Confirmed with Link: Ryan McGill hired as assistant coach

[Jason MacIsaac]

If you think the head coach doesn't set forth the overall systems the team will be using and merely sits back and listens to assistants direct all the tactics then you've never coached.

I guess we will find out who is right when preseason starts. If NJ continues with the same base structures then I was wrong. Coaching minor league hockey is different than the NHL. Especially when Ruff has almost no chance at coaching past this year.

 

[Oneiro]

I love these hires.

Independently good but in tandem, damn homie.

I didn’t think playoffs were in the cards this season but I think the combination of weakening powerhouses, the guys we brought in and tightening up our stupid shit has me genuinely thinking we could be really really good.

 

[NJ Devil]

If you think the head coach doesn't set forth the overall systems the team will be using and merely sits back and listens to assistants direct all the tactics then you've never coached.

But isnt it different in NJ? I thought our upper management wanted to start going the way of having a head coach who has less input management wise as well as takes on more input from the other coaches

It was a big reason Laviolette didnt come here I believe.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

It always drove me nuts to see a forward, let alone an undersized forward attempting to protect the front of the net but sometimes nowhere near it.

Fixed.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

I love these hires.

Independently good but in tandem, damn homie.

I didn’t think playoffs were in the cards this season but I think the combination of weakening powerhouses, the guys we brought in and tightening up our stupid shit has me genuinely thinking we could be really really good.

On paper, this may be the best coaching staff since 2012 season, and we all know how that went. Now I very much doubt they'll go to the finals this coming season, but playoffs maybe? Really depends on the goaltending again.

Although....Rogalski should probably be replaced.

 

[Guttersniped]

But isnt it different in NJ? I thought our upper management wanted to start going the way of having a head coach who has less input management wise as well as takes on more input from the other coaches

It was a big reason Laviolette didnt come here I believe.

I don’t remember hearing any of this.

 

[My3Sons]

I don’t remember hearing any of this.

Well as I’m aging I find my hearing is going and my faculties as well.

 

[Guttersniped]

Well as I’m aging I find my hearing is going and my faculties as well.

My hearing is great, thanks. (The mild tinnitus aside.)

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

I don’t remember hearing any of this.

I'm pretty sure it was said somewhere. How they wanted to be more of a group mindset and not have 1 person telling everyone what to do kind of thing.

 

[njdevils1982]

I think I had his skateboard…good enough for me.

I did too, dude came up the McTwist after all.

i still have my old powell peralta jay smith

 

[NJ Devil]

I don’t remember hearing any of this.

Im struggling to find where I read it but..

I believe Elliot Friedman said that the Devils were not priced out as originally reporter (on Laviolette) but instead that Peter wanted more team control and the Devils werent willing to do that, as they have more of a 'group-think' approach ever since Fitzgerald was made interim.

If Im remembering the details correctly, the team sees Marty/Fitz/MacKinnon/Madegan as one big brain and wanted a coach whod be willing to join that. This goes against the 'usual' model of business in hockey where the head coach and general manager usually work in cohesion, bouncing ideas off one another (which is exactly what we did with Hynes and Shero)

It may seem sketchy since I cant find anything marking it, but Ill also be bamboozled if it turns out I made it all up ij my head. I distinctly remember discussing why I liked the idea and accepting that was why we didnt land Laviolette. Plus it always seemed.. off to not have offered him the money he wanted, as we have very rich ownership who wasnt nickel-and-diming yet in the first place.

 

[Jason MacIsaac]

The notion of HC with OC and DC seems to work in NFL.

 

[My3Sons]

The notion of HC with OC and DC seems to work in NFL.

But the NFL has a staff for just about everything below the coordinator level and it’s pretty unwieldy of not managed well.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

But isnt it different in NJ? I thought our upper management wanted to start going the way of having a head coach who has less input management wise as well as takes on more input from the other coaches

It was a big reason Laviolette didnt come here I believe.

