‘Happy to be benched for the third’
On game nights Middleton’s Cail MacLean is Calgary Flames assistant coach
Back in his playing days, this would have been bad news.
As an up-and-coming coach, however, Cail MacLean is “happy to be benched for the third.”
MacLean is another call-up from the American Hockey League’s Stockton Heat.
He was skipper for the Calgary Flames’ farm team for the past three seasons before being promoted to join Darryl Sutter’s staff at the Saddledome.
Now a rookie assistant coach at the NHL level, the 45-yearold watches the first two periods of each game from a perch in the press box, serving as the Flames’ eye-in-the-sky and communicating via headset with Kirk Muller. He hustles to the locker-room at the intermissions to share further observations.
When the puck drops for the final frame, he’s rubbing shoulders with Sutter, Muller and Ryan Huska on the bench. That is, according to Sutter, more about MacLean’s development than anything else, “making sure that we’re still getting him some of that part of it — the visual from the ice.”
“It certainly is an interesting dynamic,” said MacLean, not a hint of complaint in his voice, of his unique arrangement. “You get a really good feel for the game with the bird’s-eye view up top and then suddenly in the third period, you find yourself right in the middle of the action. It’s a real contrast there but it’s great to be on the bench in the third and get the feel for how the game is going.
“The intensity of it and speed of it from that perspective is much different than from up top. You really notice that — the plays develop much more slowly from far away. You can see all the moving parts. And you realize when you get down to ice-level not only how fast it is but how hard it is to see things develop and what high-level thinkers the players are when they can kind of be a step ahead of that play.”
Originally from Middleton, MacLean worked and waited a long while for his shot in The Show.
He earned his paycheques for more than a decade as a minor-league right-winger, wearing 15 different jerseys and totalling upwards of 800 appearances between the AHL, ECHL and now-defunct IHL. He coached for another 10 seasons at the lower levels.
In the minors, you learn goodbyes are not necessarily a bad thing, especially if it means a guy has earned an opportunity at the next rung.
MacLean first arrived in Stockton as an assistant to Huska. Tasked with overseeing the blue-line brigade and penalty-kill, he helped prepare Rasmus Andersson for primetime.
He was at the helm for the Heat when guys like Dillon Dube, Oliver Kylington and Andrew Mangiapane logged what will be their last shifts in the AHL.
He had many chit-chats with Adam Ruzicka, trying to squeeze more consistency out of the emerging power forward as he transitioned to the pro ranks. They’re now reunited at the Saddledome, with the 22-year-old Ruzicka determined to cement himself as the Flames’ third-line centre.
“It’s a group effort in terms of their development,” MacLean said. “There is development in the AHL, but I think there’s also been a lot of development here, once these guys get here. A lot of those guys have spent some good time here and I think there’s credit to the coaches here for pushing them every day to keep getting
“The thing that is so exciting is how the level is really elite. It demands a lot. So it’s been fun to learn it and to keep pushing through it.” Cail MacLean Assistant Coach
better and this is what I’ve seen in the short time I’ve been here is the push all the time. And you see guys, like Oliver Kylington is a great example, pushing this year to extend himself and grab on to a new role and move himself into the lineup, up the lineup, and not rest on that and keep pushing.
“I think Kirk and Ryan and Darryl and everyone deserve credit for continuing to push these guys here.”
MacLean’s duties at the Saddledome include a lot of pre-scout work, studying the systems and tendencies of the next opponent on the calendar.
Toward the tail-end of a recent wacky week, a whirlwind of five games in a seven-night span, he is probably pooped. They all must be.
“It has been a great learning experience to this point, in terms of getting to know the league and getting to know the workflow of how the NHL level works from a coach’s point of view,” MacLean said. “It has been a staff that I’m really happy to be a part of and a group of players that I think have the character to come to really work every day, so that makes it a really good experience.
“But also, you understand … everyone says, ‘You might be able to get to the NHL, it’s hard to stay.’ And I’m seeing that in living colour just with the schedule and the grind of it and how you have to always be on point. I think that’s the thing that is so exciting is how the level is really elite. It demands a lot. So it’s been fun to learn it and to keep pushing through it.”