How Ty Hilgersom saved the Canes

I’m going to ask you to trust me on this one.

See, Ty Hilgersom didn’t actually save the Lethbridge Hurricanes from the morass of poor results and player defections in the Western Hockey League on his own but he deserves as much credit as anyone.

See, Ty was a stick boy for years. I mean, his voice went from Mickey Mouse to Squeaky the Penguin to its current Barry White timbre while a stick boy. He grew from Hobbit to Ogre.

Then, one day, they sort-ofkind-of hired him.

That season? They accrued 46 wins, a resurgent popularity and a surprising profitability.

When things went sour for the Canes, it’s because a board tried to generally manage, a general manager tried to coach, a coach tried to generally manage and the then-tenuous balance tipped. They hired a well-liked, intelligent NHL assistant coach who had some experience a generation prior in the WHL. He was a coach and a general manager.

He had two jobs and he asked every player on the roster to do at least that many. He wanted round pegs, players who would backcheck as hard as they pushed up front. He wanted scrappers, fighters and goalscorers all at once.

As did the next guy. He wanted Giorgio Estephan to be a grinding forward who also scored and until that happened, Estephan languished.

You want to know why Michael Jordan is considered to be the greatest? Because he could do it all. Estephan is a darn good hockey player, but he ain’t Gordie Howe.

The last half-season of the most recent error — sorry, era — something changed. Athletic therapist Carolyn Glover stopped sharpening skates and started tending to injuries. Equipment manager Michael Roy was hired to look after sticks, skates and jerseys. He got to hire Hilgersom to fill water bottles and do things stick boys do.

They paid Hilgersom for it, like he was important and like what he did mattered, because it does.

Peter Anholt took over as coach and general manager and although things changed, results didn’t. So Anholt hired a coach.

Anholt knows. He sees that you give a person a job, and you tell them what it is and you let them do it. So look where we are today: • The Hurricanes have a coach, whose job was to coach and who, from what I understand, is allowed to coach.

• They have a general manager who, generally, manages to do quite well.

• They have an athletic therapist who looks after the players’ injuries.

• There’s a strength and conditioning coach who has the authority to use his strength if the players aren’t well conditioned.

• There’s an equipment manager who keeps things sharp and laundered.

• That equipment manager has Ty Hilgersom, who does whatever he’s told to do. Because that’s Ty’s job.

It’s a funny thing, hockey. You need grinders and shooters and forecheckers and faceoff specialists and powerplay quarterbacks and starting goalies and backup goalies and fighters and stick boys.

You need to understand that when you need someone to do something, you hire them.

Everybody’s got a job and everybody knows what that job is.

Everybody can’t do every job. It doesn’t matter if it’s your captain, Tyler Wong, or your stick boy, the inimitable and now-quite-tall Ty Hilgersom.

••• The Hurricanes will need goaltender Stuart Skinner to stay healthy, Brady Reagan to continue improving on defence and close-to-career years from players like Wong, Estephan and Brayden Burke.

The kids, Jordy Bellerive, Nick Watson and Brett Davis, need to be better and they should be.

The division got tougher this season and the Hurricanes won’t win 46 games and only tie (or sorta-tie) two.

Barring a Skinner disaster, they will be a playoff team.

Strange as it sounds, this team could win less and yet be a better side. Burke may score less points but be a better allaround player as he grows — he’s only had 116 WHL games.

The franchise has proven it can develop and recruit players — Brennan Menell left the Vancouver Giants to come here? — and plays an exciting type of hockey.

They’ll have to win fast, before Brent Kisio takes a head coaching job in Las Vegas, but this season? I’m betting second round.

Who’s with me?