LPHF: a new “French Connection” in New York State | RDS

UTICA, New York – Since joining her new team, Chloé Aurard has been trying to eradicate “du coup” from her vocabulary, replacing it with “fait que” and practicing pronouncing “ben ouais” like we would say it in Lévis or Valleyfield. And since a Quebec immersion would be incomplete without a few local swear words, she makes sure to sprinkle her conversations with them when she knows that interested ears are likely to hear it.

“She’ll tell you right away, she has no filter! », had warned Élizabeth Giguère the day before our meeting with her teammate. And indeed, the next morning, the friendly Frenchwoman let out without being asked the famous “T” word, the one that rhymes with cognac.

The Buffalo Sabers had Gilbert Perreault, Richard Martin and René Robert in the 1970s. Jason Pominville, Jean-Pierre Dumont, Daniel Brière and Martin Biron took over in the 2000s. A decade later, Jonathan Marchessault, Yanni Gourde and Jean-Philippe Côté were among the many Quebecers who visited the Syracuse Crunch locker room.

Today, New York State has its female version of the “French Connection.” In around thirty years, when we remember with nostalgia the birth of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF), perhaps we will still talk about the French-speaking side of the team which played its local matches in Long Island.

Giguère is undoubtedly the best known of the group. She completed four seasons at Clarkson University, winning the NCAA championship and the Patty Kazmaier Trophy awarded to the best collegiate player in the United States. After six years spent in the United States, she signed up with the Montreal Force and was enthusiastic about the idea of ​​returning to play in front of her family. This was before the now defunct Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) was disbanded.

Being drafted by the New York team of the LPHF, whose main architect is Blainvillois Pascal Daoust, was the scenario that brought her closest to her wish. “It’s almost as if we were still in Quebec,” she can’t help but notice.

In Stamford, Connecticut, where the team’s training complex is located, she is accompanied by Jade Downie-Landry from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Alexandra Labelle from Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague in Montérégie. The two former Force forwards have rented a house which they share with Downie-Landry’s dog.

“We’re like little girls reliving university, but older,” Labelle, who represented the University of Montreal Carabins for five seasons, likens to compare. We do lots of activities, we go to cafes, we try to get to know the place a little and we get used to it. You know, we’re not used to just playing hockey and being able to fully enjoy these moments, so we try to enjoy them 100%. »

Giguère found an apartment “five minutes from the arena”. She lives there with her partner and their canine companion. “I moved immediately after the draft, on November 1st. I couldn’t wait to settle in, I couldn’t wait for it to start. It’s when we start to feel at home that it starts to be fun. I would tell you that I feel at home in Connecticut, in New York. »

Giguère will be an important element of New York’s offensive effort. She has already collected four assists in three preparatory games at the LPHF evaluation camp which concluded Thursday in Utica. Downie-Landry was the Force’s top scorer in 2022-23 and should also do her part on the scoresheet. Labelle will bring a touch of robustness to the attacking group. “I like to put a little bickering in the game “, she says to define herself.

Not a little proud of these acquisitions, Pascal Daoust would not want anyone to believe that he did his compatriots a favor by integrating them into his project.

“For me, these girls were part of a short list of people with whom I wanted to work. I had warned my staff that if they were available at the rank where we thought they had value, we would definitely not let them pass. They were not part of the Quebecois who came with the group, they were among the best players in the world at that time. »

Aurard of course has a slightly different journey from that of his Quebec muses. Born into a family of hockey players established in Villard-de-Lans, near Grenoble, she preferred skates to skis at a very young age. As a child, she shared the locker room with Alexandre Texier, today with the Columbus Blue Jackets, and was quickly called up to the national teams.

At the age of 14, she was detected by American coaches during a competition in Germany. She crossed the Atlantic to enroll at a high school in Vermont and was eventually recruited by Northeastern University. She amassed 204 points in four seasons. New York selected her in the fourth round, with the 21st overall pick, in the LPHF Draft.

“Chloé is a fierce and very gifted player,” describes her coach Howie Draper. She has speed, good hands, is able to put the puck in the back of the net. What we ask of him is to learn to highlight these qualities with more consistency. At his age, it’s normal and we have no doubt that it will come with time. »

The same words could be applied to his learning of French which is spoken on the Antichambre stage.

“I’m starting to put things together and I’ll be able to speak Quebecois soon, I hope,” she says with a mischievous smile.