Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. 31 Lloydminster Bobcats GM & Head coach Nigel Dube

Episode Date: August 28, 2019

In this episode we talk with "newly" appointed GM & head coach of the Lloydminster Junior 'A' Bobcats, Nigel Dube.  We discuss: - Nigel's playing days - Bantam draft - Player to coach mentality - Changing the culture - Expectations for 2019-20 season 

Welcome to the podcast. I'm excited to announce a new sponsor, Factory Sports Excellence. I've been sitting here staring at this now for the last about five minutes as the clock ticks by. Because for 23 years since their inception in 1993, I had no idea that it was Factory Sports Excellence. I always assumed it was Factory Sports. Now, excellence does actually encompass Factory Sports. pretty good at what they do. And with hockey season just around the corner, I think this is probably where you want to go.

To see the boys, you need a new twig, a pair of blades, or the latest, greatest in helmets, or other equipment. These are the guys go see Mr. Holt or Mr. Mullet, and they'll get you hooked up. They're located at 4903-49th Ave. And I like their slow, Their specialty is sports. So if you're looking for anything sports-wise, go see those boys.

And welcome aboard the podcast, fellas. Next, T-Barr-1 Transport is also sponsoring this episode. I was laughing because I got a phone call as soon as the last week's episode came out. I had said they were the small business of 2013, and they had to correct me. They were actually the business of the year in Lloydminster in 2013. So they made fun of me because I'm actually in the photo of us getting the, award for business of the year. It seems that I can't figure that out. But I'd like to say thanks

to T-Bar-1 Transport for sponsoring. If you're looking for any heavy haul, oversized tank-moving, winch trucks, pickers, pipe, air, they got it all. Give them a call, 780, 205, 1709. Tell them Sean sent you. And the boys will get you hooked up out there. Finally, September 28th, The Boundary Battle of Alberta comes to town that sees the Oilers alumni versus the Calgary Flames alumni. This week they announced that Hunter the Links and Flames, for the Flames, Harvey the Hound, the two mascots are coming to town. And I don't have too much to say about Hunter the Links. Honestly, he's been so new for the Oilers for the longest time they didn't have a mascot. But a fond memory of Harvey the Hound, I think anyone can remember Craig McTavis on the best.

ripping his tongue out and ah you know it'd be pretty cool if McTavish came back over from I believe he's coaching the KHL this year it'd be cool if he flew back to Lloyd Minster just to do the ceremony I'll rip the tongue out and throw it on the ice because that was awesome and I think Harvey had it coming but tickets are still available for this event if you go down to boundary Ford you can get them $25 a piece all the money all the proceeds are going to Project Sunrise, great cause guys, and I mean, what more can I say? All you got to do is buy a ticket and all the proceeds are going directly to Project Sunrise.

That's pretty cool. A few shoutouts this week. First, to Matt DeJong, he was driving to work and he said, podcast for making drives the Frog Lake and Bonneville way better, keep up the good work. Secondly, to Cole Costa Riva, he said, great work on the podcast, man. Listen to Corey Crosses right now and gave me the thumbs up. This one was cool. Yoni Vertanan, from Finland, a guy I played hockey with years ago, said,

while recovering from his ankle operation, I've been listening to your podcast. Great job. And I'm thinking to myself, He's sitting there listening to this right now while he's held up in a bed. That's awesome, man. I hope you're feeling better. And finally, Deidre Mann had said,

I just listened to your biking across Canada podcast this week while on the treadmill, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I laughed out loud multiple times. Nice work. So thanks, guys, for reaching out. If you want to reach out and get your name tossed on the podcast, just hit me up via Twitter. Instagram or Facebook.

Love hearing from you guys. And if there's any thoughts or guest suggestions, just let me know. Now, this week I have Nigel Dubay on. He is the current GM and head coach of the Lloydminster Bobcats. He got hired back in November. And so I just kind of wanted to sit down with him.

We're leading into his first full season with the Bobcats here in town. And I just kind of want to get his story, his thought on where the team's going on how he's going to run it. And it was really enjoyable. I think you guys are going to really enjoy this episode. So without further ado. So welcome with Sean Newman podcast.

I'm joined by head coach and GM of the Lloyd Bobcats, Nigel Dubay. So thank you for joining me here at your brand new facility. This is pretty cool. Oh, I appreciate taking the time and coming here, especially to check things out and have it right here. It's awesome. It's got to be enjoyable to have your own touch on a new facility. as you start your tenure here. I mean, we're joking about it off air.

It feels to me like it's new, but you're coming up on a year of being now in Lloyd. You took over last November. But to have your own touch on a place like this that you can call home, hang your hat, must be a nice feeling for you. Well, it is, and it's one of this performance center. You know, when I first got here,

we talked about moving offices and different things of how we could do that and to create this out of what seemed to be just an idea of moving in the amount of time that we have between this and the dress room being changed over as well too and being freshened up there. It's nice for us, and I think it's a good resource in many ways, not only from our day-to-day in the office,

but when our guys get here through the season and what it has to offer to the community outside of our team too. You put a lot of work on the details, I've noticed, from afar. because it's not like you said, oh, we need a new, well, and actually maybe I should preface this. My first time I ever ran into you, he came into one of the restaurants in town, covered in paint, and I'm like, hey, how's it going?

I introduced myself, and you're like, yeah, just painting the new facility, and I'm like, it's not like you're like, yeah, we need a couple new things. Now I'm going to go out and hire it out to a bunch of people, whatever. You've had your hands in on it since, as far as I can, day one. Well, it's one of those I go back to my time in my not where, you know, I was an assistant coach there and push game to shove in different times and I was driving the bus, you know, and there's

not many, many coaches that can say they were driving a bus and still a little bit of a story, but I said that was, that was the best part of me as being an assistant coach and seeing the grind. And, you know, it ended up that year, and there's, you know, it's funny to go back when I was down in Minnesota with some of the alumni guys and we were chatting. and literally rebuilt the tank sewer system on the bus. It was a private bus owned by the owner and needed to be done. And we didn't have the money. We went in there.

It was a deficit to start. So coming here to get this and you go in and the question is, well, how are we going to afford it, right? You know, the way things are. And we have great sponsors that come on board that help us get the product. And same thing. I had the question of, you know, how are you guys doing it? you know, where you did this and this to the budget or whatnot, and how are you doing?

I'm like, well, you know, we got a great deal on the couches. You know, the TV was from the old office. We had somebody donate the other one. The paint we got at cost and from a, you know, season ticket holder and going out and getting the sponsors to do it. And there's always a way if you can, you know, make it happen and want to put the work in. And it's no different when our guys get here. It's the same expectations. If you want to sweep the floors, you know, it's not that bad, right?

It takes us six minutes to sweep the floor in the gym. And, you know, our staff is going to clean our dresser on game days. That's our deal. The players can go get ready and the staff will look after the room. So just coming up through the system like that is help me, you know, get to where we are today and how this came about. That's really cool putting some of the onus on the players, making them a part of what you're trying to build.

because when they all start pulling the same way, that's something that a lot of programs don't do. They just expect their players to come in and skate and leave and eat properly and then come back and skate. But when you get them picking up the little things, now it becomes part of them, it becomes their team. And it's easier to play, put in the extra little effort when you've been putting in the little details all year round.

Yeah, and that's the big thing for our guys, if they can learn to pick up a piece of toilet paper behind each other, or if somebody spills something for another guy to help out, we'll be a heck of a hockey team on the ice. And there's just a lot of those little lessons that go in away. Our staff here's got to know me in a quick time. Brady came in on the 27th of July and Haley at the end of May. There was some time in there that I was just by myself.

So they've learned the expectations are very high, but at the same time, the rewards there, and you're not looking for somebody else to contribute, you know, to pull your own weight too. I laugh because I was, well, he knows the side of it. Nigel knows. I show up, I'm a guy who I like being on time. I like being on time.

I showed up about 15 minutes late, and I come in apologizing, and he's already joking about sitting me the first game. So I've already got to understand that, well, and I've known this for a long time. We were talking about Larry Wintoniak off air. That was one of his standards too, right? Be on time.

