Confirmed with Link: Alexandre Burrows joins Laval staff

[Whitesnake]

So about a handful of times?..I mean, you realize my question was rhetorical? Point is it's rare, and alluding to a few times where it happened doesn't make it any better of a decision.
I find it weird. Burrows was not hired on his capacity to coach as he's never done it. Doesn't mean he'll fail, we'll find out, but so far it's a weird decision.

I know some people wish it was...but are my posts invisible? There are 25 coaches right now in the AHL that went from playing to AHL assitant coaching. That's just this year that I see. This is not a handful.

 

[groovejuice]

And again, 'cause for some skills, you either have it or you don't. You don't teach instincts. Again, if it would be that easy, why can't Bossy not teach everybody to score 60 goals? In skating, that's because there is stuff to work on. And somehow, in the history of the league, can you name me the tons of players that went from being a grinder to a legitimate top player just because of teaching? 'Cause if you can teach skills, it should be available to everyone.

I'm not talking about making average players stars. I'm talking about refining and improving existing skills, which all players could use. Naturally, you can't make a plugger elite. But the plugger and your franchise player will each have unique abilities to be improved, would you not agree?

 

[Kriss E]

Jacobs may have history with Bouchard, but he's still more a "why not?" than a "**** ya!" hiring as you like to distinguish them:

Dude, it was a matter of speaking.
The point was hire people that make sense to be had.
Jacob makes sense considering his experience and familiarity to Bouchard. Borrows doesn't.

 

[Whitesnake]

It means nothing, but you could expect an Hall of Famer to instantly earn respect and be able to bring some saviness about the game a bottom liner wouldn't. Doesn't mean a bottom liner can't be a good coach. Joel Bouchard wasn't exactly a star and look at him go. And then, Gretzky was a terrible coach, so doesn't mean **** really.
But I'm done with the hiring of unqualified guys. Not under this organization. They've failed miserably before.
Might work this time, not saying it will fail again, just not a fan. Not sure why anyone would be either considering the guy has absolutely zero track record to base ourselves on.

The moment this team sucks the most is with the hiring of Houle-Tremblay-Cournoyer. Players that, especially Cournoyer, will always be seen as much better players than A LOT of present coaches and assistant coaches and yet....we ALL saw it as a total joke.

By the way....Guy Lafleur is named assistant coach in the NHL. Tell me you wouldn't die laughing.

 

[Kriss E]

I know some people wish it was...but are my posts invisible? There are 25 coaches right now in the AHL that went from playing to AHL assitant coaching. That's just this year that I see. This is not a handful.

I guess it's more common then I thought then.

 

[Whitesnake]

I'm not talking about making average players stars. I'm talking about refining and improving existing skills, which all players could use. Naturally, you can't make a plugger elite. But the plugger and your franchise player will each have unique abilities to be improved, would you not agree?

Yes, and they do through their junior and pro career. That,s why some people progresses. They do it first by their own self. And then by teaching. But at one point, that's why coaches exist. And at one point you have to think that thtey all have abilities to make their players progress. 'Cause again, take the 50 best scorers in the history of the league, and tell me they aren't employed by a NHL team.

 

[Kriss E]

The moment this team sucks the most is with the hiring of Houle-Tremblay-Cournoyer. Players that, especially Cournoyer, will always be seen as much better players than A LOT of present coaches and assistant coaches and yet....we ALL saw it as a total joke.

By the way....Guy Lafleur is named assistant coach in the NHL. Tell me you wouldn't die laughing.

Yes I would, because he's been out of it for what 30 years? But even if was a nice retiree, I think it's BS.
I value experience.

 

[Whitesnake]

Yes I would, because he's been out of it for what 30 years? But even if was a nice retiree, I think it's BS.
I value experience.

Yes. And the way they see it is that he'll bring his experience in playing the game. His experience as far as starting from nowhere to make a career. His experience of what the new NHL is all about since he just retired. He brings a side to the coaching staff. He'll let Bouchard and Jacobs takes care of their experience in coaching, building systems and so on. He is complementary.

By the way, and I hope soon, we will be about to have a very great news about our new defensive coach in the NHL and that will fill out the experience factor you are talking about. As soon as Kitchen is nominated....I will believe that we are looking much better in the entire coaching staff than we were 2 months ago.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Dude, it was a matter of speaking.
The point was hire people that make sense to be had.
Jacob makes sense considering his experience and familiarity to Bouchard. Borrows doesn't.

