Dans Le Vestiaire avec Nicolas St-Pierre · 94,5 Unique FM

Luc Chénier, Zakary Mercier, Alain Sear, Pierre Groulx et plus | 06/04/2026

·1 hr 58 min·9 clips

Luc Chénier dissects why the New York Islanders fired intense coach Patrick Roy with just 10 games left, calling it a decision only insiders truly understand.

1. Dans Le Vestiaire avec Nicolas St-Pierre covers the Ottawa Senators' Easter Monday 6-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes and the Gatineau Olympics' Game 7 bid against the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. 2. Host Nicolas St-Pierre is joined by Ottawa city councillor and former QMJHL player Luc Chénier, sports journalist Zachary Mercier, and broadcaster Alain Cyr. 3. The episode's central thesis is that the Ottawa sports ecosystem is having an extraordinary late-season weekend across multiple levels of hockey simultaneously. 4. The Senators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-3 at the Canadian Tire Centre, with Brady Tkachuk scoring twice and earning first-star honours, going plus-2 with 15:35 of ice time and five shots. 5. Tim Stutz scored the second Senators goal at an estimated 36 km/h, making a defender-beating rush that Travis Green described as 'a dynamic player making a dynamic play'; Brady Tkachuk called it a 'superstar moment.' 6. Ridley Greig set up Tkachuk's goal with a deceptive play that Tkachuk says he initially misread, prompting him to publicly point to Greig number 71 during the celebration. 7. The Senators now sit at 90 points with 73% playoff odds according to moneypark.com, leading the second wild-card position over the New York Rangers at 89 points. 8. Head coach Travis Green says the team 'moved on' from the previous frustrating loss and credited the power play going 2-for-2 against an aggressive Carolina penalty kill. 9. The major league-wide story is the firing of Patrick Roy as coach of the Washington Highlanders after a 3-7-0 stretch including 10 consecutive starts for goaltender Elias Orokin; Pete DeBoer was named as replacement. 10. Luc Chénier, who played with Roy in juniors with the Granby Bisons, describes him as 'a winner, an intense guy' and says the firing makes no sense publicly given the team's overperformance relative to expectations. 11. Chénier draws a parallel to Claude Julien's late-season removal from New Jersey and suggests veteran players pushing back is the only explanation, adding 'there's a version for the media and a version behind closed doors.' 12. Chénier also speculates that Pete DeBoer's availability—he had been linked to the Toronto position after Craig Berube—may have accelerated the timing of the change. 13. In the QMJHL, the Gatineau Olympics won 2-0 over the Huskies in Gatineau on Easter Sunday to force Game 7 in Rouyn-Noranda after trailing the series 0-3. 14. Goaltender Donat Tchaikov stopped all 34 shots faced; coach Serge Beausoleil said Tchaikov 'was completely sublime' and the team pulled the opposing goalie with five minutes remaining. 15. Zachary Mercier cited journalist Stéphane Leroux's research showing the 40-point gap between the Olympics (lower-ranked) and Huskies would tie the record for the biggest upset in QMJHL history, matching the Armada's 2016 elimination of Val d'Or. 16. Chénier argues the Huskies overused key players Verdon, Steiner, and Brunel fighting for conference seeding, leaving them fatigued, while the Olympics' tight defensive system is peaking. 17. Chénier directly predicts the Olympics will win Game 7, saying 'I see very badly' a Huskies win given the current momentum. 18. The episode runs in an upbeat, fast-paced format with audio clips from Travis Green, Brady Tkachuk, and Serge Beausoleil throughout, punctuated by Chénier's and Mercier's analysis. 19. Fans of the Ottawa Senators, the QMJHL, and Quebec junior hockey history will find the most value in this episode. 20. Listeners with no interest in French-language Ottawa sports radio or junior hockey will find the episode too locally specific.

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