It is not his first go-around as a Head Coach in the Ontario Hockey League, but for Ryan Oulahen this season has been a juggling act with everything that has happened around the North Bay Battalion this year. What he and Assistant Coaches Scott Wray and Bill Houlder and General Manager Adam Dennis have managed to do with this group has been very respectable when you consider all the components that go into putting a team on the ice every weekend in the Ontario Hockey League.
First of all, they are dressing upwards of 12 first- or second-year players every game, making them the youngest team in the league with only four 19-year-olds and two overage players on their roster. Compare that to the Guelph Storm or Mississauga Steelheads whom they faced this week and you’ll see how much more Major Junior experience the players on those teams have. (Guelph dressed three overage players and six 19-year-olds, while the Steelheads also had three overage players in the lineup, three 19-year-olds, and five 18-year-olds, three of which are already drafted by NHL clubs.)
Secondly, to come into a team mid-way through the year that was already behind the eight ball in terms of a playoff position (having just 10 points through the first 28 games) and to get them to compete the rest of the year was not going to be an easy task.
“It’s hard, I’m not going to lie about that,” says Oulahen who has the team at 6-11-2-0 through 19 games going into Sunday’s contest against Kingston.
“But at the same time, it has made it really fun, it’s made it interesting to have the dialogue that we have every day. After every day’s practice, we are kind of evaluating players as if we just played a game because we are seeing different things.”
They have mixed up lines, they have adjusted special teams and have found chemistry with different pairings on the back end.
“We look at one guy and think maybe he can help in this situation or another guy in a different situation. It’s made it so much fun to learn about these guys and create these relationships.”
While it hasn’t always worked, this team is finding a way to be much more competitive in more games than not. They have played in 21 games where they have lost by three goals or more, 14 of those came prior to the coaching change. In 28 games this year they have allowed five goals or more and are 2-24-1-0 in those games with 17 of those taking place prior to Oulahen arriving.
To be fair, the numbers don’t always tell the full story, as you must factor in injuries during some of those games that affected big-time players and several trades made during the season certainly impact the overall game plan that could be put together.
However, if you extrapolate the team's record under Oulahen through a 68-game schedule you would get a record of 21-39-7-0 giving them 50 points. It still probably wouldn’t be good enough to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference this year, however, it does paint the picture that this team was always going to have a tough time during this rebuilding season. The difference right now is having the personnel in charge that can take this rebuild to the next level, despite coming in half-way through the process.
“That’s probably my favourite part of the coaching aspect of things,” says Oulahen. “To be thrown into the fire so to speak, for me has been a little bit of a blessing because I’ve really enjoyed every day and learning a little bit more in the games that go on and the challenges that we’re facing and we have to overcome. That’s what makes us coaches have that little bit of an addiction. A challenge for sure but we’re appreciating the beauty of it. The staff is fantastic and the players have absorbed everything,” he says.
But to get the players to buy into that and feel the same way is a challenge unto itself. Oulahen says the message has been to take everything in stride and remember how lucky they are to get to live their dream of playing OHL hockey.
That message was reiterated again this past week with the news of LA Lakers legend Kobe Bryant dying in a helicopter crash. Oulahen says to see an athlete of that calibre, that had such a profound impact on his sport pass away in that manner is an eye-opening circumstance that can have an effect on his young players, but he says it’s a time to show how you need to put everything in your life into perspective.
“When something like that happens, that’s again evidence of ‘why do you waste time’. We don’t want to have a bad day. What is so bad about coming here and working? Even if we’re going out there and losing a hockey game, we’re going out there and playing a hockey game in front of thousands of fans.”
Oulahen added, “You look at somebody like that (Kobe) the records he broke all the things he did in the game, and yet he’s not going to be able to see his daughters walk down the aisle. Those are the things that I think about immediately, and it kills me because of situations in my past. I didn’t know that my playing career was going to be over when it was over and yet it happened. It just goes to the messages that we preach to our guys all the time that it’s just the nature of the character we have in the room that we can’t waste time, and that was a clear reason why.”
Speaking of not knowing what the future holds, there is not a 100 per cent guarantee that Oulahen will be the head coach of this team next year, although he has done nothing to warrant not coming back. However, he says that is something that doesn’t bother him, “I’m not worried about it at all. I’ve come back because I love the jersey and I love to coach. Taking a little bit of time away from the game for me personally was a really healthy thing,” he says addressing the decision he made to leave the Flint Firebirds organization as their head coach a few years ago.
“I’m here now because of the true passion and the love of the game. That’s not going to change whether I have a ten-year contract or just finishing out the year.”
And the focus on finishing out the year remains on developing this young group that continues to show flashes of potential game in and game out.
“Maybe it is a benefit to us being the fresh voices in the room. It’s not like we have been in this situation for years on end and the players are getting tired of the voice. The message is that everybody is fighting for something,” said Oulahen.
“We have players that want to get drafted or sign pro-contracts. We have players that want to earn more ice time going into next season. There’s clearly a lot to be playing for regardless and we’ve still got lots of games left. We just have to keep chipping away, I know I’ve been saying that for a while but maybe we have a breakout here soon and that chipping away starts to happen. So, there’s still plenty to talk about and plenty to work for.”
