There are few accomplishments as prestigious as winning a Memorial Cup Championship. At TCS Live 2024, Chris Lazary, Head Coach of the Saginaw Spirit, sat down with John Morosi to talk about Saginaw’s remarkable 2024 Memorial Cup victory against the London Knights.

Morosi is an American sportswriter and reporter. Since 2016 he has been an on-air personality with MLB Network, including the flagship studio show MLB Tonight. Morosi is also a columnist for MLB.com, as well as an on-air reporter for both FOX Sports and FS1. In addition to his Major League Baseball duties, Morosi is a reporter for NHL Network. He knows how to conduct an in-depth interview featuring takeaways for everyone, as you'll see!

Before capturing the 2024 Memorial Cup Championship, it was not smooth sailing for Lazary and the Saginaw Spirit. After a disappointing start to the season, Lazary felt he was quickly losing his job as the Spirit’s bench boss. However, rather than letting frustration get the best of himself and his team, Lazary and the Spirit chose to embrace the struggle and come together as one to work through their challenges. Taking the time to open up to his players and share emotions proved to be a turning point in the Spirit's season as the team would experience tremendous success down the stretch and earn the opportunity to compete for a Memorial Cup.

After being knocked out in the OHL playoffs, Lazary crafted a strategic plan to help prepare his team for the Memorial Cup with their three weeks of preparation. After giving his group a week to get away from the game, Lazary used the final two weeks of practice to focus on creating drills that added random pressure in all situations of the ice. Doing outside-of-the-box drills in practice and feeling pressure from all areas on the ice allowed the Spirit to be calm and confident all over the ice at game speed. Lazary described the final two weeks of practice as ones that incorporated high attention to detail and high pace, which loosened his team up for their championship run. 

In the Memorial Cup Championship Final, Lazary’s Spirit faced off against a team they had struggled against in the OHL season, the London Knights. Before puck drop Lazary recalled focusing on his team’s preparation, envisioning the plays they were capable of making, while also nodding along to an AC/DC song. Led by two 1st period goals from Montreal draft pick Owen Beck, Saginaw found itself up 3-1 going into the 3rd period. This is when Lazary admitted he made a coaching error by switching the Spirit’s forecheck to a 1-1-3 system, which alleviated the pressure up front on the Knights defenceman. Led by two high level plays by top 10 consensus 2024 draftee Sam Dickinson, the Knights stormed back to tie the game.

This is where Lazary said his group's leadership really shined through by keeping the energy and intensity up.

In a back and forth 3rd period, a failed clear put the puck on Jorian Donovan’s stick who put the puck on net and Josh Bloom cleaned up the trash giving Sagniaw a 4-3 lead with 21.7 seconds remaining. In the midst of his jumping celebration all Lazary said he could think about was that London was going to somehow score. They did not and Saginaw was crowned Memorial Cup Champions. A truly remarkable story led by one the game’s most passionate coaches.

Noteworthy timestamps:

• 0:50 Tough start to a season
• 3:00 Handling adversity
• 5:15 Working with new team  additions
• 8:30 Before/beginning of the Memorial Cup
• 12:30 Start of the Final
• 14:40 Owen Beck’s opening goal
• 16:15 Second Beck goal on PP
• 18:00 Wallace third goal
• 20:30 London responds
• 24:10 Pressure causes problems
• 27:30 Sam Dickinson-Easton Cowan goal
• 29:35 Allowing the tying goal
• 33:50 London’s game winning chance
• 37:50 Bloom winning goal
• 43:20 Josh Bloom story