Admirals’ Ford savors strange first call-up
Nearly 16 years after he first laced up his skates as a pro and after almost 700 minor-league games played without a call-up, Scott Ford finally made his National Hockey League debut Thursday night.
As an assistant coach.
Under the strangest
“Different paths, but nonetheless it was an awesome experience,” said Ford, the popular longtime Milwaukee Admirals player and assistant who filled in with the Nashville Predators as the parent club navigates a COVID-19 jam.
“Any profession you’re in, you want to be at the highest level. You aspire to take the necessary steps and hopefully get there. I tried very, very hard as a player for a lot of years and that didn’t come to fruition and now, being given an opportunity as a coach in the same organization, it’s kind of come full circle. …
“Maybe a silver lining out of COVID, which has been so devastating in a lot of respects. If it wasn’t for COVID, I 100% wouldn’t have been given this opportunity.”
Ford and Admirals head coach Karl Taylor flew to Nashville on Wednesday night, along with four players, after Predators head coach John Hynes and much of his staff entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. The plan was for them to help Dan Hinote, who was set to fill in for Hynes, but then Hinote tested positive Thursday morning.
Taylor and Ford – who were behind the bench for a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche – stayed with Nashville and chartered to Chicago for the Predators’ game Friday night against the Blackhawks.
“Kind of a whirlwind 24 hours,” Ford said in a phone call from the downtown Chicago Ritz-Carlton, rather than in face-to-face conversation in a UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena hallway after the team’s morning skate. “Just the outpouring of support and congratulatory texts … kind of a crazy thing.”
The plan beyond Friday was less clear.
The Predators’ next games are scheduled
of
circumstances. Sunday and Tuesday and the Admirals for Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The NHL does not distinguish between those on the COVID-19 list for a positive test and those who were close contacts. Under the NHL’s protocol, personnel who test positive but are asymptomatic can return after two consecutive negative tests. The league has returned to enhanced protocols as seen last season, with daily testing, virtual meetings, masks required at facilities and a request to limit social interaction.
“It’s just a matter of our staff getting healthy and receiving negative tests,” Ford said. “Things are up in the air. Right up until game time yesterday, we didn’t know if the game was going to be a go or not.
“All sports leagues are dealing with that right now. It’s our new world.”
The trickle-down effect of the Predators’ moves is that Greg Rallo, Taylor’s other Admirals assistant, got a shortterm promotion in Milwaukee. Rallo’s head-coaching debut – with Predators organization development coaches Rob Scuderi and Sebastien Bourdeleau by his side – came Friday when the Admirals hosted the Chicago Wolves.
“Either or, that’s what we’re working for,” Ford said of Rallo’s opportunity. “We’re in a position as assistants of trying to learn and aspire to move either up as a head or an assistant, to move along that chain of command.”
Ford, who will turn 42 next week, played 11 years in the AHL and ECHL, including parts of seven with the Admirals. He skated in 378 games for Milwaukee, second-most in the club’s AHL history, and was captain for two seasons. He played in 522 AHL games with five teams as well as 172 games in the ECHL.
Ford traded his jersey for a suit to join Dean Evason’s Admirals coaching staff for 2016-17 and then stayed on when Taylor was hired two years later after Evason left for the Minnesota Wild.
“Scott’s been in this organization for a really long time,” Taylor said after Thursday’s game. “He played ‘D’ with (Predators captain) Roman Josi and helped mentor him when he was a young player entering the American Hockey League. So Fordo has a long history here.”
The position Taylor and Ford have found themselves in isn’t completely foreign, as the Admirals’ and Predators’ staffs act as one during training camp. And the entire group was able to work together via Zoom during the day and even communicate between periods.
“Everyone helped us and assisted us but also gave us the room to do what we do in Milwaukee,” Taylor said. “I said, ‘Fordo, once the game starts we just do what we do and we focus on making the adjustments we need to with the minor things that are different with how we play.’”
The lineup had a significant Milwaukee feel, with 10 players who were regulars on Admirals teams the past few seasons. And every goal, assist and save came from Admirals alumni.
Ford had played with or coached all but four of the 19 players who got on the ice for the Predators on Thursday night.
“‘Eck’ (Mattias Eckholm) and ‘Jos’ were great; they were obviously ecstatic with the way things have progressed with myself as a professional on this side of the game now and them being two very important pieces to their defense,” Ford said of two former teammates.
“It was real cool in that aspect. And having some conversations with (Mark) Borowiecki, he made a reference when we talked after the win with the group that guys take different paths and that it’s a reminder that it takes a lot of hard work to get to the highest levels of sport whether you’re a coach or a player and made reference to how long we’ve been grinding at it.”
Well over 100 NHL players have been placed on the COVID-19 list, including several dozen this week. On Friday, the seasons of the Avalanche, Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames were paused through Dec. 23, and the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers played in an empty arena Thursday night,
With that backdrop, shuttling of coaches as well as players between the Predators and Admirals could expand that circle of illness or positive tests and missed games even further.
“There’s always concern; you’re just trying to do the best you can as far as what the protocol says as far as taking care of ourselves,” Ford said.
“We’re trying to take precautions as a league to put our best foot forward and set an example for the other leagues and our society as a whole. We’re trying our best to continue to have a season and continue to do what we love.
“We can’t control what Mother Nature does … we’re just trying to do the best we can to move forward at a very difficult time for everybody globally.”