NEWS FILE PHOTO
Medicine Hat Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins and associate coach Joe Frazer talk on the bench during the third period of a 4-1 win at Co-op Place over the Saskatoon Blades on Jan. 27.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The playoffs are a new season, bringing new challenges and a lower margin of error. Head coach Willie Desjardins is looking for his team to continue the effort that brought them into the postseason as the No. 2 seed.
The Medicine Hat Tigers’ playoffs get underway tonight when they host the Regina Pats at Co-op Place for Game 1 of the first-round series, looking to begin a title defence.
It’s the first playoff meeting between the teams since 2006-07, the same year Medicine Hat captured a fifth Ed Chynoweth Cup, Desjardins second.
The Tigers enter the playoffs on a five-game win streak, having lost just four of their last 20 games, two of those coming in overtime. After tallying 50 wins in the regular season, just the fifth time in team history, the franchise’s winningest coach wants to see a continuation from his team, while also taking more steps.
“You have to keep doing what you did to get there,” Desjardins said. “There’s areas that we have to improve on, those things we have to be better at. So it’s a work in progress, and we have to make sure we keep doing it.
“We just have to be better, overall, there’s parts we have to fine tune and it’ll be good going into the playoffs.”
Desjardins finished the regular season ranked seventh in all-time WHL coaching wins with 573, with all but 10 coming behind the bench of the orange and black.
His team enters these playoffs looking to become the first repeat champions since the 1994/95 Kamloops Blazers. In a different world, Desjardins and the Tigers could be preparing to host the Memorial Cup, one of five teams to submit bids to host the 2026 tournament won by the Kelowna Rockets.
As the Tigers look to capture a seventh Ed Chynoweth Cup, which would be the most all-time in the WHL, Desjardins says they’re going to have to fight their way there, and would have taken the same approach even if they were hosting the tournament.
“If you go to the Memorial Cup and you’re not playing good, it makes no sense to be there, so it makes no difference for us,” Desjardins said. “We’re going to have to be good and we know that. We have a lot of good teams in these playoffs, and we’re just one of them who are trying to be good enough to get there.”
Desjardins has coached in 141 postseason games, six games and two wins coming behind the Saskatoon Blades bench. In his 12 postseasons he’s tallied 84 wins, 48 coming in his three championship runs with the Tigers. He sits fourth all-time in playoff games coached, seven back of Ernie McLean, 44 behind Don Hay and 51 behind the leader, Ken Hodge. His 84 wins ranks fourth all-time, three back of McLean for third.
He’s seen a lot in the post season, evidenced by a little more salt than pepper deckling his infamous moustache. Throughout his 12 playoff runs, there have been many a standout players to rise to the occasion.
In 2004, Chris St. Jacques led the team in both regular season and playoff scoring and Darren Reid scored a hat tick in the Game 4, championship-clinching win over the Everett Silvertips. Come 2007, Darren Helm led the Tigers in playoff scoring but no goal was more clutch in franchise history than Brennan Bosch’s Game 7, double overtime, championship-winning goal to split the fog and down the mighty Vancouver Giants.
Last year, Harrison Meneghin’s heroic effort in net after the passing of his father Derek will never be forgotten in Medicine Hat. Neither will Bryce Pickford’s playoff performance, scoring goals in nine straight playoff and Memorial Cup games, finishing with 13 in the WHL playoffs.
As for this year’s playoffs, and who Desjardins sees as the next player to step up and potentially etch their name in franchise history, he’s looking forward to finding out.
“Everybody has to step up, the playoffs are different, it’s harder, so everyone is going to have to step up and that’s the fun part,” Desjardins said. “You don’t know who is going to do it. You don’t know which guy is going to step up and be the guy, it’s exciting.”
