On a crisp fall night when all National Hockey League arenas are dark, the game reverberates in a bright new Aylmer arena as part of a rebirth. Senior A hockey is alive and well.
That's relative, mind you. It had been ailing for some time.
Once not far below the NHL, the senior loop hit a lot of patchy ice, but through a combination of the availability of locked-out NHL players and a more professional approach, it has made long strides back.
Within that general improvement comes the most dramatic one in the Aylmer Blues, a team that last year went from early season torpor to win the Ontario championship and a berth in the national championship Allan Cup tournament.
Moreover, the franchise has upgraded considerably this season. There are a few storm clouds, but more on that in a minute.
After a slow start against the Petrolia Squires last Tuesday in the spanking new East Elgin Community Complex, the talent level was obvious. Down 2-0 after one stuttering period, the pro-laden Blues meshed quickly to score five straight goals for a 5-2 win to boost their record to 5-0.
So, what happened?
Well-heeled and committed owner Duane Hicks points to coach Bill Armstrong. London realtor Armstrong, a veteran of the American Hockey League wars, points to Hicks. The players point to both and each other.
"You see guys like Kent McDonnell (of the Columbus Blue Jackets) and his work ethic and how he does things and it affects everyone," says captain John Dance, the league's top defenceman last year.
"Everyone's game rises with what other guys can do."
The Blues had 10 players with pro experience last season. This year, there are 19, including three with NHL experience -- Brian Dobbin, Jeff Zehr and McDonnell. Not that professional experience is the be-all and end-all, but it helps.
The lineup is jammed with ex-Knights and ex-Western Mustangs, many of them former NHL draft picks. The lineup includes Jarrett Rose, Ryan McKie, Jason Clark, Cam Law, Jason Heywood, Darren Mortier, Dobbin, Jason Glover, Eoin McInerney, Mike Shewan, Andrew Long, Ryan Risidore, Andrew Carey, Mike Bondy, Chris Haskett, Eric Bertelsen, Sheldon Lacroix, Mike Marostega, Mark Edmundson, Marc Vaughn, Chris MacKenzie, Owen Lessard and Joe Facca.
Through myriad connections, players brought players on board who in turn interested others. Connections with Zehr and Long resulted in the presence of McDonnell, whose contract prohibits his playing for Columbus's AHL affiliate in Syracuse.
After performing in the NHL last season, how does a guy get acclimatized to this brand of hockey, one wondered. Armstrong said McDonnell came in with the zeal of a rookie.
"It's a different style of game and the biggest difference is you don't practise every day," McDonnell said of his new surroundings. "We have one practice a week and it'll take some time for the chemistry to develop, but you can feel it coming."
Most eyes fall to Armstrong for initiating the resurgence. The team was below .500 when he took over a third of the way through last season. He then turned it around and the squad charged to a berth in the Allan Cup.
"I'd call myself a players' coach," Armstrong said. "We're buddies, but they know where I'm coming from."
Armstrong, who went through the trauma of an operation to remove a brain tumour seven years ago, has his own niche in hockey lore.
He is known in hockey circles for having scored the first goal in top-level competition via the "high wrap," a manoeuvre in which you flip the puck onto the flat blade of your stick and whip it around from behind the net, lacrosse-style, and into the net.
He did it against Albany in the AHL on a $100 bet with coach Robbie Ftorek (who paid up instantly). Armstrong would do it seven more times to shocked goaltenders and taught it to London's Mike Legg, who pulled it off in a playoff game with the University of Michigan.
Armstrong played in the Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils organizations during a nine-year pro career. He said the fact Aylmer native and owner Hicks is a serious hockey fan is a plus, not an impediment.
"Duane had this locker room built," he said of the well-appointed dressing room. "He loves the game and the players and comes down after games to enjoy it all. But he lets me and (general manager) Randy McClinchey run things. After last season, he asked, 'What do you need?' Well, we needed a couple of D (defencemen), a couple of centres and a goalie and he just said, 'Go get them.' "
You could call Hicks a high-flying owner. His Dryden aviation company has 17 aircraft on contract for helping fight forest fires, conduct surveys, monitor whales and polar bears in the Arctic and for charters. But he has his feet on the ground, too.
A product of the Aylmer minor system as a player, he was a regular at the old Aylmer Hornets games and got hooked again watching Tillsonburg and Dundas. When it appeared Aylmer, after a two-year absence, was in danger of losing its senior A franchise, he stepped in.
"You have to run it as a business," Hicks said. "I joined the board of governors with the other five teams and we all wanted to get away from the bush-league crap that had been going on. We looked for a coach and got Army (Armstrong) and that was the key right there.
"With his experience and the people he knew, he brought in Dobbin and guys like that and we started winning. Next thing you know, we win the league and we're in the Allan Cup. Basically, Army went out and got the guys we need to win it this time. We could be in the Eastern League with the lineup we've got."
There are things with which Hicks is not happy.
He understands why the Blues are perceived as the johnny-come-latelies by other franchises and why, at only 36, his success has some noses out of joint.
"I'll tell you how it works: Cambridge, Brantford and Dundas have bigger budgets than I do, but I'm winning. I'm the new guy. It's a matter of who can recruit better. What's wrong with recruiting and winning the Allan Cup?"
That's not as troubling as things on the home front.
"I'm having a hard time in Aylmer," Hicks said. "A lot of things I try to do are road-blocked. The mayor is involved with the junior C team and they get the Saturday nights. If it was junior B, I'd step aside. Not to knock them, but junior C is like midget. Anyway, there's room for both. I'd sure prefer Saturday nights over Tuesdays (for home games) because it gives the kids a chance to see games."
The road to the Allan Cup has been much shorter than the one that takes Hicks to work. He drives 22 hours from Aylmer to Dryden when he could fly in one of his aircraft.
"It gives me a chance to get to bases in Sudbury, Chapleau and Geraldton," he said. "Also, it's relaxing and I get a lot of thinking done."
Right now, he's thinking Allan Cup. Better still, so are his players.
