AHL Utica Comets

Comet Tales: Scouting the Bulldogs

December 28, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Utica Comets News Release


Hamilton Bulldogs coach Sylvain Lefebvre knows his way around the bench.

It seems wherever I have taken in a professional hockey game over the past few years, there was Lefebvre calling plays from the coaching position.  During the 2007-08 season, when Sylvain was in his first of two seasons as Joe Sacco's assistant with the Lake Erie Monsters, I caught him at a game in Syracuse.  During the fall of 2011, while watching the Colorado Avalanche during a morning skate at their practice facility in Centennial, CO, Lefebvre was the first to take to the ice.  This past October, when the Bulldogs made their initial visit to The AUD, it was Lefebvre who I saw stepping off of Hamilton's bus in the parking lot.

After 945 games skating in on NHL ice, and five seasons paying his dues as an assistant in the Avalanche organization, last season Lefebvre finally caught the break he was in search of.  In his first pro season as a head coach during the 2012-2013 season, the Bulldogs finished with a 29-41-0-6 record.  Already on track to surpass the amount of victories complied  last season, Lefebvre has his team in fourth place of the AHL's North Division.

As a player, the Stanley Cup ring won by Lefebvre as a member of the 1996 Avalanche championship team, allows him additional credibility with the Canadiens' prospects.  Coming to Utica on Saturday for a date with the Comets, Hamilton will have had back-to-back matches with the Toronto Marlies. Motivating his roster of Montreal hopefuls to put their best skate forward for three games in as many days is where Lefebvre's decades of playing and coaching at the highest level of competition becomes essential.

Playing in demanding hockey markets such as New York (Rangers), Toronto, and Montreal, there shouldn't be a deficiency of having a selection of stories to hopefully inspire those in the locker room.  Lefebvre has to pace his players, physically and mentally.  From Utica, the Bulldogs are off for a set of road games in Abbotsford on January 3 & 4.  Preparing for the grind; the demands of life as a professional is in full swing for Hamilton.

To the Bulldogs of today, Dustin Tokarski, Louis Leblanc, and Max Macenauer, a listen and learn approach to their second-year coach seems to be a can't miss approach to their careers.  Afterall,one glance of those who LeFebvre called teammates on his very first NHL team in the 1989-1990 season in Montreal, and no further discussion is needed.  Roy, Chelios, Naslund, and Carbonneau were a handful of Canadiens that Hamilton's coach bettered his game and career by observing their strengths.

Keep an eye on the Bulldog's coach in The AUD, who knows, at what rink the two of you may appear in next?

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