The CBC has a nice article on former Washington Captials Dale and Mark Hunter and their success with the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights. (Yes, Mark was with the club for 7 games during the ‘92-’93 season with an average of 0 points and 2 penalty minutes, go figure.) Since buying the Knights in 2000, they have run the team like an NHL franchise returning respectability and a league championship.
When the Hunters took over — Dale as head coach and Mark as vice-president and general manager — the Knights were coming off a 22-36-10 season and missed playoffs in 1999-2000.
The time seemed right for change. With a season-ticket base of 1,271 at the London Ice House, which held 5,075 fans including standing room, the Hunters believed good players needed to be brought in, along with good coaching and a different mindset when it came to the draft.
Dale Hunter, with a successful 19-year playing career in the NHL from which to draw, made a seamless transition to the bench. Through Feb. 11, his regular-season coaching record stood at 367-173, 26 ties and 32 overtime/shootout losses for a winning percentage of .662.
They also have had 28 former Knights lacing up the skates in the NHL — 17 on current rosters.
“It seems like every other game we’re playing a former Knight,” Nash, a star left-winger with the Blue Jackets, told CBCSports.ca by phone from Columbus.
The whole story can be found at the cbc.ca
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I’d like to go on record saying that Dale Hunter should be in the HOF.
God I used to love watching Hunter dog Mario all game and seeing Mario get all pissed off and start whacking and slashing away in fits of frustration.
“He probably works on the power play more than any coach I’ve ever seen and he’s creative about it…With the skill level that Mark [Hunter] has been able to provide for Dale, it’s fun for Dale to be able to do some complicated things on the power play that might be deemed as high-risk by other coaches, but it’s really worked out well.”
-Dave Gagner on Dale Hunter’s special teams coaching.
Sounds like from top-to-bottom, London has a top-notch organization. But this quote about Hunter has left me wondering what Bruce does to make sure the boys keep the PP solid…or whether it needs to focus a bit more on the PK instead.
Anybody ever hear what happened to his son’s hockey career? He played against my kid when he played for the Reston Raiders Bantam team in the CBHL (matter of fact I think Paul Mulvey coached that bantam team at least for a few games). Then when Dale went back home to take over the Knights, I think his son played for him, but I lost track of the kid after that. I think his name was Dylan, as I recall, and he should be getting into his mid-twenties.
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