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‘A team that would never quit’

The Nelson Junior Leafs have been all over the map this season, and no one knows it better than head coach Chris Shaw.
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Chris Shaw (back left) stepped into his first head coaching gig with the Nelson Juniro Leafs in 2010-11.

From a four-game losing streak straight out of the gate to a neck-and-neck seven-game playoff series, the Nelson Junior Leafs have been all over the map this season. And no one knows it better than head coach Chris Shaw.

“It was a little bit of a roller coaster ride,” admits the rookie coach. “I think that came with inexperience, and having so many first year guys on the team. And maybe having a first year coach as well.”

Shaw, a BCHL veteran and former assistant coach at the Okanagan Hockey School, knew he’d have big shoes to fill when he stepped into the position, vacated by Simon Wheeldon, last May.

Under Wheeldon’s leadership, the team picked up four back-to-back divisional titles as well as the 2008-09 KIJHL championship.

“I’m not going to lie, I did feel pressure,” he says. “But as the season grew longer I started getting a lot more confidence in my own ability and I think I saw the players take a real liking to my structure and the things I tried to implement.”

However, the young team and young coach did have a rough start. An opening home-and-home series that saw Nelson lose 3-0 and 5-1 to the Castlegar Rebels set the tone for the Leafs’ interactions with the team all season. And even the perennially low-ranked Grand Forks Border Bruins were able to get one up on the new squad, posting a 6-3 win over the Leafs.

But when the team finally snapped its losing streak during a Sunday afternoon tilt against the Penticton Lakers, Shaw says it made his season.

“It was kind of neat to beat the team I coached previously for my first win, and our first win as a team,” he says. But looking back, Shaw says he hopes to give next year’s team more structure in the early days of the season, to avoid a repeat losing streak.

With a win finally on the books, the Leafs settled in for a season of hard working hockey with mixed fortunes. Though scoring first stayed at the fore of Shaw’s strategy, as the team pushed past the .500 mark many of their most memorable games were fought as the clock ticked down in the third period.

“It was a little bit of a trademark of the team, that come-from-behind mentality,” says Shaw. “It’s not something you want to be doing on a regular basis. You always want to be leading the hockey, but it just came down to having a team that never would quit.”

That mentality showed up again as the team headed into the playoffs against the Neil Murdoch Division’s second place Beaver Valley. Like the season itself, the series started badly for the Leafs, as the team dropped its first game 13-2 to the Nitehawks.

“After that game, we talked about just never talking about it again,” admits Shaw. “Not thinking about it, forgetting it. The nightmare is over, and we chalked it up to a bit of an experience.”

Game 2 saw the team take a close loss, and as play moved back to the Nelson and District Community Complex the Leafs found new momentum. The series stretched to six, then seven games before Beaver Valley’s final home ice advantage helped push them into the Murdoch division final.

“Obviously I’m a little bit disappointed with the loss,” Shaw says. “But when I reflect on the series, after a 13-2 loss in Game 1, I couldn’t have asked from a much better effort from my guys all the rest of the way through that series.”

With the year over, recruitment is high on the agenda. A spring camp is scheduled for April 15-17, and the Leafs will host a hockey school in July.

Shaw says he’s already talking to new players interested in the club, as well as members of this season’s lineup. Of the veterans, as many as 19 could be back in 2011-12.

“Selfishly you kind of think about that. You could have a pretty good hockey team with those players coming back,” he says. “At the same time, they came to move forward to Junior A, and it’s my job to help promote my players.”

Though a formal lineup is a long way off, Shaw says he’s already got plans for his next group of Leafs: “My ultimate goal is to win a championship. That’s why I continue in hockey. I like winning.”