LaForge was a "PHD" legend.
All Tortorella needs is a powder blue polyester suit to complete the transformation.
It has to rank up there as one of the worst coaching hires in NHL history.
Part of the irony was there was another young coach under consideration at the time who was passed over in favour of LaForge - Mike Keenan who would be hired by the Flyers and take them to the Cup Finals as a rookie head coach.
For you young 'uns and those who have blocked that coaching era from your mind, check this out:
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1400087
Here is a post I did previously:
The Vancouver Canucks hiring Bill LaForge as head coach out of junior for the 1984-85 season. He survived 20 games as coach, posting a record of 4-14-2 before being fired. He predicted that the Canucks would win 50 games in 1984-85 when he took over. At that rate he would have achieved 50 wins... in about 3 seasons.
Here's a two-fer... first round pick JJ Daigneault on crutches at the Draft greeted by the very temporary head coach Bill Laforge rocking the polyester suit. Laforge looking like he had another rough night and his first (and last) training camp had yet to open.
He treated the players as if they were juniors and he was younger than some of his players. Goalie Richard Brodeur led the revolt.
In training camp, he divided his team into three squads - Pride, Hustle and Desire. The players wore T-shirts emblazoned with a single letter indicating their allegiance. At the end of the day, the losing team had to doff skates and run a mile back to the motel in full gear.
"Why punish a guy because you lose a scrimmage when you've got a bunch of rookies around you and all that?" Brodeur said. "Come on. It didn't go very well with the guys, but that's the way LaForge was. I'm sorry for the loss, but I was not on very good terms with that guy."
The day before his final game as coach, he introduced a new wrinkle. Most of the players lined up two yards apart and four feet from the boards. Then the other players had to skate from one end of the line to the other while their teammates tried to run them into the boards.
The Canucks were the most penalized team to start the season but LaForge said this publicly:
"If anyone could turn this team into a good team, he'd be a magician," the coach says. "There are some guys who put on a helmet, but now they're putting on a hat with a feather and some flowers in it."
Here is how one of his junior players described LaForge's methods:
"He gets you under his thumb and intimidates you. He kind of belittles you. That's his whole style of game. He wants to be in control all of the time. You quickly find out that there's a right way, a wrong way and a Bill LaForge way." - Martin Wood, 20, former goaltender of the Western Hockey League's Regina Pats and Kamloops Junior Oilers
You can see how a 33 year old rookie coach might have some problems with established NHL'ers with such an approach.
LaForge was great with slogans while with the Canucks that he would post:
"Too hurt to play, too hurt to stay"
"PHD - pride, hustle and desire."
"Enthusiasm is contagious (and so is the lack of it)."
"Less thunder in the mouth, more lightning in the wrist."
LaForge wanted every Canucks player to play a physical game and fight - however the Canucks had finesse players such as Thomas Gradin, Patrick Sundstrom and Tony Tanti on the roster. Not really a strategy that works. You might be able to run over teams in junior by stocking up with goons but in the mid-1980's in the NHL with the Oilers in ascendency, good luck.
Thomas Gradin, "I don't think we have the kind of people to play that kind of game."
As Al Strachan would note after he was fired under LaForge "PHD" really stood for "Punishment. Harassment. Discipline" or perhaps "Pain. Humiliation. Defeat."
For his part LaForge maintains he was right all along in his approach to NHL players. When Pat Quinn took over as coach he had this to say:
"The only thing I did wrong was not make them (Canucks) run two miles instead of one. I was totally right in what I was doing and they were totally wrong. The players weren't ready to make a commitment. Now they've got a guy like Pat Quinn behind the bench. Pat's a nice guy, but look at the team."
Here's a two-fer... first round pick JJ Daigneault on crutches at the Draft greeted by the very temporary head coach Bill Laforge rocking the polyester suit. Laforge looking like he had another rough night and his first (and last) training camp had yet to open.
He treated the players as if they were juniors and he was younger than some of his players. Goalie Richard Brodeur led the revolt.
In training camp, he divided his team into three squads - Pride, Hustle and Desire. The players wore T-shirts emblazoned with a single letter indicating their allegiance. At the end of the day, the losing team had to doff skates and run a mile back to the motel in full gear.
"Why punish a guy because you lose a scrimmage when you've got a bunch of rookies around you and all that?" Brodeur said. "Come on. It didn't go very well with the guys, but that's the way LaForge was. I'm sorry for the loss, but I was not on very good terms with that guy."
The day before his final game as coach, he introduced a new wrinkle. Most of the players lined up two yards apart and four feet from the boards. Then the other players had to skate from one end of the line to the other while their teammates tried to run them into the boards.
The Canucks were the most penalized team to start the season but LaForge said this publicly:
"If anyone could turn this team into a good team, he'd be a magician," the coach says. "There are some guys who put on a helmet, but now they're putting on a hat with a feather and some flowers in it."
Here is how one of his junior players described LaForge's methods:
"He gets you under his thumb and intimidates you. He kind of belittles you. That's his whole style of game. He wants to be in control all of the time. You quickly find out that there's a right way, a wrong way and a Bill LaForge way." - Martin Wood, 20, former goaltender of the Western Hockey League's Regina Pats and Kamloops Junior Oilers
You can see how a 33 year old rookie coach might have some problems with established NHL'ers with such an approach.
LaForge was great with slogans while with the Canucks that he would post:
"Too hurt to play, too hurt to stay"
"PHD - pride, hustle and desire."
"Enthusiasm is contagious (and so is the lack of it)."
"Less thunder in the mouth, more lightning in the wrist."
LaForge wanted every Canucks player to play a physical game and fight - however the Canucks had finesse players such as Thomas Gradin, Patrick Sundstrom and Tony Tanti on the roster. Not really a strategy that works. You might be able to run over teams in junior by stocking up with goons but in the mid-1980's in the NHL with the Oilers in ascendency, good luck.
Thomas Gradin, "I don't think we have the kind of people to play that kind of game."
As Al Strachan would note after he was fired under LaForge "PHD" really stood for "Punishment. Harassment. Discipline" or perhaps "Pain. Humiliation. Defeat."
For his part LaForge maintains he was right all along in his approach to NHL players. When Pat Quinn took over as coach he had this to say:
"The only thing I did wrong was not make them (Canucks) run two miles instead of one. I was totally right in what I was doing and they were totally wrong. The players weren't ready to make a commitment. Now they've got a guy like Pat Quinn behind the bench. Pat's a nice guy, but look at the team."
