Roy did a little half hour interview on Altitude last night. Just got a chance to watch the DVR. It looks like it was done post draft and free agency.
- he said he's learning a lot and he can already tell its different from juniors
- he learned a lot from Pat Burns, strategy wise. Demers and Crawford talked to players and Hartley was strategic. Picked up something from all.
- coaches need a good mix. You want to be fair to players, but demanding. He also wants to be demanding of himself.
- more teams want self motivated players but he will help motivate. Sometimes you think a player isn't motivated but they have just lost confidence. Have to communicate with the players.
- Even after he retired, he was ready to move into GM/coaching. Being just GM was boring to him. He wanted to connect with the players.
- a player is more emotional. As coach he has to be more calm with the intensity occasionally. You can't have your bench lose their focus because you couldn't keep you cool. It took him 4-5 years to figure it all out.
- his time as a player and the coaches he played for will be important for him when coaching. He stressed you need to communicate with the players, top thing in his mind. He also said you need patience with these young players and repeat things to them. Key is respect.
Good stuff, thanks for sharing. Too bad it doesn't look like they made this video available anywhere.
This first bolded part stood out to me the most. If he can have that kind of players coach ability to coax out the best in a higher maintenance type of player, AND still be demanding so he doesn't have the typical lax attitude that a players coach can instill on his team after a while, he could be an outstanding NHL coach.
Also like hearing him address the idea of balancing passion and intensity, with keeping things even keel behind the bench, so your team doesn't lose it's head. That's one of the few question marks I think he understandably had coming into this, and it's great to hear him talk about how it took him a while to understand this, but that he thinks he has now.
Just another example of why it's so important for NHL coaches to have many years experience before stepping behind the bench as a HC. I think Patrick hit the nail on the head when he talked about this being the reason so many star players don't end up good coaches, because they are afforded opportunities much sooner than most coaches, and they haven't put in the necessary time to learn all the little things that make a team tick. My guess is they probably don't really realize they're missing out on them, because they're the type of things you're not aware of until you've made your mistakes and learned from them at lower levels.
Really looking forward to seeing what Patrick can do behind the bench. He really has all the tools, smarts, and experience from both sides of the bench to be a great coach.
