NTDP’s inaugural weekend in Plymouth a sign of great things to come
By @MichaelCaples –
PLYMOUTH – Like many other metro Detroit hockey fans, 26-year-old Tyler Walz ventured into USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth not quite sure what to expect.
After taking in two-plus periods of NTDP vs. Notre Dame action Sunday afternoon, however, Walz – a Plymouth native that was sad to see Whalers leave for Flint – enjoyed what he experienced.
“It’s been great,” Walz said. “I miss the Whalers, but it’s exciting to see what USA Hockey can do here.
“The neat thing is that I’m a college hockey fan, so it’s cool to be able to see these players play here before they go play in college.”
One down and many to go for Plymouth’s new hockey team. While USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program has long been established in hockey circles for producing elite hockey players, they entered into a new era on the weekend of Oct. 9-11 – one that requires them to build a fan base.
The team’s inaugural weekend featured a game with the USHL’s Chicago Steel and a game with the Fighting Irish – the first time the NTDP has ever played host to a Division 1 college hockey team since the program’s inception in 1996. It was their first set of games in the building formerly known as Compuware Arena, and their first chance to show new fans what they have to offer.
“I think we’re really happy that we got off the ground, got things going,” said Scott Monaghan, the NTDP’s senior director of operations and one of the program’s first staff members. “The games have been great. Notre Dame, we’re very thankful to them for coming out. We want to get college hockey in the area more.
“I think our big thing, we kind of have a marker in where we need to go to get better on our game management and get the building full, but I think the more people see the product here, not just us but the other teams coming in, the more they’re going to say, ‘this is great and I’ve got to go out and see some hockey.’”
Monaghan acknowledged that the attendance numbers have room to grow; going up against the Detroit Red Wings’ home opener, high school football and a Detroit Lions home game for their first two dates wasn’t ideal. Still, he pointed out that the turnout – at least a 1,000 fans for the first game and well more than double that for the second – far exceeded their fan totals for any game at their former home, the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.
Monaghan wasn’t the only person to notice the difference, either.
“It’s great here,” said Nick Boka, NTDP alum and freshman defenseman for the Michigan Wolverines who was attendance for the Notre Dam game. “The renovations, what they’re trying to do here, it’s awesome. If we were here last year, I think it would have been amazing. With all the fans and everything, you can already tell the difference in the atmosphere and everything. I’m excited for the future of it.”
The atmosphere was enhanced by the first wave of renovations for the arena – most notably a new sound system and video boards at two corners of the rink. Fresh paint, new video screens throughout the concourse and high-level hockey on the ice all added to a fun-filled weekend in Plymouth.
“I thought it was great, just from the energy in the building and the reception,” said NTDP U18 Team coach Danton Cole. “It’s tough putting this together. Mr. Monaghan and everybody, they’ve done a lot of work. Everything came off, and I didn’t see any hitches, so it seemed to be really good. It’s exciting and it’s just another step towards us feeling like this is our home.”
Plus, it was great hockey. The U18 Team posted a 6-1 win over the Steel Friday, and then played Notre Dame to a 2-2 tie on Sunday.
“Exciting,” said Jim Johannson, assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey. “I thought it was great hockey both nights, and it kind of showcases both parts of our program, if you will. The league play in the USHL and for offensively for us to have more opportunities in that game, and then tonight to play a good Notre Dame team, a good physical challenge but we played good solid hockey all weekend, and I was real happy with it.”
Jackson comes home
Making the opening weekend in Plymouth even more special for the NTDP was who came back to metro Detroit to help break in their new building. Jeff Jackson, head coach of Notre Dame, was the first coach and one of the founders of the NTDP in the ‘90s.
“I talked to Scott Monaghan, Scott and I came here together and started the program together, and coming into the new building, I think it was hopefully good for them as far as maybe getting some college teams to make the effort to come in here,” Jackson said after the game. “It’s a good facility, they treated us real well, it was a good game, so all’s good.”
Jackson said he wasn’t all too surprised about the NTDP acquiring a new building and moving out of Ann Arbor. After all, there had been lots of grand ideas discussed when the program first began.
“You know, actually, we had talked, we had talked about a lot of things,” Jackson said. “We had talked about possibly going to Lake Placid, we talked about possibly going to Colorado Springs. Ann Arbor was a good site for us. The biggest thing is, they can do so much more here as far as the potential for bringing in outside events, bringing maybe the national junior team here, maybe camps here, obviously it’s going to open up the door for World Championship type things. It’s a great location, a good venue, and I’m sure they’ll find ways to utilize it in a real positive way.”
Jackson said he still takes a great deal of pride in seeing NTDP success stories.
“Yeah, I do. There are still kids who are playing in the National Hockey League that I coached here with the national program, still have a relationship with a lot of those kids. I’m proud when they win medals and things like that. That’s why we developed it, that’s why we put it together. Kids were developing, but this put them in a position where all the kids from different areas around the country that are playing high school or prep school or midgets or juniors, you put them all in an environment that’s consistent and they get great coaching and a lot of developmental support, they have a lot of people who are working for these kids to get better and better.”
More college games, international events to come?
The goal, according to many inside the NTDP braintrust, is to bring at least five NCAA programs through USA Hockey Arena each season moving forward. Bringing a high-profile program like Notre Dame through was a step in the right direction for that goal.
“It’s nice that Coach Jackson and Notre Dame would do that, hopefully it will lead to more,” Cole said. “We’ve talked to Michigan and Michigan State, and we’d like to get them in our building at times. It’s exciting for us, and this building presents that opportunity for us. It’s a venue where we can get big-time teams in here and get good crowds, and it should be great for hockey in this area and our program.”
Said Johannson: “It was huge. Not only the, I don’t know if sentimental is the right word, we don’t like to use those words in hockey, but for all the work Jeff put into this program to get it started, in the end, it was right. It was right that he was here with Notre Dame and playing our program here. I think it’s a tribute both to Jeff and his program to help us open up the building.”
Johannson also said that the NTDP’s new building will welcome more than just college hockey into Plymouth, as well.
“We’ll continue to grow in this facility, both physically with the branding and everything you’re going to see, but also the lineage of our players in this community now, working our way through everything we can do program-wise from grassroots right to NTDP to women’s to sled programs. I think you will just see more and more aspects of USA Hockey in the building.”