UPDATED 12:40 PM AFTER PRESS CONFERENCE
Here are my early notes and impressions from the webcast, with additional notes from the press conference added after that:
Benning certainly won't outrace Linden in the charisma/media-friendly department, but at this point the two seem like they're quite united in their thinking and will be working closely together.
Key points:
- This is new. Where Linden talked before about "a contract is a contract," Benning didn't waffle even a little on the possibility of asking players to waive their no-trade clauses. Benning says they'll do the beset thing for the organization but "if we feel we can make the team better, we won't be afraid to approach players and ask them to waive."
- That being said, Benning admits that while he hasn't spoken to Ryan Kesler yet, he really likes the way Kesler plays and if it's up to him, he'd like him to stay with the team.
- Goaltending. Sounds to me like we'll start the season with Lack and Markstrom. I was relieved to hear that Jaroslav Halak signed a four-year deal with the Islanders yesterday, taking one of Rollie Melanson's favourite goaltenders out of the running in free agency. Benning talked about how Eddie Lack had a good rookie season and they'll look for him to take another step next year.
Trevor told an interesting story from his time in Montreal during 1999-2000, when Melanson was the goaltending coach with the Canadiens. At that time, Jeff Hackett was Montreal's starter and the team had a raw "unstructured" rookie in Jose Theodore. Linden talked about how Melanson was able to bring Theodore's game along—to a Hart and Vezina Trophy level by 2002.
That's a pretty impressive anecdote, and I appreciate the fact that it's something that Linden saw first hand.
- Playing style. The vision that both men are laying out sounds terrific, in abstract. A four-line team that's defensively responsible but not afraid to pressure and attack offensively. There was a question about whether they thought they had the players to execute this style, but I think they might have side-stepped that one.
- The "Boston Model." I think Benning's going to try to get that phrase out of the lexicon, but he did talk about how the team's objectives were to make the playoffs every year, then start integrating young players into the mix, leading to a culture of sustainable winning. Again, sounds pretty appealing.
FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE:
As expected, the press conference hit a lot of the same notes as the webcast—especially when Joey Kenward jumped in to make sure that Linden re-told the Jose Theodore story from Montreal.
I started to smile every time Benning said "hard work" with relation to his approach to the job, and began wondering if we'd ever heard that phrase come out of the mouths of either John Tortorella or Mike Gillis. Anybody?
Even in his final months on the job, Torts was still referring to Anaheim and Los Angeles as the teams "out west," so it was great to hear Benning specifically reference the fact that the Canucks play in "maybe the toughest division in the league" and that they'll need to build a team that can handle the Kings, the Ducks and the Sharks. That's one early point for awareness.
Benning may not know what the "Boston Model" is, but when he talked about building up the size and grit of the third and fourth lines, that sure did sound like a Bruins-style team. He admitted that they've only had preliminary discussions so far about how, exactly, they'll try to make roster changes for next year, but it certainly sounds like the plan is to build around the current core. From that core, he called Ryan Kesler "a warrior" and says he plans to talk to him during the next week to find out where his head is at.
These sorts of changes are easier said than done, but Benning says he believes that the team can be turned around fairly quickly because he believes in the quality of the core guys who are in place.
Benning also said explicitly that the coach they hire does *not* necessarily have to have NHL experience, but has to be a proven winner at all levels. That, plus the longer timeline that Linden is indicating in the coach-hiring process, would seem to bode well for Willie Desjardins. His Texas Stars will start their series against the Toronto Marlies tonight, so Desjardins won't be available for at least a couple more weeks.
When asked about the job security of the current management team, Linden waffled a bit. He said he "felt strongly about the people in place," but that Jim would shape the group. When Benning talked about the group, he mentioned Stan Smyl and Lorne Henning, but didn't namecheck Laurence Gilman. Oversight, or sign of things to come?
Overall, I rate the performance of both Linden and Benning quite strongly in terms of delivering the message that the new on-ice product will be what fans want to see. But as we know, there can be a big gap in the NHL between vision and execution. Everybody wants to achieve the same goals.
I imagine the next couple of weeks will be pretty quiet as the group heads to Toronto for the scouting combine, then on to the scouting meetings in Whistler in the second week of June. For now, mission accomplished: selling hope.