Be respectful to the people that you're dealing with. And that's a, if you tell somebody to be here at a certain time, that's a big expectation. Don't be, you know, it should be five minutes early, 10 minutes early, heck, instead of on the other side, because people's time is valuable and to keep a guy waiting. Even though it's not the end of the world today, I understand those little lessons. And that's cool to see those lessons coming in here. And I'm not saying they weren't here before, but trying to get a, get to know a new guy and not from the community to come in and see what he's going to bring to

this area, it's good to see those is what's being taught for the team and moving forward. Well, I laugh too a little bit because he sent me a text, right, and said, hey, I'm running a little bit behind and just to get that to players too of, hey, if you're going to be late, there's technology now that shoot text. Communication. You know, I know you're late and all's good. And rather than you get to the point where you're 15, 20, you start to worry about a guy, what's going on in the cold days of the winter and stuff too and you know you learn those things

along the way and i think to open up your mind um to what's around you go back to larry right when we talked about that before uh off air but uh you know for for three days i knew the guy in his presentation professionalism how he handled himself he was straight with you no matter what you knew what he was thinking and and and you self-reflecting that and um you know am i like that when I talk to somebody, it's just that's the way it is and to present that. And that's what we want to bring to the community here is where things are laid out and, you know, to the fullest. I want to ask whatever question before we go back to your playing days and how you got

involved in hockey and that thing, kind of thing. Like I was saying, yeah, a lot of people don't know you, including myself, so I want to find out more about you. But I stumbled across it and then you kind of talked very briefly about it. Fixing a tank on a bus. you're not a mechanic by any means. I don't think you're a plumber. That's something that not everybody's groomed with,

that you see a problem instead of just going, ah, we'll get to it some other day. You're like, I guess I was curious. How the heck do you go? I'm like, okay, we got a bus. The toilet ain't working properly. Let's figure this out and let's get her done. Yeah, it was one of those growing up.

Dad had a farm and a service station. Mom worked in the health care. So get home from school at 335. and Grandpa was there to pick me up and away we went. And kind of grew up in that family that, you know, if something's wrong, you've got to find a way to fix it. And, you know, I got to get a returning things too because you go and get a valve for a pre-vost bus that cost you. The one we picked up was $400.

And then I went to the Napa, who was a sponsored time, and got one for $9.75. And it was a pull. So he had to make sure your feet were clear of the drain by the time you pulled it. But it was just one of those that, you know, growing up in a family where we tinkered and being from a town of 500 that, you know, we had race cars, we worked on cars. We took motors apart for fun and sometimes they never got put back together, but they were just an idea at a time and all that stuff. And then, you know, it's a part of me that I try to get better all the time. But when you want something done and you're eager and I don't have a family and if I have to do it at 10 o'clock at night, You know, that's what need to be done.

So we just went about it. And sometimes you've got to look up Google a little bit to help you on. YouTube is a phenomenal thing, isn't it? Yeah, how it all goes together. So, you know, it was one of the grosser things I've done. But at the end of the day, the bathroom was up and running. And, you know, we put a lot of those outhouse balls in the tank there to keep it smelling good. But it was interesting.

Well, it probably seems like a crazy small thing to people listening. A bathroom not working properly can be a big thing, obviously, you're running a bus. But overall, on the grand scheme of a hockey team, or any team, that little thing probably is pretty small. And yet, those small little details can just change a team's attitude. Would you not agree with that? Oh, absolutely. And, you know, there's a part of it. I was fortunate, you know, when we talked to hockey side of it, of where I played and how I did that.

But I think sometimes two guys get caught up, and there's probably along the way where I got caught up in that too, right? I'm a junior hockey player and life's cool, life sweet, eat, train, skate, train, sleep, you know, enjoy your Fridays and Saturdays in the off-season and do all those kind of things that, you know, you forget about the life outside of hockey of, you know, what happens if hockey doesn't work out, right? and taking for granted things and doing that. And I go back to my junior days. It probably taught me that at some point of like, okay, well, why can't I do this, right? Like, why can I? You know, the grass needs to cut at my billets, why am I sitting on the deck watching them cut it?

Why aren't I cutting it? And those are things sometimes, too, you know, a lot of people use the word entitlement of, well, it's their law and they can cut it. you just start doing, cutting it and emptying the dishwasher, it takes you a couple minutes, right? And doing all that stuff. And you start opening yourself up to going and buying laundry detergent that needs to go in the dressroom or mopping the floors,

whatever it may be. And I think if we can instill that into our guise, if you go the extra mile and the preparation to go the extra mile, you're going to see the reward, whether it be hockey, whether it be academics, whether it be anything. And you're going to expand your mind to be able to, take on a position or a job that might be different and very successful for the person and the

family too if that may be the case no i think that's a special quality i don't think my know for a fact not everybody sees the world that way right and it's one thing to talk about it that way it's another thing to get your hands dirty and and lead the way uh by doing those little things so that's that's really cool quality i think that's when i first heard your press conference i started to hear little things like that and I'm like you know like if he starts doing things like that that's really good and the community has picked a good one right because that's one thing again the talk about it is easy but to actually go and get your hands in and put the work in day after day and be consistent about it is is a tough thing to do and that's why a lot of people stray away from it over time right yeah well and that's

the thing is you know again the staff around me is is that we need to do that right if we lead from the the chain and and you know can continue to do that and live by it not to put on the show but to live by it day after day after day where it's just who you are i think that's a huge huge quality of a person well i want to go back because i was saying t a affair and i kind of mentioned here earlier that well now i think i'm on to episode this is like 31 i believe right in that range so i've been interviewing a lot of uh notable hockey people specifically and other people, but a lot of hockey people from around the area. And I've actually asked about you quite a bit.

And a lot of people just don't know who you are. You're not from Lloyd Minster. Heck, you can be from Lloyd Minster, and a lot of people still don't know who you are, right? So I thought maybe we'd go back. I'm curious where you grew up. You talked a little bit about it, but maybe just where you're from, how you got your start in hockey, and we can start there. Well, I grew up in the small town allotment, Saskatchewan in southeast corner. The town at the time was 500, and as mentioned, you know, my dad was a farmer and mechanic,

and my mom was in the health care. I had two older brothers, and, you know, it was one of those things that, you know, you had to keep busy in a small town. We got our short period of time with cable TV that only half the TV worked and all that. by bells were always great. And then from there, you know, just we had a saved by the bell guy. Saved by the bell kind of guy. Yeah, I could tell you every episode of Saved by the Bell. Who even knows? Do kids even know what Saved by the Bell is anymore?

Probably not. I still got the DVD seasons of it now when it came back out. Now you're incriminating yourself. So it was good. But no, you know, our community, we had a rink and an outdoor pool. Those are the two things we had. And, you know, obviously a small school, 225 kids from, K to 12. Our football field was like a motorcross. It was so rough. It was just a field. But in the

winters, dad was on town council and he had a key to the rink. You know, and we just went down there and played. Neither of my parents have skated it. They still haven't skated to this day. And we just skated. We were down there Friday nights as little kids and playing chinny and we'd take our loony and, you know, play for an hour and have a Coke and then go back out for another hour. And We had somewhere, you know, you get into that, we're 13, 14-year-olds now, like to enjoy different things on a Friday night. And if we didn't have hockey, I remember there was days that we'd go, you know, two in the morning, we'd go home as just youngsters that we threw hockey sticks. So just did that, you know, and continued summer as we swam in the pool.

And then my two older brothers are very successful in what they've done all the time, but jumped right into the work thing. So both of them, you know, went into work and continued to pursue. that early and young just with their mindset. I started a lawn mowing company at nine, so I drove the tractor around and Duby Brothers lawn and garden started at nine years old. So that was our summers. And then, you know, I moved away, or not moved the way, but drove to Middale, which is half hour, 35 minutes down the road at 11 to play tier two hockey that played in the double a league and you know mom and dad um drove every monday wednesday and then friday

saturday for games and mom became the manager and dad it was the manager of the older teams again never skated doesn't go on the ice just around the door and made sure the water bottles were full and you know you look back again very thankful for all the miles they put on i think my dad put on 250 000 uh between the three boys and an 87 suburban uh with the biggest winter tires you'd ever see and just cruised he just one boy the other boy the other boy in the winter his time that he could take off in the evenings and he opened the shop at six in the morning so you know we saw that as kids and I think that helped in our careers moving forward and then 13 to 15 I played in Estevan with the double a team um so got into that and did you uh did you train in the off season

or did you play a different sport in the off season, anything like that? Farmed and race cars. Farmed and race cars. Race cars? Yeah, race cars. What do you mean race cars? Circle track. Still my old man.

I bought him a car two years ago. It's a South Rush car down in Saskatchewan. He races all over Saskatchews. He's 65 years old. That's what he does for a hobby. No kidding. Yeah. Yeah.

So, rolled one in Williston. Yeah. Sorry, you probably said it. A circle track, so dirt track? Dirt track. Dirt track racing. Yeah. Two cars at a time or like a group of cars at a time?

Group of cars, so heats of 10 and usually features a 30. And that was a thing. Features of 30? 30, yeah, 3-8s-mile track. That was our summers. I still go back. I still watch, like, everybody watches on Facebook, watching, I'll watch hockey videos and I'll click on I and see TV.

How intense is it going around a track? Like, how fast are you going? Well, it's anywhere between 73 and the modified class of my brother race. They were up in the high 80s. And like bumping and grinding? Oh, yeah. Yeah, bumping and grinding. Yeah, all that kind of.

