Australia hockey stint provided unique start to Johnston's coaching career

The adventure began with a phone call to the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.

Mike Johnston was finishing his playing career at Brandon University in Manitoba in 1979-80, and because the team had toured Austria and Switzerland that season, his coach, Andy Murray, suggested he write to those countries in search of opportunities.

"The lady came back on the phone, and she said, 'OK, here's the address,'" Johnston said. "And it was Australia.

"And I said, 'Australia? I wanted Austria.' And she said, 'Well, I've got Australia. You can take it. Maybe send a note to them.' Then she gave me Austria too.

"I sent a note to some of the Australian teams just on a whim."

Johnston ended up playing and coaching in Australia for two seasons while living in Narrabeen, a famous surfing spot north of Sydney mentioned by the Beach Boys in the song "Surfin' U.S.A."

That sparked a long coaching career that has included 10 seasons in the NHL: coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins (2014-15 and 2015-16), assistant with the Vancouver Canucks (1999-2004) and Los Angeles Kings (2005-08).

The 66-year-old now is coach/general manager of Portland of the Western Hockey League.

His story provides a snapshot of hockey in Australia in the early 1980s and a colorful background to the first NHL event in the Southern Hemisphere. The Kings and Arizona Coyotes will play two preseason games at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, in the NHL Global Series -- Melbourne. The games are Saturday and Sunday at 12 a.m. ET, and will be available on NHL Network and ESPN+ in the United States, Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ in Canada, and 9Go, 9Now, ESPN and the ESPN App in Australia.

"Australia is a fabulous country," Johnston said. "It's just so unique and different from any other place you could go to. And I know it's a long way and it's huge travel, but I would think it's a lifetime experience going down there.

"And for the Australian fans, to see hockey played at the highest level, I think it's great for the game. I really do.

"I always thought it would catch on in Australia."

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Hockey has been played in Australia since the early 1900s, influenced by expats like Sandi Logan, a Canadian who settled there, played hockey there and was national secretary of the Australian Ice Hockey Federation from 1979-89.

Logan led the National Ice Hockey League, a six-team, semi-professional league that operated in 1980 and 1981 -- and drew a cease-and-desist letter from NHL President John Ziegler, who felt "NIHL" was too close to "NHL."

"I said, 'Really? You think this little, little, two-bit league in Australia is going to threaten the reputation of your brand?'" Logan said with a laugh. "I was secretary of the federation, I ran the league and I played in the league. That's how ridiculous it was.

"No, serious. I played left 'D.' I can send you some black-and-white pics from the day. But we needed everybody that could skate and could hit."

From anywhere.

"We brought in coaches, referees, and to some extent players, from Canada and the United States," Logan said. "There was no money in this. There was not a dime in this, not a nickel in this. This was all about, 'Come to Australia. Bring your skates, bring your game and find a way you can help us.'

"And so we attracted a lot of young graduates from universities across Canada and some of the United States, and Mike was one of them."

Johnston wanted to play with his friend, Ray Robertson, who played at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York from 1975-79 and was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the ninth round (No. 149) of the 1977 NHL Draft.

They found an opportunity with David Groeteman, better known as Dickie Mann in Australia. A Holocaust survivor, Mann played for the Netherlands at the 1950 IIHF World Championship, moved to Australia and made a major impact on hockey there as a player, leader and owner. He will drop the puck before the Coyotes and Kings play Sept. 23.

Mann was building a rink in Narrabeen that would be finished in a year, and he had a team in Newcastle, a couple hours up the coast. If Johnston and Robertson came to Australia, he would get them an apartment. They could play for Newcastle, and they could help him set up the new rink and a new team in Narrabeen.

The season would start soon. Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

"And so, although our families thought we were crazy, we decided that we would do that," Johnston said. "And that's how we got off to Australia."

* * * * *

Johnston and Robertson played for the Newcastle Northstars in 1980 and the Warringah Bombers in 1981, winning a championship with the Bombers. They coached and ran youth programs too.

