The new head coach of the Halifax Mooseheads isn’t a fan of the word rebuild.
Andrew Lord, who comes to the Mooseheads after coaching stints in Wales with the Cardiff Devils and in South Carolina with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the East Coast Hockey League, has inherited a young team.
That’s because the team stocked up on veteran talent the previous two seasons and traded away lots of draft picks to fuel what turned out to be unsuccessful title runs.
The team has since dealt some of its elite players, such as Markus Vidicek and league MVP Mathieu Cataford, to accumulate draft picks. Enter the rebuild discussion.
“I just think it gives an excuse, right?” said Lord. “I mean, we have to go in and our mindset has to be to win every game, right.… There’s no point in thinking about our age or, you know, what excuses there could be.”
Regular season starts Friday
The team’s first regular-season game is Friday in Charlottetown.
Mooseheads forward Braeden MacPhee said Lord’s energy is one difference from previous coaches.
“We’re all just super pumped to be there because we know our coach is super excited … but he has such attention to the little details, like on the film sessions and stuff … and I think it’s awesome for the great young team that we have,” said MacPhee, 20.
MacPhee is one of the team’s three overage players and is in his fifth season with the team, although he played infrequently during the first two years.
He and his coach share a similar attitude toward rebuilds.
“Just because we’re younger doesn’t mean that we’re a worse team or anything,” he said.
Halifax Mooseheads forward Braeden MacPhee, left, says the new head coach is bringing a lot of energy to the team, which is rubbing off on players. (Halifax Mooseheads)
Lord said in his career, first as a player and then a coach, he’s seen how a team that plays with an identity can be more than the sum of their parts.
“We’re just focused on every day to get better, do things to the very best of our ability, grow individually and collectively as a group,” he said.
“And if we do that better than everyone else in the league on a day-to-day basis, and we grow more than everyone else in the league throughout the season, you know, I think really good things can happen.”
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