Bloomington Blaze face setback as head coach resigns

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Bloomington Blaze announced on Tuesday that head coach Jason Christie has resigned. Christie, 42, has been hired as the new head coach of the ECHL’s Ontario Reign, replacing Karl Taylor who stepped down two weeks ago to take an assistant coaching position with the American Hockey League’s Chicago Wolves, a position Christie held for two seasons (2008-10).

“I’m very excited for the opportunity to coach the Reign and be part of the Los Angeles Kings organization,” Christie said in a press relase. “My goal is to bring a winning atmosphere to the team and get this club to the playoffs.” Christie leaves the Bloomington area after leading the former Bloomington PrairieThunder to the Central Hockey League playoffs last season with a 37-22-7 record and a third place finish in the Central Hockey League’s Turner Conference. The PrairieThunder were dispatched in the opening round of the playoffs (their first trip to the post-season in five years), but for their efforts, they earned the CHL’s “Hardest Working Team” honors and Christie was named the CHL’s Coach of the Year. “We thank Jason for his efforts to date and wish him all the best with his new position,” Blaze owner Gary DelBuono said. “We have already begun a national search to find Jason’s replacement and expect to move quickly to fill the position.” A former right wing, Christie played for nine seasons split between the ECHL, AHL, and IHL before he retired as a player after leading the 1999-00 Peoria Rivermen to an ECHL championship as a player/assistant coach and assisted on the game-winning overtime goal which allowed the team to hoist the Kelly Cup in victory. He became the team’s head coach the following season. During his tenure as head coach for the Rivermen (2000-05), Christie coached in the ECHL All-Star game in 2001 and again in 2004. His 217 victories in five seasons in Peoria are the most in Rivermen history in the IHL, ECHL and AHL. He was inducted into the Rivermen Hockey Hall of Fame last November. Christie also coached the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies from 2005-08. During his time in the ECHL, Christie posted seven winning seasons in eight years and qualified for the ECHL playoffs in six of those eight seasons. His overall coaching record in the ECHL was 307-203-66. Despite playing regularly to capacity crowds, the Reign are coming off back-to-back last-place finishes in the ECHL’s Western Conference. Reign President Justin Kemp believes Christie is absolutely the best man to coach the team up and out of that position. “Getting a coach of Jason’s stature in such a short time frame is a major coup for this organization.” Kemp said. “He is a proven winner who has been successful in this type of situation before and one we feel will be able to step right in and help us achieve the goals we’ve set for ourselves. We’re very excited to get this season underway and work toward bringing a Kelly Cup Championship to Ontario.” Christie will have less than six weeks before training camp opens to complete the task of building his roster for the 2011-12 season. He managed a similar situation well when he came to Bloomington after Jerrold Skalde departed abruptly to take the head coach position with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones. Meanwhile, Christie leaves the Blaze with just six players signed (the fewest in the league), including goaltender Marco Emond, defensemen Mark Znutas and Aaron Dawson and forwards Jon Booras and Brodie Sheahan. With little time remaining before training camps open, the Blaze have a substantial challenge before them, but as history has shown, hockey in Bloomington has a way of surviving all sorts of challenges. Contact the writer/photographer at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com