Premier Trio is back, and José was on the first episode

Premier Trio started up again last night. That makes me feel like the NHL season is so close! Anyway, José was on the show last night, and here's a small portion of the show.

Video here. (I don't have a translation, but it seems to be the portion of the show where they were talking about P.K. Subban of the Canadiens.)

Short video of him discussing his Hart Trophy

I saw this on TVA Sports' Facebook page last week. He's discussing when he won the Hart Trophy. I'm not sure what prompted this video to be made, but I appreciate it nonetheless:

Video found here.

Loose translation:

When I was a Canadien, wearing red white and blue, it wasn’t "mission accomplished". I was the backup goalie, I was like an angry dog (probably like hungry for the number 1 spot, not sure) I wanted his job, that’s the only thing I had in my mind. Didn’t matter how I was going to do it, I was going to do it. Then I matured.

(Then they showed the clip from the Awards ceremony.)

Wayne Gretzky gave me the trophy, I looked around and saw Patrick Roy, Steve Yzerman, and it felt like "mission accomplished". My parents were crying, my brothers were crying, my wif—my girlfriend, Stephanie, I wasn’t married yet. I didn’t want to get off the stage, I wasn’t ready for the speech. But I accomplished my mission that I worked on for 5 years."

His appearance on Dave Morissette's new show

On Monday, Sept. 8th, José appeared on Dave Morissette's new show on TVA Sports. He appeared when Montreal Canadiens' coach, Michel Therrien, was on. He reminisced with Michel about their time together with the Canadiens and when José played for Hull in the QMJHL and Michel coached Laval.

Here is the link to the video. José's appearance begins at about the 6:25 mark. (Translation below images.)

Dave: We have a surprise. Look who we have, your old goalie.

Michel: Theo, how are you, my buddy?

Dave: Jose, this brings up a lot of good memories?

Jose: I look at Michel, and I look around me, and there are a number of trophies that come from my time with Michel. I even have a little picture of when I scored my goal, and it was with Michel I scored my goal. There are so many memories. I can rewind to my junior days. We beat him with the Hull Olympiques. We came in to play and it was 90 degrees and it was because he would raise the (French word that you can translate to god damn)  heat. The players were dehydrated, it was hot, he tried everything. With Michel I look at him and I have only good memories. I have a soft spot for him because we had such a good relationship. We had fun together. 

Dave: Especially because you had your best seasons there. I heard you guys would take bets.

Jose: Yes we took bets, but we didn't actually pay up (or something like it wasn't actually for money). What was fun is that Michel wants the best from his players, and I would go into Michel's office and say, Tonight, Mike, we are gonna win, I'm gonna get the first star, I have to play, and then he would say, Ok Theo, go. And if I gave up more than 3 goals I'd have to give him 25$ or if I had a shutout he owed me money. We had fun. But at the end of the day we had the same goal to have success. Each year I see Michel at least once and all I have are good memories.

Michel: I rememwbr very well. First time I met Jose is in juniors at Gibbys (Montreal steakhouse.) There was this little kid next to me. I was coaching junior in Laval and Jose played for Hull, and I had never met him because he always had his mask on. When we talk about a guy like Jose, getting the maximum out of a player, the player has to get into the mind set too. In my career as coach I've been happy to coach players like Sidney Crosby, Jose - he's won the Hart and Vezina, to help a young guy to accomplish this in his career, I'm always proud of that. 

Jose: Your cutting me off, that's it? I had so many more things to say about Michel. I'm happy to have been here. It's really fun for me. 

Dave: Did Jose really come into your office and say he wanted to play?

Michel: Oh yes. And I liked it, because you want to challenge your players, and Jose likes challenges. Sometimes I would put him in those positions that were challenging. The wagers we made always motivated him. He was happy the next day to tell me I owed him 25$.

Jose: You have to understand, maybe yes I was making 5 million but that 25$ meant more to me. 

Michel: He was so happy when he got shutouts, because then it was double (50$.) 

Jose: That's right, we would double it! It was fun to have a coach that you knew wanted you to succeed. When I had a bad game, Michel would look at me less, but he wanted to help me get back to a position to get myself back into my game. We were a team. I knew I had an important role with the team, in Fredericton as with the Canadiens. My experience with Michel it pushed me to another level. 

(Thanks to Val for the translation.)