a head coach, Vincent never won a game.
One troubled season leading the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023-24 almost drove Vincent completely out of coaching. A 4-2 loss at Climate Pledge Arena on Jan. 28, 2024 didn’t help; Jordan Eberle had two goals and an assist in the 1st period, and the Kraken never looked back.
“When I left Columbus, I really questioned my choices in life,” Vincent told Montreal podcaster Tony Marinaro. “It was a hard year. Everything that had to go wrong, went wrong. It was a hard season to a point where I questioned my desire to coach.”
The hard year wasn’t of Vincent’s making. He’d been promoted from assistant just before the season, when head coach Mike Babcock was shockingly dismissed for invading the privacy of his players.
Vincent described the tumultuous 27-43-12 non-playoff season as “fighting every day for a full year about everything. But I grew like I’ve never did before through adversity.”
Countering Confrontation With Respect
Not that Vincent is adverse to constructive verbal sparring in the coaches’ room.
“I’m coming from the Paul Maurice school. (Vincent served as an assistant on Maurice’s staff for three seasons with the Winnipeg Jets.)
“What worked really good for me over the years, my years in Cape Breton, Montreal Juniors, I want different views. I want different skills. You have to be comfortable with adversity and confrontations.
“‘I want to turn right.’ ‘No, I want to turn left.’ Good arguments on both sides, but we grow as a team. I believe you can be truly honest, saying what you truly believe, but there’s a way to do it in a respectful manner.
“That’s the key, because we work together all the time. It can get ugly at times. It can get intense at times. If it’s done in a respectful manner, it’s well done.
“The key for me is, fight in private, be aligned in public. Public being the players. Once you get in the room, you have to be aligned, because if a coach says – and I’ve lived it. When a coaching staff is not aligned in public in front of the room with the players, it’s a recipe for disaster.”
New Kraken Coach Regained Passion In Laval
After the debacle in Columbus, “I needed to find that joy again to be behind the bench, to lead a team, to lead a staff. I wanted to find that passion, the fire inside me. I did that in Laval,” where in two 72-game seasons as the AHL Rockets head coach, Vincent won 48 and 41 games.
“I love the game. I love coaching. I feel like a young buck, excited about the craft.
“What I love the most is helping people. First you got to coach the human being. You have to coach the person if you want to coach the player. To reach the potential that is above what even the player thinks he can reach, you have to connect with people.”
Seattle Unkind To Vincent 34 Years Ago
Oh, about Vincent’s other experience in Seattle. As a junior player in 1992, the center had the good fortune to be traded from Laval to Verdun College-Francais. Verdun went on to win the QMJHL title and a trip to that year’s Memorial Cup.
The host team in 1992 was the Seattle Thunderbirds. Vincent and Verdun lost all three games at Seattle Center Coliseum, including 5-3 to the T-Birds. The Coliseum of course is the facility where Climate Pledge Arena now sits – and where Vincent is expecting better results with the Kraken.
“I’m at a point in my life where I want to work with good people. That’s number one on my list. I’m very confident – in a humble way – but very confident about what I can bring to a hockey team.”
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