Then what the hell is the point of having a head coach at all then? Just have 3 assistants and PR guy. This has to be the dumbest concept I've ever heard of for a head coach to be nothing but a talking head. Of course he's going to adjust the systems with new assistants input but it's HIS call, not the lower levels feeding him talking points only.

If Ruff is really just a shell then move him to special assignment already and start the season out fresh with the new head coach and set the tone. No more Thanksgiving to Christmas waiting for the axe to fall and wasting another year finding the new identity. Rip the band-aid off now before camp even starts and set expectations fresh for everyone.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

Then what the hell is the point of having a head coach at all then? Just have 3 assistants and PR guy. This has to be the dumbest concept I've ever heard of for a head coach to be nothing but a talking head. Of course he's going to adjust the systems with new assistants input but it's HIS call, not the lower levels feeding him talking points only.

If Ruff is really just a shell then move him to special assignment already and start the season out fresh with the new head coach and set the tone. No more Thanksgiving to Christmas waiting for the axe to fall and wasting another year finding the new identity. Rip the band-aid off now before camp even starts and set expectations fresh for everyone.

It is still Ruff's call. I'm not going to speak for any specific teams because quite frankly Idk how they operate, but generally speaking at work when you have a boss and associates, the boss tells their assistants what to do and they just help, literally just assistants. I'm guessing what they like to do in NJ is the assistants have more of an input in the overall strategy and collaborate with Ruff on it, but Ruff will still make the final decision on how to piece everything together using the ideas from everyone else.

To some people, it might sound obvious to do it this way, but you'd be surprised how egotistical corporations get.

 

[Guttersniped]

Then what the hell is the point of having a head coach at all then? Just have 3 assistants and PR guy. This has to be the dumbest concept I've ever heard of for a head coach to be nothing but a talking head. Of course he's going to adjust the systems with new assistants input but it's HIS call, not the lower levels feeding him talking points only.

If Ruff is really just a shell then move him to special assignment already and start the season out fresh with the new head coach and set the tone. No more Thanksgiving to Christmas waiting for the axe to fall and wasting another year finding the new identity. Rip the band-aid off now before camp even starts and set expectations fresh for everyone.

I didn’t hear this, looked for any reference of it and couldn’t find it. I don’t really believe until I can firsthand hear a detailed believable account.

Ruff is the head coach.

I don’t see where this would be coming from if not Ruff, Fitz has never coached and he has plenty to do with his job. It’s not like they got amazing tactical assistants for Ruff the first time around. And don’t underestimate Ruff as a system’s guy on his own. This would be more believable if they gave him guys who were obviously capable of doing any of this.

Recchi was their to run the power play and mentor the young forwards. Fitz literally said that when he hired him. He had almost no coaching experience. He’s not designing shit 5v5.

Laviolette could have turned us down because he decided to wait for a better opportunity. I mean, he got one pretty damn quickly.

 

[NJ Devil]

Then what the hell is the point of having a head coach at all then? Just have 3 assistants and PR guy. This has to be the dumbest concept I've ever heard of for a head coach to be nothing but a talking head. Of course he's going to adjust the systems with new assistants input but it's HIS call, not the lower levels feeding him talking points only.

If Ruff is really just a shell then move him to special assignment already and start the season out fresh with the new head coach and set the tone. No more Thanksgiving to Christmas waiting for the axe to fall and wasting another year finding the new identity. Rip the band-aid off now before camp even starts and set expectations fresh for everyone.

I was speaking more to the GM-HC connection, less about what the HC does in terms of on the ice play and systems

But Im fairly confident Lindy Ruff takes on more input from the assistants than, say, Peter Laviolette does. NJ didnt want an old-head coach coming in putting stern systems in place for a young upcoming team of fast, offensively creative players

My post was meant to be more about the head coach having major input managerially, so for team acquisitions, contracts, etc... That was why Laviolette didnt stay, as he and a few other notable proven coaches are notorious for wanting team control. Barry Trotz is another name that operates like this.

 

[NJ Devil]

I didn’t hear this, looked for any reference of it and couldn’t find it. I don’t really believe until I can firsthand hear a detailed believable account.

Ruff is the head coach.