Right. But Ducharme doesn't have familiarity with Julien. Muller didn't have familiarity with Therrien.

It wouldn't surprise me if Bouchard and Burrows had conversations over the years (as these guys all know each other) and Bouchard may have noticed there was something there in Burrows that would make him a good coach.

 

[Whitesnake]

Not that long ago, we had Clément Jodin as an assistant coach. A guy with a boatload of experience. And in no way shape or from did we think that we were in great hands with him.

 

[JianYang]

Based on what I heard about burrows on the radio yesterday, his end goal is to be GM one day.

I wish him luck. Off the ice, he seems really well liked. I definitely wasn't a fan of his on the ice though.

 

[Edgy]

Everyone keeps calling him a grinder. I don't get it, the guy played on the first line with the Sedins and by their own acknowledgement he's the best they've played with. He also seems to have an understated understanding of the game strategies.

“He really knows the game,” Daniel said. “His intellect always stood out. In PK and power-play meetings, he would always come up with solutions. It was a lot of fun just talking about the game with him.”

He also seems like a guy that can and has mentored kids in some capacity

And long after he was gone, he’d reach out to Jake Virtanen. He’d push him. He’d motivate him. He’d promise him good things were going to happen.

So he doesn't have actual coaching experience, but like @Whitesnake pointed out, there are 25 guys that went from players to AHL coaching positions this year so it doesn't seem uncommon or unfathomable for us to be giving it a shot as well. Don't see how it can hurt, the guy built a career for himself and worked his way up to the first line during which he was 6th in the NHL at ES scoring. Can't see a downside to this move.

 

[Kriss E]

Yes. And the way they see it is that he'll bring his experience in playing the game. His experience as far as starting from nowhere to make a career. His experience of what the new NHL is all about since he just retired. He brings a side to the coaching staff. He'll let Bouchard and Jacobs takes care of their experience in coaching, building systems and so on. He is complementary.

By the way, and I hope soon, we will be about to have a very great news about our new defensive coach in the NHL and that will fill out the experience factor you are talking about. As soon as Kitchen is nominated....I will believe that we are looking much better in the entire coaching staff than we were 2 months ago.

No offense WS, but there's no way to know anything. Burrows has no experience coaching.
He can bring his experience as a player, great, that's an advisor role, not coach. But we will see as years go by. Maybe he'll be a special talent for coaching..

 

[Kriss E]

Right. But Ducharme doesn't have familiarity with Julien. Muller didn't have familiarity with Therrien.

It wouldn't surprise me if Bouchard and Burrows had conversations over the years (as these guys all know each other) and Bouchard may have noticed there was something there in Burrows that would make him a good coach.

Well I sure as hell hope so otherwise it makes this hiring even weirder.

 

[dinodebino]

OK, guys, reality check in the real world here: this is how you get appointed to higher echelon jobs in most of the real world also. You need to be competent. But you also need to know people. Why is everybody shocked? What is this, La-la-land, Utopialand?

You want to get ahead in life, you need to hone your skill, BUT you also need to know the right people! Wow, and the earth is round.

 

[Whitesnake]

No offense WS, but there's no way to know anything. Burrows has no experience coaching.
He can bring his experience as a player, great, that's an advisor role, not coach. But we will see as years go by. Maybe he'll be a special talent for coaching..

None taken. But there's no way for anybody to know anything. We just have opinions. Again, we can have opinions that it will work. And that it won't work. No problem with that. My beef is with people who say that it's insane to bring a NHL player into an assistant job in the AHL. If so, every team is insane as they did that, they do that and they'll continue doing that.

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

OK, guys, reality check in the real world here: this is how you get appointed to higher echelon jobs in most of the real world also. You need to be competent. But you also need to know people. Why is everybody shocked? What is this, La-la-land, Utopialand?

You want to get ahead in life, you need to hone your skill, BUT you also need to know the right people! Wow, and the earth is round.

It's when knowing people outweighs competence you get into trouble, if I'm hiring someone I know they have to be that much better than any other option cause I'm putting my reputation on the line

 

[MaxDummy]

you think coaches, with coaching experience, are lining up to be an assistant coach in the AHL?

Yes...to be a HEAD COACH in the AHL.

He didn't leave his cushy CHL job to be an ASSISTANT in the AHL.

