Laviolette-Bylsma is a Non-Issue
Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette has been named an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. With all the predictable and inevitable focus on the interactions between Laviolette and head coach Dan Bylsma and fellow assistant Tony Granato, there are more interesting angles that are being overlooked.
The Sochi Games will actually be Laviolette's fourth Olympics but second as a coach. Before there was NHL participation in the Olympics, Laviolette was a defenseman for Team USA at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.
Laviolette was still playing collegiate hockey at Westfield State College when he earned a spot on the team that had unenviable (and unsuccessful) task of trying to follow up the Miracle on Ice squad from the 1980 Games in Lake Placid. Four years later, after a stint in the International Hockey League, Laviolette spent a year touring with the US National Team, playing in assorted international tournaments, including the Olympics.
In 2006, Laviolette served as Team USA's head coach at the Turin Games. The Americans finished a disappointing sixth, getting eliminated by Finland in the medal round quarterfinals.
Another interesting angle on Laviolette's selection to the Olympics -- one that the Flyers hope will be a non-issue come February -- is that his NHL job security could be tenuous this year if Philly struggles in the standings the way they did last season. If the Flyers play well, the struggles of the lockout-shortened season will be forgotten. If the team runs into trouble in the first half, there is at least a possibility that someone else could be behind the Flyers bench by the time the NHL breaks for the Olympics.
Also of note in the selection of the Olympic coaching staff, which also includes Columbus' Todd Richards and Pittsburgh assistant coach Tony Granato, is the omission of John Tortorella from the staff after the more mild-mannered Bylsma beat him out for the head coaching candidacy. The often-controversial Tortorella, who is the winningest American-born coach in NHL history (Laviolette is second), was last with the U.S. national team in 2008-09, where he replaced Laviolette. Tortorella was the American team's head coach at the 2008 World Championships and served as an assistant to Ron Wilson the following year.
As for the April 1, 2012, incident in Pittsburgh, which saw an enraged Laviolette hollering at Bylsma and Granato and, ultimately, standing up on the thin partition between the benches to exchange heated words with Granato, all I can is these things happen in the heat of battle in hockey. If no two players or coaches who ever had a physical or verbal altercation at ice level could later work together on the same side, there wouldn't be many people able to stay in the sport.
The Flyers-Penguins rivalry is intense and Laviolette has a fiery disposition, anyway. Those things won't change. But when it comes time for the Olympics, the men involved on the coaching side will have zero trouble shifting gears and working side-by-side. As soon as the Olympics are over, they'll find it equally easy to "hate" each other once again.
Away from the rink, Laviolette and Granato are actually old friends. Laviolette and Granato played both as teammates and opponents from childhood and grew close. Laviolette attended Granato's wedding, and the two men still remain on good terms despite the strain of the professional rivalry that comes from working for two teams that despise one another on the ice.
It's the nature of hockey that friends (sometimes even relatives) wind up doing fierce battle on the ice, chide and trash talk, and then resume their personal relationship after the game or during the offseason. I've seen brothers drop the gloves and fight on the ice -- the Primeaus, for instance -- and it didn't mean they started hating each other off the ice any more than some old battle they had in the family car as kids ruins their relationship as grownups.
Bylsma and Laviolette are not as close personally. However, comments Bylsma has made about Laviolette -- such as getting together with Granato and turning photos of Granato's wedding around so he won't have to look at Laviolette in the picture -- are meant to be tongue-in-cheek. While he'll probably never be buddy-buddy with Laviolette, Bylsma and Penguins general manager Ray Shero have their share of friends and acquaintances on the Philadelphia side. They can often be spotted in the hallway after games, exchanging pleasantries with people ranging from ex-Penguins forward Max Talbot to assorted Flyers personnel who are downstairs after the game.
The very fact that Bylsma selected Laviolette for his Olympic staff, in conjunction with Team USA/ Nashville Predators general manager David Poile and with input from Granato, shows there is at bare minimum a healthy respect level between Bylsma and Laviolette. Both men are competitors who burn to win. They just go about it with different styles.
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Former Flyers forward Ian Laperriere, now the organization's Director of Player Development, will be participating in the Ironman Mont-Tremblant: North American Championship on August 18. Apart from competing in the triatholon, Lappy is raising funds for a variety of charitable causes: the IRONMAN Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation and Go4theGoal Foundation- Tunes4Teens. Laperriere has set a $10,000 fundraising goal. For more information or to make a donation,
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