Team Canada adds fresh voices
Trotz, Peters and Quenneville assistant coaches on World Cup of Hockey team
As Barry Trotz drove to the rink on Thursday he called the coach he’d be facing that night, Claude Julien of the Boston Bruins, to talk about working together over the next year.
Trotz is one of three newcomers joining Julien on Mike Babcock’s Canadian coaching staff for the World Cup of Hockey. The Washington Capitals coach, Joel Quenneville of the Chicago Blackhawks and Bill Peters of the Carolina Hurricanes bring some fresh blood and new ideas to a tournament that’ll be different than the Olympics.
“I also think the turnover in the staff is great for Hockey Canada. There’s so many great coaches here,” Canadian general manager Doug Armstrong said. “The way that Mike’s going to organize his staff I think everyone’s going to have a legitimate role and a strong purpose.”
It’s an all-star cast with a smaller collective profile than Babcock’s group in Sochi that included Julien, Ken Hitchcock and Lindy Ruff, with Ralph Krueger serving as a consultant. Quenneville of course brings plenty of heft with his three Stanley Cup rings.
But Trotz and Peters were surprise choices, maybe even to the coaches themselves. Trotz expected Hockey Canada to keep things status quo after Sochi but jumped at the opportunity when Armstrong and Babcock asked.
“I think it’ll be a great learning experience for myself, continue to grow,” Trotz said by phone. “I think I probably have some things I can offer to the group as well. ... There’s probably a new voice here and there just to continue to grow and continue to get fresh ideas.”
Trotz, who served as an assistant at the world championships four times, is already thinking ahead to how different the World Cup will be from that tournament and the Olympics.
“We’re coming into a tournament where you look at the Olympics or even the world championships where players are coming in having played a whole year or are on top of their game halfway through the year,” Trotz said. “Here we’re coming into almost a training-camp situation, so it’s a sprint out of the gate in terms of if you can have success real quickly, then you’ll probably have success throughout the whole tournament because it’s very short.”
Babcock said he welcomes new ideas and isn’t afraid to have other strong coaches working under and with him. He pointed to former assistants-turned-NHL-head-coaches Peters, Paul MacLean, Todd McLellan and Jeff Blashill as examples of that.
“You’re trying to evolve each and every year, you’re trying to get better,” Babcock said. “Whoever has the best idea we go on with it. It’s not the Mike Babcock way, it’ll be Team Canada’s way.”