I don’t see where this would be coming from if not Ruff, Fitz has never coached and he has plenty to do with his job. It’s not like they got amazing tactical assistants for Ruff the first time around. And don’t underestimate Ruff as a system’s guy on his own. This would be more believable if they gave him guys who were obviously capable of doing any of this.

Recchi was their to run the power play and mentor the young forwards. Fitz literally said that when he hired him. He had almost no coaching experience. He’s not designing shit 5v5.

Laviolette could have turned us down because he decided to wait for a better opportunity. I mean, he got one pretty damn quickly.

So Ive found why I cant find articles.

Its because I didnt read it, I heard it.

Fitzgerald has stated in multiple interviews that the Devils have moved to a 'collaborative model', where the head coach's managerial decisions are lessened and also where Fitzgerald isnt a sole GM, he acts in accordance with Marty and the other two AGMs.

This would seem like 'uh dont all teams do that?' But no they dont, they have those positions but those positions usually have less input. Devils ownership (Im trying to find that interview next) stated back around Shero's firing that they wanted more of a groupthink approach as in sports more teams are moving toward this, as to prevent stray moves that destroy teams (desperate GMs)

Heres just one of many interviews Im sure ill be able to fine about this. This one is an MSG interview of Fitz about Ruff. It starts around 1:30, Fitz' comments on 'group' and 'partnership', and ill do my best to find a few more interviews where this is brought up. I knew I distinctly remembered it and it wasnt me losing my mind.

Laviolette was always known as a coach who had a say in what players come and go, and that is what I believe Ruff does not. He probably gives his opinion on things just as any HC does, but laviolette wanted control to be able to say 'yeah, get this guy out' like Hynes had with Shero. Exactly why ownership wanted to change that I think.



Ill do my best to find a few more interview quotes when I get more time. Takes a littlr while to peruse through an interview while trying to catch specific comments

 

[NJ Devil]

Here is another interview 'softly' hinting at the need for cohesion and the ability to work together well being a huge picking point for ownership; at around 15:50 Amanda Stein asks David Blitzer who was involved in the process of hiring Tom/a GM, and it is then followed by another question from Amanda on what qualities they were looking for in a GM



Id call your attention to the mentioning of Brodeur when discussing the hiring process as a show of more group-based decision making (considering Marty joined his role same time as Fitzgerald was interim-tagged, albeit Blitzer makes comment that Marty has had influence for much longer) as well as when Blitzer harps on Fitzgerald's 'holistic' viewpoint and mindset towards the development and building process. Its a bit more thinly veiled then the first interview I posted but this was also Blitzer speaking who, by my accounts, isnt as out-spoken as Harris or Fitzgerald.

May find another late one night this week but for now I think thats a good basis for what I was talking about @Guttersniped

 

[Blender]

I mean it makes sense to me, you hire people for specific positions and rely on their expertise in those areas. This is best practice in any business where the boss should not be top-down dictating every decision, they should be setting the overall goals and leading their team to success by allowing them to perform within their role.

 

[NJ Devil]

I mean it makes sense to me, you hire people for specific positions and rely on their expertise in those areas. This is best practice in any business where the boss should not be top-down dictating every decision, they should be setting the overall goals and leading their team to success by allowing them to perform within their role.

That is a large part of it.

I do, though, think HBSE as an ownership group is where the change in mindset from prior to Shero's tenure to after has changed. I wont get too deep into it but the 76'ers were also being run just as Shero-Hynes were being run. Now Daryl Morey is the President and not GM, yet everyone involved can tell you hes still major in running the show. This is what me and a Devils buddy of mine personally think is happening with the Devils as well (Marty having major influence, though flip-flopped with Fitzgerald being the one in the press).

Also I think it is less about everyone working to their expertise and making decisions while bouncing off each other, and more everyone makes the decisions together and Fitzgerald makes somewhat of a final pull. This is tied more to HBSE's 'innovative' mindset on sports management and extends down from their processes involved in business operations, which can somewhat be seen in recent firings/hirings since 2019.

