NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins looks out onto the ice ahead of the third period in an 5-2 loss against the Swift Current Broncos at Co-op Place on Feb. 28.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Even come the summertime, Willie Desjardins remains focused on how the Medicine Hat Tigers can find the next level.
The winningest head coach and general manager in franchise history will spends his summer days going through his team in his head and watching video as he breaks down the past season and looks to get better in the fall.
“I want us to be successful, I want it for the city, I want it for the organization,” Desjardins said. “I want us to have a really great team and become a team that when fans come they know what we’re going to do. Between now and in the fall I’ll probably make 100 lineups, I’ll go through guys and they’re the same guys but I’ll just go through them. And when you go through a lineup I’ll be calling up with guys, are you working, are you doing this, where are you at in workouts?”
The Tigers head into the offseason coming off a 30-29-8-1 and their first postseason action since the 2018-19 season, falling in four straight games to the CHL’s best Winnipeg Ice. The season that was a stark change from their 11-win campaign in 2021-22, a different atmosphere Desjardins attributes to his leadership group.
“They make a big difference to the group, our young players got treated good when they come to the rink,” Desjardins said. “It was a breath of fresh air, winning is always fun, it’s fun to win. If you talk about having fun, everything’s more fun when you’re winning, so that part was good for guys. You don’t know what it’s like until you get to experience it and to experience our building full.”
Two days after they were eliminated by the Ice and, ahead of Easter, the Tigers completed exit meetings with players to talk about the regular season, playoffs and look forward to what they can do to get better over the summer for next year. Desjardins says the players were positive with realistic goals for the summer and a drive to improve after getting the taste of playoffs.
He said there was a lot of talk about how much they enjoyed the packed nights at Co-op Place and how important it is they return to that and make it worth it for the fans.
“There’s so many options right now, so many things people can do but I’m committed to have an exciting team here in the next few years,” Desjardins said. “We made some choices coming into last year, we changed personnel so we could become more of a team I liked. With that, it’ll be exciting for the fans. They have to know they’re a big part, but I want them to feel part of it too, it’s important.
“We’re not a big market team anymore but we have lots of history. We have incredible history and a lot of our fans have been fans for years. It’s not like they’re just on for one year, they’re not. There’s lots of fans who have been here for a long time. For us the old days were great, it was unbelievable. But we have to make this new building home and make it home for everybody.”
With the winning season and a return to the playoffs, the focus and goal of winning a championship seems more clear than it did a season ago. Desjardins cautions they are just one of 22 teams with that goal and will have to balance that with growth.
“There’s so much there for us to prove still,” Desjardins said. “Are we a team that’s going to be fighting for a playoff spot next year? Are we team in the middle of the pack, are we going to be one of the top four, where are we going to be? You can say whatever you want but the summer will show and coming back will show, so we’ll see.”
As Desjardins reflected on the season, there was a moment after one of their wins that stood out to him as a marker of a team who wanted to be successful and knew what winning meant.
“It was after a win I heard the men singing in the dressing room. I always liked it after the game and they had started singing and that was kind of where we really knew we had something,” Desjardins said. “You knew you had a chance to win because the men were having fun. They were having fun and you knew they were enjoying the battle and when you could enjoy the battle, you have a chance.”
