VIDEO: McEwan loving life in Stingrays’ fast lane

After what seemed to be a protracted change of ownership during the summer, McEwan finally got his hands on the club in July, with the previous owners returning to the West Midlands to concentrate on their main concern, Elite League rivals Coventry Blaze.

There’s no doubt that without the Blaze ownership stepping in two years ago the club probably wouldn’t be around today, certainly not as an Elite League member as there were no other suitors waiting in the wings once Mike And Sue Pack, who ran the club for eight years from 2003, decided they could no longer make it work.

Games between Hull and Coventry are guaranteed to be feisty affairs given the two years that they played under the same ownership group, but McEwan intends sticking around for a lot longer and, along with player-coach Sylvain Cloutier, oversee a period of growth for the club.

On the ice, it’s been a steady start for Cloutier’s team, with their 4-3 win over Dundee Stars ending a winless run of eight games and lifting them into eighth place in the overall league table.

The new conference structure is intended – in theory at least – to give Hull and the other teams often viewed as permanent occupants of the bottom half of the table a more competitive season.

Lumped in with the league’s four Scottish clubs in the Gardiner Conference, Hull will play Braehead Clan, Fife Flyers, Dundee Stars and Edinburgh Capitals eight times – split equally home and away.

So far, the general consensus seems to agree that has been the case, with more games decided by the odd goal than in any previous season.

Upon the league’s somewhat controversial announcement of the new conference system in the summer, McEwan immediately declared himself a supporter, despite the additional travel incurred by his team. Nothing since has altered his opinion.

“The fact we are in a position to compete and battle night in, night out against these other teams is what is so good about our conference,” said McEwan.

“You have to produce every night in this new format because if you don’t show up for these games then we are wasting our time.

“The new conference structure is showing everybody that it is the way forward for this league, I’m pleased with it.

“I’m quite happy with the way things are going. Everybody was saying we were on a bad run, but four of those games were lost on a shoot-out. If we had won those shoot-outs we would have been top of our conference, so that shows how close it all is.”

Off the ice, McEwan admits to having little spare time, but has willingly thrown himself wholeheartedly into the project and, slowly but surely, is surrounding himself with support staff in order to steer the club in the right direction.

“It has taken up a lot of my time, the management side of things,” said McEwan, who combines his ownership of the club with the additional role of bench coach on match nights. “There are things that people perhaps don’t realise are involved in this game. It’s just 24/7, seven days a week.

“Being on the bench is the bit that’s a relief, helping the guys out – it’s good to spend some time there and enjoy it.

“Of course we would always like to get more people in the building on match nights, but we’ve got some good guys coming in now to help out with things, such as the schools programme, and we are starting to get things in place and we’ll just keep chipping away at it.

“I’ve always previously been involved on the coaching and playing side of things, but obviously this is a totally different ball game now.”

Since being brought in to help out as bench coach two years ago, McEwan has forged a strong relationship with Cloutier, now in his fourth season in charge as player-coach. Since taking over as owner, McEwan said the duo’s working and personal relationship had grown even stronger.

“It is a massive challenge and I’m lucky to have Clouts there helping me out and we’ve got other staff coming on board now to help out with things,” said McEwan.

“The thing is with Clouts is that we’re also best friends. We often think the same way, which is good for us and the club – some people say we’re like brothers.”

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Twitter: @PHarrisonYP