Hockey: Blais, Mavs start with clean slate

The sparse setting matched the sentiments coming out of Dean Blais' mouth.

Sitting in his new office recently, UNO's new hockey coach spoke in front of an empty display cabinet, surrounded by blank walls.

There were no showings of Blais' championship past; no memorabilia from previous glory at the University of North Dakota. At least not yet.

“This is totally new, and I've got to make sure I don't start talking about, ‘This is the way we did it at North Dakota,'” said Blais, hired to replace Mike Kemp on June 12. “This is not North Dakota. This is the University of Nebraska at Omaha. We're going to have to get our own identity.”

But don't read too much into Blais' blasé surroundings. The fact is that the man has endured one whirlwind of a summer. He simply hasn't yet had enough time to settle into campus and set up his office at 60th and Dodge.

Blais has had to fulfill a variety of work and family-related obligations this summer, ones he made long before he ever imagined he'd be leading the Mavs. He's spent time coaching the prestigious U.S. National Junior team. He's still in the process of selling his house in Fargo and finding a place in Omaha.

And all the while, Blais has had to work his way back from a May 19 knee replacement surgery. Following the procedure, he got around with the assistance of a walker for close to two months, and the 58-year-old coach has regained full mobility only recently.

“It's been really hectic,” Blais said. “It's been constant maintenance on my knee, but at least I can skate now. It's been about as busy of a summer as I can remember.”

Blais credited assistants Mike Hastings and Nick Fohr for keeping on top of things when he had to be away.

But now Blais is ready to get after the task at hand.

UNO has begun staging a series of off-ice drills to measure the physical condition of each player. The Mavs will start skating in their unsupervised captain's practices today, and the team holds its first official practice on Oct. 3.

Blais said he hasn't spent hardly any time studying game tape or checking out statistics from last year's team. Every player reports to campus, the coach said, knowing that they'll have to start over from scratch — veterans and rookies alike.

“We know that he wants us to push ourselves, and that's exactly what we're going to do,” said redshirt freshman goalie John Faulkner. “We have a clean slate now, and everybody knows they're going to get a chance to show what they can do. We're all going to work hard, we're all going to work for each other, and may the best man win.”

Blais did offer up one measure of evaluation on his new club that should get Mavs fans excited. Compared to the North Dakota team he took over in 1994, Blais said, UNO appears to be in much better shape as a program.

During the two seasons prior to Blais' arrival, North Dakota had records of 12-25-1 and 11-23-4. During Kemp's last three seasons on the bench, the Mavs' combined record was 50-52-18. UNO consistently has been in the hunt for a top-four CCHA finish during that time but fizzled each year because of injuries or late-season slumps.

Last year's team sputtered badly down the stretch and finished 15-17-8. But don't forget that Blais inherits a core group of players who helped the Mavs get off to a school-record 12-4-3 start.

“When I went to North Dakota, they were really kind of struggling several years in a row, and they felt that things were coming apart a little bit,” said Blais, who won the first of his two NCAA championships at North Dakota in 1996-97. “Things weren't coming apart at UNO. It's not so much of a rebuilding situation like it was at North Dakota, and I just feel like I'm here to add to what Mike Kemp has done.”

Fohr, who closely followed Blais' North Dakota teams while growing up in Grand Forks, N.D., said there's no question that the new coach's arrival has invigorated the team.

Not a single returning player left the program during the offseason — a rarity for any college hockey team, let alone one going through a coaching change.

“I think the guys have been very receptive to Dean coming in, and I also think there's a little bit of intimidation there,” said Fohr, a holdover from Kemp's staff. “Just his résumé and what he's done, I know the guys respect him very much and are really excited about the future.”

Blais even insists that the team's leadership positions will be up for grabs. Senior defenseman Mark Bernier, UNO's captain last season, said he has no problem with the coach saying so.

The Mavs are set to have seven seniors on the roster, and Bernier said that group as a whole will lead the squad through captain's practices. Whether or not he wears a “C” on his sweater, Bernier said, he wants to do his part to help instill the teamwide work ethic that Blais will demand.

“I definitely respect coach's decision (about captain roles), and it's also a sign of respect to the freshmen coming in so that they know they have a voice on the team, too,” Bernier said. “The presence he brings when he steps into the room, he just commands respect. I think everybody feels like they're almost trying out for a new team.”

During the weeks leading up to the start of the season, Blais said his top priority will be making sure his players get in top-notch shape. UNO plays an exhibition against the University of Lethbridge on Oct. 5. The Mavs open the regular season hosting the Mutual of Omaha Icebreaker tournament on Oct. 9 and 10.

“The players have high goals,” Blais said. “They want to do some things team-wise they haven't done before — they want to win championships. So the workload will be directly correlated with making that happen.

“We're going to be the best conditioned team in the country, and we're going to be a team that can play two high-intensity 60-minute games on back-to-back nights. We still have work to do before we get there, and we'll find out once we get on the ice what they can do. But I'm impressed by what I've seen so far of how hard these guys are willing to work.”

Contact the writer:

444-1207, chad.purcell@owh.com

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