"I didn't know how to coach, but I was forced into coaching," Johnston said. "And when you're in a country where they don't really know the game that well, you're viewed as an expert. And so, whatever you say, whatever you do, it's not going to be questioned like if I was coaching youth hockey in North America.

"At any level, at 21 years of age, people are going to question what you're doing. But there, they didn't. We had a free hand. With our pro team, we coached the guys the same age as us, a lot of our friends. But it was still a really good situation for a young guy. You're living on a surfing beach and working in hockey."

Each team was allowed six imports from overseas and relied upon them. Johnston brought some former Brandon teammates to Australia. But he said there were some good Australian players too, and the new rink in Narrabeen always was packed with about 1,000 fans.

"It was interesting how hockey was viewed in the country, because it's a fast, action sport," Johnston said. "I thought the Australian fans really took to it."

Johnston said he and his teammates would go to a local bar in Narrabeen after games. On the way in, they'd chat with the bouncers, who were rugby players.

"They would say, 'That's the craziest sport. You guys are the toughest guys in the world. You're skating around on steel blades and then you're whacking guys with sticks and hitting them,'" Johnston said. "They were looking at us like MMA guys, when we're looking at the rugby guys wearing no equipment, tackling people full-out."

Johnston returned home after the 1981 season, became coach at Camrose Lutheran College in Alberta and went on to coach university, junior, pro and international hockey. He was an assistant for Canada at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the first to include NHL players.

"I don't think I would have been prepared if I hadn't had Australia and the opportunity to kind of freelance there with youth hockey and with the pro hockey and really learn what coaching was about, and I enjoyed it, and it kind of piqued my interest," he said. "I was really excited about the potential of becoming a coach."

He has not been back to Australia, but still has friends there like Logan, and he still cares about the state of the sport there.

"It still hasn't grown to the level where it probably should have grown to," he said.

* * * * *

Australia went without a top league for a long time after the NIHL.

"There was a hiatus of probably 15 years before anyone dared try it again," said Logan, who has been a journalist, an author, a diplomat and a communications professional and now lives in Canberra, the capital of Australia. "I was running ice hockey from Papua New Guinea by '89. I was a diplomat by then, and I was on a posting, and I can tell you the only ice there is in your gin and tonic."

The semi-pro Australian Ice Hockey League formed with three teams in 2000. Two years later it expanded to six teams, including the modern version of the Newcastle Northstars. The league's championship trophy became the Goodall Cup, which had gone to the Australian state champion since 1909. The AIHL now has 10 teams.

Nathan Walker became the first Australian to play in the NHL when he debuted for the Washington Capitals on Oct. 7, 2017. Born in Cardiff, Wales, Walker grew up in Sydney and played hockey for the first time there. The forward had 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 56 games with the St. Louis Blues last season, and in six NHL seasons has 27 points (13 goals, 14 assists) in 111 games for the Capitals, Edmonton Oilers and Blues.

"There are many more of those possibilities in Australia," Logan said. "I have no doubt. This is a country that loves its sports. It loves action within its sports."

Now the NHL is building an ice rink on top of the tennis court at Rod Laver Arena, the home of the Australian Open, and thousands of fans will get to see the Coyotes and Kings.

"I think it's absolutely awesome," Logan said. "I think it's an incredibly brave and far-sighted, visionary thing that the NHL is doing. … This will be the highest-standard hockey any Australian will have ever had the chance to see live in Australia, and that, to me, is a really important thing."

Logan said it will make a difference to players and fans, and he hopes it will make a difference to facility operators around the country -- the key to the growth of the game there. Australia has 6,150 players and 20 indoor ice rinks, according to the IIHF. Some of the rinks -- even some AIHL rinks -- don't have glass. They use mesh instead.

"My hope is that it will also show facility operators that this can be done, and this is how you do it, and there is a return on the investment long term," he said. "You're not into this for a year or two. The NHL is not just doing this for today. The NHL is doing this with a vision for growing the game long term in the Southern Hemisphere, and good on them."

After that?

"That's up to us," he said. "That's up to the Aussies to make sure that they capitalize on their opportunity as well."