Its different to how I imagine -most- NHL teams are currently run, with 2-3 people making the calls. Itd seem NJ is fluidly run from ownership all the way down to the coach, and this level of cohesion requires a strong group of personnel with; hence they looked for it in their coaching and GM hires with such traits as being 'holistic'

Id take a guess that Andrew Brunette, to tie this all back in to his own conversation, was on-board with this as well and is the head coach in waiting, already likely to have strong say in the next year or two.

 

[NJ Devil]

Interestingly enough this whole conversation I brought up also ties in to why the owners were rumored to be in on Chayka for a role in HBSE's management. They have been trying to expand their reach and ability to have some level of control on their franchises, along with bringing in more minds to bounce ideas and spread the collective responsibility.

Whether that rumor was real or not, it just came back to memory after thinking about all this. Undoubtedly, if it was true, he was being considered for his analytical viewpoints on sports statistics and less about how he was going to help them pull in more money.

Edited, wasnt Devils it was HBSE

 

[Guttersniped]

That is a large part of it.

I do, though, think HBSE as an ownership group is where the change in mindset from prior to Shero's tenure to after has changed. I wont get too deep into it but the 76'ers were also being run just as Shero-Hynes were being run. Now Daryl Morey is the President and not GM, yet everyone involved can tell you hes still major in running the show. This is what me and a Devils buddy of mine personally think is happening with the Devils as well (Marty having major influence, though flip-flopped with Fitzgerald being the one in the press).

Also I think it is less about everyone working to their expertise and making decisions while bouncing off each other, and more everyone makes the decisions together and Fitzgerald makes somewhat of a final pull. This is tied more to HBSE's 'innovative' mindset on sports management and extends down from their processes involved in business operations, which can somewhat be seen in recent firings/hirings since 2019.

Its different to how I imagine -most- NHL teams are currently run, with 2-3 people making the calls. Itd seem NJ is fluidly run from ownership all the way down to the coach, and this level of cohesion requires a strong group of personnel with; hence they looked for it in their coaching and GM hires with such traits as being 'holistic'

Id take a guess that Andrew Brunette, to tie this all back in to his own conversation, was on-board with this as well and is the head coach in waiting, already likely to have strong say in the next year or two.

I certainly think the team has a cartoonishly large Org chart. We, somehow, have 9 scouting Heads/ Directors /Chief Scout positions and 14 scouts. Granted most of the higher up guys likely most just scout too, but, damn there are a lot of titles.

There are different issues when you’re talking about power with head coaches.

If you’re talking about a GM getting players who fit a coach’s system (and if he gets to choose there), I don’t know if Laviolette gets that in Washington. Maybe they are getting guys for him or maybe the team has an identity and they get players who fit it.

I just don’t think our team as it was constructed when he was interviewed would have worked well for him. I can see Fitz’s team work pitch as probably not helping if that was a thing. (I didn’t want Laviolette, so whatever.)

In the past Ruff has talked about keeping his coaching style flexible in order to work with the kind of talent he has. That’s a good thing imo. We play a speed possession based system in part because that plays to our current strengths. Ruff has his flaws but he’s not dumb or terrible coach.

Laviolette certainly didn’t get to pick all his assistants in Washington and typically NHL head coaches don’t.

They get a mix of guys who are there when they arrive, hot young hires from juniors/NCAA, their guys from their past jobs, the GMs guys from their past jobs, or available ex-NHL head/assistant coaches.

3 of his 4 Assistant Coaches (as of 2021-22) pre-date Laviolette, but he did get to bring on Kevin McCarthy, who’s been with him since his time with the Hurricanes.

I just do not believe that there’s some weird mass coaching collective (that I still don’t quite understand) unique to us, because it doesn’t make sense to me. I see our coaching staff going about this the normal way.

I don’t see our owners telling our GM how the team should be coached or Fitz having wildly unconventional ideas about coaching. He’s very actively teaming building and has an team identity in mind. I thought he was saying Ruff was a partner in the end of the season presser because he was defending him as a development coach.

