Davis: Former Regina Pats captain Bill Ansell running short on time to speak with old hockey teammates
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Feisty, high-scoring forward Bill Ansell played for the Regina Pats when the legendary franchise won its last league championship — 45 years ago, believe it or not — and he became the Western Hockey League team's captain for most of the next season.
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'Until Strummer ripped the 'C' off my jersey with two or three games left,' said Ansell, referring to former Pats general manager Bob Strumm, who was well-known for his impassioned outbursts at players, officials, media and league administrators.
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'We started the season really strong then lost four or five games in a row at the end of the season. Strummer was apoplectic!'
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Recently retired from 33 years in the Royal Canadian Navy, where he achieved the rank of lieutenant-commander and fittingly enough served on the HMCS Regina, 63-year-old Ansell and Strumm have crossed paths a few times since their final, tumultuous season together with the Pats.
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Indeed, Strumm was one of the first teammates to call after hearing Ansell was dying from pancreatic cancer.
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'I had a long, long chat with Strummer,' said Ansell during a recent phone conversation from his Sidney, B.C., backyard while visiting with older brother Max Ansell. 'And I'm expecting a couple other guys are gonna call me up shortly. Kelly Livingston, my best buddy because we used to hang out all the time, is calling.
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'Every time I look at my phone now, it's usually got some American numbers on it. I keep thinking they're scams. Apparently not. It's my teammates leaving me messages, so I call them back.'
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Jock Callander and Garth Butcher have called for 'chin-wags.' And there's still a huge list of former teammates Ansell would love to hear from.
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Ansell played 2 1/2 seasons with the Pats, recording 182 career points (69 goals, 113 assists) and 246 penalty minutes. He added 15 goals, 17 assists and 61 penalty minutes in 28 playoff games, including an appearance in the controversial 1980 Memorial Cup played in Regina and Brandon, where the vaunted Pats were infamously eliminated from the round-robin tournament against the Peterborough Petes and champion Cornwall Royals.
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The Pats, who won their last Memorial Cup in 1974, have appeared in the Canadian junior hockey championship only twice since 1980, as hosts in 2001 and 2018.
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That 1979-80 squad was coached by Bryan Murray. It included a record-setting power-play unit of Doug Wickenheiser, Darren Veitch, Mike Blaisdell, Ron Flockhart, Brian Varga and Bart Hunter. With most of the high-profile Pats gone in 1980-81, Ansell became captain until just before a postseason run that ended in a semifinal series loss to the Calgary Wranglers.
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Article content For Canadian soccer fans, the Iceteca was more than just the seminal moment in Canada's incipient and unexpected run to the World Cup. It was magical. Article content Cyle Larin's brace. Sam Adekugbe's effervescent leap into the pile of sideline snow. The -9°C temperatures. The first win in 45 years over Mexico in a World Cup qualifier. The emergence as The Team to beat in North America. Article content The 2-1 triumph, the first over Mexico in 20 years, boosted Les Rouges atop the qualifying table. It was 376 days before Canada would ultimately kick off against Belgium at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, their first trip to the tournament since 1986. Article content Article content Article content The one-year countdown to the 2026 World Cup ticked over in a grand ceremony and clock unveiling at B.C. Place this past Wednesday, the same stadium Canada will play its first game of the Gold Cup tournament against Honduras on Tuesday. Article content Article content The stakes are different this time. In 2021, it was excitement and a team oozing with confidence, having overcome incredible odds to emerge as the region's best team. Article content The confidence is still there, but those plucky, fabulous underdogs have grown up. Article content 'A lot of the guys have experience from the last World Cup and we just need to keep that same rhythm we had throughout that year and bring it in to the World Cup. … We want to do something special there,' said forward Cyle Larin. 'I think the more you do well, the more that people expect. When you start playing better, doing well, scoring goals, winning games … it's (raised) expectations. And the more we go up in the rankings in the world … people expect more. That's the level we want.' Article content Article content In qualifying for the last World Cup, Canada had to basically start from scratch when the process was changed because of COVID. The top four-ranked CONCACAF teams got a bye into the final round — the eight-team Octagonal — while Canada had to scratch and claw its way through two preliminary rounds. The team responded by setting a slew of records, including an unprecedented 17-game unbeaten streak, as they stormed through the field, eventually finishing as Kings of CONCACAF. Article content Article content As a host nation for 2026, there will be no qualifying drama. Their spot is assured. Their focus is solely on winning, momentum and peaking in the summer of 2026. Article content 'I think everybody knows how important this summer is and what it means for next summer,' head coach Jesse Marsch said. 'I've explained my feelings about this tournament to the team over the last months, but I didn't really have to. They all said to me, 'We're coming. We want to win it.' And so that's a big statement, but that's how they feel. And I'm glad that I coach a team that feels that way.'
