Thrashers coach talks about next season's plans

By CHRIS VIVLAMORE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thrashers head coach John Anderson took a break from remodeling his home in Chicago to attend the team’s Prospect Development Camp last week. He sat down with AJC Thrashers beat writer Chris Vivlamore to discuss the team’s offseason moves, why the team struggled early last season and even how one comment landed him in Sports Illustrated.

Q: What are your thoughts on the offseason acquisitions?

A: We got a pretty good player with the fourth pick [Evander Kane]. It gives us good youth at the core. Certainly, [Ilya] Kovalchuk is not old. [Bryan] Little and [Zach] Bogosian, Kari [Lehtonen] is not old. The strength of our team will be in our youth. It bodes well for the organization because we will be good for a long time.

[Nik] Antropov up the middle is a big, strong guy. We needed to add a little size, because if you saw the size of us last year, we weren’t an overly big team. [Pavel] Kubina, again, a bigger, stronger guy.

Q: How much of your system was taken into account with those acquisitions?

A: We just got talent. We’ll teach the system. From what happened at the end of last year, we played very, very well. It made everyone go, “It does work.”

Q: What specifically is it about that run [12-6 to finish the year] that gives you encouragement going forward and that it was more than a hot streak?

A: The run started when we went out west and we played very good. That’s when we became a team. We really worked for each other. We’re a young hockey team ... we got that enthusiasm and sense of team and sense of pride.

Q: Have you talked to Kovalchuk this offseason?

A: I phoned him a couple of times, but he hasn’t returned my calls. He goes to Europe, the south of France. [Laughing] I don’t have that number. I don’t know if he has a phone on the yacht.

Q: Were you surprised it took as long for the team to get your system?

A: Yes. And it wasn’t so much getting it, it was believing in it. You can’t go, “Alright, I’m going to go, but I really don’t want to.” By that time, the puck is by you or the check is by you. I felt I had a few guys that didn’t want to do what I wanted them to do. There can only be one leader.

All systems work if you apply yourself and if you have the talent. We didn’t apply ourselves as well as we could. You don’t become a team doing that, one guy doing one thing, one guy doing the other. You can’t win that way. That was obvious at the start of the year.

Q: Did you tweak your system?

A: Oh yeah. My system isn’t just one system. It’s being able to play three or four different ones and using them against certain teams. You’ve got to be able to change, and it’s a difficult thing for players to change out of their pattern. We might win three games doing one thing and then switch to something different.

Q: Biggest or most pleasant surprise about being an NHL head coach?

A: It was just being back in the show again. You forget how nice it is and how great it is. How it seems more important now.

The hardest thing was watching what you say. I was joking, we played one game against Toronto, and we came out and played horrible and ended up losing the game, and so I said, “Our give-a-crap level is at zero.” I’m in Sports Illustrated. I played 17 years of freakin’ pro hockey, and I wasn’t in Sports Illustrated, but I say one stupid thing as a coach, and my picture is in Sports Illustrated. You have to temper your feelings at times. It was just about that one game, but it got blown out of proportion.

Q: What are your thoughts on Evander Kane now that you’ve gotten to see him up close?

A: He’s got good tenacity. He’s got good speed. He’s going to have to fill out a little bit. He has a good chance to make our hockey club. It’s hard to tell in the 4-on-4 [scrimmages]; we’ll give him every chance we gave Bogosian last year.

Q: If Kane doesn’t fit in the top two lines, will that be a consideration whether he makes the team? Does he get more experience being a top-6 forward at a lower level?

A: No. Everybody has a role on our team. We have people that kill penalties, which Evander does very well. He could fit in that role, too. We’ll put him where it’s going to best help him. Hopefully he does make the top two lines. We’ll give him every shot.