What do you guys think is the value of a strong coaching staff in the NHL? How many more points would an average team with an exceptional coaching staff earn vs a club with an average staff? Or one with poor coaching?
I think the biggest difference was that Claude was a bit too rigid with his tactical approach and too slow to make adjustments. His man management skills were good if I recall but maybe not ready for the modern athlete- that 2011 team was pretty old school. Butch made immediate improvements in both of those areas.Great responses so far. Thanks.
Any thoughts on Butch taking over from Claude? I don't want to influence anyone's opinions (so I won't say anything else), but this is an interesting example, imo.
I don't have too much to add as I never learned how to skate (picture a giraffe on ice to get a sense of what it looked like when I tried). But I think a coaching staff establishes a culture, and then the big part is getting buy in to that culture. A whole bunch of free-wheeling players may not exceed with Claude but could thrive elsewhere."We’re coaches. We’re here for structure. We’re here to instill discipline, culture, how we want to play, identity, all those things. We didn’t have much of that in the first or second either. But the shooting part, once they’re on the ice, the execution falls on the player. We just have to buy in a little more. It was addressed. If we’re not, then we have to defend better than anybody in the National Hockey League every single night. Because it’s going to be a lot of 2-1 games if we’re not willing to put pucks on the net.”