When he returned to Arizona as a member of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs this week, former Roadrunners forward Michael Bunting had fond words about his six years in the desert.
“I really keep Tucson in my heart as a second home,” Bunting, the Roadrunners’ all-time leader in games played, goals, assists, points, penalty minutes, told TSN.
That’s not an uncommon refrain for former Roadrunners.
For Mitch Love, coach of the first-place Stockton Heat, Southern Arizona has become his full-time home. He moved to Marana last offseason, where he shares a house with his girlfriend.
Family ties brought Love to the area, he said, but his passion for golf — even during the hot summer months — has already solidified the move as a hole-in-one.
“Her mom lives in the Saddlebrooke Ranch area. So for years she talked about wanting to get closer to her mom,” Love said. “And obviously Arizona is beautiful, especially here in Tucson. So we pulled the plug on our time in Washington state and moved to Marana. And we’re real excited and happy to be part of the area and the community.”
Love moved to Marana from Everett, Washington, about a 30-mile drive north of Seattle. Everett also happens to be the offseason home of Roadrunners coach Jay Varady. The two coaches are great friends.
While Varady served as an assistant coach for seven seasons with the Everett Silvertips, a major junior team out of the Western Hockey League, Love spent two years as one of the club’s top players. He was Everett’s captain in the 2004-05 season, playing under Varady’s tutelage.
Six years later, Varady left Everett for his first head coaching job in with the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers. Love took Varady’s former job, becoming an assistant coach with the Silvertips.
After seven seasons in Everett, Love spent three years as head coach of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades before the NHL’s Calgary Flames asked him to lead their AHL affiliate prior to this season.
Love “has transitioned unbelievably from his playing career into his coaching career. And if you look at how long he’s been coaching, he really got to the (AHL) in a hurry,” Varady said. “We joked when he got the job in Stockton. I would prefer that he got a job out East so I didn’t have to dislike him for so many days in the year.”
Love has the Heat primed for quite a run in his first season. Yet while Stockton carries the AHL’s third-best record into the weekend, one team — Tucson — has managed to give the Heat more trouble than any other so far.
The Roadrunners are one of only two teams to defeat the Heat twice this season, and the only club to do it three times. The clubs will play again at 8 p.m. Saturday in Stockton.
“Yeah, they’ve given us fits this year,” Love said of the Roadrunners. “I mean, that’s a credit to Jay and his coaching staff. His team is prepared to play each and every night.”
Back on Jan. 4, the Roadrunners got the better of the Heat, 2-1, in Tucson Arena. Stockton got its revenge the next night, winning 5-2.
That was a unique week for Love, who got to sleep in his own bed while technically on a road trip.
“After practice today I’ll head back home for the night with my girlfriend and the dog and get to spend a couple of nights here,” he said that week. “But whether it’s for work, or just the offseason hanging out, it’s good to be back in this area.”
Love said that he’d visited the Tucson region for vacation a few times, but his professional playing career had ended prior to the Roadrunners becoming Tucson Arena’s primary tenant.
Love isn’t the first non-Roadrunner with AHL ties to make the move this past year. David Andrews, the longtime president and CEO of the AHL before his retirement in 2020, moved to Tucson this fall, too.
Love admits he’s only had “a good three months or so before departing to Stockton to start our season,” having only made the permanent jump to Marana back in June.
“The (summer) weather doesn’t bother me. I grew up in northern British Columbia where I got lots of snow in the winters, and I’ve spent 15 years in the Washington area where I got lots of rain,” he said. “So I like the climate. I can play golf in 110-degree weather — just drink lots of water.
“My own game frustrations me enough I don’t let the weather bother me,” Love added. “We do lots of hikes in the Catalina Mountains and, you know, like I said, we play golf courses all over the area, get out to local restaurants.”
Varady usually leaves Tucson for Everett in the summers, but said he might have to stick around to hang out with his old friend after the season ends.
Love won’t be able to get back to Pima County until after the season.
“Probably not until May or June. Hopefully its June. That means we’re going to be on a playoff run,” he said. “But I’m always looking forward to getting back to the area and just hanging out.”
Roadrunners shut out in San Jose
Tucson was blanked by the host Barracuda 3-0 on Friday night to fall to 12-12-2-1 on the season.
The Roadrunners fell behind 2-0 in the first period, and allowed a third goal in the final period.
Tucson was 0 for 5 on the power play in the loss.