It was a grind, right? You're 30-degree weather, and you've got a car lifted up, and you're changing fours on and grinding tires and doing all that kind of stuff. My mom rolled, she rolled in the history book there. Oh, we always pull up the picture. My dad started way back in the day. He's probably in the 70s, I would say he was racing. and mom rolled on championship night.

They rolled her back over. She kept going, and dad won the championship the same night. What you mean rolled her back over? Like just got her back on all four. Car rolled over, landed on the roof. Yeah. She stayed in it. They flipped the back on the tires.

And kept going. Kept going. Kept going. Dad rolled in, I think it was 2000. And three or four, dad rolled off the back side. He came in. We put in two new tires on the inside, long delay, red flag. And he went back out.

he missed it, but he went back out, did a couple laps, and, you know, we grind in the evenings, work through the day, grinding the evenings on race cars. And we are up to one point, both my dad, myself, and my brother had a car, and that was our summer. In the shop, rivalry, it was pretty, you know, when we had two cars, everybody helped each other, three cars, this is my car, your car, you do your own thing. So, from there, but I left for hockey. That was a summer that I went with Penticton, 06, and they hauled my, my car. car everywhere was for sale at the time but they hauled my car along with the other two each track they went to because my brother was chasing the championship so he uh he won two championships

in 06 um and and continues still to follow it go down and and check it out uh you know a guy like brennan lebat with the sask riders he still pops in his car in the spring and and goes and it's it's interesting because at the time that we race there was probably about 10 hockey players like a guy like Austin Doe that played in the SJ for many years and plays East Coast right now. He still races all summer. Like it's one of those John Lazot, a kid I used to coach and mine on. He took this summer off. He raced once this summer, but he signed with Wilkesbury and the American League. Like that was his summers. Go racing. So I don't know if it's something in the water in Southeast Sask and into North Dakota, but it was something we lived for down there.

So do you go back and race at all anymore, or your car racing days are retired? I drove from Lloyd Minster to Estevan on a Monday in July when the big tour came through and my old man was racing. Drove down, drove back just for it. Like I still love it. I still, like I said, watch it on the interweb and do all that. Like big, I think it's anything that goes with the adrenaline side of it, right? And the opportunity, that was a whole different thing because there's so much strategy that went into it. You know, if your top two tires go a foot high or foot low, you're in it or you're out of it and can matter three or four miles.

time when you do that. So it was just, you know, something cool. I still live and breathe it and something grew up in. And our whole family, mom used to run the concession, help out in the concession, and we were on the track. She would pop out. And she was intense. You needed to give her about a six by six area because the same thing in a hockey rink.

She was six by six that her sways, you know, going into the corners were the same as when we were battling for the net. She was really intense in it. And, you know, always our number one fan through it. it was pretty neat. That's unreal. Yeah. Yeah, so a special time.

But I shut it down in 06 was kind of my last full-time year racing. And that's when I went out to Penticton, playing Penticton. But I guess if I go back to my hockey days and Bantam, you know, I was ranked. That was 03. I was ranked in the top five, literally the top five with all those rankings that came out in different, you know, magazines. For Bannam, you're talking Bannam? Damn draft. Yeah. And I was ranked six foot three at the time and a couple hundred pounds. And, you know, back in there when the game was good, I was in the top rankings for all that.

And I got cut from my zone team in Saskatchewan and, you know, multiple things. I wasn't in the greatest shape, you know, eating a lot of red meat and potatoes on, you know, being in the farm community. but I flopped to the eighth round, you know, 153rd or whatever it was, to Saskatoon. And you talk about a time that, you know, teaches you a lot, right? The disappointment feeling and you're glued to the screen with all the rankings that come out. And at that time, it was a big deal in the community because nobody had been drafted in our community. We had one other guy that made it as a free agent. And, you know, you kind of see that around you.

Yeah, I went from there and just got back into it. You know, started to realize at 15, 16 what training was. Played for the Patsy's as a 16-year-old. You know, lost, I think it was 17 pounds. My first year mid-Dripple-A and kind of, like, found out who I was and the identity of what true training was. I trained with Tyler Bozac, Derek Bougard, those guys, like, not trained in the same facility just in being like, hey, there's boogie

or there's Bozzy, you know, it was one of those where I was working out, like Derek Bougard and myself would go on the bag at 17, 18 when I was out in Penticton, he gave me a little, you know, the guy could punch his fist through a punching bag, and we were at level 10, and he'd work out, and he'd come over and knew my brother well and stopped by the house and stuff, and same with Bozac, you know, a Cinderella story in a sense there too, and went out to BC, every kid's dream at the time to go to BC from Sask and play in in BC and Penticton. How did you end up out in Penticton? Was that a trade or did you get like a spring camp or something like that?

No, it was actually just how life happens. Ray Warham was coaching the Midgety AAA team in Moose Jaw. Two years, there's a 15-year-old and 16-year-old. He'd offered me a spot there. Went there at 15. I just wasn't ready to leave home with no driver's life. and stuff like that. And I went there at 16, went through the black and white game,

had already talked with the Pat Canadians coaching staff. And before the black and white game happened, I went into Ray Warms, and I'm like, hey, Ray, thanks for everything. He was awesome to me. But I'm going to go play for Regina. I just, you know, I got family in Regina and the transition to be easier. And, you know, played against him. I still remember the last game of midgetcher.

I shook his hand and, you know, great playing against you as a coach, Ray and everything like that. Always had full respect for him. And a week after I was done with Regina, jumped on a plane, went and checked out Penticton because I'd been talking to Bruno. And when I was out there, he's like, Ray Warham's our, he's our Saskatchewan scout. And I'm like, no way, no way. And Bruno said, we want to sign you. We want you here next year.

and, you know, I didn't hesitate there, but it was just one of those things I called Ray, and I'm like, hey, thanks, you know. And you try and teach guys out, like the reaction or the impression that you give to somebody can go a long way, and Ray Warham was a guy that I walked in and told him I wasn't going to play for him, and he helped out my career down the road, you know,

gigantically to get me there. So I signed and, you know, just trained through the summer and went out to BC in August and reported to camp. What was Penn Tickton like? Well, for me, it was going out there and you got water, two lakes on each end. And, you know, it taught me a lot, though, and Bruno taught me a lot when he was coaching. Our camp was in the Soil, we stayed in the basement of the bingo hall. It was bunk beds, the wire ones, and, you know, had pretty much a gym mat on it with a sleeping bag.

And you went upstairs. We ran the beep test in the same gym. gym floor area, kind of that auditorium area that we were eating breakfast in the morning. And you had to walk to the rink, and it was four days. And, you know, kind of at the time Ken lost and Lossie White, like, why do you guys do this? And he's like, we see who can hack it after four days. And there was kids that went home that can, you know, some days you're sleeping minimally and doing all that, and you've got to grind and perform.

But to get out there and, you know, beautiful. British Columbia, as they call it. And then in the winter, it was interesting for me because I like the, I don't mind cold and then rode in snow machines and stuff in the winter. And then we kind of got that cloudy haze over top of it through the winter months. Still warm, but just cloudy. Your energy levels aren't near the same as, you know, if a minus 30 day with sun out is a lot different than a minus 10 day with full cloud for what seemed like three months at times.

but all new territory for me. I'd never been to Williams Lake. I'd never been to Victoria or any of those places. So it was cool. It was cool to see the province and playing the old Memorial Rink in Penticton that was ancient and the history that went in there. And, you know, taught me a lot,

had great billets with Jackie Fredlick. Fredlick and Grant Claddock out there that were just awesome people that taught so much. Jackie got me involved in the school program. She was the one that said the second year. She goes, Nigel, you want to run with it? It's yours. So as a player, right?

So she had looked after it all. So just opportunity and then took that opportunity around with it. That's pretty cool. So, and then from there, got to trade it to Camrose, December 1st of 07. Weird feeling. I had room with Brett Hextall that he was a captain. I was assistant captain. I said,

Hexie, I think I'm out. You know, there was another D-Man hanging around, and I said, I think I'm out, and he's, oh, no, no, you're not. And I said, this is that feeling, right? I'd separate my shoulder that year, too. And, you know, at the time seemed like a real tough goal. And then December 1st got the call from Harvey at 10 a.m. on a Sunday. You know what you're getting a call for on at 10 a.m. on a Sunday to come down to the rink.

I still remember my car didn't start that morning. So I brought Hexies and went down. and, you know, emotional at the time on both ends, I think it was one of Freddie's first trades that he really did and jumped on the plane and went to Camrose. Again, from, you know, minus 10 to minus 35 or whatever was at the time. But fortunate to be traded to a team that, you know, I think we had lost four games at that point.

