Coyotes Collar the Ducks : Hay Fever Has Hit Phoenix

There is pressure in coaching a team that is losing a playoff series, and there is another kind of pressure that Phoenix Coyote Coach Don Hay experienced in his 13 years as a firefighter--the pressure of having only a few precious minutes to pull someone from a burning building or to restore life to a child who has fallen into a swimming pool and isn’t breathing.

Through painful experience, he learned there is more to life than hockey. He loves matching wits and matching lines, but he brings to his job a unique and refreshing perspective.

“This is a different kind of heat,” he said.

And the hotter it gets, the cooler Hay remains. In the white-hot heat generated by the 16,210 howling fans crammed into the America West Arena on Tuesday, Hay calmly led the Coyotes through a rugged, fast-paced game that resulted in a 2-0 victory over the Mighty Ducks and tied their best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal series at two games each.

Not once did he sweat or show any sign of uncertainty, not even when the Ducks’ Steve Rucchin scored an apparent goal with 8:02 left in the third period. While the video-replay officials reviewed the play, Hay stood impassively behind the bench, leaning on one knee as he diagramed his next play. When the goal was disallowed and the arena erupted in roars, Hay’s expression never changed and he never lost his focus.

“He’s a leader,” Coyote center Cliff Ronning said. “I’ve had coaches before that sat back. If there’s a fire you’d want him going in after your kid. He knows what life is.”

Said Hay: “People compare sports to war, do or die, but nobody really dies in a sporting event. Basically, it’s fun to compete. Firefighting is a dose of reality. You do go into accidents and fires. But it’s the same as sports in that you have to work together as a team.”

It took the Coyotes most of the season to absorb Hay’s team-first philosophy, a prolonged process that almost cost him his job.

Careless defensively and bent on enhancing their scoring totals, the Coyotes foundered through the season and were four games under .500 in early March, the time teams traditionally attempt to tighten their defensive play in preparation for the playoffs. Hay, who had fallen out of favor with owners Richard Burke and Stephen Gluckstern, never wavered in his belief that defense would ultimately win games.

“Individually we weren’t coming to play,” Ronning said. “It’s hard for a coach to motivate professional athletes because it’s up to athletes to motivate themselves. That’s the hardest part for him because coaching in juniors is different.

“He’s really adapted well to working with individuals. Everyone needs to be treated with respect and he does that.”

To do that, he needed yet another job skill: salesmanship. Telling players how he wanted them to play was one thing; convincing them they would ultimately benefit from short-term sacrifices was a far more difficult task.

“Whenever a new coach goes in to a team, you have to establish yourself with the players, and the selling of your system is very important. You hope the work is over in training camp, but it’s a continual sell all year,” he said.

Hay formulated his philosophy while working in Kamloops, a town of 70,000 in the Canadian province of British Columbia. A former minor league player who turned to firefighting because of the security it offered, he began coaching on a part-time basis and had the good fortune to work with Ken Hitchcock, now coach of the Dallas Stars, and Tom Renney, coach of the Vancouver Canucks.

“I remember telling my wife, ‘I want to try this for one year,”’ he said.

That one year turned into 12. He spent the first 10 in Kamloops, where his teams won four Western Hockey League championships and three Memorial Cup championships, the ultimate prize in junior hockey. He led the Blazers to consecutive titles in 1994-95 and guided the Canadian national junior team to the world championship in 1995 with an unprecedented 7-0 record.

He has done his utmost to help the Coyotes erase a 2-0 series lead. As the teams prepare to return to Anaheim for Game 5 on Thursday night, he has given them a second chance. He has proved he’s good at that.

“This is when it gets really interesting,” he said. “Guys are really tired of going out and seeing each other’s faces. They’re tired of the matchups. The guys who are mentally strong enough to step up will overcome this.”