Greg Hansen: Playoff-bound Roadrunners could be headed for something special

Nobody popped champagne, did a dance or hung a banner when the Tucson Roadrunners clinched a playoff berth last week.

“No, no, no, not at all,” says Roadrunners coach Mike Van Ryn. “We didn’t bring it up for the longest time.”

If you look at the small print in the American Hockey League standings, you will see an X next to Tucson’s name. An X in the standings of any league is a good thing. It is code for playoff qualifier. In this case, it also means Tucson is in first place. Maybe it should be XX.

“I don’t even want to touch that stuff,” said Van Ryn. “It’s all about the end.”

The man who played in 283 NHL games then smiled. “That’s a pretty boring answer, isn’t it?,” he said.

The AHL is the opposite of boring. It’s a beast. It’s swimming with sharks. The AHL has 30 teams, and through Friday 23 had winning records. It is so difficult that all eight teams in the Roadrunners’ Pacific Division have winning records.

“The competition is brutal,” said Roadrunners captain Andrew Campbell. “Everyone is fighting to get to the NHL, or to get bigger and better contracts, or to get deals in Europe, or to better their situation on their own team. You’d better not take a night off.”

On Friday at Tucson Arena, the Roadrunners didn’t take a night off. How could they? They beat the Grand Rapids Griffins 3-0, and a year ago, the Griffins won the Calder Cup, the AHL’s version of the Stanley Cup.

It is an ultra-marathon to contend for the Calder Cup. A year ago, Grand Rapids began the playoffs on April 21 and started spraying champagne June 13. It took the Griffins 19 games to become champions once someone placed an X next to their name.

No wonder Van Ryn isn’t lighting any cigars yet.

Even though the Roadrunners have now played 64 of 68 regular-season games, Friday’s victory at Tucson Arena continues to be part of a promising beginning as much anything else.

I’ll say this with feeling: If you go to a Roadrunners game at Tucson Arena, you will be entertained. It’s not a baseball pitcher taking 28 seconds between ball 3 and ball 4.

Besides, who doesn’t like a winner with such an uplifting story?

Van Ryn has been the Roadrunners head coach for about nine months. His team has had 63 transactions in which players were moved, removed and re-removed from the roster. That’s not unusual in the AHL or in Triple-A baseball or any minor-league sport.

What’s remarkable is that Van Ryn has so quickly been a stabilizing force for a new franchise with so many unfamiliar faces. His team hasn’t lost more than three consecutive games. The improvement from the inaugural Roadrunners season is as exceptional as it is unexpected.

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They’ve gone from 29-31-8 and 14½ games out of first place to 39-19-6. Their winning percentage is the best of the 15 Western Conference teams.

This doesn’t happen by accident.

The parent Arizona Coyotes were diligent in their search for a man whose hockey upbringing is commensurate with their player development plans. Van Ryn is a hockey lifer, a rising star in the business, 38 years young. He has already coached with the Niagara Ice Dogs, the Houston Aeros, the Kitchener Rangers and now the Roadrunners.

But even Van Ryn’s decades of hockey didn’t prepare him for what the Roadrunners have accomplished.

“At the start of the year it was just ‘let’s just get to work; maybe we can make the playoffs,’” he said. “But now it’s kind of our mindset, to be honest. It just kind of took off from the start. I can’t say I wasn’t surprised.”

A season in the AHL isn’t often heaven, but it can be hell. If you’re not mentally strong, it’ll break you. That’s why Campbell, the 30-year-old team captain, has been such a strength for the Roadrunners.

He was recalled by the Arizona Coyotes three times this season, for 22 days, but did not appear in an NHL game.

Rather than grouse and be a poor example for the young Roadrunners roster, Campbell has chosen to be positive.

“You gotta remember, we’ve got some 19- and 20-year-old kids on this team,” he said. “But I could see we had a lot of raw talent and I knew it was important for the young guys to buy in while they’re learning the game at this level. They’ve done just that.”

Campbell adds the “Bull Durham” element to Tucson hockey. He has played in 86 professional playoff games, for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, the Manchester Monarchs and the Toronto Marlies. If he isn’t enthused to win the AHL’s Calder Cup, who is?

“I’ve been in a lot of playoffs — conference finals, second round, first round — but never won it all,” he says. “That’s what I’m hoping for here.”

As Van Ryn introduced himself to the Roadrunners and to Tucson, his makeshift team caught the attention of the other 29 AHL teams. They started 8-1-2 and just kept building, moving into first place and staying there.

“We have so many first-year guys going through this for the first time,” Van Ryn said. “I was almost waiting for the fizzle to happen.”

Fizzle? For the young Roadrunners, it has been a season of sizzle.