The night before they had lost in Drumhalla before we got there, they had to run the stairs at 3.30 in the morning, all that kind of good stuff back in the day. Sorry to cut you off. I was curious, I asked the boys about it a couple weeks ago about Brooks, but what we were talking about before we got on here was back, I'm two years older than you, and I was saying to them guys two weeks or three weeks ago

that Camrose in my day was the team, and you went to the team. What was it about Camrose at the time of your playing that just separated it from everybody else? What were they doing? Like, you come over from a different program, you walk in, and was it immediate you noticed something, or was it just they had talented players,

or what was it about cameras? Well, you look at the personnel, I think that was there. You know, Joe Colburn, Mike Conley, Carl Stollary, Andrew McWilliam, those guys are still playing out with Joe had that unfortunate injury, but those other guys are still playing. But the other part of it was just the room. I think a big part of it, you know,

Dean Petty was my D partner and assistant captain, and, you know, he was like just a man. And you never questioned what he said. You could feel that out in the room and we'd own and chat when as a captain. And nobody ever looked over at Chaddy and, you know, said, I don't think so chatty, right? Like, you just had that feel and then the expectation to win. And there wasn't, you know, maybe we'll go in and win. You know, maybe we won't see how it plays out. It's like you go in every game and you need to win.

Like if you're not up by one after the first, it was kind of like, oh man, you'd think that we were on a three or four game slide and things like it was just a grind. So it was just that. And we had a special group, I think, and there was guys that came the year before. And you really had a mixed, you know, a mixed dynamic in your lineup. Like you look at guys, I still remember guys like Kyle Miller that was from Rapp. at Lake, Saskatchewan, and he could throw punches left and right, and he was happy with that role. You know, if he was perfect, a plus player that night and did everything right, you know, I don't even know if he's maybe played some senior hockey after that, right, but he was so dialed

into whatever helped the team win, blocking shots, and you rally, and it's almost like a missed art now in hockey is you have that where a guy blocks a shot, and you're just as excited. the guy that scored a goal. And we had that there, which, you know, to try and teach and to, you know, let guys understand that was something. But from top to bottom, there was just such a gel that, you know, it was there. And the expectation was to win. The people that came to stands, they expected to win. Fast forward several years now. I hate to jump too far ahead. but I'm curious, it's a question that I've been pondering since we first line this up. How do you take that what you know, you've been a part of a group that has come a couple periods away from winning a national championship with the Roebank Cup?

Because part of Camrose, for the people that don't know, and I probably should have let us go there, but you end up getting the Royal Bank Cup on the Camrose team. How do you take what you know and have been a part of there in that culture? there's multiple times you lean back to mine on as well and we can talk about that as well how do you take what you know there and bring it to lloyd now well it's a lot tougher than one would think and and that's you know it's it's one of those that uh you show video clips and you can work on the systematic side of things of hey here's our forecheck here's our power play here's all that and i get just as excited to show a clip of of a guy that's blocking six shots right and

And one of my favorite YouTube videos was watching the toughest athlete as a hockey player. You know, we're just guys laying out to block shots and doing all those things. Paul Korea from off the floor to scoring the goal and all that. And those kind of things go any bigger than the individual credit. And to make sure guys see that and know that. So I think that the YouTube clips that you can pull up are sometimes just as effective, if not more effective than a guy scoring a sweet goal and between his legs and top cheddar

and all that kind of good stuff is to try and show what that looks like. You know, we probably wish that we had gopros back in 08 and could travel around with us and all that kind of stuff back in those days. But just for guys to see that and also credit guys that do that with our team now, right? And you know what?

Sometimes we pull up three goals. Here's the clips from the goals for, here's the clips of the goals against. And say to our guys, like, here's the six clips of guys did good things away, right? And one might be that guy gets checked from behind, and there's three guys in on that. You know, when I got here last year,

I went to stay in a hotel for two and a half weeks, and that's what the coffee crew said, you know, like somebody gets hit from behind, nobody's there, right? And I experienced that. I was like, oh, man, like literally nobody's there. We didn't have any support. And, you know, you don't need a fight in 2019. There's hardly any of it.

But just to get in there and have that brotherhood hey, you know, if something was to happen, I'm there for you, right, to show those clips. And you ask guys that are coming back to camp or that I moved on to other ways. Those are clips that we looked at last year throughout to try to just teach that. You've been, I've heard you talk about team bonding a lot and doing different things with the team to try and grow some of that. Because part of that is just team bonding and getting guys to go to war for each other and putting them into situations where you, expediate that essentially like jell them together quicker. What are you doing for team bonding?

I've heard some different stories about maybe some things you've been doing with your team maybe when you first got here and now moving into this season. Well, I increased the budget on our team building. That was one of the first things that happened. But no, like we're going to go to the lake for two days and disconnect a little bit from the rink and it's early, right? On the ice and going through. Who knows with this August the way it's going.

you might have snow might be in shelter right but uh no we're going to go out to the lake and and we're fortunate with grant and neal are going to run the guys and it gives me an opportunity too to to step back from always being around them and i'll be there but for to interact with them for me to get to know them too right what makes them tick and um they all got sent though personality packages um that that some people might look at and be like well what's the personality package well one's a picture of a cat looking into a pond and the reflection of a lionback. What does that mean to you? And some guys might be like, well, that means you're only what you see in the mirror of yourself to, you know,

you can be whatever you want to be. So you get those different reads on guys. And one of the questions, I had one player responded that this is the toughest question I've ever answered is, you know, what do you do in emotional adversity? What emotional adversity have you had? And how did you get out of it? as an individual. So we get the feel for guys in that way and where we're at.

And then, you know, we'll take them to Lake for two days and we'll do an amazing race, you know, where they've got to work together. And they'll get to know each other. Just simple questions to each other from there to play and capture the flag with water balloons that were on sale at Costco, you know,

those new ones that are really good. To do that, to be effective in it where some of it's just quick. When I played hockey, you know, And there's not many times I do go back to it, but it was, you see those groups. I don't go as far as the clicks, but you just get to be really good friends with certain guys on the team and there you go to. You know, if I want to go for lunch tomorrow, I know I can call Sean and Sean's going to go for lunch with me.

No questions asked, right? We're going for lunch. Well, how about those 14 other guys that I've never called before? That probably, you know, they might want to go for lunch and been waiting all year to get that question. question to ask and how do we do that? They don't have to hang out every time, but to separate that out where you get to know each other. And that's the thing where we go out there and do these different team buildings is, you know, how do you get to know each other? We got guys that are going to be so quiet and you can tell them their responses that we're going to have to pull them

into the circle because they're just happy with sitting back. So we'll go to a place like that where they can sit around the fire and just have conversation and get to know each other and whatever it may be. Go to the school. And I'll pick the groups at the start where I can. can see that as a coach, our assistant coach sees that and be like, okay, let's put these three guys together because, you know, we're missing that. Let's get that bond in a different way where coaches aren't around and go hang out of school and have lunch with a kid. That's really cool. I was, you've already partially answered a huge chunk of it, but I know in your press conference when you first came here, you talked a lot about changing the culture. That's one piece of it.

Is there other pieces of changing a culture that you've been trying to? install now almost for the full year. Sorry, I can't even spit it out. And then, like, now that you're leading into your first full season, as I put it in quotes, like, is there other pieces to that puzzle that you're trying to instill around the organization? You've talked a lot about the facility and the staff that you've brought in and now having your first full year on having your hands on what team is going to be coming here, the team bonding building portion of it.

What else goes into that for you for changing the culture of what's been going on here and moving it forward? Well, I think having a great staff, I should say, around us is with the guys that are in the rinks every weekend and doing that and the character checks of the kids that were looking to bring in, whether they be assistant captains or kids that volunteered in schools already. you know, we came up with that border city built on the idea of really, you look at a community-owned team and how do you be a part of that community, right? And not just to say, okay, when the season's here, I said to our billets in the spring. I said the billets, they don't get, you know, near enough, like a rent check, if you want to call it that. They don't get paid enough by any means for having a guy in there.

And then the other thing is we never really had, you know, we need the billets in August when the guys report. We need you through the season and then being a part of teams, okay, well, we won't talk to you again until the next August, right? So we did those things along the lines of building those happers for Easter. We had just a simple barbecue at the performance center that, you know, they came and brought the families if they could come and eat and do that. And I think that goes to what we're building here. just to have that family, which is one of our core values, to do that and be true to our word. We're not just trying to, hey, here's our four core values, is to live by that and be a community team. And then when the community comes around, is to, you know, well, we said it all summer, we got our sponsors to leave it.

