With a new coach comes a new attitude.
This year, Saint Louis Univerisity’s club hockey team has just that, with new head coach Todd Ewen at the helm.
“[Ewen] is teaching his way of playing the game and adding a lot more discipline to our team, but it’s really fun to play for a coach with the passion he has,” senior Andrew Smith said.
It is this discipline and passion that helped Ewen perform at the professional level. Ewen was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in 1984 and played in the National Hockey League for 13 seasons, including four years with the St. Louis Blues.
“He’s a really intense coach who expects a lot out of the team,” Smith said.
However, the team seems to be responding well to those high expectations. “It’s hard to not trust a guy who has won a Stanley Cup when he tries to teach you how to win games,” Smith said.
A new coach is not the only change for the team. The Billikens have a new home ice this season as well. The team has moved to the Webster Groves Ice Arena after skating on the Affton Ice Arena last year.
“It’s really nice. They just tore out the old ice and put in a new sheet. They also gave us the old Webster Groves High School locker room. We have all new wooden stalls and plenty of room to store our equipment now,” Smith said.
Extra storage space may not seem like that big of a deal, but when you are storing all of your gear underneath your bed, as Smith did his freshman year, it makes a difference.
The new arena is also closer to campus, a feature that the team hopes will attract more fans as they take on the rest of the Mid-American Collegiate Hockey Association.
The team finished third in last year’s MACHA standings, but missed out on the playoffs due to a league rule that forbids new teams an automatic spot in the postseason.
“That was a real bummer. We played hard all of last year only to not be allowed in our league playoffs,” Smith said, “We even beat a couple of ranked teams.”
These teams included Kansas University, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and Missouri University.
“We beat Mizzou twice, and they won the MACHA playoffs last season,” Smith said.
Now that the team is allowed a spot in the playoffs, they plan on making the most of it.
“[Coach Ewen] wants us to win our league. That would get us into the national tournament. We all want to win that too, but right now, winning the MACHA would be a big success for this team,” Smith said.
The team split its first home set this past weekend. The Illinois State Redbirds bested the Bills 7-4 in the opener on Sept. 18. However, SLU managed to bounce back the next day with a 5-1 victory over the Redbirds.
“We played a lot more disciplined in that second game . in the first game we took a ton of penalties; I think they scored five of their goals while we had guys in the box,” Smith said.
The team heads to the University of Central Oklahoma, a Division I school, on Sept. 25.
“We played them last year and it was the most physical hockey I’ve ever seen . they like to hit . a lot,” Smith said.
Coach Ewen expects the most out of his new team, despite the tough competition.
“He wants to beat every team we play and he wants to beat them badly,” Smith said.