It’s not a lot of fun to play against an Okotoks Bison with “McLean” on the nameplate.
Throw two of them in the mix and it’s a downright menacing evening for opposition with Okotoks bash brothers Robbie and Ryan McLean throwing their weight around on the same team.
“It’s a lot of fun being with the guy,” Robbie said. “He’s much more witty than me. He can make some big physical plays and verbally harass them as well.
“We definitely feed off each other with big hits and plays. He’s your brother so when he does something well, you get excited and vise versa.”
Though similar in stature and appearance being only one year apart, the brothers boast very unique personalities both on and off the ice.
Ryan, 19, has the gift of the gab in spades while Robbie, 20, is a little bit more of a gentle giant.
“They feed off each other,” said Bisons coach Blake Wildeman. “They’re completely different people. Ryan is loud and in your face and Robbie is more quiet and will run you over, so to speak.
“It’s an interesting dynamic.”
Robbie, listed at six-foot-three and over 270 pounds, is a well-known figure around the league in his third season with the herd. He’s coming off an absolutely dominant post-season in which he was named the Bisons playoff MVP in the spring and is one of three alternate captains on the squad.
“I’m just coming to play every game and trying to make the players around me better,” Robbie said. “It’s a new experience having more of a leadership role this year with new guys coming in and trying to do mentoring.
“The beginning of the season was a little shaky, but we’re starting to gel pretty well as a team and we should make a pretty good run.”
Also motivating the affable Okotokian is the loss of a former teammate.
Robbie was a good friend of former Bisons captain Zak Johns, who passed away in June in a tragic motorcycle accident.
“He was awfully close with Zak and he’s trying to play this year not only for himself, but for Zak,” Wildeman said. “That extra responsibility, he’s done pretty well with it.
“He’s a very interesting player because at any point he can change a game. He’s not going to shy away, he’s going to protect everybody in that room and then he’s offensively gifted.
“When he gets going it’s scary.”
Ryan, who fits more into the checking forward category, can be a scary figure along the walls while bearing down on defencemen on the forecheck or creating space for teammates in front of goal.
“Because of Ryan you get so much room to do what you want,” Robbie said. “If you don’t have the puck maybe they’re looking over their shoulder and you can play your game.”
The two played on the same line briefly together at the start of the season.
It may have been too much of a good thing.
“When we were playing together (on the same line) I wasn’t playing worth a damn,” Robbie said. “He was scoring all the goals and I was kind of a passenger.”
“It was sweet,” Ryan chimed in. “I scored before him and he was mad.”
Ryan, who played for the squad in the early stages of the 2015-16 season, has simplified his game and really emphasized the physicality.
When you’re six-foot-four and close to 250 pounds, that’s not a bad idea.
“Usually I’m the big guy, but now when I go to hit someone I’ve got another big guy. We can do anything out there,” Ryan said with a laugh. “Coming off not really playing last year I’m trying to play simple and try to get the boys going.
“I just really wanted to play with (Robbie) that was a big factor that drove me back. I’m really taking it all in this season. I’m probably not coming back next year and focusing on lacrosse.
“I’m just trying to get everything I can out of playing hockey with my brother.”
Ryan, a high level lacrosse player who competed in the Minto Cup in the summer with the Calgary Mountaineers, has shown an ability to adapt to whatever has been thrown at him.
“He’s played some defence, some forward. His versatility has been pretty helpful for us,” Wildeman said. “He keeps it light and has the ability to get under people’s skin. Just being big is a bonus. Nobody knows if you’re a Teddy bear or not, they just know that you’re six-four plus and weigh 250 pounds and nobody really wants to try that out.”
The opposition in the Heritage might now know them, but there are hardly any high-level hockey players from the Foothills who haven’t skated on a team or against one of the McLeans at one point or another.
They’re a huge reason for Okotoks’ considerable team toughness and giants when it comes to the creating the current culture around the team.
“The fact the whole room has played with those guys, here or there, because they’re so close in age, it helps the guys gel,” Wildeman said. “There isn’t a guy in that room that’s going to tell you they haven’t laughed hard at Ryan’s jokes.
“They’re having a good time, they’re enjoying hockey right now, you’re seeing guys smiling and that’s why we play this game.”
The smiles only grew wider for the Bisons on the weekend.
The team extended its unbeaten run to six games with a pair of home victories over divisional foes.
First, the McLeans combined for three goals as Okotoks edged the Banff Bears by a 6-2 score on Friday. The Bisons then dispatched the Medicine Hat Cubs 5-3 on Sunday behind one goal, two-point efforts from leading scorer Josh McCulloch and hard-nosed defenceman Taylor McNeill.
Okotoks is back at the Murray Arena on Dec. 9 for a date with the Coaldale Copperheads prior to a home-and-home set with the Strathmore Wheatland Kings which wraps up Dec. 11 in Okotoks.
For more information go to okotoksbisons.com
