NHL coaches discuss the importance of buy-in
Oilers’ biggest stars know it takes a team to win a Cup and that they must be leaders
A wide-ranging and informal video chat Friday between three former Jack Adams award winners — veteran coaches Dave Tippett, Joel Quenneville and Barry Trotz — revealed much in common.
At the top of that list is the importance of getting elite-level superstars to buy into the team concept if you want to win a Stanley Cup.
Quenneville and Trotz have already enjoyed success in that avenue, winning with Patrick Kane and Alex Ovechkin in Chicago and Washington, while Tippett is attempting to follow suit with Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton.
In Kane, Quenneville says, there wasn’t much urging that needed to be done, given how ultracompetitive he was right out of the box, while Trotz described Ovechkin as more of a project.
“With Kane, he would always come in bigger, stronger and more fit (than the previous year) and he was committed to doing whatever he needed to get better,” said Quenneville, who’s now coaching the Florida Panthers.
“And he improved his defensive game. We gave our team a lot of freedom to play offensively — let him go play to his strengths — but he did buy into playing in his own end, working along the wall. He found ways to come up with possession in those situations.
“That was a big part of our success. He kept everyone accountable. He was competitive to a different degree. When your best players deliver that message, with how they play and prepare, it makes our life a lot easier.”
Ovechkin was long regarded as a superstar who put up jaw-dropping numbers, but wouldn’t pay more than casual attention to the little things needed to get his Capitals deep in the playoffs. He was criticized for being onedimensional, even though he might be the best at that dimension in NHL history.
“There was a lot of frustration in Washington,” said Trotz, who needed Ovechkin to expand his effort in areas that didn’t necessarily require talent.
“As a young player, he was one of the most dynamic players in the league. And he produced.
The thing that was missing was the winning. There were a lot of questions about whether you could win with Alex. There was no question you could, he just needed a little direction.”
So Trotz attempted the same conversion that Glen Hanlon, Bruce Boudreau, Dale Hunter and Adam Oates before him tried.
“We sat down and formed a relationship,” Trotz said. “I told him, ‘If you stick with it, they will follow you. I guarantee you they will follow you. And everything (frustration and criticism) will be washed away.’
“And he got better at things that he didn’t value as much. Once he did that, it was very easy to follow Alex.
“He became a really good captain. He did all the things necessary as a leader for the rest of the team to want to follow. He led by example. He became a playoff MVP.”
In Edmonton, where frustration and failure were locked in place long before Mcdavid and Draisaitl showed up, Tippett is in the midst of an overall culture change that involves more than just the top two players.
But in Edmonton’s two lead dogs, he sees a lot of Kane.
“Connor and Leon are unbelievable talents, but they both recognize individual players don’t win championships, teams do,” Tippett said. “They’ve been really strong advocates of making sure they’re playing a team structure.”
Like Kane and Ovechkin, Mcdavid and Draisaitl have a green light to use their superior talents to make things happen offensively when they see fit, but Tippett says they’re also showing a greater willingness to round out their overall games, as well. There is still the occasional flyby in the defensive zone, but they’re working much harder at two-way play.
“They know they have a role to play, a big role,” Tippett said. “I believe that with players like that you have to allow them to be themselves, maximize the assets they have. But that being said, they still have to buy into some of the structure we’re dealing with because the team is trying to win.
“I’m really fortunate because both of those guys are hungry to win and they know they have to do their part. Playing without the puck, both of them have really tried to buy into what the team is doing. And we’ve been seeing some results.
“Both have been outstanding from a coaching standpoint, them wanting to do what’s best for the team. That’s one of the biggest things this year that I’ve taken out of coaching in Edmonton — their commitment to trying to play as a team and to win is phenomenal.”