And now this season comes around. And, well, I haven't seen the Bobcats, right? It's to actually live that every day, is to execute it. If we can execute in the community, be a part of the community, we're going to execute. Q to Fort check. I don't have a question in that. And to build that culture where guys want to do that. It's not begging and pulling teeth to get them to go out there. It's being a part of that and being active in minor hockey. There might be a day in the season here where you see 23, 25 bobcats show up to a bill at kids hockey game, right? And everybody sit down and watch three periods of

and eat popcorn and have a, you know, a fountain pop or a gatorade or whatever it may be and sit there and watch it, just like those little kids do when they come and watch the bobcats. And they think it's really cool. And just we want humans that want to be like that. And I don't think it's rocket science. I think it's just you find the people and success breed success. I truly believe in that. And if you can find that, you create that energy and you create that culture.

Well, and the community part of it is you want a community to support you. I think you already said it, right? You support the community. And we were both talking off air about how much we did, I mean, we started with it, about how much we did in our careers in the community. And for me, being out east, that's what we did. We were always in the schools. We always went and kids practices, kids games, kids, everything.

It was about making our community better, stronger, more gelled. And when you do things like that, you get the support. tenfold and for at least in one of your interviews it was fantastic and I wish I could I'll try and paraphrase it but essentially talking about you don't understand like the impact you're making

on a kid's life by just giving me a little bit of time and on the flip side the player going out there and having to experience the different walks of life sitting in the schools is good for them to see as well and that's a really cool message to bring to your team and have your team be a part of

and I think you'll start to see the community rally around stuff like that because that's like an awesome message. Well, we're fortunate in what we get to do and I'm true to that and what I get to do. I live my dream every day and a lot of our guys do where we don't have to worry, right? They're going to use a hockey stick

that they didn't have to pay for when there might be a kid out there that's just wishing he got a broken stick just so he could shoot the rocks against, you know, the curb on the road and enjoy that moment. And for our guys to understand that, which you talked about, That goes above and beyond, you know, any, I think, MVP or leading score title that anyone can receive. I wanted to ask you about, and I hope I get the name right, when you were with Camrose, did you start the Kodiak's Cub Club?

Is that correct? Did I say that, is that correct name of it? Yeah, you bet. So it actually originally, when I was down in Minot, I started a program down there called Building the Future. Okay. So it was the same, use the same blueprint there where it was building the future. And it was a different market down there because in North Dakota, they didn't really know hockey. You know, they knew football.

You say football, they knew everything. So getting the schools was a challenge, which taught me a lot too for teachers to understand, you know, hockey players and what we were looking to do. And then started the Kodiak's Cubs Club in Camrose where we just targeted schools to be active in it, And I think, you know, that's a big part of it where you bring that consistent role model to them. And they know, you know, next Thursday that at the time is, excuse me, the Kodiaks were coming in. And then working towards a goal with them. It was to read 12 hours outside of school and be physically active for 12 hours outside of school. And then they got a prize package out of it that was pretty much a backpack, a water bottle, skipping rope, tickets to a game.

they had a free meal with it stuff that again your everyday probably junior hockey player takes for granted because when they show up they get you know a package of here's a t-shirt shorts and kind of that swag and also encourage kids

and they got a t-shirt and both times you created that program the coolest thing still for me is when you see a kid the next Thursday wearing the shirt because he knows the team's coming and that just touched home to me with one boy I remember in both communities that he did not miss a day and I don't know if the

shirt was ever washed or not it was like he was hanging in his locker but every day we were there it was great and the same thing when in January where we went to a school here in town every Thursday and the principal called and she said neither we got a problem I'm like well you know we've got a problem I don't know what it is I don't really know the guys yet and she said you know we just went to two classes and the other two to three classes are really mad and like we had grade twos that were really mad and I'm like oh boy like what's going on right and she's like really mad because the bobcats didn't come to their class do you think we could just send like two to a class and spread them out through the school every time and I'm like absolutely I'm like that is the best

thing yeah yeah like when I first started I'm sweating kind of speechless sitting back and I'm like this is the coolest thing ever, right? And for those kids to gravitate to them and want them, you know, in their classroom, again, goes above and beyond and hopefully our guys take away from it. Maybe this year, maybe in 10 years, maybe when they have their own kid, of how important that is and if they can make a little bit of an impact along the way, too. Are we, and maybe you already have it going with the Bobcats, is there a club or something along that program already started since your reign or before your reign?

Well, what we're doing this year is going to be new. and once the teachers get back, we're going to kind of formulate a pen and we're going to do the wow, the workout a week with our guys. We're going to start just with the physical activity side of it with King's Energy Group, you know, that they work towards, you know,

watching a YouTube or if it's like last February, it's minus 40, that they can pop the YouTube video up in recess and kind of go through a workout and watch a Bobcat and then us go out to the schools and be a part of it. And you never know, maybe we'll get you into the gym and have you on there as the celebrity, celebrity, right? And that's what we're going to work towards to see those different people that have impacts.

You never, you know, this might be the first shout out to the mayor, that he's going to get a phone call to come in and do that. And we got a little sign up, kind of like the old Polaroid, where they get to put their face in between and be the student of the month and student of the week and to do that. So we've created that. And, you know, we wanted to build over time. We've had a lot, a lot go on in this off season.

So I think it's a step in the right direction. Maybe we'll do something where we let the kids name the program down the road here and really be involved in it in a different way. That's really cool. To switch gears a little bit, another thing that I wanted to talk to you about is, is up until this point you've been an assistant coach

and when asked about that I was curious what you were going to say and you've already answered it a couple times so for those of you who haven't heard your answer the one piece and I'll let you explain it and talk maybe a bit about it is up until this point you'd never been a head coach

you'd always been an assistant coach and you had said a couple different things one you wanted to experience everything so you could understand the different facets of the game, whether it was video, whether it was recruiting, dealing with the schools and creating the programs and having your hands. So you understood when you got to the top. And the quote you used was, it's not a race to the top.

And I really enjoyed that. And I thought maybe you could talk a little bit about that. And maybe why Lloyd, when it came up, was the right fit and why you went, okay, it's time now. Well, you know, you look at it and I go back on it and yeah, people mature over the time. And I think, you know, to be humbled in what you did and how you got there along the way. And I was probably that guy along the way at some point that my head was so big it, it had a tough time getting through doors. You know, and that's just the reality already.

You reflect on things all the time. And I was probably that guy. There was, I can't tell the exact time of when that was or where that was. was but um you know to to be humbled and go along and it's a it's a tough process in the coaching world right i i'd worked hockey schools every summer um and then got involved the just personal things you know training kids and and doing skill um and i thought i was ready at different jobs in my life or you're like i could do that right like oh yeah it's not not not that bad and then you kind of get into it and it's like there's a lot that goes into it.

And that was outside of hockey. That was just those summer jobs where, you know, working through the offseason. And when I went down to mine ought to see down there was a real eye open for me. That was a private own team, the owner I still talked to all the time down there. And it was an opportunity where I went into a team similar at the time to where the bobcats were struggling, financially struggling on the ice. I think we were only averaging just over 600.

people a game, you know, at the start of that. And there was a lot of variables that went into that. And I just showed up and I thought I was going to be an assistant coach, right? Just go on the ice and do video work and go recruit. And that's kind of where it was. And I said the owner, like, well, there's some room for growth there. And he's like, well, do you want to do it? And I'm like, sure, right?

And that's where I started with the things of building and rebuilding the bathrooms on the bus. And next thing, you know, sell and sponsorship. and it gives a whole different dynamic and a whole different perspective on what goes into it. You know, if I would have jumped in now looking back on a head coaching job and somebody said, well, what's our sponsorship at? We think, well, I don't know. Like how to even approach that, right? And to be able to do that.

So it took my time through it. And when you look at players, when we look at players, you sometimes look like, okay, that player's been on three teams in one. year or three teams and two years or five and whatever the breakdown on the ratio is where there was a lot of teams in a short time and I said I never want to do that as a coach you know I was four years in my not which is you know you look at a 16 to 19 year old as a junior hockey player and the same spot and going back to Camrose to see what that was like in a different side of it as there as a player and and to see what the other side of it was like and you know

know how some things were still the same from when I was there. And then when Lloyd opened up and, you know, before watching around the league and seeing different teams and how they went to both, that I actually had a job offer in this league a year before that that I turned down because it was a situation that was one that I didn't know if I wanted to jump into at the time. And that was the first time in my life. I actually said like, hey, maybe I need more time when I didn't take that job. It was kind of like I had a crunch time, decision time.

