Manitoba Moose coach Pascal Vincent goes ‘back to school’ in summer

Moose head coach Pascal Vincent has just completed his first season as bench boss of the Jets AHL affiliate after having spent the previous five seasons as an assistant with Winnipeg in the NHL on Paul Maurice’s staff.

He led Manitoba to a 29-37-5-5 finish which was an improvement on the 26-41-4-5 that the Moose had gone in 2015-16 but still saw them finish well out of the playoffs.

When we spoke with coach Vincent during the end of the season interviews on Monday at the IcePlex he disclosed that every summer for as long as he has been coaching he picks one subject to really study.  “Every year I choose a subject that I think I need to improve” said Vincent who added “It’s my school time as far as I am concerned.  That’s when I have the time to be objective, not too emotional about a subject and just study a subject.”

One example he referenced from his past was when he focused solely on the power play and considering that the Moose had the 13th ranked power play in the AHL on a team that finished 25th overall perhaps he is onto something.

Coach Vincent finished with this “I really dig into the subject as deep as I can to find out the whys; why does it work, why doesn’t it work.  This summer I haven’t decided yet but I will pick one or two subjects and I’ll study that.”

With the 29th ranked penalty kill this past season that may be the topic coach Vincent spends his summer studying so he can help his Moose improve in this department.