Dominic Gobeil's junior review

[Dom 1,445]

From Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada, Gobeil always had a passion for hockey. As a young kid, he used to play with his friends in the streets and always wanted to join a league but unfortunally, his parents were short on money. At the age of 12 years old, Eric Gagnon, coach of the Chicoutimi Stallions found him playing alone in the street and decided to stop to talk to him.

    ''The Kid was practicing every days,

     alone, with friends, on sunny days or under the rain. It was everyday!

     He wasn't showing impressive skills but he was so passionate,

     I had to give him an oportunity, so I invited him to the camp.''           Eric Gagnon, former coach of the Chicoutimi Stallion

 

On his first day to the camp, Gobeil is first at the arena, his performances on the ice are not the best, most people see a lack of skills but the coach see a player who work harder than all the others. After a few days, when the season was started and the kid was still in trial, coach Gagnon decide to give him a new role.

    ''He was bigger than the other kids of his age so I asked him to go in the corners,

      doing the dirty job that most kids was afraid to do and that was impressive,

      the next day I received a call from my GM that the kid had to stay''          Eric Gagnon, former coach of the Chicoutimi Stallion

 

After that day, coach Gagnon gave him a role on the 4th line, the young boy wanted more but he had to prove himself. After just 6 games the team lost their best 2-way forward, the coach looked at his lineup and noticed a big lack of forwards who can play in penalty killer and decided to try his unknown player on the first wave of penalty killer. After a few games Gobeil started to gain the trust of his coach.

 

   '' I will always remember one night against Jonquiere's Timbers, it was an important match for us, Jonquiere always been our biggest rivals, I was in my lodge looking at the game, there was 3 minutes, 34 seconds remaining to the game and we were loosing 3-2. One of our top player got kicked out of the game. Eric [Gagnon] sent Gobeil on the ice as he always used to do in penalty killer, we were all on the edge of our seats looking at the game. We all thought that game was over untill Gobeil sent a perfect zone exit pass to Tremblay who got a breakaway and scored at 0: 24 on the board. We finally won that game in overtime and Gobeil was named 1st star of the game. It took the police to empty the arena, people were fighting in the crowd.'' Alain Turcotte, General Manager of the Chicoutimi Stallions

 

Today, Gobeil is expected to be a solid 2-way forward in the near futur and most scouts noticed a lot of improvement in his passing skills over the years.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2020 by domg5
first time I didn't have enough words, now I have 508 words