|
Musings and Quick Hits: Dim the Lights, Emotion Quotient, Phantoms, CHL |
|
|
|
|
|
DIM THE LIGHTS
Today's blog is being written in an otherwise empty press room overlooking a vacant and darkened rink at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ. Tim Saunders, Jim Jackson, Steve Coates and I just concluded a 30-minute season-wrapup edition of the Broadcasters' Roundtable podcast for Flyers Radio 24/7. Earlier today, I wrote for Philadelphiaflyers.com some takeaways from the exit interview sessions with the Flyers players on Wednesday and with head coach Dave Hakstol and Ron Hextall on Thursday.
The last few days and even this morning were a whirlwind of activity following the Flyers ouster in Game 6 of their first-round series with the Pittsburgh Penguins. It is only now that the fact that the offseason has begun for the NHL team -- the Phantoms and several top Flyers junior prospects are still playing in their respective league playoffs -- is starting to sink in. It will be four-plus months until the Flyers officially reconvene for training camp, and five months until there's another regular season NHL game to cover.
To be honest, it's not a good feeling. In the weeks to come, I will write a series of blogs on individual Flyers players and head coach Dave Hakstol, team needs over the offseason, previews of potential NHL Draft candidates and all the usual off-season fare. First, though, I think a little bit of distance from the season is in order.
First up will be blogs that focus largely on the Phantoms' Calder Cup playoff run and the CHL prospects during their league championship rounds and the Memorial Cup (there is already guaranteed to be a Flyers prospect representing the Ontario Hockey League champion in the Memorial Cup, as all three remaining teams in the playoffs have a Flyers draftee on the roster).
*************
The 'Emotion Quotient'
When I start my series of individually focused blogs next week, one of the first will be my take on Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol. If he were a player, I'd describe him as a promising one who has ups and downs in his first three NHL years but has held his own overall with potential (and most definitely the work ethic and hockey smarts) to further improve. That doesn't mean there are no weaknesses to address.
One topic I want to touch on now, though, is "the emotion quotient," and the subject of whether a coach needs to be demonstrative on the bench to be effective. While I do believe that a team often takes on the personality of its coach, I do not for one second buy into the idea that a coach needs to put on a show in public to fire up a team.
One of the best coaches in hockey history, Fred Shero, was far from a bundle of energy and hellfire behind the bench. In terms of behind-the-scenes communications, he preferred to do in writing or in brief, straight-to-the-point sessions if direct verbal dialogue was needed. One of the least effective and most disorganized coaches in Flyers history, Bob McCammon, was a constant talker and frequent screamer.
Then again, Mike Keenan coached through belittlement and intimidation and it worked for him. Peter Laviolette is a go-go-go type of intense. Ken Hitchcock is jolly with the media most of the time, cutting, sardonic and relentless with players. Terry Simpson hardly spoke at all and very few of the players who played under him in Philadelphia for one season retained many memories of him at all. He was here, often dour but not obtrusive, and then he was gone.
Point is: Every coach has his own personality, and in and of itself, there is not a "right" personality type or a wrong one. While Hakstol may seem generally non-reactive on the bench, his players say he is much more intense behind closed doors.
Ultimately, that's not what will someday make his tenure in Philadelphia either a successful, mixed or unsuccessful one. It's going to be whether the team builds on the current season and navigates from what is still a transitional phase (hopefully one nearing the late stages, but still a work in progress) into the goal of returning to contender status for the long term.
To those who long for a return to "old-school coaching" with a tough-talking coach being a specific means to an end, I'll close this section of the blog with a story Broad Street Bullies era Flyers forward Don Saleski told me in 2014 -- previously relayed to Jim Jackson in his "Walking Together Forever" retrospective on the 1970s Flyers -- about the difference of his experiences playing for the reticent Shero and for that paragon of "tough, Canadian hockey", Grapes.
"I don't remember Freddie ever really raising his voice and yelling. He didn't have to. If he wasn't happy with you, you'd know about it. He could be pretty tough on you when he had to be, but he didn't yell. We all respected Freddie so much. We all knew what our role was on the team. Freddie knew how to get the best of his players, prepare his team to play, and adjust things when he needed to. That's why he won championships at every level.
With Don Cherry, when I was in Colorado, it was just the opposite. We didn't have a good team. So, in fairness, there was only so much any coach could do with our roster. But Don didn't know how to coach, and that made it worse.
Freddie was really good at strategy and handling players. He knew how to coax his players. He got us to understand exactly what he expected from us. Then he let us do our thing. Freddie had a great mind for hockey -- very detailed -- and he was a pretty complicated man, but he kept things simple for us. That was a big thing.
All Don knew how to do was yell. He would ridicule his players nonstop to try to hide the fact he couldn't coach. So he tried to compensate by yelling and tearing guys down. Things went wrong, he'd yell louder.
We had a lot of young players on our team, and Don had no clue what to do with them. No clue. So he'd just scream and try to intimidate the guys by acting tough. Well, I'd been with the Flyers all those years, and we didn't get intimidated. I saw through Cherry's act right away.
My last game with the Rockies, I'd had enough. Don was screaming at one of our young players, like always, and finally I turned around to him and said, 'Don, why don't you just shut up?!' He got in my face and said, 'What did you say to me?' I said, 'You heard me. I said shut up." After the period, we really got into it in the dressing room.
That was it for me with the Rockies. The next day, I was sent to Fort Worth [Texans of the CHL] and played there. Then I was done with playing hockey and ready to move on with my life. I was OK with it."
****************
CALDER CUP AND CHL PLAYOFFS
* Game 3 of the best-of-five Phantoms vs. Providence Bruins series is tonight at the PPL Center in Allentown (7:05 p.m. EDT). The series is tied at one game apiece with the remainder of series being held in Lehigh Valley after the teams split in Providence. Game 4, which will be either a clinching-game or elimination-game scenario for the Phantoms will be on Saturday. If necessary, Game 5 will be on Monday.
* Game 5 of the Ontario Hockey League Western Conference Final series between the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (Morgan Frost) and Kitchener Rangers (Connor Bunnaman) is tonight in the Soo. The series is tied at 2-2. The Greyhounds won the first two games at home but got shut out (for the first time all season) in Game 3 in Kitchener and then got blown out in Game 4.
* The winner the Soo vs. Kitchener series will play the Eastern Conference champion Hamilton Bulldogs for the Ontario Hockey League championship. The Bulldogs, featuring Flyers prospect Matthew Strome, closed out their series with the Kingston Frontenacs in Game 5 on Thursday.
* In the QMJHL, German Rubtsov's Acadie-Bathurst Titan have reached the championship round (President's Cup) of the playoffs. They swept the Victoriaville Tigres in the semifinals, with a clinching 4-3 road win on Wednesday. Rubtsov scored his fourth goal of the postseason in the final game. The Titan will play the winner of the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada vs. Charlottetown Islanders series (currently tied 2-2 with Game 5 tonight) for the Quebec League championship.
* In the WHL, Carter Hart took first-star honors on Thursday as he stopped 29 of 30 shots in the Everett Silvertips' 3-1 road win over the Tri-City Americans in Game 4 of their Western Conference Final series. The Tips now lead the series, 3 games to 1, with a chance to close it out on home ice on Saturday. The winner of this series will face the winner of the Swift Current Broncos vs. Lethbridge Hurricanes series (tied 2-2 with Game 5 on Saturday) for the Western League championship.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»