The Gatineau Olympiques have restored their winning ways and are back in familiar territory.
Benoit Groulx could sense the question even before it was asked.
His Gatineau Olympiques, a team so few would have predicted to hoist the President's Cup as league champions and still with an admittedly long road ahead, are looking every bit like the championship-worthy team we're used to seeing in late April.
Groulx is back at the helm of a franchise he guided to three championships in six years and is in pursuit of his fourth. The team he almost routinely built into a contender is contending once again, but the head coach wasn't willing to place the burden of expectations on his players by looking back on past championship-winning teams.
"You can't compare guys from 2003 to guys of 2011," he said, referencing the first team he guided to the promised-land. "It's almost eight years apart and the kids have changed. They have their way to do things (now, and) they have their way back then."
Sure, the players may be different as they would when comparing any generation to another. But while some aspects of the team may be different, one remains the same: their ability to win.
The Olympiques are back in the final four with a sense of belonging that could only stem from the Québec Major Junior Hockey League's proudest franchise. The Olympiques have captured nine league championships in their history, more than any other team in the league.
Gatineau dispatched two other proud franchises in Rimouski and Drummondville with yet another as its adversary in the semifinal.
The Olympiques and Québec Remparts are tied at a game apiece, but the 'Piques could very well be leading this series if not for letting Game 2 slip away in the closing minutes. The Remparts scored twice with less than five minutes remaining to win the game 3-2 and tie the series.
As any good coach would, Groulx sees the silver lining in the disappointing loss.
"You know what, it's part of hockey," he said Monday. "It's a learning lesson for us. We have to understand that 56 minutes is not enough. We have to be ready to play 60 minutes."
The Olympiques are sitting pretty with the next two games on home ice. The Robert Guertin Centre is known as one of the league's loudest and most intimidating buildings. The Olympiques use home ice to their advantage perhaps better than any other team, as evidenced by their 6-0 record in this year's playoffs.
Gatineau actually trailed its last series with Drummondville after dropping the first two games on the road. The Olympiques then used home ice to gain momentum and never looked back, winning four straight games to take the series.
A few years ago, one player from a visiting team admitted the atmosphere played a role in intimidating his team.
"When the fans were going during the national anthem, I looked at one of my teammates on the bench and we knew we were done," said the player, whose team was eventually swept by the Olympiques.
"Are (the fans) going to be intimidating for Québec? I don't know," Groulx said. "You need a loud crowd. You got to feel the energy behind your fans and this is exactly what happens in Gatineau in playoff time."
While the Olympiques' fans revel in another long playoff run, it's easy to overlook the trials and tribulations of a franchise when it's succeeding.
Two years ago Groulx stepped away from the Gatineau bench to pursue his dream of coaching professionally. Groulx, who also relinquished his job as head coach of the Canadian world junior team at the time, accepted the head coaching job with the American Hockey League's Rochester Americans.
The Olympiques hadn't been the same in his absence with a revolving door of three bench bosses until Groulx came back as head coach and general manager last summer.
"For me, it's all about identity," he said. "You want to create an identity for your team and I think the organization went away a little bit from that."
The identity of this team, Groulx says, is not in its championships so much as it is in its effort. It's about getting the most out of a group of players and having them believe in the team concept before themselves as individuals.
Sprinkle in a little bit of luck, and it's the recipe for a team to succeed in the playoffs.
"Our goal every year is to go as far as we can with the team we have," Groulx explained. "We don't want to leave anything on the table. We don't want to have any regrets."
Groulx may believe his team's effort is its identity, but what we will remember most is Gatineau's winning tradition.
