Not too surprisingly, changes appear to be afoot for the Minnesota Wild’s assistant coaching personnel with Bruce Boudreau in place as the team’s new bench boss.
Michael Russo has the details there, but also provided a recent key quote from Boudreau – who runs the forwards – on how he likes to have his bench operate.
“Usually in the past, one guy runs the defense, there’s myself and another guy to my left ends up usually running the power play while at the same time talking to players as they come back to the bench because I can’t focus on telling them what to do while also trying to match lines and get ready for the next shift.”
Source: Michael Russo/ Star Tribune
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Team USA may have been lacking in experience at the world hockey championships, but Matt Hendricks still had a positive message for his teammates following the bronze medal game loss to the Russians on Sunday.
“What I said to guys in the room was that our resiliency and work ethic was the best, bar none, of any team I’ve been on,” said Hendricks. “From our top-minute guys to our bottom-minute guys, the work ethic and belief that we had the opportunity to win this tournament was very, very high. There was never any doubts. We were a close team. I was very proud of everyone on the team.”
Source: Kevin Allen/ USA Today
U.S. has a world championships recruitment problem
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Interesting read here on the origin story behind Finland’s version of Don Cherry, Juhani Tamminen.
Excerpt via National Post:
A former player, Tamminen was pegged to be a broadcaster immediately after his coaching career about 20 years ago. He played it straight in the beginning, using his experience as a top-level player and national team coach to analyze plays and break down games.
It was not until a producer for MTV3 in Finland suggested that he take fashion cues from the Hockey Night In Canada star that Tamminen, whose nickname is “Don Tami,” became the country’s most recognizable sports personality.
“I just said, ‘Anything we do, we do with class,” the 65-year-old said. “It’s been a boon since then. I think it’s been good for the company, big for the fans and big for me.”
Source: Michael Traikos/ National Post
Finland’s Don Cherry likes to keep it classy: ‘Anything we do, we do with class’
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Sebastian Aho stands an excellent chance of making the Carolina Hurricanes out of training camp this fall, but are expectations too high for the talented Finnish youngster?
“Maybe from the outside,” general manager Francis said. “Not from us. We have to be real careful in how we handle him and how we play him coming out of the gate, sort of let him find his way and feel his way through it, I think. He’s going to be fine. We’re looking at big picture more than the short term with him. We don’t want to affect that big picture because he’s going to be a good, good player for the Hurricanes for a long time.”
Source: Luke DeCock/ News & Observer
Finland’s loss is, shortly, Hurricanes’ gain
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Fascinating read here on how the father of Arizona Coyotes general manager John Chayka tracked down Scotty Bowman – whom he did not know in the least – eight years ago, all in an effort to have John be able to pick the brain of the hockey legend.
The only thing Terry Chayka knew was that Bowman lived in East Amherst, New York, which is 45 minutes away from their Ontario home.
Excerpt via azcentral:
So Terry drove to East Amherst and randomly chose to stop at a Tim Hortons, a popular Canadian fast food chain. He approached two older customers and told them a little fib, that his phone was dead, his computer was gone and that he was late for a meeting with Bowman.
“Do you know where he lives?” he asked.
“No,” one said. “But we have the same barber, Dominic.”
Terry went to the barbershop.
“Hey, Dominic, do you remember me?” he fibbed again. “I was here with Scotty last time. I’m trying to reach him.”
Not really, the barber said.
“But I know he’s in Tampa. Here are his numbers.”
Source: Paula Boivin/ azcentral
Coyotes’ John Chayka out to prove analytics not a bad word
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Kevin Constantine, now coaching the WHL Everett Silvertips, was tracking hockey analytics in the IHL in the early 1990s before it really had a name.
“I’m not a traditional NHL guy because I didn’t come through Canada. When I broke in, 99 per cent of the coaches were Canadian, and I was this American kid plugging my way through the coaching world.
“My learning wasn’t other NHL coaches, it was reading books. I remember reading a baseball book once and it said ‘if you can measure it, you can improve it.’ It struck a chord with me,” said Constantine.
“I remember reading about the New England Patriots, and they have a stat for an offensive lineman … how many snaps he’s on for during a year and how many times he makes the wrong read on who he’s supposed to block,” said Constantine. “It’s broken down to ‘OK, he had 12 misreads out of his 576 snaps and another guy only had two misreads.’’
Source: Jim Matheson/ Edmonton Journal
Hockey World: Ex-NHL coach Kevin Constantine was an analytics pioneer
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Sergei Gonchar, on the importance of confidence as a hockey player as it relates to Justin Schultz:
“It’s huge nowadays because the game is so fast, and if you don’t have it, and if you’re out there and you hesitate for a second, pressure is coming, the people are right on you,” Gonchar said. “They’re trying to take that time away, that confidence away from you. So I think to have that, to have that belief in yourself, is a very big part of the game.
“I think one of the reasons he’s improving is because he’s getting [his confidence] back.”
Source: Scott Burnside/ ESPN
Former cast-off Justin Schultz making the most of active duty with the Pittsburgh Penguins
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Part of confidence comes from development in hockey circles, and for goaltenders that most often means more playing time in the AHL before that extended NHL stay.
‘“If you rush it, you can put the goaltender in a situation where you stop his development for a couple years, because confidence is still a vital part of goaltending,” Roland Melanson said. “You can’t play the position without confidence, and if you put him in a situation to fail before he has a chance to succeed, that can be a really tough road to walk. You’ve got to be careful. I’m very protective about my goalies that way, because I want to make sure they understand they’re able to go through the growing pains in the minors.”
Source: Matt Larkin/ The Hockey News
Should prospect goaltenders play a lot in the AHL – or a little in the NHL?
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Ryane Clowe shares a funny hockey memory:
“When I was on the bench and L.A. was coming down on a three-on-two. I’m not sure what I was thinking and even now I don’t know why I did it. I was standing on the corner of our bench and Jarrett Stoll had the puck and I reached my stick over and knocked the puck off his stick. I think the referee saw it but he probably couldn’t believe what he saw. No penalty was called. We ended up winning that game 6-5. I don’t think L.A. fans liked me too much for that.”
Source: Mark Malinowski/ The Hockey News
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Nichols’ Notes runs weekdays, linking you to stories of interest from around the NHL.
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