McBains mine their time with new team

Thursday, Oct. 16, 2003 | 10:30 a.m.

Jason and Mike McBain, defensemen who are brothers and were the first players signed by the fledgling Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL.

Jason McBain

Mike McBain

The blue-collar backbone of the new Las Vegas Wranglers is a brother duo with roots in the largest lead and zinc mine in the world.

Jason and Mike McBain both grew up in Kimberley, British Columbia, where their father, Dale, and grandfather toiled for Cominco Ltd. in the mineral-rich Sullivan Mine.

Dale's father, Keith, whom everyone called "Coug," contracted a rare and lethal form of lupus from his life-long work in that mine and succumbed to the disease in 1988.

Both Dale and Coug often found themselves climbing 100-foot heights on rope ladders, ultimately standing on an area barely wide enough to hold both feet and working a 150-pound Stoper drill into the earth, lit only by a head lamp.

"Coug took great pride in his work as a miner, as did Dale," said Eileen McBain, Dale's wife and Jason and Mike's mother. "It was a status symbol to be a conventional miner and not mechanical, working with big levers and just sitting there.

"Conventional miners went in there with Stopers on their back, with a light, and drilled by hand. You were revered and looked up to."

Almost 20 years ago, the Canadian government sponsored a series in which 10 cities were highlighted in 15- or 17-minute "This Is My Home" movie clips. Jason McBain was picked to narrate the sixth one, which focused on Kimberley.

The production crew followed Jason around Kimberley, filming him in school, at hockey practice and talking with Coug, Dale, Eileen and Mike, and other city officials and residents.

"They picked him because, first, his grandfather and father worked in the same mine and, second, because Jason communicated very well when he was young," said Eileen McBain. "It was cool."

Two Decembers ago, staggering costs forced Cominco to close Sullivan Mine. The city with the breathtaking Alpine-like views made a smooth transition to recreational activities and tourism as its economic foundation.

Dale McBain has since found surveillance work in The Casino of the Rockies in the Kimberley area.

"He worked hard all day. When he came home, he had to relax," Jason said of his father. "As far as hockey, both of our parents gave it 100 percent and sacrificed, and we definitely appreciate what they did for us."

More than once, when Mike was 3 or 4, Dale put the left skate on his youngest son's right foot, and vice versa. Mike said nothing.

"I was too scared to tell him," Mike said. "But I think that helped me, being able to go through adversity."

Jason and Mike always laugh when they talk about watching the movie "Slapshot" with their father, who played most of his minor-league career in the defunct, and legendary, Eastern Hockey League.

Many of Dale's former teammates, and opponents, had roles in that epic hockey slapstick flick.

"You talk about embellishing things," said Jason, 29. "It's just non-stop. 'I knew this guy,' or, 'We did this' and 'We did that.' Aww, man, you don't hear the end of it. It's really funny to see hockey like that and listen to him. He could go on for hours."

The brothers were the first players to ink contracts with the Wranglers, the fledgling ECHL franchise that plays its first game Friday night in Boise, Idaho, and its first home game, at the Orleans Arena, against Bakersfield on Tuesday.

The highlight of their careers arrived in their first NHL games.

Jason was with Springfield in the American Hockey League when Hartford sent for him during the 1995-96 season. The Whalers played Boston, whose trademark black-and-gold uniforms weren't a big deal to McBain.

"Because we had played the Providence Bruins in the AHL," he said, "and they had the same jerseys."

During a stretch on the bench, however, it was a big deal to McBain when Ray Bourque of the Bruins skated by and stopped, only a few feet from the older McBain.

"He was standing on the ice right in front of me," McBain said. "I was like, 'OK, this is weird.' Then, it set in. That was the moment in time, probably the coolest thing in hockey for me and I wasn't even on the ice.

"But it was the neatest thing, to see a guy I had watched since I was a kid and respected to the highest level as a player and a person. To be that close to him, a legend. To be there, at that point in time ... that was it."

Mike, 26, was playing for Adirondack in the AHL when Tampa Bay rang for him, for a game against the Washington Capitals in Florida, in 1997-98.

"I remember getting that phone call," he said. "A million things go through your mind. I got down there and played pretty well, for the nerves going through my body. They told me to stick around for a couple of months.

"That was definitely the highlight."

That general manager and coach Glen Gulutzan made the McBains the first Wranglers was a hallmark move, which instantly injected the first-year team with a double dose of character and chemistry.

Both Jason and Mike said those were the qualities that carried the team in come-from-behind victories in its two exhibition games last weekend.

"Hard work is No. 1," said Jason, who teamed with Gulutzan in Fresno to win a West Coast Hockey League title two seasons ago. "I think we have a highly skilled team, but the most important thing is to work hard. Those are the teams that win championships."

The McBains are looking forward to playing for the Wranglers for seasons to come after they have combined to move a total of two dozen times, at least, in their careers.

For Mike, that included a two-year stint in England. For Jason, it entailed a couple of seasons in Germany and some ice time in Sweden.

Both have set down roots in Las Vegas, which Jason did in '98-99 when he played for the Las Vegas Thunder of the International Hockey League and bought a home in Henderson.

A few months ago, he relocated to the north end of town, and Mike moved in.

"I have three kids," Jason said. "Four, with him living with me."

"I'm the built-in baby-sitter," Mike said.

Mike bought a home of his own three weeks ago, a three-minute drive from Jason's, and will move into it in about a month.

"Then I'll get out of his hair," Mike said. "But I'll still be baby-sitting all the time."

Both are content to have quit chasing the NHL dream and lottery-like dollars, in exchange for stability and helping younger players set, and achieve, their own goals.

"I'm looking forward to being here and just having fun, getting back to the basics of hockey and not worrying every day if you'll get traded or sent down," Mike said. "We're just going to go out and play the game the way it's supposed to be played."