I had 24 hours to make what could have been a life-changing decision. And I didn't. I went to Camrose from there and I could have been the head coach at the other team. And probably one of the better decisions I made to feel out the Canadian side of hockey. And then when this one came available, it reminded me so much in mine on. You know, I remember when I called home and I just said this just reminds me opportunity, right? There can be so much growth from what I think, you know, at the time, a struggling team and just to go in there, old barn, all those things, and to see what can

really happen. And that's, you know, took the jump and threw my name into the hat. And, you know, to go from there and looking back at it, you know, I think I put in some good time as an assistant and coach that weren't easy days at times, right? From how you're trying to put a food on the table at night was tough to do. And when you're going on road trips, the best meals were the ones at the hotel because they sometimes are fancier than the ones that I was eating myself to get there. So that was a big thing. But if you asked me that same question at 16 or 18 or 20 years old,

I probably would have told you that I wanted to get to the top as fast as I could. And it's just that reflection. what can I do better every day? How am I going to get to the top? Right? And the challenge and to work towards that goal. It's like our players now. Every kid wants to go to pro.

Every kid wants to be a division one hockey player. But can you truly reflect to yourself? Are you doing everything to get there? Right? The guy that shows up at the rink and then goes home. The guy that shows up at the gym and then goes home. You know, there's eight more hours in the day. What are you doing to become better?

And that's no different I thought as a coach once I got going. right you can work 8 to 5 or you could work 7 till 10 30 at night if the job need to be done and that's why we put coaches in this place is there needs to be late late nap that we can mix that into it so i love the gym because i can just go crush out a workout in the middle of the afternoon uh but that'd be why i'm not seeing you at motion at 5 in the morning anymore yeah he's back there at 5 3 this morning but uh i like i like the energy and in the performance center here and, you know, it was kind of cool, just the whole process of it. But, yeah, you know, sometimes it is, there's so many things that I could relate now to kids, right? Like, hey, making a

decision at 15 to sign this way or sign that way, you know, again, when I was 15, all I wanted was was to go one way and to do all that. Now I can pull myself back and older and more experience in it and, okay, what's best? What way is best? And I had to make those tough decisions and you see dollar signs at times of, you know, if I go this way, I got this happening. If I go that way, you know, it's a whole different thing. So I'm excited about it now, and I think, too, for myself, we've got a young assistant coach here that he has the same aspirations to climb the ladder. And, you know, I had him hanging signs a couple days ago.

You know, and he's probably looking at me, like, why am I hanging signs? I'm an assistant coach. if you can figure those things out, you know, his coaching career will go a long, long way as well. Let's talk about the upcoming season. I'm sure when this airs, it'll be August 28th, which means it's your first preseason game at home. So if you're listening this, tonight you face the Spruce Grove Saints in a preseason game. What are you looking forward to the most getting this thing rolling and moving? what can the city expect with the upcoming bobcats?

Well, it's been a common question, and it's escalating more and more or late. But, you know, the big thing, and it was a whole new thing for me to come in mid-season and trying and instill my beliefs and my philosophies on things. And that's probably one of the most exciting parts for myself is to put things in the play from day one. And it's not, you know, day the third month or whatever it was at the time. And for our guys to know my expectations as a coach, know my expectations as our organization from day one. You know, it's been an off-season.

There's no season that's off-season that's slower than another anymore the way that it goes with so many camps going on and always recruiting. But we had some significant trades. You know, the one with acquiring cam, a coin from Sherwood Park and Kyle Fulton and the future considerations where, you know, we went short-handed with our card situation. We were out of cards, so to go shorthanded down the stretch to get those two pieces that were 17-year-olds, full-time guys, and we managed, you know, with the Fort McMurray deal

to get three players that we were after at the deadline. That was the other deal that we had going. We were trying to get those three out of them at the deadline, too. So it was one of those that, you know, we felt comfortable and I shouldn't say comfortable. We were confident in acquiring those guys. And then you look at our recruits that, you know, we went after from Ethan Mack in Minnesota, Alex Deney and Calgary to mention a few Jared Miller out of the edge. You know, and I think we're bringing really low numbers in the camp and to get right after it right away

and to have a feel on what we have. And maybe we could speak a little bit about that because I'm sure. Sure, Coffee Row is probably asking or will be asking about that as well. You have a little different mindset than traditional hockey that I would assume both of us played, where you bring in as many people almost as possible to tryouts. And I put that in parentheses because the game has changed a little bit. And every different organization has their own theories on how to go about it. but instead of bringing in 50 guys, 40 guys,

you're bringing in 28 and you already know the number. Yeah, well, that's the big thing, you know, through the process is a lot different. And there's other coaches that say, well, you know, it's a way for us to get our hooks into other guys and stuff. And I think we've done a good job with that through the year. And, you know, we're straight with players. Hey, we love you and we're excited to watch you next year. But this is where we're at with numbers and this is who we're bringing in.

and they might get to experience the camp in another place, but we've been up front with them the whole time, from the way we did camp at spring to the summer camp to this one. I think it also gets us a little bit with all the new bodies, and we'll stick to this format moving forward, but especially this year for us to stick to the format of getting right into things, you know, the two days on Saturday and Sunday, and then there won't be an inter squad this year.

So I got asked by the media, which team am I practicing, you know, coaching? And we don't have an air squad game. Like we just don't have a single game where it's two teams, you know, going after it. That it could be, you know, one person drinking coffee might think it's a genius idea and the other one might think it's one of the worst ideas. But to get to our numbers and our guys can get accustomed to the community, our facilities, what we want to do every day and to get into routine. to be a part of that

and also gives us a chance we go back to when we talked about earlier the team building part if we bring 50 guys in the 15th guy might not know the 50th guy and you might be 10 days into camp and then you're playing

things happen so quick we're kicking things off and at the end of August when it air is here tonight with the preseason game and our last regular season game is February 26 there's not a whole lot of time We've got a couple weeks. We're playing four games a week.

You know, it's a lot happening. Your last regular season game is February 26th, that I said? So when does the first regular season game start? You said that. September 13th, we're kicking off. September 13th. And where is that? Is that on the road or at home?

That's on the road against Sherwood Parks. We're doing a home-and-home with Sherd Park. We go there on the Friday. We come back here. They'll probably rank. I'm going to guess Sherwood Parks will be ranked in the top 10 in Canada coming out. You know, I said that to Chase her a couple of weeks. for a couple weeks ago.

I said he's going to be on the top 20 board and the CGHL with what they did last year and then pretty much returning a team. I said it's great. It's great for us to have a benchmark going in of where we're at. And, you know, I look at it too. There's definitely people that, you know,

if we go 0 and 1, it's going to be, you know, oh boy, what's going on? If we go 2 and 1, you know, it's a game. I was going to say, you know, you're talking about there's going to be people at coffee row sitting there going, it's either a brilliant idea or it's a horrendous idea about the 20. right and the only thing that's going to is in well a month's time a couple months time

everybody's going to know one way or another right and for you and for everybody in lloyd i hope i hope you're bang on and i hope it goes guns ablazing for you uh you know to draw it to the nchel comparison that's been an argument with uh the oilers forever is they are still switching lines up in the last like three games of preseason and by the time the NHL season gets rolling none of the guys have even played together so it takes them that many more days to get accustomed to how the other guys playing or

even if they're on the team or getting settled into the city and everything else and that's what you're talking about so it's an interesting take and like I say like you you go people are going to question on it I find it very intriguing and I look forward to seeing how it works for you

I hope it works for you and I hope for the city of Lloyd and for the Bobcats you come out guns and blazing and where you go. Well, it's one of those that you talk about the line combinations and stuff and that's you put in some days here when we're doing different things

and go home. It gives me time to think about that stuff too, right? So I got my master sheet where I got different colors and different things going on with different line combinations that's played out.

And as you mentioned, we can jump in and try those things right away, right? And I think that's where, you know, you always think about camp as maybe a diamond and a rough or, you know, something along those lines.

and I think you might get a surprise out of what we're doing with short numbers of, hey, this guy can game, right? And this is where we thought he'd be okay. He's great. And I'm still a believer. You know, we talk about the flex lines where you got to have four lines that can play, but I still believe you need the pieces within that to make things happen. You need guys, you know, when we look at Savoy down the road, you've got to be able to shut them down.

Right. We've got to have pieces in our lineup that got to be able to play defense and shut a guy down like that. And for our guys, they're going to go up against the guys that we're expecting to put up points, you know, right out of camp. Here you go. Defend against them. Stay even on them. And then find a way to get one or two along the way in practice when we're doing different small area games and going from there. But, you know, Sean, you go back to the O and one or whatever it may be or 1 and 0 or 10 and O, whatever it is.

You look around in comparison as a coach. People ask me who is my favorite hockey team and his stuff. And you look at sports as a whole. Like I look at the riders. Sask riders. We've got a lot of rider fans in Lloyd and, and, you know, all that kind of stuff. O and three to start. Yeah.

Right. And I don't know what they are now, five and three. I don't know if they've, you know, they got up to 500, got above 500. And everybody's wondering why the coach isn't wearing his headset during the game, right? When they're o' and three, they're wondering why, you know, he's the worst coach. He doesn't have his headset on. That's social media today, though, right? Five and three.