When people were doubting assistants run special teams I posted this article of an interview with Micheal Therrien, who was starting as the Flyer’s AC.

System Analysis: Therrien on Forwards and Power Play | Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers contributor continues his series on the new coaches and their systems

www.nhl.com

And here’s an article about what AC’s do from the Athletic, using the Leafs as an example (Justin Bourne was Marlies video coach for 2 seasons.)

Off The Ice

[…] So, the division of labour begins.

Much like forwards and defensemen and goaltenders, almost all assistant coaches have to be specialists. On most staffs, one assistant will be assigned the duty of running the power play (in Toronto here, that’s Jim Hiller) and another the penalty kill (D.J. Smith). If there is a third assistant, he’s likely in the pressbox acting as an extra set of eyes with a walkie talkie, or doing the video work (Andrew Brewer also has the title assistant coach, and he runs the Leafs video).

Before a game – whether the day before, morning of, pre-game, however a particular coach likes to do it – players will watch a bunch of video. The videos are almost always divided up into shorter meetings – maybe three to five minutes each – but with there being so many of these little meetings, the time can really add up. […] For that purpose, each coach will have their chance to speak on their particular specialty as succinctly as they can.

The PP players may come in first, then the PK, then the main 5v5 meeting focusing on your own team. Then there is looking at the opponent’s PP, PK, and 5v5, which is usually shown in a different block of the day just to avoid bogging the guys down with too much video at once. The timing of how these videos are shown is very much based on coach preference, this is just what I became used to as a player and coach.

The problem there, though, is that the head coach would be left to look at all the 5v5 clips, which is obviously the bulk of the game. That means the goals, the scoring chances for and against, the forecheck, the neutral zone forecheck, the regroups, the breakouts, the D-zone coverage, the faceoffs, retrievals, o-zones, the list goes on and on. (Not to mention: you don’t think the coach wants to watch the special teams a bit, too?). So in the same vein of being specialists, many assistant coaches will have specific 5v5 areas to address as well. For example, when I was with the Marlies, I had to go over every faceoff and find trends to improve on our end, or to exploit upcoming opponents. (As an aside, teams can improve a great deal in getting more creative in that facet of the game. I rarely found much.) Maybe one coach gets dealt breakouts, and another forechecks. It’s a matter of whittling down the work of the head coach and bringing him the relevant information, rather than him wasting his time looking at a bunch of broken plays that don’t give him any information.

Even with a special teams meeting, and a 5v5 area of focus, there’s individual player work that needs addressing as well. If you tag all the clips throughout each individual game well enough, it can be easy to pull together all the times someone on the staff made a note about a player at a particular place in the game. So the making of a clip package to show them isn’t all that hard, but grabbing them for a few minutes between workouts, and treatments, and skills work, and practice and all the rest can be tough. So the job of finding them at the right time and showing them that video regularly falls on the assistants as well, particularly the D coach when it comes to defensemen.
[…]
Once all that is parsed, assistant coaches generally act as sounding boards for the head coach, in terms of lineup construction, strategy, and how the team wants to play in general. In the same way you can turn on the TV and hear two very qualified media people disagree on what happened on a single play and what should’ve happened, that happens with coaching staffs around every professional league. I grew up with my Dad coaching in what was then the International Hockey League (it eventually merged with the AHL), and spent time with the Marlies and occasionally Leafs, yet I was still always surprised how far apart the views of two very smart hockey people can be. (Take note, Hockey Twitter!) So it’s important to have those arguments, because if you don’t agree with how you want your team to play a given situation, what chance do the players have? I like to think of the original differing ideas as rough stones thrown into a rock tumbler, which eventually serve to grind down one another’s edges into something a little more smooth and pretty.

