Coach Anderson reflects on first season with Thrashers

With six weeks to go in the hockey season, Thrashers coach John Anderson gave AJC staff writer Carroll Rogers his thoughts on such things as the state of the Thrashers, his first season as an NHL head coach and his relationship with Ilya Kovalchuk.

Q. Do you think the pieces are here to build this team around?

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John Anderson is 22-34-6 so far in his first season as the Atlanta Thrashers coach.

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A. We have a good young core of players. We’ve got (Boris) Valabik, we’ve got (Nathan) Oystrick, we’ve got (Tobias) Enstrom, (Zach) Bogosian, just on the back end, (Bryan) Little. (Ilya) Kovalchuk is not an old man. We’ve got (Rich) Peverley, who’s still a young guy. There are some great pieces here. Now we have to draft some more good players and hopefully fit in some older ones in the offseason that’ll help us. Colby Armstrong, another good young player, 15 goals already. That is very positive. The hard thing is with pro sports it’s a win-now mentality. (Rangers’) Tom Renney was the coach of the year 25 games into the season. Now he’s at home.

Q. I know you had higher expectations for this team.

A. Yeah. We wanted to make the playoffs. Some of the players, in my mind, didn’t fulfill my expectations for whatever reason. The coach takes full responsibility no matter what, and I’m willing to accept that. At some point we have to say as individuals, as players on the team, ‘Was I as good as I could have been?’ The other thing you have to remember is we missed Kari Lehtonen for over 20 games, Matthew Schneider for 17, Bogosian for another 20. And I don’t think we’re that deep with talent where we can miss guys like that for long stretches of time and expect to do well.

Q. What’s been most challenging about coaching at this level?

A. Mistakes you make, or whatever is perceived as a mistake, are a little more public than being even in a big market like Chicago. In Chicago [AHL] we were behind the high school page, and that’s a great organization.

Q. Is it harder to teach at this level?

A. Sometimes it’s hard to teach older dogs newer tricks, to believe in the things that we do. A lot of these guys don’t know me from Adam, don’t know things I’ve seen [work] in teams in the past. I think for an older player with a newer coach, he’s got to say ‘I’ve got a clean slate and let it happen.’ If there are questions, come and talk to me. If we have two or three guys not buying into what we’re doing, that’s like putting a big monkey wrench right in the gears. It stops the team completely because you get factioned off. We’ve certainly had to deal with some of that this year. I think you’ve seen of late things we’re doing as a team, and we’ve been playing better.

Q. Have people knocked on your door, with ‘Hey wait?’

A. Yeah, we’ve had some heated meetings but again, that’s part of learning me as a coach. It’s taken a little more time than I thought to get everybody on the same page.

Q. For a guy used to winning, how have you dealt with not?

A. It hasn’t been easy. Very frustrating. Sometimes you’ve got to go through 15 minutes of hell to get to heaven. What was it Winston Churchill said ‘When you’re going through hell, keep going?’ So we’re pushing on. Again, I think we are getting better, getting a little more consistent. But it may be too little too late.

Q. Did naming Kovalchuk captain do for this team what you thought it would?

A. He’s playing his best hockey of late. I would say yes it’s made him more aware of the team. You saw what happens when he gets hot; our team just explodes. The two or three goals that we’re chipping in every game outside of him, become six because he just creates a lot more. We need him to play great every night. That’s what you pay your superstars to do.

Q. Do you think he’s getting your message about being a little more defensive-minded?

A. I didn’t say to him ‘You have to be defensive-minded.’ I want him to be in position. If you’re in the right position defensively, you’re probably in a real good position offensively if the puck gets turned over. We’re just talking about some little habits he has. I’m not here to hinder his scoring. … We have to have a line of defense, some type of structure. That’s all I’ve asked of him. And he’s gotten better. He’s trying to do things.