He's a great coach. He doesn't wear his hell. headset, right? Or whatever it is now. But it's a, it's a, everything in sports is a roller coaster, right? Whether you're talking shift by shift or game by game or et cetera, right, you can extrapolate that and you have to stay steady on it because you can't get too high when you're at the top and you can't get too low when you're at the bottom because that's, that's why you love the game

is because of the ups and downs and twists and turns and everything else. and no the coffee row thing's funny because I mean you know you're the biggest ticket in town right when it comes to hockey there's there's no WHL team here there's no NHL team you know it's the Lloyd Bobcats and so it's it's cool to hear that they're already grilling you in the middle of August like that's awesome right like I mean as a guy sitting in your position you had to expect that it was going to come you know by taking the lead role and having to wear some of that trap, Nelania, from questions and concerns. And I can just imagine the list of things that over the last almost a year,

it'll be a year in November, since you took the job, you went through a season that could not have been easy to handle. I think you guys, what was it, nine wins last year? That's, that's, whether you're the head coach or the assistant coach or the water boy, that is a rough, to bear and deal through. But at the same time, I've had those seasons as a player, and you just can never forget that side,

and you've got to use that to fuel the start of a brand new season and away you go. Well, I think, too, you look at it. I tell our guys that we're recruiting, and guys felt that at spring camp and summer camp when there's people in the stands, right? And the excitement around that. I love, you know, when you go somewhere and you're getting grilled,

and you're going to wear it, like you said, We're the good days, we're the bad days, but they care, right? And you have a community that cares, and we can talk community, but for our guys coming in, you know, we're going to have guys from Calgary that, that's a big city. You got the flames, you got the hitmen, you know, you got the Canucks, you get three different midget AAA programs. We got guys coming in from Ohio that, you know, you play hockey, right?

Well, yeah, you got, it's on the bottom of the totem pole. Roller hockey. I always argue. I'm married to a Minnesota girl. and they're the hockey state, right? Yeah. And in the hockey state, hockey's still probably number three on the sports list. Absolutely.

I'm not saying they aren't crazy going to hockey because I'm going to have Minnesotans listening to this. But it's not the same as up here, right? No. And it's specifically like you're saying in Lloyd. Well, it's a cool thing. And I think for our guys is, you know, you experience that, right? When you go out and you're grabbing a bite to eat and, you know, the table across you knows you.

And we go back to the role model side of it and how you have to handle yourself. and be professional and just be that good person. But what more could you ask for, right? Is the support that we had last year in what was a trying year, you know, on the last game of the year, we were eliminated from the playoffs, where easily could have been an empty rink and we're still getting 7,800 people out to a game.

Yeah. You know, it bogged my mind because I'm like, wow, this is cool, right? This is a place that if we do something special here down the road and the support that might kick in and will kick in when things turn the page is special. And as we start to wind down here, because I've kept you, we're going to go a little over an hour now. And so I got a couple quick hitters that I always do at the end that I'm excited to always do with guests because they're nice and easy and light for the most part. Unless you're Kenny Morrison, if he's listening to this, he seemed to make it difficult. I shouldn't rag on Kenny. It was a lot of fun with him.

But is there anything you're looking for, I mean, like, how to go with sponsors? Are you still looking for sponsors, Billet Families, anything like that? If people are listening, is there any way they can, A, help? How's the season tickets going? Maybe a couple things like that to help you guys out. And if there's some people listening that want to help out, they can. Well, as far as sponsorship, when we're fortunate, you know, all of the support that we get, all the time.

You know, they get advertising and return, but truly the sponsorship that we get and the people that back us every year is awesome. We're always looking to add to it in different ways, whether it be game days or signage or just helping out, you know, in different ways there to make junior hockey tick every day. And we're always looking there. And, you know, I'm the contact person for that.

That was most of my summer was doing that stuff. And I loved it getting to know the sponsors too. and building those relationships. But always looking at the billets. We're fortunate again. We had some billets come back that had billeted a couple years ago, and now are back on board. You know, our new billet coordinating team that's looking after things.

We have spots for a couple extra that if they want to give it a try, you know, when we bring an affiliate or something in for a day or two and they get to experience that. That might be a nice way to do it too, right? If they're thinking about it, all they've got to do is, a couple days and then they're gone again and now you kind of get a feel for what it's going to feel or what it's going to be like.

Exactly right. So we're set up in a good spot there but that would be one that I'd say and it is a way to kind of break the ice and maybe the fear of it is a kid two, three days and you just see how things work out with it. So if somebody, you know, is interested in that to shoot our Bill of Cornyan team an email, they'd be happy to discuss it.

They both billed it so they know it and new and been around it for a long time at the same time. So season tickets, we had a big push there with the early bird. And, you know, I think July people enjoy the lake and do all that. This summer is teaching us we always joke you get two months of summer. It feels like we've gotten a half month of summer this year. 12 degrees of spring. That's right.

It's crazy. But we're going to do a season ticket push here again. now that things probably, you know, school starts and all that kind of stuff. We're going to do a couple open houses here at the Performance Center that people can come check it out. You know, we're going to open up our room. We changed that around and did that, and people can come see what the new product is. Yeah, and what that looks like. You know, maybe we've got season tickets and been season tickets for 10 years and never seen inside the dressroom.

And we're going to do that with meet and greets with players after, you know, player signatures. and all that kind of stuff. We want to engage our guys in the community and into our fan base. But season tickets, get your seat. You know, we changed up the way we're doing tickets this year. So you can always have the tickets that will be there for you. I lost my train of thought.

I was thinking, as soon as the door open, I was thinking something and now it's disappeared. Is there any special games coming up? You talk about, or special dates, not games. You talk about open houses. Have you scheduled any of that in? If people want to come check out the new dressing room, I'm assuming you're going to announce it on Twitter, Facebook,

or something like that? Is that the best way to figure that out? Or do you have a date and time already set in? Yeah, the Twitter Facebook's a big part for us. The day before this is airing is the time that we'll be doing the open house in 27th. And then we'll have, we do have a couple of cool games. Like the 14th is going to be our home home home. opener. We'll have a lot of activities going on for that. We got October 8th is our hockey

hockey day. That's a cool. That's a great, great day. That's all I heard about is all the kids. All the kids get to go to the rink. It's unreal. Yeah, so I've seen a couple clips of that from, you know, the replays and stuff. So we'll have that one. And then, you know, a little bit different this year. We're going to go up to Onion Lake, December 6th, and play up there on a Friday night. And that'll be a home game for us. So we're going to do that. You know, we have to be kind at the end of the year that we're going to do that. Our focus, and we've been working on it here now, is to create an event for people to come. It's more than just showing up, watching hockey and win, lose, see if we're out of there, right?

We want people to come there. We want to up our entertainment in between and at the intermissions. We've talked to sponsors and stuff that, you know, have the T-shirt guns and have all those kind of things to bring those up that bring some entertainment value on a Friday night that's just, you know, we'd like to think it's affordable, a family, fun entertainment. And so we're going to continue to work on that here, and as we go, we'll announce them. And the big thing, it's just like, you know, we've got to win hockey games. There's no doubt about that, but we've got to execute what we say we're going to do.

So if we say that we're going to, you know, have a special night in November, we've got to make it a special night. and that's a big thing. That's a big thing, you know, moving forward for us, is just that execution point on the ice, off the ice, what we say we do. That's awesome. Well, A, good luck in the season.

I'm really excited to come out, and if people have listened, have been falling along the podcast, there's at times we've ragged on them a little bit because they've had guys on a used to play for them, got been traded away, et cetera, et cetera, and it just comes up over and over. and I'm excited to see what you guys do this year. I'm a junior hockey player.

I love watching a good junior hockey game, and I'm interested to see what your guys look like at the start of the season. What I do at the end of all the podcasts is I have a list of roughly five questions. As my listeners know, at times I stray from that and ask seven instead of five. But there are some fun ones. I got suggested. I always have sports players on, and everybody has their reason why they wear their jersey numbers.

So I thought going back to your playing days, we could ask what jersey number you wore and why you pick that one. Well, I wore number three. Growing up when I was a young kid, that was dad's race car number. So the three of us, we used to have young kids get the old Caesar cut with the number three in the back of our head growing up. So that stuck around for a long time.

And then honestly, I could tell you every number I wore. I midget double A, I wore number two. That was the only number they gave it to me. Went to the Pac-Canadian's number six that was given to me. Penticton, I was a rookie number four. And I stuck with four after, one of those that, you know, you kind of. Once you wear it, you kind of get. Yeah, so I went four, four Penticton, and then Camrose, I was an older guy,

I got to keep four, and then mine out went to four, too. So I ended it with four, so I don't know, it's kind of funny. You go three, four, two, six. and being those numbers all the time. Well, you're a defenseman, right? Yeah. You had the number I always wanted four. Really?

