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Lockout (kind of) pushed Canucks coach Vigneault into parents’ basement

Alain Vigneault

Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault smiles at a reporter’s question during a news conference in Boston Sunday, June 5, 2011. The Bruins and Vancouver Canucks play Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

AP

Alain Vigneault has taken the Vancouver Canucks to the Stanley Cup finals and, lately, he’s lived in his parents’ basement at the age of 51.

He has the lockout to blame for that -- but it’s not because his financial situation has gotten so bad that he had no where else to turn.

“A lot of people were saying: ‘Boy, the lockout must really be affecting you money-wise if you have to go back and live with your parents,’” Vigneault said in a Vancouver Sun report. “For a while, it was a running joke. I was doing some renovations on my home and I had to move back in with my parents.

“I wasn’t supposed to be here. Training camp was going to start and I would be in Vancouver and the renovations would get done while I was away. Then the lockout appeared and I was here and had to move back in with my parents.”

Vigneault said his parents seemed pretty happy about it, although he’s not use to being back home in Gatineau, Quebec during the hockey season.

Compared to some of the other lockout stories we covered, this one might be viewed as a little more lighthearted. However, it’s worth adding that, beyond the players, owners, and coaches, there are others who have been financially hurt by the lockout, some of which didn’t have a lot to start with.

As sports business commentator Tom Mayenknecht put it back in September, “It is the part-time employees, those who are relying on a little bit of an extra bump to meet ends on their a car payments or on their mortgages.

“We’re talking about waitresses, bartenders in pubs that have a big spike when there is NHL hockey being played.”

For Vigneault’s part, like so many others, he hopes this lockout ends soon.

“I swear to God, I miss you guys,” he told the Vancouver Sun’s Iain MacIntyre, while referring to the media. “I’m looking so forward to getting back and having one of those special pre-game press conferences with you guys. I can’t wait to do that again.”