'Let’s go have some fun': Behind the scenes with Cincinnati Cyclones coach Jason Payne

Cincinnati Cyclones head coach Jason Payne skates onto the ice at the Heritage Bank Center at 10 a.m. for the start of practice, and he’s firing shots on net a few minutes later.

The 48-year-old played 14 years of professional hockey, and Payne enjoys giving reminders of that to his players. During practice on game days, he rotates into different drills, smacks slap shots at the goalie and tries to set forwards up with perfect assists.

During one drill, Payne stepped in to take a slap shot. He whiffed, and few players bumped shoulders with Payne to have fun with the moment. A few minutes later, Payne gets a shot at redemption and scores. He pumps his fist and sticks a pose with a big celebration as he skates down the ice.

“The way I relate my message is through the fact that it’s about all of us understanding each other,” Payne said. “That’s how you build a connection with a team. I wouldn’t ask my players to do something I wouldn’t do. That goes on and off the ice.”

Seven hours later, the players pile into the coach’s office. Payne splits it with assistant coach Chad MacLeod, who “is like a brother” to Payne and has known him since he was 8 years old.

The office has two desks, two office chairs, a couch, one more seat, a coffee maker and a flat-screen television. Heading into a game on Jan. 26 against the first-place Toledo Walleye, the group of players that’s on the ice for power plays and penalty kills previews the situations they’re expecting that night.

Three players squeeze onto the couch, and another gets the chair. The rest find spaces to sit on the floor or real estate to stand up leaning against the back wall. They wear their Cyclones t-shirts, socks and sandals and drink styrofoam cups of water.

All eyes are on the television in the left corner of the room, and the attention to detail will end up paying off later that night.

Payne presents from his desk and toggles through plays from the previous matchup between the Cyclones and the Walleye. Each play on the scoreboard has a chyron with a corresponding lesson.

Payne reinforces those lessons as he reviews each play.

“You guys were dialed in,” Payne says, reviewing a 5-1 win. “Rewatching it, it’s all because we’re connected.”

Payne stresses that the Cyclones have to stay aggressive in power play situations. He cues up a play.

“Find your lane,” Payne says. “Run your routes. Push them deep. Good shot by Pistol. That’s our plan. Take your shots. Don’t give them time to set up. Keep them running. Let it fly”

Payne moves onto the next play that resulted in a missed shot on goal. “Attack off the rush, and opportunities will present themselves. You attacked the net. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

As the meeting ends, Payne pumps his fist and says, “Now let’s go have some fun.”

Payne goes through his routine before every game, which provides some consistency in a league where that’s difficult to find. The Cyclones’ roster faces a lot of turnover during the year. Payne is coaching everyone from 20-year-old prospects in the New York Rangers organization (the Cyclones' NHL affiliate) to a 34-year-old forward to players he brings in midseason to fill a need on the roster.

“Coach Payne is a genuine man,” MacLeod said. “He lives his life with his heart on his sleeve. He’s loyal, and he’ll go to war for you. He’s a players’ coach, and he can relate to them because he went through the grind himself. There are a lot of call-ups in our league. He’s the type of guy who will have us play short-handed so two or three guys can get called up.”

Payne gets his message to the team through these meetings, through the white board in the locker room and through jokes that he makes a point to mix in throughout the day. He believes that laughter is “the remedy to everything.”

Moments like a missed shot in practice help him connect with the team. If he can break down the players’ misses, they get to do the same with him.

Payne sees the place for a well-timed joke. He says some players aren’t eager about lifting weights. So Payne pops into the weight room, impresses them with his heavy bench press and quips, “I still got it.”

Payne takes a lot of pride in updating the white board. In one section, there are a few diagramed plays. On another part of the white board, Payne writes down some keys to the game.

Some of the keys are simple. “Hit and finish. Stay out of the penalty box.”

Others are more specific to the game against the Walleye. They stress taking advantage of the first touch when you get the puck, moving the puck quickly and staying focused.

“We just have to play disciplined and stick to our structure,” Payne said. “Where we get into a funk is when we don’t stick to our game plan and play a different style of hockey. Not the Cyclone way of hockey. When we stick to our structure and stay out of the penalty box, we usually have a high success rate.”

For Payne, game days last from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. First thing in the morning, he cuts up all the video and prepares the presentations that he’ll make over the course of the day. He spends hours going through film he turns into a digestible 10-minute breakdown to the team. He works side-by-side with MacLeod in a small office, and you wouldn’t be able to tell which desk belongs to the head coach and which desk belongs to the assistant.

Next up is the morning skate. Players report around 9, and they’re on the ice for practice at 10. They go through the same set of drills almost every day, and they reinforce passing, communication and an aggressive style of play.

After practice wraps up, Payne stays behind to work with a small group of players who aren’t expected to see the ice that night. It turns into a private lesson where Payne coaches them up on their technique.

“Everything is about these players,” Payne said. “I want to focus on fine details in their games that can help them be just a little bit more efficient. I’m coaching 30 guys. It can be hard to isolate everyone and have time to work with them. But I always try to find that time for them.”

Payne spends the rest of the morning finalizing the points he wants to get across in the team’s series of pregame meetings. He has designated times before every game to break down their approach toward power plays and the approach to defending when the other team is on a power play.

Those meetings are one of the final messages that Payne gives the team before the game starts.

The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. As Payne coaches the team during the game, he’s writing thoughts down in a notebook to help him prepare for the next matchup between these teams.

The best part of the grind is when Payne sees reminders about what all the work is gearing toward. Stories like the player who was ready to retire before Payne told him that he believed in him and went on to become an All-Star. Or the third-string goalie who became a starter and worked his way into a promotion to a higher league. Or games like coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs.

Payne got another one of those moments on Jan. 26 with a win over Toledo. Cyclones forward Zack Andrusiak scored the game-winning goal on a power play in overtime.

The Cyclones had another game against the Walleye the next day, and the routine started all over again.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Behind the scenes with Cincinnati Cyclones head coach Jason Payne