DRUCE'S PLAYOFF MAGIC RUBS OFF ON OJHL-CHAMPION DUKES
John Druce celebrates winning the 2018 OJHL championship with the Wellington Dukes Sunday. (Photo by Tim Bates / OJHL Images)
By Jim Mason
John Druce just wins.
Check his coaching resume – as brief as it may be.
A 10-year NHLer – as a player – the Peterborough native coached the Wellington Dukes to the 2017-18 Ontario Junior Hockey League title. They won the Buckland Cup on home ice last Sunday.
Check.
Eleven months ago, he was head coach of the OJHL’s Cobourg Cougars when they won the RBC Cup, the Canadian Jr. A championship.
Check.
Not bad for a guy whose only previous coaching experience was a few months as an assistant with the Cougars.
Druce, 52, and his Dukes leave for the Dudley-Hewitt Cup in the Northwestern Ontario community of Dryden Sunday. They open play against the host Dryden GM Ice Dogs Tuesday night.
Legitimate inspiration never fades for Druce. And the not the clichéd or contrived bulletin-board material some teams manufacture to get up for games.
John Druce’s daughter, Courtney, spent nearly half of her 27 years fighting cancer. She passed away two years to the week Wellington won the OJHL.
She battled cancer five times, using the disease to raised funds to fight it. Father and daughter were featured in the NHL/NHLPA’s Hockey Fights Cancer campaign.
“She’s definitely watching over me I think about her all the time,” he said. “She’s my hero.”
But two championships for two Jr. A organizations in less than 12 months? (Fired in Cobourg last Halloween, he was hired in Wellington Jan. 4 after the coaching staff was let go.
“I’ve been fortunate to be in a good position these last couple of years,” said Druce, after practice Thursday.
“My experience playing in the NHL is obviously a great background, but I think the biggest thing I look at, especially these kids at this age is that I’m dealing with 23 different personalities and you need to understand that everybody ticks a little differently. You need to figure what’s the best way to communicate with them.”
Josh Maguiire, who played on Cobourg's national championship team last season, says Druce gets it right.
"Amazing person and coach," the first-year player at UOIT in Oshawa said on Twitter today. "His passion and care for his players are top notch. Extremely humble with his already many accomplishments in hockey, with many more to come."
More secrets?
“The small little details of the game, those little things, are important to me,” he said. And understanding playing a playoff style game – if you can learn how to play that game during the regular season, it translates into postseason.”
Druce sings the praises of assistant coach Derek Smith, a former Dukes captain and NHLer (Calgary, Ottawa) himself. They’ve become fast friends behind the Wellington bench.
“We both speak the same language in relating to the kids and what we have to say,”
I feel very fortunate and lucky to have Derek to work with. It’s been tremendous.”
Druce played for the Washington Capitals, who selected him in the second round (40th overall) in the 1985 NHL Draft, Winnipeg Jets, Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers.
More postseason magic?
Druce is most remembered for scoring 14 goals in 15 Stanley Cup Playoff games during the Capitals' run to the 1990 Wales Conference Final.
Clutch.
He also looks back on the information he gleaned from junior coaches while working as an analyst for Sportsnet.
It all adds up, he figures.
Druce makes the commute to The County from his native Peterborough where he’s a partner in a restaurant, Johnny Vino’s, and a financial advisor with Freedom 55.
Would he like to coach at higher level?
“For sure,” he says without hesitation.
“I can’t imagine (being away from the game). It’s in my blood. What you learn when you’re away from the rink and then you get back to it, you realize how much you miss it.”
For now, his Dukes are healthy heading to the Dudley – an annual important fact for OJHL teams. The Dukes had to battle through four rounds of playoffs – including two seven-game series – and win 16 games to get this far.
And their opponents Tuesday night?
After a first-round bye, the host Dryden team needed just 11 playoff games to win the Superior International Junior Hockey League title.
