O’Connell Gets Chance to Put Years of NHL Experience to Work : Gulls: Coach starts his first season in the IHL with definite ideas about how a hockey team should be run.

Ask about milestones, and there are none. Ask about major accomplishments, and nothing is worth mentioning. Ask about highlights, and he can’t think of any.

“No highlights, no milestones; sounds kind of boring doesn’t it?” said Mike O’Connell, coach of the San Diego Gulls, the International Hockey League’s new kid on the block. “I look back on my career and nothing really stood out. I don’t feel real proud of any one thing I’ve done, I just felt good about the whole thing.”

The Gulls may be new to the block, but their coach has been around the block a time or two. O’Connell lasted 12 seasons as a defenseman in the National Hockey League, playing 2 1/2 seasons for Chicago, 5 1/2 for Boston and four for Detroit.

“He knew what he wanted,” said Jacques Demers, former Red Wings coach who is a TV and radio analyst for the Quebec Nordiques. “He knew what he had to do to stay in the league. When he left Boston, people pretty much wrote him off, but he was able to last four more years through sheer willpower and the attitude of, ‘I told you I could do it.’ ”

Friday night, hockey fans saw what he can do on the other side of the stick. After three days of practice, the Gulls scrimmaged publicly.

The growing pains could be intense. Phoenix, a first-year expansion team, finished last in the Western Division with the worst record (27-44) in the IHL last year.

O’Connell is reserved in his predictions for the season. Yes, it’s realistic to believe they’ll make the playoffs, he says, but eight of the 11 teams in the league will.

“With the team we have now, we’ll make the playoffs,” O’Connell said. “Sure I feel pressure, but that’s good. Any time you’re in a competitive sport, you feel pressure. It’s how you deal with it that’s important.”

Rosemary, O’Connell’s wife of 13 years, said for someone who has a patent on even-keeled temperament, he is handling his job with the excitement of a boy and his first bike.

“He’s just like a kid on Christmas morning,” she said. “He has been working on this all summer, and he’s delighted to be on the ground floor.”

O’Connell, 34, is confident he can educate fans and elevate hockey awareness in a town that’s used to seeing icing on a cake and offsides on a Charger lineman.

“Most people are real receptive to re-establishing hockey here,” O’Connell said. “If people take the time to learn about the game and the rules, I think they’ll enjoy it. They’ve supported it in the past, and I don’t see why they wouldn’t support it now.”

The last time San Diego cheered for hometown hockey was in 1979, when the Hawks were a staple in the diet of local fans. From 1966 to 1974, fans feasted on the Western Hockey League Gulls and from 1974 to 1977 on the Mariners. Besides the occasional exhibition game by visiting NHL teams, the slap of the professional puck hasn’t been heard since.

But before O’Connell can fall into the good graces of the public, he must earn the respect of his players.

“The biggest challenge is convincing the players that I know what I’m talking about and that my way is the way we should play,” he said.

Based on his four years with O’Connell--last year as an assistant coach--Demers says it won’t take long for any doubting Thomases to believe in O’Connell .

According to Demers, O’Connell has all the tools needed to be a successful coach.

“As a matter of fact,” Demers said, “this year, I had recommended that he should be coaching in Adirondack (Detroit’s farm team in Glens Falls, N.Y.). I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I always thought he’d be a good coach. He communicates well and has a great understanding of the game.”

Cynthia Lambert covers the Red Wings for The Detroit News and recalled a play that spoke volumes of O’Connell’s knowledge of the game.

“It was a game against St. Louis last year,” she said. “Talk about coolness under pressure. There was a lot of dump and chase, dump and chase, but Mike got the puck. The goalie thought he was going to shoot to the right of the net, but Mike changed the follow-through, scored and totally deflated him. You don’t see that very often. He was thinking ahead. That’s not typical. Mike’s a real student of the game.”

His players might pick up some of his post-game tactics as well. O’Connell has the ability to applaud a victory and curse a loss, then get on with it.

“I take the approach that, ‘Hey, the game’s done, it’s over, what’s next?’ ” he said. “I’m not one to dwell on it. I’m going to try and get that across to my players. If you lose, feel bad for an hour, but after that hour, no more, because it’s not going to do any good.”

A victory should be treated no differently.

“We win, celebrate for an hour,” he said, “then, after that, let’s approach the next task. You can’t get too high or too low, because things change so quickly.”

Said Rosemary: “After a game, we’d talk about it on the drive home, but it was over after that. He didn’t dwell on it. It never transcended to the kids and me. He’s always been pretty even keel, no big high or lows. He has always been that way.”

When Gulls General Manager Don Waddell beckoned with the offer of a head coaching job in California, O’Connell had one year left on his contract in Detroit. The O’Connells discussed their options at length, then packed their bags, rounded up the kids--they have three--and headed westward.

“We figured these opportunities don’t come up that often,” Rosemary said. “He had the security of one more year on his contract, but if in a year, no one was dangling a contract in front of his nose, we decided to take a chance. We thought this would be a good way to leave Detroit.”

With hockey evolving into more of a finesse game, with less emphasis on intimidation and fighting, O’Connell said he was convinced that he wanted to stay in the sport.

“Hockey is going in the right direction,” he said. “Successful teams are the most disciplined and take the least number of penalties. If it was going the other way, I don’t think I’d be here.”

While he won’t say fans can expect a certain number of victories, O’Connell will promise uncompromising effort.

“The players we have are known for their work ethic,” he said. “They’ll give 100%. They have to give 100% every night. Some nights it may not work, but as long as they give that effort, there’s not much else you can ask for.”

Demers never had to ask O’Connell for more. No one gave more every night than O’Connell, a 5-foot-9, 180-pound player who was considered too small to make it in the NHL.

“He’s not a big man, but for his size, he never shyed away from getting the puck in the corner,” Demers said. “He wouldn’t get rattled, and he came ready to play every night. You wouldn’t notice him on any one great play, but he was steady and very dependable. He would bring himself up to the maximum level each game. That’s one of the reasons he persevered.”