Vincent Desharnais was not doing well in mid-December. After two months with the Vancouver Canucks, he was still finding his bearings. Already 10 times he had been invited to watch a match from the top of the bridge.
Posted at 6:18 p.m.
Things were going bad, then it got worse when Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman reported that the Canucks were looking to trade the big defenseman.
He starts laughing when we talk about this episode, at the end of the Canucks’ Sunday training. It must be said that his nephew and his niece, aged 4 and 6 years old, were waiting for their “uncle”, as they call him, at the exit of the ice rink, taking advantage of a rare Canucks training in Montreal elsewhere than at the Bell Center.
“Do you want to know how I heard about the rumor?” I was sick as a dog. I missed two games. My parents were visiting me and the gastro was running. I caught her. I lost 10 pounds in 24 hours,” he explains, in an interview with The Press.
I wake up from these 24 hours, I look at my phone and it’s a random person who texts me: I’m really sorry to hear that you might be getting traded. The feeling… Can you give me a break? Things were already not going very well on the ice! It was a lot of things at the same time.
Vincent Desharnais
Three weeks later, Desharnais is still wearing the blue and green Canucks uniform and who knows if he hasn’t finally found his way. In four games since Christmas, he has played almost 19 minutes on average. During the last duel, Friday, he was the most used skater in his camp at even strength (21 min 12 s). The day before, in Seattle, word got around that this 6’7″ colossus, not necessarily the type to cross the ice by outwitting four rivals, made an appearance in overtime.
“People asked themselves: is that him in overtime? he laughs. But it went really well, we almost scored, I made a nice pass. »
“I would have liked [Kiefer] Sherwood scores and Vinny has a three-on-three pass. He could have kept the puck! », added Vancouver head coach Rick Tocchet.
Such an awakening does not come out of nowhere either. After all, Desharnais was good enough to play 78 games with the Stanley Cup finalist Edmonton Oilers last year. The Laval colossus also played 16 games in the playoffs, even if he skipped a few rounds. In short, he didn’t unlearn how to play hockey in one summer.
PHOTO JASON FRANSON, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Vincent Desharnais (73) played with the Edmonton Oilers in this game against the Vancouver Canucks, May 18, 2024.
“It wasn’t easy to adapt to a new team, a new coach,” he recalls. I was looking for myself a bit and trying to adapt my game to what the coach wanted, instead of just playing my way. I did a lot of work with a sports psychologist. I had a lot of frustrations and I managed to let it go. »
Desharnais had only known stability in recent years: four years at Providence College, then five in the Oilers organization. “At the beginning, you ask yourself questions, you create scenarios,” he agrees. Questions and scenarios he discussed with his agent and sports psychologist.
“As my agent told me: throughout your career, there are going to be rumors. What can you do? You can’t do anything. So it goes in one ear, it comes out the other. I’m not on social media, not on Twitter, not on Instagram, nothing hockey. My family and friends know: don’t send me anything hockey. I focus on my job and ignore distractions. »
He doesn’t watch them so much that he says he hasn’t even spoken about it to a Canucks manager. “If we stop every rumor, especially in a market like Vancouver, it won’t end,” he concludes, coat on his back, ready to go and fulfill his duties as “uncle”.
