Ludvig talks about first season as Storm coach, recent suspension for waving white towel

“It’s exciting. The circle has come full turn. A couple of my sons played here — Mick back in the day and Johnny,” he noted. “So it’s coming home.”

However, being behind the bench as a head coach isn’t exactly home for Ludvig. He’s been an NHL player and scout, but never in his 55 years in the game has he been a bench boss. It’s a role he’s still adjusting to.

“The season’s gone relatively well. I wasted a couple months by my lack of experience and I was learning on the job. I kind of got thrown in. I was just going to help out. I wasn’t planning on being a head coach,” said Ludvig. “There’s lots to learn. I was a little bit naive and in a way overconfident. There’s stuff like bench management, but I’m lucky [with assistant coach Andrew Fisher] and Donny Hay would take me out for coffee once in a while and show me the ropes a little bit, so I’m very lucky in that regard.”

The Storm struggled out of the gate, going 4-8-1 in September and October. Since, they’ve gone 19-4-3 to slide into third in the Birks Division, one point behind Sicamous for second in the division with five games left before the playoffs.

“We’ve been pretty good the last two and a half months. We finally got our skill level. We did a lot of individual skill improvements and our systems are starting to work,” said Ludvig.

Storm goaltender Cody Creasy added, “Since Christmas, we’ve been on a hot streak. I think our record has been .750, so that’s a really good thing to kick off going into playoffs in the next couple weeks. I think we’re ready for it.”

Players like Creasy have really enjoyed playing for someone like Ludvig.

“Jan is awesome. Ex-NHL player, so he brings in a lot of experience, lots of skills type of stuff, so every practice we work on skills,” said Creasy. “He always says you’re plays aren’t going to work if your skills aren’t there, so working on skills he brings a lot of good fundamentals for our team.”

However, the team won’t have Ludvig behind the bench for the next three games. Ludvig was suspended by the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League after a loss in Princeton where he started waving a white towel after his team was penalized for 52 minutes compared to two minutes for the home Posse.

“I got thrown out of the game. The ref was on top of his game,” he said. “We have a signal. I was waving a white towel at our goaltender. That means I’m going to pull him if he lets another one in. The ref took it personally and threw me out of the game, so now I’m suspended for three games. I can’t even hang around my team during the games, so that’s kind of sad.”

The Storm play in Revelstoke on Friday before returning to McArthur Island for a Saturday rematch with the Grizzlies.

by Chad Klassen

Ludvig talks about first season as Storm coach, recent suspension for waving white towel

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