Barski and Bison gear up for first season

Image courtesy of Bloomingtonbisonhockey.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. —Newly appointed Bloomington Bison Head Coach and General Manager Phil Barski spoke at the Bloomington City Council meeting on Monday night.

Barski stressed the difficulty of having a new inaugural team in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) be successful in their first season. He provided a game plan to rise to the challenge.

“Historically, if you look in the ECHL, the expansion team’s have not done well in their inaugural season,” Barski said. “The one thing we want to differentiate ourselves from those other teams is with the use of analytics and our coaching staff.”

Before taking on the role of coach, Barski played at Bowling Green State University and the University of Calgary before injuries ended his playing days. Despite this, he kept his spirt for the game alive, entering coaching season number 15 with experience in Canadian, European and American hockey leagues.

In the off season, the Bison added Jesse Messier as an Assistant Coach and Dan Larmer as an Assistant GM to compliment Barski. As of May 30, the Bloomington Bison have signed with the New York Rangers as an NHL affiliate. An official team rostered has not been released.

“We thought we did a very nice job of identifying players who’s skill would transfer into our league. That allowed us to go after proven, high-end ECHL players for our group,” Barski said. “We’ve tried to shoulder the responsibility with some really competent people to have a different outcome. We do expect to be very competitive in our first season.”

The Bison will drop the puck on October 19 at at 7 p.m. at Grossinger Motors Arena, where they will host the Toledo Walleye.