A few minutes with...Sylvain Cloutier

The head coach of the Corpus Christi IceRays talks about the franchise, his experience as a head coach and the Texas Brahmas

Sylvain Cloutier joined the revived Corpus Christi IceRays franchise as their new head coach last July, leaving the ice as a player who helped win consecutive titles in the British Elite League with the Cassidy Coventry Blaze, where he served as a player/assistant coach.

Cloutier, 34, played junior hockey with the Guelph Storm (OHL). Cloutier had 106 goals, 131 assists and 237 penalty minutes when he played for the Storm from 1991 to 1994.

A third round draft pick (70th overall) of the Detroit Red Wings in the 1992 Entry Draft, Cloutier played seven games for the Chicago Blackhawks during the 1998-99 season.

In his 14-year professional career as a player, Cloutier amassed 244 goals, 435 assists and 679 points in 980 regular season games. A standout forward, Cloutier also four times helped lead his team to the finals, collecting three championships in the process.

Cloutier had a career high 90 points (31 G, 59 A) with the Adirondack Frostbite (UHL) during the 2005-06 season. While on that club, Cloutier finished second in team scoring, playing with current IceRays players Ryan Bennett, Bob Rapoza, Chris Mei and Kris Tebbs.

In the past two seasons with the Coventry Blaze (EIHL), Cloutier tallied 131 points (55 G, 76 A) before hanging up his skates to take the head coaching position with the Ice Rays.

I spoke with Coach Cloutier on Wednesday night at the NYTEX Sports Centre. Here is our conversation.

Q: You came in late in the off-season to a franchise that didn't know it was going to be here this season. We're nearing the half-way point in the season; how do you feel about how things have progressed?

A: Obviously I had a late start in the recruiting...I tried to do my best and I think we recruited a great group of guys. The ownership has treated me really well. Anything I want, anything we want to do, they've been their and supported my decisions. It's just a matter of us being more consistent. In the first 26 games, we just haven't been consistent. We don't know which team is going to show up on a regular basis. If they real Ice Rays team shows up, we have a real chance to win every night.

Q: One thing that stands out is the fact that the IceRays are leading the league in penalty minutes. Is that something that you as a head coach don't mind, because you want your guys to be known for their toughness or do you mourn it as opportunities lost because you don't have those players out on the ice?

A: I think a lot of those penalties came at the start of the season when we weren't disciplined at all and we got away from our game. That's changing. We did jump in the penalty minutes because we ended up having that mini-brawl in Bossier, so that didn't help. I like my team to play physical and play hard. In the heat of the moment if they have to battle, they go out and battle.

Q: You have a terrific ownership group. You have fantastic fans down in Corpus Christi. You have the media coverage; so you have a lot of the things you need to keep the franchise afloat. For you as a coach, how do you feel about the team and where you're at right now coming into January?

A: Obviously, as you said, our ownership's been great. We're thankful that they kept the team in Corpus with Cassidy (Lange) and his father and Brent Chesney being involved, it's been great. Pat Dunn has been doing a great job promoting our team and Raj has done a great job in the newspaper, you know, talking about our team and promoting it.

The things that we have to do, I mean, I think we're missing a couple of pieces to the puzzle here to get going and I'm working on that and for sure there will be some changes before the end. I think we're almost over that hump and it's just a matter of time before we do and we get going. We're in a tough division with Laredo, Texas and Rio and Odessa and even New Mexico and Arizona, I mean, there's going to be some good hockey teams that aren't going to be in the playoffs this year and that's too bad but it's part of the game and it happens.

Q: You're right on Rio's tail and not that far behind the Brahmas, anything can happen in the second half of the season as you chase your goal of making the playoffs. What do you think of this Dan Wildfong and his Texas team?

A: Dan was a warrior, a battler when he played and I expect this team to battle hard and work hard. From what I've been told by the other coaches I've talked to that played Texas, they work extremely hard. We're going to be prepared to come out and we know we have to match their intensity to be able to compete with them. That's going to be our game plan, to try and compete with them.

Photo Credit: Robert Keith