I always wanted four. I went to, never got it once, not single time. I flipped a coin my first year and junior to get number four and lost the coin to us. Lost that one. It just wasn't meant to be. Yeah. And then when I got back to Hillman where I've been playing senior now, four wasn't available either. And my number that I'd been wearing for like eight years wasn't available either.

And so I took the one, my father had been suggesting to me for like, felt like 20 years and I can tell them no I'm never wearing that and now it's my favorite number was five and it's one you haven't worn yeah that's the one I haven't that five has never been an interest to me I was never of interest to me either until I got to Hillman I started wearing it and then I had my father on episode two of this and I asked him like like where where number five come he was a forward and number five was a community guy um verne priest from Helmand who they talk about was amazing on the ice back in like the 60s and and dad had grown up watching them.

Yeah. And then it always wanted to work by. That's great. And I was like, ah, so that's a cool story number three. I mean, heck, you rattled off pretty much every single digit there was. Yeah, exactly. If you had a time machine, you could go to any event. Where would you go?

Oh, man, that's a good one. This is the one that stumped Kenny. I was ragged on Kenny 10 minutes ago. Kenny wanted the parameters. And I can give you more parameters if you like. No, no, I think any event, But, you know, I don't even think it would matter the sport. A championship game, you know, you're looking at a best of seven, game seven.

I think that whether you're a fan of either team or the sport or anything like that, the energy, excitement, adrenaline, whether it be from soccer to basketball that I had never watched before the Raptors, you know, did that thing this year, right? Like that game seven feeling of just being a part of that, an energy and atmosphere, yeah, that's where I'd go. If you could pick one defenseman to play with, current or past, who would you pick to man the blue line with you? I always joke Dary and Hatcher. Back in his heyday when he could get away with it.

Guy made $3.5 million last season. You know what? Interesting enough, Jay Bowmeester was like a, gigantic. I always said that's my game. Like that's my game. And then, you know, I almost thought that he was retired. And then you look at him winning the cup this year. Like, that was pretty cool. But that's a tough one because playing with hopefully somebody that put up a lot of points,

help my plus minus. That'd be the big, big part of it. I don't even know if I have one for you there. I'll stick with Darien Hatcher on that. Dary and Hatcher. You said a couple there. Who was, we're going to stick with your playing days. Who was the best player you played with and played against? You know, played against it.

It was just in the Doyle. Played against my roommate, Brad Hextall. He was just a kid, and he still, I watch him all the time. He's raising the son now and still involved in hockey. That just truly wore his heart on a sleeve. You know, he capped in the Sioux, did all that, and you knew you were going to get the best out of them every night, whether you played with them or against him.

There was never a doubt. I speared him in the first game of the Doyle, and we lived together. A little of controversy there, but he was just that guy. And again, I go back to, he didn't score 50 or do anything like that, but just passion on his sleeve and live for the moment every day.

Did you go for a beer after you spared him? Yeah, we won the Doyle too, so I said, no. He's still an awesome guy. He's still a guy that I call. You know, I'll send him out. Hey, Hexie, what did you do as a player? What was your favorite coach? You know, just different things when you get to those November's

and you're needing something a little bit different. Still stay in touch with them. And, you know, another one would be Carl Stollery from Camrose and still playing pro. He's a quiet guy homeschooled. His path to where he is today is different than a big percentage of players. but he just goes about himself, real individual guy, and has success.

And he just creates that by himself. I always give this one to the young guys. I'm interested in your answer. If you could go party with one celebrity, who would you go with? Oh, man. Well, it's been some crazy guy. You look at Oveskin after he won the kind of thing.

That guy, that was continuing on for a few days. So I don't think I probably wouldn't turn down Ovi if, you know. You'd have a fun time with him. I don't think anyone can have a bad time. Yeah, no, you find a couple water fountains around, and next thing you know you're swimming, right? So that would be one for sure that I would definitely be interested in.

Final one. We do a little game called Sign Trade Buyout, and knowing that Nashville Predators is your team. Although I did find your take on the Carolina Hurricanes. What did you say there? Carolina Hurricanes, hard to not like them when their fan attendance went up 400%. 400% in season ticket sales or 400% in season ticket and merchandise.

I think there was two that one was three, one was 400%. Like, yeah, I go back to that. You know, Nashville and cool city, cool, everything. Carolina, what they did this year from a team that hovered at the bottom for years. And when you see numbers of merchandise and what it can do, right? What winning can do and what success and those guys being different. You know, I think I dropped it. It was Pierma, or not Pierre, Don Cherry, can't stand it.

Yeah. I thought it was pretty cool. I completely disagree with what Don said. I'm like, I come from oil country where every conversation I have around the oil is right now, a part of its success. If they were winning, people probably wouldn't care nearly as much. They haven't been winning. And you go to the game and there's no real fan experience, right? You go and watch a game, you leave, and that's it, and half the time.

half the time they just they don't I'm not saying they don't try it just doesn't feel like they try or something along the lines right and then to watch what Carolina did and have anyone say anything about how it's a travesty of the game or anything that is like they're engaging their fans their fans love it heck I love it I'm sitting there watching I'm going I want to see what they figure out the next one right and and then to win on top of it and get that culture going like how can you knock that well you talk about the you know the family part of it and the culture part of it. You can't tell me that more people didn't buy into it. There was a trainer that probably didn't have to, but had a basketball hoop ready to pop out, right? Like, there was some,

to sit down and understand, you know, how that all happened and where it came from. I think that would, it might come out in the coolest book ever. Absolutely. Of who planned that? Did he practice it, what went on with it? And then how much they loved their coach and how much their coach loved them? And how ballsy of it was it to try it the first time and not have everybody understand what the heck was going on. Right? It's easy to see it at the 30th time they do it, right? Or whatever, how many times they did it, right? Because now, by now, everybody's talked about it. But like the first like three times, everybody's kind of like, what the heck is going on here? Oh, yeah, and still, and then to lead up the anticipation of what was next, right?

What are they going to do next? What are they going for it? And all that. So, pretty cool. So the question, anyways, going back to it, Nashville Predators is what you listed first. So you got to sign one guy, trade one. out and buy one out. So sign, trade, buy, out. And the three guys I picked off of Nashville because we can't make it nice and easy on you. I picked Forzburg, Romani Yosi, Victor Arvinson. Oh, man. I threw a D-Man in there. I thought maybe you'd give D-Men some love, but hey, we'll see what you choose. And what do I got to do with them here? I got to keep up. You got to sign one long term. You got to buy one out, and you got to trade one.

I keep Forsberg long term who are my other two I'm working with Roman Yosey defenseman and Victor Arborson the small skilled well I don't even know why I'm at the awful listeners I'd buy him out

By out Arvinson? Yeah and trade Yosey Yeah there you go folks There it is Call me crazy That's happened before

Well I appreciate you coming on Wish you the best of luck I hope you've enjoyed this I certainly have had a blast here for the last hour and a half-ish of sitting here chatting with you. And good luck in the season upcoming. Oh, I appreciate coming in, Sean. It's awesome. And it's awesome what you're doing, too.

It's something different and getting to know people. You know, you look at the talent in town here and the guys that have come through town and stuff. Not many people will take the time of the day to do it. So it's appreciate it. Thank you. And we'll hopefully get you on here again. Yeah, hopefully we've got some good stories after. Hey guys, thanks for tuning in.

I hope you enjoyed Nadual Dubay. I wish them the best of luck here in the upcoming season. If you are in the Lloyd Minster area on August 28th, they have their first preseason game against the Spurs Grove Saints. It's $5 at the door, so make sure you go check them out and see what the team's looking like this year. Next week, I have Chase Waters and Rhineharton studio, both playing in the dub currently.

So had the boys come in and sit down before they took off for the upcoming season. And I'll give you a little sneak peek here at how it sounded. All right. Until next week, guys, enjoy. Hockey routines. You got a weird. Are you guys weird in something you don't wash or you have to put on your gear a certain way? What's your weird routine?

Oh, my God. Fact. I don't really have any, honestly. I have a couple of handshakes with the guys going out. but besides that, that don't really got it. Do you sit on the bus and go, okay, we got to work on a handshake? How does that start? It kind of just come along.

You don't really plan it. It kind of just happens. I guess I always stretch on the blue line anymore, but maybe that's my thing. Okay. I'm not going to go through mine, but I probably got 15, 20 little routines I do before every game. Like a ridiculous amount, like little handshakes or little things and warm up. I had to be the last guy in half moon. I got to shoot third in three lines.

Oh, you're one of those guys. I got to stretch at like one minute left and just little things like that. And then for getting dressed, I always put my left skate on first.