Again, this isn't exactly a high profile position. I mean, who did you expect Bouchard to bring in as a 3rd right hand man? Lindy Ruff? Alain Vigneault?

Gilles Bouchard Hired as Syracuse Crunch Assistant Coach - Syracuse Crunch

Gilles Bouchard Hired as Syracuse Crunch Assistant Coach


He was the coach and GM of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL.

 

[Kriss E]

None taken. But there's no way for anybody to know anything. We just have opinions. Again, we can have opinions that it will work. And that it won't work. No problem with that. My beef is with people who say that it's insane to bring a NHL player into an assistant job in the AHL. If so, every team is insane as they did that, they do that and they'll continue doing that.

I don't think it's insane, but I think it's ill advised. And every team being ill advised? Hum...Yes. It's something I have been saying for quite some time here. NHL teams hiring process is incredibly silly and weird, not to say flat out bad. It leads to morons like Bergevin that have absolutely no business being a GM. This isn't privy to the Habs, every team hire guys just because...they played in the NHL. I mean, it's completely fine to do so in an advisery role, but outside of that I'm not really interested in their experience as players.
Coaching is a form teaching. It's amazing to me how many times teams hire coaches that aren't good communicators or teachers but are more about the motivational-cheerleading type.
So yes, plenty of teams in the NHL are pretty mediocre at their hiring process.

Now, one might think this is just an AHL ass-coach position, but almost every prospect of ours will go through the AHL, so it's just as crucial to have very good communicators and teachers there.
Being a coach myself, I know it takes a lot of time to get into your groove and develop your style of coaching. I rather have someone who's done it in the juniors first. But hey, it's not impossible for someone like Burrows to do well. We shall see.

 

[417]

Gilles Bouchard Hired as Syracuse Crunch Assistant Coach - Syracuse Crunch

Gilles Bouchard Hired as Syracuse Crunch Assistant Coach


He was the coach and GM of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the QMJHL.

I'm sure it happens...I just don't know how often it does.

We'll see how this move works out for Gilles Bouchard, the road to the top can be a winding one.

 

[Whitesnake]

Ex-Canuck Dan Hamhuis: Alex Burrows was 'a tremendous teammate' - Sportsnet.ca

 

[Runner77]

Maybe this will come of harsh but you are just hating on the guy. Sorry to say but haters gonna hate.

Alex went from undrafted to ECHL to 14 year NHL career. He had to grind and pay his dues to make it that far in the NHL. If after all the work he put in and all the grinding he did he catch's a break to skip the ECHL or CIS (like many other players have done as pointed out by mulitple posters) then good on him.

The guy had to work for every inch his entire career I think he deserves to a little bit of an easy path for once in his NHL career.

AHL isn't NHL, its a place where coaches can learn as well. Bouchard is supposedly a very good coach isn't it good for Alex to learn from him? Is it better for him to go to a crap NCAA/CHL team and learn from a worse coach? Remember Alex is Bouchards employee and will be doing what Bouchard tells him to do not the other way around. Alex is going to be the one learning and get OTJ training not Bouchard.

I say good for Alex for using his 14 years of hard work and grinding to parlay that into a chance to learn from an excellent coach as a way to start his post NHL career.

Burrows is not unlike a ton of NHL players who made it through a series of improbable obstacles. Good for him.

However, just because he went through tough times in order to get to the NHL and stay there, doesn't mean he's going to succeed as a coach. Perhaps he possesses other attributes we don't know about, time will tell. Could go either way. We'll see. Plus, who cares, he's not running the show, he's just a cog in the wheel who is learning the ropes. The spotlight is on Bouchard not Burrows.

 

[Whitesnake]

Just saying....if people that played with him thinks he'll make a good coach....maybe we should trust their judgment since we don't know if he'd make a good coach or not?

Again, I understand. I also hated his antics on the ice. And nobody would have wanted him on our team as a player. But I think it's a whole different subject when it's question to be a coach.

 

[MaxDummy]

Just saying....if people that played with him thinks he'll make a good coach....maybe we should trust their judgment since we don't know if he'd make a good coach or not?

Like Bergevin who tought JJD would be good?

Im fine with Burrows fwiw. Karakter guy. Just like Bouillon.

 

[SpeedyPotato]

At least give the guy a chance, no one here knows how good/bad he'll be at this job. I'm far from a fan of the current management team, but whining at every move just for the sake of it gets pretty annoying.