By Julien McKenzie (The Athletic)
CALGARY — You don’t coach the highest-scoring offence in the Ontario Hockey League for two consecutive seasons without having some special plays.
Marc Savard had visualized hundreds of ideas and scrawled them into a 200-page copybook, each page with a design of a hockey rink. A power-play breakout where a skater starts behind the opposing net and races back into the neutral zone in time for the entry. Drop passes and intense pressure from speedy wingers. Outlet passes to wingers in stride. Constant movement in the offensive zone on a power play.
“It’s just simply seeing it and getting it on paper right away,” Savard said. “And then putting it into play, and then to our video guys that are able to make a nicer copy of what I’ve been drawing.”
The Calgary Flames, however, will never see that particular playbook.
An intense storm raged in Windsor, Ont., in late August, bringing rain and strong winds. Environment Canada even had a tornado warning in effect. Many people lost power and had their basements flooded, including the WFCU Centre where the Windsor Spitfires, Savard’s former employer, play. The offices have suffered “extensive damage,” according to the Spitfires, and they’ve been “recovering ever since.”
Among the items lost in the flooding was Savard’s precious collection of plays.
“All the books that were in (my) desk vanished,” Savard said. “I think the assistant coaches stole them but they didn’t tell me.”
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