Mark and Dale Hunter sat inside the London Ice House in 2001 and talked about a major decision that would affect their lives and their hockey team immensely.
They were in need of a head coach. There were certainly candidates who could fill the position. Some of them had pretty impressive resumes behind the bench. Mark Hunter could have decided to take the reins himself. He had years of coaching experience at both the OHL and AHL level.
But, as the two brothers have done so many times, they decided to go in a direction that no one could really even see. They ended their conversation and announced that Dale Hunter would become the next coach of the London Knights.
“We decided that one of us had to be the coach and one of us had to be G.M.,” Dale said. “I had just finished playing, and Mark had already been involved with the league as a coach in Sarnia, so it made sense for him to manage and I took the coaching side.”
That’s the kind of accountability that often goes unnoticed in the success the pair has had with the Knights. They’re not just the owners of the theatre, they’re also part of the cast and crew. Decisions are always made with the best interest of the team and its players in mind.
No one knew as Dale Hunter stepped behind the bench for the opening of the 2001-02 season what kind of a rocket fuse was being ignited. The Knights won that day, beating Sarnia 6-4 on the backs of four combined points from Rick Nash and Corey Perry and 37 saves from Glen Ridler.
It took just 906 games for him to reach 600 wins. He joins Brian Kilrea, Larry Mavety, Stan Butler, former Knight, George Burnett, and the late Bert Templeton as the only OHL coaches to accomplish the feat. Hunter did it faster than anyone else.
Along the way, the impact that Dale Hunter and his teams have had on the OHL record book has been significant: Best Winning Percentage; Most Wins; Most Points; Fewest Losses; Most Road Wins; Longest Undefeated Streak; Most Shutouts; Fewest Goals Against.
There have been improbable playoff series wins. There have been many more highs than lows.
Hunter boils it down to a mix of a system and playing to players’ strengths.
“It’s a mix of both,” he said. “In junior, you go from year to year and you are going to lose players. All of a sudden, you might have a big goal scorer out of the lineup or you might lose a top defenceman. You try to get the best out of what you have.”
One of the things that has changed the most is the use of video. As Hunter says, it has gone from “Bob Hammond with a single video camera where I would re-watch the game at home and then draw out what I saw on a wipe-off board in the dressing room to drop-boxing players’ shifts in games so they can watch them on the way home on the bus.”
He jokes that coaching young players keeps you young, but it also changes you.
“Look at this grey hair,” he says.
At 600+ wins, Dale Hunter is looking great on and off the ice.
Story submitted by Mike Stubbs, Photo submitted by London Knights