On The Bench

When I talk about each coach being a specialist, that pertains to bench management as well. It’s generally the guy who runs the penalty kill who will also run the defence. There’s a ton that goes on in a game for a head coach, as he’s often considering matchups and line combos and strategy and deciding who should go in whatever scenario may come next. There’s no way one person could efficiently run the forwards and the D at a high level. This is why when people rail about the ice time of a certain D in a given game, it’s likely not the head coach who deserves the blame that particular night. Yes, he’ll obviously collaborate with the D coach at whistle stoppages and down moments within the play, but for the most part he has to trust that the right guys are getting on the ice when they need to be out there. The head coach can then make the bigger decisions on off days, where he can tell that assistant how he wants his players deployed. But when the action is on, it’s up to that assistant to execute.

The other assistant – usually the guy who runs the power play – has a few in-game roles. One, is he’s commonly the communication between the bench and the video guy. I found it was reasonably common to see something on video that the staff may have missed, so they needed to be informed. Or the on-bench coaches may want to ask if they should review a call. Or they just want a mark placed on the video because a play unfolded weird and they want to look at what happened at intermission. These are the guys wearing bodygaurd-esque ear pieces standing near the middle of the bench.

On top of that, that assistant is an in-game sounding board for players. The best players always want to know what they should’ve done on a previous shift, or how they should play something that’s been happening with regularity. Since that coach isn’t worried about personnel, he can also monitor systems play and offer reminders when guys are out of position. Or maybe a forward just wants to yell at that coach. “Hey, tell Smitty to move the f***ing puck up to the forwards who are actually capable of handling the f***ing thing!”

Player Interaction

I never really understood it as a player, but for some reason pretty much every head coach I had felt inaccessible. Sure, “my door is always open” and all that, but ohhhkaaay. Few players have ever walked in and said “I want more ice time” and left with a better relationship with their head coach. But if you say that to an assistant, they’re generally great at pulling you aside, asking where you think you’re at and why you deserve more, and offering a few things you can do to get back in the head coach’s good graces. It is much more necessary to have a personality in the role of an assistant.

Part of the deal with head coaches being a little less like a pal relates to why the boss at your office doesn’t want to join the staff for beers after work. Once there are real relationships – dare I say friendships – it gets harder for him to make the hard decisions. Or at least, it makes it harder for him to see the hard decisions he should be making, as his vision is clouded by the personal bonds he’s formed with a certain person. If a player gets sent down, or traded, or moved in any way, the assistant can kinda deflect because, hey, it wasn’t his call, right? Conversely, the head coach will wear a lot of the blame in a demoted player’s eyes. So it’s a little easier for assistants to get in the dressing room, take the pulse of how guys are feeling, share a little more info than the head coach ever would, and still maintain their status as an authority figure among the group. They can leave it to the head coach to be fully pragmatic.

For my personality type, I’d much prefer being an assistant coach to a head guy. You’re able to be looser, better connect with the guys, and still enjoy the ups and downs of the hockey season without melting under the heat of the spotlight. And with that, it’s just a very important role. You’re watching (almost) as much video as the head coach, you’re making in-game decisions, and generally helping alter the course of the ship the team is on.

So, next time you see your favourite team hired another assistant, maybe don’t slough that hire off as some old ho-hum news. It could just be that the fate of your franchise has veered it’s course, if ever so slight.

Bourne: How important is the role of assistant coaches and what do they really do?

A three-part look at their role: off the ice, on the bench, and player interaction.

theathletic.com

 

[NJ Devil]

I certainly think the team has a cartoonishly large Org chart. We, somehow, have 9 scouting Heads/ Directors /Chief Scout positions and 14 scouts. Granted most of the higher up guys likely most just scout too, but, damn there are a lot of titles.

There are different issues when you’re talking about power with head coaches.

If you’re talking about a GM getting players who fit a coach’s system (and if he gets to choose there), I don’t know if Laviolette gets that in Washington. Maybe they are getting guys for him or maybe the team has an identity and they get players who fit it.

I just don’t think our team as it was constructed when he was interviewed would have worked well for him. I can see Fitz’s team work pitch as probably not helping if that was a thing. (I didn’t want Laviolette, so whatever.)

In the past Ruff has talked about keeping his coaching style flexible in order to work with the kind of talent he has. That’s a good thing imo. We play a speed possession based system in part because that plays to our current strengths. Ruff has his flaws but he’s not dumb or terrible coach.

