he started working on a song about the colourful coach<\/a>, known for some of his antics like plucking the toup\u00e9e off of the head of a referee during an argument and tossing a garbage can on the ice at Queen\u2019s Park Arena when he thought another official missed a tripping penalty.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/FNSports-260514-PunchMcLeanStatue-2w.jpg\")
SUBMITTED PHOTO \u00a0Former New Westminster Bruins\u2019 coach Ernie \u201cPunch\u201d McLean (centre) re-enacts his famous garbage can toss at Queen\u2019s Park Arena with the help of Craig Hodge, who captured the moment on film when he was a photographer at the old Columbian newspaper, during a recent gathering at the John B Pub in Coquitlam.<\/p>\n
McLean, who grew up in Estevan, Sask., was an accomplished player in his youth and earned an invitation to the New York Rangers\u2019 training camp when he was 17 years old.<\/p>\n
When McLean didn\u2019t make the team, he joined the Humboldt Indians of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League and eventually became its assistant coach.<\/p>\n
McLean was the head coach and co-owner of the Western Canadian Hockey League\u2019s Estevan Bruins when he decided in 1971 to move the team to New West, to become the league\u2019s first west coast franchise. He guided the Bruins for 14 seasons, winning the Memorial Cup national junior hockey championship in 1977 and 1978.<\/p>\n
Singh, who confessed he used to sneak into Queen\u2019s Park Arena as a youth to catch Bruins\u2019 games, said the atmosphere was often electric as nobody knew what might happen during the team\u2019s rough-and-tumble era when brawls involving every player on the ice frequently occurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a gong show,\u201d said Singh. \u201cIt was just waiting to explode.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the antics, McLean built a reputation for success. More than 100 players he coached went on to play in the NHL and the 1,067 games he was behind the bench still stands as the second most all-time in the Western Hockey League.<\/p>\n
One of McLean\u2019s players, defenseman Barry Beck, said his junior hockey coach was the reason he made it to the NHL.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis key to success was how he managed to get the utmost from every player,\u201d said Beck, who was part of three Bruins\u2019 Memorial Cup teams before going on to play 10 seasons in the NHL with the Colorado Rockies, New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings. \u201cEvery Bruin would have died for Ernie. That\u2019s how much he was loved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beck\u2019s former Bruins\u2019 teammate, Mark Lofthouse, added McLean \u201chad a blueprint to winning and each player felt they all had a significant role. He lived his life to the fullest.\u201d<\/p>\n
That included McLean\u2019s time away from the hockey rink which he often spent prospecting for gold in British Columbia\u2019s wilderness.<\/p>\n
In 2009, when McLean was 77 years-old, he went missing in the bush for four days and five nights without food or supplies after he tumbled into a ravine and got disoriented while climbing out.<\/p>\n
McLean was rescued when a helicopter pilot spotted him from the air as he walked along a trail.<\/p>\n
Longtime hockey commentator Jeff Marek said on X Saturday morning, \u201cThe stories of Punch will live forever, as will his memory in hockey.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\nTop photo: COLUMBIAN COMPANY FONDS\/NEW WESTMINSTER ARHCIVE Ernie \u201cPunch\u201d McLean coached the old New Westminster Bruins hockey team for 14 years, leading it to four Memorial Cup finals and two championships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Westminster hockey legend Ernie \u201cPunch\u201d McLean has died. McLean, who coached the old New Westminster Bruins junior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,222947,44,41,39,42,40,45043],"class_list":["post-658885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-new-westminster","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-tri-cities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}