In the middle of last March, when the Islanders faced the Senators, Kyle MacLean went looking for Bob Jones.
It had been a while since MacLean had talked with his old coach from juniors — they’d texted on occasion, but that was about it — and MacLean, who’d gone undrafted during his time with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals, was now with the Islanders and having some success.
This would’ve been a nice moment to share in it and reminisce with Jones, an assistant coach with the Senators.
But MacLean couldn’t find Jones, who died in August of ALS at age 54.
Though he’d remained on Ottawa’s staff after being diagnosed with the disease in December 2022, Jones scaled back his role during the last few months of last season.
MacLean didn’t get the chance to see him that night.
“I wish I did keep in touch with him more,” MacLean told The Post. “Text here, phone call here and there. Jonesy, he was a good coach.”
Thursday night’s match in Ottawa was MacLean’s first time there as an NHLer, and naturally, the man who coached him as a young junior player popped into his head.
“I had him when I was 16, 17 [years old],” MacLean said. “When you’re developing in your career, that’s pretty much the start of it. So he was my coach my first [three] years. Taught me a lot about developing my game. Helped me to figure out how to play defensively, PK, things like that.
“When you’re young, it’s good to have [someone] — I felt like he was always in my corner, too. And he was always looking out for me to help my career.”
Though Jones had some health issues unrelated to ALS that kept him away from the team for parts of MacLean’s third season, the two overlapped from 2015-18 in Oshawa — a span over which MacLean went from a 16-year-old fighting for playing time to one of the team’s assistant captains.
Junior hockey is the sort of social experiment that can go spectacularly wrong (and indeed, has at times).
Taking a bunch of teenagers, having them live with billet families and be something approaching full-time hockey players comes with a unique set of challenges.
Jones, who spent most of his career in the OHL — working primarily for the Soo Greyhounds, Sudbury Wolves and Windsor Spitfires before Oshawa — was well-equipped to get his kids through it.
“He’d come in the theater room, video room, maybe after a loss or something and start with a joke to lighten the mood a little bit,” MacLean said. “He’s a tough coach as well. Definitely scary at times, but it was nice seeing that side of him as well to lighten the mood and keep the guys together.”
The news of Jones’ diagnosis became public in January 2023 and rocked the hockey world.
The Senators wore helmet decals honoring him and Jones spoke publicly about ALS to raise awareness of the disease.
“It happened to me and it’s a horrible disease,” Jones said in a sit-down interview with Sportsnet at the time. “But we’re creating awareness and we’re gonna get a cure one day. And we just gotta think positive. … We have to find a cure one day.”
MacLean never did get the chance to revel in his out-of-nowhere entrance into the Islanders lineup, his newly signed NHL contract or his strong playoff performance last season with Jones.
He knows, though, there is a line to be drawn from those first few years in junior to now, and that Jones helped to trace it.
“He was a great coach,” MacLean said. “He was really good for me and my development. So definitely have him in my thoughts.”