Laviolette certainly didn’t get to pick all his assistants in Washington and typically NHL head coaches don’t.

They get a mix of guys who are there when they arrive, hot young hires from juniors/NCAA, their guys from their past jobs, the GMs guys from their past jobs, or available ex-NHL head/assistant coaches.

3 of his 4 Assistant Coaches (as of 2021-22) pre-date Laviolette, but he did get to bring on Kevin McCarthy, who’s been with him since his time with the Hurricanes.

I just do not believe that there’s some weird mass coaching collective (that I still don’t quite understand) unique to us, because it doesn’t make sense to me. I see our coaching staff going about this the normal way.

I don’t see our owners telling our GM how the team should be coached or Fitz having wildly unconventional ideas about coaching. He’s very actively teaming building and has an team identity in mind. I thought he was saying Ruff was a partner in the end of the season presser because he was defending him as a development coach.

When people were doubting assistants run special teams I posted this article of an interview with Micheal Therrien, who was starting as the Flyer’s AC.

System Analysis: Therrien on Forwards and Power Play | Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers contributor continues his series on the new coaches and their systems

www.nhl.com

And here’s an article about what AC’s do from the Athletic, using the Leafs as an example (Justin Bourne was Marlies video coach for 2 seasons.)

Off The Ice




On The Bench



Player Interaction

Bourne: How important is the role of assistant coaches and what do they really do?

A three-part look at their role: off the ice, on the bench, and player interaction.

theathletic.com

Yeah I think along the way a bit of what I was trying to convey at first got sidetracked because I lumped two separate statements into one.

My comments on the 'collective' approach was more aligned with management and ownership, and the way in which theyve been spreading around the responsibilities farther out than most teams do. As for the coaching, just to quickly touch on that, I was saying that Laviolette would have wanted more control over the future of the team and how it was built, since with his status hed have been here for the long-haul like a Hynes (or until it fails miserably). This is what I dont think they were willing to give up since the core was so young and, correctly recognized and stated by Blitzer in the 2nd vide I linked, 'the player will let us know when they're ready'. And I think we can agree that was last year minus our horrid goaltending luck.

Specifically though I want to touch on why I think HBSE and the Devils/76ers are doing this, and where its coming from. Im no business management expert nor is that my field of work, but from everything Ive gathered on this it is a step away from the older mindset on how businesses were run; with fewer heads making calls and, while there being separate positions for specific needs, there was still an overwhelming trickle effect.

Nowadays in business it seems like thats simple (as stated by @Blender ), but therein lies the problem with professional sports; they are mostly privately owned and run, and if owned by corporation are not headed by more than a few specific titles which delegate most issues to team management. This is especially true when it comes to teams with old money.

And since its a hockey board.. of course this all ties in. When I included the coaching in all of this and stated Laviolette wasnt hired because of the desire for control, that doesnt also preclude him from not being a fit sincd hed have a system in place that he wants to run strict to. This counteracts the whole setup ive made on being 'holistic', being able to see bigger pictures and expand and retract, a level of fluidity that Ruff brought that Laviolette would not have. This ties back into the overarching theme for HBSE the last half decade almost, and it seems clear to me they want it to extend down to even the ice/court level.

So basically, even though rumors were we didnt offer enough and he was our #1, I dont really think he had a chance once interviews began. They probably saw a man who was firm on how he ran things and how he felt the team should be built, and they probably parted ways then. I find it very hard to believe an ownership group thats spent a LARGE sum of cash since covid began on more sports equity, wouldnt have shelled a few more mil a year for a coach on a team Harris felt 'wasnt getting it done'

But I dont want to drag this too much further because its probably out of place. Id gladly discuss it elsewhere , or I suppose we could continue if it isnt an issue

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

I mean it makes sense to me, you hire people for specific positions and rely on their expertise in those areas. This is best practice in any business where the boss should not be top-down dictating every decision, they should be setting the overall goals and leading their team to success by allowing them to perform within their role.

Yea you would think so, but it doesn't really always happen that way.