AJC > Sports > Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > August > 11 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USEurope, anyone?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The NHL exhibition schedule released today includes Tampa Bay playing Eisbaren Berlin in Berlin, the New York Rangers playing SC Bern and Metallurg Magnitogorsk in Bern, Pittsburgh playing Jokerit in Helsinki and Ottawa playing Frolunda at Gothenburg.
It had already been announced that the Rangers, Penguins, Senators and Lightning will play five regular-season games in Europe.
This year, for the first time, a European player captained a Stanley Cup champion.
So, I’m wondering, how long is it before European coaches start coming to the NHL? Coaches move internationally in soccer, with the Premier League in England having lots of foreigners calling the shots. And Canadian coaches have jobs in Europe; former Capitals coach Glen Hanlon, for instance, coaches Jokerit.
In an era when free agents’ choices about where to play has such a great impact on the success of a team, would a Russian coach, for instance, attract Russian players and possibly give his team a leg up? Or would Canadian and American players shy away from that team?
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Comments
By Logan
August 11, 2008 4:27 PM | Link to this
It’s been done before. The Penguins hired Ivan Hlinka to coach Jagr and his Czech friends. It was a miserable failure.
By Ga Hockey
August 12, 2008 9:18 AM | Link to this
After having European Coaches, we might as well invite some European teams into the NHL itself.
By Midfield
August 12, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this
I find it peculiar that noone here is offended by Canadian coaches in the South East division. Since when the place of origin is of any concern for any NHL job? This is not Department of Defence last time I checked. Whatever the h*ll works is fine with me.
By Ryan
August 12, 2008 10:30 AM | Link to this
The travel would be too much for teams to go back and forth to Europe in the middle of the season.
By Pucks
August 12, 2008 11:40 AM | Link to this
Don’t forget Alpo Suhonen, who coached the Blackhawks in 2000-01.
By Alan
August 12, 2008 8:50 PM | Link to this
This is not Department of Defence last time I checked.
No, but hopefully our DoD this season is far less woeful than last season’s.
By GaVaHokie
August 13, 2008 11:36 AM | Link to this
*I find it peculiar that noone here is offended by Canadian coaches in the South East division.
Strange that it was the Canadian media that made a big deal about Tortorella being considered for the Senators job. The headlines said “Could this American be the Next Coach of the Senators?”
By FormerIslesFan
August 13, 2008 3:01 PM | Link to this
I’m sure that it’s already been posted here somewhere, but if not her goes. The Islanders just hired Scott “Flash” Gordon as their new head coach. I honestly didn’t remember that he coached the Atlanta Knights…
So, an American coach for an American team…
By GaVaHokie
August 13, 2008 4:01 PM | Link to this
What a bizarre summer for coaching changes… especially when Quenneville, Tortorella and Maurice are unemployed.
I would imagine one of these new coaches has to suck statistically… I just hope it’s not Anderson.
By Waffleboy
August 13, 2008 4:06 PM | Link to this
FIF-He didn’t coach the Knights, he played for the Knights in the 93-94 season.
By Alan
August 13, 2008 8:39 PM | Link to this
Waffleboy - He may have played for the Knights in 93-94, but I do believe he also coached, starting in the 1994-95 season.
From FormerIslesFan’s article:
Gordon began his coaching career with the IHL’s Atlanta Knights, serving as both the head coach and as an assistant from 1994-96
And from Wikipedia:
After his playing career ended in 1994, he was an assistant coach for the Atlanta Knights of the International Hockey League and went on to become head coach of the Roanoke Express of the ECHL.
It also shows him as having been an assistant coach for the Knights on the IHDB site.
By Jarndyce
August 14, 2008 7:55 AM | Link to this
GaVaHokie: One of my favorite writers once said that if you buy a thing today, expect to see 150 more things just like it next summer. After the Caps success after hiring their coach from the AHL, I think what we’re seeing now is the fad that follows.
Not that there’s anything wrong with bring in new blood, but you have to imagine that most of the AHL hirings won’t live up to the hype.
By GaVaHokie
August 14, 2008 8:16 AM | Link to this
One of my favorite writers once said that if you buy a thing today, expect to see 150 more things just like it next summer.
Kind of like Ipods and MP3 players? Is Anderson the Zune of coaches? :)
By Jarndyce
August 14, 2008 8:30 AM | Link to this
GaVaHokie: Yeah. Sometimes the copycats are good, sometimes they are Catwoman.
By paul
August 14, 2008 9:50 AM | Link to this
What difference does a coach’s nationality make. Read the national origin of the rosters of any NHL team and it looks like a meeting of the United Nations. If the guy knows the game and can communicate with the players that is all that matters. The Olympics is for nationalities, the NHL is for the best team and coaches you can put together regardless of where they come from. As far as the press in Ottawa asking about Tortella is concerned, read the article in their paper and you will see they don’t question whether it matters that the guy is an American. Their captain is a Swede.
By paul
August 14, 2008 9:50 AM | Link to this
What difference does a coach’s nationality make. Read the national origin of the rosters of any NHL team and it looks like a meeting of the United Nations. If the guy knows the game and can communicate with the players that is all that matters. The Olympics is for nationalities, the NHL is for the best team and coaches you can put together regardless of where they come from. As far as the press in Ottawa asking about Tortella is concerned, read the article in their paper and you will see they don’t question whether it matters that the guy is an American. Their captain is a Swede.