Craig Ramsay has already started teaching.
Making his first visit to the Thrashers practice facility as the new head coach, he reiterated on Monday that he will institute an aggressive style of play. Defensemen will forecheck and jump into the offense. Forwards will backcheck and play defense.
“I believe in teaching the game,” Ramsay said. “One thing I find amusing, doesn’t matter what sport it is, [is] a coach comes in and he’s going to have the best-conditioned team in the world or the hardest-working team. What I’d like to have is the smartest team. I’d like them to learn the game and feel comfortable every time out there. The game changes. When things break down, it’s the people that can react and still keep their composure and deal with it that are going to be successful.”
Ramsay said the current NHL – “with all the trapping and all the clogging up of the neutral zone” – will require a team that creates counter attacks. He pointed to Stanley Cup champion Chicago as a team that excelled with defensemen who jumped into the play. He also cited Boston, where he served as an assistant the past three seasons, as a team that was near the top of the league in scoring from the blue line during his tenure.
“If you go in and play aggressively it makes a huge difference,” Ramsay said.
As a player, Ramsay won the Selke Award in 1985 as the NHL’s top defensive forward. However, he’s quick to point out that he scored 20 or more goals in eight consecutive seasons. He also said that one year with Buffalo his line, which he referred to as a “checking line,” combined for 99 goals. He will play all four lines and every player better step on the ice with the intent to put the puck in the net, the new coach said.
“Everybody is involved at both ends of the rink,” Ramsay said. “We need five guys coming up the ice if we are going to be successful. And we need five guys coming back. You can’t have players that say, ‘Hey, I’m a scorer. I don’t do that.’ Or conversely, you can’t have someone say, ‘Hey, I’m a checker, tough guy. I don’t have to score.’”
Haven’t Atlanta heard this before? Isn’t an aggressive style what former coach John Anderson installed during his two seasons?
Ramsay said he could only explain his system.
“I would like to teach them to understand the game better,” Ramsay said. “That’s the most important thing. I don’t specifically tell them where to go every shift at every time. I think that’s silly. People who try to draw up 100-percent rules, I don’t think that’s smart. … It’s about learning a team game.”
Pavel Kubina, the Thrashers defenseman who will become a free agent on July 1, won a Stanley Cup in Tampa Bay with Ramsay as an assistant. Kubina lauded Ramsay as a “great teacher” on Monday.
“The team is moving in a good direction,” Kubina said.
Thrashers qualify restricted free agents
The Thrashers made one-year qualifying offers to seven restricted free agents on Monday guaranteeing they will be with the team for the 2010-11 season. The team extended offers to forwards Niclas Bergfors, Bryan Little, Clarke MacArthur, Ben Eager and Anthony Stewart, and goaltenders Ondrej Pavelec and Peter Mannino.
Players can decline the qualifying offers but the Thrashers still retain their rights. A multi-year deal also can be negotiated. The offers can include a raise of up to 10 percent.
Four players were not offered qualifying offers, making them unrestricted free agents. They were defensemen Chad Denny and Scott Lehman, and forwards Rylan Kaip and Matt Siddall.
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